The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-07-25

ton in Georgia has been steady and
sincere. says Mary Applewhite Bacon,
| In the current issue of Charities. it is
not yet, it seems, sufficiently strong to
provide effective state regulation.
rms the writer ascribes to the rapid
| growth of the cotton mill industry.
Ihe majority of the people in the
state are as yet unacquaintedz with it's
! evil effects upon the hundreds of chill
dren drawn in the last decade into mill
life" she says. There are undenia-
bly, good results from the steady en-
! ployment of large body of our popu-
| lation at fair wages who hitherto had
been barely self-supporting, and this
immediate good has blinded the eyes
/ of even sincere people to the ultimate
injury to the child and to the state
from existing conditions The mills of
Georgia are dependent for their labor
upon poor white people, who were. as
a rule, tenants on farms. Children are
brought to the mills by their parents
because the work is lighter. the pay
lis better and they have better oppor-
| tunities for improvement and enjoy
ment than on the farms.
I'm the discussion of the subject be-
| fore the legislature of November. 1902,
when the bill to provide an age limit
! of twelve years, except in the case of
children working for the support of
disabled parents, when the age limit of
ten years is valid, was defeated by a
vote of SO to rs, numerous arguments
| were advanced pro and con. Said one
| speaker on the successful side:
! In all this discussion there has not
| been any petition from the laborerS
themselves asking that these laws be
! passed, and it is safe to assert that
a vote by the mill operatives would
overwhelmingly defeat the measure.
The agitation for such laws always
| comes from representatives of labor
unions, and the people of Georgia do
not know what dangerous elements
they are dealing with when they give
any kind of support TO these agitators.
Their efforts lead inevitably
| to paternalism and socialism. This
| Legislature should stop and think be-
| fore it takes from these mill children
the option of work and forces them
| into idleness and vagrancy upon the
| streets. Is the state ready to increase
| the school tax largely, and by law
compel the attendance at school of all
poor children? Is the state ready for
compulsory education of both whites
and blacks? l cannot believe that any
body of sensible men. looking at every
side of the question, can feel that
Georgia is ready for either compulsory
education or labor domination"
From this, concludes the writer, it
j may be seen that, between the fear of
increasing the poverty of those already
poor, the dread of paternal legislation
and labor unionism and the desire for
such profit as comes from the en-
ployment of infant labor, the case of
| the Georgia mill child is a hard one. 1t
is true that there are at the better
mills ameliorating circumstances, and
for children of thrifty and self denying
parents mill schools and good public
schools afford educational advantages
that will be embraced. But there are
hundreds of little ones fer whom all
these opportunities are as nothing
children of shiftless. drunken or igno-
rant parents. The law gives them no
protection, the state offers them edu-
cation in vain. and the public senti-
ment, which should come to their re-
lief, is diverted by mass of reasoning
which has enough Of truth in it to
make it effective for producing false
conceptions and perpetuating cruel
wrong to these helpless ones. That
their number is growing relatively,
though not actually. less. through the
slow years, is a small satisfaction
that a better understanding of what is
due to childhood should ere long be
vouchsafed to our people, ought to be
the prayer of every man and woman
who sees the situation in it's true light.