The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-10

double the number of spindles, should
 act first" This, we have contended, is to miss the very essence of the states mansf1ip of the situation. The very fact that Georgia has twice as mary spindles as Alabama, makes it twice as hard for Georgia to precede us. The cost of such an economic readjustment must be obvi- ously twice as great in Georgia as in AL abama. That Alabama is not so deeply in- volved in the system of child labor as some other Southern Stats, is clearly the reason why Alabama should take the lead. It has been consei vatively esti- mated that in some of the Southern States more than 20 per cent. of the mill operatives are under fourteen years of age. Does MT Nichols wish Alabama to delay until that becomes the condition of the industry in this State? According to the logical demand of his argument the State having the most spindles. the State most deeply and inextricably involved, must be the first to face the delicate and difficult problem of readjustment!
 Mir. Nichols also declares that our re- form measure was defeated because it was believed to be "the entering wedge" of other troublesome labor lgisiation. We
 
 twelve, we must not do a compassionate and reasonable thing, because, forsooth. somebody might then demand an inconsid- crate and unreasonable thing! Do the cor porate interests in Alabama wish to pred icate their liberties upon such an argu- ment? Yet, says Mr>Nichols. with these considerations in mind, the manufacturers | selected. among others, our agent na- tive Alabamian, to appear before the Leg | isaltive Committee with the result that
 the bill was defeated" Mir. Nichols neg | lects to state that on the second hearing
 of the bill, his agent appeared alone as
 the chosen spokesman of all the oppo- nents of reform. He, too, made much of | this hoary scare about "the entering l wedge.Y What iniquities of reaction. what | bitter stultification of human progress | has that argument not supported! In such a case as this, it is not an argument. it | Is a provocation. It is challenge to the common sense and the common humanity of our people. If the corporate interests of this State, whether operated by North erners or Southerners, are to rest the great cause of their unrestricted devel- | opment upon the cruel refusal of protec- ton to our little children, then let them
 beware lest, having rejected "the enter | ing wedge" they invite the cyclone. What greater folly, viewed from the strictly | selfish standpoint of certain corporate interests, than to involve their fate in | the issues of so odous an argument Such | course must gradually invite the hat | red of the people must inevitably goad
 the great masses of our population into
 the fixed belief that the corporation de- l sires to live not by production put | through destruction, that 1t IS a force to | be feared and bound rather than force | to be trusted and liberated. The course or l humanity is always the course or wlsdohl' | If the corporate interests of this State
 desire long and prosperous career. un- l trammelled by restrictive legislation, let l them disabuse the people of the impress | sion that their liberties represent the re- fusal of compassion to our children; let | them persuade the people Of Alabama 1 that they wish to grow, not out or the | soil of ignorance and wretchedness, but
 out of the rich and human fertilities of 1 social justice and the social welfare. Let
 them go to the popular heart, and base | themselves there, not upon the negation | but upon the extension of privilege.
 | l concur in the claim that the Alaba-
 ma City Mill is in some respects wholly
 exceptional. Says MT. Nichols Il chal- lenge either of the gentlemen from Ala l bama to mention among the mills of the | State any one which compares
 with ours in the expenditure which has | been made for the comfortable housing or the operatives and the appliances intro
 duced for their comfort and uplift." III | one breath the friends of this mill ask l us to believe it exceptional, and yet ill
 the next breath they ask that the need
 for reform legislation in relation to all
 the mills of the State, shall be determin- | ed from the conditions 1t presents! If the
 Alabama City Mill Is so unique, then 1t 1 is not representative or typical. If it is
 not representative of the average condi-
 tions of child labor in Alabama, it has
 nothing to do with this argument. As to | the proportionate number of little chil.
 dren in our Southern and Northern mills, | the facts have been accurately stated by
 the committee. I shall gladly send tc
 any one who may be interested, the form
 al report to this committee, of a per | sonal first-hand investigation of our con-
 da tions
 It seems to have grleved MT. Nichols
 that we should have characterized cer.
 tain unique philanthropies in connection