There are indications that the child labor amendment will not be ratified. People are becoming more familiar with real conditions and as the facts are brought to light there are increased evidences of a new interest in the matter.
Study of conditions pertaining to so-called child labor throughout the United States shows more and more conclusively that there is absolutely no necessity for Federal regulations of work for children. If the individual States had provided no means fo the welfare of the child, then there would have been reason for federal action, but the States are protecting their children and they are in position to know what sort of regulation is best.
In a leaflet recently published the American constitutional League says:
“The labor of children under 14 years of age is already limited, regulated and protected under the laws of every state in the Union without exception and further state regulations could be secured, if deficient. In the entire United States, the census bureau, in 1929 found only 9,473 children under 14 engaged in manufacturing and mechanical industries, though hundreds of thousands were helping upon the home farms.”
Yet, there are lobbyists and propagandists who continue to insult the humanity of Americans by declaring that children, by the hundreds of thousands, are driven to life-taking work. They are forced to work in sweat-shops, these propagandists declare, while the State governments wink at the practice. These same people insinuate that the States have no regard for the child, therefore the strong arm of the federal government must be invoked. Such insinuations should be repudiated by the States.
From the editorial page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Oct. 11, 1924. W.R. Sherrill, editor and publisher, and W.M. Sherrill, associate editor.
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1924-10-11/ed-1/seq-4/
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