e conclusive testimony to the quality of the
material that is being lost to the States and the country by the
martyrdom of intelligent children?

One hears two points of view expressed on this subject. The capitalist
advances that the greed of the parents forces the children into the
mills; the people themselves tell you that unless they are willing to
let their available children work, their own lives are made impossible
by the overseers. A widow who has children stands a fair chance of
having her rent free; if she refuses this tithe of flesh and blood she
is too often thrust into the street. So I am told. Now, which of these
facts is the truth? It seems to be clearly too much left to the decision
of private enterprise or parental incapability. The Legislature is the
only school in which to decide the question. During my stay in South
Carolina I never heard one woman advocate the mills for children. One
mother, holding to her breast her illegitimate child, her face dark with
dislike, said: "_Them mills!_ I would not let _my_ little boy work in
'em! No, sir! He would go over my dead body." Another woman said: "_My_
little girl work? No, ma'am; she goes to school!" and the child came in
even as she spoke--let me say the only cheerful specimen of childhood,
with the exception of the few little creatures in the kindergarten, that
I saw in the mill district.

South Carolina has become very haughty on this topic and has reached a
point when she tells us she is to cure the sore in her own body without
aid or interference. At a late session of the Legislature the bill for
the restriction of child labour--we must call it this, since it
legislates only for the child under ten--this bill was defeated by only
two dissenting voices. A humane gentleman who laid claim to one of
these voices was heard to ejaculate as the bill failed to pass: "Thank
God!" Just why, it is not easy to understand.

When I was so arrogant as to say to the editor of _The State_, the
leading paper in South Carolina, that I hoped my article might aid the
cause, I made an error clearly, for he replied:

"We need no aid. The people of South Carolina are aroused to the horror
and will cure it themselves."

Georgia is not roused to the horror; Alabama is stirring actively; but
the Northerners who own these mills--the capitalists, the manufacturers,
the men who are building up a reputation for the wealth of South
Carolina and Alabama mills, are the least arou