Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1905-09-24
HOME MISSIONS.
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|
The subject for September before
| the Home Mission society of the M.
| E. church, south, is, "Our Factory Peo-
pie and Child Labor" Having moth
| ing special to report / write this arti-
Gle on child labor instead of a report.
The problem of child labor in the
cotton mills of the south is one that
is interesting the church, the Woman's S
| Home Mission societies and the gen
eral thinking public. This question
has reached a stage that steps must
be taken to stop ''the industrial i'm
prisonment of the child" of cur fair
southland. Mr.. Edgar Gardner Muir
phy says in the Present South:
Il have repeatedly seen them at labor
for twelve, thirteen and even four
teen hours per day. In the period OF
the holidays as at other rush times,
| have seen children of eight and nine
years leaving the factory as late as
9:30 o'clock at night, and finding their
way with their own little lanterns
through the unlighted streets Of the
r,ill village to their squalid homes. It
was for the correction of the evil Of
night work, quite as mucn as for the
establishment of an age limit, that
hoe
aroused" The source of this labor
lies in the unlettered masses of the
white population, who have been lured
from their little homes in the "hill
country" by smooth tongues of labor
agents who hold out a bright future
to them. On the little hill farm the
whole family worked together and so
the family still remains under the
changed conditions, the working unit
Often at the weeks end they will find
themselves in possession of more real
| money than they have seen in months
before and not clearly perceiving that
more money does not mean more life
an error not unusual among more
| favored classes-they soon forget
! whatever OF advantages the old life
! may have contained. In the country
! at large the percentage of children
j employed is decreasing. but in the
south it is increasing. 1t is estimated
that at the beginning of 1903 there
! We're employed in southern factories
j 0000 children under twelve years Cd
age. Practically all are white. The
{, number of negro children employed
is said to be too small to be noticed
'It is evident that the state must
lGok to the protection of it's future
citizens' Child labor laws have beer
passed by North Carolina, Kentucky
| Tennessee, Alabama. South Carolina
Virginia and Texas. In some states
the legislation is not satisfa ctOry t.
the advocates of the protection O
childhood, but it is the best that coul(
be secured. If the south does no
wake UP to the fact that we must have
men of brains and character in on
legislatures and Christian gentleme,
for governcrs We will live to see TIL
fruits Of our own folly. 1t is a remote
habit of the south to wake up too late
We are ncople that readily swallow
a sugar.ccated bait, which is very OF
ten composed Of no conscience, theft
and no god but gold After swallow
ing the bait we make face at its hi
terness. but we have taken the dos
and must do something to counterac
it so as to not live it's effects
great number of these children hav
, worked in the factory too long alread
some began work at six years an
: are so dwarfed in mind and body tha
they can not outlive it's effects; bu
l belive the Master will receive then
because the Bible says we must b.
G me as little child before we ca
enter the kingdom, and Christ blesse
the little children and said. "of such
the kingdom of heaven" This doe
Eot clear us of our responsibility i
this world Tho greater number {
these mills ere owned and CONTROLS
: - ro-.''9~-'-- o~,-''al !. ',as hco7 fo-r