The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-12-10
BY MAC WEISS.

0g M1N WEAS0s
TTNWITTTNGLY dispelling the sonlze screen of
anti-child labor demagogy under the cover
Of which the capitalist class has amaSsed its
tremendous profits Courtenay Dinwiddie, Cen
eral Secretary of the National Child Labor Com
mittee, reveals in his annual report that there
are 3326,152 children between the ages of and
II who are out of school,
The great majority Of this tremendous num-
Der are at work or else are looking for work.
Mr.. Carr of the National Educational Associa-
ton estimates that even in normal" periods
the number of children between and II out
of school because at work reaches the total of
100000. While this is clearly an underestirna-
tion it is sufficient to indicate the real content
of the famous American policy of a free educa-
ton"
This number continues to grow despite the
return to-school" movement inaugurated by
many capitalist politicians The growing pow
erty of working class families forces them to
withdraw their children from school in order
that they may get jobs-when there are jobs.
Even in the cases of children too young to be
employed there is a steady drop in school at
tendance because of lack of proper clothing, food
and money for school supplies.
Negro Children Worst Victims.
Negro children are among the worst sufferers
in this respect. The stark poverty of the Negro
worker prevents his children from receiving but
the merest rudiments of an education. In addi-
ton, the vicious Jinl-Crow policy prevailing
throughout the entire educational system in
sures that even where the Negro child can at
tend school his educational possibilities are
sharply limited.
In 18 states last year in which there is a con-
siderable Negro population, schools for Negroes,
although serving one quarter OF the entire popu-
lation, received but onetenth of the public funds
devoted to education Less than one-half of the
100000 Negro children of school age were in
attendance at school of any kind in the year
1880 More than million of them did not even
enroll.
N. z. Times Lies.
In summarizing the issuance of Dinwiddje's
report the New York Times for Dec 7 lies
brazenly and carries the story under the utterly
misleading head: 100000 Children Crowd Job
Market" This attempt to distort the actual
state of affairs is carried out further in the
main body of the story itself, which states that
there are zone million or more children under
eighteen at work or looking for work" Even
the Government Census report for 1920 shows
of II at work. This total leaves out of account
the hundreds Of thousands between the age of
II and 10 who are at work and thus gives the lie
further to the story carried in the paper which
prints only what is fit to print"
The gains" made by the hypocritical move
to limit child labor are shown in their true light
once the terrible picture Of child labor is fully
unrolled.
In Norths Carolina, despite the great unem-
ployment OF 1880, there we're over 2,84O children
between IA and 16 employed in the cotton mills
working from to II hours daily. From twenty
to thirty thousand children in the single IA to
15-year category are employed in the state Of
Pennsylvania alone These children work on
an average Of 9 hours day and 81 hours a
week
11-Hout Day for Children.
In the sections of child labor for which there
are no exact statistics, general information as
published in Dinw1ddie's report presents a par
tial glimpse into what is actually taking place
in the realm of child labor. The report states:
at is impossible to describe the work of
children thus unprotected as a group. Such
description would contain manY accounts OF