The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-01
ChiId .T,ahor T,eeiasatlnu.

s~4r More than onca recently The Chrcui. cle has discussed the question of child labor in factories because it Is ouee- tion which is now to the front, and which Is most likely to become sub. ject of Legislation in Texas before many years, and which indeed ought to ba legslated on by the next legislature. II The evils of child labor in factories cotton factories especially, can scarce. ly be exaggerated. and 1a in a recent sS. .a: American Federation of Labor. declar- ed "the South is educating tho negroea and enslaving the whites in its cotton mills" and the statement is iamen- tabiy true. The negroes are being edu. cated with taxes, fiinety-five per ceft of which the whites pay.
 A writer in the Railroad Trainman'a groes remain on the farm or go into mechanical trades, while all the family, father mother, boys. girls and bahies ialmost) go into the factories, dnG there are five negro children in school to one white chi1d
 The statement is further made that in certain city, in South Carolina there are two mills in the city limits and eight Just outsde. and out of . thousand people living around the two mills only six. children attend school, dred and fifty population not a miJl town one hundred and forty-eight cliil- dren attend school. and in anutney town one hundred and nine negro chil- dre attend school out of small popu- lation.
 The writer referred to says he saw in one mill in South Carolina ftfty-ftve boys and girls whose age would not average eiRhf years, and six others whose ages would not average quito seven, yet all these were working from five and six in the morning until eiahE
 Tn many mill in the South children of tender years work all night, and children SO small as not to be able to reach to certain parts of the machinery are forced to stand on dangerous paris of the machine, and frequently sympa- thetic adult laborers take pity on them for them, and tell them to go and lie down, and the poor. worm out, sal-, low-faced., hollow chested children-- almost babies--faH asleep on some old box or cloth as soon as they lie downs
 These are evils which prevail all over the South, and the legislature of Geors gia by a vote of one hundred and child labor bill, and it IS to De hoped that 1t is not rendered worthless by multitude of provisos. such as emaFcu- late the labor laws of other states:
 Texas ought at the earliest oppor. tunity to enact a labor law that witi provide that no child under fourteen years of age shall work in cotton rae. tory night or day, and that no cnlld under sixteen years of age shall work at night in any factory.
 There are no such conditions of pov- erty in Texas, and never need be. Rs ies.
 There is no excuse whatever for Texas to permit the lives of her chill dren to be ground up in any k:nd of a factory
 To work children midst choking lint and &ust that fill the air and clog the lungs, and to tax their feeble limbs by twelve hours of labor, and to sap their Vigor and vitality and leave them weak and wasted and pale in order that in- yestors may make big dividends is in- famous, and is, a reproaeh. upon the civilization of this enlighted age.
 To stunt and shriveI the bodies and souls of thousands of young children for purposes of gain is a crime unmiti- gated and inexcusable.
 There are already a number or cot. ton factories in Texas and there Will be many more, and there should bs such litigation enacted at once as will serve notice on all millionaires that are or may be that they will not be permitted to coin the bodies of children Into money or convert their souls into dividends.