In regard to Mr. Hines' report about the pictures: Mr. Hines came to High Shoals one day and explained to me that he had lung trouble and was using his camera trying to make his expenses from some point in the North to some place in the West where consumptive people were treated. He asked me to have our people lined up by the mill, so he could make a pohtograph of the operatives to sell and help pay his way to some tuberculosis camp in the West. We explained to him that our girls and boys were becoming very sensitive about having their pictures made in their everyday clothes. Mr. Hine left me at the end of this conversation and went to the schoolhouse and told the principal, Mr. Rhyne, that I had sent him up there to make a photograph of the school. Mr. Rhyne explained to him that the children were not dressed for a picture and would rather not have it made at that time, but he told Mr. Rhyne about the condition of his health and Mr. Rhyne consented to having the pictures made. We have not been able to see one of these pictures or any report which Mr. Hine made. I want to tell you very frankly that we had no disagreement with Mr. Hine and our meeting and talk was very agreeable in every respect. Mr. Hine left the High Shoals Hotel about 9 o'clock in the night, secured a team from the High Shoals liveryman, and drove to Cherryville, N. C., a distance of 12 miles. Yours, very truly, A. O. KALE, Superintendent High Shoals Co. DAVID CLARK EXHIBIT NO. 4. THE LUMBERTON INCIDENT. Frank Britt, a tenant farmer of Columbus County, N. C., hurt his foot while plowing and a bad case of blood poisoning was the result. Being absolutely without means and having a wife, three children, and a feeble-minded motherin-law to support, he had to appeal to his two brothers, one of whom, Oliyer Britt, was employed at the Lumberton Cotton Mills, Lumberton, N. C. Neither of his brothers were in good financial condition, but they did the best they could and contributed a considerable amount for doctor's bills and for having his leg amputated. The Lumberton Cotton Mills had some vacant houses at that time and at the request of Oliver Britt and as an act of charity they allowed the sick man and his family to be moved from his farm into one of the mill houses and to use the same without paying any rent. Also as an act of charity, for Mrs. Frank Britt was a green hand and skilled hands were plentiful, they gave her work in the mill. Mrs. Britt could not make enough to feed the family and brought her oldest daughter, Lonie Britt, to the mill and, alleging that she was 12 years of age, secured work for her. The superintendent, seeing her in the mill and noting her size, ordered that she be sent out; but the overseer, realizing the desperate straits of the family, allowed Mrs. Britt to persuade him Lonie was 12 years of age and she worked in the mill for 25 days. The second daughter, Flossie Britt, said by her mother to be 9 years old, never worked in the mill a single day. The condition of Frank Britt, in spite of the amputation of his foot, became rapidly worse and he finally died. The wife, three children, and mother-in-law immediately left the mill, as the women's labor alone could not support the family, and moved back to the country where it is legal for even a boy of 7 to toil from sunrise to sunset and under the heat of noontime sun. They are now living there in a miserable hut and in almost destitute circumstances and were recently seen by a person who has been investigating this incident. The mill records show that Flossie Britt never worked a single day. They show that Lonie Britt worked in the mill for only 25 days. Her mother has now filed a statement to the effect that she was born on March 6, 1902, and her uncle, Oliver Britt, a very intelligent man, says that she is about 12 years of age. The day before Frank Britt died, and while he was suffering agony from his blood poisoning, Photographer Hine, of the National Child Labor Committee, sneaking around among the cotton mills, came upon the scene. He did not do anything to relieve the suffering of the dying man or give money or aid to his wife or children. All he did was to back the two little girls up against the house and take their photograph, get a statement from the half-witted mother-in-law, and go his way. He presented the photograph at the National Child Labor Conference on January 4, as girls of 6 and 7 years of age who were working regularly in a cotton mill. Since that time the National Child Labor Committee have been repeating the story over the country. I heard Owen Lovejoy tell a Boston audience of the photograph and intimate that it was one of a large number that he had. The Lumberton incident is typical of the work of the National Child Labor Committee. They have referred in some of their papers to a mill boy who had all of his fingers cut off as an illustration of the brutality of cotton mill work. As a matter of fact, the boy to whom they refer had his fingers cut off in some farm machinery while visiting his grandfather on his farm. They were about as near the truth as usual. DAVID CLARK EXHIBIT NO. 5. ACCIDENTS IN THE COTTON MILLS. For several years there has been a persistent and studied effort on the part of the National Child Labor Committee to create the impression that work in southern cotton mills was dangerous and that children were almost daily being killed or maimed. As a matter of fact very few people are hurt in cotton mills, and the machinery in the departments where women and children work is