The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-01-19
PHILA. Bosses
IN DRIVE FOR
Child SLAVERY
Call SelUeS "AdUOcGtes
of the Constitution"
BY II. M. WIcKs.
Especial to The Daily Worker)

liberty"-Where the scab shop
reigns supreme, where wages
are lower and hours of labor
longer than in any city of its
class, the expIoiters of labor
have banded together into an
association bearing the euphon-
ious title Advocates of the
Constitution for the avowed
purpose of defeating the rati-
fication by the Pennsylvania
legislature of the child labor
amendment.
The motive of the organization, ac-
cording to it's proclamations, is purely
benevolent. 1t is no at all interested
in profits to be ground out Of children,
but wants to protect children from
the temptations of idleness and incul.
cate habits of thrift.
Copying the despicable propaganda
of the New England textile Goldfish ar
istocracy in its assault upon children
last November, the Philadelphia aggre.
cation uses the same banal argu-
were used hundred years ago against
the demand for the shorter work day.
At that time the hypocritical forbears
Of the present generation of bourgeois
swine declared that shorter hours of
labor would encourage crime and
that all public spirited citizens should
approve those capitalist virtues of in.
dustry and thrift.
A Fake "survey"
One Donald Lee McCuen, one of the
leading lights of the "advocates of the
constitution" published the results of
Survey" conducted among working
class families in some of the poorer
sections Of the city. Housewives,
small shopmen, boys under Is and
many others" were investigated and
they all agreed that their families
would be deprived of needed funds
for food and clothing should the
amendment become a part of the con-
stitution."
The Survey" also included en-
ployers Of child labor. A certain E.
H. Seibert stooIpigeon director for
the Kirschbaum plant, who is known
as the personnel and welfare direc-
tor" declared he is convinced that the
amendment if adopted will develop
reds and criminals and would in.
crease the population of the aims
houses" and added that thrift hab-
its formed by employment were the
building blocks of character"
Trade Union Survey.
A group of trade unionists from the
Central Labor Council covered the
same territory alleged to have been
surveyed by the upholders Of the con.
stitution and could not find a single
instance of workers having been inter-
viewed by the employers agents. The
great Survey" was evidently con-
Quoted from the swivel chair Of the
publicity agent of the bosses.
The investigation of the trade I'M
ionists did disclose, however, almost
indescribable conditions of want and
poverty; whole families living hud-
died together in cold, ill-ventilated
rooms, many of them without beds in
which to sleep; compelled to lay on
the bare floors. These are the homes
from which child slaves are re-
cruited-veritable pest holes, overrun
with vermin and where loathsome dis
eases take regular toll of death. In
many of these novels children do
bead work for fancy dresses of the de-
generate female appendages of the
parasitic plutes. Many of the little
tots sew long hours over shiny beads
until their eyes are ruined-while
their exploiters organized in the lad.
vocates of the constitution" assure
the rest of the city that play in the
open air and sunshine would make
criminals Of these helpless slaves. SO
widespread is the depravity emanat.
ing from child slavery that even the
parents frequently defend that slay.
cry. Nowhere in the world can there
be found worse degradation than in
this city Of brotherly love-"
SO widespread is every form of
criminality that for year the city
has been under martial law, with an
officer Of the United States marines
as military dictator The police
force, the courts, every organ of law
enforcement is a part OF the gigantic
vice machine where gambling, dope
peddling, Bookkeeping proceeds unmo-
Tested, except for an occasional spec.
tacular raid by the mono-maniac, Gen.
eral Butler, loaned the city from the
army. Not even the ingenuity of
Philadelphia lawyer is sufficient to
convince people that the city could
possibly be more criminal than at
present. And the children are being
protected" in slave pens.
At meeting Of the Central Labor
Union held Sunday the officers were
instructed to challenge the "advo-
oataas IN dahafa tho nfaaffon md a