The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-04
Child Labor North and s,uth.


 New York Evening Post, Dec. Is.
 One of the most effective appeals to prejudice made by the Southern defend CTS of the child labor system is to sec Northern newspaper Is used by the mill owners to shield their iniquitous proceed ings. It is represented that the North is again meddling in matters which do not concern it, and the statement IS frequent ly made that NewMEnEland should set it's own house in order. There is no ground for such 8 feeling of resentment. The leading Northern newspapers have not hesitated to declare that the North shares with the South the responsibility for the condition of the little mill-slaves. Stock by the $l0O.0O0 is held in the North and many mills, moved South expressly for the purpose of benefiting by the laxness of Southern labor laws, are wholly owned and controlled in New England. The re- sponsibility of this section Is, indeed. as plain and undeniable and inexcusable as was the participation of New England vessels In the slave trade. And 1t is a cause for shame that not a single mill in the South owned by Northern capital has come frankly and publicly to the aid of reform legislation, although the admis- sion that child labor Is indefensible eco nomically has been frequently made by mill superintendents.
 Most discouraginK of all has been the silence Of the New England pulpit, It is true that the American Unitarian Asso- CIbuOH pd5S6Q resolutions In6 practice. and that the Rev. Christopher Eliot of Brookline, Mass, has spoken out fearlessly. But so far as we can learn, no other clergyman of prominence has had a word to say. The Southerners have been quick to take advantage of this si- leflce of cowardice. For instance, Mrs. Caroline D. c. Granger, President of the Georgia State Federation of Women g Clubs, which has been constantly fighting child labor, wrote to the Massachusetts State Federation that its duty was to in duce Massachusetts mill owners to pro- hibit child labor in their mills, or to at least stop lobbying by their agents against remedial legislation. Never was there a plainer case of reform beginning at home. Moreover, action by Northern mill own CTS, even If 1t cost them few dollars, would quickly expose the absurd false hoods of the Southern mill owners to the effect that the North Is seeking Ito stran- gle the infant industries of the South
 As matter of fact, the agitation on behalf of child labor In the South has produced marked and noteworthy results in the North, even if New England is pre- serving its once historical attitude of be- ing silent against human slavery lest its pocket be affected. In New York, New Jersey and Illinois active steps have been taken to correct abuses, just as in Vir- ginia bill forbiddng the employment of children under F has been presented to the Legislature, backed by the leading Richmond newspapers. The Illinois Child 6dNlHB League IO present. d Dlll IO tIlc Illinois Legislature which forhids, among other things. the working of children at night. In New Jersey the need of action Is imperative. We know of at least one New York corporation which is moving to that State simply to take advantage of the laxness of the New Jersey laws in regard to child labor. In this State a strong and permanent committee has been formed to remedy defects in the Factory and Mercantile Law, which permits the employment of many children under age, ''in spite of faithful work on the part of inspectors. and with no violation of the law on the part of employers" The shocking testimony given yesterday be- fore the Strike Commission in regard to the employment of little girls in the silk mills for periods of twelve hours, at the rate of three and five and one-half csnts an hour, shows that Pennsylvania has still another cause for shame in it's labor conditions.
 If these instances of Northern short comings cannot convince the South that the criticisms by the North are sincere and proper, they at least bear out Mrs. Florence Kelley's statement in Charities for December 6. that the child labor problem, far from being local one to be dealt with by small group of Southern cotton manufa curing States, is a great and growing national problem"