The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-04-26
|L0VEJOY ON
CHILD LABOR.
National Committee Secretary
Tells Mems Club Of Efforts
to Get Legislation.
MAGAZINE STORIES UNTRUE


That child labor had increased in
twenty years 200 per cent. for boys and
627 per cent. for girls in trade and
transportation was a statement made
by Owen Loyejoy, Of the National
Child Labor Committee in an address
before the Mems club Of the First
Presbyterian church Tuesday evening.
He asserted that child labor existed
not because of inordinate greed or a
misunderstanding of child life. One
reason for its existence was that men
who now hold commanding positions
worked long and hard as boys and
that there is an inherent belief that
this is democratic country and that
every man, woman and child can do
as they please. This country is SO
large that the child labor is diffused
over great territory and Mr.. Love
joy asserted that If it we're all together
in one place the country would wipe
it out in twenty-four hours.
The five years fight by the National
Child Labor committee to get its bill
through the New Jersey Legislature
| prohibiting the employing Of childten
under sixteen as factory operatives
was spoken of by Mr.. Lovejoy. He
told how for five successive sessions
the bill had passed che Assembly only
to met its death in the Senate COM
mittee on Labor and Industries. The
last session two members of the COM
mittee were opposed to it but the
| speaker asserted that the pressure OF
public opinion forced Senator Plum
mer, the chairman of the committee
to report the bill. | think Senator.
Plummer is one of the most honorable
and upright men la the state" said
Mr.. Loyejoy, land / have profound
regard for him and our difference was
not over his integrity but over his
Judgment. BY compromise the bill
finally passed the Senate and is now
law and was characterized by the
speaker as being the first victory in
any state in which the glass industry
is OF Importance for child labor laws.
You have read about the glass
factories in the magazines.n z said Mr..
Lovejoy, { but lot of II Is not so.p
q For instance the air of these factories
is not filled with red hot PARTICLES of
glass which are drawn into the lungs
of the workers. In fact the yentil-
alton of-glass factories is the best Of
any kind Of factories g These mag
azines stories are written BY people
who are paid for them before they ever
see the inside of glass factory"
He asserted that there were $500
boys under sixteen years Of age who
worked all night and pointed out the
necessity for the stopping of this If the
moral and physical welfare of the boys
was TO be conserved. He pointed out
the great difference between child la
Dor in agriculture where the boy
works out in the open With chance
for all his muscles to develop, has good
food and a comfortable bed, and the
child labor Of the coal breakers and
the glass factories.
Mr. Loyejoy touched upon the in
vestigation Of the night messenger
service in cities where boys are sent
into all kinds of dens OF vice at night
and told of what was being done to
bring stop to it, making it unlawful
to employ messengers under twenty
one years of age between the hours Of
ten at night and i've in the morning.
The attempt to get the fedora govern
ment to establish children's bureau
was also dilated upon by the speaker