The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1909-09-23
THE CHILD
LABOR EVIL


Of child labor in the cotton mills In
North Carolina an agreement had been
reached with the manufacturers on com
promise bill, but this was deliberately
killed in the senate. In Tennessee a com
pulsory education law was defeated In
South Carolina the law which has been
Z dead letter was amended by providing
for two inspectors, 50 there Is some pros
pect Of its enforcement
Within the past few months a child
labor conference was called by Governor
Sanders, OF Louisiana TO consider thu.
adoption of uniform laws for the recula-
ton OF child labor in the southern states.
Eleven distinctively southern states were
represented by governors and other off
Gals. There were also representatives of
employers and various associations con
cerned with industrial Development
If the word ''abolish' had been the
slogan of the conference instead of reg
ulate,' there might be more hope of good
TO be accomplished. An evil is not wip-
ed out by palliating it, Still, the discus
sion and press comment brought the sub
Jrct of child labor freshly to the mind OF
the public, and doubtless some good was
accomplished by the conference
The press comment took a wide range
on the subject. The Nashville American
had the atfrontery to justify child labor
IN the following language:
Complaint has been made chiefly
from northern sources. that children are
ocing dwarfed and stunted and their lives
hopelessly crushed in southern cotton
mills. Such statements we believe to be
exaggerated, though there may be in.
stances in which they are true In North
and South Carolina and Georgia MANY
families whose existence was a mystery
have become fairly prosperous since the
mills came. If the children are growing
up unIcttcred it is no more than they
we're doing before they had employment
IN the mills. Sometimes the whole family
IS employed except the old man. He sits
around and whittles and smokes. clated
with the thought that he is living better
than he ever did before without WORKING
The children are delighted with the OBJ
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 the coming
OF the mill it was seldom she got new
dress or pair of Shoes
Still more recently DR.. Stiles told n
convention of health boards in WASHING
ton that child labor is a positive bles
sing to the south, because % per cent of
the children in a large part of the south
nave the hook worm disease, which is the
cause of the extreme laziness of the Door
whites of the south lie claimed that tbc
rush and hustle of the factory forced the
children to an activity which made them
forget the disease
NO vital statistics were appended to
show how many died of the factory treat
mcnt, but of course the hook worm ar
Suincnt is too absurd for serious consid-
Grafton. Let children s wages be raised
to that OF adults and we would hear no
more of the hook worm disease and thc
factory cure
Think of praising a system which takes
Inc children from the outdoor play and
TIA" recrcatiOns natural to childhood and
therefore the factory with the
strenuous toll, its ceaseless whir of ma
chincry and long hours of confinement
ana then defending the factory system
by saying that the children are at least
no more unlettercd than before! They
are infinitely worse off than in their
mountain freedom, for the factory robs
them of even the physical development
winch they might get by living in the
open air, and they lose the education
which they would absorb from MIXTURE if
not from the schoolbook. Poverty in the
mountains is bad enough for the little
ones. but net SO wicked as slavery in the
factory.
1t IS pretty much the rule where chill.
dren are employed in the southern cotton
mills that the ''old man sits around and
whites and smokes and lets the chill
dren support him. lie may be some mon
Stcr indigenous to the south who can thus
sell his children into industrial bondage.
but the employers and the law have much
to do with encouraging this cruel and
shlftleSs disposition. AT any rate. where
children are forbidden by law to work
mt tender age we find the head of the
nous" supporting them. f the south had
the courage to abolish child labor it would
find adult labor could be had. especially
II living wages were paid
What horrid satire to assert that ''thc
children are delighted with the opportu
NIFTY to earn money and have something