The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-10
4 CORRESPONDENCE
nN CHILD LABOR IN ALA
 BAMA.
An Appeal to the People and the Press of New England. With a Resulting
 Discussion.

The following address has been issued Nv a committee of representative ciuzehs of Alabama, in the interest Of phi 10 rrevent the employment in factories oI cn,,aren under twelve years of age: An Appeal to the People and fress
 of New England.
 Addressing ourselves to the public con- ~c,ence of those historic localities from which SO much of good has come to our common country, we ask your help in re- lation to the increasing evils of cblid la' bor in the South.
 Our responsibility is more directly con cerned with the State of Alabama It Is not a responsibility which we would ln any sense evade. We would not excuse the apathy of large numbers Of our own people, though that apathy Is partly que to their inexperience in relation 10 the conditions of manufacture. The problems presented by the factory are new 10 us. Nor would we forget or condone the 1n- difference of certain of our legislators. Frirhtened by the threat that reforms xvoula be followed by the alienation or rauttal and by the withdrawal of invest snenfs. they have hesitated to grant what she neople have not demanded. Primarily. xherefore the guilt of this economic ana necial wrong must lie at our own doors. ro the conditions of the problem here, We are addressing ourselves with all the sorces at our command. If we bring this appeal to New England, it is not because Alabama would shift the blame. but be cause We confidently believe that. if you know the truth. New England will share the task.
 For the responsibility is also yours. Such protective legislation as we once had was repealed by the Legislature as con- cession to the demands of the representa- tives of mill. recently removed from the East and operated here by Massachusetts capital While the proportion of the chil- dren under 12 in our Northern and Southern mills is approximately the same vet in the mills representing Northern in vestments the number of such children employed is twice as great as the number found in the mills controlled oy Southern capital. In the struggle for re- form legislation before tn last Legisia- ture, the friends of the Child Labor Bill were twice given a hearing before com mittees. In both eases the bill was Killed in committee. In each instance the most aggressive and effective opposition came from the salaried representative of Mas aachusetts investments; and. at the sec- ond hearing, this representative appeared alone. as the chosen spokesman of all the forces of resistance.
 That enc or two of these mills should he provided with library, natatorium' gymnasium, and other incidents of spec tacular philanthropy, may not obscure fhe fact that they are supporting sys- tenn under which hundreds of our little children arie denied the most elementary lpportunities for health and happiness; a system representing the conditions or compulsory ignorance; a system which de- stroys the efficiency of our future opera lives by sapping the vitalities of youth and which-by imposing upon the tenoei heart of the child an environment oi whirling and deafening machinery, to- gether with the burdens of sustained ane unnatural labor-has made a school ol experience disastrous alike to both ca pacity and character.
 But we know that the argument Of this question is. with the people of New Eng land, unnecessary; and. in the space per mitted us, impossible. We will gladly send our literature to those who may be in- terested.
 Of the press we earnestly request the