The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1907-01-24
LuRIo PICTURE OF CHILD LABOR
EVIL.

age are now at work. or these al.
most ZOO 600 are engaged I'm work 9th.
or than agriculture. Child labor on
the farm Is good This bill does not
strike at that. II 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 ~
palnstaklng investigation to this evil
testify that only a part ~ little chill
Crcr at work in factories, sweat shops
ard mines. nd I'm other like indu..
tries were returned by tho census
caumcrators. here present afHdavits
SLOWING the prevalence Of the labor
OF children from less than three years
or are to II years Of age I'm states
where the census returns shows not
much child labor employed.
Mr. John Spargo, author Of THE
Bitter Cry of the Children" tells OF
one little girl IN Atlanta, Ga, who
said: when | work at nights Is too
tired to undrcss when / gets home
and so I goes TO bed with my clothes
on
lie tells Of another little girl in
Paterson. n. j.. who works in the
steaming room Of flax mill. stand.
ing barcfootcd in pools Of water, twist
ing coils Of wet hemp. He says that
when he saw her she was Srdiipping
wet, and in the coolest evenings OF
winter little Marie and hundreds Of
ether little girls must come out Of
the superhcated steaming rooms in
Just that condition"
We tells OF a glass factory, sur
rounded By n high fence with sew
eral rows Of barbed wire stretched
across the top, which the foreman ex.
planned was needed because 1T keeps
.hc young imps in side once We get
them for the night shift
He tells of tiny girl years old
who had worked for twelve hours n
day in an oyster canning factory al
oxford, Md, and Maryland has over
200 canning establishments employ.
ing young children.
Mr.. Spargo describes the terrible
work OF the "snapper-up" of "carry.
in boys in glass factories. lie quotes
one glass blower in Glassboro, n. J.,
as saying to him: 81 would sooner see
my boy dead than working here"
He testifios os to the work OF the
boys on tho breakers OF coal mines
SIR. Spargo once tried 10 do the worl
for half an hour that 12.yearolC
boy did day after day for ten hour
a; stretch lie says:
"My hands were bruised and cut II
few minutes was covered from
head to foot with coal dust, and for
many hours afterward WIS eXpectorat
ing some of the smell particles o
anthracite / had swallowed. Their,
were boys OF ten years of age doing 4
for 90 and 60 cents a day. Some o
them had never been inside a school
few OF them could read a child's prim
er."
Florence Kelley found It i'm possible
to get consecutive answers from boy
In glass factories, because OF tn,
speed they were required to keep NJ
Race Degeneration.
II these children do not die, bu
grow up into manhood and woman
hood, thoy become enemies OF society
do not blame them. They know tina
they are not the equals of their fe
lows in body mind or soul; that thei
bodies are dwarfed. crooked. ant
weak; their minds dun and clouded
their souls darkened and vicious. Ply
sicians testify that nervous exhaustion
produced by child labor I'm factories
sweat shops and mines, not onl!
stunts growth, but produces a nervous
irritation which calls for liquor am
tobacco and causes still another vic
worse than either.
Boer War Lesson.
What this means 10 the future O
the nation Is before MS I'm an cNampl
which has startled the world the a,
torloration Of the British people re
yoalod by the Boor war when tho FOR
. ty millions who nhabit England Ire
40