Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-23
FACTORY CHILDREN
Parents Held to Be RESPONSE
BILE for Employment.
EFFORTS OF THE OWNERS
Have Been in Favor of Compulsory
Education.
INVESTIGATION BEING HELD
Prof. Davis of Biddle University
Tells of the Progress Of the
Negro Race in the South.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Of The Star and the
Chicago Record-Herald.

CHARLOTTE, N. c., November %, 1907.
The good people of this city and espe-
cially the inhabitants OF the mill villages
in this neighborhood have been quite ex
cited because Of the advent of six stran-
gers who are suspected OF being detect
ives or spies of the federal government
sent here to investigate some mysterious
wrongdoing Of which the inhabitants are
not conscious. The agitation is largely
due to recent experience about some
immigrants brought here from England
by an agent Of the Cotton Manufacturers
Association to work in the mills. AS 1
have several times mentioned, labor is
very scarce and the development of the
textile industry in this section has been
arrested by the lack of operatives. The
manufacturers have abundance of capital
and can obtain all the machinery they
need: the supply of raw material is in
exhaustible, and the market Is unlimited:
but negroes are not competent to work
in the mills, and it is impossible to get
sufficient white labor. Hence the Cotton
Manufacturers Association sent an in
discreet agent over to England to induce
mill hands from that country to emigrate,
anu he not only violated the contract
labor law, but brought back some dis
reputable characters who have made a
the mill men here in large expense.
The detectives, part of them women
and part of them men, as they are re-
garded by the people, have taken up their
residence in the little settlements that
surround several of the cotton mills, and
have shown great inquisitiveness concern
ing the private affairs Of the factory
operatives; but 1t has finally developed
that they are agents Of the Department
of Commerce and Labor at Washington
aracy ~,
Of the recent Congress to ascertain all
the facts that can be learned about child
labor in the south. An appropriation of
$500 was made to pay for the, in
quiry;. the bureau has just been organ
lied. and these inquisitors have just been
sent into the field
Child Labor in the South.
The mill owners here tell me that the
extent and the iniquity Of child labor in
the south has been very much exagger-
ated. The laws in North Carolina pro-
htbit the employment Of children under
thirteen years of age. and nearly all the
other southern states have a similar
limit. There are altogether south Of the
potomac and Ohio rivers about $4,000
cotton mill operatives. and of this num-
Der about per cent, or between 5000 or
1000. boys and girls under sixteen years
Of age are employed. They do two
things. About one-half of them, or per-
haps 5000. are "doffer boys" who go
OFF the spindles and putting empty ones
back. They throw the full bobbins into
baskets and carry them to a central point
in the mill. The work is light and is
done at intervals-the intervals of rest
being much longer than the intervals of
work. Their wages vary from so to Is
cents a day.
About as many girls-between 5000 and
4OOO-and smaller number Of boys are
employed to attend the spinning frames,
call this work ''piecing-up." and it is
much more arduous than looking after
the bobbins, because it requires continu-
Gus attention for ten or eleven hours
day. with an interval of forty-five minutes
at noon for luncheon and rest. The
amount of work depends upon the quality
of the cotton. Good cotton does not
often break, but poor cotton does, and
hence, in a certain number of mills which
do not use the best grades Of cotton, the
work Is continuous and taxing. The
girls are paid from 81 cents to 81 a day.
according to their skill.
Parents, Not Owners, Responsible.
There are different kinds of mills-those
that are well managed and have humane
superintendent and liberal boards Of d.
rectors. and those whose managers grind
the faces Of the poor" The treatment of
the child labor question varies according
ly. AS rule, however. with the excep-
ton of the "doffer boys" who are abso-
lutely necessary. managers of the good
mills do not encourage child labor and
do not employ any more children than
they are compelled to, for humane rea-
sons. and because they can get better re-
those under that age without any ma
terial difference in wages. All humane
managers are naturally opposed to the
employment Of girls under sixteen.
The cotton manufacturers associations
of the south for years have advocated a.
compulsory education law that will keep
children out of the factories. and have
sent several delegations to the legislature
to advocate the enactment of a statute
making sixteen. instead Of thirteen years,
the limit Of age in factory labor. In many
of the mill towns, also, the proprietors
furnish money to supplement the school
taxes SO that the school term may be
extended from four months. which is the
months. in order to keep the children out
Of the mills. They do this also because
the children are destined to become opera
tives. and even little education makes
them more competent and reliable.
On the other hand. they tell me here, 1t
Is often beneficial for boys and girls to
work in the mills during school vacations,
because 1t keeps them out of the streets
and teaches them habits Of industry
Then. again, there are widows and other
parents in every mill town who are de-
pendent upon the earnings of their chill
dren for existence, and many honest, in
dustrous families will not work in a mill
where they cannot obtain employment for
their children. Labor is SO scarce that
managers are compelled to make con-
cessions to such people.
The general testimony is almost unani-
nous that the parents. rather than the
employers, are responsible for child labor
Progress of the Negro.
Prof. George E. Davis, dean of the fac
ulty Of Biddle University for colored men,
at Charlotte. is sensible philosopher and
optimist. and he thinks that his race in
the south is making great progress intel
| lectually morally and in material wealth.
He believes. also, that it would be a
great deal better for them to consider and
discuss the progress they are making
even against the obstacles that are in