Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1925-01-23
In part Mr.. Close said


"The ratification of the Child Labor
Amendment is essential to protect
childhood from exploitation in the
backward states, and to protect man
ufacturers in states with high stand.
ards from the unfair competition OF
states with low standards.
"Ohio already meets the standards
of the two Federal Child Labor Acts
which were declared unconstitutional.
1t is very unlikely therefore that con-
ditions in Ohio would be effected by
Congressional legislation under this
amendment. The object of the amend
ment is to enable Congress to raise
the standards in backward states.
at is unfair to the manufacturers
and workers in states like Ohio which
protect their children through good
child labor laws to have to compete in
prices with manufacturers and child
laborers in states with weak laws.
This unfair competition will be end
ed by a national child labor law.
"There are 1,650,000 children in the
United States between the ages OF
ten and seventeen who are employed
in non-agricultural gainful pursuits.
Fifty thousand of these children are
working in mines. and 772,OO0O are
in manufacturing and mechanical IN
dustries. In the southern cotton mills
children over fourteen may be work.
ed eleven or more hours a day. In
North Carolina the labor of convicts
is limited to nine hours day. In
this respect at least it is better to be
a convict in North Carolina than to
bea child .laborer. One state sets no
limit upon the number of hours a
child may be worked. Thirty-five
states fail to require common school
education for children between four
teen and sixteen who leave school to
work Thirty-five states fail to reg
ulate adequately the employment of
children under eighteen in hazardous
occupations Only eighteen states
meet the requirements of the two
Federal Child Labor Acts which were
conservative in their standards.
"Some enemies of the twentieth
amendment argue that they favor
child labor laws but object to the
wording of the amendment.
at has been advanced as a serious
argument that the Amendment is
'|bolshevistic and communistic." The
claim that the movement is COM
munist plot is too absurd for rebut-
tai. 1T stigmatized Calvin Coolidge,
John w. Davis, the Republican Party,
which in it's national platform urged
ratification of the amendment, the
late Senator Lodge, over thirds of
both the House and the Senate of the
United States who approved the res
oil, limo ant
and the whole host of men and wom-
en- whose conviction that the Amend
ment should be ratified springs from
devotion to the principles of sound
AmericaniSm.
"The National Association of Man
ufacturers which is leading the fight
against the amendment have deceived
many farmers into thinking that Con-
gress will prevent farm children from
doing chores and assisting their par
ents during vacation. Laws are not
passed unless some one wants them,
and no one wants to prevent John
from cranking the family Ford or
Mary from washing the dishes.
Neither of the two Federal Child Lab
or Acts dealt with agricultural labor.
The state laws are concerned with
non-agricultural pursuits. Moreover,
a law prohibiting children from do
ing chores could not be enforced and
would be so unreasonable and unpop-
ular that no Congress would pass it.
at is objected that this Amendment
would permit the state to interfere be-
tween parent and child. The states
already have the right through their
child labor laws to protect the chill