The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1909-05-01
Statistics, Said the Doctor, Re-
veal Conditions Almost Too
Horrible to be True.
BARBARITY OF AMERICAN 4
CHILD LABOR DEPICTED
Terrible, That Little Children Are
Made Victims of Avarice
and Greed. -

At the anniversary banquet given
on Monday evening, April 26, by the
Woman's Union Label League, DR..
Mary Mccoy of this city delivered an
address on Child Labor" The doc
tor said in part: i
Children at Work.
''There at work in our country about
one and a half million children be-
tween the ages of 10 and IA years,
One quarter of the textile operators
IN the south are under 16 years of a8e.
Two thousand girls under 13 are doing
night work in Pennsylvania. Ninety
two thousand children of 13 and under
are employed in New York state. On
the pay-rolls they are not even called
ch1ldren-they are hands Their
bodies and what can be done with them
are all that attract the manufacturer:
For him the rest of their little persons
the youth which is suppressed within
them, and the soul which not even
greed can attain-are Of minor conse-E
quence. Mrs. Van Worst in The Cry
| Of the Children says that there are
| children working at the mills who are
| work at that. s
Disgrace to Civilization.
1--WE here in Duluth, where we have
SO few factories, are not so directly
| concerned, but dare say that even
in our own factories if we searched
for them there are many evils that
could be abolished. I felt when I first
began to read Of child labor that it
was too HORRIBLE to be true, but when
such authors as Florence Kelly, Mrs,
Van Worst, Senator Beveridge and
others began to lift their voices to de-
clare that they could not picture the
| evils strongly enough. I thought that
every man and woman in America
| must do away with such a disgrace.
| The combined losses Of both the Rus
slams and Japanese in their war are
not as great as the number Of Ameri-s
can children who are worked to death
Or made degenerates every year in the
mills, mines and sweatshops of our
country
Wronged, They Hate Society.
! aside from the barbarity of A1neri-
can child labor, the effect upon the
nation is as terrible as it is certain.
England found this out when she en-
listed her soldiers for the Boer war.
Her people had been so debilitated by
120 years of child labor in the mines
and factories that not only England,
but the whole civilized world was
shocked. More than 100000 Ameri-
can children are dying Of overwork, Or
are being forever stunted and dwarfed
| ~, ,H1x ;,,l oyS Ty~
ing every year into the body of our
citizenship 250,000 degenerates who
have clouded minds and burning
hatred Of the society that has wronged
them. When you men, who do the
| voting and are responsible for the
| laws, realize that child labor brings
mans wages down to the level OF
child's wages, perhaps you will stir
yourselves to right the conditions and
make an end of this national disgrace.
How to Stop the Evil. II
If we pass a national law making
it crime punishable by fine and i'm
prisonment for any manufacturer that
employs child labor to ship his prod
ucts over the railroads there would
be an end to child labor in America.
These laws would not have to depend
upon the politicians for. enforcement
but upon the vigilance and conscience
! of every good man and woman in the
nation.
Women Urged to Action. z
II wish I could find words to i'm.
press upon your minds the great
necessity for every woman here to
use her utmost influence to put her
self in a position where by her vote
she can make her voice count in the
effort to correct this degenerating and
barbarous crime against our children.
They are the vttims Of avarice and
Of ignorance, robbed of their health
by their heavy burdens, denuded Of
hope, with faded faces like withered
flesh, with dark rimmed eyes sur~
mounted. by pale and swollen brows.
and with all the ugliness visible
deprivation and toll can practice upon
the human features. Won't you act ?
Won't you try to help alleviate this
condition? Won't you take more In
terest In the life Of these little ones
Won't you realize that you have no
right to shirk any work which you
can do, any effort to right a wrong
which you know exists? IL. s.
j I'VE have the God given right to
battle for the children, to battle for
the ballot to protect ourselves and
= them, and when we know our right
let us do our best to maintain It.
i CONDUCTORS STRIKE