The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-06-14

rective influences are also applied to
parents. Mr.. Wade would give che
Juvenile Courts exclusive jurisdiction
in all cases in which children, or par
ents who contribute to the delinquen-
cy of their children are concerned
The Hon. G. e. Faulkner, of Min
neapolis, in an address, placed most
of the burden of child-helping work
upon the state. He said it was the
place of private charity in child-help-
ing service to do the necessary work
which is not done by public charity.
''Child neglect and dependency is
chiefly city problem, and when the
children that are neglected or left de-
pendent are not provided for by the
State, private charity must conduct
wellmanaged institutions to care for
the physical and moral needs of such
children, and for their training in
cooking, sewing, housework and serv-
ed as preparation for sef-support or
for a transfer from city to country
life" In the judgment of the speaker
the institution is an important child
saving station, along the line of pre-
se1wation of the natural home life and
the rehabilitation of the home life in
terrupted by vice or misfortune.
A. J. McKelway of Atlanta, Georgia,
secretary of the National Child Labor
Committee, for the Southern States,
attacked the institution of child labor
in the South He rcontradicted the
claim of Southern manufacturers that
conditions there have been exaggerat-
ed, that the numbers of toiling child
ren are rapidly decreasing and the
evil itself disappearing, by showing
many stereopticon views of actual
in three of the larger indus
tries.
Mr.. McKelway said in part. THE
American intelligence appreciates the
evils of the system, in racial degener-
acy, perpetuated poverty, growth of IL
literacy, the disintergration of the fam
lily. the increase of crime, the lower
ing of the wage scale and the swelling
army of the unemployed.
"The oyster packing industry in the
South is extensive along the Gulf
Coast. The wages today are below
the standard of American living, and
the workers are mainly Bohemians
brought from Baltimore. During the
summer season they are employed in |
The fruit and vegetable canning indus
try of Maryland, whose child labor law
has a special exemption for the can
ming industry. The communities |
where they are employed testify to
the pitifu1 plight in which the work
ers often find themselves. Their chill
dren are numerous, and from eight
o1,J nd o,~4, Will -aS
in shucking the oysters piled upon the
tram cars after having been run thru
a steam heated chamber. Out of one
force of $50 hands at work, l counted
children not over ten years
old, apparently. From the peculiar
conditions of their employment, they
have absolutely no chance for an efill-
cation. |
sThe cigar industry in Tampa, Key
West, and to a lesser degree in Rich |
mond, Petersburg and Danville, Vir-
ginia, employs large number of chill
dren. In Tampa alone, the number Of |
under fourteen increased in
two years from a few score TO over |
thousand. Formerly, only Spanish and |
Cuban children were employed, but |
now a great number of the native
white people of Florida have moved |
to Tampa that their children may
learn this trade. The inevitable eff |
feet will be the lowering of The wage |
scale in what is now high-waged in |
iustry.
"The students of the child labor |
problem know that the cotton mill has |
always Deen cursed with child labor |
and it's natural accompaniment of long |
hours and low wages. On account of |
of laws. themselves ]
defective, Southern cotton mills are /
for the employment of
children. Hundreds of them have
been photographed at work, within |
the last year, and they are but typical |
of tens of thousands OF them working |
from ten to twelve hours a day, or
night. The evil is too great to be con
cealed, and the children too mum erous
to be hidden. There is no possible |
excuse for such wholesale abuse of |
childhood.