Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-08-30
COMM UNICATlONS.
The Eight.H0ur Day-Our Children
Capitalism in Waltham.


obtains, would be a great boon to work
ers who are now approaching or passing
middle life, to men and women alike
who have crossed the meridian of human
life. The competitive system, which
ever cries, Give, Give, like a horse
leech, has taken to itself the most pre-
cious human gift-youth. 1t has fed and
fattened literally on the flesh and bones
of young children. Horace Mann and
Robert Rantoul in Massachusetts, conse-
Grated their .anhood to building legal
bulwarks against the encroachments, of
organized capital on the outh of this
state. They made it forever impossible
to find in the cities of Massachusetts,
such immolation of the children as the
School Labor Conference of New York
city has revealed. Let Us record it for
others to marvel at who come after us,
that this systematic robbery, extending
over many years, has been winked at
by the entire population, Christian and
{ .eathen, until the School Conference,
formed out of the various labor organ
izations of the city, took the abuse in
hand, and showed the actual truth that
the youth of New York to the number
of over 100000 were for some fell pur-
pose debarred of place in the system of
public instruction. They were shipped
away in thousands, as unpaid farm la
borers. and it is claimed that trade
had sprung mp whereby the youth of
New York were sold at $50 per head to
manufacturers of Findlay, Ohio.
When Labor had once made up its
mind to probe this iniquity to its
depths, the beginning of the end of the
abuse was made.
In a conventional article in a conven-
tional magazine by conventional
preacher, we read that disconnected
Labor seeks, "tho' blindly and unintelli-
gently" etc. The quoted sentence is
pure cant that has been repeated over
and over again as argument, this time
by apparently would-be friend and
patron of Labor.
In the face of the work of the School
Conference as evidenced in its report let
us call for the public retraction of those
words. But the work of the School
Conference, though it commanded the in
terest of the public in common calam
ity and is most intelligent and effective,
is no whit more 80 than were the intel
ligence and efficiency of the organ
lied cloak-makers in their recent
struggle. Labor alone can lead Labor.
A few members of the Christian ministry
may sincerely wish to emulate him
whom they call Master. Few and far
between are the men who can rise out of
their mental environment. They will
fail us to man, just as far as they are
trusted. Witness the jesuitical behavior
of Heller Newton in the matter of the
Citizens movement. Let us put none
but workingmen on guard over the pre-,
cious interests that are now trembling in
the balance. Let us trust no one that
has had TIA, # power, place, and
privilege.
To return to the appetite of organized
capital for tender children. The census
tells us that in other large cities as in
New York the same horrible sacrifice of
the children exists, Massachusetts ex-
cepted. Her capital has been never so
hungry. Mann and Rantoul placed the
limit to its inordinate thirst for child
labor in this state. On a tenth of the
wages of grown man child will per-
form more labor than grown man.
have known an active child of six years
on farm, keep on foot from five in the
morning until bed time, saving by his
tiny work the wages of an extra hand.
This is done by children too young to
sense the burden imposed on them, and
Is possible because of child's love for
active usefulness. | have seen small
lad of ten or eleven, sent up to stow
away hay under the roof of the barn,
doing the work of two reasonable men,
and finally fall PROSTATE from over.
exertion and heat, never to be well and
hearty again. 1t isn't the saving of
wages alone that causes the thirst for
child labor-it is the capacity of the
child as a laborer. Unrefiecting, un.
complaining-as yet-the young, spry,
supple body works to its utmost freely.
No man or woman of mature judgment
can work as children work. In this
respect the employer finds them doubly
profitable, first from the reduced wage
paid them and second from the un'
checked exertion they make uncom
painingly. And now to return to those
of middle life who are still under the
necessity of earning a livelihood by
wage labor. Such are cast aside at an
earlier and earlier age by the emplOying