entirely harmless, and except through extreme carelessness it is almost impossible for anyone to be injured. Companies that write employment liabilities naturally base their rates upon liability of accidents as found from the records of the past. The following are the rates charged in North Carolina for a policy covering $5.000 for injury to one person, or $10,000 to several injured at the same time. The rate includes first medical aid and is the price charged per $100 of pay roll: Street ear conductors, $4.08; planing mill, $2.474; foundry and machine shops, $1.36; laundry work, $1.22; furniture factories. $1.09; farm laborers, $0.68; and cotton mills, $0.494. The evidence, therefore, of the people that pay money for accidents is that there are fewer accidents and less risks in cotton mills than in any other line of work. They show the remarkable fact that there is more risk in working on a farm than there is in a cotton mill. DAVID CLARK EXHIBIT NO. 6. Republican Leader Hinman, of the New York Legislature, said in an interview published in the New York American of about March 10, 1915: "I have been informed that Mr. Folks or his fellow officers collected about $180.000 last year, and that a large percentage was not disbursed for charitable purposes. Inasmuch as the Charities Aid Society owes its existence to the State, the State should know to a cent just how this large sum of money has been expended. "Mr. Folks recently requested me to advocate a bill to make him the head of the State Charities Board. As such he would be compelled to make an accounting to the people for all moneys appropriated and disbursed. I assume, of course, he will be willing to furnish us with an account of his stewardship as an officer of the Charities Aid Society. 66 “I am told a bill has been introduced already compelling all private organizations to report annually to the secretary of state. It seems to me, however, that the legislature should know directly all about their financial dealings; hence my bill." It was brought out at a hearing on the Thompson-Maier resolutions at Albany, N. Y., in February that Homer Folks draws a salary of $100 per day and expenses when acting as a member of the New York Public Health Council, and in addition receives a salary of $8,000 a year from the State Charities Aid Association. It is also said that he receives salaries from five other so-called charity organizations, including the National Child Labor Committee. COMMISSION ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. WASHINGTON, D. C., May 6, 1915. TESTIMONY OF MR. JAMES H. MAURER. Chairman WALSH. Please state your name, your residence, and your occupa tion. Mr. MAURER. My name is James H. Maurer, occupation, machinist; at the present time president of the Pennsylvania State Federation of Labor. Chairman WALSH. Have you made a special study of the Pennsylvania State police, Mr. Maurer? Mr. MAURER. Yes, sir. Chairman WALSH. When was that department of the State police of Pennsylvania created? Mr. MAURER. In 1905. Chairman WALSH. How many men composed the constabulary, and how are they divided? Mr. MAURER. The entire force consists of 232 men, four of whom-one the superintendent of police, and deputy superintendent, clerk, and stenographerthe rest are officers and men. Chairman WALSH. Prior to the institution of the constabulary, what sort of a State police force was there in Pennsylvania? Mr. MAURER. Why, the police we had prior to that time were known as coal and iron police-deputy sheriffs before the creation of the State police. Chairman WALSH. Were those police in the employment of private corpora tions? Mr. MAURER. Yes. Chairman WALSH. They were not officers of the State? Mr. MAURER. Only to the extent that they received their authority-their right to be police-from the governor. Chairman WALSH. And they were paid by whom? Mr. MAURER. By the corporations whom they served. Chairman WALSH. Could you approximate how many State police officers there were on duty at the time of the passage of this State constabulary law? Mr. MAURER. No. Each corporation of any importance had a great many of these coal and iron police and private detectives. Chairman WALSH. Well, now, were those laws repealed when the State constabulary was instituted? Mr. MAURER. They promised—the general agitation in the assembly at the time, at the time they tried to pass or did pass the constabulary law, was that they were to take the place of the coal and iron police, and the bill itself, which I have here, creating the department made that provision, or made no such provision; but it did provide what it was to be used for. I notice here in one part it says, defining their duties, and says they are intended, so far as possible, to take the place of the police now appointed at the behest of various corporations. This is part of the act creating the department of State police in 1905, when Samuel W. Pennypacker was governor, and to answer your question, the law creating the department-the coal and iron department-this is a copy of the act creating that department, and this act was passed in 1865, and was supplemented by an act in 1866. The supplement provides that any corporation can have the same power that railroad corporations have. And I will offer these in evidence [handing same to the reporter]. Chairman WALSH. Very good. (The papers referred to are copies from the Laws of Pennylvania," entitled "An act empowering railroad companies to employ police force," dated 10931 38819°-S. Doc. 415, 64-1-vol 11-55 |