Opinion | Exploiting Children in the Workplace

To the Editor:

Thank you for the excellent and comprehensive Opinion guest essay “The Solution to Our Worker Shortage Isn’t Child Labor,” by Terri Gerstein (March 29).

The increase in child labor violations has been going on for more than a decade and is attributable in large measure to the decrease in federal and state labor department funding for enforcement and to the notion that child labor is a thing of the past.

Until that changes, the situation will not change, and millions of children will be vulnerable to exploitation and workplace abuse.

That is a sad and real 21st-century problem that brings us back more than 100 years to the days when factories and workplaces were filled with children. We must act quickly to prevent this situation from expanding. Time is of the essence and children are at risk; public attention and political action are essential.

Jeffrey F. Newman
Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.
The writer was president and executive director of the nonprofit National Child Labor Committee.

To the Editor:

Terri Gerstein sets forth a number of good ways to begin to address the hiring of minors for jobs where they face dangerous workplace conditions and other forms of exploitation.

But to the variables she lists that have reduced the available labor force, thereby contributing to the violations of child labor laws to make up for the shortage, I would add the absence of a national program to provide affordable, high-quality and accessible child care. If we were to adopt such a program, it could entice more parents (mainly women) to rejoin the labor force.

Minors, of course, will still need protection from unscrupulous employers and their subcontractors, but maybe if child care were accessible and affordable to more people, employers would not feel the need to hire underage workers because there would be a larger pool of adults from which to draw.

Amy Laiken
Chicago

To the Editor:

I thought that America had moved on from the working conditions in Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle.” When I was reading Terri Gerstein’s essay, it seemed almost dystopian that the same debate should return in the 21st century.

Ms. Gerstein condemns corporations that are “turning to the most vulnerable and exploitable work force around: children,” and I wholeheartedly agree with her condemnation. It’s madness that labor requirements for the most vulnerable population of Americans are being removed or reconsidered in the name of employer convenience. Whatever happened to the principle of people over profit?

It’s not lost on me that the United States is the only country that has not ratified the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of the Child. Protecting children is a universal value, but it seems that the U.S. treasures cash over kids. It’s essential that child labor laws are strong in order to keep kids safe.

Faith Tsang
Boston

When Political Scandals Are Hushed Up During a Campaign

To the Editor:

“October Surprises, and the Tawdry Tradition of Suppressing Them” (Political Memo, March 28) left out two important efforts to suppress scandal in the waning days of presidential campaigns.

In 1920, the Republican National Committee chairman Will Hays negotiated hush money payments to Warren Harding’s mistress Carrie Phillips to keep her from exposing Harding’s salacious love letters about their long-running affair. Phillips and her husband received $25,000 — equivalent to more than $375,000 today — to stay away from the press by touring Asia during the fall campaign.

In October 1960, the columnists Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson exposed Vice President Richard Nixon’s secret pocketing of money from the billionaire Howard Hughes, some of which, it later turned out, was used to help pay for Nixon’s elegant Tudor house in Washington.

Nixon attempted to cover up the transaction, but operatives from the presidential campaign of his Democratic rival, John F. Kennedy, obtained paperwork documenting it and leaked it to the press. Nixon blamed this October surprise for his narrow loss to Kennedy days later.

Ironically, when Nixon was elected president eight years later, he set up his own corps of dirty tricks operatives that culminated in the botched break-in at the Watergate headquarters of the Democratic Party that precipitated his resignation from the presidency.

Mark Feldstein
College Park, Md.
The writer is a journalism historian at the University of Maryland and the author of “Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson and the Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture.”

‘Unconvictable’ Trump

To the Editor:

There has been little discussion about the fact that Donald Trump is probably unconvictable.

Prosecutors need unanimous jury verdicts in criminal trials to convict. All Mr. Trump needs is one MAGA zealot on a jury panel and he won’t be convicted, no matter the charge and no matter how overwhelming the evidence of guilt. And Mr. Trump’s lawyers will see to it that there will be at least a few such jurors in any criminal trial.

Just as this man escaped consequences after being twice impeached, I fear he will never be convicted of any crime, evidence be damned.

Martin Kimel
Potomac, Md.

At a Pool in Paris

To the Editor:

“In This Locker Room, the Arc of Fitness Is Long,” by Bonnie Tsui (Opinion guest essay, April 2), conjured a pleasurable Proustian moment for me.

I’ve swum and taken classes at my local Y for decades. I joined as a young mother, and now I’m at the other end of the arc. Early in my tenure, one of the older ladies inspired me with an effortless forward fold. I resolved to include yoga in my regimen. I have.

My fitness village taught me an international language. On my best trips, I find a neighborhood swimming pool and meet the locals. I once jumped into a pool near the Latin Quarter in Paris. It was a beautiful relic of the 1930s.

The rules were different from my New York City pool. There were no lane dividers, and no one wore a Speedo or goggles. An attendant escorted me to a wooden cabana overlooking the pool.

The tile work was Matisse blue. Natural light streamed in through a glass ceiling. The community welcomed me with nods and smiles. It was my best French lesson.

Debra Michlewitz
Queens

A.I. as an Aid for Blind People

To the Editor:

“Tech Leaders Urge a Pause in A.I., Citing ‘Profound Risks to Society’” (Business, March 30) noted that an A.I. system was able to pass a Captcha test. Nothing would thrill me more than A.I. that can solve Captcha challenges.

As a blind person, I rely on technology to access a sighted world. Despite innovative technologies like screen readers and smart assistants, most websites and apps cannot be used without eyesight. Captcha is one of many accessibility issues that I and others in the blind community struggle with every day.

Recent developments in artificial intelligence have given me hope that — someday — a smart assistant will be able to help me use inaccessible software. The blind community has been waiting for this day since the birth of the internet.

But now, because of unspecified potential “risks to society and humanity,” naysayers want to stop A.I. development before the sun crests the horizon. Let’s not throw out the A.I. baby with the HAL 9000 bathwater.

Paul Martz
Erie, Colo.