Year: 1875

EuuCdhOh vi NOIhihS NhiiuieHs


The annual report of the Massachu-
sets labor bureau opens with chapter
on the education of working children,
and a sketch is given of the cottage
manufactures of England. The changes
which have been produced by the inven
tion of machinery, and the consequent
introduction of the modern factory sys-
tenn, are detailed at some length, the
evils attendant thereon being pointed out
in very clear and comprehensive man
ner. In the same chapter is published
sketch of the efforts made by the lead
ing European nations to release children
from all obligation to labor, and to have
the time thus gained devoted to educa-
tion; and it is argued that, as Massachu-
sets is now far behind them in the uni
versatility of education, it would be unwise
and impolitie to allow any further lo6oli-
zation of child labor In treating the
subject of class schools, where children
who are obliged to work would be sent
for instruction, after the custom of GER
tain manufacturing districts i'll England,
strong obi lection is made to the proposed
innovation, on the ground that it would
tend to foster undemocratic notions and
create preiudices wholly at variance with
the spirit of our institutions. Glass dis
tinctions are tolerable in Europe; they
would be wholly out of place in America.
The homogeneity Of social relations is of
vital Importance to the country, and the
increase in the diffusion of elementary
knowledge which might be procured by
an infringement of its present status
would not by any means make amends
for the loss sustained. AS long as we
object to the establishment of schools to
which color is the sesame of entrance, it
is claimed that we would be doing a
great injustice, and would be amenable
to severe criticism, should we establish
schools to which occupation would be
the criterion of admission. The half
time system, therefore, which would
open door for the education of factory
children as q class, should not be en-
couraged nor even tolerated; otherwise
we would soon have tradesmen's, law
yers, and merchants children looking
with contempt on the i'll clothed and
dirty handed pupils from the mills as in
feriors and aliens.


In summarizing thet portion of the
report which relates to the labor of chill
dren coexistant with education, the bu-
reau puts forward as cardinal points:
First, that the period of childhood and
youth should be period of free and un-
restricted physical growth; secondly,
that it should be period of mental and
moral discipline and development, SO
that when mature age arrives the adult
may not have to contend blindly with
the forces of nature, and l0e subject con-
stantly to the depredations of his fellow
men; thirdly, that children should have
no legal status as workers, but only as
pupils; and, above all, that the poverty
of the parents should not be allowed to
foster the one condition or frr1strate the
other, inasmuch as it is unwise for the
State to permit the future usefulness OF
it's citizens to be ieopardized by causes
within it's control; fourthly, that the op-
portunities for education should be the
same for all the children i'll the State,
and that special and necessarily poorer
class of schools should not be established
for the children of the poor. We be-
ieve this because it would be direct
blow at the democratic foundations on
which our governmental structure rests.