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Enforcement of the School Law

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From: Dawley, The Child That Toileth Not ( 1912)
ENFORCEMENT OF THE SCHOOL LAW.
DETERMINED to find the evils of factory employment, my next visit was to the
Superintendent of Schools. He proved to be a New York man, but he had nothing
condemnatory to say respecting either the cotton- mill or child labor. He spoke in a casual
way of conditions in the State, pointing to the fact that they could not be judged by
conditions existing in New York or elsewhere. For example there was not an orphan
asylum in North Carolina supported by the State, and while there were several orphanages
supported by religious or charitable organizations, there were no adequate provisions for
orphans or destitute children. Neither were there such advanced institutions for the
correction and care of juvenile delinquents as special courts, industrial schools and
reformatories. When a child transgressed the law, if prosecuted at all he must be treated
the same as if he were an adult. He was jailed with criminals, and if convicted and
sentenced, there was no alternative but to send him to the chain gang or penitentiary with
more or less hardened convicts. But steps were being made all the time to change these
conditions.
He was very much pleased with Asheville’s new school . law by which every child
under fourteen was compelled to go to school, and all minors between the ages of
fourteen and six- teen must remain in school unless they got a job and went to work. He
explained how Asheville was able to pass such a law because the State Constituion,
treating compulsory education as a local issue, permitted each county, city, town or
borough, to make a compulsory school law of its own as it saw fit, at
the option of a majority of its voters. Asheville in taking advantage of this State law had
gone a step further to stop child idleness and loafing on the streets, by compelling all
children who left school at the age of fourteen to go to work.
The machinery for the enforcement of the new law was just being put into working
order. A truant officer had been appointed, and he was vigorously going after all children
not attending school. If I desired to see the enforcement of the new law, the
Superintendent said he would gladly recommend me to the truant officer to take me on
one of his rounds. Further than that he invited me to attend court and see the first
prosecution of a parent under the new law for not sending his children to school.
Accordingly I attended the trial. It was held in the dingy office of a nearby magistrate,
who did not seem to know much more about the new law than the defendant himself. The
latter was a little old mountaineer drayman, who stood in the middle of the room with a
long whip- handle in his hand, and a very much bewildered expression on his face, while
the Superintendent of Schools, acting as prosecutor, presented the case. He told of the
parent having two boys ages ten and eleven respectively, and these boys were not
attending school as the law required. The magistrate at his desk in a corner of the room,
directed an inquiring look at the drayman to know what he had to say in his defence.
“ Why did he not send his boys to school?

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Title	Enforcement of the School Law
Author	Dawley, Thomas Robinson
Description	Description of a visit to the Asheville, North Carolina, area to investigate compliance with child labor laws.
Subject	Child labor
Date	2013-05-25
Holding Library	Lees McRae College
Identifier	lm00026*
Relation	Chapter from The Child That Toileth Not
Transcript	From: Dawley, The Child That Toileth Not ( 1912) ENFORCEMENT OF THE SCHOOL LAW. DETERMINED to find the evils of factory employment, my next visit was to the Superintendent of Schools. He proved to be a New York man, but he had nothing condemnatory to say respecting either the cotton- mill or child labor. He spoke in a casual way of conditions in the State, pointing to the fact that they could not be judged by conditions existing in New York or elsewhere. For example there was not an orphan asylum in North Carolina supported by the State, and while there were several orphanages supported by religious or charitable organizations, there were no adequate provisions for orphans or destitute children. Neither were there such advanced institutions for the correction and care of juvenile delinquents as special courts, industrial schools and reformatories. When a child transgressed the law, if prosecuted at all he must be treated the same as if he were an adult. He was jailed with criminals, and if convicted and sentenced, there was no alternative but to send him to the chain gang or penitentiary with more or less hardened convicts. But steps were being made all the time to change these conditions. He was very much pleased with Asheville’s new school. law by which every child under fourteen was compelled to go to school, and all minors between the ages of fourteen and six- teen must remain in school unless they got a job and went to work. He explained how Asheville was able to pass such a law because the State Constituion, treating compulsory education as a local issue, permitted each county, city, town or borough, to make a compulsory school law of its own as it saw fit, at the option of a majority of its voters. Asheville in taking advantage of this State law had gone a step further to stop child idleness and loafing on the streets, by compelling all children who left school at the age of fourteen to go to work. The machinery for the enforcement of the new law was just being put into working order. A truant officer had