Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-02-27

the New YORK tribune, III etttOi is'i
paragraph, says:
"Disquieting reports come from the south
that in many Gotten mills in that part or
the country Young children are required to
work excessive hours. An effort to regu-
late this matter properly by law was de-
feated recently in South Carolina. We have
heard a great deal of late with regard to
the successful competition of southern cot
ton mills with those in the northern states.
III New York, New England and all over
the north the employment of young chill
dren in manufactures is governed strictly
by wise statutes. If any southern cotton
mill makes larger profits than the average
of northern mills because its management Is
unscrupulous in overworking boys and girls
Its prosperity ought not to last. Perhaps
there may not be MANY such cases among
our southern friends. There should not be,
ard every southern state should pass laws
which will protect its children in the mills
as carefully as the mill children of New
York and New England are protected.
Excessive child labor should nowhere be
permitted. 1t is an unmixed evil, and on
grounds of humanity alone ought to be
abolished wherever it exists. But its ex-
istence in the south cannot safely be as
sumed by New York and New England. or
accented upon mere report in connection
with the profits the south IS drawing from
the cotton-spinnfng industries. There IS
large. and larger than those realized by
the manufacturers Of the north engaged IN
the same line of business.
The south is the proper field for the cot
ton-spinners. Ultimately and maybe lit
tie more rapidly than one might suppose.
they will all gather there. Why not? Why
pay freight on the raw material on long
haul. when a factory to receive it and work
If I'D into the finished product ought to
stand Just across the big road from the
cotton field And then the south has alum
dance of cheap steam-makng coal and her
climate is inviting for labor. She is ahead
in many things. and behind in but few, that
go to solve the great question Of manufac-
turing supremacy. Why should not her
cotton-spinners fill their pockets, without
owing over much 10 child labor. or to any
other than q legitimate cause?
And applying this same reasoning 10 the
iron trade. why should not the south work
up the whole of her ore crop within her
own borders? Why should not Little Pitts
burgs dot the states of Tennessee, Ala
bama. Georgia Virginia and West Virginia?
In time they will. Iron foundries will be
thick in those states, and no freghts on
the raw material will figure in the balance
sheets at the end of the year.
The future of the south, indeed. is in
every way bright. Her raw materials are
of the finest. Her manufacturing interests
are multiplying by leaps and bounds. But
it is only fair to say that toward the ma
tional policies which have done much
for her. and now make her prospects so
rosy, she has not only not contributed a
, thing. but has actually been clog upon
their wheel. She was the mastering ground
for the free traders when protection was
clearly her need, and she has more recently
been the hope of the free silverites when
a sound money policy should appeal to her
as strongly as to any other section of the
Union.
But she insists on seeing everything as
I through a ''nigger," darkly. The absurd
| cry about negro domination has been pro-
/ longed far beyond the time of any possible
, reason for it: and that cry is about all that
! explains her attitude of opposition TO those
/ with whom her best interests should teach
| her to make alliance.