Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-12-10
guided and unfortunate person, who was
suffering the consequence Of his own fol-
Slaughter Of the Innocents.


Baltimore Gazette
Public attention has been directed to the
deplorable condition of child-labor in the
Massachusetts, factories through the me-
dunn ofan exhaustive article from the pen
of Emma 3. Brown in the December At.
lantic, and ii the statements set forth are
strictly accurate, rs there is every reason
to believe they are, the statesmen and
philanthropists Of the old Bay state might
find some desirable occupation in
mitigating the condition of 4 help
less class, instead Of concerning them
selves about the rest Of mankind. Massa-
chusetts take an especial pride in her ed
ucatiOnal and reformatory institutions. and
yet the developments that have just come
to light disclose a condition Of affairs
| among her laboring classes that lecalls with
| painful vividness the scenes of wretched-
ness among the English laboriEg classes in
| by-gone days. While the 'philanthOp:sts
of Massachusetts, have been worrying their
brains over affairs i'll which they were in no
| Way concerned they have permitted-nay
even eEcouraged-an evil which has grown
| up among themselves until it has assumed
| proportions of such magnitude that 4 bare
| recital Of the details is sufficient to send a
| thriil of horror over the entire country. In
the manufacturing districts of Engla
it is we'll known that the OverworkinS OF
young children in factories produced u pale,
stunted and rickety race of people Within
three generations and Mrs. Brown declares
that the same horrible process IS being re
peatcd in Massachusetts, and unless q
remedy is quickly provided the melancholy
evils will have been firmly established in
the manufacturing districts OF New Eng
land-evils which it has been fOund i'm
possible to remove i'll Old England even
with the aid of the most rigorous lcgisla-
tion. The statistics gathered by Mrs.
Brown from official statements are Of the
most sickening and startling nature. She
discovered that there are 5000 children
in Massachusetts between the ages Of five
and seventeen who have never been to any
school. In one OF the factories the first
child encountered by the inspector was
under 10 years of age; and in fact child
labor seems to have become part Of the
industrial system of Massachusetts. The
struggle for existence among the factory
people appears to be simply terrible and
the fact that this baby-]abor should be en-
ployed by Massachusetts, capitalists in order
to enable them to earn big dividends on
watered stock is y burning disgrace to the
boasted civilization of the New England
people. Figures show that A per cent. Of
the laboring classes of Massachusetts, are
children between the ages Of 5 and Is
children who should be in the schools.
The fact that there arc stringent laws on
| the subject OF infant labor in the state rem
ders the fact of their illegal employment
even more disgraceful, and it appears that
the terrible evil can only be corrected by
the creation of Il strong public sentiment
that will impose upon the employers of
these innOcents the extreme legal penal
ties. The absolute necessity for some such
course will be the more readily understood
when VIC mention the fact that out Of 100
factories only too were fonnd that COM
piled with the provisions Of the law.
Aside from the humanitarian aspect Of the
case there is another serious evil
growing out of it. The employment
| of this army Of infants at cheap
! wages has ovcrcrowded the factories and
chcapencd adult labor to starvation point
Until the New England people remedy this
crying evil let her statesmen and philan
thropists cease pratins about ignorance
and inlumanty in the South. They can
find plenty of profitable employment at
their own doors-employmcnt that, il
properly directed, will remove from the
factories the curse of child.Iabor that is
year by year destroying morally and phys
icaily large class of helpless persons.