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The Commoner.
March 7, 190a
9
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Crime Against Childhood.
beputy Labor Commissioner Watson
will have the support of all good peo
ple in his investigation of the child
labor problem. Child labor is an evil
that should be suppressed outright. It
Is a crime against the child, the re
public and the human race. This gov
ernment is founded on education of
the masses. If a child Is forced into
the factory by idle parents to support
these same parents in idleness and
viciousnesa, the state should Impose
its merciful arm for the protection of
the child. In this state, with its vast
educational endowment and its splen
did public school system, there Is not
a particle of excuse for an Ignorant
childhood. If a child grows up to
ignorant manhood he becomes a men
ace to the state. If It Is permitted the
state does him a wrong that cannot
be atoned for.
A gifted woman, Mrs. Irene Mac
fayden, writing to the December So
cial Service magazine, says: "The
neglect or abuse of the child has C03t
commercial nations in coin, prestige
and progress more than can be esti
mated. No greater social service could
be rendered to a nation than that
of saving to it the children, and teach
ing it that if it looks after the seedling
the tree will look after itself." Speak
ing of child labor in other countries,
she note3 its rise In England, where
child mortality in the manufacturing
districts rose to undreamed of heights.
The baby victims brought from sluma
and poor houses were driven to work
before daylight and forced to toll
through the long night watches.
British manufacturers grew rich the
noise of their mills drowned the cry
of childhood. Greedy for profit, they
fought humane legislation at every
stop and every point. Elizabeth Bar
rett Browning's poem, "The Cry of the
Children," effected the release of chil
dren under ten years of age. Econo
mists came with. their investigations.
The discovery was made that a well
cared for, well-developed, highly paid
human being with a. high standard of
life was. worth more than a badly paid,
miserable and unintelligent one. Tha
mill owners changed their attitude. A
new class arose to protect the chil
dren and prominent English manufac
turers are active in raising the ago
limit for children to enter the mills.
Driven from New England, child
labor has found a refuge In southern
mills largely managed and owned by
northern men. The better men of the
south are laboring to suppress thl3
crime against childhood.
Mrs. Macfayden herself as the agnt
of the American Federation of Labor
is actively engaged in co-operating
with these men. She says of theao
southern mills: "Little ones of six
or even younger begin their twelve
hours' work a day in the mill, and
there is scarcely a factory out of the
663 at the beginning of 1901 without a
batch of little victims under twelve.
When the mills are run at night, bril
liantly lit with electricity, the littlo
ones are still at work. The 'illiterate
negro sends his child to school, the
illiterate white man sends his into
the mill. In Augusta, Ga., there are
567 children under twelve working 'n
eight mills. Of these only 120 can
read or write, and they entered after
their tenth birthdays and had learned
what they knew before that. In Ala
bama, where the industry is compara
tively new, there are from 1,000 to 1,
200 children under twelve in the mills,
most of whom are illiterate. In South
Carolina in 1890 there were 30,000 more
negro than white children In school,
while the factories swarmed with.
Atlanta Constitution.
THE COMMONER and ATLANTA
CONSTITUTION (weekly) both one
year, $1.25. No commission allowed to
agents . ou this Qffer. Subscriptions
for both papers must be sent to THE
COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb.
white children. The president of one
mill, giving evidence' before the legis
lature, stated that 30 per cent of his
operatives were under twelve.
Any sincere lover of his kind can
see that this sin against reason and
humanity should bo allowed no foot
hold in this free and Intelligent com
monwealth. To the good men and
women of the south who are seeking
to uproot this malignant evil, there
can be none but words of cheer and
praise. Omaha World-Herald.
Where Ivey Stands.
(Associated Press Dispatch.)
Washington, Feb. 2G. Some time
ago the secretary of the treasury re
ceived unofficial information to the ef
fect that J. W. Ivey, collector of cus
toms at Sitka, had Instructed his dep
uty at Unalaska not to permit Cana
dian vessels presumably about to on
gage In pelagic sealing to obtain sup
plies at that port. The collector was
directed to send a statement of the
facts to the department, and was in
formed that if such orders had been
given they must be rescinded. Today
the department receive a telegram
from Ivey, saying:
"My -instructions were not against
Canadian vessels actually engaged in
pelagic sealing, which Is Illegal and
criminal when committed within the
marine jurisdiction of the United
States. If there is an ancient treaty
between the United States and Grert
Britain by which subjects can com
mit depredations destroying American
property and depleting our revenue of
tens of thousands of dollars annually,
while our own citizens are denied these
privileges, the sooner such treaty is
abrogated the better. Your solicitude
regarding international complications
with Great Britain need cause- you no
uneasiness, as the poaching season is
not yet opened. Your new collector
will arrive in time to enforce your or
ders. My Americanism will not allow
me to rescind an order which gives
British subjects privileges within our
marine jurisdiction which are denied
our own people.
"There Is another matter that may
attract your attention. I have recent
ly issued orders to the deputy at Ska
guay, a copy of which has been sent
you, which has put the Canadian offi
cers located there out of business and
sent them to their own territory. You
are aware of the fact that this officer
became so offensive that he interfere-!
with American officers in the discharge
of their official duties, opened United
States customs mail, dominated over
the railway officials, discriminated in
the order of shipment in favor of Can
adian merchandise against that
shipped from Seattle, established a
Canadian quarantine at Skaguay, col
lected moneys and performed other
acts of British sovereignty in a port
of the United States, such as hoisting
with bravado the cross of St. George
from the flagstaff of his custom house.
