Middletown transcript., 1915-04-10
CONTROL CHILD WORKERS
wilmin gton, Del, March &c.

CdI pTelSItuSllbyhJtiahihS OhOih viz SOiN
as it were, that passes between the
business inter sats and their henchmen
in the legislature, was completed yes
terday with the appointment of the
child labor Inspector.
The newly appointed child labor com
mission, selected by Governor Charles
Miller to protect the child workers of |
the state, put itself on record as poll
tically biased body by appointing the
Republican speaker of the house of re-
presentatives, Charles H. Grantland,
one. of the chief foes of the former |
child labor bill one of the most active |
of its slayers and the most interested
trainers of the substitute law, to take |
the place of the deposed Democratic !
appointee, William ]. Gibbons.
The action OF the commission has re-
opened the child labor controversy. 1t
has brought from Miss Emily P. Bis
sell, an active member of the former
commission letter to Governor Miller
fiaging him for his part in the plot
which has made political capital of in
nocent children.
WARMERS ACTION A SURPRISE
1t has dismayed the decent people of
the state because the appointment of
Representative Grantland was made by
the commission of which Charles War
ner is chairman, and Mr.. Warner was
looked upon as one of the real cham
! ions of child and women workers. AS
chairman of the Committee of Seventy
which was merged into the labor legis-
lation committee, Mr.. Warner headed
the forces which have striven to save
Delaware from its present shame of
wiping out a constructive child labor
law and substituting political meas
ure.
Whether Mr.. Warner has been fooled
by Governor M Her and the Republican
machine Bosses who probobly promised
the Job to Grantland because they were
unable to give him the coveted position
of secretary OF state, or whether his
sincerity has not stood the test and his
cal alignment has been all along Sc
cretly with the interests which are op-
posed to the good of the children, is an
open question which hundreds of Della
wareans are asking themselves and
each other.
\ iss Bissell's letter to the governor
leaves no question as to the stand he
has taken in the barter of the children.
Miss Bissell accuses him of allowing
the former child labor commission to
be "pilloried, discredited, destroyed, to
serve political ends" She resigns
from the state tuberculosis commission
and the commission to decorate the
State House, declaring she cannot
serve on any public commission under
an administration which abolished the
child labor commission for doing its
duty Miss Bissell shows up the tenn
porizihg, shifty policy of the governor
when she accuses him of refusing her {
hearing while Ehe Gil bons controversy
was going on, telling her she 'woulc
not lose by waiting"
MISS BIssELL RAKEs THE GOVERNOR
81 realize now, she declares in the
letter, that the destruction of the
commission was already settled at thai
time, and wou ID have gone on just the
same. 1t would have been embarrass.
ing to explain this to me or to deny it.
She further lays bare the Governor s
part in the plotto over throw the old con
mission and enact new and purely po
: litical law when she says:
81 speak from knowledge, not theory
when say that there was no reason
in the child labor commission itself, o.
in its work during the first year, tina
warranted its Abolishment. The trou
BILE came from certain politicians. Tw,
curious private statements, one mad
by you, the other by legislators con
firm this.
"You said that you know the commits
sion was in the right, but that the feel
ing of the legislature against it was to
II strong for you to control. Four of tn
legislators, on the other hand assured
US that they knew the commission wa
in the right, but they trusted the gov
= ernor and must carry out his program
Il am glad to feel that these con
e fiicting testimonies agreed on one esse
l. tial point: that the commission did it
# duty by the chi lldren whom it was Sc
to guard.
The outstanding facts in the presen
q child labor situation which Delawar
e has to face for the next two years ar
a these:
Enforcement of the law is in tn
hands of a partisan politician who ha
a no training or experince to fit him fo
n his job. The chairman of commissio
,e which appointed him IS Charles Warne
\ who vehemeutly protested during tn
~ writer against the injection of polite
ID into the enforcement of the labor law.
le POL TICIANs CONTROL THE CHILDRE
One of the most influential member
e. of the commits lssion is Representativ
n George Hill. chairman of the revise
r statutes committee of the hous,
=, which recommended repeal of the o.
ie child labor law and was instrument;
le in procuring the passage of the ne
to law.
q. Furthermore, the state knows no
- that Governor Miller has been show
nc as willing to upset the entire child pr,
ne tective program of Delaware for IL
as sake of giving a Republican politicia
W. an $500 job.
ho Social welfare workers of Delawal
AS van,,nniza fhaV houa hoon aba0ly m q fe