New-York tribune., 1903-07-18
THE CHILD IN THE MILLS.
Tots Of Georgia in a Bad Way-What Is
Due to Childhood.

Though the growth of public sentiment in favor
of child labor legislation in Georgia has been
steady and sincere. says Mary Applewhite Bacon.
in the current issue of Charities" out to-day,
is not yet it seems. sufficiently strong to provide
effective State regulation. This the writer ascrbes
10 the rapid growth of the cotton mill industry
The majority of the people in the State
yet unacquainted with its evil effects upon the
hundreds of children drawn IN the last decade into
mill life" she says. There are undeniaby good
results from the steady employment of large body
OF our population at fair wages who hitherto had
oeen barely self-supporting and this immediate
good has blinded the eyes of even sincere people
to the ultimate injury to the child and the State
from existing conditions. The mills of Georgia
are dependent for their labor upon poor white peo
PIE, VINO were, as a rule, tenants farms. Chill
dren are brought to the mills by their parents be-
cause the work is lighter the pay is better and
they have better opportunities for improvement
and enjoyment than on the farms
In the discussion the subject before the legis-
lature of November. 1902, when the bill to provide
an age limit of twelve years except in the of
children working for the support of disabled par
ents, when the age limit of ten years is valid,
oe1eated by a vote Of SO to IS, numerous argu-
ments were advanced pro and con. Said one
speaker 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 that
a vote by the mill operatives would overwheIm-
ingly defeat the measure. The agitation for such
laws always comes from representatives of labor
unions, ana the people of Georgia do not know
what dangerous elements they are dealing with
when they give any kind of support to these agi-
tators Their efforts lead inevitably to pa
ternalism and socialism. This legislature should
stop and think before it takes these mill chill
dren the option Of work and forces them into idle
ness ana Vagrancy upon the streets Is the State
ready 10 increase the school tax largely, and by
law compel the attendance school of all poor
children? Is the State ready for compulsory edu-
cation OF both whites and blacks? L cannot be
heVe that any body of sensible men. looking at
every side of the question, can feel that Georgia
Is ready Tor either compulsory education or labor
domination - ~
From this. concludes the writer 1t NAV be seen
that, between the fear of increasing the poverty
or those already poor, the dread of paterna legs-
laton and labor unionism. and the desire for such
proht as comes from the employment of infant
labor the of the Georgia mill child is a hard
ameliorating circumstances, and for children of
thrifty and self-denyiEg parents mill schools and
good public schools afford educational advantages
that will be embraced. But there are hundreds of
little ones for whom all these opportunities are as
nothing-children of shiftless. drunken ignorant
parents. The law gives them protection the
state offers them education in vain, and public
sentiment which should to their relief is di-
Verted by a mass of reasoning which has enough
Of truth in 1t to make it effective for producing
false conceptions and perpetuating cruel wrong to
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 people, ought to be
the prayer of every man and woman who sees the
situation in its true light