Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-06-16
Friday, June 16, 1922.
CHILD LABOR

One of the fundamentals Of Ameri-
canism is to give everyone his chance.
Surely in the case Of the children
this country should not fail in this
fundamental respect. But that is
what we are doing. We are not Civ
ing thousands Of children a fair
American chance. Some blame the
Supreme Court for declaring the
child labor law unconstitutional. But
The Court is there to decide what is
and what is not constitutional. 1t
should not be expected to decide in
any other way than according to the
facts as they are found. Those who
attempt to evade constitutional re-
quircmcnts and ask the Supreme
Court to uphold the evasion should be
in better business. But this in no.
wise lessons the need of speedily
adopting a practicable method Of re-
lief in the child labor problem. Cap
pcr's Weekly asks: rs it better to be
wrong and constitutional than ever
lastingly right and unconstitutional"
Why doesn't it ask why we don't
make the "everlastingly right con-
stitutional? Why we have not done
this has been because we didn't take
the trouble, hoped to get what we
were after by { short cut. If there
We're more effort expended in doing
thing properly than in doing it for
the glamour Of publicity the Supreme
Court or other arbitcrs might have
less to do and results might be much
greater.
How many Of those who are howl
ing down the decision of the Supreme
Court know what Owen r. Lovejoy.
General Secretary of the National
Child Labor Committee, said in his
recent address before the ninth an
nual convention of governmental
labor officials of the United States
and Canada? Here is one thing he
said:
Most Of the child labor in America
is in occupations not mentioned in
the federal law which the United
States Supreme Court has just de-
clared unconstitutional. Three
fourths Of it is in agriculture, par
ticularIy in such industrialized forms
as sugar-beet culture"
Here, also, are some other features
Of that address which cry aloud for
relief, which should stir the people to
have done with bayir5 the moon,
criticislng the court, and to get to
work to find and apply a remedy.
Thousands of children in Colora-
do, Michigan, Kansas, Nebraska.
Iowa. Wisconsin and other states are
denied the very fundamentals of a
democracy Of childhood in order that
they may constitute nearly fifty per-
cont Of the working force in the cul-
tiVation and harvesting of sugar
bects. Land is rented and labor con-
tracts are made on the basis of the
number of children in the family,
and little girls and boys of six. seven
and eight are rockoned as hands. The
average age Of these child workers is
IL years.
"What do they do? They help
plant. they weed, they thin, and after
an easier time in midsummer. they
pull and top Pulling beots is hard
work. The matured beets weigh from
two to 10 pounds. averaging about
five, and with the dirt that comes
along in addition, they often weigh
from 10 to il pounds, Little girls do
this work, bending and tugeing all
day long in the hot sun. The average
work day in the beet field is 8 or 10
hours, and in the rush weeks is IL to
II hours, exclusive of meal times.
Seventy per cent of more than 1000
beet working children examined by
physicians had postural deformities
and malpositions apparently due to
the physical strain. Forty per cent
We're from one to seven years behind
i'll their grades at school because of
absence in the ncet fields.
This sort of thing cannot go on, if
America is to hold up her head and
boast Of democracy"
To that we would say Amen" and
we think in so Going we would be but
one in general chorus.