The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-06-09
deprived 81 all chance ii life. should
arouse Indignation that nothing could

Dor committee. |
These are the facts concerning lit !
tie girl three feet and q half high,
stopped on her way to box factory
at 7:15 in the morning:
The child's work begins at 1880. She
has half an hour for dinner and stops
work at $3.50 in the evening. In order,
presumably, to show Christian charity.
they allow that child five minutes for
supper in the evening before the clos
ing hour of $3.50 arrives.
There is a child barely out of her
babyhood, working twelve hours and
a half day-still at work three and a
half hours after the brute that owns
her and that murders her has gone
home to his dinner.
That child in the long day turns In
the edges of 5000 box covers. -
Is not that horrible picture OF
shameful slavery and brutality?
Was there anything In the negro
slavery excelling this disgrace to the
nation?
Think of little child doing over
and over again 5000 times In one day
the same monotonous task!
Think OF the hollow chest, the tired
eyes and hands, the aching back!
Then think of q nation that allows
such a brutality! Think of the brute
that exploits this poor child!
Think how few can escape an early
death thus subjected to torture in
childhood!
And what kind of a child can be
added to the population by this poor
little slave if she lives to marry and
become mother?
In the glass mills In New Jersey, IL
a man alone asks for work, he is turn
ed away. But II he mentions that he
has children he gets hearing. He is
asked eagerly how many children he
has and how young they are. The
glass factories are constantly burning
up the children. killing them off. The
father who comes to sell his own
body and the bodies and lives of his
children, as we'll is eagerly received.
A nice picture of civilization, isn't it?
We shall not go on with the horrible
details OF child labor. They are too
depressing, too degrading.
| It is the fashion in the North to cry
| out against child labor in the South.
At least one state in the South has dis
graced itself by refusing to pass a law
! to protect the children. But Pennsyl-
vania, the rich and the great state, IL
infinitely more to blame than the
South.
| In Pennsylvania there are more chill
dren working in the mills than in
all of the Southern states taken to-
gether.
| We quote again from the official re-
port:
If Pennsylvania working children
wer~ tn stand shoulder to shoulder
with no space between them, the line
would reach more than twenty-five
miles. II one of them were to pass
your door each minute, day and night,
1t would take three Months for the en-
tire number to go by
How do you like that picture or
modern civilization?
The great state OF New York has a
commission to protect child life, and
to enforce the laws against child Ia
Dor. And the legislature of New York
admirably reflects our modern civ1-
hzation by promptly cutting down the
appropriation necessary to make the
work of the commission effective.
The factories of the United States
are numbering children by the thou
sands.
And those whom they do not kill
they turn out stunted, dwarfed, degon-
crate.
For the sake of few dollars we are
breeding in this country dangerous
race of men and women; race that
will have against civilization a most
deadly grudge. We are adding to the
body polite thousands upon thousands
that will have right to loathe and
despise the government which calls
itself republic. l~~.
Can the country afford this? Will
it endure it?
Can there not be aroused in favor
OF the white slave children all over
the country a little of the sympathy
that went out to the strong, null.
grown black slaves Of the South?
There is much admirable talking
done on all kinds of subjects. We
have In office, for instance, Presi.
dent who talks on every conceivable
point. Concerning the children, he
says:
In such q republic as ours the one
thing we cannot afford to neglect is
the problem of turning out decent cit
liens. The future of the nation de-
ponds upon the citizenship of the gen
Grafton to come; the children of today
are those of tomorrow will shape the
destiny OF our land, and we cannot at
ford to neglect them"
Very true and very pretty. We
cannot afford to neglect them. But
we are neglecting them. The Prest'
dent of the United States has grea,
power with the employers, the money
men OF the country. He is their pres
ident He can influence them II he
will-hurt them II they ignore him
He has said very vigorous things tc
the mothers about the importance 81
having ten children. y:
Will he not say something equally
vigorous to the manufacturers about
numbering those ten children almost
as soon as they are born?
And will he not do something In i'd
dition to saying something?:
The trouble with the country, Per
hans with Mr. Rooaovolt alaf, In ;hf