VI. Child Labor not a Problem of Foreign Labor.

A special study of the relation of our foreign populations to child labor has been made for the purpose of testing the validity of the claim often advanced that this system, even granting its evil, affects only the foreigners. This claim is well founded only in those localities in which recent arrivals from foreign countries constitute the lower and more helpless element in the community. There their ignorance and traditional subjection to industrial injustices make their children the easy prey of the unscrupulous or the misguided employer. Boroughs in the coal regions of Pennsylvania are found in which not more than 3 per cent or 5 per cent of the school pupils enrolled ever reach the high school, and of these few if any are of the foreign-born children who abound in these communities. But the exploitation of young children is no respecter of race distinctions and, where legal safeguards are wanting, the coal-mine and the glass factory and the silk- and cotton-mill take the children of the community, whether Lithuanian, Pole, Portuguese, French Canadian, or native Cavalier or Puritan stock. But were this evil limited to foreignborn races, they so soon become an integral part of our national life that an injury to them is an injury to all.

VII. A Working Plan.

We must recognize the possibility of misjudging the character of the phenomena that have thus far imprest us. Certain phases of childlabor research must be carried on systematically for some years before more than tentative results should be announced.

Meanwhile we are convinced that the results of the investigations thus far conducted, when interpreted by the experience of older industrial communities, justify as a working hypothesis a program of opposition to child labor along the following general lines:

(1) The regulation of all branches of industry in which children are employed. The experience of older industrial communities proves that in the absence of regulation there will be some trades in which at least some workers will be driven to exist under conditions so exhausting and demoralizing as to be injurious to the community. This excessive burden will fall most heavily upon the laborers least able to protest against injustice-namely, the children.

(2) The elimination of the child under fourteen years of age as an industrial factor.

(3) The restriction of employment for children between fourteen and sixteen years of age, excluding the physically or mentally defective and the illiterates; forbidding the employment of others at night, for more than eight hours a day, or in any employment dangerous to life, limb, health or morals.

The requisites of a good child-labor law are

best set forth by Mrs. Florence Kelley, General Secretary of The National Consumers' League (in "Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation,' The Macmillan Company, New York, 1905, pp. 93 seq.) as follows:

What Constitutes Effective Child-Labor Laws

Effective legislation dealing with child labor involves many differing elements, including the child, the parent, the employer, the officials charged with the duty of enforcing the statutes, and finally the community which enacts laws, provides schools for the children when they are prohibited from working, supports and authorizes officers for the enforcement of the laws, prescribes penalties for their violation, assists dependent famílies in which the children are below the legal age for work. In the long run, the effectiveness of the law depends upon the conscience of the community as a whole far more than upon the parent and the employer acting together.

With the foregoing reservations and qualifications duly emphasized, the following summaries are believed to outline the substance of the effective legislation which it seems reasonable to try to secure in the present and the immediate future. They deal only with provisions for the child as a child, taking for granted the provisions for fire-escapes, safeguards for machines, toilet facilities and all those things which the child shares with the adult worker.

An effective child-labor law rests primarily upon certain definite prohibitions, among which are the following:

Labor Is Prohibited: (1) for all children under the age of fourteen years; (2) for all children under sixteen years of age who do not measure sixty inches and weigh eighty pounds; (3) for all children under sixteen years of age who cannot read fluently and write legibly simple sentences in the English language; (4) for all children under the age of sixteen years, between the hours of 7 P.M. and 7 A.M., or longer than eight hours in any twenty-four hours, or longer than fortyeight hours in any week; (5) for all children under the age of sixteen years in occupations dangerous to life, limb, health or morals.

The Child.-Effective legislation requires that before going to work the child satisfy a competent officer appointed for the purpose, that it (1) is fourteen years of age, and (2) is in good health, and (3) measures at least sixty inches and weighs eighty pounds, and (4) is able to read fluently and write legibly simple sentences in the English language, and (5) has attended school a full school year during the twelve months next preceding going to work.

