The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-01-28
Child Labor

Child Labor
In no other way do the capitalist class show
their hypocrisy more than in their hostility to the
proposed child labor law, referred to the various
states for consideration. Judging by the number
of states voting against the proposed amendment
it looks as if it stood poor show of slipping thru
the opposition.
The capitalist class howl to high heaven in ex7
pressing their assumed indignation over the. fate
of the home and the family, should Communism
supplant the present capitalist system. They have
their "Mother's DAY" in order to maudnize the
workers with any kind of emotion that will divert
their minds from the big question, that is the strug
gle between exploited and exploiters. The bour-
geoise set the mothers Of the pedestal, at
least for day in the year. but the little children
brought into this world b. these deifed mothers
are not allowed to reach maturity before they
are hurled into the slave pens of the nation where
their flesh and blood is coined into gold for the
benefit of the employers.
This may seem like an overdrawn picture, but let
our skeptical readers 60 into any min town in New
England or in the south and they will find that
the story does not even begin to tell the tragedy
of capitalism in the industrial bells of this pros
lperous country.
In Soviet Russia where the workers enjoy pOlit-
ical power the first consideration of the govern
ment of the workers and peasants is the child.
The laws of the Soviet government provide for
adequate means of supporting the children while
they being trained for future service to them
selves and society Here in capitalist America the
wealthest country in the world, where the god Of
profit rules the child as well as the adult is sacri
feed to capitalist greed.
Several states have already voted against the
child labor amendment Massachusetts, the great
mill state, initiated the dodge of submitting the
proposed law to a referendum vote As already
pointed out in the DAILY WORKER the ex-
ploiters of Massachusetts, by using the power of
the press, the church and their many other propa-
ganda agencies succeeded in winning a favorable
vote in this referendum. 1t worked so well in
Massachusetts, that the governor Of New York has
made a similar recommendation for that state in
his inaugural address, and now the Manufacturers
Association of Illinois, thru its controlled press,
is urging the referendum in this state fearing that
the legislature may pass the amendment.
This new found devotion to democracy" on the
part of the child robbers is Illuminating. They
for submitting the question to the voters where
ever they are in doubt as to the result, but
wherever they feel of their legislators no such
consideration is shown for the right of the voters
to pass their judgment on the proposed amendment.
While the capitalists are united in their opposi
ton to even this puny effort to protect the chill
dren, sorry to note that very little effort il
being made by the official leaders of the trade
union movement to rally the workers in the fight
to support the amendment While the capitalists
are fighting tooth and nail for their class interests
and forgetting their clashing interests for the time
being we find the official bureaucracy of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor engaged in the unholy
work of splitting the labor movement by attempt
ing to drive out of the trade unions and labor
ellis the most militant members.
The fight ON child labor must go on, tho we are
not humbled among those who expect that the
capitalist government be used to better the
conditions of the workers, youth or adult But in
this fight and in similar fights the black veil of
hypocrisy is torn from the ugly face of capitalism
and the workers learn by experience that only by
taking political power away from their masters
can they begin the task of reconstructing society
on basis which win place the welfare of all use
full members of society to the forefront and abolish
exploitation of the old as well as that of the young
A Stupid Concoction