Wednesday, 30th April 1913 Girl’s Death Laid to Factory Evils

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

Working Conditions Here Wrong, Proved by Phagan Crime, Says McKelway.

Dr. A. J. McKelway, president pro tem of the Southern Sociological Congress, declared to-day that if factory conditions in Atlanta were what they should be 14-year-old Mary Phagan never would have been slain.

"If social conditions, if factory conditions in Atlanta were what they should be here, if children of tender years were not forced to work in shops this frightful tragedy could not have been enacted," he asserted.

Dr. McKelway's remarks came in the course of a conversation in which he discussed at length the evils of child labor in industrial plants and the absolute necessity of rigid child labor legislation.

A reception at the Piedmont Driving Club yesterday marked the close of the four-day sessions of the sociological congress in Atlanta, Delegates left last night and to-day for their homes.

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