The Connecticut labor news., 1923-07-27
PLAN TO LIBERATE CHILDREN NOW BOUND DOWN TO BENCHES
 IN MILLS IS GROWING APACE
New England, Civilized" and Ultra Progressive Part of Country, One of Worst Offenders Investigators Find Because Employers
 Pay No Attention to Law and Par
 ents Greed Makes Chattles
 of Little Ones.

River mills for years, and that the parents of working children wanted
 them to work. Barring them would
 result in disputes.
 The greatest force for good in Fall River" is Richard K Hawes, ac-
 cording to local opinion. Strange tc Iemployers are the wicked exp1oiters l of children, this brilliant young law Iyer, counsel for the Cotton Manufac- turers' Association of the town, is a member of the school committee. In the old days of the Shame of the cities" you did not find a man in such mixture of local positions.
 He sees the local problem as a school problem. He wants more and better teachers and equipment, a junior high school in which the school study shall be co-ordinated with handwork, and compulsory-educa ton law, or a new child-labor law, either of which would work to the same effect: to keep every boy and girl in school until the age of at least I6. He has no sympathy with child labor He doesn't want 1t any more than you and I do. Labor is scarce right now" said Mr. Hawes, but the mills could make the adjustment very quickly to such change"
 Not that such talk was. enough to convince such skeptic as 1 was. It took more, but that more was forth coming
 Most of the parents regard the children as assets to be used, said a social worker who has no ax to grind. That, you know, IS the case with some of the farmers of this country, and 1t is the case with many of the
 mill employees, or, at least, with
 enough of them to give us this child labor situation They judge their children by how regularly they turn
 over the pay roll into the family
 purse. Johhny-he good boy-bring home envelope always the mother says, although the case where the family is actually needy, and there is even that kind of a reason for the work of the child, is very rare in deed in this town"
 It Is greed, not need, that sends a little shaver to the mills. Lack of in
 terest in their schools makes them
 willing to go-there Is big school problem here as everywhere, but
 medically and socially even poor school is far better place for the
 child than the factory. If you are a
 doubting Thomas on that, later on it shall be shown and proved.
 There Is more evidence to show that 1 heard the truth from the rep resentative employers. There IS at least one mill in New England, prob ably many, in which there is no child
 employed, That one IS known I4l, 4l, r~.-11 of 41, finest, If not the finest, institution of
 employed there Is not matter of
 They have found that children are not
 good workers; they don't want them
 working on their fine cottons, and they don't let them work there. It Is purely a business matter
 No, the reason why many of the children in Massachusetts are work ing, when medical science and stu
 dents of society know they should
 not be working, Is because the parents of those children are exploiting them
 and because the Legislature permits that exploitation to go on A minute
 minority is forcing upon the great
 majority the work of the formers children. It is forcing me to buy shirts made by them.
 One of Those Grim Jokes. We know the Legislature disap- proves at heart because it has passed a law for continuation schools, which Is a miserable sop thrown to public
 opinion The child of A to I6 is
 week.
 If that idea, were not so tragic, 1t
 would be funny. I went into one of
 those schools and listened to the chil-
 dren and the teachers. The teachers were doing the best they could. The building was an old hotel, slightly re-
 modelled. But the kids were bored had forgotten the lessons of the week be- fore; had literally and bsolutely wasted their time This is partly a
 matter. of opinion. But I have dis cussed it with educators in various
 parts of the United States, men who know their business If anyone does, and they agree with me that four hours week for 40 weeks at A and IS years of age is a grim joke-jus the way death is grim joke to the fellow who meets it in his prime. Even half time-the way the kids in Wisconsin, who work in Wisconsin
 box, candy, knitting works and other
 factories, are compelled to attends little better than hoax on the pub lie, which supports those part-time schools.
 The Law and the Facts.
 We have heard more than enough about Massachusetts, so much per haps that the good people of that
 and 1aw-abiding state (where a child does have to go to school four hours week, where. he does have to be a sixth-grader to get a working permit, where the truant
 officer really works, where medical lcertifcate-of doubtful value, of lcourse-is required) will think they
 are among the best. A greater per- lcentage of the kids are working than