The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-11

ation of machinery. Still more strange is 1t that 1t should be necessary to fix a minimum age at which children can be employed.s The very sight of little boys and girls working in factories at the expense of their pyhsical growth and their mental development is so re- volting that one can hardly under stand how such legislation can be ne- cessary, and yet, throughout Europe and the United States the laboring men, through their organizations, have been compelled to fight for the pro tection of the children of the poor. In Asia the inauguration of factories has not yet been followed by the protec- tion of the children.
 Reforms advance in groups. It is seldom that one real reform is achieved alone. so the limitation of hours of labor has, as a rule, accom- panied Legislation for the protection of children and for the improvement of sanitary conditions in mines and work shops. Those who now enjoy the eight hour day can remember the nine hour day and then ten hour day. but can hardly recall the days of twelve and fourteen hours. In the factories that are starting up in the orient long hours there is attendant degradation of the toiler. The demand for the eight hour day is an interna- tional one and the laboring man is gradually winning his fight, partly by an appeal to conscience and partly by proof that the highest efficiency is in- consistent with long hours.
 In the raising of wages two factors have been at work--the labor organi- zation and the higher efficiency that has come with more universal educa- tion. The educated workman can earn more than the ignorant one and he soon demands a compensation com mensurate with his services.
 The labor saving machine has played no unimportant part in increas- ing the workman's compensation. Ii has raised the quality of the work done, and has brought into use high CT grade of skill than was formerly employed. While Rhe labor saving machine is by some regarded as an tagonistic to the welfare of the la borer, no far sighted observer can fail to note that it has increased rather than diminished the number of em- ployed at the work into which it has been introduced, while it has intro duced a higher skill which, in turn has secured a higher compensation The handling of a locomotive requires
 more skill than the handling of a | freight team, and the engineer com mands higher wages than the team | SIeTs 1nG TdlATOdu Dy vastly lnCTGdS' | ing commerce has multiplied the num- Der of persons engaged in the hand. ling of passengers and freight, and il has at the same time improved the character of the work done and raised | the intellectual standard of those em. ployed. The same result has followed
 in other kinds of work. It might be
 stated thus, labor saving machiAery
 as 1t Is called-although 1t might more l IH~AnnrIxy hn ra11nd Iah ffn1x xrEv q machinery-has created a demand fol a higher grade of labor; universal edu
 cation has supplied this demand, ant the labor organization has secured fol | these higher grade laborers larger compensation and more favorable con,
 ditions.
 One thought has grown upon me al we travelled, namely, the dignity of la
 bor In no other country is so high ar estimate placed upon the wage earnel
 as in this country. In the orient ther,
 was, until the advent of western idea