The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1907-01-17
The Federated Meeting

A notice of the fifteenth mid winter
meeting of the Maine Federation of
Women's Clubs to be held at the State
/ House, Augusta, Wednesday, j lnuary
twenty.thrd, 1907, was read. Mrs.
Kathleen K. Oak, member of the
Maine Federation Educational commit
tee, read proposition from that COM
mittee to raise money among the club
mem bers of the Maine Federation with
which to educate some girl desiring to
become teacher in our public schools,
8 aid girl agreeing to teach in our rural
schools the same number of years her
expenses were paid while fitting herself
II become teacher. Mrs. Oak took
charge of money given by the Woman's
| Club for that purpose, this money being
a personal gift by the members of the
/ { Tub
Mrs. Dora T. Nye rendered a piano
sola.
The topic of Child Labor" Az pre-.
sented by the Legislative Committee of
! the Maine Federation of Womeu's lu bs,
was read by the secretary also the fol-
lowing extract FROM the report of Mrs.
Mason, chairman of the Committee
Club womtn can and must create a public
sentiment against this evil. EDUCATED wo-
manhood throughout the country is arrayed
against any evil which threatens the home,
and helpless childhood appeals quickest
This evil threatens our state today and now Is
the time to act Children should not be
allowed to 90 to work before fourteen years
OF age and until they can read and write in
telligently in the English language This
the state owes to helpless childhood that
the future usefulness as citizens be not i'm
paired. Our first duty is to create public
sentiment and later il necessary
Mis- Margaret Goodrich foI the Wo-
mans Club, gave paper on "The Prob
lem of Child Labor in the United states "
Mr.. Harvey White sang sopg accom-
panied by Nrs. Nye and responded TO an
encore. Miss Gertrude " eston repre-
sented the Town Improvement Society
| by paper on "Ghid Labor in Our
I Town" with extracts from the second
annual report of Mr. Geo f. Morrison,
inspt ctor of factories, wo kshops, mines
and quaires of Name In this paper ste
/ gave tnehe slhtlbtlCb.
From the flee OF our superintendent
of schools | found that okowhegan bad
about 1850 children of school age be
tween 5 and Il Eighty being the small
lest number of any one age and l0l the
largest Az the ages of ID, ID and Is are
the ones in which occur most of the
violations of the labor law, l looked
through the cards filed and took the
of al dnh in
and found that there were 282 Mr.
Colby then took this list and marked
those that he could personally locate
with the following result; 159 in school,
81 at work, 81 unacc counted for, 8 ont of
town, 2 married
OF the 81 at work, 7 have been gwen
certificates from the superintendent of
schools; of these are scholars, who
I have come to town recently and already
had certificates from other superipten.
dents, leaving only 8 children belonging
in town who have received "a Certificate
allowing them to leave school IN order
to work | have personal knowledge
that at least two more of the remaining
20 are working at home 81 are not ac-
counted for, and it is here that | am
ready to pass the work on to some one
/ else la 16 Cases the names are English
! The other 10 are French, as we'll as 10 of
those that are at work. II we could get
the records of the Parochial school WE
should find some of them there, but
am afraid not many.
! Just here we find our stumbling block
These children as rule do not take
naturally to school life Many times it
does not take long to learn morn than
father and mother, know from books.
and there is little at home to stimulate
Them II we had something better to
offer them in this line, | am sure many
would avail themselves of il.
Mrs. Janette Judkins read THE Cry
of the Children" a poem by Eliz lbeth
Barret Browning
The subj ct of conversation The
Child and the state" WIS opened by
Mrs. Gertrude Bucknam for the
Sorosis. followed by Mrs Clementine A.
Weston, Mrs. Bertha Steward Mrs.
Ella Holt, Nrs Ada r. Dascomoe, Mrs.
Lizzie A. Marble, Miss Gledhill, Mrs
sarah l. Eaton and Miss Louise Noburn.
After Miss CohurD's remarks she pre-
sen ed The following resolutions. which
wera unanimously adopted by the three
clubs:
Restored: That we have listened with
| deep emotion to the story of the child slaves
OF labor, and that we wish to record our en-
phatic approval of every effort for such
change in laws or administration as will
ensure to all children their natural rights of
life, liberty and happiness.
| Rf5ohtd: That we regard the present
movement for the introduction and the i'm
prov ment of Child Labor laws in all the
states and in the National Congress as the
moS important now before the public. and
one deserving the active assistance of all
| Club women. and of all citizens interested in
/ the future Of cur country.
I Hc5oiacd That we respectfully request
| Ion. Eugene Hale and Hon. Wi lam 7.
| Frye Senators from Maine, and Hon. Edwin
| &. Bureigh, Representative to Congress to
/ give their influence and their votes to me Of
the bills now before Congress for th- pro
lection Of helpless childhood from the burden
OF toll
! HookeH: That we respectfully request
1 Hon. l.. 7. Page State Senator from Somer-
set county, and Hon E. T. Danforth, Repre-
/ sentative 10 the Legislature to assist in every
/ possible way AMI to give their votes to such
| legislation as shall be introduced in the
present session to improve and make effective
! the Child Labor laws Of Maine. Especially
we ask them to support provisions raising the
age limit to ID years, and requiring docu-
mentary proof of age, and the provision re-
quiring an educational test as a condition of
| labor.
Htsoi7td That these resolutions be sent