Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-07-22
OLD-TIlNE RELIGION
Y. A. GAMBLER

the members Of this House worked before
they were eighteen years old, and l know that
l myself went to work at seventeen years of
age, and from that day until this l have
supported myself, and | do not think am
any the worse for it,
Il a southern man, and l have the
kindliest feeling for the negro race; and if this
amendment is adopted and Congress should
pass law forbddng negroes under eighteen
years of age to work on the farm, God pity
them; for / know not how they would live.
Their labor is essential to their maintenance.
"'An idle brain is the devils workshop
If Congress should enact a law under this
proposed amendment, which it would have
the power to do, that minors under eighteen
years should not work, what lawlessness
and chaos would follow in many communi-
ties the Supreme Ruler of the Universe alone
knows. If such minors are forbidden to do
wholesome work millions of citizens will be-
come public charge and Congress will De
forced to feed and clothe them out of the
Public Treasury. The taxpayer will be called
upon to pay several hundred millions of dol
lars a year of taxes in addition to what they
are now paying to meet this civil pension
list
These were wise words though they were
unheeded by the majority, which voted for
this amendment in the House of Represent
atives.
Since the foundation of the Federal Union
nearly three thousand amendments to the
Constitution have been proposed but less
than twenty have been adopted. Strange to
say, this worst one of all has received the
approval of both houses of Congress.
1t is worse than paternalistic; it is social
stc. Yes, it is worse than socialistic; it is
bolshevistic. That is to say, it is of the
same type of socialism with which Lenine
and Trotsky have cursed Russia. 1t is the
rankest and most ruinous form of radicalism
We in America have been using the term
'bolshevism" in very loose and inaccurate
way. 1t has been employed as epithet
to denounce most any innovation which was
regarded particularly irregular and in
furious. But when applied to this measure
no such inaccurate use of the word is made
The Child Labor Amendment (Which if
adopted will be the goth amendment is I'M
aduterated bolshevism.
Commenting upon the application of the
word to this bad measure the editor of the
Montgomery Advertiser said recently:
but the term was lately applied with
Justice and precision of taste to political
document now before the American people.
In recounting how have made crazy
, quilt of the Federal Constitution since 1865,
when before that but declaration of prin-
ciples and fundamental truths, wherein the
rights of individuals, the powerTof the States,
and the power of the Federal government,
were stated, was all it contained, a Balti-
more lawyer comes to the issue of the pro-
posed goth amendment.
"The lawyer is Mr. Calvin S. Slagle. The
goth amendment proposed to give Congress
the power to regulate or prohibit the LABOR
of all persons below eighteen years of age.
Of the proposed amendment, Mr.. Slagle says
"It is unadulterated bolshevism. Lenine
and Trotzky conceived few ideas more revo-
lutionary than this. 1t implies the destruc-
ton of parental authority and the life of
the family, and puts every child under the
control of the government, so far as LABOR is
concerned, until it is eighteen years OF age.
Under the authority conferred by this
amendment congress can pass laws pro-
hibiting any labor of children under IL
wears of age either in the home or else
where. A farmer could be prohibited from
recurring any work from his children.
Any work of children under IS years of
age might be made a violation of the law,
for which fines or imprisonment could be
inflicted
Continuing his correct comment upon
this bolshevistic amendment the editor Of
the Advertiser says:
"In Russia the Government actually as
sumes entire control over the children of
the land Oddly enough, remarks the
/ Newport News Times-Herald, the Baltimore
Sun publishes a letter from Brooklyn
correspondent on the same subject in which
he points out that the Child Labor Amend
ment carrying express power over the Ia
with it the necessary implied power to
control the education Of such persons. IN
other words says he it would make con-
stitutional a national education bill
cor the Times-Herald puts it, IN
commenting upon the foregoing
And if parents report that they are
not able to support their children in idle
ness while they are attending school, what
| then? Would the government not be COM
PEELED to provide for the child's mainte
nance?
ct is but step fromS one to the
other
Stress is laid by the advocates of this
measure the fact that the States are
given concurrent power, with the Federal
government That is only partly true, for
the Federal law would take precedence over
the State law. The States could not en-
force any law which conflicted with the
federal law
"This may be progress, but it is not
liberty Americans of late have been prof
ligate of their heritage of liberty. If they
go on according ito the present tendency,
the time will come, and within genera
ton, when liberty in America will be moth
ing but faded memory"
1t seems that a majority of the Amerf-
can people are suffering with "the sleep
ing disease" and while they sleep their
dearest and most sacred possessions are
>oelng stolen from them. Or, it is perhaps
more accurate to say that they are intoxi-
Gated with their acquisition of mere things
material. They the richest people now
on the earth or that ever was in the
world. And yet they want more Like
VICTORIOUS army, in drunkenness devouring
the spoils which they have won. They
are in danger Of being dfsgracefullv de-.
teated and ingloriously DESTROYED while
in a state of wild intoxication