Denver labor bulletin., 1918-02-09
OPENING GUN OF CAM
PAIGN FIRED AT MEET
ING IN GREELEY.
Secretary of State holland and
Labor Commissioner Morrissey
Tell Growers and Factories
That Children Must Not Be
Robbed of Education.

The state labor department is GO
ing to play an important part in the
enforcement of laws having to do with
child labor in the beet fields during
the 1918 season. The department is
going TO cooperate with the school
authorities Of Weld and other sugar
beet counties in forcing recognition
Of the compulsory education laws
which have been trampled upon with
impunity for years.
The opening gun of the campaign
was fired at Greeley last Friday night
when James R. holland. secretary of
state; W. L. Morrissey, state labor
commissioner. and J. II. Mitchell, dep
uty state factory inspector, were the
guests of honor at a banquet at
Greeley arranged by the Civic and
Commercial Club of that city pur-
posely TO reach an understanding as
to the attitude state and local officials
were to take in the premises.
Plan Law Enforcement.
The state labor department has been
conducting q quiet Independent inves-
tigation for two months and was pre-
pared TO 90 ahead with its plans of
law enforcement. Secretary holland
and Commissioner Morrissev did not
reveal their plans and were not forced
to do so, as County and Juvenile Judge
Baker OF Weld county and Superin-
tendent of Schools Copeland of Weld
county announced their intention to
force q 100 per cent attendance in the
schools. Other counties are likely to
do the same in order to keep the state
labor officials off their backs.
The banquet of the Commercial
Club was attended by about 200 of the
l., 80 = 81
guests included Representatives of the
Great Western Sugar Company, school
superintendents and principals from
several northern counties, the three
state officials and a number of beet
raisers. r. E. Hanna of the Greeley
Club was the POSTMASTER.
Affects School Attendance
Judge Baker announced that it was
high time the authorities of Weld
county enforced the law. He said
that without fear or favor he in
tended TO do so. He produced statis-
teal chart compiled from attendance
figures secured from the principals of
practically every school in Weld coun-
ty. His figures We're startling. He
showed an average retardation of three
enrolled in the schools of Weld county.
More than $500 children were behind
in their classes last year because of
work in the beet fields.
Judge Baker believed that a con-
tinuous school was the real solution
of the problem. He said that the
school terms should be arranged not
TO conflict with industrial conditions.
If the children were worked under
proper conditions labor in the beet
fields during the summer, in the opin-
ion Of Judge Baker. was not harmful,
Solving the Problem.
A. d. Copeland, superintendent of
schools, mentioned the various plans
for solving the child labor problem
and keeping the children in school.
Among them are the siN-day-a-week
school plan, the continuous school a-d
the two divisions of the school year.
He was opposed to the siN-day-a-week
plan and said it would not work out
satisfactorily.
Secretary of State holland was re-
ceived with enthusiasm when he told
of his interest in the problem now
pressing for solution. Labor Commits
Sioner Morrissey called attention 70
the eight-hour law for children and
startled the audience with his strict
Interpretation of that law.
Was an Epochal Meeting.
Secretary holland and the labor
commissioner will continue their study
Of the problem with a view of offer
ing amendments to the present law if,
as Commissioner Morrissey put it,
the next legislature is composed Of
men and women with hearts attuned
to the song of labor"
The Bulletin believes that the
Greeley gathering will prove epochal
and that the part the labor depart
ment is to play in the beet sugar
fields campaign will aid school Off
cials.
Washington dispatches say that the
use of standardized shoe will elimin-