Oakfield High School - Oak Leaves Yearbook (Oakfield, WI)

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victims outright l ut did not leave an ever increasing number of human beings with degenerate nerves, broken bodies, stunted minds and dwarfed souls as child labor is doing in this Republic. Let us imagine ourselves for a short time in the anthrac ite coal regions of Pennsylvania. Here twelve thousand little boys, ranging in age from nine to fourteen years, are working in the coal breakers. Outside, the mountains are clothed in deep green, above, the fleecy clouds seem to fall like soft coverlets upon the distant hills, but these little, dwarfed, deformed images know nothing of these beautiful surroundings; their lives are spent in the darkness of the mines. Here they sit bent over their tasks eight or or nine hours every day. Their backs ache with the stoop as they throw the slate and rocks aside. During the first weeks of their labor, their hands are cut and torn, yet they do not complain. One of thousands of instances which illustrate the fate of the breaker boy is given in the story of “ Little Peter Swamberg.” This little boy while working, caught his arm in the belt of the scraper line, which tore it from the shoulder. At the age of sixteen, this boy was left to fight his way in life with an empty sleeve, no pension from our government, not one cent of recompense from the rich corporation for which his right arm was sacrificed and not even the thanks of a busy world. Still his region goes on feeding its little boys to the coal breakers, to have bodies maimed and minds dwafed. “He sorted shards in the breakers. Till his fingers were bleeding and raw; He tended the whirling spindles Till his dim eyes scarcely saw. All night where the molten bubbles Are blown, his sweat must roll. And sometimes it killed his body. And sometimes—alas—his soul. Then a people woke in terror And cried aloud for men. With a past of unmatched glory They would do great deeds again. So, standing poised on the bodies Of these fallen little ones. They stretched wide hands to heaven And cried, ‘ Where are our sons' ’ He answered, the God of Nations, With a sword in his terrible hand. T gave ye sons for the rearing up Of men to maintain the land. Ye bound them to crosses and slew them Oh, ye for whom Christ died Know not that the men you pray for Are the babes you have crucified.’ ” From the coal mines let us go into a dirty, filthy, damp cellar in almost any of our large cities. Here we will find, perhaps hundreds of small boys and girls at work making paper bags at four cents a thousand.

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Will Renolds— “Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing, Onward thru life he goes.” Della Parduhn— “And from her earnest eyes, A serious soul is looking.” Joseph Best— “Smooth runs the water where the brook runs deep.” Bessie Cragoe— “Meekly, truthfully, and disinterestedly, she treaes the path of life.” Marie Hoppe— “Constant quite fills my peaceful breast With unmixed joy, uninterrupted rest.” Hazel Merrill— “Thy smile is a benediction and your words a delight. Howard Ripley— “() excellent young man! How much more elder art thou than thy looks! CHILD LABOR. The question of Child Labor is an old one but it is none the less important on that account. It is one upon which great writers of literature have written. Nearly all these writers are agreed that it is the urgent duty of each individual to do what he can to eliminate this great national evil To turn the searchlight on the enemy is the first maneuver of a modern battle; let us therefore look carefully into the conditions surrounding this evil before suggesting the manner of its elimination. A generation ago, this land was deluged in blood because two million negros were held in slavery, but to-day two million little, white children in this land are hurried to the factories, where their health is injured and they are deprived of the pleasures and happiness of this world. The people of the north looked upon slave trade as a great evil and lives were sacrificed, home ties broken for the purpose of freeing the negro slaves but what is being done for the million of child slaves? The negro problem was a sectional one while the child labor problem is not sectional but national. It is one in which all parts of the world are interested and one by which all are effected, for from all parts of the country, come these bitter cries from children, robbed of home and childhood. We may truly say that child labor is worse than pestilence. No doubt you have all read of the black plague and yellow fever which at times raged thru out the Orient, killing thousands of little children. They killed their

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RALPH B. RANDALL HUGH O. WORTHING GU LI ELM A ORVIS CLARYA L. GORDON