The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-09-22
Will Assist in SURPRISING it BY Hold.
ing Lectures and%Publishins
Statistics. ~

A society of young students have
undertaken to form a society on the
East Side Of New York to assist in
the suppression Of child labor, by
holding lectures, publishing statistics.
etc.
One OF the leaders in this new or
san4zat1on is son Of one of the for
mer successful leaders in the United
1arment Works Of America, Meyer
ecnoenfeld. Below is an address on
the subject delivered by one of the
NUMBER:
). me vast amount Of spirited :agita-
e!ona the numerous outcries, denoun-
eng and haying Child labor" appear
simply as mockery to the movement.
During the Civil war an emancipation
proclamation issued by the e chief
executive of the United States--long
may his memory live-released' from
bondage the children as well as the
adults Of the black race. ;:<
lime and time alone places us
ABOUT forty years after American slay-
cry ceased to exist for which many
pied. But, present to US another pro-
clamat1on, give us another Lincoln Oh.
that some power would alight I'M our
midst that would, where it so necessi-
tates, send Into our hearts Of men feel
1ngs humane, sympathetic and Just.
thus unwilling the blank side of their
hearts to nature.
Where would I be?' This is the
poets invitation to those mortals who
are eager to grasp and ponder. Invite
the stricken child to an opportunity
OF soliliquy and Immediately a d.
vine dream-only a dream, mark you
like that Of the poets Utopian fu-
ture Elusive expectations will present
themselves In emblazoned and golden,
views and enter the youthful, childish
forms, then elevating them to. pin
nacle lofty in air, whirling them into
the depths, up to the heights of that
beautiful, paradisical but seemingly
impossible stage of coveted felicity.
Indeed it is all but a dream, Is
life only dream? Bad enough if it
is. But how deep and slumberous
must that dream be if in it we can
dream a dream?
Since 1885 there has been an in
crease Of so per cent in our population
and an increase of 100 per cent. in
child labor. Yet all Of us term this a
time of prosperity Prosperity; but
how? Would we gradually glide back
to those dark days Of despoliation and
servitude? Perhaps unaWares. Would
we act the part of slave holders in a
land Of freedom? Yet on small
scale that is what many are doing.
"How long can this last? Rome
was she not shattered thus: to the
wind? Compare her present to her
past. People gaze, as If stupid; first
pity, then sympathize, and still do
nothing. =: "~'-
"This is what we call the attainment
Of very lofty and twentieth century
civilization.
"Civilization? Ball.! We need agi-
tation. The time is ripe; it is mature;
at last it has come. We must strike,
and that hard. If you would labor for
your own sake, for the coming genera
ton, for every one, for the honor due
to the martyr abolitionist, for the
honor of the past abolitionists, for the
sake of common decency, respect and
humanity, organize a society with
anti-humiliat1ng, shameful. modern
slavery,
'sThis organization will tend to in
ject the necessary facts into the very
brains Of the people who are wronged
unawares. Then eventually a forcible
petition-if not one, then consecutive
ones, unhesitatingly, not letting up,
will be presented to the public SER
wants, and shall abolish, demolish, wipe
out of existence, exterminate. by the
root, the hnferno,C the influx Of that
pestilence, child labor. vs.:
Robbed Of their happy days, the
opportunity of poisoning into wo-
manhood and manhood, such as this
country is desir0us Of obtaining, If this
child labor is not done away with,
the United States will not think Of
any such absurdity, demanding a good
citizenship, for it will be unobtain-