The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-06-14
MILLION CHILDREN rolLess
These Under Sixteen and In Various
Industries

1HSlc are hlliOh NhiAuANh "
day under the age of sixteen years
who are employed in the various in
dustries of this country, in addition
to another million in agriculture only
a part of whom are assisting their
parents on the farm says DR.. A. j..
McKelway, secretary for the South
ern states of the National Child La
Dor committee, in the first number OF
the new Child Labor Bulletin just is
sued Certainly we all agree that
the children from 10 to IA years of
age should all be pupils at school,
yet one out of seven of these is at
work"
DR.. McKelway's statement is sup
plemented by the opinion OF Carroll
G. Pearse, president Of the National
Education association. He says in
the course of an article ON Child La
Dor and the Future Development of
the School" ITO train up a citizen
ship worth while, we must not only
keep boys and girls from coal break
ers and out of sweat shops and mills,
but our young people must have res
tored to them the opportunity for
suitable and wholesome but real and
regular work as part of a sound and
rounded education" Can they have
this in the industrial world OF today?
Mrs. Florence Kelley, general secre-
tary of the National Consumers lea
que thinks not. Some years ago !
took our philosopher, Henry Demar-
est Lloyd, to see the greatest can fac
tory in this country. ] wanted to
show him a group of little boys who
had been sitting fourteen hours day
on shelf in midair, every boy crook
ing his back and COMPRISING his
lungs because of the attitude in which
he was compelled to sit on this shelf
for the purpose of watching .intermin-
able rows of can lids. Every boy
loked, in the course of a year, after
some millions of lids of tomato cans
and milk cans, coming down in a pro
eession At the end of fourteen
hours of crouching on this wretched
shelf, the boys were so tired that they
often could not drag themselves home
but slept in the fields nearby and
went back to their work next day
without ever having gone home, be
cause they were too weary at the
end of the work"
Jean Gordon formerly state factory
inspector at New Orleans, describes
with equal vividness the deadenins
monotony of children's work il
shrimp and oyster canneries, in stock
ing mills and laundries. Mrs. Trun
bull, secretary of the Oregon Chile
Labor commission, goes so far as ,tC
say that "all children under the age
of eighteen should be taken out o.
the industrial field entirely"
The National Child Labor commit
tee in the eight years of its existenc,
has been setting just such facts be
fore its subscribers in pamphlets anC
occasional volumes. That il has sue
ceeded in arousing public opinion L
come purpose is evident from tn,
fact that thirty-nine states have pass
ed child labor laws since 1904. Over
X. Lovejoy, general secretary of tn,
National Child Labor Committees
gives the following record Of the NOR,
important impr0i ements in child la
Dor Jaws, for the single year 1911
!. The eight-hour day in California
Colorado, Missouri, Wisconsin ant
Washington.
2. Prohibition of night work in Cali
fornia, Colorado. Indiana, Missouri
New Hamshire, New Jersey, Soutl
Carolina and Wisconsin.
3. Regulation of the night messen
ger service by prohibition 10 twenty
one years in Massachusetts. New Jer
sey, Utah, Wisconsin; and TO eigh
teen in California, Michigan. New
Hamshire, Oregon, Tennessee and il
New Jersey outside of irst.clas
cities.
| 4. The prohibition of employment O
any child under sixteen years in Goa
mines in Pennsylvania.
8. The regulation OF street TRADES
especially in Colorado, Missouri. Ne
yada, New Hamshire, Utah and wis
consn.
The new Child Labor Bulletin viii
appear every three months and vii
describe the progress OF the can
paign and the results OF investigator.
IL will have short articles bringin
out facts and opinions on the rels
ton Of child labor to racial degenel
acy, wages, employment. illiterac
and crime The articles in this frs
number are devoted to child labo
and education. and are largely at
dresses delivered at the eight annua
conference OF the National Child l.;
Dor Committee at Louisville. The
remind us that there are more tina
six million illiterates in the Unite
States at least ten years old. The
tell us that more than one in four G
the native.white children between IN
ages OF ten and fourteen Gin eleve
Southern States), are not in schoc
at all. They chow that even State
with compulsory attendance laws ar
allowing children to 20 to work with
out education. for there are twent,
nine States in which no STANDARD q
educational attainment is required