New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-02-19
Legislature Passes Bill
Raising Age Limit for
Child Labor.
SENATE COMMITTEE
ENDS ITS HEARING
A. J. McKelway Presents Figures
TO Show South Is Not
Opposed to Measure.
From The Tribune Bureau

Washington, Feb. 1S.-Just as the
hearings in the Senate committee
closed on the Heating owen child labor
bill this afternoon telegram was re-
ceived from Columbia. s. c., saying
that the child labor bill pending be-
fore tho Legislature there had been
passed. fixing a fourteen-year age limit
for the employment OF children. Since
the Federal bill was favorably reported
70 the House in 1918 Georgia and
Alabama have passed child labor leg
islation long resisted by the cotton
mill owners, and now South Carolina
ioins them. The threat OF Federal
regulation has had It's effect. North
Carolina remains alone among the
Southern states In Its attitude toward
child labor.
Miss Eunice Sinclair, OF Fayettevilie,
y. C., gave TO the committee graphic
account of her experiences during the
last six months, making a house 70
house canvass among the villages and
securing from the parents and from
family Bibles proofs that children
were illegally employed. Out OF Z4o
children under fourteen years OLD
found at work. 16l had been employed
in violation Of the law. Their ages
ranged from nine years 20 the legal
,iui, One fourteen-yesr-old child
he'd been working for seven years.
part Of the time for twelve hours a
Gay. and lately for eleven hours.
The last mill investigated was AZ
Salisbury, y. c., the home OF Senator
Oyerman, whose objection TO the Fed
eral bin last session helped 20 prevent
its passage. Children illegally EN-
ployed were found there "a elsewhere.
Senator Overman. it is understood. has
refused this year TO lend himself to
the plan Of burying the bill by refer
ring Il 70 the Judiciary Committee for
an opinion on its constitutionality.
Declares Issue Non-Sectional.
The hearing closed with an argument
by A. J. McKeiway, Southern secretary
Of the National Child Labor Commit
tee. who summed up for the advocates
Of the measure. He sought 20 lift the
question out OF the sectional into the
national plane. Opposition TO the meas
ure last year and this. he said, had
come from the cotton mill owners OF
four Southern states. and the meeting
of this opposition with evidence IN re-
buttal had fixed attention on these
states.
Mr.. McKelway claimed that the oppo-
sition did not fairly represent the sen
timent Of these states, and that the
South was emphatically in favor Of
Federal regulation, as shown by e1-
tracts from the Southern press and BY
the vote in the House. While only one
vote against the bill was cast from a
state north Of Mason and Dixon's line
that of Parker, of New Jersey-yet the
forty-fve negative votes from the
South were less than third OF the
number Of Southern Representatives
Nine Southern delegations in the
House were solidly for the bill, and
only four-from North Carolina, South
Carolina. Georgia and Mississippi
had a majority against IL.
Mr. McKelway rather turned the
tables on Mr.. Kitchin, representing the
Southern cotton manufacturers. by
reading from one Of his messages to
the North Carolina Legislature, in
which he held that factory inspection
was essential to the enforcement Of
the law, and that the law was violated.
At that very time "a per cent of the
factories in North Carolina were vio-
lating the law by employing children
under twelve years old, according TO
the report OF the Federal Bureau Of
Labor.