It was obvious that the children were not actually physically abused; almost unanimously they preferred work to school, just as the city boy does today; and the children themselves opposed most strongly any proposed return to the farm.

The task of the reformers--for in every State there were earnest men and women who saw the evils of unrestricted child labor--was difficult.

It was the same battle which had been fought in England and later in New England, when their textile industries were passing through the same stage of development.

Every student of industrial history realizes that conditions in the South were neither so hard nor were the hours so long as they had been in England and New England.
The attempt to apply pressure from without had little influence.

Indeed it is possible that the resentment occasioned by the exaggerated stories of conditions really hindered the progress of restrictive legislation, just as the bitter denunciation of the Southern attitude toward the negro has increased conservatism.