The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-02-05

No manufacturer Oh arIlHcIdl Ho"-
orc in New York city can employ IN
,,,o factory any child under fourteen
,oors Of age, but he may give out
,,.o,,k to a family in whose tenement
.oo,,,e flowers are made by six chill
aron aged two and one-half, five,
oiobt ten, fourteen and sixteen years.
Angelo. aged fourteen years, can
NOT work legally in factory until
bo raaches a higher grade in school,
NOR can he work at home during
ocboo1 hours, nor can he work at
bon,a during school hours when
sohoo1 is in session, but his little sis
for Maria. aged three years, because
che is not old enough to go to
scbool. and because the home work
law contains no prohibition of child
labor. may help her mother pull
hastings and sew on buttons.
public school teacher notices
that Eva and Mary r., aged eleven
and ten years, are pale and under
nourished. but although the compul-
sorry education law upholds her In
recurring their attendance in school
during school hours she cannot pre-
vent their making flowers at home
from o'clock in the afternoon until
9 or 10 at night.
MANY good citizens would demand
the prosecution of a manufacturer
e. who employed in his factory Tony,
aged four years; Maria, aged nine;
Rose, aged ten; Louisa, aged eleven;
Josephine, aged thirteen years. For
such an offense the manufacturer
might be fined 500 for each child
under fourteen. Yet public opinion
has not raised an effective protest
against the same employer when he
turns these children's homes into
branch of his factory, and gives them
work in which even the smallest
child in the family joins through
long hours, under a necessity as i'm
perious in it's demand for the con-
slant work and attention of the child
as would be the commands OF the
factory foreman.
Child Labor National.
That child labor in some form is
to be found in almost every state is
clearly proven by reports of state
factory inspectors and volunteer or
CARNATIONS, and by the prohibitive
laws which have been passed by state
legislatures in all parts of the coun-
try.
In New York the greatest number
of child workers are in the tenement
homes, where little tots three years
of age have been found basting paper
flowers, sewing buttons on cards, and
drawing hastings from pants" This
sWeatshOp work is not New York S
alone, for New York is the center
of the clothing trade and millinery
trade. Tired children, sometimes Ill
Of contagious diseases, it has been
found, work on the ready-made
clothes the artificial flowers and the
cards of buttons-tO take only three
lnStanCes-which are sold from one
end of the country to the other.
New York has a child labor law,
and the state department of labor
has a staff of inspectors to enforce
it, but it doesn't work. The law
names Al articles which manufact-
urers may not give out for home
work untiI-mark the WOrd-unt1l a
tenement house has been granted a
license by the department of health
and the tenement house department.
The tenants want the work-they
need the money desperately-and If
the tenement landlord meets the san
ltary requirements for this license
women and children may work I'M
counted hours for starvation wages.
The children must go to school,;
out of school hours they may be
forced by their parents and dire want
10 work crouched over mess of col
oFed tissue paper and sticky paste
POT under dim lamp, without ven
uiatlon, in a clutter of food and
clothes and dirt, far into the night.