The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-01
Letters to the Editor.
Child Labor in Cotton Factories.

so express himself on the subject or Child Labor." The article in question is illogical, satirical to the verge or cruelty, and it is difficult to believe that it could have emanated from the pen Of one around whose knee little children or his own have played.
 Sickly sentiment and affected philan- thropy are as disgusting to sincere public as to the venerable doctor. hut we fail to understand how it is possible to find false sentiment or boastful beneNo- lence in the earnest efforts of the devoted men and women, who. without money and without price, have been seeking to ameliorate the condition of the infant serfs of the Alabama cotton mills
 These noble workers, male and female Dr. West charges with lobbyism, when It is we'll known that at the last session of the legislature at which the child labor question was agitated, the mill men of Alabama sepnt hundreds of dollars using every avenue of influence they could control in order to prevent legislation in the matter. The selfish object of the manufacturer is apparent, but the de- lenders of Child Labor Reform, without bribery or lobbyism, work for class that cannot pay fees, for cause on which many of the wealthy frown. for the sake of the tortured children of the factory poor
 Yet the doctor cries in what is intended to be a fine flight of sarcasm, but which is only too sadly true, How cruel IS avarice in a cotton factory, infancy, help less infancy, how helpless is infancy in cotton factory!'
 Next the doctor marvels that the cot ton mill should be singled out as an obJect for legislation prohibiting the working Of children, and he explains that it is not the only place where children get be- grimmed with dust, where avarice exacts cruel tasks This we of course know to be true, yet in eliminating evil we have to take the hydra heads of the monster one at a time. looking to the day when a greater than Hercules shall arise ito to sever them all at bow; but now we must take the worst first. AS one who was born and reared in town of cotton factories, l honestly believe that outside of the lowest slums of the great cities there does not exist on this conu- nent a more deplorahle and hopeless phase of child life than that found in Southern cotton factories.
 I have in mind one mill. an example of the better class, a> mill said to be one of the most perfectly equipped in the coun- try This factory employed at the time l knew of its workings about 600 opera tives. of this number fully one-siXth were under the age of fourteen, ranging from that down to seven or eight. lheS worked from 6 o'clock in the morning to a quarter past in the evening. winter and summer, with thirty minutes at noon. a period too brief to permit of their leav- ing the mill, in an atmosphere laden with cotton lint, too warm and humid even for adult lungs, and amid the incessant and deafening roar of ponderous machl- nery.
 Is it to he wondered that initiation into such a life- at the tender age so many of the little ones enter, should dull the intellect. deaden the faculties and en- feeble the frame? In few years adapta- ton to any other mode of life becomes an impossibility, and the innocent chlia Is fettered to life of dark ignorance ana poverty.
 As little one in this same mill once nathetically said on a cold winter day: "Tt's dark when we go to work. and it's dark when we come out. and | sighed to think of the dark, dark days looming ahead of that little life. and marveled at the inhumanity of man.
 And tEe doctor surrounded by his books. free to walk in Gods blessed sun shine every day of his life. in touch with the highest education of the day, with hours of leisure for study and re- creation derides with biting sarcasm the fearful philanthropist' who will be in attendance at the next General Assem- bly,"
 All honor to tears that flow for such cause, and blessed be the tender conn passion that would appeal to the men and fathers of. the Alabama Legislature Tor mercy for our factory children.
 But the doctor says. This is class leg islation. Such legislation is not ap- nropriate in a Christian country; is not allowable where intelligence exists, and where high ideals nf personal rights are recognized" So might the drunkard ex- claim when his dram Is denied him, or the opium victim when the druggist re- fuses to sell him the baneful narcotic.
 In the next breath he exclaims, ''Par- ents have rights to maintain and duties to perform. They are entitled to love and obedience from their children. and are in duty bound to feed, clothe, pro tect and educate their children. They have complete control of them. Among other things they are under obligation to teach them to work" In all of these do we agree, and in none does the cotton
 
 encourages worthless fathers in shirkirg the maintenance and education of their children. and instead of teaching them to work. blunts their .ntellects and enfee- bles their frames to such a degree as to make all but the simplest and most me chanical labor an impossibtlity
 '"The Divine Right of Parents" like the "Divne Right of Kings rests upon ba- sis of reciprocity, and it is with the un- faithful parent as with the unfaithful King if unworthy or unqualified to keep the trust, the State must deal with him.
 Only a heather would deny the duty of the child to assist an unfortunate father or a widowed mother, but the cotton fac tory. like some soothing opiate, appears to relieve the trouble, but if persisted in will eventually deform and kill; so the child while furnishing a meager contri- button to its parents needs is wrecking it's own physical and mental maturity. and deprving them of stalwart support in old age. The child Is the ward of the nation, and the nation must protect h!lr.
 If this matter has been of sufficient mo- ment to awa' | England to legislate against it, it ohOoves wide awake America to rui from her seeming apathy and act. or We shall merit the ac- cusation brought against us as worship CTS of the Golden Calf Let beef and pork and iron and oil trusts be formed if we must havr his order of things, but spare the children from feeding the merciless nav of the Golden beast.
 Mary N Moore
 Birmingham, Sept. 27, 1902
 Canebrake Irrigation.
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