The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-09-05
correct. sinks, by comparison, into

while numerically only about one
third OF the total number of mills have
reported still the majority Of the impor-
tant ones have replied and every sec
ton is represented, but even granting
that the ratio of those not heard from
were considered pro rata there would
still be no evidence that there were
more than 5000 children under Il yea
Of g employed in these states. though
it has been variously estimated that
there were between 5000 and 10000"
Among the conclusions drawn by The
Tradesman from the information so Sc
cured are the following:
I'VE are firmly of the opinion that
h policy of managers of great mills
in the south is, and has been for sever
al years, to exclude children under II.
This conclusion, We think, will be reach
ed by all who the exhaustive evil
dence produced elsewhere.
S far are the mill owners and man
ayers from trying to keep the mill chill
dren out of school, that they have ex-
pended many thousands Of dollars 20
provide school facilities for those chill
dren and many of the managing direc-
tors and presidents of mills favor
strongly a compulsory school law that
would force the parents in the mill
towns to give their children eight or
AAAAA~ III SNAAOOiiL6 COLL ytol. &AoAl
of the di~rectorates in the Carolinas do
not employ illiterates, who are above
10 a old, IL they can avoid doing so.
The managers seem to have a lively
sense of the value of education for mill
operatives, n do all they can to pro-
mote ambition for learning among both
parents and children in their service.
Our Inquiries have satisfied us that,
under proper regulation of honors, a
VOIlth over ID iG NOT injured hv Un-E-
ing in a well warmed and ventilated
cotton mill; n our southern mills are
generally models of construction, in
every particular; the health OF the
worker being especially attended to in
the provision of scientific appliances for
circulation, sprinkling, etc. Here is as
good a place as any to note the fact
that not a single specific charge of high
death rate among mill hands, young or
adult, in the south, las been made Ali
are, after the style of Mr.. Ebert Hub
bard, vaguely general on this and all
other matters of detail.
I'VE have been shown that scores of
southern children who began as bob
bin boys in southern mills, are now
lusty, vigorous fellows, well on in their
thirties and holding places as oVerSeerS,
managers, mill presidents. Our repre-
sentative saw the bevieS Of girls and
crowds of boys, ranging from IL to is
years of age, going home from the
mills at the end of their days work,
jolly, laughing, singing, betraying every
sign of high health and spirit.
w would not say we believe there
a been no abuse attending the en-
ployment of child labor in southern cot
ton mills. There is wrong, of course,
but it is confined almost entirely to the
small, outlying mills. located where
help is scarce and the mill owners striv-
ing to make big profits on small invest
mentS. The aggregate of serious abuse
is small, trifiing, a very petty thing
compared to the benefit of the mills, as
a whole, have been to the poor white
of the south. We doubt if a
single mill has not done more to ad-
vance the grade of intelligence and in
crease the enjoyment of the workers,
than it has lone in the opposite direc-
ton.
1--WE would favor, first, laws regulat-
ing juvenile b in southern cotton
mills; and those laws we would supple
with laws making school attend
ance compulsory, not less than SIX
months of each year, for all children
6 and II years of age. The
most advanced and enlightened manag-
ers of great mill properties strongly
urge that a law to keep the tender child
of the mill can do little or no good,
unless there shall also be a law to keep
him in school,"
Now you have the two sides of the
question. Which will you take to be
the correct one, tina of the New Eng
landers who know little or nothing
about the matter or of this Chattanooga
editor who has so thoroughly posted
himself on the facts? Notice that he
does not deny all charges of abuse of
child labor, blu admits that some does
exist. 1t seems to US he has handled the
matter fairly and honestly, without
prejudice or favor, and we hope the
same spirit of fairness and desire for
full information will actuate those of
our state interested in securing legisla-
ton on the subject when they prepare
their statements and arguments for &C
ton by the next legislature. There is
no doubt hat the matter will be
brought before it and urgent demand
made for legislation, and we believe
there will be some action taken by that
body, as there should be-but only after
full knowledge of the facts and condi-
f;o-e