during all seasons, stunt their growth by exhausting toil, blunt their sensibilities by monotonous activity and stifle their mentality by taking them from the school room and placing the unnatural burdens of industry on their weak shoulders.

As we cast these little crumbs of humanity on our turbulent industrial waters, unlettered, not strong, and with their ideals shattered, so are they returned to us by way of the almshouse, the hospital, the prison and the street. Can it be that the protected child of the north is more dear to them than the fair children of the South who toil in your canneries and mills?

erans.

The states of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama spent millions annually in pensioning the needy Confederate vetIt is but right that those who baptized the nation in blood that it might be saved, be justly rewarded for their sacrifices. But the children of those whose valor won them the admiration of the world-they are being sacrificed on the altar of industrial greed.

The states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama maintain elaborate nd expensive water patrols to prevent pirates from exploiting the oyster beds. These states, so anxious of the life of the oyster and shrimp, have provided no adequate machinery to stop the wanton waste of childhood in the gulf coast canneries. There is no fleet to prevent the industrial pirates of our day from swooping down on the reefs of childhood and robbing them of their choicest possessions and the inherent right to normal lives.

W. H. OATES, B.Sc., M.D., Montgomery, Ala.,
Alabama Factory Inspector.

The fact that children have to labor is in itself deplorable. It is an economic question, however, which is far from being solved and in my opinion will be settled eventually only by interstate cooperation, uniformity of regulation and compulsory education.

I will not discuss deleterious occupational diseases, as they were to be assigned to another paper. As State Factory Inspector of Alabama, my attention has been called very forcibly to the child labor conditions in that state and, as a vast majority of the child laborers are in the cotton mills and textile manufactories, I will confine my remarks to the cotton mill children.

The health of the mill operatives is what one would expect. It varies in different mills. In certain localities the hookworm is pictured on the faces of nearly all the children. Red blood is conspicuous by its absence. The trained eye of the inspector is often unable to tell whether the age of a weazened, dried-up, anæmic specimen of the genus homo is twelve or eighteen.

Children between the ages of twelve and fourteen are prohibited from working more than sixty hours in any one week. The manufacturers throughout the state, in most cases, are working the children eleven hours a day for five days, and five hours on Saturdays.

Picture a little child, a girl just twelve years of age-and the data in this office shows that in numerous cases they are started to work the day they reach the age of twelve. Imagine this little girl, in the winter months, arising at five o'clock in the morning, eating a poorly cooked meal (and in most instances their food is hastily and improperly prepared) wending her way in the darkness to a mill, working not for one hour or two hours, but for six hours steadily at one continuous task (a task which does not in any way elevate), a monotonous, invariable, nearly incessant, grind before two or three machines, amid the rattle of spindles and the roar

of pulleys; surrounded by the incessant deafening noise and constant motion of machinery; deprived of the pleasure of conversation on account of the noise and oftentimes breathing an atmosphere vitiated by lack of ventilation and by artificial humidity and the presence of dust and cotton fibre. Fancy this child, with only half an hour for dinner, continuing at her labor until the eleven hours of required toil are completed. Tired and worn out she goes home in the darkness to such a home as she has, rarely seeing the sunshine. This picture causes me to wonder, as a physician, what kind of a mother can this child make; what kind of offspring can she bring forth? Has this child no rights? Is it humane to make a machine out of this illiterate, helpless, maltreated human? Is it not entitled to the same consideration the farmer gives his colt or his calf? The idea of working a colt or a calf in harness would seem preposterous to the average farmer. Can we not put our children of the laboring classes in the same category as the farmer puts his beasts of burden?

This is a plea for the children between the ages of twelve and fourteen; that vital period in a girl's life when she changes from girlhood to womanhood.

Sixty hours' application a week at any vocation is certainly not conducive to good health, particularly during this period of life, and I want to go unqualifiedly on record as being heartily in favor of changing the age limit in Alabama to fourteen in the case of boys and sixteen in the case of girls, and regulating the hours so as not to exceed ten in any one day for children of these ages.

Remedial Methods.

