The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1909-09-09

L. eLlae--u!ty 0tTsrz Ep rs ezL5-=n - :
s=eriEs= zroa tie affairs OF 3Ezr-1sar- For
the zake Of pro6t h= dos what cE= Io=es
animals VIII s4eri6ee ra=Er Ey= 70 p-e
rent
No~n=re In al nature en- zh= horror
u cuPiEe4te1; no@Re-e i ra=re sacA =
terrible example OF s5etzs-ed deEz-zTIty as
raat presented by eEIld lzb.5r
Oar PE@slt system Is responsible FOR
II, for The eTil cane into Il ~51E ,ae I'D
rent Of capitalism Thssre ~z= 10 ehIId
labor Nc know II and understand IL
Until the ea-lr part OF liz las century,
when the factory to-sk the place OF The
~oskshoP and The workers labor t-ezz1e
2 commodity Ike Introduction OF ma
es1nsr- for production and pro;3Getson
Tor profit took >rhe children from play
and placed them at work I, vas the
deathkaeH to childhood and 70 childhood s
joys ThoroId Rogers, IL his SIX Cen.
turzes Of Work and Wages graphically
tells bow the evil started and ko1v the
| eurss WIS propagate5- This Is what he
says:
Nov We come 10 the second great fall
IN English wages As the first was found
ed on the robbery and IrouoF-oIizztion OF
the land. 50 the second was founded on,
not the robbery, but the EnoaopoIizarion
OF machinery, the instruments OF p-odue-
ton Watts engine dates from l765;
ia-graTe spinning jenny from 1867;
ArkwrIght' S spinning machine from
l1.6. These, with otheE Inventions, -ev-
olutionized industry. Adam Smith eeI..-
brated that revolution in 1916 by writ
ing the Wealth Of Nations Household
Industry was ruined. Factory building
ran ike wildhre, capital seemed mad
What computations OF conscience were
felt-were stiIIed-by Adam Smith 5 new
gospel Of each for himself, Nautilus de-
ciared that there was no help If the
poor suffered, why were they ever born.
Why did they not stop having children,
There were too many people. England s
clergy were dead. The land seemed con
scienceless- Not 20 per cent nor 30
I"er cent, but 900 per cent said a man
ufacturer, made the fortunes of Ian
cashIre. Men were worked like horses
and housed Ike swine. When men grew
100 expensive, women and children were
were not too drunk; women worked in
the factories, stopping scarcely a day for
childbirth. Children of SIX and seven
tOiled naked in the mines or were shut
up in burning and sitting factories.
Manufacturers stood up in Parliament
and said: The children like it; why
else did they work. London parishes
parishes sold or pawned out orphan chill
dren TO the factories. One manufacturer
bargained to take one idiot child with
every twenty healthy ones: the horrors Of
the age seemed incredible 1t was the
triumph of laissez faire''
Professor Rogers terrible picture of
this terrible time is not overdrawn or too
highly colored, for a parliamentary in
vestigation made during the period to
inquire into the conditions of labor re
ported facts that now scarcely be
lieveable. Children were forced to work
twelve hours day with title or no in
PERMISSION except 20 partake of food that
vas scanty and of the coarsest quality;
they were made TO sleep six and eight in
a bed and the beds were overrun with
v"rmin. Two shifts were worked and
the beds were never allowed 10 cool. for
as soon as the one shift got up to resume
work in the factory the other shifts were
ready to take their places. No sanitary
precautions We're taken, and the little
children were herded together regardless
OF sex Little girls became mothers at
twelve With all the responsibilities of ma
turry thrust upon them. OF a truth it
was fit beginning for the blacklist of
all crimes that was ever perpetrated, the
damnable one Of child labor
Although the picture is not now so ap-
paiiing, nor the moral depravity so ter
rible, yet the exploitation is still going
on, and the child tribute is paid to the
god of greed.
The evil Of child labor is deep rooted
and deadly, and goes further into the So
cIal structure than one imagincs at first
glance. Recent statistics issued by the
British Government relating to recruit
ing for the army shows that 90 per cent
OF the young men who appeared for en-
lstment were rejected because of their
physical unftncss, all directly traceable
to child labor and the conditions il al.
ways entails
patrOuIZe the merchants yn