Meyer, Giacobetti, Draper, Zhou Issue #1, 10/22/14 INDUSTRIAL TIMES Working Conditions Sink Mariah Meyer Quisque: 2 3 4 Working conditions are already horrendous in most urbanized cities, but they have plummeted even lower. Working days are 12-14 hours long for most factory workers. Laborers keep this rigid schedule six days a week. Many machine injuries have occurred in the closed, confined working spaces that are supposedly “efficient”. Workers are expected to keep a fast pace to keep up with the machines. This type of work is very demanding and requires the factory workers to have nimble hands and quick reflexes. Along with factories, coal mines are also known to have very dangerous conditions for workers. At the mines, where even women and children work, people are sent down to coal mines where circumstances are very unpredictable. At the mines, children work to bring coal to the surface, giving them the name “drawers”. "Two children I know got employment in a factory when they were five years old...the spinning men or women employ children if they can get a child to do their business...the child is paid one shilling or one shilling and six pence, and they will take that (five year old) child before they take an older one who will cost more", wrote George Gould, a Manchester merchant. Children are often employed at a very young age and work as hard as adults. Most factory owners express harsh treatment to their employees and would fire them at will and just hire someone else to take their place. Labor conditions are currently very cramped due to shared spaces and overcrowding. As a result of this many workers suffer from deformation and serious injuries due to factory work. Disorganization in factories is one of the many results of the lack of laws to protect and regulate working conditions and wages. Unfortunately most factories are run for profit rather than safety. Instead of purchasing safety equipment for their workers, many factory owners make their primary focus on maximizing the profit of their products. This lack of care for their workers has made factories one of the least pleased places to work. Conditions are horrible and wages are low, but the factory industry is blooming and many people are taking up the jobs. Letter to the Editor: Opposing Child Labor treated numerous amounts of children who have come in with injuries from the factories. Patients treated have lost anywhere from a finger to a whole limb. Another issue with child labor is the punishments they receive from doing petty acts. A child who arrives late to work or is not working to the standards of a factory overseer could be beaten and have a deduction taken from their minimal pay. This brutality towards child workers are certainly unjust and I believe that there should be something done to resolve it. Did you know that many children who work in factories are put to labor for about 10-12 hours? This amount of labor is outrageous, especially considering they get little to no breaks. Along with lengthy hours, these children are also put to do dangerous jobs such as “scavenging” which requires crawling under working textile machines to get remnants of thread and cotton. As a result of these risky tasks, many children have been sent to infirmaries to be treated for harsh injuries. Dr. Ward of Manchester, a pediatric doctor, says he has -Victoria Draper
Working conditions are already horrendous in most urbanized cities, but they have plummeted even lower. Working days are 12-14 hours long for most factory workers. Laborers keep this rigid schedule six days a week. Many machine injuries have occurred in the closed, confined working spaces that are supposedly “efficient”. Workers are expected to keep a fast pace to keep up with the machines. This type of work is very demanding and requires the factory workers to have nimble hands and quick reflexes. Along with factories, coal mines are also known to have very dangerous conditions for workers. At the mines, where even women and children work, people are sent down to coal mines where circumstances are very unpredictable. At the mines, children work to bring coal to the surface, giving them the name “drawers”. "Two children I know got employment in a factory when they were five years old...the spinning men or women employ children if they can get a child to do their business...the child is paid one shilling or one shilling and six pence, and they will take that (five year old) child before they take an older one who will cost more", wrote George Gould, a Manchester merchant. Children are often employed at a very young age and work as hard as adults. Most factory owners express harsh treatment to their employees and would fire them at will and just hire someone else to take their place. Labor conditions are currently very cramped due to shared spaces and overcrowding. As a result of this many workers suffer from deformation and serious injuries due to factory work. Disorganization in factories is
one of the many results of the lack of laws to protect and regulate working conditions and wages. Unfortunately most factories are run for profit rather than safety. Instead of purchasing safety equipment for their workers, many factory owners make their primary focus on maximizing the profit of their products. This lack of care for their workers has made factories one of the least pleased places to work. Conditions are horrible and wages are low, but the factory industry is blooming and many people are taking up the jobs.
