Carolina. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, as well as some of the New England States. The data obtained have brought out some very important conclusions which, though not altogether in harmony with the popular ideas on the subject of child labor in the South, must be seriously considered in connection with this subject and which also point conclusively to the fact that child labor in the Southern States involves a consideration of certain medical and public health conditions not found in the Northern States.

The full data obtained are contained in a manuscript report which is practically completed and which will be forwarded to the Department of Commerce and Labor before January 1, 1909. As mentioned in the last annual report this investigation was undertaken at the request of that department.

These studies showed that approximately 12.5 per cent (more exactly 12.67) of the cotton-mill employees were found to come within the suspect class of hookworm disease. The percentage varied in the two sexes and at different ages. For instance. the percentage of hands over 20 years of age who were classified as suspects was 8.4 per cent; between 16 and 20 years of age, 19.2 per cent; and under 16 years of age, 27.2 per cent were placed in the suspect class. Of females 16.1 per cent were suspects, while of males, 15.2 per cent came within this class. Of boys under 16 years of age 29.4 per cent and of girls under 16 years old 18.7 per cent were suspects. Of males 16 to 20 years of age 20.7 per cent and of females 16 to 20 years of age 18.1 per cent were suspects. Of males over 20 years old 5.8 per cent, and of females over 20 years old 13 per cent were suspects.

The foregoing statistics, reported by Dr. Stiles, the Chief of the Division of Zoology, are very significant in their bearing upon the health of these people. It is seen, for instance, that among the females of maternity age from 13 to 18 per cent are in a condition which prevents them from properly nourishing babes. Of the males of possible military age, 5.8 to 20.7 per cent are in a condition which would materially decrease their military efficiency. Among children of school age, generally speaking, 18.7 per cent of the females and 29.4 per cent of the males are suffering from an anemiaproducing disease which would materially inhibit their normal capacity for study. The figures (18.7 per cent) for females under 16 years of age are significant also in connection with the retardation of menstrual development among these girls. Taking all of the statistics together, it is seen that approximately 12.5 per cent (more exactly, 12.6 per cent) are affected with a disease which materially inhibits their normal working powers, and hence inhibits the economic development of the community in which they live.

The condition in question has heretofore been quite generally assumed on the part of people who visited the mills to be due to breathing in the lint. That this assumption is not free from very serious error of interpretation is evident from the fact that the anemia in question varies greatly in different mills despite the fact that practically all of these people, so far as they breathe in lint, are subject to breathing in the same kind of lint. For instance, Dr. Stiles states that in certain mills which supply their labor chiefly from clay lands the percentage of infection among the children ran very low-under 10 per cent, or even down to nothing while in one mill running exclusively on sand-land labor 80 per cent of the children were clearly hookworm cases. Plot ing the mills according to the origin of the labor, he has shown that the mills running on clay-land and city-born labor show the lowest percentage of anemia. The presence of mountain labor raises the percentage of anemia, and the presence of sand labor raises the percentage still higher. This fact effectually disposes of the importance which has hitherto been attributed to the lint as a factor in causing this widespread and extreme anemia. It is also important to note that the severest cases of aneria were found among children who had been in the mills only a few weeks. In looking for an explanation of the origin of this anemia it is necessary to consider certain important factors found in the South. Taking 8 South Atlantic and Gulf States, it is seen that there are 833 negroes to every 1,000 whites in the population. All of these States have 33 per cent, or above, negro population. Both hookworm disease and malaria are found in the negro, but the negro is relatively immune to the pathological effects of both infections and therefore forms a tremendous reservoir for infection.

Dr. Siles states that as a soil polluter the negro is to the white as 795 to 438; therefore he is nearly twice the spreader of hookworm disease when compared with the white. He is also a greater relative spreader of malaria, because he screens less against mosquitoes. The conclusion is therefore evident that the white race in the South is living under a hygienic handicap, due to the presence of such a large proportion of negro population. The whites in better financial circumstances are able to protect themselves against this handicap, which falls more severely therefore upon the whites

in poorer circumstances, namely, the rural tenant whites. This class of people, which does not exist in the North, is the direct product of competition for generations with negro labor plus the effects of these two great anemia-producing diseases (hookworm disease and malaria), which have been spread among them by the negro. It is almost exclusively from this class of people that the cotton mills recruit their labor, and when they bring from the soil-polluted farms into the mills families of rural tenant whites they naturally bring with these families the diseases already existing in them. The ane nia ot the cotton mill, it must be concluded, is therefore much more the product of soil pollution on the tenant farms than it is the product of working in the mills. and as a matter of fact these anemic children improve in condition after coming to the mills, for the simple reason that in the mill villages they are brought to live under improved sanitary conditions. The child labor of the mills is found chiefly in the spinning room, and the product of the other rooms in the mills is dependent upon the product of the spinning room. If, now, any sudden change is made in child labor in the South, this will necessarily result in cutting down the labor of the mills, and for many of the families in question the only thing which will remain open to them will be a return to the soil-polluted small farms. Considering the mill from this point of view, it is seen that the southern cotton mill is an important sanitary uplifting influence for these people, and this important point must be borne in mind and must be balanced against any detrimental physical effects which mill life may have upon them.

