It has all been said before, by a million of people over a million years. Love, death, just protect the children, who never asked for this. Everywhere, the children need to be protected.
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| Children sitting on a garbage box in a dirty alley in the 17th Ward, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1908. Advertising poster for Riverview Amusement Park behind them. [Credit: Chicago History Museum, ICHi-03808] |
Florence Kelley Live from 1890s Chicago: Always hold your head high. Especially when they—whoever the They is—are saying you can’t do something. And you know it is the right thing to do. And you are going to do it, not just to spite them.
[Credit: Voices from the Field Florence Kelley, Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University]
Florence Kelley Live from 1890s Chicago: Don’t think tomorrow. Don’t even think this afternoon. Today is all we have. Today, no yesterday, to tomorrow. Today. Can I do one useful thing today?
[Source/credit: Photo by Rubenstein. Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University]
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| "If you don't come in Sunday, don't come in Monday." Back cover image for Florence Kelley Factory Inspector in 1890s Chicago and the children |
After the Law was passed we got one 12-year old girl, Rebecca, unchained from a sewing machine. We washed her face and her hair; and took her to learn how to read at the Jewish Training School. It was enough for one day.
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| Sewing class in 1892 at the Jewish Manual Training School in Chicago. Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society |
Nothing happened quickly. So many opposed to everything we stood up for. Said:
They would have to shut down the biggest glass works in the State, if they couldn’t bring seven year old boys from the orphanage to be Blowers’ Dogs.
The name says it all.
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| Glass Blower and Mold Boy. Boy has 4 1/2 hours of this at a stretch, then an hour's rest and 4 1/2 more: cramped position. Day shift one week: night shift next. (see label on photo 162.) Grafton, West Virginia. Photographer: Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940 |
Florence Kelley speaking, live from 1890s Chicago
The children, we have to save the children, came into this world without asking to be born, not to work chained to a sewing machine. We understand: The parents aren’t bad people, they need the money, to survive themselves, to put bread on the table. Still, intervene. Put a stop to it, if you can. That evil to the child. Any time is all right to put a stop to it!
Funny, it doesn’t change that much, decade to decade, century to century.
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| Group portrait of seven boys kneeling, playing marbles on a playground in Chicago, Illinois. Two boys stand and look on, a girl is visible in the right on the image, swing sets are visible in the background. Text on negative reads: Spring Picture. Source: DN-0062448, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum. Date: ca. 1914 Mar. 30. |
Florence Kelley speaking, live from 1890s Chicago
When we hear of an unexpected, sudden death, the woman with the limp and the burgundy stained apron—we passed as she hurried down on the muddy street yesterday, we mutter under our breath now: sad, sad, so very sad, and every day we open our eyes to sunlight and put our two feet flat on the floor, is a day to celebrate! We are alive!
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| Source: DN-0000953. Chicago History Museum. |
