Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/644

 624 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The Labor Commission of North Carolina has issued an official report, in which it is set forth that, while in 1895 there were 6,046 children employed in the factories of that state, there were in 1899 only 3,308, of which number 1,694 were boys and 1,614 girls. During the four years in which this decrease of 50 per cent, in child labor was taking place there was an increase of 50 per cent, in the number of women and 100 per cent, in the number of men similarly employed, to meet an increase of nearly 40 per cent, in the number of spindles. Were bureaus of labor already established in each of the cotton states, it is reasonably certain that reports of kindred significance would now be issuing from them ; for the situation in one of these states is much the situation in all the others.

The restriction of child labor by law is looked to as an early probability in North Carolina, but that has had nothing to do with the remarkable decline shown in the commissioner's figures. Nor are we such Utopians as to attribute the whole of this grati- fying result to the strong aversion exhibited by some of the most influential manufactories, as notably the Erwin Mills at Durham and the Caraleigh at Raleigh, to that which is the most cruel form of slavery. Other active causes have been at work ; eco- nomic considerations are potent factors here as elsewhere.

Manufacturers in this part of the country, as in Massachu- setts or Illinois, are learning the lesson that it is a false econ- omy, with expensive practical as well as ethical results, which prompts the employment of the low-priced labor of children. Delicate machinery operated at high speed demands more intel- ligent and steadfast attention, to secure the best results, than untaught and usually careless childhood can give it. The direct loss thus involved counts heavily in the course of a year, and comes to be weighed comparatively as the adult labor of a sec- tion grows more skilful and satisfactory ; nor are clear-headed mill men slow to discover that such loss, estimated closely, is by no means compensated for by the low scale of wages to the child operative.

With all these considerations before him, one must arrive at the satisfactory conclusion that child labor in the factories of our