The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-09-01
Juvenile LabOrers in England.

In the course of a recent debate in
the British House of Lords, it was
shown that the brick-yards of the
kingdom employed nearly 10000
children and young persons, ranging
in age from three and a half to seven
teen years. The work required of
these youthful laborers from nine
years and upwards is something pro-
digious. One child, q little over
eight, weighing only tifty-two and a
half pounds, was found to be en-
ployed carrying forty-three pounds
of clay ON his head distance amount
ing daily to over seven miles, which
with the return made him walk some
fifteen miles day, working seventy
three hours week. A girl about
thirteen years old is reported as car
rying twenty-five pounds on her
head, and a mass Of equal weight in
her arms, pressed against her body.
These are but two out of thousands
of similar instances. Children thus
loaded and overworkcd have neces-
sarily little opportunity to grow,
mentally or physically, and when
they become men and women in
years, are stunted in growth and
dwarfed in intellect. AS the sexes
mingle freely together in this en-
ployment, and are at best very scam
tily clad, their intercourse results in
the grosscst folms Of immortality.
The high wages offered for this kind
of work, however, serves to hold
those who have once become en-
gagged in it, and it appears that girls
who 60 out to service in the winter,
return to the brick-fields in sum-
mer.
One reason for the scrverity Of the
labor is that brick-making can only
be carried on in summer, and fair
weather at that, where the works
are not covered over. Employers
and laborers are therefore DESTROYS
of working as long as possible, when
circumstances favor, so that they
may receive the largest returns, no
matter what may he the ultimate re-
suits. Sometimes the labor is in.
creased by compelling the children
to toll all night in the kilns. Similar
misuse of child-labor in England has
been prevented in other emplOyments
by the Factories and Worship Act,
passed sometime since; and it is
gratifying to know that the same
philanthropists who were instrument
tai in procuring the enactment of
those laws, have now turned their
attention to the wrongs Of the chill
dren in the brick-fields, and will not
rest content until something is done
for their protection. The thought
that the greed of manufacturers and
parents is compelling thirty thousand
children to grow up in ignorance
and vice is sufficiently appalling
to arrest the attention of the most
Indifferent, but the Intervention ofthe
law is needed to stop the wrong, and
stop its cxtention. 1t is remarkable
to notice that the Bishop Of London
testifies that some of the worst of
this slavery is practiced within his
diocese. Yet, perhaps there are no
places where vice and practical
heathenism are more rampant than
in and near the Old and New World.
Laws limiting the number of hours
children can be employed in any
trade, and compelling parents and
employers to send them to school a
portion of each year, are needed
wherever manufacturers are found
to use child-labor, or parents poor or
indolent enough to be willing to COM
pel them to work before their
strength has been fully developed.