The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-07-08
DR.. ADLER GETS STRONG
ON CH|[0 LABOR CURSE
Tells of Some of the Conditions
Which Prevail in Modern
Factories.
industrial Czars of Our Own
Country Infinitely Worse
Than Nicholas.

5ects, says:
Il want to nail on the threshold OF
my discourse the words OF Elizabeth
Barrett Browning: How long, ., cruel
nation. will ye trample on child's
heart?'" said DR.. Adler in beginning.
1--WE have recently passed the anniver-
sary of the first factory law passed
by the British government" he contin-
ued When the rise Of modern ma
chinery brought demand for cheap
factory operatives the workhouses or
England were filled with children. NO
body owned them, and nobody cared.
Somebody had the idea Of shovelllng
them into the factories: and children
were fed to the machines as literally
as in ancient idolatry they were fed
to Moloch.
"Then,' he said "came the time OF
fourteen hour days for children of ten
der years: the time when they rotted
away by the thousands British states
men, reused at last. passed laws against
this use of workhouse children; but
the time came when the protection was
needed against the parents of children
who sold them in slavery. After that
were the very worst conditions In
mines and factories"
Dr. Adler had the women of his audi
ence weeping when he read from the
testimony in a parliamentary inquiry
the case of a sevenyear- -old boy whose
father used to wake him before day.
break, carry him to the mill, and leave
him there to tend a machine for six
teen hours day.
IN the Mines he continued, "chil-
dren of five were employed. Little
girls made ten or twelve trips day
up through the hot galleries of that in
ferno, carrying a half hundred weight
of coal on their backs. An admirable
device to develop strong, healthy mo-
theirs from their girlhood! Women
crawled two feet galleries on their
hands and knees dragging by long
chain attached to a leather belt, cart
holding three or four hundred pounds
of coal.
This thought keeps hammering it.
self on my brain: Ho wis it that hu-
man beings are capable of such bru-
tality? Why is it that in England,
an Anglo-saxon country, where wo-
man is supposed to be a kind of god
dess, the womanhood was crushed out
of little girls and grown women grow
elled and dragged carts?
Il take no comfort in calling these
men brutes. The explanation is. that
periods of expansion, political. artistic
and especially commercial. are times
of great moral danger. The JOY OF ex-
pansion is so keen, the desire SO strong
that every other consideration is lost.
So in that great period of industrial
cesses gave active, energetic men the
chance to win the golden prize. The
cry of the babes was unheard.
THE same spirit" DIR. Adler said,
"has brought the same conditions in a
modified form to the United States of
today. The best authority estimated
that two years ago, before certain fac
tory laws were enacted, there were 20,-
600 children under II years of age at
work in southern factories.
They were mainly of pure Ameri-
can stock. In the North the number
of children is not so. great relatively,
but it Is greater in absolute numbers.
Pennsylvania has 10000 under 16. of
whom a great part are certainly under
H."
AS an offset to the little boy of the
English parliamentary report, DR.. ~Ad-
ier told of 12-year-old lad in a cigar
factory at Wheeling. He works from
6 a. m. to p. m. The room Is dark
<1ho
dust When the inspector talked to
him he Vas coughing.
where are you in?'' he was asked.
II have a pain there and there" he
said pointing to his chest and the
small Of his back.
"Shouldn't we be ashamed Of this ~
asked DR.. Adler. This isn't Russia.
1t is cheap to be indignant at the czar
What do you think of our own czars
Of industry? What do you think of
US as a civilized people? Where is the
motherliness Of our women; where is
the chivalry Of our men?
I'm our own state there is less cause
for complaint New York has the
best laws on the subject Of any state
If they were enforced That is the
trouble with a democracy. They are
always in a hurry. AS soon as a law
Is adopted they sweep on to correct
some other evil. No one stops to see
If the law is enforced.
1T Is known that the canning fac
tories work children of seven for IL
hours a day. In a late investigation
it came out that the Chelsea Jute Mills
employ IS children under the age
limit The number Of workers in the
sweat shops is about 100000, and there
must be many little children among
these.
mo law can prevent the employ
ment of children in this industry until
enement house manufacture is pro-
nibitcd. We need a national commits
sion to see that the age limit is raised
I'll over the country. We cannot have
uniform national law. Conditions
iiffsr in different states. An act for
he appointment Of such a commission