Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1903-09-23

\ tENN United States, is crop ga6neTeu
s9krHE all the year reund. It's gathering
1sB M is the greatest crime against civ
3S<E ilizatOn, the greatest danger tOl
all the people, says the Chica
90 American. While thousands OF
children are going into the pnblic shoots, where
they will have a chance for the future and good
teaching in the present. other thousands and tens
of thousands driven to the factories, the mills
and the mines, where they have chance at all.
The health is ground out OF them and the future is
hopeless.
Some men depend for their fortunes on the corn
crop, others on the Gotten crop, others on wheat.
Another set of men--and they are criminals and
public enemies-depend for their fortune on the
crop OF young children which they gather all over
the land from the homes OF the very poor
1t is a horrible thing to think that the coal, the
bright fire that warns us, represents the wcrEout
lives OF unfortunate beings put to work almost as
mere babies on the coal breakers.
1t is sad to think that the shirt you wear may
have come from factory in which children with
tired eyes, tired backs, exhausted nervous systems,
work until they can literally work and stand no
longer
Itfs extraordinary that in this country, where
crime OF violence oUtTages public opinion to the
point OF lynchIng, and where some pretty slip In
morals or in commercial Integrity ruinsa man for
ever, there is natiOnal revolt against the most
atrociOus crime Of all-the wholesale murder Of
children for the sake of little profit.
Men we're found TO denounce negro slavery, to
work and talk at the risk Of their dives for the
black deprived Of their liberty and kept in ig
nOrance.
BuC where are the men Of pewer to defend the
children murdered in the millss
The negro slave at least had achance to grow Up.
His owner had financial interest in his muscles
and u his lungs. He wanted big, healthy adult
slave.
tits perfectly we'll known that, as a rule, the
slave was treated kindly. And there is not the
slightest question that the slaves children were al
ways treated kindly.
Even on the worst plantation you would see the
negro children rolling about in front OF the cabns
laughing and playing in he open air and sunlight
growing up intO healthy beings
IL any had tried to take those little negro
children and lock them up in a factory for ten OF
more hours day, night what do you suppose
the slave owner would have eaidf
He would have been indignaRt at the idea, mol
only at its crHelty but at it's commercial stupidity
He would have said:
tsNo; these negr0 children belong to me. Some
dag they will be strong big, very valuable slaves
able to do great deal Of work
eq am interested in them. DO you think an
going to be such fool to ruin their future vaa'
and strength for what little work I could get out o
them now as mere ehidreni
81 think too much Of my future welfare to allOs
my little 'niggers' to be worked &c death nOw.'
What pity that there is not lie the United States
some power as absolate as that OF the slaveholdea
to speak in the way Of the white children, the
living human crowd that Is being moved daily int
the Dills.
Uniestunately nobody ''Owns" these white slay'
children.
The man that owns che mill sees only the mil
and bis bank account. The children don't belong
to him new and they won't belong to him whei
they grow up.
II he can grind ten miiliOn yards Of cotton or
million dollars Of prOft he is content, and hi
children and their gOvernesses and their baths an'
their sunnBries are we'll cared for.
Surely the Government Of the United States, th
people Of the United States, apart from AL mora
considerations, have as great an interest IL tn
white factory child to-day as The slave owner haG
in tie black child Of the plantation.
The welfare of this nation is simply the product
its healthy men and women, now and inthe future
The character Of the nation depends upon tn
average Of citizenship, the healthy mind in tn
healthy body.
And yet We allow any mill owner to catch q
many white children as he can and grind them 1
his factories into thin, nervous wrecks unfit
they escape an early grave-ior citizenship OF pei
cenaqe Of their share IN the country's development
II you took 80 ordinary yellow dog, put him /
the window Of store in the principle street Q
some big city and tried to make him work fer te
hours day, the factory child is made to work
You would be arrested and prosecuted criminally.
When viii the conscience Of the people take a
much interest in the young child as the Society io
the Prevention-ol Cruelty to Animals nov takes /
the puppyi
When viii the man Who sacrifices child lie for
profit be despised and punished rs the most hear
less 81 criminals should bei