Newspapers / The Harbinger (Raleigh, N.C.) / Sept. 27, 1902, edition 1 / Page 1
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NGER ORGANIZATION. EDUCATION. ELEVATION. Vol. I. Raleigh, N. C. Saturday. September 27, 1902. No. 38 Y HARBI i t THE MAN THAT WAKES ME UP. I tell you w'at, I love my pa, I love him most as much as ma ; He's awful good to me an brings Me lots cf toys an' kites an' thiugs. Why, t'other day, as sure as fate, He brought me home a terrier pup. - I love my pa, but, oh, I hate The man that mornin's wakes me up ! My pa he takes me fishin', too, When he's got nothin' else to do ; I ketched a catfish, too, one day, Though half way out he got away, But pa said I might count it, though, An somethin' 'bout the lip an' cup. I dearly love my pa, but, oh, I hate the man that wakes me up ! I'm always hearin' 'bout the ant Wats get up early, but I can't See w'at that's got to do with me ; I ain't no ant, as I can see ; I'm just a boy w'ats like to lie Abed until it's time to sup ; Of course I love my pa, but I Don't love that man that wakes me up. William Wallace Whitelock. ORGANIZED LABOR. Washington Post. The present attitude of influential public men, and especially of leading statesmen, toward organized labor contrasts, in a striking manner, . with the relations that existed between such men and the trades unions in the not very remote past. Not only the most influential citizens, but the pub lic generally, gave a cold shoulder to trades unionism when it made its first appearance in this country three quarters of a century ago. Although it encountered here far less of opposi tion than it had previously met with in England, it was regarded more as a meance to society than as a promise of good. But as our industries de veloped, the few and feeble labor un ions grew in strength and increased in numbers, and for several decades past organized labor has been a factor of increasing importance in national and State legislation. In 1833, when the first trades union was organized in the United States, and for years thereafter there were no ' indications of a coming time when a President of the United States would be a member of such a bodywhen a distinguished Senator would simultan. eously hold the two positions of chair man of the national committee of the dominant party and chairman of a civic federation committtee composed of the most honored men of both parties, bishops of churches, and representatives of every great social interest, charged with the duty of promoting industrial peace; when organized labor would have a national holiday and the ablest men of the republic would gladly accept its invitations to address trades unions. Among the statesmen honored with such an invitation on this year's recurrence of that dav was Senator Fairbanks, who spoke to the labor un ions of Kansas City. He referred to the gratifying fact that more people are studying labor problems to-day than ever before, and that those who are disposed to study them are no longer regarded as singular, but as sober thinkers, desirous of promoting justice, elevating the condition of .their fellow-men and advancing the well being of society. He said that no higher motive than this can actuate .'; men. Senator Fairbanks not only conced , -ed the propriety but the necessity of organization in the ranks of labor. He said, in plain terms, that the evolution in. our industrial conditions, which is the marvel and admiration of the world, has rendered it necessary that labor should organize. And further, that labor organizations have their origin in the instinct of self-preservation, of mutual advancement, of common good, and are as natural and legitimate as the organization of capital. In fact, he said, the organizations of labor and capital naturally go hand in hand ; the one is essentially the complement of the other. In a brief exposition of what labor organizations have done to advance the cause of labor, the Senator said : "That labor organizations have done much to advance the cause of labor there can be no doubt. They have been earnest advocates of education, knowing full well that knowledge is real power. They have established newspapers throughout the country, intelligently devoted to the promotion of their interests. They have founded beuevolences and paid millions of dol lars to their membership. They have increased wages where inadequate, and secured reasonable hours of service. They have abolished or modified con ditions in the sweatshops of great cities which were undermining the health and morals of operatives. They have stood against the abuses of child labor. They have taught the necessity of the observance of contracts, knowing full well that contracts are founded in honor and are the basis of commercial success. They have increased and seek to maintan a higher morale among their membership. They are opposed to anarchy. Anarchy has no greater foe than they. They know that labor's best interests are dependent upon the maintenance of orderly and stable gov ernment." The address shows that the Senator has studied labor problems with the serious attention that their importance merits. Despite the existence at