Evening star., 1915-05-11
DEGREES CONDITIONS
EXISTING IN SOUTH
Child Labor Situation in North
Carolina Particularly Bad,
A. J. McKelWay Says.
MILL OPERATIVES HELD
.ILLITERATE AND IGNORANT
Tells Industrial Relations Commits.
sion Law Is Almost Univer-
sally Violated.

sally Violated.
Child labor and its problems were up
for consideration at the hearing before
the industrial relations commission at the
Shoreham Hotel today.
| A. J. Mckelway, secretary for the
southern states of the national child labor
committee. testified that conditions OF
child labor in the southern states were
deplorable. The cotton mills have stood
in the south against child labor reform.
He said that conditions in North Carolina
| We're particularly bad.
"They still have the thirteen-year age
limit and no factory inspection law in
North Carolina" said Mr.. Mckelway.
THE law is almost universally violated
in North Carolina. l Investigated at one
time conditions in one mill town there.
and found that only s per cent Of the
| children of school age were attending
school. The rest were in the mills.
The state senate of North Carolina
he SAID, was the main stumbling block
to child labor reform.
"Ouf opponents control the nomina-
tions to the State senate" he said.
THE operatives in the southern mills
are such helpless class. They are il
literate and ignorant. In North Caro-
lima the illiteracy of the children ten
to fourteen years of age is 16 per cent
among the cotton factory children in
is so per cent" He said that a sort OF
feudal system prevailed in some of the
mill towns. The owners of the mills
own the streets, the houses. the schools
and the churches. besides the mills.
people of the south will wake up
some day to the fact that these mill
towns should be incorporated and the
people who live in them allowed to
elect their officials said Mr.. Nickel
way.
Only One Mill Organized.
There are 500 cotton mills in the
south. and only In one is the labor or
ganized; that one is located in Knox
Vile"
In Georgia, he said, there had been a
"gentlemen's agreement" providing that
children should not work in excess of
sixty-six hours week: that no child
| less than twelve should work at night
I-that no child less than twelve should
| work in a mill unless the child had a
| widowed mother to support, and nc
child under ten should work in any
event.
| I'VE found this gentlemen's agree
| ment was universally violated" said
Mr.. McKelway. Through the efforts OF
| the committee, backed up by public
| law virtually putting into effect the
! old agreement. He said that the
wages paid children in the cotton mills
were fairly high for child labor. But
| / cotend that child labor lowers the
whole wage scale to the child stand
ard" he said.
Nearly all the labor in the mills is
white" said Mr.. McKelway. Experiments
Lob Iotr vnr,t
cessful. though 1 do not believe the
| tests have been entirely fair to the
| colored children. He added that the
negro children Of the south are get
| ton than the white children in the
| factory districts of the south.
Taking up the question Of messenger
| boys employed in. cities, Mr.. McKelway
| said that the conditions were very bad
throughout the southern cities.
Conditions Here Better.
He said that conditions were better
| in Washington than at Baltimore be-
cause the law here provides that they
| shall not be under fourteen years of
age for day work and not under six
/ teen years for night work He said
that messenger boys we're employed
| constantly to carry opium and cocaine
| to people in the red light districts IN
| the cities and to run other errands in
these districts. The boys. he said,
with the people and life in these red
| light districts" The telegraph com
! panies, he said, had fought the friends
! Of child labor vigorously.
Mr. Mckelway testified that he haC
/ ia ken an active part in the fight which
resulted in the passage of the District
! of Columbia child labor law enacted II
| 1905 He said that his association wa:
/ behind the fight for national chile
labor law, believing that such a Law
would provide high standard of legis
Iation dealing with the subject. He
| told the commission about the passage
of the Palmer child labor bill by the
House. He said that the bill reached
| the Senate late and could only have
come up by unanimous consent.
| Senator Overman." he said. "object.
| ed TO it's being taken up. l happen tt
| know that several North Carolina cot
/ ton manufacturers had appealed TO hin
| to kill the bill"
| Mr.. McKelway said he had good hopes
of the bills becoming law at the mex
| session of Congress.
G. E. Roe Criticises Courts.
Gilbert E. Roe, a New York lawyer
criticised the courts yesterday after
noon for barking back to the archaic
| common law of centuries ago in de-
Gliding cases arising under circum-
stances of which the common law knew
nothing.
The common law was built up said
Mr.. Roe, "at time when the laboring
man was not recognized as possessing
any rights. 1t is plainly wrong to APP
ply principles then established to con-
dtions today.
Mr.. Roe added that the courts were
prone to safeguard with great zeal the
rights guaranteed to property under
| the Constitution. but that in every
| case they upheld the constitutionality
| of laws invading the personal guaran-
| tees of the Constitution, the rights OF
| free speech, free press and free as
sembly. He referred to recent decisions
| of the Supreme Court as "Dred Scott
| decisions of the labor war" and de-
| clared that they would lead to wide
spread distrust and agitation.
Cites Condition Existing.
"a condition has arisen." said Com
missioner O'Connell, questioning Mr.
Roe, where men who fail to secure
Justice in the courts have become out
lawed, distrusting the courts. and con.
seauently distrusting the entire socia
Organization. What can we do to cure
this situation"
"One step toward cure."s replied
the witness, 'is the work this commits
sion is now doing, giving every one
Ian opportunity to express his opinion
and getting them acquainted with each