JANE ADDAMS IN A PULPIT.
Talks to Stewart Avenue Universalists About Evils of Child Labor.
Before a large audience in the Stewart Avenue Universalist church yesterday morning Miss Jane Addams of Hull house told of the manner in which child labor is abused in the United States, and made a strong plea for the enactment of better laws governing the employment of children.
"Early employment in factories," said Miss Addams, "makes it in many ways impossible to fit the child for understanding and participating in the industrial and social life of today. As a rule those who have been subjected prematurely to the strain grow up ignorant. This of course does not apply to all cases.
"The monotony and the subdividing of the work make it impossible for the child to get any educational or social advantages. It has always been maintained that a certain amount of work is necessary to the healthy development of a child. This is not denied. But the little girl who wraps 3,000 bars of soap a day to earn $3 a week and is advanced in wages as she is able to approximate the 6,000, which is the maximum, gets no education from the work. She is simply straining constantly for the development of speed."
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