Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1911-03-13
CHILD LABOR
LEGISLATION
Material Advances Have
Been Made in the Past
Five Years
CONFERENCE At BIRMINGHAM
Many Agencies Cooperate to
to Lift the Blight From
Early Youth.

Dll luIh5hd44iy Aid, -hdANh 4"' -
strong appeal to the sentiment of the
best elements of the South to protect
and emancipate from premature toll
the children in the mills was made
by DR.. Felix Adler, of New York,
chairman OF the National Child Labor
committee, at the seventh annual
conference on child labor here today,
DR.. Adler in his annual address Sc |:
THE movement to abolish child
labor is steadily progressing. though
with uneven acceleration in every
part of the country. Everywhere the
strong pressure of public opinion is
felt in the direction OF improved leg
islation and enforcement. The legisla
ton, however, in many states is still
deplorably below the requisite stand
ard and enforcement leaves much tc
be desired even in the most advanced
child, and for the interests of civiliza
ton which are jeopardized by the pre-
mature employment of children in in
dustry, is not yet won. The National
Child Labor Committee appeals tC
right-minded men and women every
where to give their continued atten
ton and lend their unrelaxing sup
port to the efforts now being made tc
remove from this country. the curse ot
child servitude. and to secure to thi
child the right to acquire in early
years the physical strength and edu
cation which will cradle it to become
an efficient worker later on"
DR.. Adler referred with special EN-
phasis to the efficiency propaganda
which is attracting universal atten
ton, and he claimed that the move
ment to abolish child labor i3 an in
dispensable requisite in the direction
of greater efficiency in the worker
which is now recognized as the su
preme need The foundations of eff
cheney must be laid in childf ood tht
physical and mental capital in The
child, of which the efficiency in tn;
adult will be the interest, must bt
kept intact and protected against pro
figate and spendthrift waste.
Child Labor.
Birmingham, Ala, March 12-Pro
: gress in the prevention of the evils o
child labor in the last seven years wal
ntoed in speech by Owen r. Lovejoy
l general secretary of the Nationa
Child Labor Committee yesterday. Mr.
! Lovejoy was speaking before the Sey
l enth Annual Convention on Child La
Dor. Mr.. Loveioy said:
When this committee was formed
! seven years ago there was no accept
i ed national standard of protection
Il against child exploitation. The trade
unions were committed to an eight
hour day; some of the womens clubs
to the general abolition of child labor
and the Socialist Party to the elimin
t alton Of all children under 16 from
/ wage earning industries.
But the trade union was accused o
L selfishness; the women's clubs wer,
8 charged with feminine sentiment; ant
I the Socialist Party was ignored a
/ without power or influence. Excep
for the Consumers League and a re
t spectacle number of enlightened indi
/ viduals, child labor in America ma,
t be said to have been without an en-
emy.
/ Then rapidly, as public interest il
wont to grow, there swept over th
{ face of the country the excited new
5 that child labor existed in America
| that the coal mines, glass factories
5 and even our public streets wer
i scenes of oppression to the tende
L Bodies and souls of little boys an,
l. girls. Then the more calm and dis
G cerning of those who were horrifie,
by the evil determined to band them
s selves together to conserve this pub
lie interest and to direct it into del
J. mite channels of activity, in orde
l. that the sentiment against child labo
$ should not spend It's force in futile de
e nunciations.
"And it is to the credit of the Sout
s that the initial suggestion of such
o militant band on a national scale or
= ginated with citizen of your own con
a monwealth, Mr.. Edgar Gardner Mul
ply. 1t grew out of a struggle wit
d the mercenary elements of Alabam
x to wrest from their control the live
r o. hundreds of little children and t
e secure to them the opportunitie
It which childhood may fairly claim.
l. From a membership of less tha
II so people, the committee has grow
q in seven years to contributing men
q bership of more than 5000, who CO.
$ er an annual budget of nearly $4,000
, Twenty-seven state and local con
l. mittees are affiliated and the commi
l. tee is in definite cooperation wit
y educators medical experts, jurist
e manufacturers S rganiZa ii n
, churches and all agencies working fc
u the protection of child life"
n The speaker suggested that change
e secured in child labor laws within th
past seven years would perhaps MOI
IS accurately than anything else measul
e the extent to which the public ha
a awakened. He explained the scientif
'e reason upon which the committee ha
10 based its agitation for excluding a