The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1914-06-04
VERMONT NAMED AT NATIONAL
CONFERENCE AS BACKWARD
IN CHILD LABOR LAWS

State Does Not Realize Extent Of He
Manufacturing Establishments. Ha
Not Provided Good Child Laba
Laws Though Has Excellent schoo
System.
That Vermont is one Of the cigh
states that have not yet passed lae
prohibiting the employment Of child
ren under fourteen In all manufactur
ing establishments, was stated by DIR
A. J. Mckelway. secretary for th,
Southern States Of the National Chile
Labor Committee, in a speech bcfor,
the National Conference ON Charities
and Correction held recently az Mem
phis As other backward states, DR.
A. J. McKelway named the two Caro-.
linas, Georgia. Alabama, Mississippi
New Mexico and Nevada, none OF
which can compare with Vermont in
the matter Of public schools.
Commenting on this statement, o,
X. Lovejoy, General Secretary Of the
National Child Labor Committee says,
"lt is very true that Vermont is rank
ed with the backward minority in her
child labor laws, but DIR. Mckelway,
because his chief interests are in the
South has forgotten that Idaho, Wy
oming and Utah besides the states he
mentioned have no 14-year age limit
for factories. Moreover, Louisiana
has clause in her law allowing
children under fourteen to be employ
ed in establishments employing five
or less persons. There are therefore
twelve states out of the forty-eight
that have not yet made the fourteen
year age limit apply to all manufac
turing establishments.
"The Vermont law prohibits the en-
ployment of children under fourteen
in establishments employing only ten
persons, and that sounds all very fine
until you look at the last United
States Census and see that the 1858
manufacturing establishments in Yer
mont, l,l00 employ only from one to
five wage-earners, so that in the ma
jority of manufacturing establish
ments in Vermont children under
fourteen may be employed. OF
course it is true that Vermont has an
excellent school law which tends TO
control child labor, but school law
can never take the place of child
labor law; it leaves too many loop
holes for the employer of children to
crawl through So in not having a
good child labor law Vermont is be
low the national standard in the mat
ter of protecting her children. The
Palmer Owen Bill now before Con-
gress, which prohibits interstate com
merce in the products of the labor of
children under fourteen in factories
or Of children under sixteen in mines
and quarries, shows what the national
standard has come to be.
"One 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 o matter of fact, al |
though Vermont ranks AID in popula-
ton, she ranks 38th in the value of
her manufactured products and 34th
in the number of wage-earners in the
state. She is really doing a large
amount of manufacturing in proper
ton to her population. The value of
her manufactured products was given
in the last census as $68,310, 900, while
the value of her crops was only $27,-
i46,S36. Yet Vermont is popularity
an agricultural state. 1t is
evident that if Vermont is to keep up
with the march of the nation she must
realize her position as manufactur-
ing state and make proper laws to
her children from exploita- !,
ion in the hands of growing indus
n.y."