The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-02

are better off in the small towns than they
were in the isolated rural districts, took
her for a trip into the mountains. His
account illustrates well the conditions
under which the primitive mountaineers
I've:
Il showed her a typical mountain fam
lily, in which there were eight children.
The man had a cabin Of one room, with
no stove. four miles from school and
three miles from church. The oldest child
was IA, had been to school once and
said he knew his letters. The man had
three acres and did little farming and
sometimes hauled timber at so cents
day. l asked her what that family would
do If the man should die. q think you
must remember that the primary thing
In existence is meat and bread. She
stated that the people were better off
here In the good mountain air than in
the mills, and I told her I thought air
was pretty thin Diet
That mo child who has worked In
cotton mill can ever learn to read and
write" was refuted by families of children
where half attend school while the other
half work in the mill. This testimony
was procured from the children in their
homes, In the schools, and in the mills.
Girls of IS to p who had worked in the
mills during childhood were going to the
company's night school and learning to
read and write One boy of II was OBJ
served in day school in the primary
class making satisfactory progress
That "a child in the mill never talks to
any one" was shown to be highly alb
surd not only by the willingness of the
children, but by their ability to answer al
the questions put to them.
Children half naked!" That depends
on what the term means, but In any event
such a radical statement does not de-
children are found. The majority of the
children are stoclkingless and shoeless
when at the mills. but are otherwise very
properly clad. The children in the schools
are all dressed as to cause surprise.
and when seen on the streets Sundays and
holidays all the children are well attired.
That the children are clicked and shalS-
en- by the oyerseers" and otherwise Sc
yerely disciplined cannot be applicable to
the general situation. 1t is always pos
sible that there may be a brute among
foremen, but the children in all the mills
were exceedingly playful undisciplined,
and even destructive. In several spinning
rooms they were playing tag around the
spinning frames showing a lack of dis
cipline that would not be tolerated in
other districts.
The picture of the "child of eight
which has just had the two large fingers
of the right hand torn from their sockets
at the greater knuckleS,' and the state
ment that the accident was but one of
hundreds" led to an investigation of the
accident records, which showed that In
one mill where there are 400 employees
there had been but one accident in four
months-a child of eleven lost the first
joint of the second finger in picking waste
from the gears, which a fellow worker
had uncovered, In violation of the strict
rules which provide that the operatives
shall not clean their machines when in
motion. This was pitiful. indeed. but the
records showed comparatively few acct
dents. From the part of the machinery
upon which the employees are engaged in
spinning. In some of the mills the gears
have been covered both top and bottom
so that 1t is absolutely impossible for the
children to get their fingers caught. This
should be done in all the mills, whether
there are children employed or not. But
1t is not fair to say that there are hun
dreds of cases of. children of eight years
of age losing their fingers.
That the children work during but not
, Through the noon hour might be proved
in isolated cases. The automatic looms
are sometimes permitted to run through
the noon hour. because when the thread
breaks the loom will stop and no harm
can be done to the product. This, 1t was
admitted. may tempt some of the weav-
ers. generally adults. to go back Into
the mills after taking twenty minutes