The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-22
SOME PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS.

SOME PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS.
 The writer, in going through cotton mills in the south, has constantly en- countered children of less than twelve years of age, and those who are only seven or eight are so numerous as to cause no particular comment. l have myself talked with several who are six years old only, and Miss Jane Addams reports having found 8 child of eight doing night work in South Carolina mill. Mrs. Irene Ashhy- -McF'ayden re- ports having talked with a boy of seven years of ago who worked for forty nights in an Alabama mill, and child not nine years old who for three years had been doing night work eleven months in. the year. The question of wages is not of the very least impor- tance, although throughout the south mill wages are on pauper scale. Adult labor is paid sixty cents to dol lar day, with but few of the workers receiving more than seventy-five cents. Child labor is paid for at from ten to thirty cents a day. The hours that these children must keep are such as no worker in a northern mill would for g. moment tolerate. The customary days work is from 5:45 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening, but the system of be- nevolent paternalism maintained in the mills, which is unqualified by any inter- ference by labor unions, and which af- lords the finest illustration of man managing his own business to suit him. self, frequently adds two hours more to this schedule. r
 Georgia is one of the most considera- ble cotton manufacturing states of the south. At the Fulton mills of Atlanta are employed fourteen hundred work people, of whom at least one-fourth are less than twelve years old. Applicants for work sign very comprehensive contract by which the company is re- lieved from responsibility for injuries sustained, and agree to give two weeks notice before leaving the employ of the company or forfeit one weeks pay, which is always held back-though all may be discharged without notice. It is a significant fact that ninety per cent. of the signatures to these contracts are made with the x mark. Certainly the children who work twelve hours day in the mills will never learn the use of the pen. Often I spoke to as they en- tered the gate one morning, two hours before daylight, not one could read or write. The secretary of the Federation of Labor of Georgia, trying to pass a child-labor bill through the last legisla- ture, brought forward five mill boys and girls, ranging in age from eight to ten years, not one of whom had ever been inside of schoolhouse or knew a letter of theNalphabet, and all of whom had worked in the Exposition mills at Atlanta twelve hours that very day. Last January visited these same mills, and was told that as a result of the agi- tation against the employment of very young children they were not employ ing any who were less than ten years ola Out of the eight hundred employ CTS there appeared to be at least one hundred who were less than twelve, and some of these said they had worked for years in the factory. One little fellow had been there five years. He had nev- CT been to school, and could not spell his name. He was one of a large fam lily working in the mill, all as illiterate as himself. As an illustration of the temper which makes 1t difficult to deal with these southern mill-owners and managers, may ba cited the utterances of the official of this mill. He said that the better mills in the state were as 8 matter of business coming to abandon the employment of very young children. I suggested that as this was the case, it would be 8 part of good business judg- ment to cooperate with those who were trying to get law prohibiting the em- ployment of young children, thus com polling all the mills to recognize the same rule Work with that commit tee?'' he asked, mot much! We will never permit any such law, upon the statutes of Georgia. Hugh Cavanaugh in the Pilgrim. every city on a railroad line for the yearly subscription price of one dollar.
 When the umbrellas rented here are left in outside neighboring cities or in different parts of New York city they eventually find their way back to the main office, and then are distributed again, according as the supply gets low and there is call for them at the va rious stands.
 As to losing them. Well, that calls for another check and one dollar, but still you have the consolation of feeling that your conscience is clear. Again, if sou'wester should catch your chute from the port side and immediately transform it into fullel-shaped thing and lift you up into space, while the crowd are giving you the laugh--dont mind again. The next morning just cheerfully bring back your derelict and get another check free of charge and another umbrella any time you may need it.
 The concern has only one rival estab- lishment at the present tine and that is the ingenuity put to practical use by the youngster of Harlem. He keeps a dozen or more at the foot of the eleva- ted road station on rainy days and loans them to you for ten, fifteen, twen- ty-five cents, or whatever you choose to rive Patterson Times