The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-01-27
CHILD LABOR DAY.

mills and factories and various enterprises. rlo
tect the Seed Corn" is an Injunction Wnich shouio
impress itself upon the minds and the neal's' az
consciences Of the people. 1t is a question :"
today which must be met, and wise lnoeeo arc
the people Of that State who set their iacrs IN.
flint against the dwaring Of physical and men'ai
manhood which is wrapped up in the matter OF
the working OF children.
Active steps in meeting the problems lnVoi'eu
continue to be taken, and for the hrst ume TINS
matter will be put before the children theW
selves Today has been designated as Chao
Labor Day in the churches to be observed as mas
been the custom for the past ten years IN reeuiAi
and special services generally. y new step mas,
however, been taken this year, for the National
Child Labor Committee has called upon teachers
throughout the country to observe Monday neSs
as Child Labor Day in the schools.
The main purpose of this new program IS 10
get the children to think in their own behalf on
this acute problem Of child labor, and to this
end the National Committee has been buslly en-
gagged for the month past in supplying teachers
as we'll as clergynlen, with the latest phases OF
the movement against child labor, and proposes
that at chapel exercises or at some specially des-
ignated period in Mondays school work teachers
shall in some manner take up the subject OF
child labor with their charges.
The responses which it is announced have been
received shows that there is vast interest IN the
matter, requests for information coming IN at
the rate Of about a hundred a day, the lndlca'
tons being that thousands of teachers will unite
with clergymen in some sort of an observance
of the day.
There has been great progress made since the
first Child Labor Day services in 1905, this so
oreot that the rapt aDd flo Of the States are now
in this matter far in advance of the most progress
sive of ten years ago. The child labor laws OF
all the States have been revised and improved;
| knowledge as to the conditions of working chill
dren has been widely spread; the causes, effects
and methods of prevention of child labor have
become matters of thorough scientific study and
! treatment; a Uniform Child Labor Law for the
several States has been widely approved, and the
Federal Government has put into successful oper.
alton a Children's Bureau.
Concerning conditions as they exist, General
Secretary Lovejoy, of the National Child Labor
Committee, says: The white list of States with
a really effective child labor law covering ten or
more of the common occupations of children is
still very short-only Ia States in all, and even
these leave certain kinds of work outside of the
fourteenyear limit. There are nine States which
have not yet reached a l4year age limit even for
IaCtOIv WORK, lneI6 is no OtaLc IN the Union that
has attempted to get an age limit higher than IL
years for newsboys; and only seven States have
reached a standard of 81 years age limit for night
messengers. Boys of fourteen or less are still
employed at the peril of their moral and physical
integrity in this night messenger work in a score
of States"
Many States which have child labor laws are
not enforcing them, he says, and urges the needs Of
thorough inspection. The standard of inspection
service" he declares, Is steadily rising, but we
fall far below the English. There are half a dozen
States in which there is no attempt at inspection
OF labor conditions and therefore no ATTEMPT tc
enforce the child labor law. And there are ner
haps a score IN which the staff of inspection is SC
ridiculously small that thorough Statewide in
spection is physically impossible"
There is indeed need to be up and do;no :.
the service of the children. The call should b.
needed, for it is urgent.