The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-01-20
Child Labor in North Caroliha

In his recent message to the legis-
Iature of North Carolina. Governor
Icharles Aycock makes d strong rec
,~mnendation for the endctement OF a
rhiId-labor law. He urges that the
employment of children under IL years
Io,d i'm factories be absolutely prohibit
ID; that no child under the e Of IA
years should be employed to work at
night, and that after the year l9oo
under IA years who cannot
Tread and write shall not be pernIlteo
20 work in the factories at all. ms
is an exceedingly conservative recon-
l~mendatlon, and the governor supports
it with great force n eloCuefce.
There is great necessity he says,
TOR the Development Of u INDUS
tries. I am glad to see them increase
lin number and grow in prosperity; put
There is no such imperative necessity
flor the creation and accumulation or
wealth as to justify US IN the sacrl-
flee of child life to secure it. indeed
1.-The state will grow richer by preserv-
ing the health and developing the
minds and hearts of these children
than it can possibly grow by the crea-
ton of any values which their puny
lrmS can win
Nothing could be more just and true
than this. The governor refers 10 the
~lthreadbare argument that children
should be permitted to work their
lives away to support widowed moth
,rs or infirm fathers. That is the ia
~vOrite argument of the factory man
Who wants to coin the lives and in
I~tellects of children into dollars. But
Governor AyCOck intimates that such
! nfirm and INDECENT parents should be
lcared for by the community n that
their support should not be put upon
little children. 1t is a sad fact that
many OF these INDECENT and intirm'
PARENTS are perfectly willing to live
I'm idleness while their little children
tlre supporting them. If this method
y gaining ? support were withdrawn
Ithey would generally find themselves
itble to work for their families. In
many of the manufacturing states
ichild-labor is prohibited. and we hear
II TO great hardship resulting TO in
ii"m Parents.
The right of the state to intervene
Cor the protection Of children. the gov
,rnor points out is founded upon the
tcuty of the state TO p~erpetuate itself
lHy the care of those who are hereafter
10 constitute her citizenship. 1t. there
tore. becomes the duty Of the state
TO protect small children against Ia
Tor Which tends to dwarf them phySl-
ally, mentally and morally"
Governor AycoCk devotes a consid-
inrable portion of his lengthy n very
able message to a discussion Of public
,ducatiOn. An amendment to the con-
-titutiOn of the state by which SChoOl
taxes paid by white people h go tc
white schools and those paid by color
q people 10 colored schools has beer
recommended by a number of county
conventions. Some of the members OF
The legislature are pledged in favor OF
such an amendment. This PROPOSE
Lion the governor condemns utterly
md makes a powerful argument
against it. He does not believe that il
lcould stand in the courts, and con
tends tina it would be equally JUS
md logical to divide the taxes paid
leur all other purposes for the care Of
the insane. for the maintenance OF
hospitals, etc, in the same manner
l"Let us not" he says. seek to be the
first state in the union to make tbs