Just a quick Labor Day post, with some pictures of why we have a Labor Day.
A doffer, one who replaced a full bobbin (after the thread was created) with an empty one.
A spinning mule minder, or piercer. He’d repair a broken thread so the machine could keep working.
From Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives.
The problems with the photos is not that the children are barefoot, but that they are children, and have to work because their families cannot get a decent wage.
The bare feet are not a burden at all.
Sweet stuff, Ahcuah! -TJ
It’s great to not have child labor, but now getting back to a regular sight of bare feet in the work place would be nice.
Riis made a major contribution to reform, but let’s not get too smug today. There is no prohibition of child labor if migrant agricultural worker; if you eat, you support this system. Both Teabaggers and Libertarians are working to repeal the incomplete child labor laws we do have; if you vote, take care how you vote. And if you don’t vote, remember what Pericles said in contrasting the protodemocracy of Athens to the surrounding city states, “We do not say that he who takes no part in public life is minding his own business; we say he has no business here at all.”
Paul, I see you caught the slightly subversive intent of my post (and nicely expanded on it).
Dear Robert the Bob; two comments about this:
– In all the rest of the world Labour Day is in May 1, in homage to the heroic fight for their rights, of organized workers of…USAland.
– To work and to be exploited are not the same thing.
That pictures show children that were employed because they could be paid lower wages; that is exploitation and it is wrong, no matter if the the exploited one is child, adult, female, black, latino, etc.
To work is right, it develops values and ethics. If you put childhood and labour in worlds apart, you are saying that this activity is a kind of disease, that children must avoid it at all cost. If labour is that bad ¿How could it be acceptable for adults,females, black, latinos, etc?
Do not forget that in many asian countries, where all western industries items are manufactured, child workers exist and are very likely exploited… sad but true
Shorpy.com has many photos of this type. Check out photos by Lewis Hine as well. A few photographers documented child labour in the early 20th century (and made it widely known).
It is a sad truth that child labour is still widespread in the world … true, Iván.
Regarding bare feet at the workplace: Lots of jobs could be done barefoot with no problem. But let’s not forget that workplace safety was pretty bad in many factories a hundred years ago. Too many children died prematurely in some industrial accident. I’m not saying that barefoot factory work is unsafe but the factory workplaces will have to be designed so that workers don’t need safety shoes …
I don’t think I see any hazards there that aren’t much, much more dangerous to your hands. In fact, I don’t really see anything in the way of their feet at all. People are going to say ‘oh, their poor feet!’ because they have bee trained to, but those things are known for ripping off fingers and arms with zero provocation. I don’t think I have ever even heard a story about them mangling a foot in a way where a shoe would have helped.
True; dangers to the feet exist especially in factories where heavy objects may fall down. This is not the case here.
Any injuries these young workers suffered were probably on their hands. But then many of the works wouldn’t be easy to do with gloves, so other measures have to be taken (stop machines from spinning before reaching in …) I’m not aware of how textile mills work now, I guess most tasks have been automatized.
Lots of assembly jobs involve sitting at a table and putting things together. There it doesn’t matter at all what you wear under the table …