Factors in the cotton industry are waging a determined battle to eradicate the night work of women and children in the cotton factories of the South. Among the men in the industry who are campaigning against the evil is Samuel Lamport, well known industrialist and member of the firm of Lamport & Co. At a recent meeting of the Textile Converters’ Association, he urged that organization to make a definite stand against the evils of the industry.
Mr. Lamport said that an aggressive campaign has been started to inaugurate a program of changes, to limit the number of working hours in all mills, and to eliminate entirely the night work of women and children Leaders of the industry are in accord with such a program. “It is my judgment,” he said, “that this plan will couple humanity with good economic discretion.”
Mr. Lamport explained that the night work of the women and children is not at all essential to the welfare of the industry but tends rather to cause overproduction. “It is not economically justifiable,” he said.
Pointing to the village of Plainfield, Conn., where the Lamport mills are situated, as a working colony with good living conditions and without a night working shift, he explained that every mill could be run similarly without recourse to women and children for night work. “We are going to work through the national law-making bodies” he said, “to eradicate this crying evil.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
