The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1922-06-01
WASHINGTON COMMENT


at the expense of the health of little
children is a universal belief. That
child labor is expensive to the nation,
an offense against decency, undesired
by those who put the welfare of the
race and their country above imme-
diate monetary is undeniedXzfiflffff
But there are worse things than
child labor; things which could wreck
these United States much quicker
than the exploiting of many little
children.
One of these is the overthrowing
of those foundation stones upon
which this nation is built; let there
De no foundation and the super
structure will crumble. Let there be
no nation, and children here will be
as are the children of Russia
starved, helpless, dead by thousands.
The Supreme Court of the United
States has ruled that the 1919 child
labor law was unconstitutional
Let us by all means do away with
rem rejoiced. But there are many
who love Children who have not criti-
cized the decision, just as there
nave been many who are heart and
soul for prohibition who believe the
eighteenth amendment and the Vol
stead Act have done more harm than
good. Admittedly, the 1919 child la
Dor law would have stopped child Ia
DOR. But it would also open the doors
TO the federal government taking over
all rights not reserved to and by the
states, thing expressly forbidden in
the fundamental law of our land.
Let us. by all means, do away with
child labor But let us do it by
aroused public sentiment, by state
legislation, by education, by will
ingness to follow Him who would
have little children suffered to come
unto Him, not by tampering with the
strength of the country where chill
dren are most free, where children
have most opportunity, where child
rem are best protected.
Let us thank God for a Supreme
Court which thinks OF the country
exploited children.
What is the matter with the
church, ask many devout church.
goers, ministers, church authorities
and serious-minded laymen.
There are thousand answers. One
of them is brought forcibiy to mind
when the proceedings of a gathering
of a certain church are read and it is
found that emphasis is being placed
upon the necessity for ministers
strictly to maintain the moral law
by refusing to marry one who has
been divorced for any other reason
than infdelity.
That, bretheren of the church, is
one of the things the matter with it;
The refusal to recognize that the hui
man mind demands equity in it's re-
ligion as well as its civic law.
Marriage, sacrament in the
church, is made with mutual promises
to love, to honor, to cherish, to be
faithful. But says the church, "if
you break one of these you may be
free of marriage bonds, but if you
keep that one and break all the rest,
bound you must be-! A man may beat
mis- wife, get drunk on homemade
hooch and stay out all night, go to
prison for felony, be cruel to his chill
dren, bring disgrace upon his family
Never mind all that" says the
church, "stay married." But a man
May be all that is good and kind and
upright and honorable and temperate
in every other way; if he is once un-
faithful, than, says the church, di-
vorce by all means.
The innate sense of justice with
which we are all born protests against
the idea that a helpless woman must
stay bound to brute who maltreats
her and his children, merely because
his lapses do run toward the "other
woman" The law recognizes extreme
cruelty, desertion, and felonies as just
causes for divorce in most states
when the church as whole does also
there will be less reason for it to ask,
What is the matter that men voner-
at me less each year,"