The Parent-Effective child-labor legislation requires that the parent (1) keep the child in school to the age of fourteen years and longer if the child has not completed its required school work, and (2) take oath as to the exact age of the child before letting it begin to work, and (3) substantiate the oath by producing a transcript of the official record of the birth of the child, or the record of its baptism, or some other religious record of the time of the birth of the child, and must (4) produce the record of the child's school attendance, signed by the principal of the school which the child last attended.

The Employer.-Effective child-labor legislation requires that the employer before letting the child begin to work: (1) obtain and place on file ready for official inspection papers showing (a) the place and date of birth of the child substantiated by (b) the oath of the parent corroborated by (c) a transcript of the official register of births, or by a transcript of the record of baptism, or other religious record of the birth of the child, and by (d) the school record signed by the principal of the school which the child last attended, and by (e) the statement of the officer of the Board of Education or the Board of Health designated for the purpose, that he has approved the papers and examined the child; (2) after permitting the child to begin to work, the employer is required to produce the foregoing papers on demand of the school-attendance officer, the health officer, and the factory inspectors; (3) in case the child cease to work, the employer must restore to the child the papers enumerated above; (4) during the time that the child is at work, the employer must provide suitable seats, and permit their use so far as the nature of the work allows; and must (5) post and keep posted in a conspicuous place, the hours for beginning work in the morning, and for stopping work in the middle of the day; the hours for resuming work and for stopping at the close of the day; and all work done at any time not specified in such posted notice constitutes a violation of the law. The total number of hours must not exceed eight in any one day or forty-eight in one week.

The Officials.-Effective legislation for the protection of children requires that the officials entrusted with the duty of enforcing it (1) give their whole time, not less than eight hours of every working-day, to the performance of their duties, making night inspections whenever this may be necessary to insure that children are not working during the

1 This measure is not now specified in any statute, tho it is implied in the statute of New York, enacted in 1903.

prohibited hours; and (2) treat all employers alike, irrespective of political considerations, of race, religion or power in a community; (3) prosecute all violations of the law; (4) keep records complete and intelligible enough to facilitate the enactment of legislation suitable to the changing conditions of industry.

The School. The best child-labor law is a compulsory education law covering forty weeks of the year and requiring the consecutive attendance of all the children to the age of fourteen years, and until sixteen years, unless they have meanwhile completed a specified portion of the curriculum, as eight years in Colorado or five years in New York. It is never certain that children are not at work, if they are out of school. In order to keep the children, however, it is not enough to compel attendance the schools must be modified and adapted to the needs of the recent immigrants in the North and of the poor whites in the South, affording instruction which appeals to the parents as worth having, in lieu of the wages which the children are forbidden to earn, and appeals to the children as interesting and attractive. No system of child-labor legislation can be regarded as effective which does not face and deal with these facts.

The vacation school and camp promise reenforcement of the child-labor laws; which are now seriously weakened by the fact that the long vacation leaves idle upon the streets children whom employers covet by reason of the low price of their labor, while parents, greedy for the children's earnings and anxious lest the children suffer from the life of the streets, eagerly seek work for them. Nothing could be worse for the physique of the school child than being compelled to work during the summer; and the development of the vacation school and vacation camp alone seems to promise a satisfactory solution of the problem of the vacation of the city child of the working class.

The Community.-Effective child-labor legislation places upon the community many duties, among which are: (1) maintaining officials-men and women-school-attendance officers, health officers, and factory inspectors, all of whom need (a) salary and traveling expenses, (b) access at all reasonable times to the places where children are employed, (c) power to prosecute all violations of the statutes affecting working children, (d) tenure of office so effectively assured that they need not fear removal from office in consequence of prosecuting powerful offenders; (2) maintaining schools in which to educate the children who are prohibited from working; (3) maintaining vital statistics, especially birth records, such that the real age of native children may be readily ascertained; (4) maintaining provision for the adequate relief of dependent families in which the children are not yet of legal age for beginning work.

