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The occupation of night messenger is not only an industrial blind alley, but a training school for degenerates and criminals.

There has not been found, except in the city of Pittsburgh, any systematic attempt to train these boys for a future of industrial efficiency. They are seldom taught telegraphy. An eleven-year-old Tampa night messenger summed it up well when he said, "They (the managers) don't care what you do, so long as you deliver the messages."

The uniform of the messenger frequently serves as a pass word to the forbidden places where under cover of darkness debauchery and licentiousness run riot. A fifteen-year-old Jacksonville night messenger bore testimony on this point when he said: "The police don't allow kids in the 'red light' district. Once I was sent to take a telegram to a woman in house down the line. When I delivered the message a policeman was waiting for me outside. He came up to me and asked me what I was doing in the house. I told him I was delivering a telegram. He said I was lying. I showed him my badge and he said ‘alright' and let me go."

Successful Efforts for Regulation.

The need for a strict regulation of the night messenger service is too obvious to require any special brief. Since the National Child Labor Committee undertook this campaign, the states of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Utah and Arizona have passed laws prohibiting the employment of any one under twenty-one years of age in the night messenger service after ten o'clock at night and before five o'clock in the morning. The eighteen-year age limit prevails now in New Hampshire, Maryland, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, South Carolina and Delaware (effective January 1, 1914).

Nowhere in the Union is the night messenger service more in need of attention than in the South where it has been found that children, some as young as nine years of age, are subject to the demoralization and ruin of life at night in large cities.

AN EIGHT-HOUR DAY IN A TEN-HOUR STATE.

HENRY NICHOL,

General Manager, Volunteer Manufacturing Co., Nashville, Tenn.

I give my views on this subject from personal experience, having been connected with some of the largest factories in my city and having hundreds under my employ, and I refer particularly to the work of girls.

The last factory I was superintendent of, for eleven years, worked ten hours a day. I always figured on 5 per cent. of the girls being out. In my present factory, I figure on only one per cent., and my books will show that while we work only eight hours a day, instead of falling off in production I am turning out from 10 to 15 per cent. more work and better work.

I have taught my girls not to think of me as the "Boss," but as the head, letting them feel free and easy, as if they were part of the concern, teaching them a smile is better than a frown and keeping them in harmony with one another. I will not hesitate to say I have the best disciplined set of girls to be found in Tennessee.

Having been a superintendent for 19 years, I advocate the short eight-hour day from my personal experience. Twenty years ago I was cutter for the largest clothing house in our city. The owner, a fine man, never hesitated about working the cutting department overtime to 10 and 11 o'clock at night, and as many as eighteen and twenty nights a month. The mornings after night work I was not fit to commence a day's work. My health was impaired and I thought I would never get it back. I made a secret pledge that if I was ever in position I would have the hours reduced as my first

move.

When I first became foreman I stopped work at 12 o'clock on Saturday. I saw the difference at once and the girls looked forward to the half holiday. So, when I started the present concern, my first thought was to make short hours. I have never worked over eight hours since I have been in business for myself-five

years. I believe, if the different concerns throughout the country would let their help off every Saturday afternoon, they would get better results. Their help would go about their work with a vim and could get out better work.

without the consent of her Young girls are not settled

I never employ a girl under 17 mother, and then only in rare cases. in their ways and do not understand the responsibility of the work they undertake, as the older girls.

To accomplish the best results there should go, hand in hand with shorter hours, oversight from a foreman who issues his orders in a plain, simple manner, insists on their being carried out, shows no partiality and recognizes tact as an invaluable asset in dealing with his workers.

I have visited several plants where they work long hours and the workers go about their work with no life. To have the hours of work most beneficial I would suggest: commence at 7.30 in the morning, stop at 12 for lunch, start at 12.30, quit work at 4.30 (that gives the girls plenty of time to attend to other business and pleasure) and close at 12 o'clock Saturdays, so they can go to the park or amusements and enjoy themselves. I never make ironclad rules about getting to work promptly at 7.30 for the reason that I have a few women who must get their children off to school. The other girls understand the situation and do not say anything.

