Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-03-18
.SOUTHERNERD DENOUNCES
!. SOUTHERN MILL OWNERS.


New Orleans, March 1S,-A scath
ing denuneiation by fellow southerner
of southern manufacturers who employ
children was the sensation of today
sessions of the tenth annual national
child labor conference here. Wiley II.
Swift, of Greensboro, N. c., taking for
his theme, "Why 1t Is Hard to GcS
Child Labor Laws in the South,n de.
clared that ''as successors to the civil.
zation of so years ago, we feel that
there is a difference in children, that
the poor child was born to toll and
should be set at it early" Explain
ing that he referred especially to North
and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama
and Mississippi in saying the south IS
"far below the standard in its child
labor laws" the speaker said:
"our people have always been kind
and charitable but they have never
been just. The children of the poor
have been allowed to work because
we have known or thought little of
absolute human rights. Furthermore
we do not properly understand the laws
of community progress or know just
what we are doing. We have no reli-
able data because there has been no
investigation, or until recently we have
resented any suggestion that we needed
to learn. We of the south have been
peculiarly jealous Of our reputation and
have in many cases hid our eyes lest
we see things that were not good.
Walter Pages speech on "The Forgot
ten Man" was bold. When DR.. Stiles
said we had hook-wOrm, the lie was all
but passed. But the signs are hopeful
Our educational forces are now hunting
for the forgotten man and as q result
of the Investigation carried on through
Rockefeller institute, hook worm is al
most as fashionable as appedicitis.
cup to this time we have allowed
ourselves to be deluded because on:
manufacturers have said things were all
right, and we have respect for men Of
influence and wealth. If we have cried
out against the bad rich, it has been
because in our opinions most of the bad
rich live next to Wall street and cer-
tainly north of the Mason-Dixon line.
To appoint an inspector for our mill
villages would be q reflection upon the
word and character Of good men. But
above all, the reason child labor con-
tinues is that the manufacturer wants
the child in his mill. Since this manu-
facturer considers child labor of such
vital Importance that he is willing to
go to the legislature and fight for the
the right to work child, you need not
be surprised that we still permit a
large percentage Of our children to be
taken from school and placed at work,
and that on any work day in the cotton
mills, week in and week out, hundreds
of girls in short dresses may be found
standing II hours"
Professor Frank M. Leavitt, president
of the national vocational guidance as
sociation, Chicago university, speaking
today on "Co.Operation of the Schools
in Reducing Child Labor" scored the
present day school system as contribut.
ing "both to child labor and child idle.
ness; hordes Of children leave school, u
he said, /" because of its uncongenial
and unsympathetic atmosphere and be.
cause it lacks any important relation
to the child 3 social and economic de.
velopment. F" A somewhat opposite view
was held on the same subject by E. N
Chopper, Phi. d., who declared that the
children and their parents were in
the main, responsible Tor their leaving
schools. Professor Chopper said there is
danger Of dumping from the academic
extreme to the vocational extreme"