The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-22
ONE POINT OF VIEW
BY THE REV. EDGAR GARDNER MURPHY. Relating Subjects Discussed
 should Be to MT Murphy
 

G Communications Relating to Suble 4 Should Be Addres G=. sss$.sssss = ss sss S%a esa The Alabama Committee on the sub ject of Child Labor consists of ex-Goy- ernor Thos. G. Jones, MT. Gordon Mac donald, ~Mr. Lucien V. LaTaste, and the writer. from Montgomery; Dr. J. H. Phil lips2 the Superintendent of Public Schools at -Birmingham; Mr. A. J. Reilly mem Der of the Legislature. from Ensley; and MT. John Craft, member of the Legis- lature. from Mobile.
 The readers of The Advertiser are fa- niliar with the appeal which the Com mittee has recently addressed to the peo- ple and the press of New England. We did not wish to get New England to in- tertere with Alabama, save in the sense that we wished to get New England to interfere with what her own men are doing. The employment of children IS prohibited at the North, and so, there are mauy men who have come here. and are doing here what they cannot and dare not do at home..
 Child Labor Discussion.
 The appeal of the Committee has put the facts before the people of New Eng land and they are awaking to sense of their responsibility. MT. J. Howard Nichols attempted to reply to the Com mittee, and this reply and my rejoinder have appeared in The Advertiser. The resulting judgment of papers like The Springfield Republican and The Outlook is that the position of the Committee has been strengthened by Mir. Nicholas et- fort to weaken it. Mir. Horace $. Sears. another we'll known New England mill man, comes to the support of MT. NIGH ols. His letter has appeared in The Monthly Leader of Boston, and the tSdi- tor has asked me to reply. As am tolo that my answer to this gentleman VIII be of public interest in Alabama in- eiude it in this department, as my eou'' n,unicaticn for the current week. My rejoinder is as follows;
 Reply to MT. Sears
 A number of the considerations pre- sented by this recent letter have al- ready delt with in my reply to MT '' Howard Nichols. There are, however few additional suggestions in the let'eF
 He contends that. while the employ ment of little children '1s not only Wrons from a humanitarian standpoint ana eh- tails ahsolute loss to the mil' yet Aia- bama should not provide any legislatlVe protection for her children under lz, uil- iii the State can be won to the aocep.- ance of compulsory education iaW. III other words. we are not to atteInpI possible reform. until we nave uts "- 2. cured another reform which every prac- tical man in Alabama knows IS Just ho" impossible. ,.
 But, granting that MT. Sears is right, and admitting that MassachuseLts may fairly labor to defeat one method or re- form because Alabama will not adopl another, Is Mir, Sears really reaoy IoI his rcffredy? Not by any means. II our Executive Committee should adopt ms advice. should abandon It's own conSep ton of the craftsmanship of the situa- tion, and should join the manuIactuFers in first insisting upon comprehenslVS scheme of compulsory educauon. Wouiu the forces represented by MT. Sears stand hy the compact? Not for moment. fit is quite frank in his dlsaVowal Of any such intention. Says MT. sears, Any eompufsory education law which IS pass ed, however. should be operative onlS upon the passage of similar laws oS sns States of Georgia, South Carollna ana North Carolinat'
 This enthusiasm for reform-only on condition that all the rest or the world 1 will reform too, is very familiar 10 tne ! students Ot ecOnOT1lC pTOStSSSs S|NNA hi (ieorGta aud the Carolinas sone of the l mi! men are claiming that they ara l only waiting upon Alabama. And there l you are.
 An Unfounded Suggestion
 The suggestion from Mir. Sears that the members of our Committee were not
 present at the legislative hearings las winter is, i think, unworthy of this dis cussion. If MT. Sears was there him self. he knows that one of the members nf our Committee was Chairman or tht Legislative Committee of the lower under consideration. that he presided al the public hearing on this bill given bS the joint Committee of both Houses and that he was personally in charge ol the compulsory educatLon plii Wnlcn mI si, Sears claims to have favored); that the ! writer of these lines appeared m behail i of the ChIld Labor Hill at both hearings i that those who fought our Child Labol Jaw selected. as the most prominent mar : in Alabama whom they could get to op | pose us. the States most conspicuous op 1 ponent of compulsory education; and tha the representative of Massachusetts Tn vestments who so vigorously fought th' | proposed legislative protection Of ou | children, took no part whatever in tn public discussion of the bill for compul
 Moreover, MT. Sears neglects to stat l that the compulsoryye education law, whicf
  1 ported. owed it's origin not to Massachu l setts nor to theS mills, but to the sam' devoted woman whom Mir. Nichols con demns as "a skilful female labor agitato imported from England" which descrin ton MT. Sears approves! In other words | the very remedy which MT Sears Sug
 gests with such commendable unction wa offered to Alabama not by the forces o , Massachusetts nor by the mills, but b.
 the forces which Mir. Sears has so per
 sistently oppoed and which he venture
 to charge with sentimental heroics."
 At the hearings upon the cOmpulsor
 education bill 1 was not personally pres ent for realizing the practical futility c placing our dependence upon the practi cal cooperation of the mill men. knev the bill was doomed. But other member of our Committee were untiring in itt 1 support and had the mill forces eXpend 1 ed one fifth of the energy in favor of thi' i bill that they expended in opposition tt | our Child Labor Bill the compulsory ed ! u, tion measure might at least have beer put upon its passage.
 A Reasonable Suspicion.
 In the face of such facts and in thu i face of all the convenient conditions sug Ecstcd, under which "any compulsory cd ucation law should be made operative l only upon the passage of similar law l by the States of Georgia, south Caroline 1 and North Carolina. it is not strang' l that suspicion should hg abroad and tha
 some of our reform forces should have Ion Rfss arNw