The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-27
CHILD LABOR IN THE SOUTH.

CHILD LABOR IN THE SOUTH. 1. Of late we have seen a number of state ments regarding the movement South of sons for that movement. In a recent is-t sue of The Kansas City Journal we find the following not at all complimentary editorial, but we copy 1t as showing belief which we have seen in number of contemporaries:
 The South Is gaining New England's cotton mills one by one. The owners of the mills give out in general way that their object in removing to the South Is to save freight on raw material and thus cheapen the cost of manufactured goods. There is something in that argument. Another reason, however as told by cer tain others who are in position to know. is to get into districts where children of from to 12 years may be lawfully em- ployed to work in the mills. Recent in vestigators declare that the Southern mills employ children ranging in age from to 12 years at an average wage of Il cents for fifteen hours, which consti- tutes days work.
 The moral sense of people is pretty dull when inhuman employers can openly work babies until their vitality and con stitutions are hopeless wrecss without arousing sufficient public indignation to cause prohibitory laws to be passed by the States in which the offenses are com mitted. What will be the Souths condi- ton in later years if its children are now laying the foundation for future invalid ism in order to pay dividends cn watered stock?
 This. as irtimated, Is not complimentary to our section. but, unfortunately. we are not able to deny it. It Is only too true that children are worked in the mills and F.o of lah nf States, at an age when such work is lit- tie less than murder, for it Is a partial murder of both the physical and mental child. The bright days of child life, which ought to be spent in school or at play, or a combination of the two, are in many cases spent in the foul-smelling factories, amid the monotonous whirr and rattle of machinery, where the bodies of the little ones are bent and worn with constant toll and their minds dwarfed by the continued application to their labor, and the almost entire lack of anything pleasant or exhiirating. It ought to be a crime thus to torture innocent chill dren.
 Probably there are cases where parents are physically unable to support the | family, and then the labor of the chil- dren, cruel as it seems, is necessary to prevent suffering or starvation, but such cases are exceedingly rare in Alabama, | and are exceptions to the general rule. We may resent the comments of such 1 unfriends as The KansasCity Journal. but resentment changes no facts nor does 1t l alter existing conditions. That the New l England mills are coming South IS cer- | tainly true and that they are largely in- | fiuenced by the cheapness of child labor is equally true. In New England such labor is forbidden by law, hence the | mills remove their plants to a section | which furnishes the cheapest help and
 where they can profit by weaving and | spinning the life-blood of our little ones Some weeks ago we cut out and laid away a two column editorial from The l New Bedford CMass.) Mercury, comment- | ing on some statistics furnished to one
 of the magazines by Ebert Hubbard
 and also some statements made by Mrs
 Macfedyen on the subject of child labor | i,. the South. That editorial concludes
 as follows:
 We cannot afford to wait until the | consciences of the people of the South ! are awakened. In due time the Soutn 1 vii, come to understand that higher | standard of morals and intelligence | will be required before it's material de- | velopment Tn the higher degree can be l accomplished. While Mir. Hubbard places | the blame on New England capitalists l ad1y nf | South are met with the charge that they | are in the pay of Northern capitalists | Meanwhile t Is in the power of the Ma
 tional Congress to end the slavery in the | cotton mills in the Southern States, and | representations such as those of MT, Hubbard and Mrs. Macfayden should l carry conviction which will hasten the course of the proposed Legislation.
 1 This, also, exhibits the same sectional
 bitterness displayed by the Kansas City paper, but the dominant fact intimated bS the extract Is that an effort Is on foot tC get a law through the Congress to regu
 late child labor in the South. We sa,
 fin the South because there is no inti
 nation that any such law is needed a
 the North or that 1t is expected to ap
 ply there. The long and the short of i
 is that the Federal Government is to talk
 charge of the mills and factories in Ala
 bama and South Carolina, and all othe
 Southern States where children are em ployed, regulate the hours and the pay and take general control of our indus tries.
 |. Such a law would be a direct interfer , ence in the domestic affairs of the States
 and we have little fear that there vii ever be such legislation. but we canno , be too sure of 1t. The sure and the righ way to prevent such interference witl , our domestic affairs is for Alabama an' other Southern States to do justice tt } their own people and to enact such law
 at once as will save the children iron l the mental, moral and physical degrada } ton that now threatens them. "The con z sciences of the people of the South," al The Mercury phrases it, should awaker l and act without the threat of Federal in ) tereference.
 [, In Idition to the earthquakes and pett!
 revo tions which add to the gaiety 0 life in South America, we are now tolC that they have volcano that Is growing