The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-01-24
BEvER|DGE on
CHILD LABOR
Paints an Awful Picture of the
Horrors of Mills and
Mines.
is Running ORGANIZED LABOR
Northern Capital, Which Owns
Mills, Is Debaucl1ing the
South.

WASHINGTON. D. c., January "a
senator Beveridge to-day delivered his
much discussed speech on the bill to
prohibit the labor of children in mines,
factories and sweat shops. He said in
part:
The census shows that nearly 2,000,-
900 child breadwinners under fifteen years
OF age nre now at work. OF these, al
most 100000 are engaged in work. other
than agriculture. Child labor on the
farm is good. This bill does not strike
at that. 1t strikes only at child slavery
in factories, mines, and sweat shops
Appalling as the census figures are.
they are much below the truth. Men and
women who have given years of pains
taking investigation to this evil. testify
that only a part Of little children, at
work in factories sweat shops. and mines
and in other like Industries were re-
turned by the census enumerators.
here present aftidavits showing the pre-
valence OF the labor Of children from
less than three years of age to fourteen
years of age In States where the census
returns show not much child labor en-
ployed.
Senator Beveridge then presented n
large number of aff1davits, with photo
graphs of child breadwinners.)
The evil then exists What does it
mean? First, 1t means inhumanity. Let
me give you ilustrations
Typical Examples of Child
Slavery.
Mr.. John Spargo, author of 1.-THE Bitter
Cry of the Children" tells of one little
girl at Atlanta, Ga, who said: when
works nights rs too tired to undress when
/ gets home. and so goes to bed with
my clothes on me-
He tells of another little girl in Pater-
son. n. j., who works in the steaming
room of a fax mill. standing barefooted
in pools of water. twisting coils of wet
hemp. He says that when he saw her
she was dripping wet, and in the coolest
evenings of winter little Marie and hum
dreds of other little girls must come out
of the superheated steaming rooms In
just that condition"
He tells of glass factory, surrounded
by high fence with several rows of
barbed wire stretched across the top,
which the foreman explained was needed
because sit keeps the young imps inside
once we have got them for the night
shift"
re teils OF q tiny SeVefl-year-Old VINO
had WORKED for twelve hours a day in an
oyster-canning factory at Oxford, Md,
and Maryland has over go canning estab-
iisAn ents employing young children.
flr. .parso describes the terrible work
v the 'snapper-up" or "carrying-in"
Us in glass factories, and says that
e glass blowers themselves seldom per-
at their own children to work in glass
rtories. He quotes one glass-blower in
aN--f, l.,
could sooner see my boy dead than
working here
Boys On the Coal Breakers.
He testtfies rs to the work of the boys
on the breakers Of coal mines. Mr..
spargo once tried to do the work for
half an hour that tweve-year-old boy
did day after day for ten hours at a
stretch. He says:
My hands were bruised and cut in
few minutes. l was covered from head
to foot with coal dust, and for many
hours afterwards was expectorating some
of the small particles OF anthracite
had swallowed There were boys OF ten
years of age doing it for so and 60 cep.,
day. Some of them had never been
inside Of school; few of them could
read child's primer. I.
Race. Degeneration.
II these children do not die. but grow
up into manhood and womanhood, they
become enemies of society I do not
blame them. They know that they
are not the equals OF their fellows in
body, mind, or soul; that their bodies
ere dwarfed, crooked, and weak; their
minds dull and clouded; their souls
darkened and vicious. Physicians tes-
tify that nervous exhaustion. produced
by child labor in factories, sweat shops
and mines, not only stunt growth, but
produces nervous irritation which |
calls for liquor and tobacco, and causes |
still another vice worse than either.
tSenator Beveridge here produced
the aftidavits Of physicians in support
Of this proposition.l
These children reaching what ought
to be manhood and womanhood. be-
come the parents of offspring Inherit
ing their degeneracy. and these chill.
iren in turn grow up to produce other
children still more degenerate This
ruin of American citizenship. upon
which alone this republic ''the last ex-
pertinent of freedom" rests is too high
price to pay for making still richer
few men who are already too rich.