The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-02-01
BY ROBERT WILSON.

BY ROBERT WILSON.
WASHINGTON, Feb. lone thing
sticks out In the government report
on child ana woman labor In southern
cotton mills-the wretched workers
are enslaved. and they are powerless
to escape from their bondage. Men.
women and babies are being ground
to death In the spinning frames and
looms.
Alluring advertisements draw the
country folk from their lean acres to
the mills. Unscrupulous employers
keep the toilers In ignorance. and
then turn that ignorance to advantage
by persuading dull minds that The
chains are not CALLING. All 10 q huge,
whites in bondage, leaving them NO al
and frail women for the Industrial
uses of their masters.
Agreements between mill owners
that they will not employ hands from
other mills lacking certificates OF hon
orable discharge make the order &c
q family to furnish its children to the
mill command that cannot be dis
.cbeyed.
The master OF the mill village owns
the school and the church. The sub
sidized minister tells the employees
they are better on than on the farmsl
The school teacher 10 O poorly paid
individual, absolutely under the do
minion OF the mill authorities. Says
rthe report:
in the matter OF equipment the In
shows the school at the
small mill TO be very badly on. There
are few or no blackboards, maps,
charts, globes, drawing forms or casts.
In some instances the child can be
taught writing only at such times AZ
there happens to be writing materials.
When some messenger appears at the
schoolhouse and says 80 many chill
dren are needed at the mill, no writ
ten excuse Is even asked for, and to
the mill the children go. The mill
came first always, the school after"
The agents found that more than
cannot read or write.
The credit and pay day systems
rivet on the chains. The mills ad-
vance. transportation. New workers
arrive without funds. They get credit
at the company store for food and
furniture.
The farmer-laborer expects TO make
a payment at the end Of two weeks.
but he learns then that the mill
holds up two weeks pay! At the end
OF month he receives HIS first pay
pay for two weeks work, whereas he
owes for four weeks supplies at the
company store. He Ii plunged into
debt at the start, and seldom emerges.
To quote from the report: Their
(the employersD theory 10 that II OPP
eratives can be kept In debt to the
company store they will continue to
trade at the store. and. besides, wilt
be more apt to remain at work at the
mill instead Of moving elsewhere"
No wonder the operatives often said
to the government agent that they
feel as IL they were enslaved."
The employers tried In many ways
to falsify conditions to deceive the
agents. They hid children workers.
thinking the investigation Of each mill
would last but a day or so. But the
agents stayed on, sometimes six
weeks, at each mill, and one by one
the children would reappear.
The report admits that its figures
are too conservative. Unless proof
was found contradicting the state
ments of employers and parents,
those statements were always accept
ed. Oftentimes agents were certain
children were under legal age, but
lacked proof.
Yet even with data thus secured,
the investigation showed that 20 per
cent Of the total labor force In the
southern cotton mills are boys and
girls under sixteen years Of age.
The national child labor bureau
estimates that a strict knowledge OF
children's ages would show that one
third of all southern cotton mill en-
ployes are children under sixteen.
The average working week is few
minutes less than 63 hours. Much
overtime work Is expected. Many
OF the mills run all night. Little tots,
nine and ten years old, work their IL
hours every night from Monday TO
Friday and on Saturday resume work
at noon and drive their weary bodies
to their tasks until late at night, doing
double turn without sleep.
or the frayed nerves of these night
working children, of the rheumatism
that warps the muscles OF mothers
who work all night In the damp mills
and then do their housework at home,
OF the consumption that decimates
workers In the dusty rooms, OF the
hookworm that attacks all alike. this
report says nothing But two coming
volumes will, In detail.
The government report tells facts,
but does not attempt TO interpret
them, Yet the remedy IL set out
plainly Says the report:
Undoubtedly one reason why the