The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-08
Let's Have a General Law
Says Mr.. Vinson.
FARM VERSUS FACTORY
Calls Agita ion for Child LabT Legislation a
Yankee Trick" Says Mil Men
of North Fear Southern
Compe ition.

on Child Labor, | simply wish to ask
you this question: If the law is good
for children in factories, why is it not
good for the children who work in the
fields in bad and stormy weather? Why
discriminate in favor of factory children
to the exclusion of the poor little fell
lows who go out in the open fields in De-
cember and August to battle against the
snow and frost and sunshine and heat?
1t is true if you were to pass a general
law then the farmers would raise a howl,
for it would relegate many good pillow
boy" to the pleasant shade, and many
little worm catcher" and cotton picker
would be driven from the heat of summer
and the frosts of winter. The little
Sambos" also would rejoice and leap for
joy that the day of jubilee had come.
And right here is the trouble, you want
to show your humanity but you don't
want it to extend to "Cuffy," and Meth
er do you want to raise too big howl
among the farmers, who must have
'Sambo" and the little white 'fels'' from
the size of quart jug up to harvest and
save tobacco and cotton and peanuts.
The sun may grow pretty warm in July
pinch in October and November and De-
cember but that is all right, so far as
''Sambo" and the little farm boy is con-
cornsd, their hides are guaranteed to be
thick and impervious to the worst storms
of heat and cold, and besides if dad"
is a white man he must not be stirred up
by arbitrary legislation. his vote might
be turned in the next election And you
reckon right for whenever you begin to
legislate against the liberties of peo-
pie the most illiterate man will be quick
to detect it and resent it. But suppose
you say I would be in favor of general
law if it did not take in the negro. You
are fond of quoting Governor Aycock and
he says he is in favor of allowing the ne
gro in educational matters the same
privilege as the white man. If he is en-
titled to share alike with the white man
in the matter of taxes for education with
out regard to the amount of taxes he
pays why should he be neglected and left
in the cruel heat and cold Again, sim
ply because you arc not willing to give
"Cuffy' the benefit of your humanity,
you are willing to exclude a large ma
iority of the white children of the State
from the benefit OF what you claim is
a good and humane law. Is this JUS
tice?
Then let's have a general law, one
that will shield the poCr little fellows
from the biting and the scorching heat
and also one that will nrotect the fac
tory boy from the imaginary ills of the
factory.
Now Mr.. Editor. ] don't SUPPOSE you
have ever ploughcd furTow in your life
or chopped a row of cotton. l have, and
/ will say it boldly, if | were compelled
today to choose between the cornfeld and
the factory as to work. I would take the
factory every time and about one hours
time behind a good strong mule in June
and July, with a Stonewall plow with the
big sweeps on, would thoroughly convince
you that tho poor little fellows on the
farms needed protection as well as fac
tory lads. No use to argue that people
twelve and fourteen years old need not
work necessity will compel them to
work somewhere and if you legislate
them out of factories, the farms and
factories of other States will get them.
When you drive out the children under
twelve or fourteen the result will be that
the whole family Will go to States where
these children can work and the factories
in North Carolina will not only lose the
children bur will lose whole families
This agitation is simply a Yankee
trick" and started in New England. the
home of Uncle Toms Cabin and all
the abolition deviltry. The mill men
there are scared because of the progress
made in the South in the manufacture OF
cotton. and so they jumped on child labor
in factories as a means of hitting it a
hard blow, just as they jumped on the
negro as preteXt to cripple the South,
not that they cared a bubble for "Cuffy,"
hut simply wanted TO clown" the South
and they accomplished their end. Now
The South has climbed up" a little they
are whacking at us again by an artful
dodge The mill men of North Carlina,
as rule. are as humane and kind as
any class of people in the country, the
whole State owes them a debt of graft
tude. for investing their capital and
building I'D manufacturing industries
and thus giving employment to hundreds
and thousands of needy people
Then, Mr. Editor. let's have general
law and protect all, or no law at all
Discrimination in a good or bad cause
will not do, let's be impartial MI
Burke, the great English statesman
said, that farming was the most labor-
ious and least remunerative OF all the
occupations of man, so let's rememDe
this when we are about to give the fac
tory boys and girls good lift and not
leave the poor little fellows in the fields
exposed to heat and cold.
Respectfully.
l.. VINSON. .
Littleton, n. c., Feb. 5.
THE sufficient answer to Mr.. Vinson
is that, while farm labor is laborious
and not remunerative, the children VIII
are employed in that work are not con-
fined indoors. They work in the sun
shine, that gift of God so essential to
the growth and development of young
children. They do not grow pale as do
children who arc employed indoors Be-
sides. their work is not so steady. When
the crops are laid by they have some
vacation and recreation In the winter
they do not work steadily in the frosta