| Summary: | In this passage Van Vorst describes living and working conditions for employees of a textile mill in Anniston, Alabama. She gives specific details about the housing and operation of the factory, and she includes several interviews with children who work at the mill. "The Cry of the Children" is a collection of articles Van Worst wrote while investigating child labor in textile mills; she explains her intention in the book's preface (not included in this excerpt): ".the fact is this: that in our thriving mills, both North and South, there are thousands and thousands of little children at work. As I formulate this simple statement I can hear a chorus of protests...In response I have only to say that I started, a sceptic myself, upon a tour of inspection regarding what I held to be 'sensational reports' about child-labor. After remaining six weeks in various cotton-mill towns of Maine, New Hampshire, Georgia, and Alabama, I determined to related only what I saw,--all too sensational, alas!--believing the simplest account of realities to be the most convincing, and daring to hope that it...may stir those whom it reaches into procuring some remedy for an existing condition of things which is contrary to every principle of civilization and Christianity."
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