The Harvest

At breakfast this morning my husband went on and on about seeing Eva Longoria on Piers Morgan’s show talking about immigration and child labour issues in the US. He seemed surprised the beautiful woman might have a purpose outside of acting.

That didn’t surprise me much.

But something else he learned from the interview surprised me, as well. Eva Longora has co-produced a documentary about child labour in agriculture in the US. It’s called the Harvest and it is directed by Roberto Romero.

In many cases, young US citizens used as a kind of slave labour, not going to school, to pick our food.

I knew that Mexican labour is used to pick fruits and vegetables and that our lowish prices are thanks to this.

And I also know Mexican crews come to Canada. When my son spent a summer picking cherries in the Okanagan, he said their were French crews (who made gourmet meals over campfires) and French Canadian crews and Native Crews and Mexican crews. The Native Crews saw my son’s tan and said, “You must be one of us.” Well, there’s Cree in my husband’s family.

Anyway, I wonder if the Mexican crews include children… that would be appalling. It’s still appalling as we Canadians eat a lot of US produce.

So I’ve been writing a book about child labour in the textile mills in 1910, equating it to the child labour in the textile industry (far away overseas)when there still is child labour right close to home.

Here’s my first draft of Threshold Girl. www.tighsolas.ca/page10.pdf.pdf where Flora Nicholson, 19, learns about child labour close to home but does nothing about it, just like all of us, today.

Flowering of Womanhood

My 1906 Ladies’ Home Journal Girl.

Hmm.

Yesterday, I watched the final 4 or 5 episodes of series 3 of Upstairs Downstairs.

I can see why that year the series won the Emmy for best Drama.

The stories are more polished than in the first two years.

It’s so weird. 4o years later, I’m discovering this famous television series, after having spent 5 years researching the 1908-1913 period from a Canadian point of view.

Perhaps had I been familiar with the series, and already known about the era of Model T’s and suffragettes, I wouldn’t have been as interested in researching the background to the Nicholson Family letters…

As it was, I knew nothing about the era and started from scratch and then waited until I was well-informed to watch this series that is ALL about 1908-1913 and makes a effort to be historically correct. In fact, these 3rd series episodes are a bit weighed down by efforts to teach history. Lord Bellamy’s speeches, anyway.

But the fashions are spot on. The series didn’t spend much on sets, but it made up for it in fashion. I will certainly go back over the series and take a closer look at Lady Bellamy’s hats, etc.

Anyway, I’ve reached a point in my draft of Flo in the City, where I want to expound on the Presbyterian thing. Light in Dark Places… That’s the 1910 book or “Sex Manual” that was so popular in Canada.

I inlcluded the Gertrude Atherton “Threshold Girl” quote in the book, where she describes ‘teenage’ girls as being confused by the sex drive and their female role… which is good, but I have to put it in context by describing the Presbyterian mindset. I want to do this fairly and honestly.

Oddly, I recently framed a 1906 Ladies Home Journal Cover and mounted it on the mantle and as I look at it I think: “That picture captures something of what I want to say.”

At first glance the viewer gets the sense that the girl on the cover is a pretty Puritan, what with herperfect posture, her book held at just the right distance from her face. (I open Flo in the City with Flora studying in a reed rocker, with her feet up on the chair.) But the girl on the cover glancing at the viewer.. hmm. and that bonnet! At second glance it is very sensual. Isn’t it?

This was not uncommon for covers of the Ladies’ Home Journal. I found another, which I posted on my Tighsolas website, at http://www.tighsolas.ca/ that is very suggestive. I think, anyway.

Or maybe a braid is just a braid and a bonnet is just a bonnet. But it can’t be denied: on Magazine covers of the time, young women are either gazing at blooms or wearing hats that look like blooms.

Anyway, must get to it. I am writing a story about 1910 ‘teachers’ – how to make it ‘sexy’..hmm. Marion’s story is easier, as she is ‘courting’ and she broke a lot of rules. I have already decided to have her see the snake wrestling man in Dominion Park..