been appointed, and he was vigorously going after all children not attending school. If I desired to see the enforcement of the new law, the Superintendent said he would gladly recommend me to the truant officer to take me on one of his rounds. Further than that he invited me to attend court and see the first prosecution of a parent under the new law for not sending his children to school. Accordingly I attended the trial. It was held in the dingy office of a nearby magistrate, who did not seem to know much more about the new law than the defendant himself. The latter was a little old mountaineer drayman, who stood in the middle of the room with a long whip- handle in his hand, and a very much bewildered expression on his face, while the Superintendent of Schools, acting as prosecutor, presented the case. He told of the parent having two boys ages ten and eleven respectively, and these boys were not attending school as the law required. The magistrate at his desk in a corner of the room, directed an inquiring look at the drayman to know what he had to say in his defence. “ Why did he not send his boys to school? The defendant drayman finally grasping the situation replied with much earnestness. They hev no mind to go, Suh,” and then, by way of explanation, he added, I tell them to go, but they won’t go.” But you are their father, and you should make them go,” said the Superintendent. At this the old man turned to the Superintendent with his former air of bewilderment, and then to the Judge, and back to the Superintendent again, as though he didn’t know from which to expect the next attack. Finally with an air of hopelessness, he asked, “ How can I make ‘ em? They won’t go!” The old man’s attitude was one of such hopelessness, his expression one of such mute appeal coupled with the fact that the idea of exercising his parental authority over two small boys was something foreign to him, the Superintendent himself was forced to smile. “ I suggest, your Honor,” said the Superintendent after a pause, “ that you suspend sentence, providing the defendant will agree to take those two boys of his to school to-morrow, and turn them over to the teacher. If he will get them to school, we will manage to keep them there. That’s all we want.” At this the old teamster brightened up as though a new ray of light dawned upon him. Bringing his whip- handle down with a thump he exclaimed, Gad! I’ll do that, Suh, I’ll git ‘ em tha’ Suh, if I hev t’ haul ‘ em in my waggen. I’ll git ‘ em thar’, Suh,— an’ you keep ‘ em thar! We’ll fix ‘ em!” So the sentence was suspended, and the old wagoner went off chuckling to himself at the thoughts of having fixed up with the Superintendent to get his two boys in school and keep them there. By appointment I met the truant officer. He was a kindly old chap, who had formerly been the editor, printer and publisher of a county newspaper. He not only discussed social, economic and educational conditions with me freely, but seemed anxious to demonstrate some of the conditions by taking me to see them. As we were going down into the factory village he presented me to a poor looking man who he believed knew conditions in the mill village better than anyone else, and who could explain many of the things I wanted to know about. The man though poorly clad, and ordinary looking, was intelligent, and possessed of a good deal of com- mon sense. He deplored the conditions of the poor very much but he maintained that the trouble was not with those who worked, but with those who did not work. He said he approved of children working if they could not or did not go to school, because work kept them out of mischief. In proof of what he said, he told of an idle boy on the outskirts of the town, who spent his time playing around the streets. As a consequence he became so bad and unruly at home that one day in a fit of temper he threw a stick of wood at his mother, the blow killing her. The boy was not even arrested for the crime, he said. “ If that boy had had a good job,” said he, “ he would not have done that.” The man said, however, that he believed the new school law was all right as it would tend to drive the worst element out of the city, for it was the worst element who would not send their children to school. He mentioned two or three families who had already packed up and gone to South Carolina. where they had no compulsory school law, and there were two or three others who had announced their intention. of leaving. The truant officer thereupon said: “ We are glad to get rid of that kind of people. and I hope they will all go. I am going to keep right after them and make them send their children to school, or they will have to get out.” The man added, however, that he thought very poor people should be allowed to let their children work, as there was too much idleness already, and that was what made the country poor. Children should be taught industrious habits while young, and they would then be industrious when they grew up. As it was, among the poor the homes presented no attractions, and the children practically lived in the streets unless driven indoors by cold or inclement weather. They were not subjected to any discipline by their parents, were rarely told what to do and what not to do in their homes, or instructed in anything, if for no other reason than that their parents did not know much of anything themselves. He thought the very best place for such children was the cotton- mill where they would at least acquire some regular habits and an occupation. Among the houses visited with the truant officer was the home of the boy whom I had seen in the weave room of the mill, whose little old face had impressed me so. A sister appeared at the