The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-02
tcontinu.d from Page IS.


 the whip hand over Alabamians who do not realize that 1t will not be to their advantage for stockholders who never saw Alabama, and will never spend a cent there, to gain the whole dividend and for them to lose their children's lives. 1A
 Peril of Educated Blacks and Hit
 crate Whites.
 < Some of the min owners, especially Southerners. have an uneasy precedence of this and many told me that if only the children could be in school, they would be glad for them to be there, rather than in the mill. This question assumes a still more serious aspect -1n view of the color problem of the South. The negro children are taking full ad- vantage of the educational facilities offered by the State. so that it seems as if in the great industry which Is the growing point of Alabama's prosperity, there will be generation of illiterate whites surrounded by educated negroes The best way to secure the absolutely essential leadership of the white race. is to guarantee the education of the whites.
 In Alabama there are State appro- priations which would give every child between and months schooling. Only half the children between the school ages now attend, and every child who is growing up in ignorance is actually being robbed of. a legal as we'll as moral right.
 The Child Labor, Bill.
 This secured: CD The prohibition of children wroking in the mills under F years of age. except in the sad case of their being the sole support of a widowed mother or invalid father, and in any case, not younger than 10. G) The protection of minors under Is from night work and the limitation of their hours to 60 wek. (3) An educational test of reading and writing English, coming into force year from the passage of the bill, and at least three months schooling for mill children Up to 14 years.
 The Allied Forces for the Bill.
 Tie organizations I mentioned before and even the Board of Trade. rallied to the fight. The press was full of It. The fact of the growing employment of young children was new to the public; the Sou,herners are naturally kind hearted and their sense of justice was outraged. Meetings of teachers, Husi- ness men and citizens indorsed the o.ll, whiie two well-known Jefferson County men. bers of the legislature undertook 10 introduce the bill in the Senate and House. Senator Hugh Morrow a law yer, into the former; MT. A. J. Reilly engineer for the Pratt City Mines into the latter. From a dead labor measure. 1t had become one of public concern. Petitions in favor of the bill poured in from Birmingham and from some Of 0fh towns. Huntsville.
 In Montgomery, the Ministers Union which had decided upon action on the matter, before I appeared upon the scene, took up the cause warmly. The foremost women. both privately and in their clubs. gave it their support; the press, even that part of 1t generally antagonistic to organized labor, gave columns to the discussion of 1t and to interviews with me. The humanita- rian and community aspect of the mat ter swept away prejudices, and the society and religious lion lay down with the labor lamb. .,
 The Lobby Against the Children.
 Promising as things loked from one point of view, we were aware that powerful forces were pitted against us. Two able lawyers were employed by the mill interests to crush the bill. A great effort was made to induce me. while in Birmingham. to drop the child labor bill and work instead for the compulsory education bill alone. The first. I was told. was a lost cause, the second might be won if the bills were not coupled and so fought together by the mill interests. I dared them to oppose the latter in view of all the mill men had said. to me about edu-
 Gn. iv1fn In press I emphasized the fact, that if they fought it, they would prove them selves unworthy of a hearing or con- sideration. The child labor bill l absolutely refused to drop. Even prominent trade unionist was persuad- ed to try and make the Trades Council and myself accede to this move of the opposition, which was a ruse to prevent the agitation and dissemination of knowledge on the subject
 The Fight at Montgomery.
 Immediately upon the reopening of this legislature on January 29 steps were taken to get the child labor bill before the committed at all early date. From the first there was not the shadow of a chance for it. The awak- ening of interest Lad begun too late. for there are many in Legislature who care nothing for public opinion after the seat in that body has been secured. From that moment, politics to the majority is game of deals. and. if the deals are in human souls, so much the worse for the souls. I paid less heed than I should have done had I understood affairs as I do now. to the ridiculous rumor set sfloat by the lobby that I was the paid agent of the East ern and English mills sent to make trouble in the cotton industry This and the fact of my being English and woman, telling the people of Alabama things about their own State that they might have known were used to create prejudice against me and to overshad- ow local interest in the matter. In spite of this, many of the legislators after talking to me were prepared at the end of a week to regard the bill as of real importance should 1t come be- fore the House. To prevent this. every effort of tfie ISbby 1was directed
 A nStadmch Supporter.
 The real hero of the fight was MT. Reilly. As engineer and superlntend- ent for a big corporation, with, inn