My subject has, in my opinion, not so much to do with criticism as it has to do with pointing out conditions as they exist and suggesting means and methods of remedying, or at least mitigating, these conditions.

Ventilation, or rather lack of ventilation, is to me one of the most noticeable conditions in cotton mills. The architects have almost invariably ignored the rudimentary principles of ventilation. No means of ingress or egress of air is provided, other than the windows, and in a vast majority of cases these windows are closed and at times nailed down.

This could easily be remedied by the installation of ventilator tubes from each floor through the roof. In the case of very large mills, these ventilators could be actuated by exhaust fans.

A pernicious disease-spreading habit, nearly universal among cotton mill operatives, is spitting. They are nearly all tobacco and snuff users. I am not converted to the theory that tobacco and snuff will kill the tubercle bacilli. The installation of paper cuspidors, changed at frequent intervals, the prohibition of spitting on the floors and a little education on the spread of tuberculosis, would soon become a potent factor in preventing the spread of this scourge.

The hookworm will be discussed in another paper. Incidentally, however, I would state that the mere treating of people for hookworm is not sufficient. They should be taught how the disease is carried from one person to another and the precautions necessary to prevent this spreading.

Various diseases, noticeably syphilis and tuberculosis, are spread by the common drinking cup, the causative germ being transmitted from one mouth to another by this means. The recent abolition of public drinking vessels on all common carriers by the Interstate Commerce Commission is of far-reaching effect, its chief benefit being educational in its nature. It has started the unthinking to ask questions. Why does not the railroad give us glasses to drink out of? I am advocating and urging the installation of sanitary drinking fountains in all Alabama manufacturing establishments.

In cotton mill villages the operators frequently furnish nice houses, adequate drinking water-and stop at that, thinking that they have furnished modern homes for these people. They have. however, ignored the most vital of all sanitary problems, namely, the disposal of sewage.

This is a local question at any given point. Where a sanitary sewerage system exists or can be installed, the question is easily solved; but where the topography of the land is such that drainage is not feasible, I find in nearly all cases the antiquated, open, diseasespreading, privy. The medical world has demonstrated conclusively that typhoid fever, hookworm, various dysenteries, cholera, diarrhoea and other diseases are spread, or rather communicated, from one person to another through sewage. It is true that flies may be the intermediate carrier from the sewage to the food and thence to another person, but often water is a conveyor. This problem has

been solved in numerous places by the installation of septic tanks. If this is not feasible the sanitary privy should be installed.

Malaria, that disease which is nearly universally disseminated throughout the South, is known to be carried from one person to another by means of the mosquito. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water, frequently found in tin cans, old bottles, barrels, buckets and similar receptacles, which receptacles could be easily removed. In ponds and such places where stagnant water is found, the propagation of the mosquito can be stopped by a small quantity of oil placed at intervals on the surface of the ponds. The larvæ of the mosquito breathes air and comes to the surface of the water to breathe. It cannot penetrate the thin film of oil and hence is soon asphyxiated.

Physical Examination.

I have briefly outlined a few methods of preventing the spread of diseases. In conclusion, I urge the physical examination, by a competent physician, of all children prior to employment in any manufacturing establishment. It is due the child. If its eyes are abnormal, means should be adopted to remedy the abnormality. If it has incipient tuberculosis, the parent should know it and should be taught how to care for it. When any physical unfitness is evidenced, it should be attended to. A thorough physical examination should take in account general health, family history, whether the child is fully matured or not, any physical or mental defect, and means should be adopted to remedy, if possible, any deficiency.

Our public schools are excluding children suffering from the various acute, infectious or communicable diseases, likewise, pediculosis, scabies, trachoma, etc. Why not the factory and the mill? If these diseases are communicable in schools they are certainly communicable in mills. The installation of the system of medical examination cannot possibly work adversely to the interests of anyone. Primarily, the children are benefited and, secondarily, the manufacturer or owner of the business enterprise will soon find it to his interest.

In view of the fact that the conditions of life drive some children to the necessity of toiling for their livelihood, let us one and all use every effort to see that they get the benefits of modern sanitation, hygiene, ventilation and the full benefit of the applica tion of modern preventive medicine.