New-York tribune., 1908-02-21
CRY 0F THE CHILDREN.
Mrs. PQn P0rst's Book on the Ma
tons Disgrace.

Net tie least interesting part Of Mrs John Van
Vorsf's book. The Cry of the Children" Qfoffat
Yard & Co, New York;, is tie introduction by Al
herr J Beveridge. the child labor Senator When
Senator ReFerlcge began TO read about child labor
he fer what he supaoses most Americans feel that
TOO hideous be true that nine-tenths of II
was eNagseration- that living IN a period
of sensationalisrn, when mountains were made out
Of moellllls- In short he that il could not
he possible that such outrages could be practised
in tie American Republic the beginning of the
twentieth century But then he observed that
writer's this subject all gave specific EXAMPLES
They gave names. dates. places. figures It began
10 dawn upon him that If these men and women
were lying about child labor they were doing il
IN unison and in detail and with specifications verv
dangerous TO themselves" So he began a studv of
the question. and that all they said is true;
found indeed, that they had understated rather
than overstated the facts"
For two whole DAYS" he continues '.I read to
tAe Senate OF the United States the testimony of
these men and women, all given under oath. Al
though these fearful things were sworn To and
published in The Congressional Record no man
denied O. has yet denied the truth Of single affl-
davTC presented
The truth is that an army OF American children
greater in numbers than the army of soldiers with
which either Russia Japan flooded Manchuria
are daily marched TO the mills factories and
sweatshops here in America and either killed out
right or forever ruined The combined losses Of
, both Russia and Japan in all the battles Of the
: REsso-Japanese War were not so great as the
number OF American children who are worked TO
death Or made degenerates every year in the mills
mines and sweatshops Of our own country
Asioe from the sheer savagery of American child
labor The effect upon a nation is as terrible
as i Is certain England went through the same
experience and the physical deterioration of the
British people which the Boer war revealed and
Wllch shocked the world was the direct result of
'-s Manufacture Of degenerates begun in England
- years ago and not stopped until within the
present generation Il took the English re4or7ers
decades upon decades TO end this infar7v in E7np
la1u because there was no way of getting the facts
q ne English people But the American magazine
ana me american book getting the facts before
Us very quickly. indeed. and We hope bv their aid
10 end American child labor in small fraction of
ne time il took the English reforers 10 end child
labor
" len or people know that more than 2 r7i1Ii,7
american children are dying Of overwork or being
forever stunted and dwarfed in mind body and
soul when they know that We are pouring into the
BODY Of our citizenship quarter of 2 million de-
generates tat the rery lowest estnate) every vAa-
"Ho nave clouded minds and q burning hatred of
me society that has wronged them. and that they
have ballots il their hands: when American work
men awaken TO the fact that child labor b-frqs
E1'anhood wages down 10 the level of childhood
WlEes-when the nation learns Of these things and
many more just as bad we may hope for an end Of
Ilis national disgrace"
senator f5eVsTldge says that only a national l.w
can put an END 10 child labor for state laws serve
Only 10 drive Il from one state to another Il is
precisely because they know this he adds thar in
ierested persons oppose d national law SO bitterly
Mrs Van NoTsys book is a record of her own in
H-esTigatlons in the cotton mills of New England
and the South. and the shocking things about
are not the sCfferings Of the children great as
they are. bEt the wsy they are regarded by their
evplci-ers.
They ara just Ike anirlals-, said . pretty
Southern woman. stoehhoder in one Of the mills
.Ia The miu they have some chance Of getting
civilized
in the South tie mills are fed hv the mountain
whites VINO seem to he regarded by other whites
such - the pretty woman Just mentioned as quite
outside the pale Of humanity. In The North the
rHE toile-s are foreigners and are regarded in
-.-eh the same way as are the inee~s in the
South.
i don't hav- much conscience about using
French little help said proprietor whose mills
were fun of little French Canadians
The prejudice against the foreigner saws Mrs
Van NoI-t. has become ferocious in towns which
Ike Nashua. boast truly old and venerable inha5-
i-arts-"
They re just like animals" said q Young woman
employed in the Nashua City Hail and they're
Tc1pc1stt-e Tor ali the poverty here"