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Honolulu Lite
AS you sip your beer or lemonade, munch your barbecue and nap under the shade of a beach umbrella, today -- Labor Day -- is a good day to consider how we are wasting one of the country's greatest assets: our children. Two words:
Child laborHow much longer can we ignore the fact we are squandering this great resource? I conducted an informal poll and was shocked to learn that hardly any children have jobs. It's true. Go up to any kid and ask how many jobs he's holding down and you'll find out that he's not even working part-time. Millions of children could be just sitting around on their butts, expecting adults to do all the work.
Child labor used to be the backbone of industry in this country. You could say, child labor MADE this country what it is.
(Editor's note: History isn't this writer's strong suit so any historical references from here on out should be taken with skepticism).In fact, it was all those children working 100 years ago that allowed the adult labor unions to pull a fast one on Congress and get it to set aside one day a year to "celebrate the working man" with a phony-baloney day off. I think it was Matthew Maguire, a machinist, who came up with the idea of Labor Day in 1882. He was standing around tinkering with one of his machines and it suddenly hit him, "Hey, this industrial revolution is a drag. I'm pooped. Let's take tomorrow off."And they did. But the kids kept working, so nobody really missed the adults. Maguire later tried to get Labor Week legislation passed and even floated the idea of setting aside 1884 as "Labor Year" when no one would work at all, but President Grover Cleveland smacked him around and told him to quit loafing.
(Editor's note: Grover Cleveland was not even president until 1885.)But those were the golden days of child labor. Everywhere you looked, industrious children scampered around, their faces charmingly blackened with coal soot or their little fingers toughened by picking cotton.
(Editor's note: Machines were being used to pick cotton by then.)(Columnist's note to editor: Quit butting in. And besides, who do you think were DRIVING those cotton-picking machines? Children.)Anyway, somewhere a long the line, a bunch of do-gooders decided that children shouldn't have to work because they were too young. Can you believe it? And the children played their part perfectly. They smeared on extra coal soot on their faces and didn't comb their hair so that they would like poor little rapscallions.
(Editor's note: "rapscallion" means scoundrel or rogue. The word he needs is "ragamuffin" or perhaps "tatterdemalion," which would refer to something pitiful, much like this column.)Before long, the law prevented children from working. And these little slackers have been getting a free ride ever since.As we relax and take a much needed rest on this Labor Day, we should consider the benefits of striking down anti-child labor laws and putting this vast segment of our economy back to work again. Sure, they might not have enough education yet to operate computers and they're too short to drive buses, but there are lots of tasks children can do. They can dig ditches and build rock walls. They can work in the fields and stitch baseballs. Working will give them pride and make them strong.
If you think the economy's good now, just think how great it will be when a several million children join the labor pool. As Thomas Jefferson said: "If you want your children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders."
(Editor's note: It was Dear Abby who said that.)
Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to cmemminger@starbulletin.com.
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