Analyzing a Primary Source
Background information: This document is an
excerpt from a New York state commission
investigation into living and working conditions in
tenement houses. These large apartment buildings in
the city were known for their overcrowded and unsafe
conditions.
What significant issue did the commission find among
the tenement workers?
The Commission's investigation showed that work was
carried on in tenement houses for factories under the
most unsanitary conditions, and that the system of
licensing tenements for manufacturing purposes in no
way insured the work being carried on under proper
conditions. Investigators found work carried on in rooms
in which there were persons suffering from contagious
and infectious diseases - scarlet fever, diphtheria,
measles, typhoid, and tuberculosis Another great evil
oftenement house manufacturing was the fact that it
made legally possible the work of little children in
manufacturing pursuits at home, when the law rigidly
excludes them from such occupations in the factories.
Children as young as five, six, and seven years of age were
found doing work. One little girl, aged seven, testified
that she worked until eight o'clock in the evening.
o increased likelihood of injury
O poor quality products
unfair pricing and wages
O high rates of disease