door, and informed us that neither her mother nor her brother, the little fellow whom we inquired about, was at home. She said that he was sixteen, that he was a weaver, and that while his name was not carried on the mill pay- roll, his work being credited to his mother, he frequently ran six looms all by himself. While it was not a part of my business to aid the truant officer in his work, it was a part of my work to ascertain the ages of the children employed in the mill. As I had my doubts about this boy’s age, the truant officer and I compared notes, with the result that the officer announced that he would prosecute the parents for not sending the boy to school as he did not believe the boy was fourteen. The mother was ac- cordingly summoned to court, where she produced evidence satisfying the court that the boy was sixteen as stated, and the case was dismissed. I subsequently called at the house again, finding the mother and children all at home. The mother proved to be a good- natured, careless, thriftless sort of woman, though she had a good reputation as a worker in the mill. She was one of the very few married women whom I found working at all. Referring to her boy for whom she had been prosecuted, she as- sured me that he was sixteen, and to prove it she lined all the children up in a row, and gave me the age of each, thus proving conclusively that the little fellow with the old face was of the age she said he was. He was still chewing tobacco, and he grinned at me as I stood him up against the door and took his measure. He seemed to think that he was the whole attraction. “ \ Vhat makes’ him so small? “ I asked. "" Waal, I reckon,” said his mother, “ he takes after his gran’pap. His gran’pap war' a small man too.” She informed me further that she and her husband both were reared on a farm; that her husband had made whiskey where he came from, and he drank it too, nearly all his life. They became poorer and poorer on the farm, until finally they had come to the cotton-mill, where her husband had found a job, but he would not let whiskey alone, and in a drunken brawl had killed a man. He was tried. convicted of murder, and sent to the chain gang. Then she went into the mill and learned to weave in order to support herself and children. Her husband was subsequently pardoned, came home, and went back to work in the mill, where he was reputed to be one of the best weavers in the mill, drunk or sober,— and he was usually drunk. To my question which she preferred, the farm or the cotton- mill, she replied that she would like the farm if only she had a farm, but as she “ did not own no farm,” she thought the cotton- mill the best place “ for poah folks.” In the opinion of the truant officer there was no sound reason why families having wage- earners in the cotton- mill could not support themselves well and decently on their earn- ings. As to starvation wages, he heard no complaint on that score, but the trouble seemed to be that many of the employed ( lid not spend their earnings wisely. He took me to the home of a boy whom he was after to send to school, saying that there was an example. The boy, a rugged urchin somewhat, under fourteen, earned what was considered by his class of people good wages in the mill, not a cent of which, however, was contributed to the family support. He trifled the money away. and neither he nor his parents could explain where or for what it went. It was shortly after the breakfast hour when we visited his house. On a table covered with a cracked and soiled oil- cloth was the remains of the breakfast, some pieces of yellow soda bread. The usual dirty. greasy. big tin coffee- pot was in evidence. Some of the younger children were still standing around the table, munching the yellow bread. “ Now these people cotild live better than that, if they wanted to,” said the truant officer as we left, “ but they do not want to, chiefly because they do not know any better. Even the amount the boy earns and squanders would help them to a better standard of living if they knew of any such. But the trouble is, they don’t know it is what they have been accustomed to all their lives before they came here.” Then by way of contrast he took me to another home farther along the street. “ I want you to see this home,” said he, “ and talk with the old lady. She is intelligent, and maybe she will explain a few things that you do not yet understand.” We entered a little brown house precisely like some of the mill houses, but the interior was fitted up very differently from many of those I had seen. The ubiquitous bed which is the first thing that strikes one’s view upon entering the homes in this section of the country, occupied perhaps a third of the floor space of the room we entered, but it had spotless white sheets and pillows, and a clean spread. There was a center- table with a Bible on it, and pictures hung on the walls. There were many of those little trifling arrangements that go to make a room look comfortable and home- like, even though the decorations were of a primitive fashion. The old lady in the act of pinning a freshly- starched, white apron on a fat, healthy-looking girl, extended a simple welcome to us. She said she was getting her granddaughter off to school, and with a final smoothing out of the apron with the palms of her hands, she said to the girl, There, you're all right now, I reckon run along,” and the girl, picking up her school-books, went skipping cheerfully out of the back door. I was interested in the girl; she was such a picture of robust health, even though a little too fat. I asked the old lady how she managed to keep her looking so robust. Oh.” she exclaimed, “ we have plenty of good milk and butter and