The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-06-01
VERMONT BACKWARD
IN CHILD LABOR LAWS
DR.. A. J. McKelway Says Green Noun
tain State Is One of Eight That
Does Not Prohibit Employment

That Vermont is one of the eight
states that have not yet passed law
prohibiting the employment of children
under fourteen in all manufacturing es-
adjustments, was stated by DR.. A. j.
McKelway, secretary for the southern
states of the national child labor com
mittee, in a speech before the national
conference on charities and correction
held recently at Memphis As other back
ward states, DIR. A. J. McKelway named
the two Carolnas, Georgia, Alabama,
Mississippi, New Mexico and Nevada,
none of which can compare with Yer
mont in the matter of public schools.
Commenting on this statement, Owen
K. Lovejoy, general secretary of the ma
tional child labor committee says, "It
| is very true that Vermont is ranked
with the backward minority in her child
labor laws, but DR.. McKelway, because
his chief interests are in the south, has
| forgotten that Idaho, Wyoming and
Utah besides the states he mentioned
have l4-year age limit for factories.
Moreover, Louisiana has a clause in her
law allowing children under fourteen to
be employed in establishments employ
ing five or less persons. There are there
fore twelve states out of the forty
eight that have not yet made the four
teen-year age limit apply to all manu-
featuring establishments.
"The Vermont law prohibits the en-
ployment of children under fourteen in
establishments employing only ten per-
sons, and that sounds all very fine until
you look at the last United States cen
sus and see that the 1868 manufactur-
ing establishment in Vermont. l,l00,
employ only from one to five wage earn
crs, so that in the ma iority of manufac
turing establishments in Vermont chill
dren under fourteen may be employed.
OF course it is true that Vermont has
an excellent school law which tends to
control child labor, but a school law can
never take the place of a child labor
law; it leaves too many loopholes for
the employer of children to crawl
through. So in not having good child
labor law Vermont is below the ma
tional standard in the matter of pro-
tecting her children. The Palmer Owen
bill now before Congress, which pro-
hibits interstate commerce in the pro-
ducts of the labor OF children under four
teen in factories or OF children under
sixteen IN mines and quarrles, SHOWS
what the national standard has come to
be.
Zone reason why Vermont has never
made her child labor law stronger is
that she has not realized that there is
enough manufacturing going on in the
state to make child labor a serious
question. As a matter of fact, although |
Vermont ranks AID in population, she
ranks 2Sth in the value of her manu-
featured products and 34th in the num-
Der of wage-earners in the state. She |
is really doing a large amount of man
ufacturing in proportion TO her popula-
ton, The value of her manufactured |
products was given in the last census as
SOS, 10000, while the value of her crops I
was only s27 1885. Yet Vermont is
considered an agricultural
state. 1t is evident that if Vermont is
to keep up with the march of the ma
ton she must realize her position as a
state and make proper
laws to safeguard her children from ex
ploitation in the hands of growing in
iustry"