Child Labour in Cotton: Then and Now

1911 Census Page: Everyone worked 60 hours at the Dominion Textile Plant in 1911 in Magog. Even Occasional Jobbers. That’s because the Quebec Factor Act said no factory employee could work more than 60 hours…Someone fixed up the salaries too.

Well, as I write Flora in the City, about Flora Nicholson in 1911/12 where she gets a chance to learn about the human cost of her clothing, but really does nothing about it, just like most of us, I have decided to give Miss Gouin, the milliner’s apprentice ,another scene.

Flora will see her in Richmond, possibly sitting on bench in front of the Post Office. She will be reading a book. An English Book. The Handbook for Department Stores: Linen and Cotton Department. This will be to show how smart and ambitious she is. She will tell Flora she wants to go work for Dupuis Freres, in Montreal, or even one the big American Department Stores, where they sometimes like a girl with a French accent (she will say) as long as the girl says she is from Paris. That’s where Flora will hear that Milliners can make as much as 1,000 a year.

I’ll have Miss Gouin turn the tables on Flora and ask for help reading a portion.. How can Flora decline? A relevant bit.. which one? The book thoroughly describes all the kinds of cotton. Maybe I’ll just have her read it out, and ask Flora if the pronounciation is good.

I found a paper online about child labour in the cotton industry, TODAY. I am reading it carefully, of course, so that I am able to make my 1910 story relevant. I have to find some points that overlap. I am sure there are many.

The paper is by Alejandro Plastina and is called Child Labour in the Cotton Sectors and was written for the International Cotton Advisory Board in Washington DC.

According to the introduction, there are 300 million children, aged 5-17 working worldwide. Of those 200 million are child labourers.

Here’s a quote from the paper defining child labour. “Schematically, child labor includes all types of work conducted by children 5-11 years old, non-hazardous work conducted by children 12-14 years for more than 14 hours but less than 43 hours per week, and all worst forms of child labor conducted by children 5-17 years (including hazardous work in specified industries and occupations and work for more than 43 hours per week in other industries and occupations). In essence, child labor is work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity and is considered a violation of fundamental human rights (ILO 2008b).”

I’ll have someone in Flora in the City use the same rationale for child labour, that it’s the parents’ fault. That it is better for the kids to work than to starve… or be forced into worse kinds of work or sexual slavery, which is a big concern in 1911, and called the “the social evil”. Even people who could care less about the well-being of children were interested in eradicating prostitution.

And as for the older women workers, during my scene at the Montreal Council of Women, where Lady Drummond discusses the Eaton’s strikes, someone will yell out “It is lucky they are getting paid for what most women do for free.”

Mrs. Drummond won’t agree, but that line is an important one.

I got up early today, mostly because I wanted a coffee. We had a power failure yesterday afternoon, due to high winds, and I not had a cup since the previous morning.

And I do like my coffee. I drink tonnes. Much more than is good for me.

So I got up, fed the cat his can of gross grilled chicken (which I have figured out costs more, pound per pound, than the finest cut of steak) removed the big chunk of ice my husband had put in the fridge to keep it cool and put it in the freezer, and brewed myself a pot of coffee. I had to open a Kirkland brand cannister, or pull open the aluminum vacuum seal, because the Timmy’s was finished.

I bought this Kirkland Brand last week, at Costco, because it is the cheapest on the market. With the cost of food rising so much in Montreal, I am, all of a sudden, watching what I buy. I like the meat at Costco, so I go there to fill my freezer with chicken thighs, sausages and salmon, bought in bulk (which was in danger of melting down last night.) My flirtation with free range organic chicken was short-lived, apparently, due to this inflation at the supermarket.

My husband, for some reason, particularly frets over the cost of coffee, although he drinks but a cup in the morning. So I defer to him in this instance, for no particular reason, because I ultimately decide what is purchased in the house.

I really should buy a premium fair trade coffee and drink less. I know this.

