isa-normaladvance-1909-00181

Description:	THE NORMAL ADVANCE181owes the little recognition it received in evenbeing considered in the bill. But as long as theparing of appropriations for education is madethe means of political economy, education willcontinue to suffer in Indiana.CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES.That the United States is rapidly becomingaware of the danger of exhaustion of our natural resources is evident from the fact that aunited effort is being made throughout thewhole country for the conservation of thesenatural resources. On March 5, the Joint Committee on Co-operation, which was authorizedby the Government conference to prepare aplan for united action by all organizationsconcerned with the conservation of natural resources convened at Washington and began itswork. The committee is composed of elevenmembers, six of them being chairman of StateConservation Commissions.Besides the national conservation, thirty-seven States already have conservation commissions and half a hundred national organizations have appointed conservation committees.It is the purpose of the joint committee onco-operation to formulate a working plan,which will assign to each of these bodies adefinite part in the work and co-ordinate theparts so that effective practical results will beaccomplished.It is to be hoped that the nation will awakento the necessity of this great movement beforeit is too late, and will take steps to prevent thereckless waste and extravagance now prevalentdue to the modern greedy methods of financeand industry.THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM.On February 25, the Normal students wereaddressed in a chapel period by Mr. E. M. Copper of the National Labor Committee, on theChild Labor Problem in the United States. Inthe brief time in which he spoke he broughtout very forcibly the effect of such a system,as evidenced by army records in England andItaly. The speaker stated that during theCrimean War 40,000 men were examined inManchester, England, men who worked in thefactories, and had worked there since earlychildhood, and that of this great number only1,000 measured up to the standard of the British soldier. He further declared that out of5,000 men who worked in the sulphur mines inItaly, only thirty-six were found who werephysically able to enter the Italian army.He stated that the cotton mills of the Southand many other manufactories of the UnitedStates were hotbeds of child slavery. Holding that legislation is but a negative remedyand seeing the need of a positive force, he declared that the public school system of thecountry ought to be generally supplemented bythe introduction of industrial phases, such asthe State of New York has recently instituted.Statistics were given to show that 50 per centof the pupils of the grades leave at the age offourteen and that but 7 per cent reach the highschool, hence the need of reaching those whohave to go out to earn a living by manuallabor.In the session of the last State Legislaturea bill was presented by Representative Bassettto the effect that no child under 14 years of ageshall be employed in factories, and that no boysunder 16 or girls under 18 shall be employed intobacco factories. It is reported that the billbrought forth a lively debate, but was finallypassed by the vote of 66 to 9.The interesting point to the bill is that owingto its very nature, the protetcion of the child,it should have been opposed at all, yet nineRepresentatives, men supposed to look andvote for the best interests of their constituents,were so inconsiderate and stone-hearted as tovote to have the lives of infants crushed out andground into capitalistic profits.The caliber of these nine Representatives, by
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34211
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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