The Washington times., 1902-04-28
Child Labor in Factories.

The governor of New Jersey has
had his attention called to the fact
that children of tender years are
working in glass factories, against
the law and very much against
the interests of the home, and it
is refreshing to find that he in
tends to stop this practice if it is
a possible thing. He says that he
means that every child in the
State shall go to school at least a
part of the time, and that the con-
ditions in question shall be inves-
tigated at the earliest possible
day.
The trouble seems to be that
most of the people who thus con-
denim their children to long hours
of labor and to future illiteracy
are foreigners, and desperately
poor. 1t is hard for them to do
without the extra money which
tie child brings in. There is moth
ing abhorrent to them in the prac-
tice. and il is difficult to explain to
them wherein they are doing their
children harm.
This question of the labor of
women and children in factories Is
one which will have to be settled
for good before long. The fight
over the same problem occurred in
England some seventy-five years
! ago, and settled il for all time
there. Now we are encountering
almost exactly the same condi-
tions. with few complications, in
this country.
Though the two are usually
bracketed together. from the fact
that both compete with mems Ia
Dor, women's work and that of
children come under different
heads. The objection to women's
work in various departments of
industry will probably have to be
overcome unless the whole factory
system is to be destroyed. Women,
except those who are married and |
have small children needing their
care. are likely to form a perma-
nent factor in the Industrial !
world. as, in fact, they have al
ways done. The difference is that |
hundred years ago woman
could engage in n variety of man
ufactures at home and thereby |
earn or save some money, and now
she cannot. Her work pays better
nowadays when done outside the
home: il used to pay better when
done in the home. Almost all the
former home Industries have dis
appeared. and they are going to
stay disappeared. unless there
should be a reactionary movement
tending to the distribution of
work prepared in the factory to be
done at home.
Child labor is an entirely diff
ferent matter. A factory girl
of from sixteen to twenty-five fills
n definite place in the social econ
omy: she is self-supporting, as she
could not be at home; she learns
business habits and the care of
and she generally marries
quite as soon as her sister in the
more sheltered life, and on the
whole. perhaps. as well. But in
The case of children under sixteen
Generalization takes place. Their
physical growth is stunted; they
'OhpnSe 'hiious uischSSs, moral |
md physical; they are deprived Of
and thereby become the
dangerous factor which illiteracy
Ilways Is In the State. and they
ompete with the labor of adults.
o that wages are lowered and the
york cheapened in quality, for it
tands to reason that q child of
en- does not give as intelligent
ervice as a boy of eighteen or
wenty. The whole business is
'rong. and there is dire need of
sgislation on the subject. The
lws should be so framed by rails
,g the age limit that they cannot
e evaded. At present children Of
IN are in the factory, the parents
them twelve. If the age
nit were sixteen the child would
ave a chance to get its growth.
nd unless remarkably mature
ould not be foisted upon the in
pectors at the age of thirteen or
,urteen. Above all. inspection |
hould be rigid and the laws |
Mould be strictly enforced,