The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-22

but part of an attempt to block a re- form which is possible, by the safe pro that the effort is simply neat and ef- fective element in the diplomacy Of estop- pei.
 Is the suspicion totally unfounded? I do not doubt that, in the hearts oi some, the proposal is sincere. Those who are not face to face with our local condi- tiers. may think compulsory education a Epractical alternative. But that the. rep- resentative of the cotton mill, the repre- sentative of the system of child labor in this State. should sincerely advocate policy of compulsory education. is some thing which many of our hard.headeo, sensible people cannot understand These people are confronted not merely oy few exceptional mills, but by the aver age conditions of the child labor system. They see little children under F, some. times as young as 6. working eight ana twelve hours a day-sometlmes sent into the mills at night; they see the burden and the wretchedness of this system, ana they cannot see how a man who Is idenA tined with such conditions can he sin- cefely an advocate of the system of com puisory education--and for the very ob- vious reason that he himself, in support ing the child labor system of Alabama: is manifestly supporting system or compulsory ignorance.
 Responsibility of Massachusetts
 But" Mir. Sears may say. it Is not | ditons Our mill Is a good mill The claim cannot stand. I am not prepared to charge the darkest conditions upon the mills controlled by Massachusetts. but I do contend that when the representa- lives of the Massachusetts mills, upon their own published confession. unite In public opposition to legislative reform TOT our abuses. when they themselves con of children under 13.> and whom they are actually employing hundreds or such children. then they are, nor ally responsible for the general eyns must have the aid of the lay. not pris, martlv for the good mill but for the bad | mill, just as every community neeus ! law against theft not to protect h rom the honest but from the dishonest. | am m personally of the opinion that there IS no 1 mill on earth good enough to be permit. 1 ted to work a little child under 12 years | of age but If there be such mill ana if that mill be controlled by brave ana ana to avert the pitiable nhisfortunes of the | many.
 New England might find analosies in our situation. Was New England sonci. | from outside the State, in relation tu the evils of slavery? Yet Mir. Nichols and I Mir Sears do not wish anybody outside of Alabama to take an interest Tn the local question of child labor! More than a generation ago 1t was argued. for the | system of slavery, that there were good plantations upon which the slaves were | well treated. Tho statement was true' but the argument was weak. The pres ence of the good plantation could not oft- | set the perils and evils of the system in | itself. any more than the good factory l can justify the system of child labor. fhe | need for any social or economic reform | may never be determined from the con- | ditions presented by the best phases of q system, but from the essential genius of | the system, and from the average con litions which it presents. The very idea | of enforced labor for the child under F | is monstrous, both from moral and an 1 economic standpoint. The very essence of the system. as with the system of slay- cry. is an error. There can be DO good child labor And the system is mon- strous, not only in principle but In re- suits.
 One Question of Fact.
 Mir. Sears Is sure that VIC have exag- l gerated the evil of these results. 1 would respectfully ask. Who are most likely to make aceurate report of the Fesults-Mr. Sears and Mir. Nichols, living in Boston and directly interested in the system they defend. or a repreeentative eOnlmittee et seven men who are pSss.ns nS SnslI ssr.nS,si mTsI connection whatever, direct er Indirect, with the system they attaeks Among these men are Dr. Philips, the sNpertH- tendent of Public Schools at Btrmina- | lately selected by President Roosevelt for the Federal bench (although a Demo: cratl upon the ground of his breadth or ieaFnins, hts ssertgs integrity s"S S,rS. n,s ly necessary for Mr, Sears. to accuse suef men of sentimental heFoics or to eN, hort such men ''to cultivate q calm and judicial mind and to study ths sit9anon with intelligence and wise diserimtha ' Another question of Fact,
 Let us take another of the Issues of fact, Mir, Scars. in urging eompuisory education law and tn opposition 10 a shid .SS0. law SseSrsS norsIhls pSrs sSssUFs G brought to bear to set the children into school. but many will not go at all O
 their own volition. neither VIII nell parents always require 1t. The impress sion is created even upon the mind Of the editor of The Leader Gin whose large heartedness l have every conndence) tna' present conditions are better than they would be under the law proposed by th' Committee. This rather ignores the fact that the law proposed by the Committee had an admirable educational provision as good a provision as we thought Il
 possible to pass. But is It true that these children are stubbornly opposed tc education: Conditions vary. No man eaI speak for the children of every mill IT Alabama. Yet. as Mir. Sears has told about the children in one factory, VII
 tell of those In another. The mill Is less than twenty miles from my study, There are about seventy-flve children in 1t, They are worked twelve hours out of twenty
 four. from a. m. to 6:30 D. m, allowing half hour for dinner. Last year they
 were refused a holiday, even on Thanks
 giving. A night school, taught by Volun'
 teers, has been opened near them thrOugf those whom MT. Sears has called we'll
 meaning but ill-advlsed humanitarians I have watched the experiment with some hesitation. because the teaching is req teaching and I am not\sure that any child after twelve hours of work. shoule be bothered with much of an effort al education. But fifty children out of the seventy five, are docking into this school voluntarily, eager to learn. and disap' pointed when the crowded session Is brought to its early end. Now. whicf law is most needed by these children-a provision for compulsory education or 4 provision which will strike at the sys- tenn of compulsory ignorance surr0und- ing them; which will close for them the door of the mill and open to them the opportunities of knowledge by daylight
 Says Mir, Sears I've know that they wild In the streets and fields, exposed to rant, idle and vicious citizenship" Mir Sears seems to miss the point, He seems to forget that our legislation is directed simply toward the protection of the free dom of children under l2. In view of this cardinal fact, 1 may suggest. in the words of Mir Sears himself. that his language
 'seems just a little strained" What are the perils of vice Tn the fields" or even | fin the streets of our rural South tuI