The Washington herald., 1908-01-26
"CHUD LABOR DA Y"
By FREDERIC j. HASKIN
By FREDERIC j. HASKIN.


Many churches throughout the broad
| expanse of our territory are observing
to-day as Child Labor Day" This is
/ being done at the request of the national
child labor committee, whose members
/ are anxious to enlist a greater sympathy
IN their work, TO disseminate more thor
oughly and widely the facts connected
with child labor, and so awaken the gen
/ eral public to a more intelligent hand
| ling Of the situation. Sermons and ad-
| dresses will be directed against this con-
dition Of affairs that has arisen either
/ from national negligence or national
/ greed; the mental, moral, and physical
condition Of children working in mines.
mills, and factories will be pointed out;
| the good and bad points of factory life
viii be considered, and means for the
Iamelioration Of existing conditions VIII
/ be discussed.
There is possibly no subject Of present
! day interest on which there has been
offered such a variety OF figures and
about which there have been such con
/ hicting reports. When the interest Of
! the public was first aroused in the ques-
/ tion. and philanthrOpic people began to
/ look into the matter. much time was
wasted, fer the North and East directed
most Of its attention toward reforming
| conditions in the South. while the South
was equally wrought up over the condi-
/ tlons OF the workers In the sweat shops
/ Of Northern cities. This delayed results
/ for a while, and provoked antagonism
when an application Of the old adage that
Charity begins al home" might have
/ brought results earlier and in a more
amicable manner.
/ The country is being awakened TO the
/ fact that there are children at work earn
/ ing their own living and the living OF
parents, and that something is radically
wrong with q nation that must build its
/ Industrial and commercial supremacy on
+ the lives Of mere babies. Causes and ef-
| fects are being studied; factory inspec-
/ tors are looking into the sanitary cOndi-
| ti0n under which the children are work
/ ing; States are enacting laws 10 shorten
/ the hours OF their work to require GER
/ tain educational opportunities and 10
raise the age At which they may enter
gdinful puTsuits-but the children are
still working.
/ The causes for their working are legion.
/ There are thousands who work because
/ in this richest Of all nations there IS an
/ actual need that some children support
I themselves or starve, many States hav-
/ ing no adequate provision for the sup
/ port Of children whose parents cannot
] rsrf4s
work 20 help support the large family OF
/. which they are members Many work
as I'm Southern cotton mills and Eastern
mines. to support shiftless parents who
are either too lazy 10 work. or refuse to
/ accept the very small pay that child
/ would accept There are thousands Of
/ these parents among the poor whites
I who believe that children are born into
T the world 10 become earning powers for
+ their fathers. and years of legislation and
/ hours Of eloquent argument on the part
I Of broad-minded mill men have not been
/ able TO eradicate this idea. There are
| others working because all mill and mine
( managers have not yet become imbued
with the spirit OF fatheTliness that would
make them protectors Of all children and
/ are anxious to gel the maximum amount
/ OF work from their plants at what they
I fancy to be a minimum cost
When the last census was published
and attention was called TO the fact that
fabout 10000 children were at work in
I the United States. an awakened people
/ held up its hands In horror and began
/ beaping blame and Contumely on the
/ heads Of manufacturers and mining com
panies without discrimination. Then
! some one showed that of this number
/ 1054 445 were working on farms. with few
/ exceptions the farmers own children
/ leading healthful outdoor lives building
up such physiQues as presidents and lead
| ers of nations have been made OF. and
| the alarm was not 50 widespread. Still
+ tEis left about 80 per cent of those lS00.-
4 0D working at other things in order 10
| exercise their GOd-given right TO live
| Messengers. walters. cash boys and girls
/ makers of flowers and sewers of buttons
/ IN foul tenements, tenders OF bobbins in
/ factories, drivers If mules and pickers OF
/ slate I'm miues-these and dozens of other
/ occupations claim the rest. Ii is for this
/ 1200JG that the awakened, thinking peo-
\ pie are working
/ During the fiscal year ended Septem-
/ Der 81, 1907 legislatures in eighteen States
! enacted chiid-labOr laws of Importance.
/ In Pennsylvania and New Jersey Iegis-
/ latiOn to improve the existing laws was
| defeated, while Alabama, Maine, Missouri,
/ Nebraska, New York, Vermont. Mime
/ sofa, Idaho, Tennessee. and South Caro-
/ lima enacted important amendments and
| Florida placed her first child-labor law
/ on her statute books. The Fifty-ninth
/ Congress had four important child-labor
/
/ passed. II was a bin authorizing an in
vestigation, under the Department Of
] Commerce and Labor. of the conditions
/ of working women and children in Amer
! lea. For this Congress appropriated
Sl50000 A bill for the prevention OF
/ child labor IN the District of Columbia.
/ held over from the preceding session, was
/ favorably considered but failed TO pass.
/ The most important and widely discussed
I bill was that introduced by Senator Bev-
! eTidge. of Indiana 1t provided for the
| exclusion from interst@e commerce all
articles presented for shipment by fac
! tories or mines employing children under
| fourteen years of age. This did not
come 10 vote in either House Supporters
/ of States rights theories offer no en-
/ couragement for its being brought up
again.
/ The difficulties lying in the way Of re-
! formers who would prohibit the labor OF
children until they are at least fourteen
years old, are the tempermental differ
/ ence in the people in whose interest they
would legislate, the difference in the
work they are doing. the difference in
/ the climates where they live, the differ
ence in the educational advantages that
are offered. and the difference in the indus
! trial conditions under which they work.
States having compulsory education laws