The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-06-23

The Nation That Permits Its Cn110ren
to BE Manned and stunted Must De-
teriorate-No Material Property Ii
Worth the Sacrifice.
Among the subjects discussed at the
twenty-fourth annual meeting Of the
church congress at Philadelphia was
THE Problem OF Child Labor" The
church congress is an unofficial and
voluntary body Of clergy and lay men,
bers Of the Episcopal church. It's OBJ
ject Is discussion, and It annually
gathers distinguished assembly,
whose views are widely influential in
the Episcopal church.
The discussion of the topic, 1.-THE
Problem Of Child Labor was opened
by Professor James H billiard of Tu-
lane university. New Orleans. The
speaker suggested that when reading
the long story Of child labor one Is
tempted to ask whether God 10 at work
anywhere. No nation, however popu-
lous and prosperous. can stunt mil
lion Of its children, he declared. and
not reap the consequences.
May it not be-" he said, that Eng
land is already seeing the consequence
of the neglect of her children, especial-
~ during the first three-Quarters of the
last century. II there is one lesson
the world should have learned it is this,
that civilization and development
must include the lowest, else the top
falls.
THE childs' supreme protection and
| training must be the home. No real
home will ever send little child out
| to labor for another's hire. Where
rests the responsibility for the great
| increase in child labor? The cotton
mill employer charges that child labor
is the result Of the cupidity and ambi-
ton of parents. Another employer de-
clares that employment Is training the
child. On the other hand, it is assert
ed that the root of the whole matte,
lies in the sordid gain of profit seekers
in greed for cheap labor. Is it not q
.agedy Of toll in which the bodies OF
children are MANNED and their minds
| dwarfed solely that we may have CHEAP
! labor?'
Professor Samuel McCune Lindsay
Of the University Of Pennsylvania
chairman of the national child labor
| committee, declared that in this coun-
| try no adequate investigation of chile
| labor has yet been made. The amour,
of child labor Is growing faster, he
| asserted, than the efforts to restrain it
If the children are to be protected all
! elements in the community, h argued
must come together on one platform
una1terable opposition to all forms OF
child labor.
Approximately 100000 children be.
tween ten and sixteen years OF age, o,
about one in every dozen children OF
that age in the United Stats, are
working for wages" said the speaker
For boys and girls respectively thei1
numbers are increasing two and three
times as fast as the population OF thu
country precisely In those occupation.
which are most dangerous to health
morals and education. No materia
prosperity is worth the having, no,
can it be long maintained ed, that is Sc
cured at the expense Of the heirs ap
parent of the republic"
u. L. Marvin Of Akron, o. United
States circuit Judge, followed PROBES
sor Lindsay. II we could only feel
he began, that God no more love!
those little children of our homes, II
whom is our delight, than he does tn
ones In filth and rags and in the mos
abandoned home we should DO some
what more Jealous than we are, per
haps, In this matter Of child protection
I suppose that the little children, who
our Saviour said should be allowed tt
come to him and who, the apostles ant
some of his other followers thought
should not be permitted to disturb him
were not the children of the wealthy
They were of the humble class, but ou1
Lord said, OF such as these is tn,
ngdom of heaven
THE sacredness of home is tina
which comes from mutual love, mu
tual help and mutual upbuilding, ant
that kind Of home, of course, Is abov,
all the other places on the earth tn,
best in which to train the child. Blu
we must not overlook the fact that IL
every community there are a grea
many homes that are not of that kind
The evidence is strong in the newspa
pers that hundreds and hundreds O.
homes In every city are in nowise sa
cred and that the children would b,
better off a hundred times If the stat,
would take charge Of them instead O.
, leaving them with unworthy parents
Can you think Of anything NOR,
likely to contaminate a child, to lea(
him in a wrong direction, than that q:
the age of ten years or less he should
be on the street selling papers or car
ry1ng messages? Is it possible that W,