The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-02-02
CHILD LABOR
Its Abolition in Factories an Adjunct
to Compulsory Education.

The Richmond News Leader lays
safe 10 distrust the testimony of a par
tisan or enthusiast. however honest the
witness may be. This apropos Of pa
pers cad at a recent meeting held in
New Orleans. In some cotton mills
of the SOUTH says that paper. after
three generations the younger iaborers
are well developed. strapping. vigorous
and fecund and give not the slightest
indication of race deterioration. Prob
ably liz is true that a family of mount
aineers, accustomed to the open air and
constant vigorous exercise. when put to
occupations which keep them indoors
and require little use OF any part OF
their bodies except their hands in the
course Of generations Will lose in
statute. weight. strength and vfgor.
The tendency of all city life for indoor
laborers is TO diminish height and
weight Common sense a. well as ex-
Dericnce seems to tearh that this must
he so. 1t is natural TO for in
stance. that when people generation
after generation are required to use
, their legs following the pillow their legs
will lengthen and strengthen, supposing
proper food and other conditions: and
IL is equally natural to suppose that
people who sit on benches or stools or
q Il NuAcN II SllopS SCilCI olloit oASOI
generation. using their legs little. will
show d gradual shortening n weak
ening Of those limbs unless they make
a habit of taking exercise to prevent
that tendency"
The immediate and wholesale aboli-
ton OF child labor. says our Richmond
! contemporary. would work serious
hardship in some cases. 1t would nee
~essarily be an adjunct of a compulsory
education law and the whole idea of
taking the management and direction
of children from the n of their
own parents and putting it under con-
troll of the state ought to be approach
ed with the most extreme delicacy and
care. Everybody knows that people
become the parents of children without
| any fitness for that position except the
physical capacity to produce them e
/ cannot and ought not, however. TO
make general legislation for eXcep-
| tional cases. There are children who
will not go to school or will not study
when they do go and whose parents
must choose between having them idle
and doing nothing for themselves or
anybody else n putting them to
some light work. Their are widows
with families of young children and
fathers made helpless by illness Or &C.
cident who must beg or suffer or put
their children to work, II some of
l1cSe are very IlOIlcSI anu vi lily ECc
pie. OF course there are dissolute
Women and men so heartlesS and low
that they are content to live IN sioth
by the sacrifice of their own flesh and
blood. The problem is how TO sepa-
rate the good from the bad. rs a
general proposition every una child
,,orn into the world is entitled to enjoy
i it's Standardization and Innocence,
the development Of its imagination and
the accumulation of physical strength
against the train of labor in later days
We may say with equal justice how
ever. that all of us are entitled to our
youth: and yet probably a majority
of us in this country must go to work
and begin to look out for ourselves
when we are sixteen or seventeen
years old.
We believe hat the North Carolina
law meets all the requirements of tht
case. It is discriminating and 1t Is
founded upon discretion. 1t has beer
generally observed since its anattmen'
and works to the mutual satisfaction OF
oarent and mill owner. In North Car
DINA. we honestly think. there is less
abuse of Child labor than in any
other state. north or south.-Chariottt
: Chronicle.