Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1906-10-25

room or in the factory has boy or girl
any chance for life in the open air. II
their fathers or mothers mean to have
them work in the mill or in the shop,
they live as near the mill or the shop
as they can. True, the mill is not
prison, but for the work hours it is
very nearly prison. The children
cannot talk to each other, they cannot
look out Of the windows, they cannot
stop while the machinery is working.
This means that they have not the fun
and joy which children ought to have
in the beautiful world which the good
God made for them.
OF this Imprisonment you must let
me speak very seriously, for it means
something which ought to come very
close to the hearts of every father and
mother who reads these lines. 1t is
not true that Nahum is any nearer to
God when he takes down the bars to
let the cattle into the pasture, or when
he puts them up again, or when he
climbs tree to see if the wild cher
ries are ripe, or when he throws
stone into the chestnut tree tn make
the burs fall. He is no nearer to God
than Hosea is, who is for ten hours Of
that same day wheeling cotton waste
in the mill.
/, No! But Nahum sees God a humid
+. red times, and hears what he has to
say a'hundred times, while he drives
= the cows to pasture and takes down tho
bars and climbs the cherry tree or
breaks open the chestnut burs, for
once when for poor Micah in the midst
of the clatter and dust and smell Of the
factory sees him or hears him.
What you and can do about it is
this.
We can recollect what we were when
we were eight and nine and ten and
eleven and twelve years old
We can ask ourselves whether it
would have been good thing for us to
be shut up in the factory or sewing
room three hundred and six days every
year at that time of life.
Every one of us knows it would have
Ueen Ddu tnlng.
First-Those are the growing years
OF life. You and l, well, perhaps we
were four inches taller every year than
we were the year before. We did not
earn any wages-no! But we were
growing up strong and well because
we could try ourselves in all sorts of
life. We had good exercise We. had
as much to eat of what was good for
is us to eat, and we were happy.
70 Second-We recollect again that we
Ia were great deal with our fathers and
d mothers and brothers and sisters. We
q knew what the word home was, and
r that home is the dearest place in this
T. world.
70 Third-We do not talk about it q
h. great deal, for it is too sacred thing
al to be lightly talked about, but some
st of us, perhaps all of us, found out that
I'd God is our loving father; that he Is
re very near to us and we are very near
No to him. We would not lose the mem
al cries and the help of what he has. tod
r. us and we have told him for Anything
id which you can offer us.
ra Fourth-Most of us came out, when
m we were sixteen years DID, strong and
ot well, ready to take part with the best
lie men and women in the world, in the
m very best work of the world.
nd think myself that that would be o
in wise nation or a wise state which
should make such laws that people
is shall not make money out of their
os- children before they are sixteen years
Id old. | think it would be good thing
m to devote those sixteen years wholly to
-en the education of the children, to max
to ing them better men and women. Lei
ev boy and girl help in the home. The
av more work they do there the better
I'M But let them be the companions of 70
DIS theirs or mothers as much as possibl,
for until they are sixteen. But here il
IAN one of the cases where / cannot hav,
ods my own way. The custom is so gen
;cb eral which permits fathers and moth
nst ers to ''hire OUT their children as tn
me phrase is, that you and cannot max
non law that children shall not earn wa
en- ges before they are sixteen.
the What can we doH We can say tina
they shall not be confined in factories
nee excepting for very limited hours, be
and fore they are fourteen. We can say
sis until boy or girl is sixteen they shall
ron have the privilege of going to school a
least half the year. In some cases W
or can say that one set of children q
in work shall work in the morning an
INV another set shall take their places
mn the afternoon. This is a practioabl
,bt method of legislation which has nc
,or. yet been applied. But the sooner il i
,ora applied the better. We can insist on
r in very careful and rigid inspection {
avs factories and workshops by public off
mrs GERS who are in nowise pecuniarily il
,ose terested in the establishments whic
tho they examine. Such examination
the should be possible at any hour of an
,oop day, and the publicity given to I'll
NOT results should be such as should NAL
he it certain that factory or workshC
7 visited hall be. kept neat and swe