Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-25
GIVES STATISTICS TO SHOW
EVIL EFFECTS OF CHILD LABOR

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 24.-[Editor
Herald: julius Hamilton asks if sta
tistics have ever been collected re-
garding the physical and moral effects
of child labor. Concerning the physical,
yes but the moral effect is outside the
realm of mathematics and cannot be
estimated in percentages. Perhaps the
most accurate statistics ever collected
are those of an English commission
which examined 1886 boys. The re-
suits of their inquiry taken by them
selves form a most convincing argu-
ment against child labor. Briefly stated
they are as follows: Boys who have
worked from the time they are 10 until
they are 16 are 3.47 inches shorter than
those who have not worked. Their
average weight is 1864 pounds less and
their average chest girth 3.11 inches
less than that of boys who did not
have to work.
1t is a we'll known fact that children
contract disease more readily than
adults, but some may be shocked to
learn that 10 per cent of all the chill
dren who go to work in the southern
cotton mills before II years OF age
contract active consumption Wlthll
five wears. The following statement
regarding the child laborers in the
South Denver cotton mills is taken
from the 1902 report of the Colorado
bureau of labor statistics. There
are a great many children there VINO
are sickly and understood. Their
faces are sallow and haggard. THESE
little ones work from six IN the morn
ing until late at night, for which they
receive from 40 to 95 cents day. Con-
sumption and kindred complaints are
often found among them notWithstand
ing the immunity which our Colorado
climate is believed to afford against
diseases of this kind, They seldom
live to be more than Is years of age
The census of 1900 places the number
of children working. in tobacco rae
tories at 6,979. The constant contact or
the tobacco leaves causes sores ana
hysterical complaints, often ending in
st. Vitus dance. The finger tips of the
workers become shrunken, the nalls
leaden in color and the eyelids IN
named. The Wisconsin bureau of labor
statistics for 1S99-19O0 says: The
deadly effects of this employment are
manifested in the pale face, the weak
diseased bodies and impaired health Of
wears of manhood, finds himself u
physical wreck from the poisonous mic
otine with which the system has been
saturated" Thus if space permitted
we could go through the terrible list
and show that thousands of little llVes
are now being sacrificed annually thaL
the dollar-hunger of our millionaires
may be gratified.
AS with disease. so also with acci-
dents. Little heads become weary and
little hands careless sooner than those
of adults, and labor inspectors are
agreed that there is great danger IN
EMPLOYING children in rooms where
machinery is running. But profits de-
mand it and so we must not be sur
prised at the statement of doctor IN
huntsville, Alabama, who says he mas
"personally amputated more than 4
hundred baby fingers mangled in the
mill"
Regarding the moral effect of child
labor glass blowers will rarely allow
their own children TO enter the glass
works One man said You might as
well give a boy to the devil at once as
TO send him to the glass factory In
other Industries it is the same. An
Allentown physician says there is no
vice unknown to many girls of Is
working in the factories of that city,
while a Lancaster physician states that
he has treated boys only 10 years old
for serious diseases. Bulletin SO of tho
bureau of labor frankly admits that
the moral effect is very bad and the
following quotation is typical. AT a
brewery beer was given away
the boys receiving the pint and the
girls half a pint every noon and even
ing. Children at work often appear
older than they really are. Childhood
with them seems to end at the begin
ming Of labor. They are no longer
children after they go to work.
teacher remarked"
This letter has already become rather
long for the Letter Box and l Will
close with the following lines from