The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-11-17

conscience of those historic localities
from which so much of good has come
to our common country, we ask your
help in relation to the increasing evils
Of child labor in the south.
Our responsibility is more directly
concerned with the state Of Alabama.
1t is not responsibility which we
would in any sense evade. We would
not excuse the apathy of large num-
hers of our own people, though that
SparnS is partly due to their inexpeTi
ence in relation to the conditions of
manufacture The problems presented
by the factory are new to US. Nor
would we forget or condone the indef-
ference of certain of our legislators.
Frightened by the threat that reforms
would be followed by the alienation of
capital and by the withdrawal of in
vestments, they have hesitated to grant
what the people have not demanded.
Primarily, therefore, the guilt of this
economic and social wrong must lie at
our own doors. To the conditions of
the problem here we are addressing
ourselves with all the forces at our
command. If we bring this appeal to
New England, it is not because Ala
bama would shift the blame, but be-
cause we confidently believe that, if
you know the truth, New England will
share the task.
For the responsibility is also yours.
Such protective legislation as we once
had was repealed by the Legislature as
a concession to the demands of the
representatives of a mill, recently re-
moved from the east and operated here
by Massachusetts capital. While the
proportion Of the children under IL in
our northern and southern mills is APP
proximately the same, yet in the mills
representing northern investments, the
actual number of such children employ
ed is twice as great as the number
found in the mills controlled by south
ern capital. In the struggle for reform
legislation before the last Legislature,
the friends of the Child Labor Bill were
twice given a hearing before commit
tees. In both cases the bill was killed
In committee. In each instance the
most aggressive and effective opposi
hon came from the salaried representa-
tive of Massachusetts, Investments; and
at the second hearing this representa-
tive appeared alone, as the chosen
spokesman of all the forces of resist
Rnce.
That one or two of these mills should
be provided with library natatorium,
gymnasium and other incidents of a
spectacular philanthropy, may not OBJ
scure the fact that they are supporting
a system under which hundreds of our
little children are denied the most ele-
mentary opportunities for health and
happiness; a system representing the
conditions of compulsory ignorance; a
system which destroys the efficiency of
our future operatives by sapping the
vitalities of youth, and which-by i'm
posing upon the tender heart of the
child an environment of whirling and
deafening machinery, together with the
burdens of sustained and unnatural Ia
bor-has made a school of experience
disastrous alike to both capacity and
character.
But we know that the argument of this
question is, with the people of New
England, unnecessary; and, in the
space permitted us, impossible. We
will gladly send our literature to those
who may be interested.
OF the press we earnestly request the
publication of this appeal. If answer
to it should be attempted, we ask that
such statements may be forwarded to
this committee for consideration and
reply.
We shall be grateful to those who
may wish, to aid us financially in the
conduct of our work. But we especially
asf for something for more valuable to
any righteous cause than contributions
to its treasury. We pray Tor the aWak-
ening of public interest, and for the
quickening of that public conscience
which recognizes through the unity and
integrity of our national life, the unity
of our responsibility for the welfare of
all the people We believe that Massa-
chusetts, having defended her own chill
dren from a cruel and unnecessary in
iustrial system, will question the heart
less policy with which her capital is
using and is striving to perpetuate the
defenselessness of the children of the
south. This capital is doing here what
it dare not do at home.
Realizing, with all the peoples of the
Christ, that the protection of the little
child means the preservation of every
thing that is worth preserving, and be-
lieving that our fellow countrymen of
the north and east will unite with us
in attempting to check this exploita-
ton of childhood for the creation of
dividends, we earnestly ask your in
terest and your aid.
Oct. 1, 1901
(Rector of st. Johns Episcopal
Church, Montgomery
THOMAS G. JONES,
(Ex- governor of Alabama.)
LUCIEN V. LATASTE,
Montgomery
]. H. PHILLIPS,
superintendent of Schools, Bir-
mingham.)
JOHN CRAFT,
(Member of Legislature, Mobile)
A. f. REILLY,
(Member of Legislature, Ensley)
oo,,,r,1itfaa for. a la hama