The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-17
CHILD LABOR STATISTICS.
MT. Murphy Presents Interesting
 Facts

GaCCb.
 To the Editor of The New York Herald: I thank you for the interest which you have manifested in the question of child labor at the South.
 I am especially glad, however, it that tt.ss yau aSs aSHs aTs U.hteo not Uu Wholly confined to the South; that for such evils as exist at the South Northern capital must share the responsibility, and that the South it. ieEislation which our conditions demand.
 The Southern States are thoroughly In earnest about the welfare of their chil- dren. The failure of legislation thus far has been due. not to the cupidity or the indifference of our people. but to the fact that the problems of the factory are comparatively new to us.
 In the meanwhile. however, 1t is inn possible to ignore a recently suggested analysis of the statistics on this subject These figures are taken from the records of the twelfth census Of the United States They may be verified by ref9r- page 40, of Bulletin No. 215. on Cotton Manufacture.
 No Relative Decrease Since 1880.
 Let us first take our States of the South. In 1880 the total number our cot ton factory employees was l6,74l. f these operatives 4.998, or M.5 per cent, were children under 16 years of age. Now let us take the figures for 1900-twenty years later. There were then in the factories of the South a total of SbSs employees. Of these A, 469, or 9 per cent, were cnli- dren under Is. , A
 Since 18O, therefore, we find practically no change in the relative number Of chll- progr ess of the South, commercially and educationally, the numerical status or child labor in the Southern mills indi- cates no progress whatever in this respect in twenty years
 insisted that if this grave matter was left entirely in their hands, without leg. islation, they could be wholly trust .d with the results The South for twenty years has patiently awaited the outcome of this policy of non-legislation-and with
 The failure of the policy of non-les4s- lation becomes all the more striking when the conditions at the South are noted in comparison with the conditions in ths country at large.
 had, together. 155.803 employees in their cotton factories. Of this humber N,2i3. or 15.6 per cent, were children under lo years of age. ~
 Now let us take the figures for 190O, twenty years later In the States outs ie the South the total number of the colt )n factory employees was 2O5302. Of these, 15799, or only 77 per cent, were under l6 years of age.
 Within our Southern States the chldr ,n under 16 still number 25 per cent. of all the operatives in the cotton factories. Within the States outside the south the children under 16 number, as we have seen, but 7.7 per cent. of all the opera lives.
 Sharp Reduction in Other Sections.
 While, therefore, the per centage of the children under 16 years of age shows no reduction at the South, yet in the states outside the South the per centage or children among the operatives has been reduced by more than one-haf.
 This is because the States outside Of the South have resisted the tendency or the industry to throw the burdens Of endowment upon the children and have applied the remedy of legislation.
 The Tradesman of Chattanooga, (Au- gust 15. 19R). in offering its de1ence or our factory conditions, has admitted that. inasmuch as the number of cotton facto- ries in the South has doubled since the period covered by the last census, there mately 5000 children under 16 years of aye in 1900 we find in our Alabama cot ton factories 1882 operatives all told. of whom almost 30 per cent are children under l6 years of age.
 We are thus confronted by the fact. revealed not by the agitator" or the 'sentimentalist. but by the sober, and official records of the Government Gin santatives of the mllls), that the per centaRe of children under 16 in the fac tories of Alabama is larger than tn; per centage of such operatives in any other State of the Union.
 A Conservative Proposition.
 The child labor law proposed in Ala hama would exclude from the factori 1s on,y those under 12 una Ing an excep- lion of the children of the widowed and helpless), but the law has also been framed to insure to all the operatives under IA at least twelve weeks of school ing in the year.
 Such a law. in view of the large per centage of children among the operatives and in view of the nature of the laws in other States, is manifestly conservative. If it errs at all it errs in the direction of its concessions to the policy of the mills Yet 1t has had the aggressive an- tagonism of almost all the factories in the state The opposition of the mills controlled by Northern capital has been esnecially conspicuous.
 The censsu report makes no distinc- +ions between the children under l6. so that 1t is impossible to say just how many are under F. The present agita- ton has been effective in securing the tamnorarv withdrawal from the factories of many of the younger children; but ot.erv one who has knowledge of our con 6itions is familiar with the fact that there are still many children in the mills urbo are under F. and that if the pos sthijity of legislation is averted condi-