New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1915-03-23
(Clara Gruening Stillman in New
York Tribune.)

| would stop it quickly Not that we
| have not plenty of statistics and plenty
| of proof that the employment of Chill
| Gren is both destructive to them and
! Improbable to society, that it is dis
I locating industry and poisoning the
| race. But that is not enough Great
/ reforms are not carried through by
/ knowledge of facts and logic, but by
! intense and sustained emotion. and
until we become emotional on the
( subject of the two million children in
| industry, until the thought of them
RODS us of sleep by night and of peace
| by day, we shall not succeed in
! abolishing their slavery"
George Creel's intensive investiga-
tons into the child labor problem in
all parts of the country have brought
| him to the conclusion quoted above
people can't be said to know,
he said to me, "unless they feel.
Il have seen the child workers IN
every state of the Union, bent low in
the binding dnst of the coal break
ers, sorting the coal with bleeding
fingers, watching needles that set
5000 stitches minute, crawling on
hands, and feet through the damp
ooze of the cranberry bogs.
faces in the glare of the white hot
furnaces of the glass house, where
they sweat the long nights through;
in cotton mills, where the air is heavy
with flying lint: in silk factories,
where the shining threads weaves
themselves into aching eyes; in shrimp
canneries, where the acid that is on
the heads OF shrimps eats the flesh
from baby fingers r..
Dispassion of No Use.
These are the pictures to be visual
lied by all if the curse of child labor
is to be lifted. Calmness and dispas-
sion are of no use in this crisis. You
can't put deformity and helplessness
and despair into figures
I'VE Americans are SO afraid of be-
ing sentimental Many people believe
that the child labor will be grossly
exaggerated and that it is more or less
of a hubbub inspired by muckrakers
and professional agitators Nothing
could be further from the truth. On
the contrary, the child labor situation
has been constantly understated.
Through fear Of being charged with
sensatonalism, the national commit
tee and the various state organizations
and tears from their reports. But
this problem is made up of blood and
sweat and tears. If you leave. them
out, you can't deal with it effective
ly.''
And this is what Mr.. Creel has tried |
to do in his study of Children in !
Bondage written in collaboration
with Judge Ben Lindsay and Edwin |
Markham.
Time Ripe for Anti Child Labor Agi- !
tation.
''Tae time is ripe for a great wave !,
of anti-child labor agitation" Mr..
Creel went on. peoples hearts are
softer than they ever were before, /!
and social problems are accorded an
Importance that is new to civilization. |
One principal feature of the fight is to
secure recognition of the underlyisg
and compelling relation that toiling |
children bear to vice, crime, low
wages, unemploym and conges-
ton.
''Then we must get congress and
the legislatures to take the same
burning interest in the welfare of
children that they nave long mani |
tested in crops and livestock. Dur
ing all these Years, when children
have been exploited to their destruc-
ton and despair, without inquiry or
even interest, thousands of dollars
were spent In waging war against cat
tie fever and hog cholera. And while |
it was impossible to learn anything
authoritative with regard to child
labor in the cotton mills, the govern
nent issued report after report on
the cotton crop and the proper way
to proceed against the boil weevil. !
'In the gulf states there are tender
laws for the protection of the oyster !
and the shrimp, dealing infinitely with
the crime of tearing them from their |
beds before they nave attained a
certain size and length, but there are
no laws that prescribe penalties Tor
those ruthless employers who drag
babies from their beds to labor in the |
pluckinR fields and feed their flesh to |
the acid Of the shrimp.
ITO arouse a national passion. an |
overwhelming public sentiment that |
child labor must go will be no easy |
task Natural indifference and the |
tradition about early habits of in
dustry' die hard But the greatest |
obstacle, because in some ways the
most intangible, is Special Privi- I
lege' Child labor is one Of the
POUNDS tion stones of big business and
it's supporters in every state are both
bitter and powerful in their antagon-
ism to child labor reform. Their
corrupt control extends to courts and
legislatures, and to large portion of
the press-a control that causes the |
suppression of child labor facts in
great measure and the minimizing Of
those that can't be suppressed.
II do not mean to say" Mr. Greet |