You know, at Costco last week, they were selling bags of fair trade coffee. Full beans. But you could grind it there. (And I’ve purchased it in the past.) But I walked right past and bought the bargain brand.

Who suffered to make my mediocre cup of morning coffee. Well, pot of coffee.

And here I am, with the first chapter of Flo in the City, or Flora in the City as I now call it written, in draft form and posted on this blog a few posts ago, and at www.tighsolas.ca/page10.pdf.pdf

I am writing this YA social history book to help young women think about the consequences of their lifestyles.

Flo, of course, does not think too hard about it, even though Providence gives her many an opportunity. She is like me, she is like you. She means well but is lazy. She doesn’t have the courage of her convictions. Is that the phrase? I’m tired this morning. Not enough caffeine in me.

When told about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire she replies: “We make our own shirtwaists.” And let’s face it, that’s a typical response. (At least, I think.)

So, buying this cheap Kirkland Brand coffee, I say, but I never buy gold or diamonds or carpets. Chocolate yes. And cheap clothes, yes. And industrial food chain meat. (I am considering going vegetarian, again, (that will save on food costs…maybe) but have to convince my husband.

Maybe I am writing the book Flora in the City for myself.

Spinning a Yarn, Weaving a Tale

Many many women worked in the textile factories in Montreal in 1910.

Some of these girls were very young and accidents happened.

I buy and wear clothing, like everyone else, but what I know about textiles and sewing and such you could fit into a thimble, if I had one.

I’ve been reading technical school manuals about the textile industry from 1910 and I don’t undertand a thing.

A handbook for department stores, cottons and linens department is more my speed. It starts at the very beginning. Where cotton comes from: Egypt, India, Peru mostly in 1910. The American South. How it is spun by huge machines. And then woven. And then finished, which includes dying.

Cotton spinning machine 1910

“Weaving is the making of cloth by the interlacing of two sets of threads crossing each other at right angles. Of these the lengthwise threads are called the warp (I know that, from sewing class in high school) while the crosswise threads are called the woof, weft or filling.

The art of weaving can be traced to the very earliest people. The women of savage tribes used any materials, such as grasses or reeds, that might be at hand, lacing the fibres in a crude manner to make mats and baskets.

(Funny, basketweaving is a euphemism for a stupid and easy pastime..) At first the strips were put over and under one at a time, but soon the women learned to fasten pieces together to make longer strips.

In the next stage, the long strips of the grasses or other material to be woven were stretched and fastened on the ground and the cross material was carried over and under these long pieces.

Next a stick was fastened to every alternate thread so that these threads
could be raised to allow the crossthreads to go through.

In an upright loom the warp threads were held in a upright position on two beams
one at the top and one at the bottom and fastening the top beam to a tree. This method is used the Navaho to make rugs.”

Then the book discuss the hand loom and THE FLYING SHUTTLE. I remember that from the theory part of sewing class in 1969. Miss Nagel was the teacher: she was not very enthusiastic, I remember. I passed the theory part and failed the practice part, a calico apron. Pink, my favourite colour, then and now.

My Boomer Era Home Ec class was a carry-over from the 1910 era Homemaking and Housekeeping courses recommended by the Royal Commission on Industrial Training and Technical Education. Technical education (textile schools for instance) was only for men.

The Montreal Council of Women objected to this: they felt some young women should be allowed into the trades and not be forced into domestic work where there were no days off and no nights to themselves. (The Royal Commission felt domestic work to be dignified work (or so they said) and felt that it was a danger for young women to go out in the evening and mix with riff-raff, anyway.)

Hand weaving laboratory at a Philadelphia Technical School.
What goes around comes around: Much of the clothing we wear today is made by child labour in the so called Third World.

In one article from the 1910 era, it is claimed that the Textile Interests are against women’s suffrage, as movers and shakers in this industry are afraid women will vote to change the tariffs on textiles.

The politics of the textile industry were very complicated in 1910. Laurier lost the Free Trade election in 1911. I wonder how textiles figured in all this. The Textile industry with the iron industry was key to the UK’s economy back then. And Free Trade was to be with the U.S….

