The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-03
CHILD LABOR IN THE SOUTH.
Some Revised Figures from the Cen
sus--A Letter from Mr.. Murphy.

Some Revised Figures from the Gen.
sus-A Letter from Mr.. Murphy.
Editors The Advertiser:
The figures given on page 20 of my
pamphlet called THE Case Against Child
Labor were quoted, as I WIS careful to
indicate, from the record of the testimony
given at the hearing of March 8, 1902, be-
fore subcommittee No. of the Commit
tee of the Judiciary on House joint reso-
luton No. 20. These statistics seemed to
be the most reliable couf1 obtain at
| that time. but since the publication Of
United States Census Bullitin No. 215, I
wish to substitute for tAem q summary
from the latest figuree Of the Govern
ment.
The tendency of these figures Of the
| census IL always favorable to the mills,
inasmuch as they are usually taken from
the representatives of the factories, but
the figures are the fullest and the most
accurate now obtainable. / am glad to
say that, contrary to the impression
had formed, there has been a real rela-
tive increase of adult labor over child
labor in the past census decade When
we note, however, that Of the total num-
Der of 1853 employees In the cotton mills
of the South, 24.459 are under sixteen
years of age, and that in my own State
of Alabama those under sixteen consti-
LuLe 0U per cent. VI INC tOtdl HuthDCL
of employees, it will be seen that the
offcial reports of the Census Bureau
will hardly make 1t necessary for me to
modify the essential line of my argu-
ment.
1 wish however, to substitute the fol-
lowing paragraphs for those quoted on
page 20 of my pamphlet from the testi-
mony before the Committee Of Congress.
These figures may be found on page 40
Of United States Census Bureau Bulletin
No. 2l5. They apply to the group of the
chief cotton manufacturing States Of the
South-Eorth Carolina, South CAROLINE;
Geof gia and Alabama.
In these States from 1870 to 1880, of
the total number Of employees the num-
Der of men over sixteen years OF age IN
creased s9.6 per cent. the number Of
women increased 1862 per cent, the num-
Der of children under sixteen years OF
age increased n0.2 per cent
From 1880 to 1890. Of the total number
of employees. the number Of men over
sixteen years of age increased 1875 per
cent: the number of women incr eased
ao.A per cent; the number Of chil1ren
under sixteen years increased i26.6 per
cent.
From 1890 to 1870, the number Of men
among the employees in these four states
increased from 1921 to 1855 (20S9 per
cent?: the number of women over IL
years of age increased from l1,sSS to 2s.-
2s2 d442 per cent?; the number OF chill
dren under 16 increased from 7.1s4 to e.
176 COST per cent?
Tho figures of North Carolina, given on
pages 20 and n Of my booklet, are from
the Reports, 1899 and 1901. of the North
Carolina Bureau Of Labor and Printing,
ard require no modification whatever. Ac-
cording to these reports, the second Of
which is later than the report from Wash
irgton the children under u increased In
two years from less than 10 per cent. to
nearly IS per cent. Of the whole number of
operatives. The latest report Q9O1, page
$50 gives, in the textile mills OF the State,
1895 children under IA years of age.
1t Is said that child labor law would
not be adequately enforced. II this is an
argument against this legislation it is
equally an argument against almost every
law of the land. Even the Ten Command
ments have never been completely EN-
forced The opposition manifested by
the worst mills to the enactment OF a
child labor law is SUFFICIENT testimony to
the fact that they know it will check