The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-08
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

WE are told that we must wait until human
w nature changes before bringing the dis
grace of child labor to end. 1t is said that
success can be attained only after the social
conscience of backward states has come along
to the point where the exploiters of children will
be convinced of the error of their ways and will
voluntarily send the babies" home to go to
school and to grow up.
little history will show the futility of this
argument. Human nature, in any scientific use
of the term, has not changed since the close
of the old Stone Age. The nature" of the slave
driver in ancient Egypt was the same as that of
the factory-owner who employs children in the
textile mills of our day. The main difference Is
that those who hate this barbarous spirit of
greed have become more numerous and lnf1u-
entail than they were 5000 years ago.
What we owe to the socially minded minority
who have led in the battle against child labor
can best be appreciated against the background
of oppression from which their ideals and labors
have delivered mankind in most parts Of the
civilized world.
An English father century ago thus de-
scribed to a parliamentary investigator the
condition of child labor in English textile fac
tories:
my two sons Zone TO- the other 49, work at
Mines factory at Lenton. They go at half past
5 in the morning; don't stop at breakfast or
tea time. They stop at dinner half an hour
Come home at a quarter before 10. They used
to work till 10, sometimes H. sometimes
r. The overseer beat the eldest and loosened
tooth for him.
"They have been away Is hours now; they
will be very tired when they come home at
half past 9. I have deal of trouble to
get them up in the morning have been obliged
to beat them with a strap"
THE conditions of child labor in the mines
i were even worse Children and years
of age were used in the mines as "trappers,"
opening and closing doors for the passage OF
carts of coal. DR.. Isabel Simeral describes the
almost incredible barbaritieS to which these chill
dren were subjected:
"The work of these babies was usually that
of trappers They sat beside the traps or doors
in the coal seams through which the coal carts
were passed. 1t was dangerous to leave door
open as it caused great heat, cloSeness, and
possible explosion These babies sat in spot
followed out in the wall and when they heard
the approach of coal cart pulled open the door
by means of a cord and closed it after the cart
had passed
"They worked for IL and IA hours daily with
no light except what some kindly disposed miner
was willing to give them in the shape OF candle
ends. The places were usually damp and no
matter how monotonous the labor, the strap was
applied if they delayed or endangered the work
by falling asleep.
"They never saw sunlight except upon Sun
day. and had no relaxation whatsoever upon that
tive children became imbecileS from the fright
of darkness, loneliness, and the vermin with
which the mines were frequently infested.
Even more notorious and terrible was the
situation presented by the chimney sweeps Chill
dren were frequently taken at and years OF
age-often kidnaped-for this work. Many OF the
early factory chimneys had flues less than foot
square Some firms which supplied chimney
sweeps cynically advertised small children for
small chimneys
THEY were pushed up through chimneys,
L often while still hot. Many were burned
to death. lost inside f1ues or smothered They
had running sores due to abrasions and mice
tons and lack of care was all but universal. 1t
took the hardest child many months to get used
to the work. These unfortunates were treated
like animals having their food thrown to them
and going unwashed for months at time"
Such were the abuses which greedy human
nature" permitted and fostered a century ago
The same greed allows and defends comparable
evils in our country today. There is no instance,
so far as know, where any employer OF cnllo
labor on a large scale has ever voluntarily re-
pented and given up the practice Nothing snort
of outlawing the practice has ended child LABOR
in any country. Only Federal child labor
amendment will do it today in the United States
We pride ourselves upon being more up-to-
date than Europe in our plumbing, transporta-
ton, skyscrapers and the like. 1t is high time
we caught up with Europe IN numam-
tarism. England wiped out child labor in 1888
and 1874 France began to restrict child labor
in 1S41 and completed the taboo by 1892. Ger
many curbed the employment of children as
early as 1885, and outlawed it in 1891.
The fact that we can not safely wait for
state action alone is well borne out by the fact
that state legislation against child labor has
been agitated ever since the Massachusetts law
of 1912. We would probably have to wait until
2042 before some states would wake up and take
this elementary step in behalf of social justice
and common decency.