The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-01-13
CHILD SLAVERY.

speaking on Christmas eve, before
the Society Of Ethical Culture, Prof.
Felix Adler said of child slavery, In
the South:
"A new kind of slavery which has
grown UP in the last few years Is the
employment of young children In
Southern mills there are $4,000 children
under the age Of fourteen working from
ten to fifteen hours a day, besides be-
ing compelled to work alternate nights.
-Four or five years ago there were only
$4,000. There are also 5000 children
working In and about mines, and thou
sands employed in chothes factories
when they should be at home, and this
terrible form of slavery is SPREADING"
In the tenement houses in New York
and In the mills of cultured New Eng
land, conditions are similar to those
in the South. ~ .%|
Even right here in California-the
land OF unlimited resources-we have
been brought face to face with the
child labor problem, and the legislature
IN, response to the peoples demand,
passed a, law prohibiting the employ
ment Of children under a certain age.
The. law has ben fagrantly violated
as proved last week when the death
and mutilation Of children by an ex-
plosion Of shipboard, called it to the
public attention. State Commissioners
Stafford has taken firm stand in this
matter, and with public sentiment be-
hind him, the law will not be a dead
letter.
Child slavery is no less an evil than
was chattel slavery, wiped out by the
sacrifice of thousands of precious lives.
1t is worse! than chattel slavery. be-
cause the child has no commercial VAL
ue-not even as much as that Of
hammer or tack. Therefore, no care is
given to the child slave and it Is
thrust aside as soon as it becomes use
less, just like any other tool or ma
chine.
The indianapolis Sentinel voices our
sentiments when it says that lit is
scarcely conceivable that men would
permit their greed to lead then into
the constituencies degradation of maxi
an lives" Yet this is exactly what
they are doing. Employers Of child
labor are money mad. Certainly no
other excuse can be cited in their be-
half.
They employ children because they
can do the work and the outlay of
wages is cut in half, at least. The
product however; sells: for the same
price in the market-for price as high
as though it had ben manufactured
by mature men and women.
The additional profit that comes to
the unscroupulous employer represents
what the children have given him for
their lives. 1t represents what has been
pilfereds from them; it represents their
strength, their childhood, their hap
piness, their health, their vigor, and
all that human beings in. later years
hold to lie good and true and worthy
of remembering. 49,. - ....,
Punched faces and pale cheeks, vast
ed bodies, empty minds, these are what
the employers Of child labor: give the
country. This is one product that
comes out of their mills, their factories
and their shops. Wrecked and broken
bits of humanity, doomed to early and
untinnely death-these are the :toilers
who bring riches to the men who; make
fortunes out of childish suffering. :.
Althouh it.. seems inconceivAble,, as
has already been Stated that: men
should stoop to such a disreputable
means. to make money. nevertheless,
there is comfort in the reflection that
the evil is being rapidly being correct
ed. II mems consciences cannot be
awakened by the simple appeal of hu-
nranity, they can be compelled by force
Of law,@to take not OF the malignant
practice they indulge. in b ~ Y
The productive function of labor Is
not alone to be considered. The huns
an side demands thought. Labor is
awakened by the simple appeal OF hu-
sold. That, in substance. is slavery.
Labor has q higher value, too. that can
not he measured by dollars and cents.
Smoke Ptfa dpra Cigar, Clear Havana,
Union bel and oIhe Made
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