The newspaper., 1907-10-11
Child Labor.
RY Mrs. NELLIE MILLER.

NELLIE MILLER.
you hear the children weeping, o IN brothers.
Ere the sorrow comes with ye"rs;
They leaning their heads against their
m stop their
The Young lambs bleatng in the meadows;
The young birds are chirpng in their nests
But the young young children. o. brothers
They weeping bitteriy
They are weeping in the play time of the Others
In the country of the free
THE Cry the Children
Much has been said on the question OF child labor,
but doubt if the evil of it can he over+stmated
According the of 1900 there 1852 Isl
children employed in 'gainul occupations in the
United States. That number included children from
five to sixteen years of and since that time the
number has been steadily increasing.
Many of these children employed Illegally, for in
most of the there is limit and in of
them is the limit lower than twelve 1t
easy matter however to overcome this, for the par
ents will declare them old enough where certificates
required, older child will get for the little
one and she goes n If they too young to get ill., in
this way, tLey with their parents "helpers and
their work in with the parents. And it does not
take long. in the mills factories to make them
tualy look and appear old enough. And while these
statements are alarming. they are less than the
fact that the evil of child labor is steadily increasing
and 1t strikes at the heart of nation for,
while it s much worse in the Caronas. Georgia
and Pennsylvania yet there is probably
territory in the Union entirely free from it.
Let us not, while thinking of these little COM
pare them with the vigorous, robust children we
in our little town. for the great OF boys and
girls who go into the factories mills and mines
tn. half starved poorly developed children OF
Lacking in physical development and in power of
durance they poorly lifted for the tasks imposed
upon them.
We may wonder what many and such small chill
dren find do, but there thousands OF things,
useful and otherwise-from the cotton cloth of the
poorest gown, to candy and cigars and the gay
flowers on the picture hat-that they help to make.
And could know the suffering they endure while
making these things would shudder the thought
OF using them.
Again, we wonder, are they wepaid?
In silk mill in Pennsylvania in the 1902. there
found gill eleven years old working twelve
hours night, for three cents an hour. And in the
crowded tenements of New York. may be found little
who should he in school and some who are too
young for school, working ten twelve hours out of
the twenty doing piece work of various kinds
earning barely enough to keep from starving. Aud IL
is the same everywh that child labor is employed
little have endure there s cruelty well In
of the mills and factories the north well
IA south-there il n man whose duty IL is to wnken
the children who have fallen asleep. and II il with
gentle hand that he does IT, So IL his treatment
and terrible is his language that the little one-
shrink from him in terror.
More than any other manufacturing mocha meal
industry. the cotton mills furnish employment for
children and south-principay the carolina- and
Georgia-employ two thirds Of the children working
in cotton mills.