The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-20
Regarding Matter. of History

nck3FuinS VI
 T suppose a good many of us have now received the proceedings of the Child La- Dor committees seventh annual confer ence, held at Birmingham last March, said the Rev Dr. George Eaves. pastor of the Pilgrim Congregational church. T happened to open my copy at pr. McNei- ways paper, on page g and folling, en- titled The Cotton Mill; the Herod Among Industries and came upon singular instance of invincible ignorance in things historical.
 .Dr McKelway quotes good old Ma thaniel Norton who was years old when the Pilgrims reached Plymouth-to show that one of the reasons why they left England was the oppressive conditions under which their children were forced to labor. Then he assumes that Johnson, when published sermon in 1888, tslc) was referring to the Pilgrim Fathers working their children at Rowley Mass, where they caused their little ones to be very dil- igent in spning cotton and wool at the fulling mill which they built. Not con tent with this. he repeats what he calls the familiar indictment against the Pil- grim Fathers that. having come 10 this country to escape religious persecution, they soon became prosecutors them selves But 1 supposed that every high school student. at least, knew better than that The Pilgrim Fathers were one of those groups of persons who were known in England as separat lists or independents. because they broke away from the cstab- llshod church. Seeking freedom from the harassing prosecutions of the stuart gov crnmcnt they migrated to Leyden. lIol- land. and transplanted their church -hith CT. Subsequently they moved to Ply mouth. Mass, where they established the first perfect democracy in the history Of English folk. They never engaged in re- ligious persecution, as the after arrivals the Puritans-did. They are also free from the stain of witch-burning, and am very much mistaken if Dr. Nickel way can connect with them in any way the child labor mill, which he says was built at Rowley. What he has done is simply to confound the Pilgrim Fathers with the thousands of Puritans who flock ed to Massachusetts during the years pre- | ceulnE the CIVIL war III EISidHu. TIE ought to know better. The Puritans. for instance, at Massachusetts Bay, were 2 quarrelsomc crowd, hammerng Indians Qualers, witches. Baptists, and the King
 But the historyo of the Plymouth colony ls the pride of every intelligent American ''The Puritars were generally Presby- ierians. but the pilgrim fathers and tho | English independents were what we cal
 now Congregationalists. Surely 1 need not say that Edward Johnson's book was not 'serinon;' that ''rhe Wonder Wori,
 ing Providence of Zions Savior was rn.
 substitute of his History Of New Eng
 land from the English planting in ih, | yecre 1928. until the veere 16i2. and it was published in London. not of course T lGss, which is absurd. but in 1874. Bg Johnson was no more Pilgrim Father
 than pr. Mckelway is a historian. JolIl,
 sons book deals with the Puritan colon, | cf Massachusetts Bay. Nnd. why pr. Me
 Kowsy should refer to Morton as gooe ,li Nathaniel Norton. I am at ioss t understand Moftonewas not C, years old ~ Q tc cxact when hc wrote his 'N-v Inslands Mempri4l., But vcritapa Mols