... unemployed beteen 1923 and 1929. American orkers remained a relatively poor and poerless group in the 1920s. Their ages rose, but the average income of a orker remained belo 1500 a year at a time hen 1800 ere considered necessary to maintain a minimally decent standard of living. Especially in industries such as coal mining and textiles the ages didnt rise at all, but the number of orking hours remained large. Especially poor ere the half-million blacks ho had migrated from rural into urban areas. As unskilled orkers they had fe opportunities and ere, therefore, very poor. The American farmers of this time also experienced a decline. There as a decline in food prices hich made the farmers suffer a severe drop in their incomes. Poverty not only influenced Americas adult society but also had a great impact on the lives of American children. In the beginning of the 20th century the people believed that idleness as bad for children. For them factories ere a protector against the evils of idleness. Even in children books and school stories the theme of labor as present. School stories usually taught that the primary ork as play but the responsibilities of big game loomed as inescapable presence. The idea of moral centrality of ork as strong. In orld ar I children and omen had to replace the jobs of the men ho ent into the ar. Poverty hich as also caused through the ar forced many families to send their children into factories or other orking places. The children alays claimed to be older than they really ere. They ere told to do so by parents and bosses because many of them ere only 5, 6, or 7 years old. Child labor varied from making artificial floers in their on tenement flats, to tending ros of machines in huge factories. Many children orked in coal breakers hich as dangerous and hard. They had to pick out pieces of slate and other refuse from the coal as it rushed past to the ashers. Most of these children became deformed. They ere bent-backed and round-shouldered. Accidents to the hands such as broken or crushed fingers ere common. Sometimes a child got mangled in the machinery and died. The children had to inhale the deadly dust hich as often causing asthma Bread-and Roses, p.30. The children had to ork 12-13 hours a day. For them the day started early in the morning. After ork they just ate and then ent exhausted to bed and oke up at 4.30 the next morning to go to ork again. Mary Jensen, for example, as one girl born in the poverty of the 1920s. At age four her childhood as practically over because she had to make artificial floers until late at night every day to support the family income. She alays suffered hunger and as, therefore, very fragile. Her mother as afraid of the landlord because she couldnt pay the rent for their tenement. hen Mary as a little older she had to ork in a candy factory. There she had to dip candy from seven in the morning until seven at night. During Christmas time she had to ork beteen 78 and 80 hours a eek. She never got to kno the pleasures of the feast herself. A little later she got Bronchitis folloed by a bad cough. Finally she died. Mary Jensen is just one example for many other children fates of that time. Life in labor only ended by injury, sickness, or age. There ere different harms of ork in the different orking places. Laundries, bakeries, saloons, hotels, and restaurants ere usually unsanitary, bad ventilated, or the children ere put in harmful company. Physical dangers lurked in rail-roads, mines, quarries, glass factories, samills, iron and steel mills, stockyards, and tobacco factories. Child labor could be found in the South as ell as in the North. There as no school for factory kids. In 1924 an amendment to the Constitution as proposed restricting child labor but not enough states passed the measure. Even though there as so much poverty amongst the American people, the United States of the 1920s as for the first time becoming a true consumer society, a society in hich not only the rich people, but many ordinary men and omen bought items not just because of need but for the sheer pleasure of buying. hat they bought, moreover, helped change the ay they lived. Middle-class families ished to purchase ne appliances such as electric refrigerators, ashing machines, and vacuum cleaners. Men and omen ore ristatches and smoked cigarettes....
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