The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-12
NOT INCONSISTENT OR HYPocRrr-
 ICAI.


 The few newspapers supporting MT. Conner have been in the middle of q bad fix about his child labor record. For weeks he has tried to ignore the matter and it has been in the last two or three days only that he has furnish ed his friends with any sort of mate- rial to argue with. In their despera- ton some of them have tried to parry the signed strictures on him by pr. F. c. Murphy and Dr. A J. McKelway. by alleging Inconsistencies on the part of The Advertiser in the employment of children as newsboys and car riers.
 So far The Advertiser has seen fit to ignore these petty attempts of small bore newspapers to arouse the preju- lices of people against this paper The Advertised is not candidate for Gov ernor. in the first place. and. in the second place some of the papers resort ing to the silly scheme are so noto- rious for their hatred of The Advertir ser and so proficient in the use of fbillfngsgate that we rarely 'dignify them with notice in these columns, However, their weak plan of answer has spread into some papers of repu- tation. and The Advertiser feels war ranted in exposing the absurdity of the thing. The Uniontown Herald says.
 We are proved to ask, what about The Advertisers own "child labor problerns The Advertiser gets out an early morning edition which 1t puts Into the hands of its ragged little newsboys to sell on the streets of the morning nraf in in the week these little boys. yanked out of their beds by The Ad- yertIser's heart1ess greed for. dollars, can be seen. in competition with negro boys. peddling this daylight edition Summer or winter. in the rain, sleet and snow. without breakfast. and when grown-up laboring people and cotton mill employees are asleep. in warm beds, these boys are forced to leave their homes to go on the streets of Montgomery and sell and deliver Advertisers containing hypocritical ar- ticles about "child labor"
 Now, we don't blame The Adverti- ser for this. Far from 1t. These poor little boys, many of them fatheriess
 and others supporting lazy fathers. Roaxss ana %ps The % Xaveter is is rathep a p09 to be commended for giving them em- pioyment by which they cen earn an honest living. We only aliude to the Advertiser Is, when 1t prates about "child labor."
 We'ii wager the boys in Mir. Comer's cotton mill are paid not only as much per week as The Advertiser pays It's newsboys. but that they are several years older, on the average, than the little creatures The Advertiser sends on the streets before daylight to sell Advertiser to this test, and If it refus- es to accept, it should have the de- cency to cease it's unbecoming mind about "chiidi labor.
 The Herald has been badly imposed upon by some of It's fellow supporters of Conner. The cold. hard facts are as follows:
 l. All of The Advertisers newsboys and carriers. except two. are negroes. TWO of It's newsboys are white. We have tried several times q organize corps of white boys, but Have failed, either because there are not enough white boys here. dependent on their own efforts for extra money. or else because those here regard it as negro work
 2. None of the newsboys, colored | or white, work for wages. They are partners on small scale, who buy pa- pers and sell them on an even divide They are not required to pay for pa- pers when they take them out. or to pay for any unsold.
 ,. None of the midnight edition Is sold on the streets of Montgomery. Only the third. or last edition Is sold here. The newsboys do not have to be yanked out of bed to sell it. They work voluntarily, and come or stay away as they please
 {. The bulk of the negro carriers get up at about the same hour at which negro boys on plantations rise. They are not ragged, but we'll clothed, and most of them go to school after their two hours morning work Is over Most of them are good, big strong bows. because they have to carry bags containing on an average hundred or more papers
 l 5. Most of these boys make more money out of their sales or carriers work in two hours every morning than l cotton mill children get for their weeks work of twelve hours day.
 F1vrthermore. the newsboys are at work in the open air, taking active exercise. They are not shut up in a close, poorly ventilated mill out of the pure air and sunshine. And then they can and do go to school. which the cotton mill children can't do.
 There isn't a child labor law in all the Union, no matter how strict, which The Advertiser is violating in its use of newsboys or carriers The Ad- vertiser is not hypocritical or inconsis- tent It has met The Herald's chal- lenge, and we hope 1t will have the decency," to reprint this reply to its silly arraignment.
 l -S-a1p-S--
 ACCOMPANYING THE PRESS.
 Among the greatest weaknesses of | A4 af