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cation of two populations out of the poverty of one."

Her response to the exigencies of such a condition has been one of the heroic features of the history of her people during the past quarter of a century in her efforts to overtake the educational destitution of her rural populationefforts that must be neutralized if the rapidly increasing factories are to be allowed through the greed of capital and the shiftlessness of parents, to shut out from the school room, within the walls of the mills, thousands of the neediest and most promising of her children.

With the greatest educational problem of modern civilization thrust upon her, it has not been possible for the South to provide for the compulsory education of all her children, and the opponents of child labor laws have ever been quick to seize upon this fact, hiding their hostility to the legislation by a loud protestation of zeal for the cause of education.

It was somewhat of a revelation in Alabama two years ago to find that the very people who were opposing a childlabor law, "unless a provision making the education of the children compulsory was attached," were at the same time viciously fighting all efforts to provide for local taxation for school purposesa measure which offered the only hope for such an increase of the public school funds as to make compulsory education feasible.

THE COMMERCIAL RIVALRY OF STATES AND SECTIONS.

Every effort to secure legislation protecting the child has been met by the persistent and bitter commercial rivalry between the different states engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods.

It has been repeatedly charged that the efforts to secure child labor legislation in the South have been inspired by the jealousy on the part of the New England mills of the growing prosperity of the South. To which it may well be answered, "Why, herein is a marvelous thing, that influences alleged to be trying to injure the southern manufacturing industry by securing effective child

labor laws should at the same time be at work in New England in making the laws in the states more effective still."

It is a fact of history that the protection of the children is one of the most potent of the economic factors in the industrial development of a people, and if the jealousy of New England should result in the protection of all the children of the South nothing could prove a greater boon to every interest of her people.

The mill men in New England are urging that the age limit in those states should not be raised, because they then could not compete with Georgia, which has no law against child labor. The mill men in Georgia claim that the attempt to secure legislation in those states is due to the influence of the New England mills, while in the two Carolinas and Alabama the proximity of Georgia, with no regulation of child labor, is pleaded as a reason why existing statutes should not be enforced.

After all has been said, it must at last be recognized that the inducements the South has to offer to the capitalist desiring to invest in mill property are her splendid water power, salubrious climate, proximity to the cotton fields, cheapness of fuel, and freedom from labor troubles, and not the sacrifice of her children upon the altar of greed.

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS.

I have tried thus to give a frank and accurate interpretation of the present status of this legislation in the Southern States, and to present as candidly as possible the situation as it exists, but I would sound no note of pessimism. Whereas in older manufacturing communities legislation for the protection of child life has been a matter of slow growth and marked by the many mistakes and failures of social experiments, in the South the cotton manufacturing industry has almost with its birth brought our people to a consciousness of their obligation to the coming generation.

In the bills presented in more recent legislatures the accumulated wisdom of the century has been drawn upon, and

though, as in North Carolina, such measures may for a time fail of enactment into law, through the influence of the professional lobbyist, the interested capitalist and the indifferentism of the people, no one familiar with the history of the modern industrial world can doubt that the pressure of the moral judgment of civilization must at last make itself felt with resistless force.

Though the enactment of the most effective legislation comes somewhat more tardily than we could desire, it is a matter of sincere congratulation that this legislation has reached a more advanced stage of development at this period of the industrial life of the South, and that the southern people are passing on to the period of effective legislation with less of blood-guiltiness than any other section of country in the industrial life of modern times.

In conclusion I venture to suggest:

(1) That for states with such manifestly similar economic conditions as obtain in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama there should be a continuance of the effort to secure so far as possible uniformity in the laws protecting the children.

(2) That in view of the number of humane and just men interested in the manufacture of cotton in the South, constant effort should be put forth to win the support and sympathy of these men for a movement in line with the noblest endeavors of their lives. To this end legislation proposed should be wise and conservative, characterized by a full recognition of the stage of the industrial development of the section, and so far as consistent with the protection of the children, containing such provisions as will give the factories abundant time to adapt themselves to the improved conditions.

Overdrawn pictures of conditions that are abnormal are just as imperfect a presentation of the case against child labor as is the exhibition of the prize mill with its schools, kindergartens and libraries an illustration of the average mill. After all has been said the facts of the situation, and the facts alone, can secure an intelligent and sustained public interest without which no.law can be made effective.

The people of the South are not unlike the people in other sections, and iniquitous conditions cannot long maintain themselves in the presence of a wellinformed public opinion.

(3) Laws protecting the girls under fourteen years of age are most needed just now, and most likely to secure favorable consideration at the hands of the representatives of the people.