The UK was sadly lagging behind the US and France and Germany with respect to innovation.

No autos, no victrolas.

Cotton Picking US South.

1909 Textile Union Demands Montreal

Well, it didn’t take me long. I found an article in the 1909 Montreal Gazetteon a Union Protest with respect to the textile industry in Montreal (and Magog in the Eastern Townships) in 1909, the year I am writing about right now in my book Flo in the City, about a young girl coming of age in the 1910 era based on the letters of http://www.tighsolas.ca/

The demands were by the union at Dominion Textile. (I remember that their head offices were somewhere near the Montreal Forum.)

They wanted a 10 percent increase in wages, as the workers’ wages hard recently been cut by 10 percent despite the fact the company’s stock was doing well. Hmm.

They wanted more humane hours for women and children. No start before 7.am. No more than 55 hours a week.

They wanted the company to respect the laws of the land with respect to child labour, which suggests they were employing illegally.

They wanted the men in the factory to be forced to respect the women and children who worked there, which must mean they abused their powers.

And they wanted an end to ‘blacklisting’,a practice where anyone who complained couldn’t get another job with the company and even with another company.

I will have Marion read this out loud to Flo, or Margaret, because she taught in a school near St. Henri and according to the article, blacklisting is having a terrible effect on the standard of living in St. Henri. So no doubt many of her young female students were doomed to leave school and go work for Dominion Textiles at 12 or 13 or 14. And many of the mothers of her students already worked in this particulary factory. I think I’ll have Flo fingering the cotton in her blouse, as Marion reads it. “But at least they have work?” she’ll say, “that is better than the other.” Something like that. I’ll have her recite the same arguments we give today for our cheap clothes.

Traduction Google

Eh bien, il ne m’a pas pris longtemps. J’ai trouvé un article sur une manifestation syndicale à l’égard de l’industrie textile à Montréal (et de Magog dans les Cantons de l’Est) en 1909, l’année où je vous écris au sujet en ce moment dans ma Flo livre dans la ville, d’une jeune fille venue de l’âge à l’ère de 1910 sur la base des lettres de http://www.tighsolas.ca/

Les demandes ont été par le syndicat à la Dominion Textile. (Je me souviens que leur siège social ont été à peu près au Forum de Montréal.)

Ils voulaient une augmentation de 10 pour cent dans les salaires, les salaires des travailleurs dur récemment été réduits de 10 pour cent, malgré le fait capital de la société se portait bien. Hmm.

Ils voulaient heures de plus humain pour les femmes et les enfants. Aucun départ avant 7.am. Pas plus de 55 heures par semaine.

Ils voulaient de l’entreprise à respecter les lois du pays en ce qui concerne le travail des enfants, ce qui suggère qu’ils ont été employant illégalement.

Ils voulaient que les hommes dans l’usine d’être forcé de respecter les femmes et les enfants qui y ont travaillé, qui doit vouloir dire qu’ils abusaient de leurs pouvoirs.

Et ils voulaient la fin de «liste noire», une pratique selon laquelle toute personne qui se plaignait ne pouvait pas trouver un autre emploi avec la société et même avec une autre société.

Je vais devoir lire ce Marion à haute voix pour Flo, ou Margaret, car elle a enseigné dans une école près de Saint-Henri et selon l’article, une liste noire a un effet terrible sur le niveau de vie dans Saint-Henri. Donc, sans aucun doute beaucoup de ses jeunes élèves de sexe féminin ont été condamnés à quitter l’école et aller travailler pour la Dominion Textile à 12 ou 13 ou 14. Et la plupart des mères de ses élèves déjà travaillé dans cette usine particulièrement. Je pense que je vais avoir Flo doigté du coton dans son corsage, comme Marion il lit. “Mais au moins ils ont du travail?” elle dira, «c’est mieux que l’autre.” Quelque chose comme ça. Je l’ai réciter les mêmes arguments que nous donnons aujourd’hui pour nos vêtements bon marché.