Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-04-17

cents ud.
Children of 9 and 10 in the mills
here are common. and 1 talked with
several who made no claim TO be
more than eight years of age. Their
statements were verified by those in
authority, who made no attempt
worthy of the name to defend the
brutal practice. Alabama, like
Georgia and other cotton growing
states, has no law compelling the edu-
cation of her youth, and she vies with
all of them in her opposition to law
prohibiting the employment of chill
dren of tender years. The cotton man
ufacturers have so far been unable
to see their way clear to permit the
| legislature TO pass any restrictive
measure on this subject. | say per
nit" advisedly, because Secretary
Treasurer Tanner of the Montgomery
City mills, after referring to the move
ment in behalf of the children as
''sickly sentimentalism," said that ''in
| the legislature it was simply a ques-
ton of money, and, as the manufac-
! turers' interests were at stake and
they had the money, it was easy to de-
termine who would win; the other Top
ponents of child labor would find
themselves up against a stOnewall"
| 1t is admitted that the defeat of the
child labor bill in the last legislature
was due to the active and effective
| opposition of the representatives of
Massachusetts capitalists, who are in
terested in Alabama cotton mills. Re-
ferring to the means resorted to in de-
| feating this bill, citizens committee
of which Rev E. G. MURPHY is chair
man and ex-Gov. Jones, a member,
made the statement that Mas
sachusetts capital is doing here what
it dare not do at home
| secured entrance to the Peoples
mills of Montgomery, which manu-
| facture sheeting for the China trade.
In the spinning-room, where most of
the children are employed, there were
125 persons of all ages at work. OF
that number between 40 and so were
children less than II years old.
Those who had ever been in a school
house were rare exceptions. In this
room | saw boys and girls so small
that their efforts to perform their
work were absolutely pitiful. In
reaching up to join the ends of the
broken threads they were obliged to
strain and stretch every muscle and
sinew of their frail bodies and some
were so small that they were com
PEELED to stand on their tiptoes. This
was repeated every five minutes or
oftener for u long hours. l called
the foreman's attention to several lit
tie ones who | was sure could not be
over six years old and was told they
are not working" which meant that
they were not on the payroll, but
were helping the parent or older
brother or sister, or learning the ma
chimes, so as To be able to take their
place in the mill.
In the cotton mills of Georgia the
condition of the children was almost
as bad. Children ranging in age
from less than 10 years upward are
working 1914 hours a day for as low
7
! brought up in the mill, lying in i'm
provised cribs behind their toiling
mothers faces and long before they
can lisp the name of mamma" The
work of the little children is largely
confined to the spinning-room, where
unremitting attention is required in
stead of muscle or ripper intelligence.
The children have to be on their feet
almost constantly and always on the
watch for broken threads. The doors
and windows are always kept tightly
! closed and, as result, the air is bad
and filed with flying particles of cot
ton. The majority of the children
employed at the spindles are girls,
and the effect of the long hours of
work and being constantly on their
| feet is especially noticeable on their
| health. The health of the children is
! affected in more ways than one, and
their growth and development are
stunted. The general rate of pay is
10 cents day for one side of frame
The child is paid nothing for the two
or three weeks that it takes to learn
to do the work. When the little one is
able to watch one side of frame she
is put on the payroll and is entitled to
draw coupons good at the company's
store against her pay. After two or
three months she may be able to at
tend to two sides, and then she gets
20 cents a day. By the time she is
16 or II years old she may perhaps be
able to take care of four or five sides,
if she makes good progress.
CROUCH to present gold medal to
In one mill in Alabama the Post
correspondent picked up small tod
dler, not over three or four years old,
who evidently knew NO other play
, ground than the mill floor Here he
appears every morning before 6
O'Clock with his mother and sister, a
girl about II years old. The mother
and daughter, besides attending to
their duties in the mill, keep a watch
full eye on the baby as he plays about
on the floor,
4 Is 4