The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-09-01
CHILD LABOR INCREASE
DISGRACE TO COUNTRY
Despite Efforts of Philanthropsts and Legislators
Exploitation of Youth to Feed MammOn Becomes
Greater -COndtiOns of Child Workers.

NO fedgiing feeds the father bird.
| No chicken feeds the hen.
| No kitten mouses for tho cat,
| This glcry u fu- men
| We the wisest. strongest race
| Long may Cur praise be sung
| The Gully animal alive
That lives upon its young"
| 1t Is a proud thought. Despite all the
efforts made by philanthropists and Ito
some extent by well-meaning lesisia-
tors, the exploitation of childhood.
through the employment Of little girls
and boys for Industrial purposes. Is con-
Quoted on a greater scale in this country
to-day than anywhere at any previous
period in the worlds history.
The urgent necessity to make money.
and as much of 1t as possible, Is the rea-
son why. Child labor invites the invest
ment of capital because. in the hrst
place, II Is cheap. and secondly. Tor fne
reason that ii Is helpless anc unresst-
| ing. There Is nc chance that the little
ones will organize for better conditions
and for higher wages.
| The Federal Childrens Bureau, recent
ly created and made part Of the De-
partment of Commerce and Labor, has
been organized to look after the interests
Of child workers all over the United
States, and to see that they are justly
dealt with. But there are people who go
| so far. as to urge the right CT free child
/ hood-in other words. that children OF
either sex ought not 10 be compelled TO
labor They are the extremists on this
questionable abolitiOnists of to-day. Per-
haps o later generation will adopt their
| views. In the meantime II is undenlable
that. as they aver, negro slavery in TINS
country has been replaced to u large eX-
| tent within recent years by child slaV-
! cry.
| PcnnsyIyanin Worse Than south.
| One hears a good deal about child
labor in the cotton mills OF the South
But. when the facts are ascertained.
one discovers that there are more little
boys and girls at work in the factories
| of Pennsylvania than in all the South
ern cotton mills put together. II should
be remembered that Philadelphia and
lis neighborhood is one of the three
great cottonspinninG and weaving dis
tricts OF this country. And. in order TO
realize the situation IN that State. one
should realize that Pennsylvania has a
fairly good child-labor law: also. that
owing to political influences, 1t IS not
! enforced.
An interesting phenomenon within re-
cent years. industrially speaking, has
/,
mills in the Coal-producing regions OF
nnsylvania-especially in Lackawanna
and Luzerne Counties. What connection
may be supposed to exist between coal
and silk? None whatever. so far as the
casual observer can perceive. NeVerthe-
| less, as a matter of fact, there is very
close and immediate connection. The
silkmakers want girls-girls by the thou
sandS-to do their spinning and weaving.
! In, no e
ployed in the mine. II is Gods own
providence from the mill owners view
point that furnishes an equal number
| OF female children to work for them
No fewer than 10000 children in this
country according to the government
censusD are employed in making cigars
and cigarettes. Twentyfour thousand of
these are at work in Pennsylvania, and
loCo0 in Ohio
In Tobacco Factories
| At Tampa and Key West are immense
factories in which thousands OF boys and
girls are employed in the making of
cigars In the town Of Durham, \. c.
! the manufacture of cigarettes engages
the labor of hundreds of young people.
The P!ttsburg stogie factories are in
most instances dirty and insanitary,
many of them being under sidewalks
and the children commonly employ
! ed in such places have most uncom'
| Portable way of dying Of tuberculosis
| Before the tobacco comes TO harvest,
children have much 10 do with the hand
ling OF il. Thousands OF them hoe. weed
and plow the tobacco fields, and after
ward, as the plants develop, pick the
| caterpilIars of them. In the autumn
they strip the leAves. and at the stem
merry child labor is used to stem the
! tobacco.
Reference was made a mor:ent ago to
| the employment of boys il the coal
mines. In sober truth. this is one Of the
ways in which child labor is utilized with
most disastrous consequences. The acct
dents in coal mines, fruitful Of sucn
lamentable loss of life. are due in a
large percentage of instances TO the
icarelessness and ignorance OF boys. The
burning of the Cherry Mine, in Illinois,
not long ago. which cost som" hundreds
of lives. was caused by two thoughtless
| Youngsters who backed a load of hay
IN against a lighted torch. One of them
was burned to death; the other lived to
tell the tale.
| Coal Mining Worse.
But when the circumstances are justly
considered, a coal mine is no place for
the employment of children in any capac-
ity. Think. for example OF the rumbling
l
are crushed between monster jaws and
hurled down gaint slides. to be picked
and sorted for impurities by little boys
who can neither see nor hear for the
dust and roar! Is this not the worst imaS-
Unable enslavement for a child? Was ever
negro slavery in this country so exacting
of physical effort, or so destructive OF
mental and moral possibilities?
| 1t is a fact well known land which has
been the subject of a special government
investigation that the Greek bootblacks
who toll in the shine parlors" of our
cities are literally slaves, working with
out wage and under absolute control by
the "padrones" who entitled by contract
with their parents for a term of years,
possess their services absolutely.
According to the census, there are in
this country 5000 child workers not in
factories or mills-seamstresses, tailors.
dressmakers, and milliners. New York
State has II, 900 OF these, nearly all OF
them in New York City. and Pennsyl-
fvania claims 1900. Many of them are
fower-makers. of whom the great ma
jority are in Manhattan and its imme-
date vicinity.
| One should realize that some of these
fiower-makers and seamstresses are only
five years old, and from this tender age
they multiply rapidly up to eight anC
ten. The intensity of the struggle fol
existence which they encounter at birth