Child Labor In Glass Factories

An interesting concept that came up during my visit to the Oglebay Glass Museum was the subject of the use of child labor in glass factories.  Before any federal guidelines had been set, children (at the age of 9) were allowed to work in many places along side adults.  In many cases, children were hired in addition with other family members who were employed at the same factory.  It is believed that in many instances, the children worked to help provide for the necessities of the entire family.  

Generally, boys performed a variety of jobs down on the main floor of the factory.  These jobs could range from any of the following (as found from Corning Museum of Glass):

• A crack-off boy would remove a finished piece of hot glassware from the end of the gaffer's blow iron by cracking it off.
• A lehr boy would carry the hot glassware to the annealing lehr. 
• A mold boy would sit at the feet of the gaffer opening and closing the hinged blow-mold as required, (sometimes, a boy would actually be allowed to blow the piece).

However, girls were not allowed down on the main floor of the factory where all the glass was made.  They were usually given jobs in inspection and packing.  Part of the reasoning behind this was safety and/or the belief that girls had a better eye for finding flaws in the products produced.  Once glass passed inspection, the girls then packed the pieces in either boxes, crates, or barrels.

An interesting story I heard regarding child labor took place at Northwood Glass Factory, which was located in Wheeling, WV and produced glass from 1902-1925. One of the most popular lines of glassware was Carnival Glass.  This glass could basically be characterized by decorative pressed pieces that were treated with an iridized spray before it is annealed. The iridized spray consists of some type of liquid metallic oxides/salts - depending on the particular desired effect.  This particular type of glass is thought to have gotten its name from stories about people receiving such pieces as prizes at carnivals.

As the story goes, there was a particular piece of Carnival glass that was especially hard for children workers to make.  This was mainly because of its large size (see picture below).  The young workers found it extremely difficult to hold up the freshly, pressed piece with one hand and spray it with the iridized solution, which they held in their other hand.  This eventually led to the children workers striking and demanding a pay raise of 5 cents for their increasingly hard work.  During the strike, the children did not work and at one point, threw rocks and bottles at the owners of the factory.  The owners eventually agreed to give them their raise and production continued.

Yay or Nay?

What are your thoughts regarding child labor?

• Are you for or against children being able to work in the workforce along-side of adults? Explain why you believe that.
• If you think children should be able to work, what stipulations should be made in regards to this?  (examples: length of shifts, time of day, rate of pay, types of jobs, working conditions, etc)