bread to eat.” But there are those cotton- mill children,” said I, “ they are not fat and healthy looking. Don’t they get enough to eat? “ They are from the country,” she replied, “ an’ they always looked like that. Them people don’t know how to do nothin’ nohow.” “ They are very poor,” said I, “ and perhaps they haven’t any money to do with.” “ They’d have a heap more than I get, if they would only wourk,” was the rejoinder. “ Why, they make good money in the cotton- mill, but the trouble is, many of them are jes’ no account. Most o’ the men folks would a heap rather drink blockade whiskey an’ loaf about than wourk, an’ their women don’t try ter fix their houses up or their chi’dren nuther, an’ when they get a dollar they don’t care whether they get anuther one till that one is gone. That’s the trouble with them. The most of them simply don’t know nothin’ an’ are no account nohow.” I questioned her respecting her own income and expenditures, and she gave me them in detail. She owned a cow, which gave her a surplus of milk and butter, which she sold to her neighbors. The money derived from this source, together with what she earned by laundry work, gave her an average income of a little more than four dollars a week, half of which went for rent. On the remainder, something over two dollars, she supported herself, daughter and granddaughter, and her cow. Of course the cow’s milk and butter reduced her “ ration” bill considerably. Her standard of living could not have been of a very high order, but she had no complaint to make, and it was evident that she lived better than many of her neighbors, though her earning capacity, as she practically stated, was much less. She criticized the mill families for their lack of thrift, and while she declared many of the men loafed about and drank “ blockade” whiskey, I thought her strictures somewhat severe. It seemed to me some of the women were more shift- less and lazier than the men. Only two married women did I find working in the mill, and many of them did not do enough work in their homes to keep them clean. These in almost every instance were those who had been reared on farms or were the more recent arrivals. They were a careless, good- natured lot, generously inclined, who did not seem to care whether they got ahead or not. This held true though only in certain instances, and up to a certain point, and that was where development began with an increase in their wants and a desire for better things. This was particularly noticeable on the part of their children, who learning what a dollar was worth, and what a dollar would bring, were going after it in the cotton-mill. As their wants increased so did their demand for the dollar and upon concluding that the mill was not giv- ing them enough. they went elsewhere, where they could get more, as was shown by frequent removals to mills farther South, or to other occupations that paid them more. That the poorer people coming from the farms progressed at the mills was so plainly evident that before concluding my investigations at Asheville I could tell almost at a glance upon entering one of their homes, whether they were recent arrivals from the farms, or whether they were a longer or less period removed. The recent arrivals would be frequently found crowded into two rooms, and at mealtime the various members of the family might be seen distributed around on the beds, and in corners, especially near the fireplace, munching pieces of yellow soda bread, with the big tin coffee- pot, covered with dirt and grease, somewhere near at hand. Young married couples reared at the mill since they were ten or twelve years old, would almost invariably be found setting up housekeeping for themselves with a dining-room added to their sleeping apartments and kitchen. Even the voting unmarried woman trained at the mill as a child worker, and still having her old father and mother dependent upon her for support, would be found in a home bearing marked indications of improvement, such as embroidered pillow- shams on the beds, framed photographs on the walls, and sometimes even a spare room for visitors. There was, however, the occasional family from the farm, who had that inherent tendency to want money, and who went after all they could get. They would put in full time, work as hard as they could and save money. Then possibly there was the family who had seen better days on the farm, and their de- pendence on the cotton- mill was a decided coming down in the social scale, but such cases were rare. I only remember two such, the father of one having given up his farm for a Government job at Washington. and the other consisting of an old lady and her granddaughter. The old lady said she had been educated at a rural academy, but now she was dependent on her granddaughter for support. In referring to her reduced circumstances, she said: “ It is with me like an old fence when one of the palings gives way; unless you put it back, they all soon go, and you have no fence.” However, her little home was comfortable, and her grand- daughter. a frail, lady- like young woman with spectacles, was earning good wages in the cloth- room of the mill, putting up samples. When I asked the old lady whether she had any reason for complaint with the mill management for unfair or ill treatment, a question that we were required to answer on the schedule, she replied quickly. “ I should say not! Mary sprained her ankle a while ago. She stepped on a misplaced board out here after dark. The Superintendent sent a doctor right up here at once, and they not only paid the doctor, but they paid Mary all the time she was laid up, just the same as though she worked.”
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