At the Cloth Finishing factory and both the other
establishments, every opportunity for the fullest inquiry among workers
as to the result of the system for them was offered by the owning
companies. Difficulties in the industry for the workers were frequently
pointed out by managers; and the addresses and names of the less
well-paid workers and those in the harder positions were supplied as
freely as information about the more fortunate effects of the system.
Both this firm and that of the cotton mill are anxious to obtain
first-class work through first-class working conditions as rapidly as
trade conditions will allow.
The first process at which women are employed is that of keeping cloth
running evenly through a tentering machine. The machine holds on tenter
hooks--the hooks of the metaphorical reference--the damp cloth brought
from the process of bleaching, and rolls it through evenly into a drier,
where it slips off. There are two kinds of tentering machines. At one
kind two girls sit, each watching an edge of the cloth and keeping it
straight on the tenter hooks, so it will feed evenly. The newer machines
run in such a manner that one girl who may either stand or sit can watch
both edges. Because of the nearness of the drying closet, the air would
be hot and dry here but that outside air is driven in constantly by fans
through pipes with vents opening close to the workers.
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