Since the foregoing conditions do not exist in the North, it is evident that the question of child labor in the South contains elements which are not involved in the same question in the North. The complete report and the statistics quoted above emphasize the importance of hookworm disease from the public health standpoint, and show that it is very prevalent throughout a certain section of our country, where it causes many deaths and a serious amount of invalidism.

The relation of soil pollution to this disease has been clearly demonstrated, and the means necessary for its prevention and cure are well known. The necessity is apparent of undertaking measures for the eradication of hookworm disease, and to this end a campaign of education is essential. Communications have been received requesting the cooperation of the service in the improvement of the public health in this direction. In a letter dated February 11, 1908, the secretary of the State Board of Health of North Carolina requested the detail of an officer to cooperate and assist his board in efforts to eradicate the disease from the State. It was recognized that assistance of this character on the part of the National Government should be given upon request of State health authorities, and that such cooperation would be of mutual advantage to the National and State public-health agencies.

Upon looking into the matter, however, it was found impossible to make the detail requested, as there is no provision for incurring expenses incident to such field investigations and cooperation with State and local health authorities.

The same question has arisen before in field investigations, and the prevention of other diseases which affect the health and prosperity of the country at large, and steps were taken with a view to having Congress provide for investigations and cooperation of this character.

There is no more fertile field in preventive medicine at the present time than the suppression of hookworm disease, and it is of importance to the people of a large area of this country that the Public Health Service should take part in this work. Should the bill introduced in Congress to further protect the public health permit of the carrying on of this work and provide means for the diffusion of information relative to its prevention and suppression, steps would be taken to inaugurate further studies, and particularly a campaign of education in cooperation with State health authorities.

Senator BRANDEGEE. Will you allow me to ask you a question? Mr. RUFFIN. Yes, sir.

Senator BRANDEGEE. When he states that the product of the mill, or the weaving room, depends upon the output of the spinning department, does it mean that the output of the spinning department is supplied right along at a given rate to the weaving department, and that the weaving department can not proceed unless the spinning department is proceeding simultaneously?

Mr. RUFFIN. Yes, sir.

Senator BRANDEGEE. I am not sufficiently familiar with the mechanical process to know that, and I was simply asking the question.

Mr. RUFFIN. Yes, sir; because all of it is mathematically figured out. One department is absolutely dependent upon the product from the other department clear through the mill.

Senator BRANDEGEE. This sounds like a foolish question, I have no doubt, to a man who is familiar with a cotton mill, but is it not so that the product of the spinning department can in any way be stored up and furnished although the spinning department is not operating at that particular minute? Do both have to be operated at the same time?

Mr. RUFFIN. At the same time. The only way you could do that would be to stop the looms, the weaving.

Senator BRANDEGEE. That only has a bearing on this feature of it, in my opinion-as to why if you put your spinning room on the eight-hour basis you would have to put your weaving room on the same basis. Is that so?

Mr. RUFFIN. Absolutely.

Senator POMERENE. You have given a good deal of attention to the sanitary condition so far as it affects these cotton mills, and either you or some one else this morning made the statement indicating that the cotton mills only employed a comparatively small per cent of the children who were employed-I do not recall the exact figures-but what other factories have you, or mines, in your State which employ the children?

Mr. RUFFIN. We practically have no mines, Senator, but we have a large number of tobacco factories. For instance, the most important town, I believe, near by is Winston-Salem, which is known as a tobacco-manufacturing town. There is one concern there that is employing now 1,200 children. They are all negro children. Senator POMERENE. What are their ages?

Mr. RUFFIN. They are under 16 years of age.

Senator POMERENE. What is the minimum?

Mr. RUFFIN. Beiow? I do not know that. I suppose 12 or 13. Senator POMERENE. Is that your statutory regulation?

Mr. RUFFIN. Thirteen is; yes, sir; and there are 1,200 in one factory there in that. town, and there will be 2,000, at least, negro children thrown out of employment.

Senator POMERENE. No; that does not necessarily follow.

Mr. RUFFIN. It will if this law is carried into effect.

Senator POMERENE. How many people are employed in this factory all told?

Mr. RUFFIN. Have you any idea, Mr. Patterson?

Mr. PATTERSON. I do not know just the number of hands, but I know that there is practically no age limit to children working in the tobacco factories by reason of the fact that what they call a tobacco roller employs his own stemmers—that is, children-to take the stems out of the tobacco leaves.

Senator POMERENE. I have just been told that the minimum age is 13.

Mr. RUFFIN. That is as far as the cotton mills are concerned. I do not know the age limit of children in the tobacco factories. We have never had that question up there very seriously with the tobacco factories.

Senator POMERENE. You do not pretend to say, do you, that if these tobacco factories were put upon an eight-hour schedule, such as this provides, that it is going to close them?

