The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-09-10
NEW VIEW OF CHILD LABOR
The Mill Presidents Ought to
Secure Uniform Laws on Pa
LriOtic Grounds.

oSS"S ouitoT" haWS on Il
triotic Grounds.
Charleston News and Courier.
Mr.. Edwin Lehman Johnson,
Memphis, Tenn, widely known col
sulting specialist in cotton seed, i
products, manufacture and uses,
spending a few days In the city, regi
tered at the Charleston Hotel. M
johnson has devoted the best years
his life to the study and pursuit of thi
calling and by close attention to busi
ness, coupled with great deal of nat
ural ability, he has established ma
tional reputation in his particular lin
of work. Mr.. johnson has man,
friends in South Carolina, having re
sided at one time in this State. A
present he is member of the Mem
phis Cotton Exchange and prominent
ly identified with the financial, com
mercial and industrial circles of th,
Tennessee metropolis.
When seen at the Charleston Hote
by a reporter for The News and Cou
rier, Mr.. johnson was asked for an ex,
preston of Lis views on the child La.
Dor question, a matter which has fol
some time beep one of the paramount
issues of the day both North aud South
but particularly In the Southern
States.
"I cannot clam any special knowl-
edge of child or other labor in the
mills, my experience having been ex-
clusively with the labor in the allied
industry of cotton seed manufacture, ;"
said the TennesseeaD. "The require
ments in this latter calling are 80 Sc
we're that none but able-bodied men
can meet them, aud have never seen
children In cotton seed mills any,
where"
"The child labor question, how
ever," he continued, {" is an economic
one of great concern to the South and
about which every Southernor ought
to have fixed opinions based on patri-
otto grounds. We will do well to for
get all Northern criticism on this mat
ter. Such criticism unhappily tends to
force US in self-defence to depreclate
tho real evil and its magnitude. The
right point of view is that we ought in
The South to bend every energy TO-
ward cultivating force, stamina and
character IN our white population, for
we are all advocates of white suprem-
acy; and at the rate the negroes are
and should advance, we
must raise up and rouse up our weaker
white brethren In order 10 keep up
with the pace. The day of the epoor
white trash has passed. We do not
want and must not have any such
class in the future.
"There is absolutely nothing in cot
Ton mill work that weakens or abuses
healthy minds and sound bodies, 1t
is as diguilied as any other labor. THAT
children can be employed at 1t at all
ls proof that 1t is nota tax upon either
mind or body. But IN this vely fact
turks the danger. Except in rare
cases child ought neither TO be COM
PEELED nor allowed to earn it's own
livelihood, still less be required to sup
port lis elders. The years of child
hood ought 10 be devoted to the de-
velopmcnt of both body and mind.
IL requires no argument 70 show that
race of men and women whose ontire
childhood has been spent in working
in cotton mills or any other mills will
be an inferior race, both physically
and mentally. We cannot afford to
have any such race in the South. The
public interest requires that our white
children should obtain even better
education than the children of the
North. They must quit the cotton
mills and go to school.
"The negro child in Georgia, South
Carolina and other Southern States is
making far more Of school privileges
than the white child. No cotton mill
employs negro children or tempts
them away from tho institutions of
learning. Our cotton mills are de-
se,vedly the most popular of all our
manufactures. They have heen fa-
vored above all othors in public conf
derce and public support. Southern
mill owners should show some appre-
citation OF this and carefully guard
against The very just reproach that
will be cast upon them if their inllu-
enco upon Southern life shall be to
lowet in mind or body the standard of
the white man, woman or child.
1t is a great surprise to me that
public spirited men like Orr, of South
Carolina, and Jordan, of Georgia,
have not taken time by the forelock
and asked the Legislatures of every
Southern State TO enact a uniform law
in all of these States upon the ques-
ton Of child laber. l believe that
chivally, patriotism, common sense
and business prudence, all dictate such
course. 1t needs only few of our
largest ami best mills to set their faces
sternly against the abuses of child la
Dor to arouse public sentiment 80 that
proper and just laws will be passed.
The exceedingly small additional profit
in child labor will deter no just man
from such course.
We want more and better cotton
mills in the South; we want them in
Tennessee and Mississippi, as well as
In the Carollnas and Georgia. We
want more Northern capital invested
in such mills. If it is generally be.
lieved that our mills make money only
because they employ child labor, and
that when child labor is done away
with such investments will not be
profitable, capital, knowing that such
laws will inevitably be passed, will be
slow to invest In Southern cotton
mills. But on the other hand, if il
can be proved, as j am confident il
can, that these Southern mills can pay
better dividends than English or New
England. mills without child labor a
| all, then capital, with absolute conf