More important, however, than the enactment of the foregoing provisions is the maintenance in the community of a persistent, lively interest in the enforcement of the childlabor statutes. Without such interest, judges do not enforce penalties against offending parents and employers; inspectors become discouraged and demoralized; or faithful officers are removed because they have no organized backing, while some group of powerful industries clamors that the law is injuring its interest. Well-meaning employers grow careless, infractions become the rule, and working men form the habit of thinking that laws inimical to their interest are enforced, while those framed in their interest are broken with impunity. Upon parents there presses incessant poverty, urging them to seek opportunities for wage-earning, even for the youngest children; and upon the employers presses incessant competition, urging them to reduce the pay-roll by all means, fair and foul. No law enforces itself; and no officials can enforce a law which depends upon them alone. It is only when they are consciously the agents of the will of the people that they can make the law really protect the children effectively.

Legislative. The labor of children in factories and workshops is regulated by the laws of June 4, 1884, and March 8, 1885. (An establishment employing more than twenty persons or equipped with machinery is considered a factory, while other industrial establishments are designated workshops.)

Age. The age limit for employment in workshops is twelve years, provided that under fourteen years the work shall be such as is not injurious to physical development and does not prevent school attendance. Children under fourteen years are not to be employed in factories, and those from fourteen to sixteen only in the lighter forms of factory labor. The age limit for employment in mining enterprises is fifteen years, provided that by special permit children over twelve years of age may be employed in the "lighter work" when such employment does not interfere with school attendance. The form of labor permitted to males under sixteen and females under eighteen is limited, by executive officers, to such as does not retard physical development.

Hours of Labor.-For children under fourteen employed in workshops, not to exceed eight hours a day. The hours of labor for other persons may not exceed eleven. There must be a recess of not less than one hour and a half a day. Night work is prohibited from 8 P.M. to 5 A.M. for males under sixteen and for all females. The law of January 16, 1895, forbids (with certain specific exceptions) all industrial labor on Sunday.

Certificates. Employers must keep lists of all employees subject to the provisions of the childlabor laws, and all children must comply with the regulations regarding school attendance and health qualifications, as a condition for employ

Legislative. The labor of children is regulated by the law of Dec. 13, 1889, supplemented and modified by a number of royal decrees. The law and decrees affect mines, quarries, factories, and industrial establishments using mechanical motive power, and transportation by land or

water.

Age-Labor in any of these establishments is forbidden under twelve years of age, while females under twenty-one are forbidden to labor underground.

Hours of Labor.-Limited to twelve per day for males under sixteen and females under twenty-one (except where special regulations have been issued by royal decree). The regulation of hours of labor is based upon an analysis of the kinds of labor performed, varying from eleven and one-half to ten per day in different specified industries, with rest periods fixed by law (e. g., in the mining industry males under sixteen working underground may not work more than ten hours and a half, including descent, rest period, and ascent. The rest period must not be less than one eighth of the total time spent underground).

Night and Sunday Labor.-Prohibited 9 P.M. to 5 A.M., males under sixteen and females under twenty-one (except in certain specified industries). One day rest in seven is enjoined, though not necessarily Sunday.

Certificates.-Required of males under sixteen and females under twenty-one, showing age, educational and other qualifications. Furnished free by local authorities. Employers must keep files of all protected employees.

Exemptions. Exceptions or additions to the provisions of the law may be made by royal decree.

This makes a total of 463,874. In the same industries there were employed 627,051 women and 1,676,607 men.

Legislative. The laws of November 2, 1892, amended March 30, 1900, regulating the labor of children applies to factories, workshops, mines, and quarries. Agriculture, mercantile establishments, and workshops in which only members of the family are employed, are exempt. In fortyseven distinct occupations the labor of women and children is forbidden, while ten others permit women but forbid children under eighteen. In ninety-four other kinds of establishments the employment of children is strictly regulated. Age-Limit, thirteen years for children who have completed the common-school course. female of any age may be employed underground. Hours of Labor.-Limited to ten per day for males under eighteen and females of all ages. In mines for boys thirteen to eighteen the shift must not exceed eight hours.

No

Night and Sunday Labor.-Labor prohibited 9 P.M. to 5 A.M., or for more than six days per week, males under eighteen and all females.

Certificates. Required of all children under eighteen, showing age, educational qualifications, and physical ability to perform the work desired. Children under sixteen may be required to undergo special physical examination before employment in certain industries. Employers must keep file of all employees subject to the childlabor laws.

