Of these many had been at one time or other employed as
operatives. On questioning the probation worker, Miss Stella Miner, who
had lived with them and knew their stories most fully, it was learned,
however, that almost every one of these girls had gone astray while they
were little children, had been remanded by courts to the House of the
Good Shepherd, where they had learned machine operating, and on going out
of its protection to factories had drifted back again to their old ways
of life. How far their early habit and experience had dragged these young
girls in its undertow cannot of course, be known. The truth remains that
factory work, when it is seasonal, must increase temptation by its
economic pressure.]
CHAPTER IV
THE INCOME AND OUTLAY OF SOME NEW YORK FACTORY-WORKERS
[Monotony and Fatigue in Speeding]
One of the strangest effects of the introduction of machinery into
industry is that instead of liberating the human powers and initiative of
workers from mechanical drudgery, it has often tended to devitalize and
warp these forces to the functions of machines.[22]
This stupefying and wearying effect of machine-work from concentration
and intensity of application and attention was frequently mentioned by
the factory workers in their accounts.
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