The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 24, 1925, Page 14

Child Labor--A Modern Pestilence saries of life required by the average| mothers at fourteen in these districts ere (Continued from page 1) erendums or of imploring state legis lators to act against it; no one would DARE defend it. The elegant grande dames of th¢ plutocracy do not know when they drape themselves over their antique chairs at afternoon teas but that the slimy trail of child labor will wreak a loathsome vengeance upon them— that is, those of them that are not already infected thru indulging in th: favorite pastime of the ruling class seducing each others’ wives and hus bands. But those who distill the blood o/ children into profits are not concerned about such abstract considerations as the welfare of society. Speak to them of the ghastliness of child slavery and they reply with the bourgeois philis tine shibboleth: “There is no senti- ment in business.” The Economics of Child Labor. While the working class cannot es-! cape the effects of the spread of! disease emanating in the foul holes where children slave, it must face| another menace equally as dangerous. | The spread of child labor will in- evitably result in wholesale reductions | in wages of adult workers because it fosters a condition where the whole family must work in order to earn sufficient to enable it to exist, Under capitalist production the value of labor power, the one com- modity the worker has to sell, is deter- mined by the value of the neces-| family—that is, the father’s wage (price of labor power) should be suf- ficient to support his wife and chil- dren, Unless this condition prevails there is a violation of the very laws of capitalist production itself; the plain economic fact that the worker must not merely produce sufficient to maintain himself, but that his wage must enable him to support a family so that another generation of wage slaves may be able to step into the places of the present one. When other members of the family are thrown upon the labor market the result is the spreading of the value of the labor power of the husband over the whole family, thus depreciating his own labor power. Proof of this effect of child labor can be obtained by even a cursory examination of the wages of men in industrial centers where child labor prevails. In the cot- ton mills of the south this is so glar- ing that the so-called “poor white trash” that furnishes child slaves for the mills actually measure their pros- perity by the number of children they have to send into the slave pens. If the number of children is greater than the average, the family income is larger—the parents are so devoid of that which the bourgeoisie like to parade as the parental instinct that they look upon their own children only as adjuncts of machines to be put in operation at the earliest possible moment. Many of these parents were child slaves themselves, marrying in their early teens—many girls become COME TO | LENIN’S CORNER, 26th and Madison Ave. | Sunday, Feb.1,at2p.m. for the Monster fem orial Nesting on the first anniversary of the death of NICOLAI LENIN Madison Square Garden SPEAKERS: WILLIAM Z. FOSTER M. J. OLGIN Cc. E. RUTHENBERG JACK STACHEL BEN GITLOW, Chairman. FREIHEIT SINGING SOCIRTY (Chorus of 400 Voices) FULL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF 100 WELL-KNOWN VOCAL ARTISTS ADMISSION FIFTY CENTS TICKETS ON SALE AT—Workers Party Office, 208 E. 12th St.; Freiheit, 1523 E. Broadway; Jimmie Higgins Book Shop, 127 Universl- ty Pince; Novy Mir, 231 EB. 1..th St; Block’s Drug Store (formerly Epstein’s), Madison Ave, and illth St.; Siern’s Jewelry Store, 1237 Wilkins Ave.; Laise, 46 Ten Eyck 8t., Brooklyn; Kats's Drag Store, Moore wad Graham Ave., Brookiyn; Neidorf’s Book Store, 1817 Pit- kia Ave., Brooklyn; Finnish Hall, 764 40th St., Brooklyn; Zelnik’s Bakery, Mermaid Ave. and 33rd St., Coney Island. Auspices, Workers Party of America, District No, 2 TICKETS 50 CENTS The Walden Book Shop 307 Plymouth Court (Between State and Dearborn Just South of Jackson) CHICAGO See “The Beauty and the Bolshevik” at Ashland Auditorium Feb. 5. BOOKS FOR THINKERS SCIENCE, LITERATURE ECONOMICS, HISTORY, Any Book in Print at Once. Jimmie Higgins Book Shop 127 University Place NEW YORK CITY A Workers Party Book Shop Dates We act enter yy py —and deprived of even the. rudiments of an education, so they are utterly incapable of properly raising children. As soon as possible after childbirth, these pathetic mothers go back to the looms, while neighbors’ children, not yet old enough to go into the mills, take care of their offspring. This blight upon the family is not confined to the cotton mill states, but is gradually spreading thruout every part of the country. Even the skilled industrial workers of New York are forced to send their children into of- fices, stores or industries at an early age in order to meet the demands of the cost of living. If such workers were alive to their own interests they would prepare to struggle against the spread of child labor. For if the labor movement of this country does not take drastic steps to wipe out this menace, the conditions now existing in child labor territory will become the condition of the working class of the whole country. The enemies of labor, in their fight against the abolition of slavery of children, talk about the sacredness of the “home,” in order that they may continue to ravage the homes of the working class. Trade union officials of the reaction- ary type, which is the predominant type today, are incapable of waging a real fight against child labor, first because of their political alliances with the politicians who exist by virtue of the patronage of the ex- Ploiters of labor, and, secondly, cause of their notorious ignorance of everything pertaining to economics, No matter what their intentions might be, they are not equipped to lead a struggle of this character. It is only the Communists who can analyze the system that produces child labor and it is only the Com- munists who are capable of taking the lead in mobilizing the workers for united action in defense of the elementary interests of labor. We fight today for ratification of the pro- posed. amendment, thereby proving that we engage in every struggle that affects the working class, but we know full well the limitations of par- liamentary reform and to the extent that workers in large numbers en- gage in such struggles to that extent will they came to realize that the con- stitution, the congress of the United States, the various state legislatures —in fact the whole government ap- paratus—exist only for the purpose of perpetuating slavery. This is part of a struggle that can only end when the workers of the United States, under the leadership of the Workers (Communist) Party, smash the state power of the capitalist class and es- tablish a workers’ republic. “There is no sentiment in busi- ness!” say the Philistines. All their sycophants re-echo this part of the litany of capitalism. Very well, we revolutionists should see that the workers remember this assertion and mobilize our power relentlessly to scourge form the face of the earth be-|these despoilers of the human race. oe NEW YORK, ATTENTION! — If you were in prison You Would Want Your Comrades to Help You. 25,300 Revolutionists Are in the Capitalist Prisons of Europe, Asia and America! YOU MUST HELP THEM! Joint Bazaar Lyceum, 86th and 3rd Ave., New York City BOOTHS OF ALL NATIONALITIES—HIGH CLASS ENTERTAIN- MENT—DANCING EVERY EVENING—COSTUME BALL—CAFETERIA INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ AID LABOR DEFENSE COUNCIL Send contributions to 208 E. 12th St, New York City. Cultare Selina hath eaten enn ee Dntindiindindindinindindindinat tein hie ek eae BAZAAR For the professional schools in Russia and Ukraina, will be held at Douglas Park Auditorium Corner Ogden and Kedzie Aves. FOUR DAYS——JANUARY 22-23-24-25 General Admission 50c, for all four days First Class Program—including Children’s. Masquerade Ball, also movie from Jewish life in Russia will be shown. Auspices, Jewish Workers’ Relief Committee. RS BS NAS TBE FEATS PURSE N88 4488 Work eee ee ee