The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-03-24


labor gives any relief from poverty.
Poverty, crime and parental dependence
are promoted by failure to protect and
educate the children.
Religious and civic societies can render
valuable assistance in this campaign By:
/. Adopting resolutions in condemna-
tion of the evil and in support Of this
wise amendment.
2. Petitioning the members Of the Sem
ate and GeGneral Assembly to give the
bill careful consideration and support
Each individual may help to secure the
passage of this bill by:
I. Writing personally to his Senator
and Representative in behalf of the
measure.
2. Sending definite information as to
local conditions Of child labor to the
Chairman Of the New Jersey Child La
Dor Committee, Mr.. Hugh F. Fox. sos
4
Central avenue. Plainfcld, n. j.
Owen R. Lovejoy, assistant secretary,
discussing Child Labor at Night" says:
New jersey is fortunate in having
State labor department which looks upon
the premature employment of children as
an unnixcd evil, while the press, the ed
ucatioEal authorities and pEilanthrop,c
organizations have co-operated splendidly
of the legal protection and education Of
young children. In addition to these
forces, there appears widespread dis
position among employers to see the evil
effects of child labor and to refrain from
employing young children. Possibly
they have come to understand, as a dis
cerning New jersey paper suggested in
an editorial recently. that the people of
New Jersey will not tolerate child labor
But many Of them, doubtless throngh
+ their intimate contract with children who
have worked prematurely, have seen the
evil effects of such system and would
voluntarily refrain from employinb them.
"The one defect in the New Jersey
law is its failure to protect children
against night labor. A bill is at present
being prepared by the New Jersey Chila
Labor Committee of the Children's Pro-
tective Alliance. which is intended to pro-
hibit the labor of children under sixteen
years at night. The mere statement OF
such a program should be sufficient TO
guarantee its adoption. for It is difficult
to conceive a defence for a system which
would take little boys and girls out of
Their home and bed to labor at hours
which nature intended for sleep. Yet it
has its champions, who defend it either
on The round that industry will suffer II
child labor at night is prevented or that
the children themselves will suffer hard
ship.
1T can be defended on either ground.
Children cannot be employed at night in
the factories of New York or Ohio OF
Massa chusetts yet the textile and other
industries are not being crippled in these
States. Some glass manufacturers con-
tend that the glass industry cannot live
without such employment Yet it is
found that in Ohio and Illinois, in both
of which States the industry is more ex-
tensive than in New Jersey, although
children cannot work at night under six
teen years of age, new glass~houses are
constantly being built, and the industry
grows more rapidly than here.
Recent Investigations of the glass inr
dustry in America lead me to believe
that the industry has so gained through
improved methods and machinery that
the employment of young children be-
comes factor of constantly decreasing
Importance. In the decade ending 1900,
the glass industry in America shows an
increase of 20 per cent. in the number of
factories. 50 per cent. in capital invested,
45 per cent. in output, II per cent. in the
number of wage earners. while the num-
ber of children increased less than 3 per
cent.
The proposed legislation Is not for the
purpose Of preventing the employment of
boys in the glass industry, but only tins
to prevent their employment at night.
From both the physical and the moral
standpoints, the employment of a small
boy at night in a superheated factory is
reprehensible. In most glass-houses
where the process is continuous boys
work on the night shift every other week,
and such employment, interfering with
regular habits of rest, and in heat SO in
tense as to first stimulate and then
stupefy. sending the boy home at 2:50 or
4:s0 A. NJ. through the raw, damp night.
is fern of employment which obviously
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