Letter to the Editor: Opposing Child Labor treated numerous amounts of children who have come in with injuries from the factories. Patients treated have lost anywhere from a finger to a whole limb. Another issue with child labor is the punishments they receive from doing petty acts. A child who arrives late to work or is not working to the standards of a factory overseer could be beaten and have a deduction taken from their minimal pay. This brutality towards child workers are certainly unjust and I believe that there should be something done to resolve it.
Did you know that many children who work in factories are put to labor for about 10-12 hours? This amount of labor is outrageous, especially considering they get little to no breaks. Along with lengthy hours, these children are also put to do dangerous jobs such as “scavenging” which requires crawling under working textile machines to get remnants of thread and cotton. As a result of these risky tasks, many children have been sent to infirmaries to be treated for harsh injuries. Dr. Ward of Manchester, a pediatric doctor, says he has -Victoria Draper
Meyer, Giacobetti, Draper, Zhou
Issue #1, 10/22/14
2
1
Living conditions are at an all time low with new population growth. Houses are overcrowded, forcing families to share one room. Cities will not build new residences for people due to lack of building and developmental plans. This leaves many urban streets overcrowded. The city did not plan on this population rise and has not put plumbing in most homes yet. Toilets have been nothing more than cesspits. When filled, cesspits are emptied, collected, and then loaded onto a cart before being dumped in a local river. This work was also done by the night-men. Local laws state that their work must be done at night as the stench created by emptying the cesspits is too great to be tolerated during the day. Along with this unsanitary disposal of waste, houses are also unsanitary living spaces having no restroom facilities and frequent waste spills or floods occurring in basements leading out on to the streets. There are no drains to take care of this problem and sewage often floods the unpaved streets. A doctor from Manchester writes, “"Whole streets, unpaved and without
2
drains or main sewers, are worn into deep ruts and holes in which water constantly stagnates, and are so covered with refuse and excrement as to be impassable from depth of mud and intolerable stench.". Sickness is easily spread from lack of sanitary actions being taken in urban areas. The average city life span is 17 years from all the rapidly spreading disease. Multiple plagues and flu outbreaks are very common. Most housing currently do not have any drains for showers or running water, so most people do not shower, as it is easier not to instead of trying to collect water. This has caused the spread germs and viruses rapidly through industrial cities leading to the decline of general health in the average citizen. One of these viruses known as Cholera is very deadly and most victims who show signs of the disease have died within 24 hours. Poorer areas in the cities do not have access to fresh water except for pumps and rivers. Even with the pumps and rivers, they could be easily contaminated with leaked sewage and garbage. The streets are unpaved making it harder to get around urban areas. These living conditions almost seem like we have made no progress at all. Soon the city plans to fix sewage problems and put in plumbing
Living Conditions: Unpleasant, Overcrowded, and Unsanitary
Seen here are the overcrowded living conditions of the Industrial Revolution
Meyer, Giacobetti, Draper, Zhou
Issue #1, 10/22/14
3
Letter to the Editor: Supporting Child
Labor I feel that child labor is imperative to the mass production of goods in factories. A child can produce just as much profit as an adult worker and often work faster than the adult employees. It is cheap to employ females starting at the age of eleven to work in silk factories. At a young age the girls that are employed in
these factories are often more focused than their male counterparts. These female workers also keep the employment costs down because they are only paid one cent for working three days. Archibald Buchanan said that the health of their child employees does not appear to at all suffer, and when they got to maturity, they appeared as “healthy, stout people in any other country”. Child labor also gives
children the opportunity to earn a living and help out their family financially. Factory labor is also ideal for children because it is far less injurious than any other forms of employment. The only thing that makes child labor trying is that they are confined for long hours without fresh air,
But this rarely ever brings on disease.
