New Britain herald., 1918-12-27
5 YEAR Old INFANTS
: NOT GIVEN WORK
Children Six to Ten Are Employed
Only II Hours a Day

-
highly enthusiastic champion of the
North Carolina cotton manufa cturers
PUSHES to the defense of its clients
IN a recent issue. Under the caption
MISS Lathrop Corrects Some Figures
Fearlng on Carolina Industries the
observer correspondent quotes a let
@Sr from the Chief of the Chi1dren's
Bureau to Eugene Holt
Judging by the context Eugene Holt
mas made protest against the report
or the Federal Children's Bureau on
present child labor conditions and had
expressed the feeling that exaggerated
and sensational reports from FEEDER
al office regarding the situation in
N@rth Carolina Nigh lead the unini-
tiated public to think that North Caro-
lima cotton mills actually employed
children. OF course, it would be I'M
fortunate for this industry to rest UNI
der such cloud. Miss Lathrop, Chief
of the Children's Bureau, therefore
takes down the files containing the in
mEes1gator's reports and looks them
DVer again to make sure that Justice
is done. She says it was unfortunate
that anyone should have had the i'm
preston that the official reports re-
ferred only to cotton mills because the
statement of the Bureau given to the
SSS pIo1lilIS lIltllCdI6S LDuL II refers
to all industries.
o. This is not Miss Iathrop's fault nor
the fault of the public-there is a
super SENSITIVE se1f-consciousnes on
the part of the cotton mill industry,
which has persisted in thinking for
The past fifteen years that every criti-
clsm on child labor in America was
directed against that industry. Advo-
@sates of child labor reform have never
been able to refer to child labor in
the glass factories of West Virginia,
the coal mines of Pennsylvania or
even the beet fields of Colorado with
out having the North Carolina cotton
A manufacturer get hot under the collar
Ind retort that they were attac king
his business and that the child labor
'up-lifters'' We're financed by New
England capital in order to destroy
the intent Industry in tho South.
And so Miss Lathrop goes to the
$trouble of making it clear that the
cotton mill employers are not the only
ones in North Carolina that offend
against the rights OF innocent child
hood. She says: 1--WE find that the
1Ve-year- children at work wera
not in the cotton industry This
ought to silence forever those critics
OF that gentlem ems agreement in
North Carolina under which the Or
ganization of any official state super
vision of industry has been persistent
ly opposed. Why should anyone any
longer ask for such supervision? Even
without il these custodians Of the peo-
tple's welfare have ruthlessly excluded
ffrom their mills al fiTe-year- chill i"
5dren.
Miss Lathrop further says that "91
children between six and ten We're
found II five industries, including cot
ton, and that tho children of those
ages in cotton industries who werq
eForksng regularly were working IL
hours q day" How have the mighty
fallen and tho weapons of war per
jShed? Tell it not in Gath lest the
daughters of the Phi listines rejoice.
Ten years ago those of us who have
been dubbed by our critics as +'child
! labor agitators''. were branded as in
famous fals5iers when we vcntured TO
report that children o. eight nine and
ten years were sometimes found at
work in cotton mills. We can afford
- now TO rest our case. Here comes the
s@sCharlotte Observer. defender of the
holy cult Of cotton manufacturers, to
assure us on government authority
that no children Of five years are
found in the cotton industry and that
the children in the cotton mills be-
tween six and ten years of age were
working only IL hours day!
The chief of the Federal ChiIdrens
%bureau says that the mills visited con-
stituted about one-tenth of the total
number in the state and they were
fair sample. We, therefore, gratu-
itousy contribute to the Charlotte OBJ
server and to it's constituency what
ever comfort they can get out of the
Mgovernment estimate that not more
THAN 90 children between six and ten
years Of age are working in the five
industries investigated in North Caro-
lima and that those of this number in
the cotton mills who were working
regularly are on the 11-hour shift
m These are the industries presided over
ably the men who assured congress that
without a federal law North Carolina
would protect her own children. Hap
PLY there are other forces ai in North
Carolina at Work-forces keenlv alive
ITO the necessity of safeguarding the
children of that commonw ea1th, and
we may expect them to be heard at
the next session of the legislature de-
manding the enactment of we1l-con-
sidered program for child conserva-
ton.
But since the Charlotte Observer
sslas turned states evidence. let lis take
occasion to warn the North Carolina
friends of the children that they must
be cautious and conserva tive We
agree with Miss Lathrop that "in a
time like this, whose difficulties of ad-
justment are EVIDENT" it is especially
desirable to put forth no sensational
fTr exaggerated statements. Let us
bear in mind that no children of five
years were found at work in the cot