The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-05-13
CHILD LABOR GREATLY
EFFECTS PROSPERITY
immigration Commissioners
Sargent Makes Public
Note Worthy Letter.
Noted Philantropist Fears Out
come Because Of Growing
Number of Idle Men.

washington, -. C., May l1.-COmm1S>
sioner immigration Sargent recently
made public a letter written to. him by
New York philantrPpist, which hard-
ly harmonizes with the prosperity
argument Of the last campaign. The
| writer says that in New York there
are 100000 idle men,. A portion Of his
letter is as follows: =
New York has now the largest pro-
portion of unemployed of any great
city in the country. There are at Lease
100, 900 idle men in the city today, or 10
per cent. more than at this time last
year. Fifty thousand children go to
school breakfastless, which means that
their fathers are idle. So overwhelmed
is the Department of Charities with
tens of thousands of applications from
men out of work that it finds itself
unable to cope with the situation. In
short, the metropolis this winter is
facing a problem with regard to the
unemployed such as has never been
known in the past years." =.
Our republican friends should make
explanation. Did they get votes under
false pretenses? Are they now going
to fail to make good? Are we to
have an era Of unemployed and soup
houses. in spite of the fact that the
trusts have again been given permfs-
sion to have the tariff revised only by
| their friends? =:
The unemployed will not starve, and
it is dangerous to let them get too
hungry. What are our prosperity
friends going to do about them?
In this connection, and as part Of the
same problem of the unemployed, it
may be said that that good Republican
! authority, the New York Tribune.
; whose proprietor has just been selected
as ambassador to the Court of st,
James, is authority for the following:
! 'As result Of investigations in New
York, New Jersey. Connecticut, and
Massachusetts,, it is found that thous-
ands Of boys and girls are being ruined
mentally and physically by long hours
of labor.
In New York, child slavery is more
prevalent than at any time in the his
tory of the State. In canning factories
/ agents of New York Child Labor Com-
! mittee found thousands of children at
work who were under the leGal ags
Limit -nf fourteen Childsen nsAssypaAGae
! three anu TOUT WeE9 S1OUn0 y01lAtlB BE51OEs
a few cents day. Many children
have been found 20 stunted in body
| and mind that they are practically
ruined for lite. - =
I'm New Jersey. the child, laborer 10
in some communities regarded as =
| social outcast. The little worker 10
! barred from schools and Stunned by.
| other children. Such evil conditions
are especially to be found lin smaller
| manufacturing towns, which are to q.
great degree owned and almost wholly,
! controlled by the mill-owners. In the.
glass factories, children lead the lives
| Of slaves. They soon become wan and
peaked, and die young. U
I'm Connecticut, real child slavery
exists On many farms. 8.
I'm Massachusetts,, the whitening ef-s
fects of child labor are shown in the
hospitals and asylums of the State.
The mortality in the mill towns is ex-
ceedingly high" a. SIS
If this is prosperity" then let US,
find some other way. to commercial
greatness.