- Mckayla Giacobetti
Meyer, Giacobetti, Draper, Zhou
Issue #1, 10/22/14
4
where it could be reached easier and used more efficiently. However, the invention also had the by-product of increasing the number of slaves needed to pick the cotton thereby strengthening the arguments for continuing slavery. This also created a need for more slaves in the US. Slaves were soon shipped in from Africa to process cotton and work in the cotton fields, since cotton was such a great crop to grow. Cotton soon became America’s most dominant crop
Invention of the Cotton Gin Spurs Textile Production and Market
and was grown on most plantations. Since the cotton gin was so highly used many plantation owners “ripped off” the cotton gin and made their own version of it. Whitney did not get much profit from his cotton gin, but became famous for inventing the cotton gin. The cotton gin became one of the most profitable crops in the US and spurred the slave and textile industry.
Eli Whitney, a US man born in 1765, patented his cotton gin and kicked off the textile market for the Industrial Revolution. As a young boy Eli was proven to be a talented inventor and prodigy child. After graduating form Yale University, Whitney went south, to stay on a plantation in Georgia. During his stay, he learned about the cotton industry and cotton production. Whitney saw that cotton was a cash crop for America and decided to make it easier to harvest. Whitney then invented the cotton gin and patented it in 1794. His machine was a simple sieve with a hand crank. When you turned the handle cotton was sifter through the machine where the seeds were picked out by “teeth”. Whitney’s machine could process around 50 pounds of cotton a day. As soon as the cotton Gin was invented, more cotton was a harvested, and not enough cotton spinning machines. Soon the textile industry was booming. Factories were built everywhere for cotton manufacturing in Europe. Soon the cotton gin was installed on most plantations
Meyer, Giacobetti, Draper, Zhou
Issue #1, 10/22/14
5
EDITORIAL: Industrial Revolution
INDUSTRIAL TIMES
The Industrial revolution had a very positive contribution to society then and now. Most of the things we have today are a product or result of the industrial revolution. There were some problems during this time, but in the end it was a positive movement.
As a result of the Industrial Revolution, many farmers have left their land in rural areas in order to pursue greater opportunities in the city. This migration of people to cities has caused the population of cities in England to increase tremendously. Cities like London for example have had a population growth of more than 2,000 people. From the rise of factories from this revolution, many people spend most of their days doing work. Many workers, including women and children, wake up as early as 5 A.M. to start work and do not finish until 16 hours later around 9 in the evening. Fortunately workers have been able to fight for their rights to earn higher wages and shorter hours along with better working conditions.
Family life greatly changed as the result of the industrial revolution. Whole families squeezed into one bedroom. Most of the unpaved streets had no sewage drains, which caused sickness between families. The industrial revolution completely transformed the role of a family. Before the industrial revolution families worked together on the farm tending crops and the children often had time in their farming schedules to play. Industrialization changed the family image as a whole. Although woman played a strong role in the working class, men earned the majority of the money for their families. Children’s days were started when they left for work at 4:30 and ended when they left the factory at 7:00. Work and home life became sharply separated. Working class families did, however, economically benefit from the revolution because they had multiple incomes from all their children, instead of relying on just the parents.
Society changed during the industrial revolution and everyone who was able to work had a job. Society had major shifts within the roles of the children and the parents. The children were expected to work just like adults, hard and long. Even through the child labor, the industrial revolution proved to be beneficial to everyone. Through all the hard work that everyone put forward at their jobs in the factories, we have multiple new countries. Most of the things we have today are a product of the industrial revolution. Through the inventions of the cotton gin and multiple looms and weavers, the textile industry boomed and became one of the largest industries in the Industrial Revolution. The benefits and results of the industrial revolution overpower the problems and hardships created, making the Industrial Revolution one of the most influential revolutions.
The living conditions have really improved the technology in England also in Europe. More and more machines have been invented by the change of the social system also the need from the people. With the time change people have more demand of the inventions. The demands of the inventions have developed to become more suitable and advanced for the demand. Through the invention comes more and more the quality of people’s life has improved a lot. Invention like the cotton spinning jenny and other weaving and looming machines, helped Industrial workers. From this people are constantly improving and creating new machines. Through new machines and technology, clothes were faster made, better to wear and more comfy. The plumbing system really made a difference in daily life and improved the conditions that people were living in. Jobs that had to be done by hand were made easier by new inventions. Living conditions improved with these new advances. The industrial revolution was one of the most progressive movements to sweep the continents of Europe and America. Through the industrial revolution we have many things today that we wouldn’t have if it never happened.
