The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-09-03

Kipling'S advice to the. letter; she sent
forth the BEST she bred, and today in
stead Of having the brave, the strong
the fleet" to man the breastworks of
Industry in South Africa they are ly-
ing in South African graves and their
places are filled, Or rather taken, by
Chinese coolies. For years England
has been loosing> in the struggle for in
dustrial supremacy, and is it not we'll
within the bounds of possibility that
race deterioration may be one of the
underlying causes? Of course, the av-
erage Briton would be prompt to re-
cent any such insinuation, but if the
evidence of the examining physicians
in the last stages of the Boer was-that
out of every three applicants for enlist
ment two were unfit for military serv-
ice-does not point to race deteriora-
ton it could. hardly be taken as an in
dex of race Improvement. And If the
British empire is to go the way of en-
pires that. have gone beforehand all
the teachings of history point that way
1T will be because she, like Greece
ana Rome, France and Spain, wasted
ftr men.
Nations Losing Their Strength.
The individual that does not hus-
band his strength will find that when
the crucial moment arrives he is I'M
equal to the strain, and it must be the
same with the nation, because nations
are but aggregations Of individuals.
The nation that does not conserve it's
strength, That wastes its men, is bound
to go under. It is writ large on the
~ r.;
read Aud for those who will not
we'll, the world pretty generally con
cedes that 1t is wiser to learn from OBJ
servation than from experience, be-
cause, even though experience may be
the more effective teacher, she is also
far more costly one.
But what has all this to do with
America She is not sacrificing the
best she breeds in war or losing them
through emigration. She is at peace
with all the world; her people are bet
ter clothed, better housed, better fed
have better schools, and her wealth per
capita is higher than any country in
the world. All Of which it true; but be-
sides sacrificing them in war or losing
them through emigration there is an
other and an equally effective way in
which nation may waste It's men
c"i'h ,5bnr. And While war is terrible
and emigration IS sad spectacle for
the nation that is being depopulated.
for moral hiGsousness child labor
stands in class by itself. A few years
ago DR.. Louise Fiske Byron, i prac-
ticing physician In New York City, and
therefore belonging TO a class not
largely given to sentimentalism, de-
Glazed that the children Of the poor in
that part Of the city knows as the East
Side are damned into the world. not
Born" And the conditions Of those
chlldren are no worse than that of
thousands upon thousands Of little ones
toilirg all over the country in factory.
mill and mine.
Ogre Statue Of Switzerland.
In Berne, Switzerland there is a
bronze statue of an ogre eating a child.
The pockets of the ogre are also filled
with little children to be devoured
when their turn arrives. It is not a
pleasing statue to look upon; in fact,
it more nearly approaches the repul-
sive, and after one gazes on it for a
While and pictures to himself the
happy, laughing little boys and girls
of his acquaintance being devoured
by such monster he involutarily
shudders, and then thanks heaven that
the cgre is but a statue after all.
But right here in our own y fair
! country, reader under your very gaze,
tho ogre exists-not as a bronze statue;
it more generally exists as a brick
building, in which, mid the ceaseless
"hirl and roai CT machinery, hundreds
OR perhaps thousands of little ones,
sometimes as young as nine years of
age, work for IL hours at a strech in
an ill-smelling and dust-laden atmos-
phere. In the silk and knitting facto-
ries along the Susquehanna in. the min
ing regions of Penns ylvania, in the
glass factories of NeWJersey, in the
cotton mills Of the South. ard number
less other places throughout the coun-
| try, little ones are being swallows ]
up by ~ ogre of greed. Look at them
! as they emerge from their industrial
. prisons, perhaps on cold winters
| morning, with tired, aching bodies.
wan, bioodless faces, deadened senses
those little boys and girls who are to
De the men end women of the future;
! Who, instead of being born to liberty
and the pursuit of happiness, seem to
be Born to the heritage of a Twins
death, and ask yourself the question
is not America wasting her menu
! Americ. Indus Child Labor.
; But cay the employers. of child
labor, abolish child labor and. you
/ Will an;liEiliate the industries in which
it is employed. We cannot compete
: with the cheap labor of the countries
America cannot retain her industrial
F! supremacy if YOU do away with child
labor" TO which We might reply that
''1hf: nation that cannot keep in. the
forefront Ct civilization without sacri.
ficing its children cannot keep there
anyway, because, such sacrifice means
a wasted race of men and women: anG
Nh::1 that waste reaches a. certain
poi!1ts then will the nation so backward
| in the scale of civilization" If there il
!; <ir. this United States of our, one single
Industry dependant for its successful
Itopesia,i on On q q "a Dor the sooner thai
:.ssln dus ban shed 81 rom Ameriea's