Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-09-13
urges SUPPORT
Of Child LABOR
BILL AT POLLS
Miss Julia Houston, Proba-
ton Officer, Declares
Measure Is Needed.
To the Editor OF The Graphic :

To The Editor OF The Graphic:
On Monday the men of Pine Bluff
will have an opportunity to vote for
a splendid, progressive and much
needed measure, child labor law,
placed on the ballot as act NO. l, COM
posed by initiative petition. The new
bill is for an act to be entitle, AN
Act to Provide for the Health, Safety
and Welfare of Minors, by Forbidding
their Employment in Certain Occupa-
items, and Under Certain Specified
Ages; by regulating the hours and
conditions under which employment
certificates may be issued and filed.
It deserves the earnest consideration
of every voter in the town who is
interested in his states welfare.
The farmer of the bill, a represent
tative of the National Child Labor
committee, says:
Arkansas stands among the six or
seven states today having the poorest
child labor laws in the country.
Our present law is practically
nothing. Children may be employed
in stores, messenger service Or any
occupation except in mines, at most
any age and for any number of hours.
The fourteen year age limit for fac
tory work is set aside by the mere
statement. which is always made, that
the child's earnings are necessary
for the support of the family" SO
we go on perpetuating poverty and
inefficiency by allowing the burden
to be put upon the shoulders of the
1;+fl nnnOrf11nitV for
education, play and normal develop
ment destroyed"
With the aid of the National Chile
Labor committee, an excellent bill
was drawn up by the state depart
ment of labor, petitions for it circulat-
ed in the spring, and several thous-
ands more than the required $4,000
signature secured by May l. More
than thousand were obtained in
Pine Bluff Under the initiative and
referendum the bill may now become
law upon vote of the people Mon
day.
What the Bill Provides.
"The bill provides a fourteen year
age limit under which children may
not be employed in stores, fac
aud other gainful occupations. Vaca-
tion work for children of their own
parents is. of course. exempted.
sit prohibits children under SIX
teen from certain hazardous and NOR
ally or physically injurious occupa-
tions such as work on circular saws
or Woodworking machinery where ac-
cidents so often occur. and in mines,
and where intoxicating liquors are
sold.
"Children under sixteen are not to
work more than eight hours a day or
six days week, nor after night.
Those under eighteen can not be en-
ployed for more than ten hours a
day, nor "a hours a week, nor after
ten o'clock at night.
Provision is made for the issuance
by the school authorities of employ
ment certificates which every child
under sixteen must have before start
ing OF work. The certificate is a
guarantee OF the employer that the
legally employed. A big Step toward
compulsory education is tak.c by re-
curing that a child under sixteen
must have at least four years of
schooling and be able to read and
write, before it can be granted a per-
nit to work.
The absence of a glaring child labor
evil in our state does not excuse us
for being Indifferent to the need for
laws to protect our children from eN-
ploitation and to guarantee to them
an opportunity for education. Now
is the time to put Arkansas in line
with Tennessee, Missouri Kav sas,
Oklahoma and other neighboring
states who nave had this law for
several years.