Consumers, Nations Must End The Horrors Of Child Labor Letter Of The Week: From May 9

Recently I read an article in your newspaper, “Boy killed after exposing labor horrors” (April 19). It was about a boy, Iqbal Masih, who lived in Pakistan.

Since the age of 4, he had been a slave in a rugmaking factory. He traveled the world telling people about how children were treated in carpet factories. In the carpet factories, the children had to wake up at 4 a.m. and work for 12 hours, chained to the looms. They were paid 3 cents a day.

I feel horrible that people could do such mean things to kids. If something like that happened to me, I hope I could be as brave as Iqbal was. He was killed by the carpet factory owners because they did not want to stop using children as slaves.

I feel lucky that I live in the United States, where nothing like this could happen to kids like me. My mom says that children used to have to work like that in the United States until laws were passed that made it stop.

I hope some day that laws are passed in Pakistan so that children like Iqbal can grow up free. I also know that I will never buy a rug made in Pakistan. Christopher Danton, age 10 Spokane

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