The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-12-10

iIiO iIlS 10 tf1c us oIN
cotton mills? That question is an I'M
portant one. Most people will answer
that they are better off in the coun-
try; others that mill life brings them
more comforts. on the farm, there
is outdoor life and the health that
comes FROM being much in the sun.
In the factory villages, there is more
pallor because Of much INDOOR Work.
In the country there is not regular
employment for all the family and the
money handled is less thar in the cot
ton mills, but do they save any money
or get along any better?
Certainly the public would like 10
have the truth, and if the Government
employs Federal agents to lnvestlgale
their Investigations should be honest
and should be published as collected.
The charge is now made that lmpor-
tant data collected by a government
agent has been suppressed. me
Columbia state discusses the matter
fully and at length as follows:
From time to time there has been
laid the grave charge, against one or
another of the Federal bureaus, that
field agents assigned TO
particularly into sociological and eco
nonlic conditions. are intrusted. I'M
plicity if not in terms, to procure only
such data as will accord with a given
theory, which has been precOncelVed
in the bureau. or to which the bureau
has already committed itself; and that
the agents who submits flndlng OK 1act
irreconcilable with such theory stands
liable to have his report suppressed
and himself dismissed from the Serv-
ice. Circumstantial allegations to
this general effect, made within the
past two or three years, have aroused
in the public mind something moro
than a passing suspicion as to the 1Tn-
partially and disdnterestedness OF IN
ouiries conducted along certain hines
By the departments OF agriculture n
the interior.
"Now comes another such accusa-
ton. accompanied with a formidable
mass of evidence. directed against the
department Of commerce and labor.
Thomas Robinson Dawley, il, a for
mer special agent Of the bureau Of
labor in that department, offers to the
public a book entitled The Child
That Toileth Not; The story of a Gov
q AA
pressed" Therein the charge is set
up and supported that the author.
having been Instructed to explore the
mountain regions from which is large
IL drawn the labor to operate the cot
ton mills OF Georgia and h Caro-
linas, and then, having learned how
the people lived in their mountain
homes, to ascertain whether or not
they improved their condition by re-
$780, A. I'm
Investigation, extending over some
months at considerable expense to the
government and submitted an elabo-
rate report e1nbodying, with other
material many statistical schedules
n hundreds of photographs made in
the field: that his findings. to his own
surprise. proved beyond question that
the poverty-stricken mountain fami-
lies be4tered their condition in every
way by going to the mills: that his
report was received at Washington
with incredulity and d~ispleasure: that
pressure was brought to bear OF him
there to alter it. to fit the theory Of
the bureau: that he refused to jug
gle his data as requested, and that
finally, his report was suppressed and
he was dismissed from the service.
MT. Dawley charges hat tho bu-
AO"0 va A~OOA ~ AACCI4 ~
a theory hat removal from a rura]
section to q cotton mill was wholly
bad for a family. SO that naturally the
bureau found more acceptable the re-
ports Of such writer's on h subject
as Miss Ashby, Mrs. Van Worst. JAM
Adams Ebert Hubbard, kellogg
Durland, John Spargo. Owen r. Love
Joy and A. J. McKelway than the op-
posed findings which he himself sub
mitted. The inquiry in which Mr.
Dawley was engaged was made under
authority OF a Joint resolution of Con
gress. carrying an appropriation OF
$150,O0O subsequently duplicated)
and the passage Of this resolution i'm
nediately followed delivery Of a long
argument by Senator Beveridge, con
sisting chiefly in an arraignment OF
cotton mills in the South as a curse
| to operatives employed within them
! Mr.. Dawley say he early learned tina
inflammation andino to show worse