The age-herald., 1902-03-18
CHILDREN IN COTTON
 MILLS OF. THE SOUTH
BY ANNIE KeNpAlck WALKER.

Tie child labor question In the South has assumed such importance that the Cincinnati Post has sent special corre- spondent through the Southern States to investigate the situation. When sent out he was particularly cautioned not to exaggerate" Notwithstanding this warn ing. his statements are sufficiently start lirg. He says:
 My investigation has proved that ex- aGgeration is practically impossible for it Is difficult to imagine how conditions could be worse"
 Certainly his account of Alabama con- dltions reveal fearful state of affairs.
 After visiting North and South Caro- lima he came to Alabama. Of this state he says:
 Alabama ranks fourth among the Southern States in the manufacture of cotton. In the wholesale employment of little children she is entitled to be classed with the leaders, for the conditions that I have encountered here are by all means the worst I have seen yet.
 "I have talked with children whose names are on the pay rolls of the mills
  they are working twelve and twelve and a half hours every day at the spinning frames for 10 and 20 cents day.
 "Children of nine and ten in the mills here are common, and I have talked with several who made no claim to more than eight years of life. Their statements are verified by those in authority and l have talked with several who made no attempt worthy of the name to defend the brutal practice.
 Alabama like Georgia and other cot ton growing states, has no law compell- ing the education of her youth, ana she vies with all of them in her oppo- sition to a law prohibiting the employ ment of children of tender years. The cotton manufacturers have so far been unable to see their way clear to permit the Legislature to pass any measure on this subject. l say permit sdvisedly, be- cause Secretary-Treasurer Tanner or the Montgomery City mills, after referring to the movement in behalf of the child ren as 'sickly sentimentalism.' said that Tn the Legislature 1t was simply ques- tion of money, and as the manufacturers interests were at stake and they had money 1t was easy to determine who would win; the others Opponents of the child labor). would find themselves up against a stone wall
 "It is admitted that the defeat of the child labor bill in the last Legislature was due to the active and effective oppo- sition of the representatives of Massa- chusetts capital"
 Of his visit to Montgomery the corre- spondent of the Post says;
 q secured entrance to the Peoples mills which manufacture shooting for the China trade. In the spinning room where most of the children were employed there were one hundred and twenty-five persons or all ages employed at work. of that number between forty and fifty were chill dren less than 12 years old. Those who had ever seen a school house were rare i exceptions
 l He notices the formation of "a very strong committee that has taken up the fight against child labor"
 He quotes ex-Governor Thomas G.. Jones whom he terms lone of the strong est advocates of the measure" as say ing in an interview:
 "The statement that this Is sentimental ism, or that it is a collusive movement between trades unions and mill owners in New England is all bosh. just as is the statement that it Is a carpet bag meas ure.
 "The disgrace of child labor must go. Never again will any little two by six coterie of politicians be able to prevent the necessary legislation. Public senti- ment is aroused and Alabama will purge herself
 The correspondent of the Post notes the formation of a central committee in Georgia for the promotion of child labor legislation and quotes Hon. Hoke Smith whose brother. MT. Barton Smith Is a member of the committed. as saying when asked what he considered the most important question now confronting Geor- 1 gia:
 By all means the subject of edrcation s--------------------