Exceptions. Certain specified exceptions may be made by executive officials. A ministerial decision in 1895, modified by various decisions, to July 4, 1902, makes the following exemptions to the prohibition of night and extra work:

1. In mills where "fire burns continually" male children may be employed ten hours out of the twenty-four, on condition that they have two hours' rest.

2. In certain industries, such as butter, dairies, ready-made clothing, fruit and fish preserveries and toy manufactories, the inspectors may, during the busy seasons in these trades, permit overtime work until eleven o'clock at night, providing the total day's work does not exceed twelve hours, and may temporarily abrogate the provisions requiring periods of rest and one day's rest per week; but in no case are such special privileges to extend over sixty days in any one year.

Serious Defects.-The more important defects in the otherwise excellent child-labor laws of France are: (1) the entirely inadequate force of factory inspectors (there are 110 inspectors to cover the field of more than 159,060 establishments employing more than 3,000,000 people) and the imposition of penalties for violation of law so slight as to often invite the risk of detection; (2) the failure to properly guard the employment of apprentices, or of children who are boarded with their employers; (3) the failure to properly regulate employment in tenementhouse sweat-shops.

The regulation of apprenticeship is under an antiquated law of Feb. 22, 1851. The law provides against certain abuses of overwork, etc., and requires that ignorant apprentices shall be given an opportunity (not over two hours a day) to study. But the apprenticeship system is dying as in other countries, there being but 180 trades in France in which apprentices are received, supervision of apprentices by justices of the peace is a dead letter, and parents have been

found generally indifferent to the violation of contract governing their apprenticed children. It is also possible, without infraction of law, for children to be sent to board with an employer, without being protected even by the apprenticeship contract. As a boarder he becomes a member of the family and thus devoid of protection. In this way many children work without learning a trade and are developed into cheap, inefficient workmen. Francis H. McLean, of the International Committee of the Consumers' League, says (Charities, April 22, 1905, New York):

"It is estimated that there are about 50,000 children so employed in the capital city alone. The Consumers' League of Paris has undertaken an investigation into the condition of children employed by pastry cooks. Their ages generally run from thirteen to sixteen years. The Superior

Council of Labor, the labor-unions, and the Consumers' League have joined in an agitation to so amend the present laws that all the children so exploited shall work only under apprenticeship contracts strictly regulated, and furthermore, that the factory inspectors shall have jurisdiction over them.

"There is reason to believe that the legislation which will come in the years just ahead will even up French child-labor regulation, and make it in many more details as progressive as it is now in the points enumerated above. There are strong and influential bodies, the great Association for the Legal Protection of Workmen and the active Consumers' League of Paris among others, who are leading the fight. And most significant of all, the intelligent labor-unions of France are vitally

and deeply interested in the suggested reforms. In all probability the first step in advance will be to still further curtail the power of a parent to act against the best interests of his child and therefore against the best interests of the State itself. In a country which is so strongly committed to the idea of the superior importance of the common weal over the welfare of any single individual or group in the nation, there can scarcely be any doubt of the early evolution of a model childlabor law."

GERMANY

Statistical.-In 1898 the German ministry of the interior made a special investigation of the employment of children under fourteen years of age in establishments other than factories, but not including agricultural establishments. The investigation was not a census, as several districts were not canvassed, and the methods followed were not entirely uniform throughout the empire, but the figures show approximately the extent of such child labor and its distribution in the several branches of industry.

The total number of children under fourteen years of age engaged in industrial establishments other than factories in 1898 was found to be 532,283. Making allowance for the territory omitted, the report estimates that this number formed 6.53 per cent of the children of school age.

The branch of industry and the number and per cent of children employed in each in 1898 are shown in the first of the following tables, while the second shows the number of children employed in factories for the years indicated:

Legislative.-Laws regulating employment of children over thirteen years of age are in the industrial code, amended June 30, 1900, and the ordinance of the federal council, July 13, 1900. The labor of children under thirteen is restricted by the law of March 30, 1903, and of child labor in the coal-mines of Prussia, Baden, and AlsaceLorraine by the ordinance of the federal council, March 24, 1903. To these general regulations individual states of the empire may add further restrictions. The laws of the empire apply to mines, factories, workshops, commercial establishments, and all industries connected with transportation. Other establishments may be included at the discretion of the federal council. The laws do not apply to workshops in which only members of the family labor under the direction of the parent.

