AMERICAN TORTURES.

Lake County Press, Issue 2429, 30 May 1912, Page 5

AMERICAN TORTURES.

An American young man, named Theodore Furman, returned to his home at Middletown, New York, after an absence of five months, to find his two brothers under arrest on charges of murdering him. He had incidentally furnished a dramatic and suggestive illustration of tine operation of the famous ‘‘Third Degree” practised by the American police. The “Third Degree” consists of torturing prisoners by incessant questioning, which is often continued night and day until they confess to crimes Furman mysteriously disappeared from homo in November (says the Daily Mail), and a few days later the burned bones of a human body were discovered beneath a heap of cinders near the railway station at Middletown. The remains were believed to be those of Furman, whoso brothers were immediately suspected of being the perpetrators of a horrible crime. Some time after their arrest tho brothers made a detailed confession cf the murder. Suddenly their alleged victim appeared alive and well, and stated he had been working on a farm all the winter in complete ignorance of his brothers’ plight. The brothers declared that the police questioned them so savagely that they would have been willing to confess to a dozen murders in order to gain an interval of sleep and respite from constant cross-examination. “We were ready,” they said, “to acknowledge as many crimes as tho police desired.” Child Slavery. It is a disgraceful fact that child labor in its worst forms is still tolerated in the United States, although older lands limited or abolished tho evil more than a generation ago. The last census report showed that 1,750,000 children under fifteen years of age were employed in American factories, and of this number more than 500,000 had not reached tho age of thirteen years. Nearly 150,000 of the little workers were only ton years old. The census figures do reveal the abuses cf child labor, but inquiries that have been conducted by committees of Congress and by local authorities have proved tho existence of an appalling state of affairs. It has been shown that the children engaged in factory labor are stunted mentally, physically and morally j and that the death-rate among them is enormously high ; and that tho hygienic conditions of many of tho factories are shocking. Recently Senator Borah introduced a Bill establishing oilicial bureaux to watch tho interests of the children in the industrial districts and collect reliable information regarding tho conditions and hours of work. Tho employers have been required to furnish reports in the past, and as there has been little or no supervision they have not hesitated to misstate the facts. Tho Bill passed both Houses of the Legislature after a strenuous struggle, but tho real issue has still to be fought. In the meantime, little children are still working ten, twelve and even thirteen hours a day for a wage of a few shillings a week.