Mr. RUFFIN. No, indeed; it would not close them. Senator POMERENE. Or throw this number out of employment? Mr. RUFFIN. It would throw a large number of them out of employment, yes, sir, as I understand it.

Senator POMERENE. Simply because the hours have been reduced from 10 to 8?

Mr. RUFFIN. No, sir; on account of their age, as I understand it. I am not familiar with the tobacco business. I do not know anything about manufacturing tobacco.

Senator POMERENE. What other branches of business in your State employ children?

Mr. RUFFIN. Farmers.

Senator POMERENE. I am speaking of factories now.

Mr. RUFFIN. We practically have nothing except cotton and tobacco manufacturing.

Mr. PATTERSON. Just as a matter of explanation, I want to say that my statement was that according to the report of the commissioner of labor.of the State, there was about 1 child out of about 16 who were working at gainful occupations in the State, employed in the cotton mills. I mean by gainful occupations those who have to work on farms and in other matters.

Senator POMERENE. Have you any information as to the numbers that are employed in tobacco factories?

Mr. PATTERSON. No, sir; I know nothing about that.

Senator POMERENE. Can you include that in your data that you are to furnish us?

Mr. PATTERSON. Yes, sir; I can include it. Of course you understand that the number of white children in the tobacco factories is very small. They are practically all negro children.

Senator ROBINSON. Have you canneries in that State?

Mr. RUFFIN. There may be some in the extreme eastern part of the State.

Senator ROBINSON. Are children working there?

Mr. RUFFIN. I do not know whether there are any there; there may be. There is one other point that I would like to mention, and that is, that this bill, as I understand it, affects the whole United States alike. The condition, so far as the cotton mills are concerned, varies; they are very different. The mills in New England and in the Eastern States are entirely different from ours. In the first place to start with labor, we have to draw our labor, green labor, right off the farms of the tenant class. We have to pay them from the time they go into the mill, and while they are learning, which takes from 6 to 12 months. That is a large expense.

Senator POMERENE. What do you pay them?

Mr. RUFFIN. From 75 cents up.

Senator POMERENE. You start them at 75 cents?

Mr. RUFFIN. Seventy-five cents; yes, sir. That is a large expense that we have to undergo which the eastern mills do not have. Their help is trained. They are educated in the mill to a large extent. Senator POMERENE. Their children must begin there, too, sometimes.

Mr. RUFFIN. Yes, sir; sometimes, but after you live in a mill settlement or town you imbibe those influences largely, and the child

hears them talked he hears machinery talked from the time it is born. With our people it would be entirely different.

Senator POMERENE. That is, before they come in there; but after they get into the town they would talk cotton mill, would they not? Mr. RUFFIN. That is what I say. In a cotton-mill town they talk machinery all the time. Our people would be in the same condition after two or three more generations. For instance, we have a family in our town with three generations. The mother worked in the mill, her son worked in the mill, his wife worked in the mill, and he has children. It is the only instance that we have of three generations. His children will know more about a mill when they are 12 years old than he knew when he was grown.

Senator POMERENE. If heredity has that effect, is that not a reason why we should be very guarded about regulations with respect to children?

Mr. RUFFIN. I did not say heredity, but association. We were discussing this morning the freight question. From Galveston and Houston ports, cotton can be delivered and is delivered cheaper to the New England mills than is cotton bought in Georgia, Alabama, or Mississippi delivered to our North Carolina mills. The freight on cotton from Texas to our Carolina mills is prohibitive. We practically never use it in normal times at all on account of the freight rates being prohibitive.

Senator POMERENE. Do you mean the rate is excessive?

Mr. RUFFIN. I do not mean it is excessive; no, sir. The distance is there and they can deliver it in Liverpool and in Bremen, in New Bedford and Fall River, owing to the water conditions-the water front cheaper than they can to us.

Senator POMERENE. That is after they get it down to the wharves? Mr. RUFFIN. No, sir; I mean the entire rate, cheaper than they can to us in the Carolinas.

Senator POMERENE. How far are you from the coast?

Mr. RUFFIN. I am from Norfolk about, I suppose, 300 or 400 miles, but you have to haul it to Norfolk.

Senator CUMMINS. Do you regard that as a material fact in this inquiry?

Mr. RUFFIN. Not only material but very material as to the making of a law to regulate or to equalize two manufacturing establishments, one located in New England and one located in North Carolina.

Senator CUMMINS. I assume that a bill of this sort is based upon the idea that it is not good for the child to work under 13 or 14 years of age. Now, if it is not good for the child, what difference does it make what the freight rate is?

Mr. RUFFIN. I am merely referring to this you were not in the room this morning. I was referring to an inquiry that was made here this morning. I do not say that the child has anything to do with freight.

Senator CUMMINS. You were suggesting that, I assume, as a reason that makes it necessary for you to employ children.

Mr. RUFFIN. No, sir.

Senator CUMMINS. Well, then, I was mistaken.

Mr. RUFFIN. You are mistaken about that.

Senator CUMMINS. What was the materiality of it?