Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1924-04-18
+ Comment and Criticism
Observation-Disclosures.

Figures recently issued by the
Children's Bureau of the United
States Department of Labor en-
phasizes the necessity for quick action
on the child labor amendment now
before Congress.
The report indicates that child la
Dor is on the increase, and confirms
the results of previous investigations.
According to the bureau, of "a cities
furnishing statistics of employment
certificate issuance in 1923, 20 re-
ported ali increase in the number of
children under 10 entering regular
employment for the first time during
the calendar year 1923 as compared
with 1922. In these "a cities the
number of Ia and 15-year-old children
receiving first regular employment
certificates was 1866 in 1922 and
90 66 in 1923.
In 10 Of the cities reporting there
was an increase of at least 20 per cent
and in 8, the increase was approx
mately so per cent or more.
In view of the alarming increase of
child labor, there is no excuse for
Congress delaying favorable action on
the child labor amendment. Now is
the time for every man and woman
opposed to the exploitation of chill
dren to let Congress know that the
nation demands an end of child slay-
cry in mill, mine and factory.
people who live in glass houses
should not throw stones"
Thus goes the old proverb, whose
/, Id
that prisoners in the convict camp of
San Bernardino county, Cal, are sub
ject to brutal treatment by deputy
sheriffs.
Here the people of the North have
been pluming themselves that condi-
tons such as have existed in the con-
yict camps of Florida and other
Southern States are foreign to the
North and West. And now comes
along the news from California to
shatter their cheerful belief that the
South is the only section disgraced
by prison barbarities.
Affidavits filed by former prison.
ers in the California camp declare that
prisoners have been handcuffed and
chained to trees and refused food and
water for AZ hours. In another in
stance prisoner engaged on road
work was beaten until unconscious.
Two boy prisoners were brutally
beaten with sledge hammer handles.
Prison barbarity such as disgraces
the twentieth century is not confined
to the South, though it very likely is
more widespread in that section. As
long as men are given virtually lin
nf i- ha
case in many prisons, brutality and
abuses of authority will continue.
The only remedy is constant vigilance
on the part of those who realize that
prisoners are human beings and en-
titled to a square deal and the rous-
ing of the public conscience to the
end that offenders against the law
shall be treated Justly and mercifully.
That in maintaining and improv-
ing American standards of living, or
ganized labor is doing a great work
for children, is indicated by a report
made by DR.. Milligan, health officer
of Reading, England.
DIR. Milligan' sreport gives a COM
parison between the heights and
weights of Reading children exam
ined in the last three years and those
of American children of similar ages.
In every case, the doctor reports,
advantage in both height and weight
rests with American children and
superiority becomes more emphasized
in the older groups. 1t would appear,
DR.. Mflligan says, that those circum-
| tsances which assist growth in chill
dren are more favorable in America
than in England.
Undoubtedly the higher wage scales
of American workers and their conse-
quent higher standards of living are
responsible for the superiority of
American children. As organized la
Dor has gained and held these i'm
proved standards, it can justly claim
credit for making America a better
land for children than are the nations
of the Old World.