The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-02-12
TALE OF TWO CHILDREN

THOSE who have imagined that we are
i living in a civilized era and the period of
new deal must be amazed at the opposition
to so humane and obviously desirable
measure as the child labor amendment to the
Constitution.
The extremes to which opponents of the
measure have been willing to go can be seen
from a folder disseminated by the grossly
misnamed National Committee for the Pro-
lection of Child, Family, School and Church.
The folder is entitled Protect Your Children
and Your Home" According to this organiza-
ton, the amendment was inspired by Russia
and drafted under Bolshevik auspices by
Florence Kelly. The folder goes on to de-
clare that:
THE so-called child labor amendment,
framed by the Federal Children's Bureau,
would destroy parental authority and break up
the institution of the family.
mo law of man should attempt to set
aside the law of God which places upon
mothers and fathers the solemn responsibility
for rearing the child"
The pamphlet proceeds to quote Nicholas
Murray Buffers ill-advised and ill-timed
declaration that: In my judgment, no great
err damage could be done at the moment either
to the movement to get rid of child labor or
to our form of government than to permit the
ratification of this so-called child labor
amendment. We are getting rid of child labor
quickly and naturally by the force of public
opinion.
This amendment would if adopted, prac-
tically give the congress of the United States
full authority over our entire population
under 49, This would mean some 40 per cent
of our population.
There would be power in the congress to
interfere with every home, every family and
every. school, and we well can imagine what
pressure would be put upon that body by
fanatics of one sort or another who were
busily engaged in some part of the field of
child control"
If one wishes to know just what the move
ment against child labor has done to advance
the cause of humanity, it is well to go back
and look into conditions hundred years ago.
when the control over this matter was left
wholly to public opinion" The following is
a sworn deposition of the father of two boys
employed in an English textile factory CEN
fury ago. 1t describes conditions as they pre-
vailed universally before the reformers at
tackled child labor:
My two sons Zone 10, the other 49, work
at Mines factory at Lenton. They go at $50
a. m, don't stop at breakfast or tea time.
They stop at dinner half an hour Come
home quarter before 10 at night They used
to work till 10, sometimes II, sometimes II.
They earn between them IS. I'd. a week
One of them, the oldest, worked at Wilson's
for two years, at Is. Sd. week. He left be-
cause the overlooker beat him and loosened a
tooth for him. 1 complained, and they turned
him away for it.
They have been gone to work sixteen
hours now; they will be very tired when they
come home at $50. I have deal of trouble
to get 'em up in the morning. have been
obliged to beat EN- with strap on their
shirts and to pinch EN-, in order to get them
well awake 1t made me cry to be obliged to
DO it.
Did you make them cry?"
Yes, sometimes They will be home soon
very tired; and you will see them"
Those VINO are attempting to wreck the
child labor amendment are standing in the
way of the final and essential step in putting
an end forever to such barbarism as is de-
scribed above. 1t is a step which has been
taken in every important civilized country of
the western world, in most cases a generation
or more ago.
One who would trust solely to public
opinion" in the elimination of child labor is
the kind of person who logically might rely
upon public opinion. unaided, to control crime
or economic avarice. We never shall get rid
of indefensible types Of child labor until they
are placed clearly beyond the pale of the law.