Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1911-10-26
cHAPTERI.


protective legislation as com
pared with the most advanced
European countries.
Remedial agitation for the child and
the woman in the factories OF England
began to sweep over that country in
1902. 1t was between 1815-1830 that
we may date in this country the es-
adjustment of women wage earners
as definite, recognized economic fac
tore. while that of the child reached
no larger dimensions before 1870.
The wonderful development Of ma
chinery, the marvellous growth Of our
factory system as result, in com
paratively short time, the enormous
influx of immigrants, from whence the
large army of wage earning women
and children were constantly recruit
ed, the greed of employers for cheap
labor, and the poverty Of the incom-
ing hordes, these have forced these
serious and menacing problems upon
us in an acute form before we had
any proper realization of their enorm-
ity. which helps to explain our tardi-
ness in graphing with them as
promptly or as efficiently as might
have been done had our manufactur-
ing development been slower.
Labor Legislation Erecting Children.
According to the census of 1900, we
have nearly 100000 children under
the age of sixteen who are wage earn
ers. In some of the industries. as the
textile factories of the south, the rate
of increase in child labor is in excess
of that of adults. From 1870-1880
numer of men increased 80 per cent?
number of women n per cent; num-
Der of children 140 per cent. From
18SO-1S90 number of men 81 per cent?
number of women 269 per cent; num-
Der of children 1O6 per cent. From
1S9O-19OO the number Of men increas-
ed 70 per cent! number of women 15S
per cent; number Of children go pei
cent. Thus we see that the increase
of child labor sing the last decade
in the southern textile mills is more
than 50 per cent in excess of total in
crease in adult labor.
In North Carolina, according to OH
cial report, out of 10000 textile work
ers, 5000 or one-fifth are children un.
der fourteen years of age; in Alabama
the number Of workers employed Is.
estimated at $4,000 with "a per cent
of them under twelve years Of age;
and ten per cent under ten years.
These children work twelve hours a
day and the oldest get fifty cents and
the youngest get nine cents.
We need not take a moment of time
to depict the financial loss to the
state and the nation which accrues
through exhaustion of the labor power
of these children long before they
have reached maturity; one should
not, even in this material age be
justified in considering this evil from
its pecuniary side. But when We
stop for a moment to consider how
capitalism squeezes the life blood out
o fthe child of tender years and throws
it remorselessly upon the scrap heap,
when we realize that this vast army
of boys and girls with right to a
joyous care-free life, are simply cogs
in the wheel Of commercialism, it
seems as if we should resort to
methods more drastic than remedial
agencies to wipe the whole accursed
thing out of existence. The day is not
far distant when this will be done. In
the meantime. we are interested IN
every step that is taken to- curb this
slaughter of the Innocent by legls-
lation.
The manufacturing states OF the
north have made notable gains N
legislation for the protection OF the
child in industry and steady i'm
provement in the enforcement Of thes
laws. But the legislation in the
southern factory states Is like the
legislation in England in 1S41, except
that the English laws made factory
inspection imperative, while the few
Inadequate child labor laws Of the
south are largely ineffective owing to-
the failure to make such provision.
The laws which have been most ad-
vantageous against child labor have
been compulsory education, and the
difficulties interposed by law to obtain
the required certificate before the
child could legally begin to work. For
instance, III New York since 1896, the
affidavit of the parents IN regard to-
the child's age, which before that date
was the sole requirement, must pc
supplemented with the written state
ment of the teacher that the child