The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-08
 Argues on Child Labor
 Measure. TWO BILLS ARE DISCUSSED Joint Committee of Legislature Gives Public Hearing. Advocates of Conflicting Proposed Laws Champloned by women's Federation and By Manufac- turers In Long Debate.
TWO BILLS ARE DISCUSSED

s%t~< - ~@~-e
 With two bills to regulate the em- ployment of children in factories. sew eral speakers for and against each bill. and goodly audience to hear them. the Joint Committee of House and senate on Mining and Manufactures in its session last night was thoroughly l in the public eye. The bills.s the one by Mir. Kirby of Madison and the oth- CT by Nit. Pitts of Perry. differ essen
 tially in that the latter places tour- teen years and the former ten years as the minimum age at or over when
 children may be employed in or aoout any manufacturing establishment After the hearing of the speakers. the Committee adjourned swithout de- cidIng upon the reporting of the bills. MT. Wilson Is Chairman of the Sen- l ate Committee, and MT. Bloch Chair man of the Hause Committee. The l latter presided over the meeting, which was held in the Representatives Hall in the Capitol. MT. Bloch. in calling tine meeting to order said none of the committee oi of the Legislature would | attempt to injure the cotton mills or | the South, upon which the upbuiidtng of the South In great measure depend | ed. The purpose of the movement to res tfate the employment ct children | he .lf. had nobler purpose, the pro-
 tee .,or of the children by just and eqiiitabie legislation.
 The Cornmittee uecided that the
 nearing. iasting two hours,s should pc
 evenly divided between the advocates :. of the Kirby and those of the P'its
 niiL
 | Bi'Is Diner.
 The Kirby bill provides that aftei lits approval no child under 10 years | old shall be employed in factory l that after January 1. 1908. no child | under 12 shall be employed in U fac. | tory unless the child is an orphan ana hAs no other means of support. nr un- | less a widowed mother or disabled | rather is dependent upon him. In which I case duly certified oath of this depend el,re must be filed in the office of the | employing manufactory: that no child | under n years of age shall be employ I ed in a manufacturing establishment between D. m. ..nd a. ui.: that atte' January 1. 1909. no child be so em' I rloysd .9ho has not in the precedine year attended school for twelve weeks 1 that all children not over 12 years olo | must attend school at least twelve I weska and that the person sustaining
 narental relation to the child, If ht | eau to place the child In school. shall 1 he guilty of a misdemeanor and upor shall be fint,' Fit. and thal the employer employing child m | eoutravention of the law shall be hneo l s26: ana any person placing a child ID n factory in contravention Of the la" shall be fined.
 The measure by Mir. Pitts places !, | years as the minimum age limit. an' reduirea that all children between T. and 1e shall go to school at least twetv, l weeks of the year. No child under F can be employed under any ciroum l stannee. and no child under 1s scaI | be employed more than ten hours q das I or flfty-six hours week, or at AlNnt l The employing factories are reQu'ree | to file with the Probate Juoge oI ths | county in which it Is situated afidavitf as to the birth. age and social rela' | tion of the child employed and the pen atty for a violation of this provision l Is named.
 Inrpection Provided Eev. But the cardinal difference of the bills is in the provision for inspection
 The Pitts bill definitely provides the establishment of the office of Chilc
 I.ahor Inspector, to be appointed by inc Governor within thirty days of the day the act becomes effective. and to serye at a salary of s1,S00. The duties of inc insnector are defined to be tn- spection four times each year Of eacn plarufactur!ng establishment In whicn
 children are employed to ascertain II the act is being violated and to assist in the prosecution of violations. The division was upon the merits of the two bills. The lobby for the Kirby bill presented the interests of the cotton mills and the lobby for the Pitts bill was representatives Of the views of the Alabama Federation of Woman.s Clubs and of the Alabama Child Labor Committee. or the latter faction Dr. B. J. Baldwin of Mont gomery. was leader, while G. ". Pratt
 President of the Peli City Cotton Mills and President of the Alabama Manu- lecturers Association. was chief of the former.
 Dx1 Baldwin presented as the first
 advocate of the Pitts bill. Dr. A. J. Mex elway of Atlanta, secretary or the National Child Labor Committee. pr McKelway said the recent agitation for the regulation Of child labor hao its beginning in Montgomery rr'or 70 1901 when Edgar Gardner Murphy ad- vocated the passage of child labor law, Representatives of Northern cap irai were in Montgomary to oppose the b.li and Mir. Murphy protested Tn the newspa CTS of Boston against the in- terference by the gentlemen from the
 East.
 Nation,s Eyes on MsntSor,e=y. Dr. Mex elway then proceeded with
 A comparison and a discussion of the bills. As the present child labor law
 places i2 years as the minimum age limit the Kirby hill. specifying 10 years as the limit. was step back ward. Only Alabama, Georgia and Ar kansas he sad. rermitted child to labor twelve hours day in factory no matter under what conditions. The
 eyes of the whole nation were on
 Montgomery and 1t would be a caiam-
 itv If the people among whom theo ag- itation had commenced should take a
 step backward. The law would be in-
 effective without insrect'on. which
 could not be satisfactorily made by grand jury.
 The North's child labor question was
 A foreign problem, that Of the South Is
 8 native problem. In the North the children are compelled to go to school the word; in the South they are native born, and children of native born Amer
 icans A continuance of the policy of sending negroes to school and the
 whites to the factories would cause a
 deReneracy of the white race.
 Dr. McKelway read statistics show ing that in the South GG,000 children
 under fourteen years old and 997 be- tween the ages of five and nine were
 employed fin factories; one-third of the operatives of the cotton mills were un- der sixteen years of age.
 c. W. Pratt followed Dr. McKelway
 who Is known as one of the ablest mill men in the South, and as president oi