The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-03-04
USE GOVERNMENT TO
BOOST CHILD LABOR

BOOST CHILD LABOR
CONTINUED from page ~
has earned the contempt Of the Amer
lean people.
find, in comparing it with 'Emery's
statements before the congressional
committees, that the advantage is all
with Emery.
This representative Of the National
Association of Manufacturers bra
zenly defended the exploitation Of the
little children on financial grounds.
whereas the phamplet circulated by
you undertakes to disguise this pur-
pose by hypocritical expressions Of So
licitude and sentiment. couched in the
familiar cant phrases with which the
Pecksniffian uplifter vainly endeavors
to gloss over the hideous facts found
in the economic and Industrial field.
Purpose of Action.
The purpose is apparent throughout
to still further stimulate child labor,
and, at the same time, to throw about
it q mantle Of responsibility. More
children are to be diverted into in
dustry at tender age, if the hopes of
the National Association of Manu-
facturers. as here set forth, are real
lied, and they are to be made more
skillful, in order that the wages of
their fathers can be still further de-
pressed, and boy and girl set against
father and mother in killing struggle
for bread.
Thus the pamphlet reports an en-
ployer as saying, on a visit to an in
dustrial school conducted under the
dual system Of control:
why, I pay $40 a day for the kind
of work that 15-year old boy is do
ing"
Supplementing it's defence of the
dual system Of control, by which in
dustrial education is to be admins
tered by a separate board and Gloss
divisions. thus emphasized. the PAM
phlet says: j. ~ s; =: = :,
control OF Schools. =:
Business men must largely deter
mine the character of these Schools,
if they are to be worth whfler
But, above all, I direct your parti-
cular attention to the authors fall
sification Of the facts regarding child
labor, making it appear that children
enter factories for other reasons than
the true one-that they are driven
there by the payment to: their. fathers
of wages too low to keep their families
alive.
Says this report circulated: by you,
under the stamp of the United States
government:
"Children do not leave school at 4
| simply because they are IA, nor be-
cause the law allows. but because they
are adolescent. At adolescence the
! will and creative faculties assert them.
selves. Says Carlyle, All true work
| is sacred. In all true work, be it but
true hand labor, there's something
divine In the impulse Of the adde's
| cent child to go to work at IA there
is, after all, reaching for the divine
| In the child's hunger for the world OF
| work and of zeal things is a tiny re-
| Election of that Infinite Spirit which in
! seven days made the world
Hits High Water Mark.
I submit to you that this constitutes
the high-water mark of dishonest and
contemplate hypocrisy.
Written by a wealthy manufacturer
and published by an association OF
men whose sons and daughters remain
! in school and college for eight years
| after they reach the age Of IA, and
even then, seldom engage in produc-
| tive toll, it is g. plain Justification OF
the facts regarding a system that uses
| hunger to forces the children Of the
poor into mines and factories just at
the time when they should be best
| able to receive instruction that would
| fit them for the appreciation and en-.
joyment of the finer things of life
| with the sacrilegious suggestion that
! God has abandoned, the little ones
| and is on the side Of the men who are
crushing out their lives in mine and
factory.
Continuing his argument, the author
| of this pamphlet, which you have sc
widely circulated, says:
| ''Let US remember, too, that sub.
stantia1ly all the working people OF
the world have quit school at this
early age, and are likely to as ia,
ahead as we can see."
Hasn't Distributed Labor Reports
| If your government bureau made q
practice of sending broadcast all pub.
locations on the subject of industrial,
education, some palliation might be
found for your conduct. But founG
that you have not distributed the re.
port of the government commission
which investigated this subject. MOI
have you circulated the declaration OF
the American Federation Of Labor
representing 100000 organized
workers Of this country, adopted al
the annual convention in San Fran.
cisco, in November last, and which
said:
I'm approving Industrial education
equal attention should be given to the
general educational studies and re.
quirements Of school children. The
convention believes the latter OF
greater importance to the future wei.
fare of the workers than the former
| instruction. Tn6usfria1 odIoafion S1 a 7