The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-02-03
Gils 3nessrngrr.
THE CHILD LABOR QUESTION

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We gladly give space in this issue Of
The Messenger to a communication by
Rev. A. J.. McKelway, in reply to an
editorials of ours of the 22nd instant on
the question Of child labor in fac
tories.
We are glad to learn from Mr.. Nc
Kelway's letter that Mr.. Hunter, from
whom we quoted that thousands Of
children in New York are forced to go
to school each morning with empty
stomachs a they or their parents
are SO poverty stricken that these lit
tie ones can not be provided with
breakfast. is such reliable authority
on the subject of compulsory educa-
ton and the enforcement Of the anti
child labor law in hat city.
The question we would like to have
answered is whether those children
who are forced to school day after day
with empty stomachs and FROST
pinched faces will make any better
N1tiLNiIo "IlEH lIICJ oIC 6io"u ttIG "A
they had been allowed to stay away
from school and earn enough honest
pennies each day to enable them to
keep off the cravings OF hunger? What
good are daily attempts at grinding in
books going to do a child whose
stomach is empty and craving for
fond rrhNoz -Hx-ioal -n4-~1 t.. Ias1~
giving way under the pangs of hunger
while the weakened mind is being tor
tured with the strain of attempted
mental improvement? Is it not better
to produce a man or woman with
healthy body and sound mind who is
capable Of absorbing a certain amount
than n OF weak, starved physical
condition, producing an entellect un-
able. because of the enfeebled body, to
comprehend and apply the mental in
struction offered-aye, enforced upon
it?
We would like to see. as we said in
jul "iLi%lt VI liz AAHu, CNSIy 1
child in this state given a parliamentary
education. Under present conditions
this Is impossible. We might establish
the best public school system ever
adopted by any state or nation-or
even ever dreamed of by the greatest
enthusiast on public education and. still
fIf- ,,o I1-;r43 1c,, oo,1l xo14 -
accomplished. So long as there is
poverty abroad in the land just so long
will there be little children whose con-
dition in life is so unfortunate that
they will have to labor for their own
living or in aid OF q feeble widowed
mother or a decrepit father, instead of
taking advantage of the opportunities
offered them by the state for securing
an education. That such conditions
exist is deplorable; but that they can
not be avoided is indisputable. And it
is for this reason that we oppose the
drastic anti-child labor law which Mr..
McKe1way, representing the anti-child
IdpOE CoIlIIi1llGe O1 New OTR, Is Try
ing to nduce our legislature to pass,
This committee has it's headquarters
in a northern city. ct is true there are
some southern men on it) and is doing
missionary" work in the southern
states. where, by reason of less strin-
gent labor laws, cotton factories can
II out their products at less ex-
ems than can the factories in the
New England n the Middle states.
We believe that the matter of child
labor in factories should be regulated
to some extent by law, but we do not
want to see adopted for this state any
such law as that proposed for us by
this New York committee.
"Timeo Danaos ct dona ferentes"--
w fear the Greeks even bearing
presents" That principle was i'm
planted in h human breast long be-
fore LAGOON made his famous adj
dress of warning to the Trojans when
they wished to bring the Greek wood
Ct lliilI lIISlI gates, dI1u II Is
there still.
1t does seem to us that We people of
North Carolina have brains enough to
regulate the internal affairs of our
state Inc humanity enough to protect
from oppression by the sordid and the
grinding the young boys and girls who
are 50 unfortunate as to be forced to
work for their living.
And again, we have that confidence
in the goodness and the charity of
human nature which leads US to dis
credit the horrible stories of persecu-
ton and cruelty on the part of the mill
of our state toward young chill
dren that some of the enthusiasts on
anti-child labor are constantly treating
us to.