Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-09-25
COMMITS SIONER BECK GIVES IN.
DUSTRIAL FACTS.
BETTER FACTORY. LAWS
Attitude of the Public and of Leuis.
Iators in This Direction Has Be-
come Vastly lmproved-More
Vigorous Rooting-out of Sweating
System Advocated.
Madison, September Is.

Gently appointed by the governor, j.
D. Beck, has issued a part of the 18th
biennial report of the bureau, under
the title of Some Economic Aspects OF
Factory Legislation, that is receiving
good deal of favorable comment from
the colleges of the country and from
the people who are making a study Of
economic questions. At their re.
quest some of the eastern colleges
have been supplied with copies and
Yale especially has expressed ap-
probation of the merit of the work.
Beginning with the early diciples or
governmental control of factories and
OF the sanitary conditions and age or
children allowed to be employed, the
commissioner traces the resistance
that has marked the progress along
this line since 1902. He says, "at that
time a law which placed any restrain
upon laborer willing to sell his work
on terms agreeable to himself and his
employer, was considered as denying
him the right to work and therefore
the right to live. Any law which re-
strained free competition, whether in
the sale of labor or commodities, was
considered worse tnan useless
The detail of influence exerted by
Adam Smith in his writings is shown,
and the falacy of the doctrine that
''the hindrance of a poor man from
reaping the rewards of the strength
and dexterity of his hands in what
ever manner he shall chose, without
violation to his neighbor, is a plain
violation of his most sacred property
1t was during the time that these
doctrines were being advocated that
factory legislation began it's struggle
for existance. During the period or
great industrial revolution when
machines run by hand gave place to
those operated by steam and water
power, factories, rather than me
homes of labOrers, became the center
Of population. Then it was that home
laborers, no longer able to compete
with the factories, gave UP THEN.
became common laborers under worse
conditions as to wages, hours of labor
and sanitation, than can be described.
In time conditions grew worse and
some kind of regulation became im>
peratiVe. The ratio of children to
adults and females to males increased
until in 1888 in certain mills were
found employed $4,000 people and out
of this number there were only 1900
adult males, 10000 adult females and
10000 children. Such conditions made
the child a parasite upon the family,
the family upon the community and n
turn the community upon the state, in
case the wages are nominal. In case
the wage is high enough to cover the
cost of living, it does not matter, if
the child is to be discharged as soon
as he becomes an adult and demands
full play. Children who are en-
ployed, to be discharged as soon as
they become adults, take places that
would otherwise be occupied by men,
who if it were not for this cheap
labor, and the uncertainties that It
produces in general, would take up
some particular line of work and make
it their life occupation enabling them
to become more skilled day after day
the longer they were permitted to fol-
low their chosen profession. A man
thus occupied would be able to lay UP
more than if he had to divide his work
with children. Whenever children are
most extensively employed, wages or
both children and adults do not come
any where near the mark that is
reached when there is the least child
labor. In Massachusetts the limit
in age for children working in
factories is fourteen years. The per
cent of children to the total NUMBER
employed is the lowest, being 1.55.
The average yearly earnings is S167,
and of adults $487, while in New
Jersey the age limit is twelve years,
the per cent of children to the total
number employed is 1913, the yearly
earnings of children is 500 and Of
adults $21S. With but slight
variations, both children and adults re-
ceive the highest wages in states
having the highest age for children to
work in factories, and wherever
regulation is the least a greater pro-
portion of children to adults are EN-
ployed and the lowest annual wage
paid.
Another factor that enters very
largely into the accomplishment of
the needed reforms in the field of
labor is the system of public schools.
1t is true that the smallest percentage
of child labor to the total number en-
ployed is found in those states having
the most stringent compulsory educa-
ton laws. In Missouri where there is
very stringent and well enforced
| child 1ah0r Low hut no cNronn1rlSorr