The age-herald., 1902-02-23

. I "and he declares wisely and bravely that his officials must take their stand against the pressure of interruptions and idle | parents. His agents must resist the threat | of such parents to leave the Alabama City Mil for mills having a lower stan dard of employment. Does not Mir. Nich- | ols see that our legislation was pre- cisely directed toward ending this pres | sure towards breaking up this ignoole | com petition, and toward the preservation of the standard of employment which he professes? There could be no pressure to withdraw the children and to enter them in other mills, if such labor were eV- anywhere prohibited by statute. But we are grateful to MT. Nichols for his de- caration. And yet, Is he ignorant of the need of legislation in the state at large? His very argument is a confession Of knowledge And does he not also know that there are mills in this state which refuse home to their helpless employees, until these employees agree to put their little ones to work? If the Alabama City Mill is fairly represented by the pro- fession of MT. Nichols. why should the paid and delegated agent of that mili | labor for weeks to thwart a simple leg l islative remedy for this infamous coer- cion?'
 In Dr. Murphy's reply to Mir. Horace s.. Sears similar points are touched upon, for the latter agrees with Mir Nichols that child labor is wrong from human tarian standpoint and entails absolute loss to the mills.
 pr. Murphytakes up point by point and answers every argument directed against the importance of protective legislation. While the measures he proposes will free nf fhz etc ff fVnp h cd slavery his behalf for the little ones in the factories is based upon the argu- ments which the oppcsers of the bill seek to use in it's defeat
 The suggestions made by MT. Sears as the best methods of successfully solving the problem are based upon the Massa- | chusetts system.
 1st-Awakening a serse or parental re- accessibility so the parents will deny themselves and make any reasonable sac rifice to win an educa ton for their chill | dren.
 2nd-The enactment of a compulsory education law
 1 3rd-Its energetic enforcement.
 In reference to the committees appeal | Mir. Sears expresses himself as in doubt as to whether it is based upon ignorance or of mischievous labor agitation, or of sectional hatred.
 In discussing the compulsory education law Dr. Murphy takes the position that is hel1 by all practical persons at all familiar with the present situation in | Alabama, viz, that compulsory educa- ton is just now impossible, and that these who urge such a measure practi- oally block the ether eforni. Di. Murphy suggests that New England might find araogies in our situation, and esks if New England was solicitous for the policy of ''non-interfer ence' from outside the state, in relations to the evils of slavery.
 It appears that those In favor of the present factory laws do not wish any body outside of Alabama to take an in terest in the question of child labor. | Dr. Murphy points out that: Tn more than a generation ago 1t was argued, for l the system of slavery, that there were | good plantations upon which the slaves were well treated. The statement was true, but the argum ent was weak. The | presence of the good plantation could not offset the perils and evils of the sys- tenn in itself any more than the "good | factory can justify the system of child labor. The need for any social or econ- omic reform may never be determined from the conditions presented by the best best phases of system, but from the
 
 l the average conditions which it presents. The very idea of enforced labor for the child under twelve Is monstrous, both from a moral and an economic stand l point. The very essence of the system as 1 with the system of slavery is an error. | There can be no good child labor And the system is monstrous, not only in | principle but in results
 | Continuing Dr. Murphy writes: | 'In attempting to arrive at the 'animus' of the appeal of our committee, Mir. Sears seems inclined to attribute our statement to ignorance or to 'mischev- ous labor agitation, or to sectional hatred. Sectional hatred! And which is the more likely to induce that malignant and excuseless passion-the spectacle of the attitude of the south toward the cap- ital of Massachusetts or the attitude of the capital of Massachusetts toward the little children of the south? The fact that these are white children. and that Massa- chusetts-always soicitous for the negro should be largely indifferent to the fate of our white children, does not relieve the situation. Suppose the conditions were reversed, and that the mills of southern men were full of negro children under tweve-how quickly and how just ly New England would ring with de- nunciationl"