The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-10-25
The Alabastine Company
New York City, N. r.
Dept. 675-1o5 Water ST.

the children of dependent parents
from ten to twelve. In South Caro-
lima the manufacturers Lad agreed
to reduce the hours from sixty-six TO
sixty a week, gradually reaching
the elimination in 1909 The South
Carolina legislature thought that tae
sixty-hour week would be good
thing in 1908. But both sessions ad-
journed without having passed t1@
compulsory education law which the
manufacturers have favored so long.
I could wish that they were as III
fiuential sometimes in passing goOt
legislation as they have been in pre-
venting it. Florida passed its frs
child labor law, largeay' as the result
of the combination of the labor IN
ions with the women'S clubs of that
state. 1t recognizes the twelve-year
age limit for all occupations except
agriculture and domestic service, and
there would have been fourteen
year age limit except for the opposi-
ton of one oyster-packer, who was
in the habit of importing Bohemian
children from Baltimore for his bust
ness. He has since become a con-
vert to the law. for the sake of ais
rivals in other Southern states. Ten
nesSee enacted SiXty-hour week.
and the Tennessee manufacturers, al
the Southern Textile conference
recommended advanced child labor
legislation to the other Southern
states. Unhappily. one of these manu-
facturers, who has a mill in MisSiS-
sippi, appeared before the legisIa-
ture in opposition to the very pro-
visions for whicd he had voted at the
textile conference. including the four
teen-year age limit. Mississippi has
NJ u 1nIN< To-
ing now no Southern state without
legal protection for the working chill
dren, and only one state in the I'm
ion, Nevada. without a child labor
law. The manufacturers lobby, how
ever, succeeded in reducing the re-
quiTements for factory inspection to
a minimum and in cutting down the
ase-limit from fourteen to twelve.
Alabama has moved forward a long
distance. cutting off the ten-yaar
old children who were allowed 10
work under the old law making the
age limit sixteen for night work. with
an eight1-hour night for children I'M
der eighteen. with a sixty-hour week
for day work for children under four
teen. Children under sixteen are re-
quired to attend school three months
of each year as the condition of their
being employed in any manufacturing
establishment. The inspector of jailS
and almshouseS was made factory in
spector also, and though he has not
sufficient assistance to be effective
in this work. the beginning of fac
tory inspection has been made. The
new Georgia law has Just gone into
full effect at the beginning of this
year, and in Virginia the age limit has
been progressively raised to thirteen
while a new provision has been add |
ed to the law making the employ
ment of children under the legal age
prima facie evidence of guilt on the
part of both parent and employer |
If my advices from Oklahoma are
correct, tne youngest of the Southern |
states is preparing to pass a law
which will be in some respects mod
ell one for the rest of the Union. Thus
far have we advance IN fifteen
months in the way of fcs:5iatiOn.
Special Claim of Childhood.
The consideration of the child. as
a child. of mis- rights as child. OF
his claims as n CHILD to protection |
and care. is fast demolishing the old |
laissez faire philosophy which has
so long been tle curs> of Southern |
political thinking. CT course the /
first step was the establishment of !
the common school system I can re- /
member when il was considered al !
most as much a disgrace in Vir- |
ginia, for a parent TO send his child |
TO the common school as TO have |
TO go TO the poor-nouse himself. How i
far we have come in a few years, to |
the confessed duty of the state 10 !
provide an education for every child. !
white or black. and TO the next mi |
step. of competing the ig
norant and indifferent parent. 70 send |
his children TO school,
The next demonstration of the lead !
ership of the clild was the agitation |
of the child labor question. II all |
dates in the South. fr,y, the begin |
ming of this new, young. century of |
ours. Now tAere is not a single |
Gauf harm s4afa Wffhos,t a child 1afor