The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-09-09
BLOT OF CHILD LABOR,
Small Progress Made to Wipe It
Out In the South.
INFANTS m the COTTON MILLS

Absurd Argument Of q Medical Man
Tha< Toll 10 4 Cure For the Hook
worm Disease-Whers the Blame
Lies-Leoisiation Suggested.
The southern states have done very
little IN the past year to wipe out the
blot Of child labor In the cotton mills.
In North Carolina an agreement had
been reached with the manufacturers
on 4 compromise bill, but this was de-
liberately killed in the senate. In
Tennessee a compulsory education law
was defeated. In South Carolina the
law which has been a dead letter was
amended by providing for two inspect
ors, 30 there is some prospect Of its
enforcement.
Within the past few months a child
labor conference was called by Gov
ernor Sanders Of Louisiana to consider
the adoption OF uniform laws for the
regulation OF child labor in the south
ern states Eleven distinctively southern
states were represented by governors
and other officials. There were also
representatives Of employers and vari-
GUS associations concerned with indus
trial development.
II the word abolish had been the
slogan Of the conference instead Of
regulate there might be more hope
of good to be accomplished. An evil is
not wiped out by palliating 1t. Still,
the discussion and press comment
brought the subject Of child labor
freshly to the mind of the public, and
doubtless some good was accomplished
by the conference.
The press comment took q wide
range on the subject. The Nashville
American had the effrontery to justify
child labor In the following language:
Complaint has been made. chiefly from
northern sources. that children are being
| dwarfed and stunted and their lives hope
leesly crushed In southern cotton mills.
Such statements we believe to be exag-
| gerated though there may be instances
| In which they are true. In North and
| South Carolina and Georgia many fam
| lilies whose existence was a mystery have
become fairly prosperous since the mills
| came. II the children are growing up un-
lettered 1t Is no more than they were do
Ing before they had employment In the
| mills. Sometimes the whole family Is
employed except the old man. He sits
| around and whites and smokes. elated
/ with the thought that he Is living better
4 than he ever did before without working.
| The children are delighted with the OPP
| portunity to earn money and to have
| something to eat and wear. while the wife
| and mother Is also satisfied with the new
condition OF things, for before tho COM
/ Ing OF the mill 1t was seldom she got a
| new dress or pair OF shoes.
Still more recently DR.. Stiles told q
convention Of health boards in Wash
ington that child labor Is a posi-
tive blessing In the south because Fl
per cent Of the children in a large
part Of the south have the hookworn
disease. which is the cause of the ex
treme laziness of the poor whites OF
the south. He claimed that the rush
and hustle of the factory forced the
children to an activity which made
them forget the disease.
No vital satisfies were appended t.
show how many died OF the factory
treatment. but Of course the hook
worm argument is too absurd for Sc
rious consideration. Let children.
wages be raised to that OF adults and
we would hear no more Of the hook
worm disease and the factory cure.
| Think OF praising system which
takes the children from the outdoc
play and the recreauons natural I.
childhood and substitutes therefor tn,
factory. with the strenuous ton, 1t,
ceaselass whir OF machinery and Ion,
hours OF confinement, and then de
Tending the factory system by saying
that the children are at least no NOR,
unlettered than before. They are In
finitely worse OF than In their noun
tain freedom, for the factory rob
them nj exen the nhyaical deYs4Qpmen