Children Who Labor
About Children Who Labor
A mill will not hire an immigrant father. It will hire his child, so the oldest daughter goes to work. In New York, mill owner R. Henry Hanscomb refuses to speak against child labor, then buys that mill. While his wife and daughter Mabel are traveling, Mabel wanders off, is taken in by the immigrant family, and is sent into the same mill. Hanscomb walks the floor as she faints and misses her. His wife later takes food to the address. Ashley Miller directed.
Cast & crew
More about Children Who Labor
Ethel Browning wrote it. Edison made it with the National Child Labor Committee. General Film released it on February 23, 1912. One reel, 1,000 feet, listed at 13 minutes. Robert Conness plays Hanscomb. Miriam Nesbitt plays his wife. Leonie Flugrath, later Shirley Mason, plays Mabel. John Sturgeon plays the immigrant father. Mary Fuller plays the mother. Viola Dana plays one of the daughters. Miller and Browning were married. Flugrath was eleven.
Themes
Background
Edison advertised the short as made with the National Child Labor Committee.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- The Committee credit is on the Edison advertisement in Moving Picture World, February 17, 1912.
- Mabel and the immigrant daughter are sisters in life: Flugrath and Viola Dana.
- Hanscomb becomes the employer of his own child without knowing it.
- The reel is 1,000 feet.
Scenes
- The father is turned away and told to send a child.
- Hanscomb passes his own daughter when she faints on the mill floor.