(4) Wherever practicable, proof of age should be required to be supplemented by a standard of physical efficiency, and in all cases there should be required for children under twelve years of age, a certificate showing that they can read and write, signed not by the parent or guardian alone, but by the principal or teacher in some public school, residing in the county where the factory is located. These certificates should be required to be filed in a public place where access may be obtained to them by all interested parties, and failure so to file them made a misde

meanor.

(5) An inspector for factories, mills and mines should be proivded in every state, and this officer appointed by the governor, and empowered to enter any factory or manufacturing plant or mine, required to render bi-annually a public report to the governor, and to report to the county solicitor and grand jury every violation of the law.

CONDITIONS ON THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA.

FROM "THE BRICKLAYER AND MASON" FOR SEPTEMBER, 1905.

We returned from Panama with Mr. W. C. Nazro, the widely known "welfare expert," on August 8th, our visit covering a period of three weeks. Though our going was widely published by the press, we will say that the object of the Canal Commission in sending us there was to inquire into the needs of the employes for recreation. We are not at liberty, of course, to anticipate our report. We can state, however, from our personal knowledge that the commission is sincere in its promise to do every reasonable thing to insure the comfort of the men engaged in digging the Canal.

The former commission did not concern itself with any such question, bending all its energies toward “making the dirt fly." Hardly were the shovels at work when the utter folly of this policy manifested itself. Brought far from their homes, placed in a most unfamiliar environment, with but little preparation for sheltering and feeding them, men took sick, and all was chaos. Many of those who had the means to return home did so. It is because of these conditions that the common impression of the Isthmus exists.

That the present commission is not inclined to repeat this mistake is found in its determination that the work of housing, feeding and generally caring for the employes is to be given precedence. Unlike its predecessor, this commission realizes that the health and general welfare of the men will to a practically unlimited degree determine the progress of the work on the canal. While it purposes to build club houses and to install other means of recreation, the commission with commendable judgment has decided to provide first for the more urgent necessities of the employes. Already contracts have been closed for the installation of refrigerating plants upon two of the steamers, and for two on the Isthmus, one at Panama and the other at Colon. With these completed, the food supply should be vastly improved, making the fare of the employes, of

which there has been much warranted complaint, more comparable with what they had been accustomed to at home. In order to make more abundant the food supply now obtainable, an order was recently issued providing for the opening of sub-commissaries. The protest made by Isthmian merchants against this expansion of the commissary department will have no influence with a commission resolved to give consideration to humanity first rather than to material results, or that at least recognizes that without attention given the first the other cannot be had. These storekeepers can no longer charge extortionate prices; their day for bleeding the men has passed.

Notwithstanding this and other evidence of its capability even this commission has been made the subject of no little criticism. While criticism is very often helpful, and while no government employe, individual or corporate, should be above it, much of it in this case is totally unwarranted. It should be re

membered that the work undertaken on
the Isthmus of Panama is the greatest
ever undertaken by man. The Suez
Canal and De Lessep's attempt to trans-
cend his first great achievement offer
little that can be of help in the solution
of many of the problems involved.
Canal as a proposition is unique, the con-
ditions abnormal. Those critics whose
conclusions are based upon the wild
stories so often told by employes and
others who have left the Isthmus should

The

change their tune. To hear many of these self-constituted commentators talk one might think that the two continents could be severed with a cross-cut saw.

The commission should have the hearty support of every citizen who is proud of his country and who feels a patriotic concern in its reputation. The eyes of the world are upon us at Panama. And at home powerful railroad interests still hope for the abandonment of the project.

The work of sanitation has made fine progress in the past nine months, and the

At

department in charge seems to have been the least affected during the period of confusion. With the greater means placed at his command by the present commission, Colonel Gorgas, it is not unlikely, relatively speaking, will parallel the splendid achievements attained in his fight against fevers in Cuba. present there are three hospitals within the Canal Zone-the name given to the ten-mile wide strip of land controlled by the United States-one at Ancon, one at Colon, and a temporary one at Culebra. The first mentioned is one of the best equipped hospitals in the world and is about to be enlarged. Even with the means at hand the work of fumigation is being constantly extended. The dispensaries located along the route are to be increased in number, and hereafter are to be better provided. The successful installation of a water system in the city of Panama has encouraged the officials in their effort to provide this necessary throughout the Zone. At the present time there is but little good drinking water outside of this city, except at two or three points, where it is kept in cisterns. Sewers are now being put in in this city, and similar work is in progress at the more important places along the route.

The houses for employes are of five types. The first is known as a hotel, of which there are three; though built for single men, these have been opened to some extent to married men. Homes for married men and their families constitute the second class; the third is composed of buildings where employes may live apart from the hotels; the fourth is known as barracks, for laborers. In a few instances employes have had to live in tents; but the conditions responsible for the lack of quarters this circumstance points to, the commission is making special efforts to overcome. School houses, to the number of forty-two are to be erected. Each will have a capacity of forty pupils.

