The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-15
The Child Labor Law.

To the Editor: Doubtlessly the courte-
Gus thing to do would be to allow Mr..
l.. Vinson to reply to your note at the
foot of his letter published in Sundays
News and Observer, but if YOU and he
will allow me, let me add my opinion
TO this in regard to child labor ques-
ton, and say as he does, if we are to
have law to regulate the employment
of children in factories. let's have one to
protect them in all occupations, par
ticularly farming.
If farming was 'least remunerative.
and most laborious," in the days of the
great English statesman, it is even more
so now, and of all the occupations Of
men and children-talthough they labor
in the open fields in the broad day lighD,
| am confident that less is known of the
trials and hardships of a poor farmers
life than any calling in the world. Poets
have sung, and editors of agricultural
papers behind polished desks have been
writing about 1.-The happy days down on
the farm for generations, but did you
ever hear the testimony of a farm lad"
who rises at 3 a. M. feeds the horses
milks the cows, and cuts wood all by
sunrise, then goes to work in the field
with a plow or hoe until noon with
more feeding of the stock), and then Ia
bors until dark with dirt in his shoes,
wet with perspiration in summer or half
frozen in winter? If such a boy could
express himself | would like to hear his
evidence on the subject. There is an
other factor that should be considered:
Most Of the families who work in the
factories in the South are those who
have reached the very bottom of abject
poverty on the farm before they left, and
I never knew one of this kind ever to
go back to the country after they once
secured work in factory.
At every well regulated factory there
are schools, churches and good water and
sanitation, and better homes to live in
than can be found among the same grade
of people in the country, and they cal
enjoy too. that dearest boon to the hu-
man heart, social intercourse without GO
ing miles to see their neighbors. Did you
ever compare the child operative of the
modern factory with the child laborer on
the farm? Take the children of the fac
tories of the Piedmont sectioa of the
Caroinas and compare them with the
| poor of the rural districts of the eastern
portion of these two States where there
are few factories. and little opportunity
to escape the trials and drudgery of the
farm, and then draw your parallel and
| you will find that in dress. appearance
and education, the factory child is in
| advance of the poor children of the farm
and | am confident that if the children OF
the factories were given IN opportunity
| to go back to the country not one liz a
| hundred would go.
! DoubtleSsly there are cases of abuse
and of children being over-worked at too
young an age, but the trouble is not
with the mill owners or operators. OF
the actual fact of being at work indoors,
but if you will investigate, you will find
/ that in most cases the fault lies in a
human parasite, in the shape of an idle.
worthless father who has shifted the
support of the family to the tender
shoulders of his little child. If there will
be enacted some legislation to put this
brute to work and keep him there we
will have made all the laws W. need on
the child labor question at presenr
J, j. ID. BULL UCK