The Connecticut labor news., 1924-07-19
BY The Way
Comment and Criticism About
 Things Doing in the World

Three cheers for Arkansas, which was the first state to ratify the child labor amendment to the United States Constitution
 Cheers are not recommended tor l Georgia, however, which has just dis tinguished herself by refusing to ratify the amendment, bolstering up the re- fusal with a set of fool resolutions in
 which the state legislature professes to see civilization tottering to its fall If
 the amendment is made part of the Constitution. A sample of the "rea soning' of the Georgia legislators is given in the following extract from the resolution
 Be it resolved that
 the said amendment is rejected because said proposed amendment would destroy parental authority and responsibility throughout America, would give irrevocable support to a re- be1lion of childhood which menaces our civilization, would give Congress not only parental auth ority but all state au- thority over education, would"-but why waste space with this sort of stuff? Suffice it to say that the reso- lution goes on to assert that the amend ment would destroy local self-govern- ment and is really intended to ''enslave the childhood of this Republic
 If Georgia's attitude, as expressed by
 her legislature, represented that of the of +1o 1nta men and women would have good req son to dispair of the human race. For tunately, such Is not the case and If or ganized labor does its duty, the child labor amendment will be ratified by the required three-fourths of the state and will become the 21st amendment to the Constitution.
 Is the United States to lose it's in famous distinction of being the nation with the worst lynching record on the face of the globe?
 Figures on lynchings announced by Tuskegee Institute suggest that lynch ing Is on the .wane. Only five lynch ings occurred in the United States in the first six months of this year, the lowest for the first six months of any of the forty years during which the record has been kept. This compares with IS lynchings for the same period last year, 30 in 1922 and 36 in 1921.
 The report of Tuskegee Institute IS encouraging and every law abiding ci ..- Il. fl, decreasing It is to be hoped that 1t indicates that the end of the lynching evil is close at hand. It may even in dicate that the nation Is ready to give up burning men alive, an outdoor sport that has become almost a national in
 stitution and which no other civilized nation tolerates. ~ Labor must be always on guard against the forces of reaction, which
 work day and night to undo the work of progress.
 Just now the reactionaries are busy in Massachusetts, Ill an effort to repeal the night work regulations for women and minors in the mills A similar ef- fort failed last year, but those who believe there should be no limits to the exploitation of women and children are planning to renew the fight against the law.
 Emphasis has been given to the ef- fort to repeal the law by the growing competition from the Southern textile industry. Certain Southern States ap-
 parently believe that the doctrine of
 States rights gives employers with
 in their borders the right to exploit women and children with little or no
 regulation by law. This competition from the South gives the Massachu- setts mill owners an excuse for de-
 manding modification of legislation I now protecting women and child work CTS.
 Labor is not deceived by the spacious pleas of the mill owners and is deter
 mined to defend existing working stan
 dards, as fixed by law and by agree
 ment with the employers. That it will
 have the support of labor in other
 states goes without saying.