Horrors of Cigar Making.
By John Harvey Kellogg
The cigar makers of New York City have recently so far emerged from their accustomed state of chronic narcotism, as to enter, before the Board of Health, a protest against what some of them deem a just cause of dissatisfaction. Several public meetings have been held for the purpose of considering the matter. The cause of complaint will be explained by the following extract from the remarks of one of the speakers at a recent meeting:— “When I learned that there were 14,000 registered cigar makers, men and women, in the city, besides enough children of both sexes to run the number up to 20,000; when I learned of the destructive change that was begun a few years ago, and is still taking place, in the way of carrying on the trade; when I found how tenements are turned into factories, where scores of families toil all day; and how these same factories are turned into tenements, where the toilers ride or are ridden by the nightmare during sleep; when I realized the conditions under which these poison-breathing workers—workmen, workwomen, work children, and work crones—existed in these tenement barrack factories; when I saw that every story, from cellar to garret, was crowded with the pallid-faced families of cigar makers, who are kept together and kept under surveillance by the employers, from whom they rent the dingy quarters in which they work, rest, sleep, and are confined; when I found that these multitudinous workers were living in a way to which human beings should never be subjected, and which was not only baneful to themselves, but produce mephites and maladies that spread through their localities; I say, men and brethren when I saw or heard these things, it seemed to me that they were related to public welfare, or ill fare, in very emphatic ways; and it did not seem to me that, in trying to bring about some sort of improvement, you were guilty of any crime against humanity, or any outrage upon liberty, or any assault upon industry, or any violation of law or order.” Remarks were also made by other speakers who were familiar with the facts in the case, from which it appeared that malignant and contagious diseases of various sorts are rife among these miserable people, making sad havoc among them, and spreading the most loathsome diseases among the consumers of the products of their labor. One speaker knew of one of these tenement factories in which were fifty-seven children, none of whom had any means of obtaining a cubic inch of fresh air except in the filthy, crowded street. Even children of the tender age of three years are employed in stripping the poisonous tobacco, while their brothers only a few years older are engaged in bunching for sale the vile products of this infamous industry. It has been clearly shown that the death rate among these wretched people is seventy-five per cent; and this in a Christian land. The Board of Health are contemplating an investigation. J. H. K.