Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1902-05-11


with the consent of American officers,
and the administration has made it
plain that all infractions of the rules
of war that may have been committed
by United States troops will be punish
ed. But the thin basis for all this out
cry on the behalf of Samar savages
serves the Tillmans and Carmacks for
airing their own benevolence. 1t has
been pointed out that the hostile Fill
pinos are treated with less cruelty than
is often visited upon the negroes of the
south. But Tillman protests that it is
not a fair comparison to bring in the
negro for consideration, and he Shrek
ed in the senate on Wednesday when
we get ready to put a nigger's face in
the sand, we put his body there, too
Fair minded republicans do not wish
unnecessarily to obtrude the race ques-
ton of the south. 1t is recognized that
the southern people have a painful
burden, and must work out a most diff
ficult problem. But, waving the ques-
ton of the relative deserts of traitorous
amigo devils in the Philippines and
law breaking negroes in the south,
there is abundant opportunity for Sen
ator Tillman to exercise his overflow
ing benevolence on behalf OF the white
people of his own state of South Car
DINA. If we are to believe but a frac-
ton of the horrible stories of the slav-
cry of white children in South Carroll
ma, we have a picture which makes the
conditions in the Philippines appear
idyllic. Here are a few extracts from
Mr. Ebert Hubbard's article on the
White Slavery in the South" in the
May number of the '.Philistine:"
In South Carolina there is no law
regulating child labor. Heartless Gu
pidity has Joined hands with brutal
ingnorance, and the result is child
| la Dor of SO terrible a type that African
slavery was a paradise compared with
it. The infant factory slaves of South
Carolina can never develop into men
| and women. There are no mortality
statistics. The mill owners battle all
attempts of the outside public to get
at the facts, but my opinion is that in
many mills death sets the little prison
ers free inside of four years. Beyond
that he cannot hope to live, and this
opinion is derived from careful obser-
walton, and interviews with several
skilled and experienced physicians who
practice in the vicinity of the mills.
Boys and girls from the ages of six
years and upward are employed. They
usually work from six o'clock in the
morning until seven at night. For
four months of the year they go to
work before daylight and they work
until after dark.
At noon L saw them squat on the
| floor and devour their food which con-
sisted mostly of corn bread and bacon.
| These weakened pigmies munched in
silence. and then toppled over in sleep
on the floor, in all the abandon of ba-
byhood. Very few wore shoes and
stockings; dozens of little girls of, say,
seven years of age, wore only one gar
ment, a linsey-woolsey dress. When
it came time to go to work the fore
man marched through the group, shak-
ing the sleepers, shouting in their ears,
lifting them to their feet, and in few
instances kicking the delinquents into
wakefulness.
The long afternoon had begun-from
a quarter to one until seven O'Clock
they worked without respite or rest.
The child in the mill never talks to
any one-eVen if the rules did not for
bid it, the roar Of the machinery would
make it impossible. All orders are
carried out in pantomine. emphasized
by pokes, punches, pinches, shakes
and kicks. This wee slave loses all
relationship with his fellows and the
world about him.
1 thought to lift one of the little
toilers to ascertain his weight
Straightway through his thirty-tive
pounds of skin and bones there rar
a tremor of fear. and he struggled for
ward to tie a broken thread. 1 at
tracted his attention by a touch, ant
offered him a silver dime. He looked
at me dumbly, from face that nigh
have belonged to a man of sixty, 81
furrowed, tightly drawn, and full o
pain it was. He did not reach for thu
money-he did not know what it was
1 tried to stroke his head and cares.
his cheek. My smile of friendship
meant nothing to hirn-he shrank from
my touch, as though he expected pun
ishment. A caress was unknown t.
N4-iHo SAA-iu' lle1It i!tNcI OSSIi
portion, and the love of mother WHIT
only short time before held him in he
arms, had all been forgotten in the viii
of wheels and the awful silence of
din that knows no respite.
There We're dozens of just such chill
dren in this particular mill. a physi
clan who was with NE said that they
would all be dead, probably In twt
years and their places filled with othel
ers-there We're plenty more. Pneu
monia carries off most of them.
The cracker, the capitalist and til,
preacher live on child labor. and tn
person who lifts his voice in behalf o
the children is denounced as a sickl!
sentimentalist. endeavoring to discour
age the best interests of the state. TIL
cracker does not reason quite thus ia
with him it is a question of rights
sab" and he is the head of his famil.
and you must not meddle-his honor i
at stake.
If the child workers of South Caro-
Lima could be marshalIed by bugle call
headed with fife and drum an.