The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-11
STRONG APPEAL FOB CHILD LABOR LAW.
very State but Four Protects the Children by
Legislation.

wish to say that all opposition by the
mill owners is based on the ground that
they do not want any law, but wish to
give the relief asked for voluntarily
they admit that it is Improbable to en-
ploy children under the age of twelve
years, but say they are compelled to do
n order to get the parents of said chill
dren to continue to work for them as
they would go to other mills where the
children will be able to get employment.
Now, would it not be better for the
mill owner, if he had a law which would
prevent all mills from employing children
under twelve years Of age? There is no
present profit in it, and can be no future
profit for the continuous labor of a young
child in a busy mill, shut out from the
-unlight and pure air, certainly greatly
9ndangers the future efficiency, skill and
intellect of the child. I contend it is de-
.rimental to the future success of the
mills to continue in the practice of that
which deprives the children of tOday-the
people of tomorrow,-of the essentials to
develop them to the utmost 1t is not
the quantity of the goods made but the
quality which brings the greatest profit,
and quality can only be obtained by
skilled labor. If we would compete with
the factories of other States and cOun-
tries We must have the best and most eff
fcient operators. Where arc these to
come from? We don't wish them from
England because our own North Caro-
lnians are a much better class of la
borers We are left then with the only
alternative to educate and train the
minds of our own people. Can this be
done with the children and the
grandchildren of those who work
in the mills, either on the pay
rolls or as helpers to their olde"
brothers. sisters or parents from the
time they know how to tie knot or doff
a spool. night or day, until their death
or they quit the business,l with no time
except Sunday for seeing the sun, or to
breathing the pure out door air? No
time to commune with Nature. to watch
the growing, blooming flowers; to stop,
mediate and think, and grow large in
heart, soul and stature. No time to sit
around the fireside and strengthen the
family ties no time to make home COM
Portable and tidy-the place where God
fore ordained to be the unit of society and
the State.
up the home, destroy the care love and y,
interest of the mother in the present and
future welfare of her children, and our
State trembles ere the fall Oh, but
they say this effects only a small num-
Der of the citizens OF the State. Does
1t? What we do to others we do to our
selves. and
There is a destiny which makes US
brothers,
None goes his way alone,
And all that we send into the lives of
Comes back into our own"
One drop OF blood falling upon the
snow will destroy the beauty of its white
ness to the beholder. There are 109 7S1
people in North Carolina. about LII of
the total population, dependent upon the
mill for a living And these must be
let alone. their children to grow up in
the mills, their poor little bodies to be
dwarfed. their minds blighted, their in
terest in life and nervous sensation re-
duced to the minimum-and the beholder
of these children in the future can truly
say:
Whose breath blew out the light within
TIE brain?
Who made them dead to rapture and to
pain?
Creatures that gricve not, and never
hope
Stolid and stunted-brothers to the ox?"
Again they say, mo need Of the law't
Then why was this question before us
two years ago? Why was an agreement
signed by 144 of the mills of the State
numbering in all nearly 800 to do virtu-
ally what is asked by the present bills?
Why did four members of the present
General. Assembly almost simultaneously
and without any concert of action in
troduce bills which advocate the same
measure? Why did our Labor Commits
sioner advise and urge some such legis-
lation? Why did His Excellency, Gov
ernor Aycock, recommend it so strongly
in his message to this General Assem-
bly,? Why did Prof. Joyner, Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, use such
strong language in his recommendations
Why do the good, wise and far-Seeing
philanthropistS of the State whose at
tention has been called to the facts, as
they exist in some mills, petition the
Why are the good women of the State go
ing into the mill districts more than in
any other and helping the children of
the factory people? Why has South
Carolina just passed a child labor law?
Why has almost every State in the Union
such a law upon her statute books? Read
a page from the last volume of our State
Supreme Court. Reports in the case of
Fitzgerald VS.. Furniture Co Q31 n. c.,
page $50:
But as it is q subject of growing i'm
portance to lawyers, as we'll as in public
interest generally, it may be we'll to cite,
as indicative of the conclusion to which
the maturer judgment of mankind is tend
ing. the age below which legislative con-
struction in other States had made it
Illegal, and therefore negligence per Sc
and irrebuttable, to employ any child in
a factory, at the close of the year 1901.
This list is taken from the State Laws in
our Library, and as to the foreign cOun-
tries from the official publications of the
United States Government
ct is illegal to employ any child in a
factory under fifteen years of age in
Florida, Rhode Island, Washington AMI