Evening star., 1924-12-14

than not, perhaps, the experiment Is
made with the hands. II q boy hap
pens to be peculiarly gifted in the
use OF his hands he naturally looks
forward to the kind of employment
that Will enable him to develop his
gift. In any event, he has a right
to flush his maiden blade; he has a
right to attempt to fly; he has a right
to experiment along any line he seems
to prefer All this is God given
right, declared by the Declaration of
independence to be tnalienable.
Neither his father nor any other citi-
zen Is privileged, naturally or morally,
luton the problem touching this boy.
Whether he shall develop normally
Is at stake. government, particu-
larly one dedicated to the promotion
Of individualistic favor. has nothing
to do with it.
Other questions for the citizen are
whether he has sense enough and
sufficient interest in his children to
rear them properly; whether he loves
them with as great a love as can be
evinced by Congress-; whether he has
desire to foster and guard Lis
children and to start them toward
success; whether he believes that he
knows az much about what is good
for his children as our reformers In
Washington: whether, finally, he is
so lost to duty to his children and
SO lacking in love for them that he
is willing that an officer of the
Government shall assume the respon-
sibllity which nature and natures
God unquestionably put upon him.
This question of child labor is be-
fore us because in some States the
life and health of children as af-
fected by insanitary, unsafe and i'm
moral surroundings have not been
guarded as they should be by the
exercise of she police powers of those
States. Yet I believe I am accurate
In stating that only 4 States of the
4S are not now regulating the labor
OF children as to places of labor.
conditions and hours. But in any
event the proposed amendment is
not child labor amendment; it is
not an amendment to protect the
child against dangerous employment
In insanitary or immoral places. 1t
proposes complete turning over of
all persons under Is years of age
to the kindly tutelage of the Congress
Of the United States.
X +
AS the doctrine Of local self-gov-
eminent gradually is destroyed and
bureaucratic government in Wash
ington Is constantly substituted for
1t, less and less man ceases to be a
citizen and moro and more becomes
a subject. If the Congress can say
that a child up to Is years Of age
cannot labor, surely 1t can take over
the control of the countrys educa-
tional system: 1T can tell me what I
may and may not teach my child
Every State should. Of course, pro-
hibit child labor under any condition
that tends to lessen the vitality OF
the child or to prevent its education.
On this unanimity at once pleasing
and practical exists. But when the
Government presumes to tell me that
my child is my child only in name
so far as control over it is concerned
and that as a matter of actually 1T
belongs to the Congress of the
United States, then the Government
has taken long step toward dis
solving the family, breaking down the
State, ending democracy and setting
up socialism. 1t. will not do to
say that the Congress will not exer-
else this right in an improper way
even though the right is conferred
upon 1t. The Congress is quite given
to exercising all the power 1t enjoys,
Even when the Supreme Court calls
a slight halt upon 1t the Congress is
apt to rage.
Copyright, 1924, by 2lst Century Press.)