Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-23

tors. here present affidavits moving the
prevalence Of the labor of children from
less than three years of age to fourteen
years of age in states where the census
returns show not much Child labor en-
ployed
Senator Beveridge then presented a large
number of affidavits, with photographs OF
child bread winners)
1.-The evil then exists. What does 1t
mean? First. 1t means inhumanity. Let
me give you illustrations:
Typical Examples of Child Slavery.
Mr.. John Spargo, author of The Bitter
Cry of the Children tells of one little girl
at Atlanta Ga, who said: When l work
nights is too tired to undress when l gets
home, and so | goes to bed with my clothes
on me-
He tells of another little girl in Pater-
son. n. j., who works in the steamins
room OF a fax mill. standing barefocued in
pools of water twisting coils OF wet hemp.
He says that when he saw 10, she Wa
dripping wet and in the coolest evenings
of winter little Marie and hundreds of
other little girls must come out of the
superheated steaming rooms N jus: that
condition.
He tells OF a glass factory surrounded
by high fence with se:"ral rows of
barbed wire stretched across :. TOP, which
the foreman explained was naede;. L.eause
it keeps the Young inps inside once We
have got them FOR the night shift
He tells of "A tiny girl seven years old
who had worked for twelve hours day IN
an oyster canning factory at Oxford, Nd
and Maryland has over 200 canning estab-
lishments employng~~oung children.
Mr.. Spargo describes the terrible work
of the .sna0per-up or carrying in boys n
glass factories. and says that the glass
blowers themselves seldom permit their
own children to work in glass factories.
He quotes one SHOWER in Glassboro.
n. j.. as saving to him: would sooner
see my hoy dead than working here
Boys on the Coal Breakers.
He testifes to the work of the boys
on the breakers of coal mines. Mr.. Sparso
once tried to do the work for hale al holi;.
that a twelveyear- boy did day after
day for ten hours at a stretch. He says
my hands were bruised and ci:t in n
few minutes l was covered from Eead t.
foot with coal dust. and for many hours
afterward was eXpectorating some of TIM.
small particles Of anthracite i aai swa.-
lowed There were boys of tea years OF
age doing it for 30 and 60 cents n day.
Some Of them had never been inside of
school; few of them could r:aI i sh,ld's
primer.
These Not the Worst Cases.
These are examples given because they
are typical. i have not referred to the
worst cases. / have a letter from Jane
Adams that wonderful woman whom all
America honors telling of her personally
seeing little girl of five years at work In
a southern cotton mill. | have not referred
to the cases where cold water is thrown
on little children to keep them awake or
other of the more hideoLs forms of this
child murder of which this last is an Illus
tration All of the examples ] have given
can be supported by testimony under oath
an are given because they arc typical Of
thousands of similar cases.
.-.. Race Degeneration.
IF these children do not die, but grow up
into manhood and womanhOod, theJ become
enemies OF society. ] do not blame them
their fellows in body, mind or soul: that
their bodies are dwarfed. crooked and weak,
their minds dull and clouded. their souls
darkened and vicious. Physicians testify
that nervous exhaustion, produced by child
labor in factories, sweat shops and mines,
not only stunts growth, but produces ner-
vous irritation which calls for liquor and
tobacco and causes still anothe- vice worse
than either. -s--.
Senator Beveridge here produced The afr
davits OF physicians in support Of this
proposition)
.,,rhese children reaching what ought to
be manhood and womanhood become, the
parents of offspring .inheritinS their .degen-
eracy, and these children In turn grow up
to produce other children still more degen-
crate. This ruin of American citizenship.
upon which alone this republic. the last
experiIbent OF freedom rests. Is 100 high
price Is pay for making still richer a few
men <sho are already too rich.
English Degeneration-Boer War;.
What this means to the future of the ma
ton Is before US in an example which has
startled the world-the deterioration of the
British people revealed by the Boer war.
When the 100000 who inhabit England.
Ireland. Scotland and Wales Were called
upon to furnish an army to meet 2S,O00
reasons of ply stczi and nervous inferiority.
The Inspector general reports that from 40
to 60 per cent were unfit for military duty.
Under size. narrow chest, bad teeth, de-
cayed nerves, bad vision and all the other
evidences of race inferiority were the causes
of re iection.