The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-10-25
BY A. J. MckELWAY,
Secretary for the Southern States
National Child Labor Committee.

dams, the Portuguese and the Greeks.
In the South, where there has thus
far been little help from immigration,
and the native American stock is al
most universally employed, the indus
try itself is only measured, in its real
development, by a single generation
/ have given elsewhere an account OF
the process of steady degeneracy that
has gone on for a hundred years IN
England, in its great milling centers,
until there has come about Ian alarm
ing impairment of the national ply
sique," to quote the words of an Eng
lish physician
Paisley.
But we have a striking case of this
moral and physical degeneration in a
Scotch city, the history of which is
quoted by DR.. Thomas Chalmers,
from contemporary writer: From
about 1870 to 1900 the manufactures OF
silk guazes and fine lawns fiourished
in Paisley: as also, during a portion
of the period alluded TO. that OF fig
ured-loom and hand-tam bourined mus
lin. These branches afforded to all
classes excellent wages, aud being
articles of fancy, room was afforded
for a display of taste as well as enter
prise ana intelligence, for which the
Paisley weavers were justly conspic-
uous Sobriety and frugality being
their general character, good wages
enabled almost every weaver to pos.
sess himself of small capital, which
Joined with their general intelligence
and industry, enabled and induced
many 10 spend days and even weeks
together. in plodding over a new de
sign, assisted frequently by their
obliging neighbors, knowing that the
first half-dozen weaVers who succeed
ed in some new style of work were
sure to be recompensed ten-foli.
Nearly one-half of Paisley at that
period was built by weavers, from saw
ings off their ordinary wages. Every
house had its garden, and every weav-
er, being his own master, could work
it when he pleased. Many were ex.
cellent florists; many possessed a toll
cradle library, and all were politicians.
So that, about the period of the
French revolution, Mr.. Pitt expressed
more fear of the unrestricted political
discussions of the Paisley weavers
than of ten thousand armed men.
Had Paisley been then, what Paisley
is now, crowded with half-informed
Radicals and infidels, his fears would
have been justified. But truth and
honest dealing could fear nothing
from a community constituted as Pals
ley was; and never perhaps in the his
tory of the world, was there a more
convincing proof of the folly of being
afraid of universal and thorough
education, especially when impregnat
ed with the religion of the Bible, than
in the state of Paisley at that period
Significantly enough, the period OF
Paisley decadence began with the
manufacture of a sham, an incentive
to human vanity and pretence. Our
author continues: The introduction
of imitation Indian. shawls about the
year 1900 required that each weaver
should employ one, two or three boys
called draw-boys. Eleven Oh twelve
was the usual age, previous to this pc
Rod, for sending boys to the loom"
Git Should be recalled here that this
was work at home under the eye of
the parent and did not conflict with
school attendance, as we shall see.)
But as boys of any age above five
were equal to the work of drawing.