The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-24

regiments, battalions and IL compa-
MES of cavalry, battalions and 81
companies of artillery, and legions.
There are also in the Confederate arch
ives division at Washington, the fol-
ing rolls of persons not regularly mus
tered into the service of the ConfedeT-
ate states: Reserves, 8 regiments, 8 bat
talions and p companies. State guards
II regiments, battalions and one COM
pany.'
These men were all Georgia soldiers,
some of the organizations among the
best in the service, and the rolls bear
ing their names should be copied and
the copies placed among the archives
of the state.
1 therefore urge the representatives
of the people, the sons and grandsons
of these heroes of lost cause, to give
me authority to employ some fit and
proper person at moderate salary, to
copy these uncopied rolls and to COM
File and superintend the publication in
cheap but enduring form of all the I'M
published official records of our colo
NAL, Revolutionary and Confederate
periods.
Child Labor.
AS cotton factories increase in our
state the necessity for wise legislation
on the subject of child labor becomes
more apparent and urgent. 1t is a deli
cate question to handle, and yet pres
ent conditions suggest action. That
mill owners in Georgia have taken a
broad, humane view of this matter is
evident from the fact that nearly all
of them have agreed, as I am inform
ed, on rule that seems to me to be
wise and just. No child under IL
years of age, excepting the children of
widowed mothers or parents physically
disable and without means of support
shall, under these rules. be allowed to
work in cotton mills until it has shown
certificate that it has attended school
at least four months in the year, and
no child under II years of age
shall be allowed to work at night un-
der any circumstances.
These regulation voluntarily adopted
by the mill owners in Georgia are on
the right line. While education is not
a panacea for all the evils of man
kind, and while higher education is not
indispensable in the ordinary walks of
life, education in the elementary
branches is necessary to the usefulness
and happiness of all classes of our peo-
pie as well as the operative in the fac
tory, as the merchant or the farmer,
or the mechanic and to the extent in
dictated above it should be compulsory.
ers, who, of their own accord, have
adopted such regulations as the above,
no statute for the protection of the
children of the poor and unfortunate
is necessary, but all mill men are not
so broad and unselfish, nor are the
parents of all children who are en-
ployed in the mills widows or unable
TO earn a support for themselves and
families. Some mill owners are
cruel and grasping, willing to blight
the life of a child and dwarf it's intel
lect for gain. and sometimes shiftless,
lazy, drunken parents are found, who.
to avoid work themselves and secure
the means to crafty their appetites,
are willing to impose any hardship
upon their own offspring. For all such
compulsory laws are necessary, as well
for the good of society as for the sake
of humanity. and in all such cases the
child should be put in school and pro-
tected, and the vagrancy laws should
be vigorously enforced against the
worthless parent.
Conclusion.
l have in the foregoing pages dis
cussed only some of the most impor-
tant matters that will claim your at
tention. and suggested such action as
seems to me to be expedient and nee
essary. In the course of your delibera-
tons many other things will come be-
fore you for consideration. In these.
as in those specially referred to, I will
at all times be ready to give the MEM
bers of the General Assembly such in
formation as it may be in my power to
give. and extend to each cordial in
vitation to call on me at all times to
confer about any matter in which he
or his people or the people OF the state
may be interested.