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HOW A YOUNG WOMAN HELPED TO FRAME A CONSTITUTIONMiss Kate Barnard and Her Work for Oklahoma—Particularly for Its Children.We attended two sessions of the Conference of Charities and Corrections last week In Minneapolis, and were much Impressed with the work of the meeting, particularly In its efforts to eradicate the awful curse of child labor. Among the enthusiastic workers in the conference was a little woman In a tan coat who was practically unknown to most of the audience until she appeared at a meeting in the Plymouth church on Thursday evening, where In five minutes she had won the greatest applause of any speaker In the conference.It was at the close of the meeting and as the audience arose there was rush to shake hands with and to meet the little woman. It was Miss Kate Barnard of Oklahoma. After a word with her newly won admirers she walked to the West hotel. On the way she talked about the necessity for legislation for shorter hours for the working man.At the conference she Is known, and pretty well known now, as Mrs. Barnard, official delegate from Oklahoma. Out In the new stale of Oklahoma she Is known as the friend of the poor, organizer of the largest charity association In Oklahoma, former state deputy factory inspector of Missouri and Illinois, author of the child-labor and compulsory education planks In the new state constitution, and nominee of both the Republican and Democratic parties for state commissioner of charities. All of which doesn’t seem to worry Miss Barnard In the least.What 8hs Stands For.Child labor, compulsory education, factory Inspection, the protection of children in every way, these are the things to which she has devoted her life.When It was first learned definitely that Oklahoma was to achieve statehood Miss Barnard was one of those who realized what that Hep was to mean through the writing of a constitution which wouid decide the lives of the future children of the slate. Peeling that she should be better prepared to enter Into such a task Intelligently she spent four months In visiting the cities of the east, where she made a close study of conditions In factories, sweat shops and slums, and penal and charitable institutions.To aid her In this work she was sworn In temporarily as a deputy factory inspector in Illinois and Missouri. On her return she wrote the planks referring to child labor and compulsory education In the Oklahoma charter which will come up for adoption this fall and against which a hard fight Is being made by Interests which these planks hurt.The statement of her experience In gaining Information and Its embodiment in the organic law of Oklahoma Is given in her own words:Oklahoma's Constitution: The Keyto a Higher Civilization.—By Miss Kate M. Barnard.The first care of a state Is the elevation and development of Its men. This Is the key-note of Oklahoma’s constitution. While establishing Industry, trade and commerce we have Initiated those ggencles which make for human betterment. We have crystallzed Into law vital preventive measures which lav the foundation for higher standards of living: theelimination of disease; the prevention of a large dependant class; slums,FOR AGENTS—AN OFrORTUNITY!“THE OLD WORLD AND ITS WAYS”BYWilliam Jennings BryanNOW READY FOR SOLICITORR 578 Imperial Octavo Fnges. Over 200 Superb Engravlnga from pholo-| graphs taken by Mr. Braya.Recounts his trip around the world and his visits to all nations. TheKeatest book of travel ever written. ib people are waiting for It. The agents harvest. Outfit FREE—Send fifty cents to cover mailing and handling.The Thompson Publishing Co. St Louis, Mo. * ..sweat ships, economic perils and social sores.Preventive legislation has been the slogan of those who realize the responsibility of laying the foundation of being at the beginning of things, and creating precedents.We take special pleasure in our Industrial legislation whiuh alms to help and to protect the poorest and humblest working man. We believe with Germany, that others may neglect their workers, but Oklahoma will follow no such ruinous policy. The workers are the foundation of the social structure just as bed rock Is the foundation of a building and anything which imperils the one endangers the other. Reduce the physical health of our workers by long hours of exhausting toll, lnsutflcent food, unsanitary dwellings and workshops, and who will do the labor of the nation and bear arms for the state? The discontent and degradation of the masses spells dissolution and ruin for the state.Knowledge at First Hand.We began by studying those underlying causes which make for social betterment and Insure against mental, moral and physical decay. I made several trips down Into the Inky recesses of the mines, groped midst the black damps, took a gas-lamp and crossed the “dead lines to examine the deathly gas; waded in mud and slush nearly two feet deep and crawled on hands and knees through narrow, black passages where If the roof would give two Inches the miner could never return to his wife, his little ones, his hovel home. I saw the lack of escapes, breathed the foul air, saw the little children down In those Inky passages, forgotten by the bright outside world, down, down, down where no grass grows, no birds sing, and no flowers bloom.In other words, I came In touch with labor, the great human struggle.I courted the acquaintance of those laborers In order to secure statistics and data. I came In touch with their ambitions, their Ideals, and their dream of better conditions and the higher life. I learned that they banded together to secure belter living conditions.I had often condemned labor for unnecessary agitation, but now I saw the necessity of It all. I realized that their great aim was Identical with my own, that both labor as an organization and I as- a charity worker had been working for the same ideals, to raise the standard of living for the poorest man, and for the first time 1 realized our common purpose and recognized our brotherhood.Lesson of the Laborers.This Is the lesson the laborers taught me In the rolling mills, the glass factories, the mills, sweat shops and the mines, and I made my rounds from place to place in quest of facts with which to convince our lawmakers of the necessity for Industrial legislation to save national life.Several of us are members of labor unions, and we got together representatives of the state labor union, 160,000 strong, and representatives of the farmers'' union, 120,000 strong,, and we formulated demands In the way of industrial legislation which would prevent these conditions In Oklahoma. And we submitted these demands to the candidates and we boycotted those who would not “sign up, and we secured 72 out of 112 delegates to the constitutional convention. Then we opened up headquarters at the state capital and saw that these promises were fulfilled. The results are that we have safeguarded the laboring man.Listen, for this Is the pleasantest story I can ever have to te’l you. Into the tiny hands of the little ones of the state of Oklahoma the constitution placed a promise that the light of Intelligence should never be blown out; that compulsory education should obtain from their eighth to their fifteenth year; that the Bible and the best literature shall not be to them forever a sealed book.Again we decided that the vitality of these children should rot be expended In the morning of their lives, leaving them physical degenerates, Incapable of receiving an education, j listless and hopeless to wandsr on • over the desert of their wretched andruined careers. A young child, like a young colt, needs no greater exercise than play and in Oklahoma our constitution has written It that they shall not work until they have attained the age of fifteen. Thus on their forehead the „ constitution of Oklahoma has set the state's great seal of protection, enlightenment and liberty.If this appeals to you as that kind of legislation which will produce a better environment, and In the end a finer and higher type of men, express this opinion to the pulpit and the press, to the leading statesmen of your state, and ask them to use their Influence with representatives of congressmen to aid us In securing statehood bssed upon this constitution, for, remember you can pass this way but once and ’tls best to make all possible use of your life while you can. We need your help for all the powers of darkness have turned loose to destroy this document, which contains more of human liberty than anything written since the Declaration of Independence. Corporations, carpetbaggers, the liquor interests, and some have even attempted to prejudice our great president against us. We are fighting for our liberty Just as did our forefathers when they left their bloody footprints on the cold northern snows, when England frowned on the effrontry of our colonies In pur grandfathers days. Will you help us?
Newspaper Details
The Labor World
Duluth, Minnesota, US
Sat, Jun 22, 1907
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Canton S.
OK, USA 12 Mar 2025
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