Amarillo daily news. [volume] (Amarillo, Tex.) 19??-current, 1913-03-26
COME ON
CHILD LABOR OVER
GREAT GOOD TO RESULT
FROM NATIONAL
GATHERING


Tho ninth annual Child Labor
Conference BE- over and the delegates
have scatiere1 20 the thlrty-One
states from which they came. taking
with them neH courage and hope
for their frhf against child labor.
The darksst sides OF the present
situation Vere set forth the moral
hazards OF night messenger service
The l0w wages Of adults iu southern
cotton mills where more young chill.
dren are working q long ten hour
or eleven hour day than In any other
industry: The physical dangers OF
york In glass factories. still per
mitted 10 bo}s under H. years old In
Pennsylyanla and West Virginia.
the interstate commerce In little
berry fields OF the Middle States aud
children between the canneries and
the shrimp and oyster caneries OF
N" south. fhe horrors OF tenement
home worker In New York and 9th
or large cities and the mockcry Of
good child labor laws written on
statue book with no sufficient pro-
vision for enforcement.
Aud yet there must have been i'm
mense couugcment In the tone OF
the COnfereure. In the first place.
more States we're represented than
ever before. ihirty-one In ALL includ-
iur distant loEa and Texas and an
81 the Southern States east OF the
Mississippi Or McKelway. southern
secretary OF the National Child La
bOr Committee at one OF the sessions
spoke OF the changed attitude OF the
Southern delegates, no longer a IT.
ne Inclined 10 be- on the defensive
but even outd0ing him In uuspariug
criticism OF their own state condi-
tiOns
People were. In fact. 30 busy think
ing out the difficulties Of local stu
atious which they would have 10
face. that no time nor cloquencc
were wasted on evils In remote sec
tions except a. they offered the les
son OF experience 10 points under
discussion.
The subject of the Conference was
child Labor and Poverty An through
the papers aud spontaneous discus
sions. the speakers put far more ON
phasis on child labor as the cause OF
poverty than on the older idea Of
poverty as the cause OF child labor
Statistics were gwen from such wide
ly scattered cities as New Yrk. Lit
tie Rock. New Orleans and Colum-
bus Georgia. 10 show that the wild
owed mother whose sole support is
wage-earner OF tender years exists
largely In the Imagination OF the
men who find II profitable to en-
ploy tho child. Poverty was shown
90 bee the indirect cause OF child la
Dor. In us limiting OF the horizon
OF those parents who have worked
hard or drifted with their neigh
bors. aud have lost Of they ever
had a. the vision of what cduca-
ton and citizenship might mean TO
their children
Hut Florence Kelly made q con-
yincing plea that industry should be
compelled to pay It's way and bear
the burden OF the disabled worker.
OF the woman widowed hy industrial
accident. and OF the workers who
do not now receive from industry "a
wage that will support their fami-
lies Right here the thread OF argu-
ment Was taken up by the Confer
ence and many speakers dwelt on
the lowering OF adult wages hy the
employment of children
The Alabama Child Labor Com
mitteo called on the National child
Labor Committee TO send 4 speaker
throughout the state to make the
people OF Alabama know about the
little children In the fish canneries.
and the boys coming In contact with
vice boz The work as night messcn.
gers. but as Mr. Loveioy explained.
the Committee faces IN every state
situation demanding an expert
worker and with It's present rcsourc-
IS there are not enough expert work