The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-15
CHILDREN IN MINES
CHIEF TOPIC BEFORE CHILD LABOR
 COMMITTEE.
pitiful Conditions in Pennsylvania Bitu- minOus Fields and Around Coke Ovens Are Dencribea at Meet
 In Cincinnatt.

l
 | Cincinnati, Dec. 14.--Delegates from the various states committees to the annual convention of the National Child Labor Committee held a confer ance during the morning today. Dr. Samuel McCane Lindsay, secretary of the national committee presided. Reports were presented from the diff ferent state committees following which there was a general discussion of legal standards and methods of enforcement of child labor laws Much interest was manifested in the discussion. The child as an economic factor" was an- nounced as the general topic for the afternoon session.
 pr. Felix Adler, of New York pre- sided at the afternoon session which was held in the Scottish Rite cathedral.
 'ChfIds labor in the soft coal mines" was considered by owen R. LoveJoy, as- distant secretary of the national com mittee, who gave numerous illustra- tions of the work done by children and the ill-effects in the various bitumi- nous fields
 He said that the investigations were thus far too incomplete to give any statistics but sections of Maryland. Pennsylvania and West Virginia had already been gone over by the commit tee. Tn summing uI he said: We are told that many of the Monks in the middle ages believed ir necessary that the body should be mutiiated in order for the soul to grow. Was there signi- ficance in this belief which led many of them to wound, expose. torture and cripple their bodies almost beyond re- cog nitlonT
 "Evidently the promoters of child labor in the coal field think so, for in every large coal producing communal ! ty one meets on the street boys and men who bear evidence to the bodily cost of their employment.
 "On the theory of compensation the children of the coal regions, deprived of school, in early years taken to work In the dark corridors vr the mine' should have as the reverse side of their life picture a home of comfort and at Itractiveness; to many of them even this is denied. The coke producing section of the soft coal fieldS presents a weird spectacle to 8 stranger
 l At night the string of coke ovens, | perhaps half a mile in length, fs strangely beautiful. By day the scene is desolation. No vegetation can grow in the shade of the coke oven smoke and for many hundred feet on either side or the works appears no grass or lflowers, nor one living tree, but grimy, Iunpainted houses, muddy streets and alleys ana foul stenches from the un-
 severed yards
 I "Yet, with all of our national lift
 and the unmeasured hidden treasures of these coal regions, this Is tho typ'
 of the surroundings we offer to hun
 dreds of little children through all thu
 days of childhood; this their only deli nition of home.
 '"rhe national child labor committee :. would urge upon the judgment ant kconsclence of the American people tn
 necessity of so amending the chil
 labor and educational laws of the coa
 producing States as to render it i'm possible for any child under 16 year
 of age to engage in any labor inside [
 coal mine.
 eve also heartily endorse the re
 commendation of the Chief Mine In
 spector of Pennsylvania that certain
 forms of labor which expose to spe
 cial danger should be limited to thos'
 of higher age; that runners should b'
 not less than IF; loaders not less thar
 IS, nor miners under 21. But In thu
 interest of safety, education and eco
 homie progress, we must protes
 against allowing a child of 14 years ot
 age inside a coal mine.
 l s%rhe large percentage of accidents
 to mine workers under 16 years of age
 and to -Engliah-speaking workmeT
 of all ages. Is sufficient evidence oi
 the necessity for such legislation al
 shall guarantee every boy who contem'
 plates dangerous employment. both time
 and opportunity for the develooment oi