172 Mushigs by Camp- Fire and Wayside 



out before. A bottle of ink will do it now. It 

 would be wholly unjust to construe what I have 

 said of a particular instance to all the mill owners 

 and superintendents. Some of them are men of 

 benevolence and Christian character, who do the 

 best they can for the health, moral elevation, and 

 happiness of their operatives. I could point to 

 such establishments and name the men. The evil 

 comes largely to the South, as it went to Ireland, 

 from non-resident proprietary. That word largely 

 explains it. And these non-resident interests set 

 the pace and give character to the system. It must 

 be placed under legal regulation, or it will continu- 

 ally grow worse. 



Like all wrongs which arise out of greed, this 

 evil of child slavery is strongly entrenched and will 

 be found to be very difficult of suppression. Like 

 the old black slavery it is a "domestic institu- 

 tion" — that is, it falls under the reserved rights of 

 the states, and the constitution gives the general 

 government no power to interfere. But the various 

 cotton states are just now competing strongly with 

 each other for the new manufactories. The capi- 

 talists let it be understood that any limitations put 

 upon child labor will be regarded by them as "un- 

 friendly legislation" — same old thing, you see — 

 and they will build mills only in states which are 

 friendly to them. Mr. Bitzer told me of an effort 

 that had been made recently for the suppression of 

 white slavery in Alabama. A bill was drawn with 



