Attempted Labor Reforms
This unnamed New York City family also assembles artificial flowers. They make 8 cents per gross. The youngest child helps out as well, despite being only five years old. In 1892, the State of New York passed a regulation that limited manufacturing from residential tenements. Lawmakers had concerns that disease would cling to the products being made in the tenements. This concern particularly centered around clothing items sewn in filthy conditions and sold to wealthy customers; if wealthy people became sick from contaminated products, it hurt the economy and the corporate bottom line. While these reforms didn’t stop small producers of goods like these artificial flowers, it moved other industries, like clothing, out of the tenements.