The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1915-03-18
Census Reports Show That 49,
600 Children Under is Years
of Age Are Working
in Cotton Mills.
CHILD LABOR UNNECESSARY

How many children in a yard Of cot
ton? The answer to this problem in
human arithmetic is not pleasant.
Thousands OF children in America are
literally weaving their lives into cot
ton. According to the United States
census OF 1910 there were 1921 chill
dren under 16 working in the cotton
mills Of this country in 1909. Forty
thousand children under 16 working
from IL to 8 hours a day in the lint
laden, heavy atmosphere Of the mill,
Forty thousand children!
And in the state of South Carolina
alone, though South Carolina is honest
ly trying to cope with her child labor
problem, the commissioner OF labor
himself reports 1854 children under 16
employed in the textile industry there.
OF these 1854 are under IA. Three thou
sand Ave hundred children under IA
working in the mills In one state that
ranks above several others In the south
In her ~endeavors to enforce her child
labor law!
Conditions in the South.
North and South Carolina, Alabama,
Mississippi and Georgia all specifically
allow children Of IL to work in their
mills. To be sure, Georgia has lately
passed a law forbidding the employ
ment Of children under IA unless they
are orphans or children Of dependent
widows, in which case they may be
employed at IL, but this exception
makes the 14-year limit practically null.
Mississippi has a 14-year limit for girls,
but has not yet reached 1t for boys.
AS a matter OF fact, in all these states
except South Carolina, children under
IL are employed. Factory inspection is
very weak in those states; there IL no
compulsory education there. Manufac-
turers are anxious to have children
help" in the mills because they come
for small pay, and so children obviously
less han IL years old go into the mills
to become regular wage earners
A Report.
An investigator for the national child
labor committee reports his experiences
In one OF the better class mill towns of
Georgia as follows:
Here was a group Of we'll built mills,
surrounded by well kept grounds;
homes hat were, externally, at least.
we'll planned and cared fora school
building and a church that pleased the
ey~a-everything provided for, apparent
ly. Upon entering the spinning room
Gin the mild. however. I met a real
setback-youngsters by the dozen, tiny
chaps, sweeping, doffing, spinning
there were % Of them hat 1 Judged to
be under IL years of age in the three
Bptnning rooms alone Jana l rOunu OIH-
ers in the weaving rooms, helping).
These little ones were all we'll trained,
answering to the age OF IL and IA no
matter how youthful their appearance.
Surely, I thought. not a thing neglected
except the children"
On visiting the homes OF the people.
looking UP family and church records,
this investigator proved nearly a dozen
children to be working there at 10 and
IL years of age, some OF them having
begun before they were 10. ,
"T found that many children who say
they are IL" he states, ARE really go
ing on ~. and too often have a long
way to go before reaching IL. Others
who are IL now. had been working one,
two, or three years, beginning at 10
or before"
so It is that in these southern mills,
little children, hundreds and thousands
of them, some ~. some Is and some
only going on TO-" are weaving their
lives into cotton-cottOn to clothe the
world. They are not going to school,
they have no time for school. They
are not playing, for surely they have
no time to play. Many Of them live
in squalor and poverty. Many Of them
can not read or write. They are the
great sacrifice of America on the altar
OF industry.
Child Labor Not Necessary.
That the use OF these children is not