The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-11-27

1t proved to be acceptable TO MT
Baldwin. We make the following
outline Of it, from memory alone;
/. Restrict hours of labor to IL
hours or IS hours a week.
2. Require two weeks notice on the
part of laborer before quitting a job.
(One1of the curses of these working
people is incessant moving from
place to place..
3. Punish a father who lives in
idleness off the proceeds of the labor
of minor children.
4. Foster schools.
5. Restrict child labor to the mini
mum of II years of age, provided d
school is available. IF not, it was
argued the child is better off under a
cotton mill superintendent than I'M
der unnatural parents, who want the
proceeds of the child's labor but are
Indifferent to it's welfare.
Such a bill will be introduced, we
believe, into the next regular meet
ing of the North Carolina Legisla-
ture and will doubtless have the sup
port of both manufacturers and
those who represent the mill people.
And, by the by, we T reminded
here that opposition on the part of
manufacturers to bills affecting mill
interests is sometimes aroused by
reason of the fact that the measure
is introduced by IN agitatOr, an
office. seeker, a politician in the worst
sense of the word, a bitter enemy to
capital, and, in reality, not a true
friend to labor.
If it be objected that the first ar
ticle in the above proposed bill in
contending for II hours a day of
labor makes the working day too
long. it is to be said that the idea and
intention is to reduce the hours grad
ually to eight hours a day as the
school facilities for the mill children
increase. The State itself argues
that abolition of child labor in Eng
land has, by brain education before
hand education, improved the intel
ligence of labor and the excellence of
its product. The point is we'll taken.
And New England makes the finer
and the finest grades of cOtrnn manu-
facture today. The abolition of
child labor, ha~nd-in-hand with good
schools being bettered all the time to
same beneficial result in tie South as
it has had everywhere else, and the
great majority of the manufacture
ers, we believe, will favor it. There
is in Charlotte a mill which supple
ments the public school money so
that an excellent nine-mOnths-in-the-
year school is maintained. Some
time ago one of the teachers sent the
children from several families back
home to have their hands and faces
washed, or re-washed, for if the
ablutiOnary process had been per-
formed it had not been adequate to
the pressing needs of the occasion.
The children's parents were mad
aboutit, but nevertheless this offence
or shOrt-cOming has never been re-
pealed. This was quite a primer
lesson; the children have. learned
harder ones since, and are making
good progress. Later on some udi-
mentary textile lessons may be
taught and the way will be opened
to cOmpleter textile education and
then it will be a step to the agricul-
tural and mechanical college.
Progressing thus in the public
school education, North Cardinals
people will come to realize how to
secure the best results from their
cotton crop. They will know how to
turn into dollars many times exceed
ing what it now brings. The farmer
will learn to produce better cotton !;
the manufacturer-and there is
many a future manufacturer in the
educated operatives child-will
make finer grades of cotton cloth.
France and Switzerland do not raise
cotton but they take ours clear across
the and make it into the finest
fabrics that command the highest
prices. Switzerland's capital-her
stock in trade-is her education.
Values in Cotton" is a very in
structive book, lately published by
Mr.. D. A. Tompkins and issued from
The Observers book bindery. Page
1 shows a sample of coarse 4-yard
sheeting. Three-ffths of the North