The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1906-06-20
"A TRAREDY
OF TOLL
Employment Of Infants ID
Factories
NOT WORTH SACRIFICE
Nation That Permits Its Children to Be
Manned and Stunted Must Deteri-
orate-Discussio at Phil
adelphia.

among the subjects discussed At the
twenty-fourth annual meeting of the
church congress at Philadelphia was
"I'he Problem or Child Labor The
church congress is an. unofficial and
voluntary body of clergy and lay mem
bers Of the Episcopal church. It's OH
iect is discussion, and Il annually gath.
ers distinguished assembly. whose
views are widely influential In the
Episcopal church.
The discussion Of the topic 1.-THE
Problem Of Child Labor. was opened
by Professor James H. billiard Of Tu-
lane university. New Orleans. The
speaker suggested that when reading
tile long story Of child labor one IL
tempted to ask whether God Is at work
anywhere No nation, however popl-
lous and prosperous, can stunt a mil
lion of its children, he declared, and
not reap the consequences.
May 1t not be, be said THAT Eng
land is already seeing the consequence
OF the neglect of her children. especial
~ during the first three-quarters of the
last century If there Is one lesson
the world should have learned IL is this.
that civilization and development must
include tie lowest. else the top falls.
There is real need that we should
frequently remind ourselves Of the his.
torical and economic connections be-
tween the new industriaiism and the
new humanity and not forget how our
present problems arose and how they
are connected with larger problem,
our modern forms OF production and
poverty.
"The child's supreme protection and
training must be the home. No real
home win ever send little child out to
labor for another's hire. Where rests
the responsibility for the great increase
In child labor? The cotton mill en-
ployer charges that child labor IL the
result Of the cupidity and ambition Of
parents. Another employer declares
that employment Is training the child.
On the other hand, 1t is asserted that
the root OF the whole matter lies in the
sordid gain of profit seekers in greed
for cheap labor Is 1t not tragedy
of toll in which the bodies of children
are MANNED and their minds dwarfed
solely that we may have cheap labor.v
Professor Samuel Mcclure Lindsay
of the University Of Pennsylvania.
chairman of the national child labor
committee, declared that in this coun-
try no adequate investigation of child
labor has yet been made The amount
of child labor Is growing faster. he
asserted, than the efforts to restrain 1t.
Ii the children are TO be protected all
elements in the community, he argued.
must come together on one platform
unalterable opposition to all forms Of
child labor.
Approximately 100000 children be-
tween ten and sixteen years Of age. or
about one in every dozen children of
that age in the United States, are
working for wages" said the speaker.
For boys and girls respectively their
numbers are increasing two and three
times as fast as the population of the
country precisely In those occupations
which are most dangerous to health.
morals and education No material
prosperity is worth the having, nor
can II be long maintainH, that is secur-
ed at the expense of tile heirs apparent
of the republic
L. L. Marvin of Akron, O., United
States circuit Judge, followed Profess
or Lindsay. IF we could only feel
he began. that God no more loves
those little children OF our homes, in
whom is our delight than he does the
ones In filth and rags and In the nost
abandoned home we should be some
what more jealous than we are, pers
haps, In this matter Of child protection.
| suppose that the little children who
our Saviour snid should he allowed to
come to him aud who. the apostles and
some of his other followers thought,
should not be permitted to.dlsturb him
were not the children Of the wealthy.
They were of the humble class. but our
Lord said, 'Of such as these il the
kingdom OF heaven
"The sacredness OF home is that
which comes from mutual~iove, mu-
tuaI help and mutual upbuildjng. and
that kind OF home, OF course, Is above
all the other places on tie earth the
best IN which to train the child But
we must not overlook the fact that In
every community there are great
many homes that are not Of that kind.
The evidence is strong In the newspa.
pers that hundreds and hundreds ct
homes In every city are II, nowise sa.
cred and that the children would he
better Off hundred times IL The state
would take charge OF them instead or
leaving them with unworthy parents.
Can you think of anything more
likely to contamInate child, to lead
him in a wrong direction, than that at
the age OF ten years or less he should
be on the street selling papers or ear
rylng messages? Is it possible that we
hesitate to take steps for the stoppage
of this evil because we fear the law
will not be enforced after we have
made itf'