Los Angeles herald., 1908-07-23
CHILD LABOR IN SOUTH

/ 4 CORRESPONDENT who calls at
~ tention to child labor in the south
is mistaken in attributing 1t to
Democratic influences. 1t exists. in
Democratic communities where the
capital invested in the factories, ETC.,
where the children are employed is for
the most part northern capital, and
Republican capital at that. owen
Lovejoy, general secretary of the ma
tional child labor committee, made a
thorough investigation of conditions in
the south, and within the last few
months he wrote a report in which he
said:
"All over the south the people are
awakening to the necessity of PRE-
VENTING the sacrifice of social insti-
buttons and Of child life to their stu
pendous industrial development"
Child labor in the south has come
with Republican influences, with the
advent of the man from Rhode Island
or Massachusetts, who never voted
any but straight Republican" and is
as much of Republican, a high tariff
man and a cheap labor man in the
south as he was in the north. His eco
nomical views have not been changed
by his change of residence, and in the
districts Of the south controlled by
northern capital child labor became so
common that the Democratic voters
have arisen as one man to drive it out,
and, as Secretary Lovejoy says, the
south is passing through a REVOLT
TION In social progress. The Demo
Gratis of the south are making laws
which absolutely forbid the employ
ment of children under IA years of age
in factories, workshops, mercantile es-
Establishments, etc. During his investi-
cation Mr.. Lovejoy found two instances
which illustrate sharply the relations
of the Republican and Democratic par
ties to the poor children of the south.
While in Kentucky he visited the old
city Jail, and there, in the room occupied
by FEDERAL PRISONERS, he saw a
pale. sickly little boy on cot. 1t is
hard to believe a Republican national
government could be guilty Of the mon
strous outrage of treating a child as II
he were hardened adult criminal, but
the facts are established beyond ques-
ton. Mr.. Lovejoy asked him: How
old are you, my boy?" MOST THIR-
TEEN" said the prisoner of the Re-
publican administration.
On inquiry Mr. Lovejoy learned the
boy had been arrested on the charge of
robbing the United States mails. Mr..
Lovejoy does not know whether the
little lad was guilty as charged, but he
does know he was thrown into the fed
eral tanks" without hearing or trial.
This specific instance of inhumanity
happened under the present govern
ment, which has shown 1t cares less
for children than for pedigreed cattle,
and is responsible for the fact that two
million boys and girls of school age
are at work. On the same day on
which Mr.. Lovejoy interviewed the
child prisoner of the Republican fed
eral government, the Democratic 1egis-
lature of Kentucky passed a bill appro-
priating 100000 for the education OF
the children Of the state, especially the
poorer children, who but for this pro-
vision might have had to go to work
for the Republican taskmasters. who
are only too eager to GET them. Strict
and strictly enforced anti-child-labor
laws have been passed by the Demo-
cratic state legislatures of Alabama,
Florida, Missouri, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi
and old Kentucky.
And that's the way in which Democ-
racy is dealing with the Republican
child labor problem in the south, Mr..
Correspondent. The Republicans are
to blame for child labor In the south,
north, east, west and middle. They
cannot escape the guilt OF this national
crime, wriggle and dodge though they
may. 1t is a terrible social situation,
not a sentimental theory, which con-
fronts the Democratic party, and with
that situation the Democratic party
proposes to deal in manner consistent
with the first principles of American
ism.