The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-13
Shall We Gut Away The
 Roots Of Hun1dn Culture?

| culture? Do we wish to take the ser vice of children and coin it into de-
 testable gold? Put your own children, | In ina agination, Into the places of those whose lives are consumed in factories | Can you rest In contentment undersany 1 such supposition that child of yours | should be -harnessed to wearying la Dor? Is this American, and are the | Americans going to stand for it? Is if the nature of the American people to let the young do the work?
 What is the cause of this? Is 1t the employers. the parents, the children,
 and the people who have acquiesced in producing this condition? I hold that | such has been caused by the concur renee of evil tendencies and unenlight- ened opinions. First, there is a falla- cious reason based upon exceptional
 cases as applied to the average case.
 The successful man who has worked | his way up from the bottom always has
 surpassing natural endowments, but he
 overlooks this fact and says, What I
 have accomplished, why cannot others achieve?' Second, there is pro- nounced individualism which opposes the intervention of the state or will allow 1t only the narrowest margin be-
 cause of the belief that this adds to | social restraint. For the sake of in-
 dividualism itself social restraint Is peal to sympathy. The wages of the
 little child, 1t Is claimed, are necessary
 to increase the wages of the family.
 False Effect of Progress
 Fourth, there is false hypnotic effect | of economic progress I think there is l combined with the individual desire to get
 rick quick a sectional patriotism to see I the south leap into prominence in the af-
 fairs of the nation along with its tre- mendous industrial development. Then
 there Is the fallacy of postponement,
 which holds that the first object Is to get
 rich quick-postpone all the higher things
 in life until you get rich and then live. This is the reason of men, pitiless, ruth
 less creatures, who impose the yoke on
 themselves and their children. To the
 fallacy of postponement the American
 people have long been victim. Is It Democratic?
 Tt is not merely sentiment, it is civil l zation, that makes it's appeal to us How l shall we have a democracy with children who, working at F years of age, have | never seen the Inside of school? We I have got to do something about this. If we want to make democracy work we | have got to raise the standard of living among the working people. We have got l to raise their efficiency, so that their wages can be raised. If we wish to com l pete with other countries and also raise l our own standards we must increase our l efficiency. We must teach these children to in ma ioa and not let their vitality be wasted by | premature exploitation if the American | republic Is to occupy the position of em- | thence it holds today
 Standing Vote Taken Following Dr. Adlers address Owen R. l Lovejoy, secretary of the national com mittee, made few remarks in regard | to the proposed child labor bill pending before the legislature and took stand 1 ing vote of the audience as to their ap- proval or disapproval of the measure. The audience was unanimously in favor of the passage of the bill.
 | The chairman of the meeting then in- troduced Miss Jane Addnms as the next speaker "The name of Jane Addams.' | said Dr. Phillips, "has become synony- nous in the dictionary of altruisms with 1 the terms human interest and human up- l lift.'
 l l urging her hearers to express to the leg I islature through letters their approval of l the bill further regulating child labor in l Alabama and their wish for it's enactment
 into a law.
 Miss Addams' Address 1 She then outlined briefly the history of child labor legislation In Illinois, and or | the educational work that has been done I in Chicago through the influence of Hull I House. She explained how work or great magnitude has been accomplished | through vocation bureaus where
 study is made of the child with the view | of ascertaining to just what klnd or work he or she is naturally to be adapt l ed. "If you are to prepare the child for
 industry" she said, you must consider 1 the child and the vocation, and then the relation of the two."
 1 Miss Addams went on to picture the wonderful work that had been done by means of the public playgrounds which
 she said had succeeded in breaking up a certain type of politician so virulent in l Chicago.
 l Following the address of Miss Addams the chorus from the Industrial school 1 gave several selections of old-time south
 ern melodies which were thoroughly en- | joyed The chorus also gave selections at the opening of the session and during | intcrmission between addresses. Their singing was loudly applauded and often | encored
 l Resolutions Adopted
 | The following resolutions were adopted by the conference and read before the gathering by Dr. A. J. McKelway, chair man of the southern division of the na- l tional child labor committee:
 Resolved, That the grateful thanks of the national child labor committed, its members and friends, are rendered to the people of Birmingham for the hospitality l lavished upon these guests of the city. and for the sympathy in the child labor reform that has made the seventh annual conference the most successful in our his- | tory to the Alabama child labor commit | tee. the Chamber of Commerce and other civic bodies of Birmingham, the Wom- en's clubs, the labor organizations and especially the local committee, for the admirable arrangements made for the comfort of speakers and audience. .That our thanks are also due tho churches of the city that have opened l their pulpits to the members of the con- I ference for the advancement of the cause. l and also and particularly, to the news papers of the city for their careful, ac- curate and voluminous reports of the addresses delivered, which have carried | these words to thousands who have not | heard them"
 | A second resolution was introduced and adopted by the meeting petitioning the l legislature to enact the child labor bill
 Into law. If the bill Is passed Alabama will again stand at the head of those | .to+o~ x,,hicb bovo yna6a nroOraSS in this