I have sent the concern, bag, baggage,
flag and other paraphernalia flying
out of the country.
"You may fear the shadow of inter
national complications and rescind this
order, but a Reed, an Olney or a Blaine
would not."
Underground Railroad.
Unquestionably the most stupendous
work ever undertaken in New York
Is what is popularly known as the un
derground railroad. Everybody in
New York knows something about it.
But few have any accurate conception
of the magnitude of the enterprise;
fewer have any idea of the system nec
essary In Its construction. The equip
ment and handling of a great army
of invasion are minimized when com
pared with this work which, when In
operation, will carry a passenger from
the Battery to One Hundred and Fifty-seventh
street In seventeen minutes.
Nearly everybody knows that the
contract calls for the expenditure of
$35,000,000. How many people know
that this sum is for the tunnel, sta
tions, and rails alono? How many
people know that after this enormous
sum has been paid anotnor enorinou3
amount Is to bo expended for tho
equipment of tho road? How many
people know that as yet nothing has
been done in the work of building U10
engines or the cars? How many know
that the great power house, tho great
est in the world, ig to be paid for by
still another sum? And that this
power house is to be built at tho foot
of Fifty-ninth street, near North Riv
er? And that the machinery alono In
thi3 power house, will cost $2,000,000?
Impresslvo as is tho work already
done, how many of tho thousands who
have looked down into tho rock-blasted
excavations, and at tho miles of iron
and steel already placed, know that
up to the present time, November 1,
more than $9,700,000 have been pal;l
out by tho commissioners and con
tractors? To continue Interrogatively, how
many know that tho work as a whola
Is under tho supervision of two bodies
the commissioners who plan and
compute all tho minutiae of the work,J
ana tne contractor and his assistants
who receive .their plans and details
and then make their contracts wit'.i
sub-contractors? And that each sub
contractor In turn sub-lets to others?
Under Chief Contractor McDonald
there aro, within his Immediate su
pervision, seventeen sub-contractors.
Under George S. Rice, assistant chief
engineer of tho board of rapid transit
railroad commissioners, are 200 ex
pert engineers, graduates from Har
vard, Yale .Columbia, and Cornell, and
from schools, of engineering iu New
York and other cities.
Returning' fbi a moment to the
question of 'cost It should be remem
bered that the sum stated is for tho
line under construction on Manhattan
Island.. It does not include the cost
of the -work which is to be done from J
the city hall to the Battery, and the
tunnel under East River to Brooklyn.
Time was when the proposal to tun
nel the river alone was regarded as the
work of a generation; tho money nee
essary, millions. Now it is only a
fraction of the great underground sys
tem. Tho distance to be traversed by the
Manhattan line will be equal to about
twenty-flve miles. Between tho city
hall and One Hundred and Fifty-seventh
street there will be stations for
express trains at Fourteenth, Forty
second, Sev.enty-sixth, and Ninety
sixth streets. These stations are about
Mr. Wlnle-w' Seething Sjrrep
Has been ued for oyer bixtt tkars by mu
mows of mothkxs for thofr OHU.DRRN WHII.M
TKXTHIMO, With rMKFKCT BUCCKHH. It BOOTH EA
the CHILD, BOFTBNH the OUMR, ALLAYS all TAIN,
curks wind colio. and It the beat remedy for
piABRHoa. Sold by drmslsti In otpfv pnrt of
the world. Be snre and aik for "Mrs. Wlnalow'a
Soothing Syrup," and tako no other kind. Twca-ty-flve
cents a bottle. It is the bait or all,
one and ono-half miles apart. Ex
press trains will run at a speed of fifty
miles an hour. Local trains at a speed
of thlrty-flvo miles an hour. Local
stations will be distant from each
other one-quarter of a mile.
Few persons, aside from interested
parties, aro awaro that, oxtondiug
north from tho armory at Thirty
fourth street and Fourth avenue to
tho Grand Central station, thero will
bo a double tunnol, each twenty-flvo
feet in width. This double tunnel is
supported by natural rock, and in this
respect represents a bit of engineering
economy which only engineers can ap
preciate. Thero will be two lines of
track in each of these tunnels as far
as tho Grand Central station. Tho
platforms at all stations will bo 200
feet long, tho width varying.
Quito contrary to repeated state
ments in the daily newspapers, not a
single section on the main lino, or
the Lenox avenue lino of tho system is
yet complete. In several places along
both lines the blasting has been fin
ished; the steel braces or standards put
in; in some cases the arched ceilings
of vitrified brick aro completed, and a
few bits of glazed walls have been
put up. From Houston street to
Bleeckor street, a distance equal to
nearly four hundred feet, Is tho first
nearly-completed section of tho work.
The laying of tho rails, and another
coat of whitewash on tho walls and
ceiling will finish this section. Work
was begun on this stretch fifteen
months ago.
The station at Fifty-ninth street, cr
the circle, 'as It is most generally
known, is approaching completion, and
will bo opened to public view very
soon.
The engineering department of tho
work has solved the problem of proper
ventilation in a great tunnel. This
has come after considerable attention,
and at great cost. The plan calls for a
peculiar make of asbestos paper and
layers of asphalt between, all fastened
upon tho stone. Thus the tunnel will
be enveloped, rendering it absolutely
proof against dampness, insuring
healthy ventilation, without the ail
(Continued on Page Eleven.)
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