The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1919-03-21
DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS
in THE OLD NORTH STATE
Federal Government Agency Gives Publicity to I'm
desirable Facts, But That Doesn't Worry
North Carolina Legislators
BY w. o. SAUNDERS

l. 55s 0I W. VI 0AONDEhS
/ The Washington, d. C. correspon-
dent of The Public, (New York; has
given the nation some very unwhole-
some facts concerning North Carolina.
EThis New York weekly says
"In America the notion prevails that
the slums are all in the city, and that
Id1rt and disease are necessarily allied
TO tenement houses. Some facts uncoy-
cred by the Children's Bureau may be
OF interest to those who still fancy that
The facts were developed, in survey of
two typical North Carolina counties
where 487 families were visited, 129
NEGRO and the rest native white of
native born American parentage.
l. The mothers in these North Caro-
lima counties married young, had large
families, and at the same time worked
hard in the fields and at their house
work. The husbands are using improv-
| ed farm machinery, but the women still
struggle along washing the farnily's
clothes at a spring remote from the
house and doing the family cooking in
the big open fire place. Sanitary ar
rangements are primitive. In one coun-
toilet facilities. Water is usually
brought from distant well or sprng
frequently contaminated.
| I'm Hone-fourth Of the homes there
were llVe OF more persons to every
sleeping room. Instances were by no
means rare where as many as ten per-
sons were found in a single room. This
did not occur in community Of for
e1gners or in a city s1um or among
children Of drunkards. Ninety-fiv per
cent live in the country or towns of
1000 or less. The state has been dry
since 1909.
'tWe talk quite sagely about giving
the immigrant mother some knowledge
n mo
ing her American standards of child
rearing. Might it not be well to bring
some knowledge of Americanisn to the
mothers of North Carolina and other
States where similar conditions exist?
Many arguments have been presented
during the past generation by the moth
ers Of America for the extension Of
suffrage to women. None has been so
powerful as the simple narrative of
Miss Julia Lathrop. Chief of the Child
ren's Bureau.
who will speak for the inarticulate
children Of North Carolina? Their
Fathers have spoken for them for a hun
dred years, and one-fourth OF all the
children under fourteen years Of age
employed in manufacturing and mech
anica1 establishments in the United
States are in that State. The third
largest number of all the children bet
ween 14 and 16 years Of age working
more than eight hours a day are In
the same State. Twenty percent. Of the
total wage earners employed In car
ming and ufese ng Axe ani "a.
percent OF all the persons employed ii
cotton mills are between: IL and 15
years OF age; al per cent of all EN-
ployed in silk mills are under 16; %
percent. of all employed in knitting
mills are under 16.
'Two-t thirds of the white children and
three -fourths Of the Negro children
from to Is years of age in the coun-
n riots hall tn %1,4 R4Yl
ing and harvesting the crops. In the
more remote backwoods district nine
tenths of the children are so engaged.
Many were found working from sun to
sun. The reason for this is that child
labor is frequently cheaper than mach
inc labor. One father of eight child
rem said that he did not buy a corn
planter because he already had eight
These children should be in school
instead Of at work. Between the ages
third of the children were unable
to read or write, although the law
makes attendance at school compulsory
IF the babies and children Of North
Carolina are to have an opportunity to
live down dirt, bad food, foul air, and
exploitation, the women as well as the
men Of North Carolina must be their
spokesmen".
This is an awful indictment of North
Carolina, but it is only a part Of the
terrible truth. Dr. Geo. M Cooper of
the North Carolina State Board of
Health has recently compiled some
very interesting statistics which, when
published, will reveal the fact that
the children in rural North Carolina are
as mentally, physically and morally as
defective as the children in the mill dis
tricts Of the state.
DR.. Cooper has secured a physical
examination of hundreds of children in
three different groups or classes of
schools in the average North Carolina
counties. The group consists of schools
in the better residential districts of
towns and cities. Another group con-
sists Of schools in cotton mill commun-
tiles. A third group consists Of country
schools.
The statistics show that UP to the
age of 10 the attendance of children in
all three groups is about the same, but
after the tenth year there is a falling
off in school attendance in both the
country districts and the mill districts.
The statistics show that the children
in town always have the best Of it in
health and physical development. The
country child holds it's own with the
child in town until it reaches the age
of IL or Ia years; at that time the
child in the Clean healthy town is at
tanning. growth by leaps and bounds;
and right at that time the child in the
mill district and the child in the back
woods begin to lag and fall far below
the more favored child in the town.
In the face of these irrefutable in
7ictments there was an attempt made in
the recent session of the N. c. General
Assembly to exempt the children of
rural communities in North Carolina
from the provisions of a six months
compulsory school law. Learned 1egis-
lators wanted to give the rural child
four months schooling at the most, be-
cause a six months school term might
Interfere with the picking of the cot
ton crop. And the farmer element in
the legislature was as bitterly opposed
to a decent child labor law as was the
concluded on mage II