The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-01-28
Hancock Department

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terms of cash profits II sheds not
tear over the slaughter of the inno-
cents because IL means gain. Pow
erty Is contributing cause of child
labor, 1t was poverty, bitter poverty,
which led the first free child into the
mills 10 economic servitude. and 1 am
disposed to think that poverty is still
the main reason why parents send
their children to body-and- soul de-
stroying toll The u. S. issues bull
letln showing an investigation cover
ing 3,297,S19 wage earners, the aver
age weekly earnings OF all classes are
Sl0.06: for men above Is years. $i116;
for women, S6.17; for children under
l6. $3.46. Out of the total number of
men included in the statistics. 46 per
cent earned so or less week. That
is not a living wage, hence wives AMI
children are compelled to participate
in the fierce struggle for existence
There is also the senseless feverish
natural ambition OF the immigrant to
save money, To be rich-all -sacrific-
ing, ignorantly and blndly. the lives
OF themselves and their children In the
fevered quest. II is said that our
schools are at fault because the train
ing given has so little relation to the
world in which the average man and
woman lives and consequently fails to
I,l1 l,.a s.,t. A,
average boy who drops out of school
and goes to work. There has been no
extensive, systematic investigation Of
the physical condition of working
children but volunteer physicians
have examined some hundreds Of chill
dren taken from factories and work
shops These records show "A start
ling proportion of understood. rachitic
and consumptive children. 1t is the
concensus Of opinion among those
having the best opportunities for
careful observation that physical de-
terioration quickly follows child's
employment i'm factory or workshop
II is sorry but .ndisputable fact
that wnere children are employed the
most unhealthy work is given them.
Children are more susceptible than
adults to occupational diseases, such
as tuberculosis, hat-foot. malforma-
tons. all kinds of poisonings and the
effects of the toxin of fatigue. Reports
from several states for the year 1911
showed a ratio of injured children To
int Inv .1t
cent i'm one state To $50 in another.
Child labor increases illiteracy.
Boys and girls, robbed of their vi
tality, will become a feeble and igno-
bic race. the parents of a more feeble
progeny and Lord Macaulay did well
will not be long before the deteriora =
ton of the laborer will injuriously af-
feet those very interests to which his
physical and moral interests have been
sacrificed. | cannot, | dare not, give
YOU a truthful description of the NOR
al atmosphere of hundreds of places
where children work. Physicians and
others in position TO know testify that
there are thousands of boys and girls
suffering from venereal diseases in
factory towns. Child labor promotes
crime and embitters the spirit of the
child. When boy eleven years OF
age is set to the task which requires
two movements of his hands every
second for eleven hours of the day
il is not strange that after five years
of such slavery, he breaks out in open
rebellion against society for allowing
such conditions 20 exist 1t is sol
cmn responsibility which the presence
of this menacing evil of child labor
places upon the nation. 1t is not the
interests of the children themselves
that are menaced; even more impor-
tant and terrible is the thought that
civilization itself is imperilled when
children are dwarfted physically.
mentally and morally by hunger
heavy toll and unwholesome sur
roundings"