Age.-Employment in mines, factories, building operations, and workshops designated as unsuited to the employment of children, is forbidden children under thirteen, or children over thirteen who have not completed the commonschool course. The employment of children under thirteen or those who have not completed the common-school course is regulated according as the child is, or is not, a member of the employer's family.

Children not related to the employer may not be employed under thirteen in any of the above establishments or in theatrical performances. Those over twelve may be employed in certain workshops, in commerce or transportation, and in hotels and restaurants. Children related to the employer may be employed at ten years in industries permitted to the non-related children under thirteen, though the hours are carefully regulated. Such children may not be employed in industries forbidden other children under thirteen. In certain classes of workshops children under ten years may be employed under strict regulations. Related children may be employed under thirteen in the delivery of milk, newspapers, etc., though this may be at any time restricted by local officials.

8 A.M.

No female may be employed underground. Hours of Labor.-All children under thirteen are compelled to attend school regularly, and may not be employed after 8 P.M. or before Work may not begin before the school session, nor earlier than an hour after the close of the session. Hours of labor may not exceed three per day, except in regular vacation when they may extend to four hours. Children under fourteen may not work in factories more than six hours per day, and children between fourteen and sixteen not more than ten hours. Specific restrictions also regulate the rest periods and higher age limits for employment in certain industries, also special hours for closing on days preceding Sundays and holidays. In the coalmines of Prussia, Baden, and Alsace-Lorraine children fourteen years old may work eight hours per day, one hour of which must be a period of rest, while the eight-hour shifts must be separated by at least fifteen hours (thirteen hours before Sundays and holidays).

Night and Sunday Labor.-Prohibited 8.30 P.M. to 5.30 A.M., males under sixteen, females of any age. Females may not work after 5.30 P.M. on days preceding Sunday and holidays. Children under fourteen may not work between 8 P.M. and 8 A.M.

Certificates required of all minors seeking em

ployment, supplied free by local police officials. Employers of children must first file a statement of location of establishment, number of women and children desired, character of work to be done, hours of labor, rest periods, etc. The employer must keep posted in his establishment a list of employees subject to the child-labor laws, showing hours of labor and rest periods. Before employment in mines (Prussia, Baden, AlsaceLorraine) children under fourteen must be specially examined and obtain a certificate from an authorized physician, that physical development and health will not suffer by such employment.

Exemptions. The federal council may make certain exceptions to special restrictions contained in the law, but only for a limited period, and may also forbid absolutely the employment of women or children under sixteen in occupations they consider dangerous to health or morals.

These imperial laws are regarded merely as a minimum standard of protection for children, and it is expressly provided that nothing shall prevent the separate states from enacting more stringent laws.

GREAT BRITAIN

For CHILD LABOR AND LEGISLATION IN GREAT BRITAIN see separate article on the subject.

ITALY

Statistical. The following table shows the number and age of the children employed in the establishments visited by the factory inspectors in the years 1897 to 1900. It should be stated that the factory inspectors are few in number and the number of factories visited in one year is not large. The statistics show the extent of the employment of children under the law of 1886, now superseded by the law of 1902:

NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN ITALY EMPLOYED IN FACTORIES VISITED BY FACTORY INSPECTORS IN 1897 TO 1900 [Source: Relazione sull' applicazione della legge 11 febbraio 1886, sul lavoro dei fanciulli, etc.]

Legislative. The labor of children is regulated by the law of June 19, 1902, and the administrative decree of Jan. 29, 1903. It affects factories, workshops, mines, quarries, work of construction (including buildings and roads). The government may also, on advice of the superior council of hygiene and the council of industry and commerce, entirely forbid, or place under special restrictions, labor of children in industries considered dangerous or unsanitary.

Age. Labor is forbidden in the above industries under twelve, except that no child under fourteen (unless mechanical traction is used) and no female may work underground. By special decree children under fifteen may be forbidden employment in any establishment or occupation considered dangerous or unsanitary.

Hours of Labor.-Limited to eleven per day