The Connecticut labor news., 1922-12-29

laws, some of which are highly de
 veloped and rigidly enforced Others
 are rather rudimentary and indifer-
 ently enforced The manufacturer in
 the state where children under the.
 age of I6 are not permitted to work
 at all and where those above I6 and
 below I8 are permitted only to work
 under certain restricted conditions
 and regulations complain that they
 are subject to unfair competition by
 competitors who manufacture \ in
 states where there are no laws on the
 subject of child labor or where the
 laws are not comprehensive and prac-
 tically not enforced. A remedy must
 be found to meet this condition.
 There are those who advocate uni
 form child-labor laws by the states,
 believing that it is a subject which
 should be dealt with only by the
 states. On the other hand, ~there are
 those who advocate the adoption of
 an amendment to the federal constitu
 ton giving Congress exclusive power
 to deal with the subject Regardless
 of which method may be adopted 1t is
 urgent that some method should be
 adopted which will forever blot from
 the escutcheon of this nation the
 black spot of child labor which still
 exists in some form in some places. l Long continued hours of toll at time when the bones and the muscles
 of the body of the child are unde-' veloped bring about condition which
 retards the . development. We are told that at times in some places chill
 dren of I2 years or whereabouts are compelled to labor eight and 10 and
 I2 hours per day ! in employment
 1.1. :1 41, %EoA I,- nerves are -frazzled when night comes
 destiny of such poor victims seems
 clear When they reach the age of
 womanhood instead of being able to
 do their share of the worlds work and do it effectively and efficiently, they are wrecks. physically mentally and morally, large percentage of them landing in the poorhouses or the madhouse, or the jail, or the grave. There is not single defense that can be urged to this awful system, and every instinct of humanity prompts it's abolition. But beyond the instinct of humanity, ordinary wisdom and pru- dence of any government will prompt it to conserve the physical, mental, and moral fiber of it's growing child hood merely from the standpoint of insuring the perpetuation of the gov ernment.
 '"The decision rendered by the United States supreme court on May l I5, 1922, in the case of Bailey & Bailey | " The Drexel Furniture Co.,, to the 1 effect that the child-labor tax was un- constitutional, has provoked wide l spread discussion as to what shall be | the next step in the control of child l laher Tn previous decision (Ham- l iner " Dagenhart) the supreme court 1 declared unconstitutional an act which | closet the channels of interstate and foreign commerce to the products of child labor. The court seems to have made the. issue clear-elther to give | up the plan of federal minimum and rely solely upon the states, or to un- dertake to secure federal amend ment definitely giving to Congress the power to pass a child-1abor law. Both the first and second federal child-la- DOT laws sought only a minimum na tional standard. State laws that were higher were still operative and were by state machinery. An amendment giving to Congress the right to establish a. federal minimum and leaving to the states the right to raise and not lower standards, thus securing to the children all the ad yantages of our federal form of gov arnment, Is being advocated by the most representative organizations of woman, trade unions, the National Consumers League, and the National Child Labor Committee"