The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-07
CHILD LABOR LAW.
Chairman Hopes for Success, But Failure Will Only Stimulate
 Effort

Much interest is being manifested in the question of child labor in Alabama; and the announcement of the additional names to the Central Committee indi- cates that the movement for Beform has the support of many of the most con- servative men in the State.
 Before leaving Montgomery for short tour through the South In connection With the work of the Southern Education Board. MT. Murphy was asked if the work of this Board and the interests of the Child Labor Committee were in any way related.
 Not at all" said MT. Murphy. while the evidence shows that most of the younger children, when freed from the mills. usually find their way into the schools. there is no connection whatever between the Southern Education Board and the movement for a child labor law.
 The two things are entirely distinct. l was the Chairman of the Central Com mittee on Child Labor in Alabama long before the Southern Education Board was called into existence. Neither the re- sources of the Southern Education Board nor of the General Education Board are at our disposal, directly or indirectly. Nor Is our Child Labor Committee using a dollar from the American Federation of Labor Ours is a fight by the people of Alabama for the children of Ala bama.'
 MT Murphy was then asked whether he thought the child labor bill would pass at the coming session of the Legis- lature.
 AS to that" he replied, 'I can make no predictions. l think the bill we shall suggest will be so reasonable and con servative that it will commend itself to most of the members of the General As sembly. The movement for legislation seems to be daily growing in strength. l earnestly hope for success, and we shall work for it with all the vigor at our command. Our opponents know that if the measure is defeated this time. we may not have anotber opportunity for legislation for four long years
 Yet no one need assume that defeat will result in killing or silencing this agi- tation. I regret the agitation, and yet the agitation is caused solely by the abuses It will last till they are modi- fed, l have just come from mill where I saw three children who had been mainl- eG in the machinery. where the mill bosses are working children as young as 6 and years for thirteen hours day, and where the operatives. during the sea son of our joyous h Jlidays, will have to work from 5:31 a. m. to [ p. m. in order tu secure their liberty on Christmas. Let no one imagine that such thirgs can continue in a Christian land without -earnest and determined protest
 "The preservation of the little child means the preservation of everything that is worth preservirg g.
 If We are defeated in our effort to se- cure the modification of these abuses (abuses which are hurting the cotton mill business more than they are helping it). I, for one, will arise the next morning and will begin anew. with heartfelt conviction and with all the energy at my command, the long four years of struggle and of agitation for the free dom of the younger children of our fac tories
 These little people have no reward which they can give me; their cause is utterly without the prizes of distinction or emolument, but. so long as God gives me opportunity, my whole heart and time and strength shall be at their com mand How a man who has little chill dren of his own can have any doubts upon this question is more than l can conceive.
 "I believe in the children of our poor. I am working through the Child Labor Committee to give the younger children freedom. I am working through the Southern Education Board to give them schools.
 If the child labor bill is defeated there