St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-05
SAINT PAUL.
PARENT OR STATE !?
Who Is It That Shall See That
the Child Attends
School?
Commissioners Lamb Says the
Duty Is Doubt sss That of
the State.
Not Half the Children Of Min
nesota Enter School
House at All.
Child Labor Stunts the
Growth and Manhood of
the Nation.

There was a lively discussion Mt labor
HEADQUARTERS. 20 East Seventh street,
last evening. Labor Commissioner
John Lamb read paper on Child
Labor and Compulsory Education" 1t
was well-thOught-out address on two
Of the most difficult problems which
must soon engage the attention of the
lawmakers of the state. \ careful out
line of its scope reads:
That the practice of sending children
into the factories to work is an evil,
and a great one, no sensible man will
DENY: Tut its indiScriminate prohibit
ton, without provision for the child
after he is turned out of the factory,
might often be 4 greater evil. The
parent who will send a child of eleven
years into the factory is not likely to be
able, even il willing, 10 provide for
him when he leaves the factory, and If
il Is merely 4 choice between the fac
tory and the street, the testimony of
National StatiStician Wright leads me
10 bell We that the former is the better
place. The question may De asked,
docs the disposition to send children
into The factories spring from necessity
or from the SOrdid character Of the par
ent? On this point ! simply present
significant testimony from the report OF
the Michigan labor bureau for 1855. In
the city of Detroit, out of 52S chill
dTen between the ages of ten and
seventeen, found at work in
various occupations, $40, or 20 per cent
Of the whole number, were the children
of labOIerS, and only 80 per cent the
children of men following the other
fOrty-eight occupations enumerated. 1t
is the uniform testimony of factory in
spectorS that in nearly all the states
which have laws regulating the en-
ployment of children. the
PARENTS EVADE THE LAW
by disappearing the age of the child.
Some protection has been furnished
against this abuse by requiring the en-
piOyer to keep a register of the date of
birth Of every child below a specified
age working in his establishment.
Recurring to the question as to what
shall be done with the child when he is
turned out of the factory, we i'm
mediately encounter one, the main
problem of government: To what eX-
tent is it judiciOus or just for the state
TO interfere. not alone between individ-
ualS belonging TO different families, but
between the members of the same fam
ily-betwten parent and child? When
great emergencies arise this delicate
question is waived without ceremony by
taking men from their families and
making them 20 to war This. certainly,
Is worse than taking a child and making
it go to school; but in the movement in
this detection in England, the argument
was advanced that the parent was the
natural guardian of the child, and the
laEa
between them. The theory had to
yield before the pressure Of public ne
ceSsity.
whatever line of thought we follow
in social science we are invariably re-
ferred to the imperfection of human nat
uTe as the great diSqualifying circum-
stance in any forward movement. The
degree of perfection in the Individual
should determine the degree of his in
dependence from the state. Good
men need few laws. On the other hand,
the degree of perfection in the state
should determine the quantity of power
which it may safely be trusted to eXer-
else. A bad state should nave little
authority. just in proportion as
the state develops the capac-
kind better than the individual,
the state should be intrusted with the
execution of the function. And just so
far as the individual can manage mat
tiers better than the state, SO far should
he be trusted. There is no general law
here. Conditions of practical utility
must and do eventually govern. The
question now arises, can the state in
any case educate the child better than
the parent! answer emphatically yes.
Henry George, who. above all men, will
not be accused of partiality to state
interference in private affairs, referring
TO the
GREAT ENGLISH STRIKE,
and the growth of public sentiment
which it revealed, says: And be-
meath all this is the effect Of compulsory
education, of the extension of the fran
chise, Of cheap newspapers and cheap
books, of the efforts that have been
making to improve the intelligence. the
morality, the physical well-being of the
poor. But the steady, Ofttimes cruel,
work of school boards and truant Off
GERS IN driving even hungry children
TO school, is beginning to show in the
decadence of local dialects and the dis
appearance of illiteracy.' Here we have
frank confession from one of the most
conspicuous advocates of the laisSeZ
faire system that government by posi-
tive Institution, by the exercise of CO.
ercive authority, by actually debating
to the parent that he shall educate his
child whether or no, may and does i'm
prove the condition of the people.
so far as l know, neither the English
government nor any state of the Amer
lean Union has made any provision for
the care OF the child after it has been
expelled from the factory. 1t has, per-
haps. been deemed impracticable to do
so. Although it seems to me a logical
outcome of state interference that the
child should be cared for by the state,
if it is found necessary, yet such a
course would involve an extension of
Daternalism for which people in general
are hardly prepared"
Miss Eva Mcdonald and j. P. Nc
Gaughey did not exactly see eye to eye
with Mr.. Lamb. Miss Mcdonald
did not believe in legislation as the
panacea for all the evils that abound,
and spoke of the faulty of laboring
men securing the passage of laws which
If it were enforced, and became
obnoxious. it was pretty certain
that the next legislature would repeal
it. Miss Mcdonald wanted to educate
the people to the standard which
did away with the necessity of
laws affecting child labor and compul-
sorry education. j. 2. McGaughey was
a bitter opponent to the very PROPOSE
ton of compulsory education. He
wanted every child to be properly edu-
Gated, but did not think such power
should or ought to be delegated to the
state. He did not believe the citizens
OF the state-the voters-Would agree to
the passage of such law.
Commissioner Lamb, in a reply, re-
marked that but 40 per cent of the chill
oren OF minnesota attended school last
year. This was the lowest percentage
of any state or territory excepting the
territory of Alaska.