The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-02-02
ny JULIET wILDon r0MrttINs.
l(CoDyrlgit 1908, by Central Ncws md
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4
an century ngo iacto ora. We're pew
that lle could not obtain supports
enough for tho bcnt bones OF the fac
tory children. Slavery can shoW no
, Worse horrors ,l,nn those brought r. 20
ally followed; set tic measures that
rcaulted---meaylire to prevent d boy Or
seven from working twelve or even
sixteen hours out OF the twenty-f0ur,
buckets % coal in . miro MI day--r1,et
With criticism and hostil!ty. p3
the present attitude OF tempered nu..
manly which still allows children OF
thirteen to work NIL night and Keeps
fourteen hours at the spindles for
wages ranging from 10 to 20 cents,
Will seen, az incomprcllenslble. 100
years hence. MS that past feeding ol
does to us. But tho new measure of
what IL humane cannot become cstab !.
1islied unless We show clearly what is
happening. and how and where the
children are at work.
Picture an army OF l,7oo.ooo children.
all under fifteen and then realize that
that army trnmps. day after day. not
factories. fields, mines and workshops
OF these United States. Ono million
Der Of child laborers estimated when
the census OF 1900 was taken; only the
God OF fallen sparrows Knows what 1T
IL by this time. In the twenty years
preceding 1900 the number OF boys In
Hnits-boys between ten and hfteen---
had Increased 100 hundred per cent;
the number OF girls, $50 per cent: but
only so per cent. increase had been
spite OF all the child-labor agitation
OF the past few years 1t is estimated
that 10000 children under sixteen are
at work in Pennsylvania alone. and the
Southern mills are said to employ
10000 children not yet twelve.
Al TO how the children work, a num-
Der OF random instances will show
what may bctall them. 1t IS only a
very few years since a visitor IN
Fal, River factory. p ee,rin1g down I'M, into
objects moving about In the steam.
The foreman laughed and asked her
what she made out. It was some min
,ites before her eyes could pierce the
boys, naked spreading and treading
down the cloth in the bottom OF the
vat. Their bodies. she was told, were
oiled us a protection from the acid and
its biting fumes; but their eyes We're
cruelty innamed. as she saw when. one
came to the surface for a breath of
air. Tho sight did not seem to her Is
amusing as 1t did to the foreman.
Tie story reached the papers. and
a controversy followed. In which one
stockl,older of the company earnestly
asserted that the boys were not naked
they merely laid aside their clothes:
also. that they preferred oiling to the
rubber suits generously provided
which was undoubtedly true. In that
sitting vat.
No doubt the task of a boy in IA neigh
boring factory seems enviable by con-
ftrast: He sat all day In q closet lighted
by a gas Jet. with little stick in his
hand. watching Il great stream OF cloth
that poured down from above and
passed over q hot roller that Ironed its
surface. his business being to guide
the cloth IL 1t showed tendency TO
swerve to the right or the left from
the roller. 1T was easy work-horri-
bly,. wickedly easy. Not muscle Of
his body was getting proper develop
ment: his mind slept undisturbed as
Ills eyes duly watched the cloth stream.
a born poet might have worked out
his greatness in that hot cell. But this
was Just an ordinary, human boy,
easily demoralized. easily persuaded to
let all his faculties rot in return for
about 81 a week and no effort.
Some few years ago the conditions
In which children worked In a Penn
sy1vania silk mill were brought to
public attention. Little girls OF thir-
teen or younger were toiling all night,
eleven and one-half hours OF steady,