Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-05-19
SENATORS TRY TO
KILL MINE PROBE
Southern Members Fear Kern
Resolution Will Show Up
Child Slavery.
- Star Bureau.
Metropolitan National Bank Bldg,
AsuIArcnnH A. IN

WASHINGTON, May 10.
Desperate efforts are being made
by Southern senators to prevent the
Kern resolution for an investigation
of the West Virginia coal region from
coming > a vote. For more than
week now Senator Kern has been try
ing to force a roll-call on this resolu-
ton, and still 1t is pending before the
Senate.
The opponents of the measure do
not want to beat 1t openly. They
can't afford to do So. and they don't
want to go on record as opposing it.
Ii they have to vote, most of them
will vote for 1t. What they are try
Ing to do Is to get 1t into committee
where 1t can be smothered.
1t is now the program of the oppo-
sition, IL possible, to have the resolu-
ton referred to the committee of la
Dor and education. II this is done
the committee will make prelimi-
nary investigation to decide whether
or not it shall recommend a full in
sestigation by the Senate. This will
probably consume many months, and
kill time, which is the main object of
the opposition.
Senator Hoke Smith, of Georgia, is
chairman of the committee on labor
and education. Senator Smith is sup
posed to be a radical or progressive.
Is close friend and follower of the
administration, and is opposed to the
Kern resolution.
There are other Southern senators,
supposedly Progressives, who agree
with Smith, and do not want the
Kern resolution passed. The reason
for their opposition is that they do
not want attention called to the child
labor conditions in Southern States
West Virginia is getting pretty well
down South. If child labor conditions
In West Virginia coal mines are ex
posed, It is not impossible that 1t may
lead to Investigations of child labor
conditions in the cotton factories of
Georgia and the Carolinas. And for
political reasons, senators from these
States do not want these conditions
advertised. So they want to kill the
Kern resolution, to save themselves
and the child labor in their own
States
Just as negro slavery was the foun-
dalton of the fortunes made in the
South before the Civil War, so cheap
child labor has been the basis of many
of the big fortunes and much of the
Industrial growth of Southern States
since the war. Northern capital, un-
able longer to work child slaves in
the North, has built many big fac
tories in Georgia and the Carolinas,
where little children work twelve or
fourteen hours for a few cents day.
And out of the profits Of this traffic
in child life and labor, the Industrial
cities of the South have been largely
built.
DR.. Charles p, Neill, who has just
resigned as commissioners of labor.
had some Investigations made OF
labor conditions in these Southern
cotton factories. few years ago.
His reports raised the ire of a NUM-
Der of Southern senators. so much so
that when President Wilson nominat-
ed him for reappointment, Senators
. Tillman, Simmons and other Southern
senators, representing child labor
States. held up his confirmation.
The President announced that he
would send in the name again and
persist in having DIR. Neill retained,
hut within q few days past Neill put
an end to the embarrassment of both
the President and the Southern sena-
, tors by resigning, to take private
position, in which he will continue
about the same kind of work he has
been doing for the government. The
general understanding of the situa-
ton here is that Neill got out of the
way to save trouble for the President.
II. b. w