St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-26
CHILD I,AROR

We are lot of those who believe that
children are injured by being raised by
habits of industry instead of being
brought up i'll luxurious idleness. We
believe that the primal curse which re-
Quires man to earn his bread by the
sweat OF his brow applies to the whole
human species, including children.
Yet, we are not of those who are indOc-
ti'inated with the gross materialiSm of
the aye to the extent of believing that
child labor should be surrounded by the
same harsh conditions as environ adult
labor. There should be some respect,
and proper respect at that, paid to the
tenderness of childhood, and to the dir
ferenceS which exist between the mind
that is i'll the process of development
and the one that has reached full ma
turity. There are physical conditions,
too. as we'll as the mental and moral,
which are to be considered in the
different systems of manual labor estab-
iished for adults and for children.
Some of the abuses to which child
labor is subjected are pointed out in de-
tail in anOthey article in this issue of
the GLOBE. in which our reporter tells
of the things he saw and heard among
that class of children who perform reg
ular labor in our midst. They included
the messenger boys, the newsboys. the
cash boys and girls and the employees of
the various manufacturing establish
iishmentS. The story is one calculate
TO excite the cOmmiseration of all SYM
pathetic persons. and might even fur
nish material for the genius OF some
future DICKENS: yet we are not disposed
to condemn the employers of these
children, because they are only doing
that which is approved by the ideas and
practices which prevail in the industrial
life of this age. We are cot condemn
ing individuals. but we do propose to
most severely condemn that vicious in
dusirlal system which makes such
things lawful, and even respectable.
Or the between 400 and 500 children
whom our reporter found in regular en-
pioyment in this city, and most of them
OF tender years, only very small per
cent have enjoyed or are likely to enjoy
school advantages. With the exception
tention at the Corning home, there are
very few of the child l,borers in this
city who can read words of two syl-
lahleS, or who can do a sum i'm simple
addition. Every one must realize that
this is a bad state of affairs. and is a
shameful reflection upon that intellect
uai elevation of the aye of which we are
disposed to boast.
Nor is this intellectual darkness the
worst of the conditions which surround
child labor. There is moral blindness
tending toward a moral obloquy more
horrible in its immediate effects and
still more frightful III its future conse-
Quences. Most employers who engage
child labor in their service are apt to
think that their duty is performed when
they have paid the little fellow his
weekly stipend and dismiss him from
the shop or office. They have added to
the profit side of the balance sheet for
the week by the employment of cheap
child labor, and, according to the eX-
tremely materialiStic notions which gov
-eln business life. the manager of an i'll
dustrial establishment has done all that
is legltimately required of him when
he has increased the dividends of the
stockholders. The RIGHTEOUSNESS of
this idea is forcibiy exemplified
in the report of the condition of child
labor in st. Paul. Take the messenger
boys, for example, who have to go INTO
all sorts of disreputable places, where
their young minds are poisoned with
what they see and hear. Take the
b.ys. and even the girls. in some of the
manufacturing establishments, where
they are huddled together like sheep
without a shepherd; where for eleven
LONG hours they bend to toll that ought
to be performed by men and women,
without any sort of moral restraint
upon them, and where one learns from
another bad habits, bad manners and
the foulest language. They receive no
better treatment than so many brutes,
AMI perhaps not so good; for after the
days labor is over the horse and the OK
are stabbed. fed and bedded, while these
little ones are turned loose to shift for
themselves.
When we remember that the child
laborers of to-day are to be the voters of
the next generation, and will hold the
destlnieS of the republic in their hands,
does it occur to us that, owing to this
vicious system of child employment, we
are sowing crop of dragons teeth
from which plentiful harvest will be
reaped? We are sowing to the wind.
and either ourselves or those who come
after us will surely reap the whirlwind.