The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-01
FOR STAGE CHILD.
Blaylock Will Ask Revision of
Kansas Labor Law.
Gives Reasons Pertinent to
Present Conditions.
CITES AN INEQUALITY.
Says Legislative Evils Can BE
Righted Easily.
Declares Men Who Make Laws
Do Not Understand.
CITES AN INEQUALITY.

robert Blaylock, dramatic director Of
the North Brothers Stock companv IS
preparing to wage war against the
present child labor law when the 1egfs-
lature convenes this winter. He win
go before the committee of the assam
bly, and urge that the legislation be re-
pealed insofar as it applies to the stage.
In discussing his intention, Mr.. Blay-
lock said:
There is one law upon the statute
books of Kansas that has many excel
lent features but has one most objec-
tionable. 1 refer to the child labor law,
which as applied to the theater is moth
ing less than brutal. Men absolutely
ignorant of the theater and its people,
except when they read of them in an
cient history or in a sensational news
paper in which domestic troubles of
some unhappy pair are aired, make
laws governing this institution.
''They say no child shall be permitted
to labor until it is 16 years old. and the
one place they are particular about IS
the stage. Yet the stage child is better
cared for, more StudiouSly educated,
gains a wider experience in affairs of
the world, is more free from tempta-
ton and Contamination than the child
of any other man or woman who has to
work for a living.
For twenty-four hours each day, the
stage child has parents or a proper
guardian to care for it. The stage child
| is not allowed to run wild through the
streets, learning vicious habits, wills
| language and causing the parents to
| suffer If they possess the finer feeling
| necessary to realize mental suffering
| over child going wrong. Stage chill
| dren have hours for recreation, always
| under care of parents or guardian.
hours Of study, hours for rest and
works from one-half hour to one hour
out Of the twenty-four, in healthy att
mosphere surrounded by those who
| love the child and who see that its
wishes are properly attended. The re-
! Enumeration for the small amount OF
| labor exacted is a hundred fold greater
| in any other profession or business.
| According to provisions in the law
| of Kansas the child is not allowed to
| begin work until 16 years old, that
| they shall be as other children. I'll
, cite a. case. My own child now is Az
| years old. When he was five months
| old his mother and myself took him
| with us on the road. There were fif-
teen people in the company and at
| some time or another everyone wanted
to look after the baby. He grew UP ii
the atmosphere which the rura1ita
| thinks communicates, to the age when he
began to understand, to talk and co
things any healthy child will do. Tho
members OF Ine COMPANY Wct6 tdASAAt
in seeing that the child did not hear
any slang or bad language.
I'VE used to carry him on the stage
in the performance and In a coy cor
ner filled with playthings he had
| glorious time. We finally came In con-
tact with the child labor law and the
, child's presence on the stage was con
strued as labor by wise m1nion O
| the law Realizing the utter absences
/ of law or justice for the travelling &C
! : c,1r ~ off "a Cfa and
him in charge of woman to care fol
| him two and one-half hours in the ev'
ening The.woman, knowing she would
not see US again, put the cl.1ld in bed
giving him powerful dose OF drug ant
left him there. 1t took us "a hours Z
get the child wideawalke. Yet the Law
says we should not keep a child on th'
stage when we would have him undel
our own care but needs must give mn
to someone to abuse.
Does the farmer who represents hi
district in the Kansas legislature keel
his boy or girl away from the farm ur
| til they are 10 years old? Is there an.
man in the assembly, unless he be
wealthy man from a city, who does nc
! compel his boy to do manual labor o
some sort before he is 16 years old?
THE plow boy and the chore boy o.
the farm get up with the dawn in hot
test summer and coolest winter, go {
their work and keep at it till done
They are permitted to work and thei
industry is praised, while the stag
child who arises at 3 in the mornin
and if the weather is Indictment doe
not need to go out until time to g
to the theater must be wiped out {
y existence because the men who max
the laws don't know. Always, the stag
child is properly protected from the e
ements and he goes to his little labc
l. properly clothed and cared for.
le Il expect to go before the committe
y of the assembly in the coming sessio
L and with the use of honest argument
endeavor to convince the law-makel
:, that the child labor law as applied
III the stage should be repealed .