this hour of a very serious trouble between labor and capital in one State, and sev eral minor difficulties elsewhere, The Post believes the trend of events is to ward permanent industrial peace. And one of the strong influences in that direction is the recognition by leaders of thought af the necessity for and the good work accomplished by organized labor. CHILD LABOR IN THE SOUTH. The Tradesman, of Chattanooga, Tenn., has just published the result of an effort to ascertain the exact r um ber of children under 12 years old em ployed in thetxrtton mills of the South. It sent out letters to the managers of 797 cotton mills asking for information on that point. Only 293 complied with this request considerably less than half yet these admitted a total of 1,854 children below 12 years em ployed in their mills., It is natural to suppose that those mills which em ployed the most children were the ones which did not reply. Since The Tradesman appears to be an ardent friend of the mill managers, these fig ures go far to prove that the estimate which places the number of child slaves in Southern cotton mills at 5,000 is not beyond the mark. Willie Mamma, what does"blcod" relations mean ? Mamma It means near relations, Willie.;', ';:;;;:;:Vmj ;;V Willie (after a thoughtful pause) Then, mamma, you and papa must be 'the bloodiest relations I've got LET THE STATES SETTLE IT. The following able editorial is clip ped from the Savannah Press. World's Work alludes to child la bor as the most heinous crime of civi lization. It is a sin not only against social and economic,laws, but against nature itself. Man is superior to the other beings because he lengthens the the period of childhood, and a long childhood is the best gift of all. The lesson of the human race is the pro tection of that long period. In every country where industries have been developed at which children could work they have been employed until the States have steped in and for bidden it. The arguments for child labor are as old as the hills. "Em ployment is better than idleness" (ap plied to childhood this is untrue), in terpolates The World's Work; "the child's earnings are necessary for poor parents" (better the parents should perish than the child) ; "the family is better off than before" (the parents may be, but the child is not) ; and "it is only a temporary condition till better labor can be trained" (it has never been stopped except by law. Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky have enacted laws forbiding it and the recent Democratic State Convention of South Carolina has asked that the legislature pass such a law. The States of North Carolina. Georgia and Alabama need it. It is said that more than 20,000 children less than 14 years old, including 10,000 less than 12 years old, are employed in the cotton mills of these States, some in night work. The ungracious part of this agitation is that Northern mills are encouraging it against the South. Northern factories are being moved one by one, and some of the stock holders say they want to get into dis tricts where children from 6 to 12 years may be lawfully employed to work in the mills. The movement of cotton mills to the South is really to be near the raw material; It is only a natural movement, and yet it is cer tain that child labor, which has gen erally been prohibited at the North, is allowed in the South. The Montgomery Advertiser ac kouledges as only too true the fact that children are worked in the mills and factories of Alabama at an age when such work is little less than murder. The straight days of child life, which ought to be spent in school or at play, or a "combination of the two, are in many cases spent in the foul-smelling factories, amid the monotonous whirr and rattle of ma chinery, where the bodies of the little ones are bent and worn with constant toil and their minds dwarfed by the continued application to their labor, and the almost entire lack of anything pleasant or exhilerating. It ought to be a crime thus to torture innocent children." There is talk of getting a law through congress to regulate child labor in the South. The Press is op posed to 4he enactment of any such law. No one wants to see the Federal government take charge of the mills and factories, in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. This is a matter for State control. Congress would not be justified in this direct interfer ence in the domestic affairs of the State. We should like to see the legislature, however, of these States take up this matter, as the Montgom ery Advertiser says, to do justice to our own people "and to enact such laws at once as will save the children from mental, moral, and physical de gradation that now threatens them." CHILD LABOR. Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal. In the very nature of things child labor cannot pay in the long run. It would not pay to secure a child's labor for a cent a day if the child's body were dis torted and maimed and its skill de stroyed. One mistake by an emaciated, heedless, hopeless child might offset the cost of its labor for a month or a year. When children under twelve are put to work in mills and mines their constitutions will be weakened, their bodies dwarfed, and their intelli gence benumbed. Naturally this de stroys in time te efficiency of child labor. We have heard much of late about the manufacturing importance of the South. Every city is anxious to be come a manufacturing center. But we have no hesitation in saying that if we are to obtain this prominence by im molating children on the altar of the god Manufacture, then we had better be content to remain behind and keep out of the race altogether. The employment of children at al most starvation wages, forces out a number of men necessarily ; and so we have the starved and stunted child at one end of the line and the tramp at the other. No prosperity built on such foundations can last. The descriptions we have of this ghastly tragedy in the mills of South Carolina are enough to make the blood run cold. The stockholders in these mills are, for most part, New Engend ers. They live in luxuriant style in Boston, and the gaunt, skinny skele- tonic children of the Southern mills toil for them a few years, and then drop into nameless graves. These chil dren are afforded none of the joys of life. They soon become mere automatons, tired, stunted, weakened little creatures, devoid of all emotion, unresponsive to love or hate, desiring nothing but to drop to sleep after their thirteen hours of labor a day. The life kills them off in a few years, and their places are filled with other living skeletons. This slaughter of innocents goes right along year in and year out, while the stock holders in New England count their dividends and laugh and grow fat. It is said that a cotton mill having a pay-roll of $6,000 a week in New England can be run for $4,000 in the South, because of the employment of child labor. Here, then, is a clear pick-up of $104,000 a year. And it is for this difference that thousands of children are massacred to make a Bos ton holiday. Any one who can even look even a moderate distance ahead can see that no system can be permanent which is founded on thcdead bodies of helpless children. If we expect to establish a great cotton manufacturing industry in the South, we must build on the foundation stones of justice and hu manity. We must not hesitate to pro tect the children by legislation for fear of offending the foreign investor. If he cannot come to us with clean hands, we don't want him. His room is bet ter than his company. Subscribe to The Harbinger. HIGH WAGES FOR IRON WORKERS. About 25,00 men employed at the iron working industry in the United States, principally in and about Pitts burg, are affected by a raise in wages which has just gone into affect. The advance gives them the highest re muneration their branch of the trade has ever known. Iron has been sell ing at an average price of $1.70 per hundled pounds the past month and, because of this fact, manufacturers have voluntarily raised the remunera tion of the puddlers 12 cent a ton and given the iron mill finishers a 2 per cent advance. TRIED HARD. At a trial at Auburn, Pa., one of the witnesses was a green countryman un used to the ways of the law, but quick, as it proved, to understand its princi ples. After a severe cross examination, says an exchange, the counsel for the government paused, and then, putting on a look of severity, exclaimed : "Mr. Wilkins, has not an effort been made to induce you to tell a different story ?" "A different story from what I told, sir?" "That is what I mean." "Yes, sir ; several persons have tried to get me to tell a different story from what I have told, but they couldn't." "Now, sir, upon your oath, I wish to know who those persons are?" "Well, I guess you've tried 'bout as hard as any of them." PREVENTION OFTHE FLIGHT OF BIRDS. To prevent birds from flying with out the barbarous and injurious sys lem sometime practiced of cutting their wings it will be found sufficient to tie together with a thread three or four of the largest feathers of one wing. 1 ins destroys tne balance, tne wings do act symmetrically in the air, and flight is rendered impossible. Fowls, pigeons, etc., may be kept with in bounds in this simple fashion. MERELY MISPLACED. "Captain," said the cabin boy, "is a thing lost when you know where it is?" "No, you fool," answered the cap tain, who being a wise man, abhorred frivolous questions. "Well, sir, your silver teapot is at the bottom of the sea." Exit cabin bov. New ork Times. HIS FOLDED ARMS. Madge, Harry asked me to be his wife last night." "Oh, I am so delighted !" replied her friend. i'How did it happen?" Well you see, he just asked me, and I said 'Yes,' and then he stood up and folded his arms." "Well, I never ! Was he not more interested than that? Whatever did you do at such treatment ?" "What could I do? You see, I was in his arms when he folded them !" THE REAL, ARTICLE. "He is a true philanthropist." "He gives a great deal advice." "Yes. But he is usually ready to accompany his advice with enough cash to put it on a working basis." Washington Star. i
The Harbinger (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Sept. 27, 1902, edition 1
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