The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-10-28
Two of the worst enemies to child

NO Ot Tue HOtSl SUStuIeS ~ CHttO
hood and youth are overwork and
icleness. Close confinement at man
ual labor is dulling, sitting, and de-
structive to the childhood; fdleness
is poisonous and ruinous to youth
Attendance upon school may be use"
as q. corrective for both evils. The
State, in order to protect at leas;
one class Of children against over
work, has passed a child labor law.
Barring some notable exceptions, the
ahortivepass Of that law Is common
lest. To illustrate: II 1905. one
Of our city school superintendent
lost more than twenty pupils froFi
one school within Two months. II
company with one Of the cotton MI
superintendent Of that town "a man
in favor of schoo.s), the school su-
oerintendent went from house tc
honse in the mill village enquiring
for these missing children. IN one
afternoon he located twelve OF them,
every one of them unlawiul!y en-
Gagged at work in the mill, though
only three Of their names appeared
on the payroll.
Now, the child Of the lazy, greedy.
! selfish parent is at work, and no
in school. The child of the igno-
rant and Indifferent parent is neither
at work nor IL school; he is idhns-
Both children need to be educated
the State needs both Of them; ana
the State has already decreed that
the taxpayers shall establish and
maintain schools for both. There
! remains but one logical thing to 90
-compel the parents Of both to seno
their children to school. There IS
but little logic in compelling people
TO pay taxes to support the schools
then permitting the parents OF the
children who most need the SCHOOLS
deliberately to keep them from the
benefits Of the schools. The poore'
the child the more is the need to'
| compelling his parents to send nln'
to school. Compulsory attendanc'
E1aws are aimed at the selfish and IN
1 different parent, not at the chlLo
LOT what advantage are good teach
ers, long school terms, and inc
school houses, unless the childre'
| attend the schools? In recent cleo
ton to increase the local schoo! ia,
| in district in North Carolina, where
! they have recently enacted kin:
Of local option compulsory Law,
. certain taxpayer made this declare
ton: ':If you vote to compel lhE
children Of this district to go x
school, increase my tax as yo'
please; II you are not going to pu
the children into the schools. an
opposed to any further tax. Tha
/. mans argument las no answer.
Some opponent to a compulsor,
, law says. you have not enorg.
school houses and teachers to tax
care Of the thousands of chiid-el
: not in school" That argument i
|: worthless, unless we are willing t.
: admit that the white people of tn
State are actually unable to tax
: care Of their children. Let son'
: philanthropist offer to aid Sout.
, Carolina in matters educatlona'
: then you get an answer to that ques
ton. VIII the school houses eve
be built or the teachers employee
, until there is need for then.
! Would 1t be wise for farmer to ,e
a s5OO-crop waste in the fields, rath
\ er than build s100-house in whicl
! to store it?
: The last argument OF the oppo
5 nents to compulsory attendance j
:, that it can rot be enforced witaou
I truant officers, and that truant OF
! fcers must be paid Certainly. Th
present child labor law Of this Stat
| is a dead letter. because no Droris
: ion IS made for its enforcement. An'
: the police of Charleston, Columbia
and other places, have to be paid
{ but 1t pays to pay them. We ar
: perfectly willing to pay an office
: of the law to arrest little negr
2 boys in q 10-cent crap game, but !
: is too much to pay an officer Of n
, law to see that a lazy selfish fathe
: sends his child to school. We ar
: paying today in actual money evec
war fya rimes as rnnch IN TROUT
? to the industrial supremacy Of Nev
! England and other sections, as
, would cost US to put every whit
5 child in the State in school for 81:
: months IN the year! What econ
omists We are. And what philoso
piers we try to be!
WILLIAM II. HAND.
University Of South Carolina.