The labor world., 1907-04-20
PICTURE OF CHILD LABOR
IN TOBACCO INDUSTRY
Vivid Description by Edwin
Markham of This Feature
Of Capitaistic Prosperity.

Under the caption, The Smoke Of
Sacrifice" Edwin Markham, in Co.'S
mopolitan, presents another Of his ter
rible pictures of child slavery in the
country. The little tobacco slaves are
the unfortunates to which he calls
from the late Ernest Crosby in refer
ence to the labor barons Of today:
So we draw up the armies Of trade,
and invade,
With the children in front to fall first,
as is meet
Children of mill and of sweatshop and
mine.
And behind them the women stand,
Jaded and wan, in line;
Then come the hosts of the diggers
and builders, artisans, craftsmen
and all.
It is fine!
It is grand!
Let them fall:
We are safe in the rear with the loot
in our hand.
Markham goes on to say:
Sentiment be Aroused.
Oh, friends, however, determined you
are to look on life through rosy glass;
es, lay them aside for honest lenses
when you come to this problem of the
work children. They have no voice
to speak their protest, even If they
had the wisdom to see their wrongs.
They must depend on you and me to
create a saving sentiment in the ma
ton. Be cheerful about the cutting
off the hands of Congo savages when
they do not bring in enough rubber
to satisfy the masters; be serene about
the fogging and outraging of women
on the exile trails across Siberia; but
do not be unmoved when you remem-
ber that, in your own city, perhaps,
an army of tired children are march
ing home at daybreak, after a nights
| work, and that another army. of chill
| dren are filing off to work till dark.
Peradventure you do not see them,
because you are asleep when they pass
up and down the gray streets.
Bondage and Drudgery.
"But should not our children work
at all? you ask. Yes, a child should
work every day, as he should play
every da yand rest every day. He
| should dramatize himself at work and
at play In hundred happy forms. No
| man may now tie child in the stocks
or lash him at the post, or starve him,
or MAIN him. Why, then, should a
labor baron be allowed to take scores
| of children, shut them in for long
| hours, dwarf them in body and stunt
them in mind? Work is what children
need as they need bread and sleep and
play. But the bondage and drudgery
Of these mill children and factory chill
J dren and mine children is not work,
but servitude that amounts almost to
slavery.
| Child Labor Unnecessary.
| If every able bodied man were at
work, and still more help were needed
to carry on the bread-labor of the ma
ton; Or If a Hindu famine were on the
land and the people were forced to
raise taxes for the rajah or the gaik-
war; or If we were beleaguered by
invading armies and our people were
fleeing to the hills lighted by burning
| cities-then one would not wonder at
| women and children sharing the wild
| fortunes Of the day, toiling with every
| there is no pressure on our labor mar
ket. Thousands Of able bodied men
are begging for work; and other thou,
sands are amusing themselves with
dancing and dicing and carding and
golfinf1 and racing and loafing. We
are prosperous nation. Our capital
lists are telling us that we need larg-
er foreign markets to absorb our sur
| plus products. Verify, the nation
! should write on the sky in scripture
| of fire, While there is a single idle
man, no child shall leave play and
| school to slave for bread
Tobacco Trade Perils.
Tobacco manufacture is listed as
| a dangerous trade yet we give our
| children to its perils. Vertigo, dyspep-
sia, insomnia, palpitation, lassitude
feverishness-these are among the de-
rangements of the body that go with
the trade. BY the side of these shulk-
ers, marches another with conquering
stcide-the hideous White Plague.
| 1.-The International Tobacco union is
one of the oldest organizations of la
Dor. George Perkins, the broad mind
! ed, thoughtful man at the head of that
union, has made study of tile bene-
fit lists Of his organization. Owing
to the coming in Of the eight-hour day,
| won by the union in 1882, he finds
that tuberculosis decreased in twenty
years to one-half Of it's early NOR
talfty. Shorter hours, by some law o.
balance, always mean more wages,
more alert workmen, more cheerful
homes, better food, greater resistance
to disease. If SO marked a good can
be achieved by few hours of liberia
tion for grown men, how much more
may be achieved by righting the con-
ditions for growing children chained
to hard labor and long hours?
| Child labor, in all it's cruel. forms,
must be rooted out of the nation. It
must take its place with the institu-
tions Of evil memory-with bull-bait-
ing, tch-burning, and all the other
, execrated customs Of the past"
SOME FACTS THAT
ARE WORTH KNOWING