Stories told of the prevalence of yellow fever and other dire diseases do not comport with the facts. We have been to the Isthmus twice, and although each time we had unusual facilities for obser

vation, particularly during our second visit, we saw no such thing as dead trains running to Monkey hill, the place where so many persons were buried during the French regime, and which is still used to some extent as a cemetery. Moreover the percentage of fatal cases has been exceedingly small. The dread which this disease inspires in the average person is explained by its past history. Modern medical science has come to be better able to cope with yellow fever, though as yet the bacilli have not been discovered. Still, it is true that there is yellow fever on the Isthmus, and while the stegomya mosquito finds unacclimated persons to bite it is likely to continue. Everything is being done, however, to exterminate all speciae of mosquitoes. Though this should prove impossible of accomplishment, the strenuous efforts being made should greatly reduce the danger of yellow fever in the course of a little time. It is not to be thought that the bite of this mosquito always means infection. It is only when it has bitten a yellow fever patient after a certain time and bites another person from three to five days later that the disease is transmitted. We know whereof we speak, for we were bitten by the stegomya and experienced no distressing results beyond being made the subject of peculiar regard by over-timid persons.

Malarial fever in its various forms claims far more victims than does yellow fever. Anyone disposed to malarial infection should keep away from the country. Many of the suspected yellow fever cases turn out to be of the other kind. It is needless to say that these fevers also are receiving the attention of the medical department, though to an even less extent can their eradication be hoped for.

We do not wish to be understood as painting a rosy picture of conditions on the Isthmus. We have tried, in our own way, to answer those responsible for the many false impressions now existing. We desire to be equally well understood as wishing to warn against going there persons unaccustomed to roughing it. Even with the execution of the present plans of improvement,

Panama will still be a tropical country, will still be in the same latitude as Abyssinia. It is no place for the man who makes much of the conveniences and comforts of life in the modern city. Men who intend to go there should be men who have the ability to accommodate themselves to circumstances. We would especially advise to stay at home those who have not lived for some time in the more southern parts of our own country. Above all, it is no place for the man who is fond of drink. study of the disease the doctors hold a post-mortem examination in every fatal case of yellow fever, and in each instance the kidneys are shown to have been more or less diseased. Not that the nondrinker is not liable to infection, but his chances for recovery are infinitely better.

In their

Hardly less care needs to be exercised in the matter of food. But little meat should be eaten-the kind now supplied is anything but tempting. Strange fruits should be avoided. Plenty of sleep should be had; the best sleep in the Tropics is had before midnight. The night air is dangerous. If wet, one should change clothes at the earliest possible moment. Woolen underwear should be worn every day, and a stomach band of the same material at night. It is the rainy season there now, and it will be until November; so a rubber coat or cravenette and an umbrella should be part of one's outfit. Boots or leggings are indispensable on account of the many ants and other crawling creatures. A large bottle of Warburg's Tincture, a time-tried febrifuge, should also be brought along. As all persons who are to remain upon the Isthmus any length of time are vaccinated before disembarking, one or two vaccination shields should be provided, for the government does not at present furnish these.

Lastly, no one should think of going to the Isthmus without sufficient means for a return passage, and this money should be kept intact; the fare to New York is: cabin, seventy dollars; steerage, thirty dollars.

As for employment, it is needless for us to say that there is room for any number of men of the many trades and occu

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These employes are paid in U. S. currency; natives are paid in silver.

Wages in some trades are lower; but these lower wages are paid native mechanics, those who are not able to earn more. When not engaged by the month, mechanics in these trades invariably receive 56 cents per hour, and they may at any time apply for promotion to the monthly class of their respective trade, and thus obtain higher wages and the privileges granted to those of that higher class.

Employes, whether paid monthly or by the hour, are paid from the time they embark aboard the steamer at New York. Free transportation is granted from port of departure, which includes meals on steamer; but transportation to place of sailing is not supplied.

When practicable, monthly men are provided with quarters, and if quarters are not available, they are granted; in lieu thereof, a sum, payable monthly, equal to 15 per cent. of their monthly compensation. Quarters, or additional pay, is also provided in the case of mechanics engaged by the hour, with this difference, that the additional pay is based on not more than 208 hours per month or twenty-six working days.

Monthly employes are not allowed overtime. But employes of the other class are paid time and a half for all overtime, including Sundays and holidays.

Monthly employes are granted an annual vacation of six weeks. In addition to this these employes are allowed a reasonable number of days' sick leave per year in meritorious cases, the length of such leave and merits of the case being

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