Union Labor.

With regard to unions and union labor, I believe you can get better results with union labor. All the hands are on the same footing and are paid the same price for what they do. If a girl does not do her duty, all I have to do is to appeal to the shop chairman and the matter can be settled in a few minutes without any trouble. Another feature is, the price for making the garment is fixed once a year and the manufacturer is protected for one year in advance, and that keeps down strikes.

The present legislature of Tennessee is working on a law to shorten the hours in the state, but its success depends on what interest the friends of the movement take to see that it becomes a law.

Tennessee is providing more money for education than ever before in the history of the state, and compulsory education1 and free text books will be one way to keep the children out of the factories and put them in the schools, where they belong. Then, in ten years, there will be a wonderful change and girls and boys will be able to go forth in the battle of life and not be chained to machines, as is the case at present. Each would be on the same footing, and they could not say they did not have a chance.

I have gone through all the hardships a boy could have, starting at the age of 10 years to work after school, and I now see what I could accomplish if I had a good education to back up my energy. With a national eight-hour law, many a man will be enabled to look on the bright side of life and say "I have something to live for and my family can enjoy some of the fruits of my labor, like the families of other men."

Those are my views on the situation I met as workman, foreman, superintendent and owner. I have never regretted any move I have made for the welfare and comfort of the help under my supervision. I will always believe that with an eight-hour day and taking the children out of the factories, you not only get more and better work, but better citizens.

My factory is open for inspection at any time, so any one can see for himself the results of an eight-hour day in a ten-hour state.

'NOTE. Since this article was written, Tennessee passed a compulsory education law for children under 16 if unemployed.

ON CHILD LABOR UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE NATIONAL CHILD LABOR COMMITTEE.

Jacksonville, Fla., March 13-17, 1913.

The first Annual Conference of this Committee was held in New York City, February 14 to 16, 1905. The second was held in Washington, December 8 to 10, 1905, with supplementary sessions in Philadelphia and Chicago; the third in Cincinnati, December, 1906; the fourth in Atlanta, April, 1908; the fifth in Chicago, January, 1909; the sixth in Boston, January, 1910; the seventh in Birmingham, March, 1911; the eighth in Louisville, January, 1912.

At the ninth Annual Conference, held in Jacksonville, Fla., March 13-17, 1913, by invitation of the Jacksonville Board of Trade, Jacksonville Woman's Club, Florida Children's Home Society, Associated Charities, and other Civic Organizations, the following program was carried out:

GENERAL TOPIC: CHILD LABOR AND POVERTY.

I. Thursday Afternoon, March 13, 3.30 o'clock.

CHILD LABOR AND CHARITABLE RELIEF.

General Discussion by Chairman and Secretaries of State Child Labor Committees, School Attendance Officers, and Secretaries of Charity Organization Societies.

Sherman C. Kingsley, Director, Elizabeth McCormick Memorial Fund, Chicago, Ill., Presiding.

Questions for discussion:

Is the immature child a proper object of charitable relief?

Shall the state pension the widows?

Shall the school support the child?

Shall charitable societies relieve family distress by finding work for

children?

Delegates leading the discussion:

Jean M. Gordon, New Orleans, La.

Mrs. W. L. Murdoch, Chairman, Alabama Child Labor Committee, Birmingham, Ala.

Mrs. Florence Kelley, Secretary, National Consumers' League, New York City.

A. T. Jamison, Connie Maxwell Orphanage, Greenwood, S. C.

R. T. Solensten, Associated Charities, Jacksonville, Fla.

Leon Schwartz, President, District Lodge No. 7, Independent Order B'nai B'rith, Mobile, Ala.

Mary H. Newell, Associated Charities, Columbus, Ga.

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