The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-03-05
A PROBLEM OF FACTORY LIFE.

a country boarding house nearer
than the hotel. An itinerant pho
tographer was mounting his recently
taken work. Among them we noticed
a group picture and made some IN
uuiries about it. This was a group
of cotton factory hands, the night
cretc of one of the two mills in the
town.
We counted about twenty-five
boys and forty young girls, with
men and women, in the group. Ii
we are not mistaken in faces and
stature, at least twenty boys and
thirty girls are very young and sew
eral of the little girls in the fore
ground ought to be in a kindergar-
ten school, or at home playing with
dolls by day and asleep at night
rather than, at their early age, work
ing for wages at night.
This photo of the night crew of a
Catawba county cotton mill ought to
be seen by every member of the
Legislature. The photographer as
sured US that the party was dressed
up for the picture in many cases so
they do not present the every-night
appearance. Neither does it show
the oil plmples and sallow complex
ions to be seen among these opera
tives as we'll as others. The sight and
thoughts of little children working
all night ought to make Legislators
Gle awake o'nights" for thiCking of
their own responsibility in the mat
ter. 1t should not be allowed.
We wish all readers of these lines
could appreciate the full force of
Charles Reads ''Put Yourself in
His Place" in connection with these
cotton factory children.
What mother would want her
seven to ten year-old little girl to
spend eleven to twelve and a half
hours in nightly toll? And this IN,
der conditions not the best.
What does it mean to the individ-
ual? to the family? What prospects
and opportunities does it cut off?
What are the benefits? Some one is
getting rich, probably, but what of
the future of these people whose
hope of ~posterity depends on the
training and future lives of these
little ones? What interest has the
State in this business? Can this be
harmonized with the recent pledges
to do so much for the education of
the future men of North Carolina?
Money is being coined no doubt
by this practice. Parents are con
senting to a blighting of the lives of
their offspring. If the State takes
no action to prevent, it may be said
to passively aid and foster the prac.
tice, and to accept the untold respon-
sibility of the future from u degen-
Grating population.
Do we honor and make easy terms
with wealthy mill owners and leave
the helpless striplings and babes in
their innocent ignorance of the
wrong being done in robbing them
of the freedom and blessings of child
hood and the right to grow up in
free schools to young manhood and
womanhood to become the staunch
of homes and State?
The spirits of the fathers who
the Declaration of Mecklen-
burg and fought the blood-stirring
battles for freedom-whence will
come their ~uccessO to stand up
for the rights of the people at this
Where will be the se~lf-assertion of
their descendants in less than an
other hundred years? Who will an
swer these queries? Goldsmith in
''The Deserted Village" sounds the
proper alarm. Look it up and see if
your own neighborhood is falling
into decline:
''But a bold peasantry, their coun-
try's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be
supplied"
If the Legislature now in session
refuses to prohibit child labor in our
factories, let US not become discour-
aged but redOuble our efforts in be-
half of this needed reform.
The amendment finally agreed to
by Congress in regard to hazing at
West Point is as follows: The Su-
perintendent of the Military acade-
my shall make such rules, to be ap-