The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-02-28
Degeneracy the Outcome Of
Employment Of Children
BEyERIDGE CITES FACTS
Nearly Two Million Juvenile Breadwin-
ners in America Toll Results
in Deterioration, as Shown by
British Recruiting officers.

Senator Beyeridge Of Indiana in adj.
dressing the senate in support Of his
bill to prohibit the labor Of children
said in part:
THE census shows that nearly 1000
900 child breadwinners under fifteen
years of age are now at work. OF
these almost 100000 are engaged In
work other than agriculture. Child
labor on the farm is good. This bin
does not strike at that. 1t strikes only
at child slavery in factories, mines and
sweatshops.
Appalling as the census figures are,
they ARE much below the truth. Men
and women who have given years OF
painstaking investigation to this evil
testify that only part OF little chill
dren at work in factories, sweatshops
and mines and in other like Industries
were returned by the census enumera-
tors.
'eThe evil then exists. What does it
mean? First it means inhumanity.
Let me give you Illustrations.
John spHrgn, author OF The Bitter
Cry OF the Children, tells Of one little
girl at. Atlanta, Ga, who said. When
| work nights lis too tired TO undress
when / gets home, and SO goes to bed
with my clothes on me-
',de tells of another little girl in
Paterson, N. j., who works in the
steaming room Of 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 hundreds on other little girls
must come out Of the superheated
steaming rooms in just that condition.
HE tells Of tiny girl seven years
old who had worked for twelve hours
8 day In an oyster canning factory at
oxford, Md, and Maryland has over
200 canning establishments employing
young children.
These are examples given because
they are typical, | have not referred
to the worst cases. I have letter
from Jane Adams, that wonderful
woman whom all America honors, tell
ing Of her personally seeing little
girl Of 1--WE years at work in a south
ern cotton mill have not referred
to the cases where cold water is thrown
on little children 10 keep them awake
or other Of the more hideous forms OF
this child murder. OF which this last
is an illustration, All OF the examples
have given can be supported by tes-
timony under oath and are given be-
cause they are typical Of thousands Of
similar cases.
III these children do not die. but
grow up into manhood and woman
hood. they become enemies Of society.
I do NOT blame them. They know that
they are not the equals OF their fell
lows in body, mind or soul: that their
bodies are drarfed, crooked and weak,
their minds dull and clouded, their
souls darkened and vicious. Phys.
clans testify that nervous exhaustion
produced by child labor in factories,
sweatshops and mines not only stunts
growth, but produces a nervous :rrita-
ton which calls for liquor and tobac-
co and causes still another vice worse
than either.
"These children reaching what ought
to be manhood and womanhood be-
come the parents Of offspring inherit
Ing their degeneracy, and these chill
dren 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 a
few men who are already too rich,
what this means to the future Of
the nation liz before us in an example
which has startled the world--the de.
terioration Of the British people re
vealed by the Boer war. When the
100000 who inhabit England, Ire
land, Scotland and Wales were called
upon to furnish an army to meet 2s,000
Boer farmers in South Africa an aver
age of 30 per cent of all recruits were
rejected for reasons Of physical and
nervous inferiority The inspector gen
eral reports that from 40 to 60 per
cent were unfit for military duty Tin.
der size, narrow chest. bad teeth, de-
cayed nerves, bad vision and all the
other evidences Of race lnferiorlty were
the causes OF rejection.
"of those that were accepted for
military duty per cent were imrledi-
atcly found unfit for service. OF the
remainder who got to the field large