The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-02
MISS ASHBY WRITES OF FIGHT
 MADE AGAINST CHILD LABOR.

so small that they need boxes to stand on to reach the roping.
 Twelve Hundred Young Children in Alabama Mills.
 In the 25 mills, of which have sta tistics. there are 6,I25 operatives, about 100 being children under F years of age. On the same basis of calculation, there are about 900 in the State. an es- timate below, rather than above, the actual number. as 1 only corrected the managers statements in cases where I was able to count personally a larg- CT number than they told me, To these must be added the children who come in to help their elder borthers and sisters who are not counted or paid as workers, although they often do a full days work for the fun" of it. This w2sld bring the number near CT 1,20O. The per centage to older workers of the children on the pay roll Is between six and seven.
 No difference is made between hours by night or by day of the children and grown up people. These hours are from 12 to l2 1-2 day. averaging 66 a week. with but one-half hour. or 70 minutes break for meals. Mills which run at night generally work 12 hours. sometimes with no break at all. Only one mlil l NlSiteu WdS dCtudly running at night (50 operatives on the night force. with three or four under 12 years of age and quite a number under 16 years of age) One mill kept a night force at hand. giving only five days work per week to the operatives, by alternating a larger numbey than they actually needed for. the day work; while four mills had stopped at vari- ous periods during the preceding year. One had only tried the experiment for six weeks when stopped peremptorily by the superintendent.
 For these long hcars the children stand or run with trucks or wearily ply broom bigger than themselves. No wonder their faces lose the child ish look. their little limbs all vitality and spring. During my visits to the mills. the words of Mrs. Browning, about similar little victims in Eng land. were often in my mind:
 'rhey look up wi.h their pale and
 sunken faces
 And their look is sad to see'
 Young Human Bait fr for Capitalist
 Fish.
 Ones indignation at such a wrong to childhood rises to fever heat when we learn that these 200 little white slaves (worse off than the negro child in days of slavery, who, being worth some hun dreds of dollars. was allowed to devel- op into healthy animaD, are sacri- feed to commercial superstition, and not even to real or fancied necessity Jf the industry. Huge fortunes were made in England and the North at the beginning of the trade by the employ ment of children. and 1t is the supersti- ton that this can be done again, fos- tered by the Northern capitalist in the inexperienced Southern manufacturer, which Is responsible for the employ ment of children in the cotton mills of the South. Out of II practical super intendents to whom I talked several being from Massachusetts or Pennsyl- vapia, 10 confessad that doing away with labor of children under 12 years of age would benefit. rather than harm, the industry. They are wasteful workers. need much supervision, and mofeover are spolit as operatives for the future by the destruction of their health. ,e->a Northern Capitalists Destroy South
 ern Children.
 My observation with regard to the Northern capitalists is borne out by facts. It was at the instigation of the philanthropic Dwight mills, from Chicopec, Mass, run by Eastern capi- tai. whose village at Alabama City commands admiration" that a law limiting the hours of labor of women and children to eight and prohibiting the employment of children under IA in factories. was rescinded in tSy5.
 In the ten mills I visited run by Northern capital, the number of chill dren under F Is almost double the number in the 13 run by Southern capital. No condemnation can be too strong for those who, protected in their own States by laws securing the health, education and physical develop ment of those who are to be their fel- 'ow citizens, deliberately induce an in- experienced set of men to enter upon a course of self-mutilation in the Der sons of their little children by mlsrep- resentation, and (as shall show, poli- tical corruption. in order that they may secure present wealth. The pre- iudices, fears and ignorance of the local manufacturers are cleverly played upon.
 Many Refuse to Recognize the Ser
 pent in Their Eden.
 Out of fifteen managers, six were en- tiEely opposed to any protection. These gentlemen were rather proud than otherwise of knowin~ nothing of the history of the trade economically not having heard that recent statistics show child labor to be economically harnful. Some of them were con vincedNthat Alabama was Paradise, and that whatever, experience the rest cf the world might have had in the mat ter, every Alabama Hill Billy was an incerruptibly peEfect parent, and was the best judge in every case as to what was best for his child, while in this country of perfect freedom compulsion on the part of corporal ti Jns was an impossibility. To interfere with the right of the parent to sulde the life of his child was 'paternalism. D Yet these same gentlemen would tell me of parents who would not work themselves. but at the end of the week, fortnight, or month would draw their children's earnings and spend it on liquor or tobacco.
 Of the nine other managers, one was resigned to legislation, which he knew to be inevitable. desiring only to put of the "evil day. as long as possible. Two were in favor of 1t, should 1t be- come the Ia~ in all the Southern States Ca point to which I shall return). Four were fully in favor, believing it to be for the good of the trade, as well as simple justice to the operatives; and two were in favor of it some time, but not yet. Wait until the industry is established, Is their plea; yes, estab- lished founded on the undoiig of help less little ones, comparatively useless