The farmer and mechanic., 1915-03-16
OUR CHILD LABOR
FROM THE OUTSIDE
National Prominence Attracted
to the Feeble StraddIe OF
Problem in N. C.,
by =. X. WINTERS.


Chapel Hill, March 13.-The aeita-
Doh LOT a ragld application Of the
chlld labor law To cotton-mill workers
IN North Carolina, has lately attract
eo national prominence. The Survey
social welfare publication of New
York city, devotes a page TO the tind-
ihSs OF Lewis w. Hine representative
Tor the National Child Labor Commit
tee, illustrating the article with ac-
tual photographs Of child workers in
North Carolina mills.
Ihe photographs, taken by Mr
hlne on his trip to this State, call
attention to three groups of workers
Small girls who work. an illjterate
famlly, and a picture OF a thirteen
year-old boy with a mangled finger.
are the group pictures given promi-
nence. Two sisters. six and seven
years old, are placed in the fore
ground of the photograph OF a large
group OF child workers. One of the
girls, eleven years old, told the rep
resentative of the National Child La
Dor Committee that she labored in
| the mill for SO week
The New York publication, along
with the National Child Labor Com
| mlttee, interpretS the concerted ef-
| forts Of mill-1nen to oppose child la
Dor legislation as a symptom OF re
neWed activity in North Carolina to
assert their right Ito manage their
| own affairs"
| The article continues: an response
| TO the request for definite information
| as to particular children and mills,
Mr.. Hine sent the names of the two
little sisters, six and seven years old
| and the mill in which they were work
ing; Of the tWelVe-year- boy who
had had his arm broken in two places,
with the name Of the mill at which
the accident occurred; and OF the
thirteen-year- doffer who had
worked since he was ten, and whose
hand had recently been torn in the
mill machinery.
| 'Of sixteen mills in North Carolina
which Mr.. Hine visited in November.
1914, he listed by name the thirteeil
in which he found the worst vio.8 :
tiOns. In these mills he counted over
fifty children that he judged to be
from ten TO twelve years old and, In
!, addition 60 these, twenty-three chill
dren told him their ages as follows:
Seven under ten years of age, who
were working or helping regularly IL
, the mills: three OF ten years; six Of
{ eleven years; and seven OF twelve
years.
THE National Child Labor Com
mittee points out that If the big ma
jOrity of manufacturers in North
, Carolina are sincerely anxious that all
violations Of the labor laws shall
. cease, 1T is odd that the State stands
: alone among all the textile states ir
, the country as having no inspector tt
+ aid the Manufacturers Association IL
enforcing the law. The Child Labor
Committee says further:
''1f their anxiety is sincere, theil
temper must have changed since 1910
when the census OF occupations founC
- ,v~f< i'm Il,
: North Carolina mills although the
; legal age limit was already thirteen
l This was a larger number and
| larger proportion OF cottOn-mll
workers under fourteen than was re
> ported for any other State, although
I North Carolina alone among tn
4 Southern States had an age limf
t higher than twelve. Still more mus
| it have changed since the Federal in
: vestigatiOn two years earlier, when 4
0 Of the 50 North Carolina mills inveS
e tigated were violating the law. an
Q It's per cent Of all the children II
r these Il mills were under the lesa
e age, twelve
;, The New York Evening Post char
: acterizes the feeble efforts to straddi
the child labor problem in Nortl
G Carolina on the farm boy on the sam
S pretext with the mill boy as sum
a mary dismissal of the conSicerato
t Of Goods all-out-Of-dOOrs.
Added to this consideration, othe
: conclusions argue that So-called chill
Y labor on the farm is not so lmmlnentl
t dangerous to early childhood School
s days, long winter months OF leisure
/. and relaxation periods throughout tn
year, are advantageous circumstance
with the boy on the farm enjoy
while the mill boy is often deprive
of these God given privileges.