The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-07-07

go 81 HftlIiS IL M Una III 4
is neither ne sssary nor profitable /.
work young children. We are, lere-
lore, forced TO ask of these nur
tuners who ppose child labor reforms
can you not 90 Well unless re leave
10 yon some thousands Of our be
and girls If in fact they can not
succeed as business men without |
working these little cnes is that NOT
very ciear evidence that they are not
fitted for modern industry. IL anv
man who needs child workers in order
TO do we'll the best kind Of captain of
industry? l think not. and we nal
Just as we'll have it clearly under
stood now that We VIII not count sny |
man successful who can Lot do we'll
except through the aid and labor of
this very large number IF hill
workers.
Children Not Needed.
The fact is that they can Go well
without these children. know y
mil THAT is doing we'll. Men who
think that they must need have chill
dren under the age of IA in order to
run their mill underestimate their
own ability. If they will examine into
1t they will find that the child is an
expense and not an asset; unless in
deed they employ the child in order
TO get the adults of the family at low
wages or in order to tie the child early
TO the business so as that the will be
able TO keep him there the r, of Lis
lie. II they act from either of these
motives they are not worthy Of co
s~ideration.
We are not unfriendly. We love to
see the State enriched, but we say
that neither cotton manufacturers nor
any other body of men ought to be
allowed to hurt these thous nds of
small boys ard girls. 1t is wrong.
child labor perpetuates 10th poverty
| and ignorance. 1t keeps all workers
at low wages and cotton mill opera
tives had just as we'll earn now as any
time hat they will never receive
much more pay as long as they COM
t pete with young children. This is a
: rule SO universal that it needs no de-
t NAL. Child laLOr wastes life. md
that 1t goes on as it now does in
North Carolina almost without :
nunity overs both the morals and
selfrespect of the whole State.
We have sought to get t Sc l-ws
: improved, and to get what we have
enforced. We have failed: though
there is a very generoal insioati n
!, now OF marked Improvement coming
as men tell m the direct re: 1t of
: general agitation, and yet there is
much to be done. Frequently the
number of children employed in a
mill is not even reported to the Corn
missioner Of Labor. In all serious
. ness | ask ' ny have a COMMISSIONS
of Labor if he ca do nothing to en-
force labor laws?
n Simply for Oratory.
i The statement that the textile in
: dustry has been worth many times as
much educ. ionally as the University
Of North Carolina, and almost as
much as the public schools is, of
e course, the utterance OF a man warm
ed up in speech, and in saying 1--WE
have gotten our operatives entree into
- / DnA0 CchHOlC and chr rch aC WHARF thu
e religion of Jesus Christ is taught
o Mr.. Moore certainly did not mean to
say that we do not have good churches
: Fin the country where the religion OF
y Jesus Christ is we'll taught. He could
e not mean to say this. Because he
knows too well that the moral and re-
ligious strength of our State lies in the
e rural districts.
n AS to schools, the school enrolment
n and attendance is far better in the
,r country districts than in the mill dis
IS tricts (See any reportS.) The fact i:
t. that the mill is the direct competitor
is of the school and gets most Of The
,e children Over II years of age living
10 in the mill village. If any one doubts
this let him go to a mill village ane
see for himself. | recall one now
where the blowing of a whistle ant
I. outpouring of the operatives look:
< to me very much like a schoo. | SET
scores Of children who ought to hav'
J. been in the school house rather than
in the mill.
Or Warming up and about to close MI
at Moore said These Internal Dcma
IN gogues and the Sycophants' too Ion:
if haze menaced US and "~threatened GU
ut prosperity" passed the term
ct "Demagogues'' and "Sycophants" OF
S. the hundreds :. good men and VOL Ell
4 who have expressed themselves as be
.e ing in favor Of child labor refor. S
a. To the North Carolina Child Labo
as COMMITTEE. made up of good men. t
We the National Child Labor Committee
ne among whose members are a numbe
It of the strongest and best men or TIL
ir country. 70 the Whoie Socidi SelN
y, loo Conference of North Carolina, an'
TO all Of our Governors from the la
I'd mented Aycock, who is r OF here TO re
ye sent the terms, to our beloved LICK