The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-04
CHILD LABOR TALK
OWEN R. L0vEJoY SPEAKS AT
 MONTREAL.
His Address Was Feature of the Even- ing sessi0n of the Institute of Instructions im Canadian
 City.


 Montreal July 2.-AtN the evening session of the Institute of Instructions, the feature was an address by Owen R. Lovejoy. Secretary of the National Child Labor Law Commission of New York, on Child Labor and the Relation of Premateure Employment to Educa- tion."
 Premature labor robs the child of the years and opportunity for educa- tion," said Mir. Lovejoy. He enters industry too young to undertake the more intricate and rewarding forms of labor. In default of anything in modern industry which can be dignifed by the term apprenticeship he is kept for several years upon some simple task. which frequently calls into requi- sition but few muscles and offers no technical development. A report re- gently published in Massachusetts shows that the child who begins work at IF or 14 years of age, as compared l6, is permanently handicapped in the pursuit of Livelihood.
 The man employed at labor which barely sustains life Is the least able to offer his children those educational advantages contemplated in every we'll organized community. Frequently the limitations of his own childhood have tChdUiC0 tuCdpdUi6 OI dDpTeCIdLs Ing those opportunities, and his very honesty and desire for economic inde- pendence lead him to- thrust his chill dren into industry at the earliest pos sibie moment. This we find notably true among some of the foreign races that are settling in large numbers in our industrial centers.
 "The general attitude of community towards education is directly affected the nF ff~ s. tx. dustry. Where the largest percentage of young children Is employed. the least concern among the people is the adjustment or maintenance of educa- tional institutions.
 aThe premature labor of children is also. we believe. responsible for the backwardness of many pupils. An in- vesttgation we have just conducted shows that in a single New York school of about 700 pupils, ranging in age from six to fourteen years, eighty three per cent of the children are em- ployed in various home industries out of echool hours.
 "A recent report of the New York Department of Labor showed several hundred children from four to fourteen years employed in home factories in one section of six New York City streets. Some of these children were ICPVkscu 6H WoEAihB AdE lhtO LH6 ut8nt. We cannot omit from our educational processes the fitting of a child as an economic factor in society. Obviously vast majority of our children are destioned to earn their living in some form of what society most needs--pro- ductive manual labor. In aiming d. rectly to serve the majority of its pa- irons rather than bending it's chief energy in an attempt to pick out of 100 children the one child who may become college president or a cap tain of industry our schools will add immeasurably to the wealth and joy of the majority. at the same time rem dering higher service to the one fu- ture genius who Is believed to Turk in every school room. Many of our children are taught the lore of an- cient Greece and Rome and the chiv- airy of the middle ages and the physi- cal geography of the continents, but as to the dominant industries in their own community, and why they are domi- nent, and whether there would be an advantage in making 8 change, how much are taught of thisf The domi- nant industry in many town simply engulfs generation after generation of the people, principally because they are unaware that there is any other way to maintain life than by offering theniselves up to the mill
 "Our progress involves, on the one hand, such restrictive laws as shall entirely prohibit the little child from the fields Of industry and bring him within the range of the school, and on the other hand. an educational pro- gram which will afford such occupa- ton and relaxation that the child will not leave school willingly--an educa- ton which prepares the child for self supporting industry, an education which the parent will recognize as preparation for higher wage earning, and which will inspire him with a suf- ficient patience to forego the pittance of today for the higher rewards of tomorrow. This program will be op- posed by the tax payer, and, indeed, by the very people whose beneht from such a reform is greatest. but if vtr- tue, intelligence and industrial eff ciency constitutes the foundation of democracy, we must be willing to pay the price"