Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-09-29
CHILD LABOR LAW.
Columbus, Ga, Starts to Educate its
 Factory Youngsters Thoroughly.


 dustrious education for some of ths
 tens of thousands of children, who
 under the new anti-child labor legis
 lation of Georgia must leave the fac
 tories on January 1, 1907, and go to
 school, the Columbus secondary in.
 dustrial school will open its doors on
 Monday.
 Child labor legislation and the l great demand for skilled labor in the
 south are responsible for the found
 ing of the secondary industrial school here, in the heart of one of the most
 important centers of cotton manufac-
 ture in the south. Children under IA
 years of age will not, after January l 1, 1907, be permitted to work in any factory in Georgia There will be
 thousands of boys and girls between
 10 and IA years of age forced out of the factories and into the schools.
 The grammar schools of the state are
 already overcrowded, and many of l the factory children will not find l places. In large cotton mill centers l this will work great hardship, and
 the real purpose of the child labor bill, passed by the Georgia legislature
 in June, will, in nearly all the large I cities of the state, be defeated, for a
 time at least, by the lack of public
 school facilities.
 Realizing that child labor legisla- tion was inevitable, the manufactur- CTS of Columbus, led by c. Gunby Jordan. president of the Eagle and Phoenix cotton mills, founded the secondary industrial school, a distinct departure in the field of education. Its purposes are two-fold, to offer the children of the 5000 cotton mill op- eratives of Columbus an education in trades in which they have already had practical training, and to furnish the mills and factories of this city | and vicinity with skilled labor.
 Located on a hill overlooking Co., | lumbus, in settlement but year | old. which has grown from a wide
 expanse of vacant lots to a manufac- l turing city with 5000 inhabitants
 and two large factories, this school, an industrial experiment, is thorough | ly at home. It is new school, em-
 bodying new idea, located in a new | town, where there are people living | who are new to the south.
 When completed there will be eight | buildings on the campus of the
 school, each devoted to one of Co.,
 lumbus's several industrial activities. The buildings will be grouped in a quadrangle, with the main building
 in the center. Devoted entirely to ! the study of cotton mill machinery,
 the textile building, as the depart
 ment of the school expected to fur
 nish the cotton mills of this city with | all classes of labor, will receive the | most attention from those back of the institution. Here the sons of the present cotton mill operatives
 will learn to be skilled weavers of both plain and colored goods of the finest qualities. Four years training
 in this building will give the students sufficient training to command, with
 in short time after they re-enter the l mills, wages as good as their fathers
 are now drawing. : The breaker room. the card room, the spinning room and
 dye house will all be supplied with labor from this textile building
 which will graduate seventy or eighty
 boys year, as well as turning out a
 large number who have taken only q part of the course, but who cannot continue the work. With the advent of the manufac- ture of fine cotton goods in the south, there Is great demand in all mill cities for experienced dyers. The secondary industrial school will en- deavor to supply the mills with all the labor of this class needed. In addition to a knowledge of dyeing, the graduates of this and all other textile departments will be we'll drilled in the fundamental principles
 underlying the various processes in the manufacture of cotton goods. Italian and German immigrants are being sought by the foundries of Georgia. The secondary industrial school will have a special department for teaching the children of any for eigners who may come to Columbus to settle, trades which they will he able to follow In the industrial plants of the city. For this work there will be a foundry, blacksmith and ma
 
 chine shop. .....-
 There is big demand in Colun. bus for skilled cotton mill labor. The same conditions exist all over the state. Progress in the manufacture of fine cotton goods in the south has been retarded because of the inabi,- ity of the mills to secure the neces- sary labor for the machines.
 As it is located in one of the larg- est cotton manufacturing cities in the south. the school will perfect tho textile course as the most necessar. one. At the same time. that the idea embodied in 1t may be successfully worked out. students will be pre- pared in all industrial courses, that every factory in Columbus may be benefited. Domestic arts, including sewing. cooking and housekeeping. will be taught to girls. Shorthand and typewriting will be taught to both boys and girls.
 Governor Joseph M. Terrell q. Georgia. George Foster Peabody and Robert C. ogden of New York were present at the laying of the corner stone of the first building of the sec ondary industrial school Tn an ad- dress made on that day. Governor Terrell remarked that a far-reaching step forward had been taken by Co., lumbus. The entire group of build .h. v-srI h.. nar,.