GIRLS SACRIFICED FOR PROFIT

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 294, 18 October 1922, Page 10

GIRLS SACRIFICED FOR PROFIT

In Merrie England

Sentence of five years' penal servitude has been, passed upon Jolin Walter Knowles, the proprietor of ; taw niunitVn shed ,'at, Tipton, tne soene of a terrible explosion io«r montha aso, when 19 work-girls losit their lives, saya the "Labour Leader," 13/7/22. Although.at the time of the explosion public indignation was aroused, *t has naturally cooled off Somewhat ■ ijhrou'gh the delay in the conclusion of the ease, and the consequent lack of publicity which it has received, iiut the horror which seized people at the first news of the calmity should now take practical shiape so tfiat a repetition ofi such a catastrophe will be impossible. "l/§ FOR FOUR DAYS' WORK" Of the •, nipeteen girls : who were killed, all of them, except one were under sixteen years of age.- Three arc still in hosp'iaV suffering terrible injuries. The girls, were engaged in dismantling small cartridges which had been purchased from the Government. They were on piecework, and so low was the price paid for the work that one girl is sad to have received only 1/8 for four days' toil. Others declare that they were paid 6a'Jor dismantling p whole hundred'w|ight of cartridges, although the unscrupulous employer stated that- he paid i/6 per hundredweight, and that proficient girls coui& earn 3/- per day. According to the survivors' story, they could not earn half amount.

The bitter throes of poverty had driven these young girls to this dangerous work, other members of all their famil'tes being numbered among the vast army of unemployed. It was the same in every case, a s. in the case of JMzie Williams, whose father had tried to persuade her to give up the f/ork. "Tlie rent has to be paid," she replied, and went on with her task. o?hes.e children had accepted this dangerous work-to help to keep the huJGger-wolf at bay. The shed had B-Bly been open for ihree weeks when 10 of them lost their lives in their grim, struggle against poverty.

A CALLOUS PROFITEER The sentence of five years' penal §grv£ude seems a light one compared with the tragic consequences of the •employer's exploitation. The lack of proper precautions against danger in his shed shows only too clearly that his one desire was to ojctraet as much profit as possible out of the girls, and in his mad g'roed he did not make even the slightest -provision for thtir safety. The ehed is- stated to have lacked even the simplest necessary precaution. He saw that the cheaper the labour which he could obtain the larger- would be his profit, and in order to d o this, boy sweepers were replaced-by little inexperienced girls. This was.done in bold defiance of the Act, which st'uulates that all persons employed in. .the manufacture of gunpowder miist be over 16 years of age. TJie picture of the explosion jas described by the "Daily News" (March 8) was as follows: T.he suffering and injuries of the girls beggar description. They v*ere literally caught in an inferno, l'ke rats in ,a- trap, and when they did get into the open their bodies were horribly mutilated. Some o£ tho children's breasts were blown away, and in an interview a man named Williams whose daughter was in the burning builditjg but who had a niir&cuioifs oscape, said thait when ho got into the factory yard fie saw girls in & ntide condition rushing about with their bodies valiucfct "frizzling." As he placed sacking round them the flesh actually dropped from them. The story overshadows even the darkest days of child employment of over a hundred years-.a go, when children worked for 16 and 18 hours a day, for 3ix hours without a break, and with but half-an.-hour's rest to eat black bread and porridge. PubUe pressure should be brought to bear in no uncertain manner upon the Government to ensure that all ammunition sold shall be traced to its place of destination, and dealt with, under proper conditions of labour, wtth correct supervision so that it does not claim its helpless victims iii "pence" as well as war.