The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-01-28
CHILD LABOR IS
PASTORS THEME
Rev. Mandus Barrett breaches
Sermon on This Subject

Rev. Mandus Barrett. pastor of the
Hancock CONGREGATIONAL church, for
merry pastor of the Red Jacket Con-
gregational church on Sunday preach
ed powerful sermon on child labor
and its coming effect on civilization.
Mr. Barrett has always taken a deep
interest in sociological problems and
his work along this line has been
noteworthy
In his address he said in part:
Conditions in the industrial world
are such as to call for clear. serious
thinking and immediate and wise ac-
ton. The situation is tense. Capital
and labor are at cross purposes and
are hostile to each other. with fire.
ouent outbreaks and struggles. Child
labor is only one phase of the indus
trial problem but is off sufficient mag
nltude and importance To demand the
attention of every liberty loving. pa =
triOtic citizen.
Children have always worked, but
il is only since the reign of the ma =
chine that their work has been syn
onymous with slavery Under the old
form of simple, domestic industry
even very young children were given
their share of work in the family. But
this form of child labor was good
and wholesome thing The training
of the head and heart and hand was
the end achieved, even where II was
not the sole purpose of the child's la
Dor But with the coming of the ma =
chine age all this was changed. The
child still works but with swift. in
tricate, soulless machines, largely.
And the end is not the child's Well be-
ing but the supplying of great, ever
widening market for cash gain. Child
labor is not sectional, but national.
Conditions vary but no state is FREQ
from it. According to the census of
1900 there were i'm the United States
that year l.752.1S7 children under six
teen years of age employed in gainful
occupations.
"Of itself that is a terrible sum.
but all authorities are agreed that
4 does not represent the magnitude
of the child labor problem. 1t would.
| think. be quite within the mark to
say that the number of child work
ors under sixteen is at least 100000
The principal occupations in which
children are employed are coal mines,
glass, hosiery and textile mile, cam
ncries, stage, street trades. tenement
house manufacturing and agriculture.
investigation shows that many chill
dren who. are mere infants are EN-
ployed for many hours "A day without
sleep. More than one four year old
child is employed thus. During the
long weary hours Of the night many
children have to be kept awake by
having cold water dashed in their
faces and when morning comes they
throw themselves upon their beds
often still warm from the bodies of the
brothers and sisters
What are the reasons for the em-
nlOyment of children? 1t is almost
needless to argue that child labor Is
socially unnecessary. that the labor of
little boys and girls is not required
i'm order To produce sufficient wealth
fer the needs of society. When there
is not an unemployed man. when there
IL not "A man employed in useless, un
productive and wasteful labor. If there
is then a shortage of the things neces-
sary for social maintenance, child la
Dor may be necessary and justifiable
Under any other conditions than these
IL is unjustifiable and brutally wrong
II exists only for the sordid gain oil
profit seekers. Cheap production Is
the maxim of success in industry, and
plentiful supply of cheap labor Is
powerful contributor To that end. We
see manufacturers in New Jersey and
Pennsylvania getting children from or
rhan asylums. regardless of their ply
steal, mental and moral ruin merely
because il pays them. In many mills
a condition for the employment oil
married men and women is that all
their children shall be bound to work
I'm the same mills. Use all the chiid
workers possible is the settled policy
of many employers. Capital has Meth
cr morals nor ideals; its interests are
tlways and everywhere expressed IN