Child Labor

bodily toil of children in gainful occupations. There is a mistaken notion that we are so prosperous in America that children are not called upon to work. The United States Census Bureau issued a bulletin in 1907 in which the total number of American children between the ages of ten and fifteen inclusive was placed at 10,502,000. Of this number, 1,939,000 were engaged in breadwinning. The showing is a little more favorable than that of 1900, but the question of how early and under what circumstances children shall be allowed to work is far from settled.

Investigation and legislation began in Europe. The tendency of employers to overwork children for the sake of profit became apparent to the world during the industrial revolution or shift to the factory system 1760-1830. Conditions in England at that time are described by West in his Modern History:

The new factory system proved fatally cruel to women and children, who for a long time made up the greater portion of the employees. Parish authorities had the power to take children from pauper families, in order to apprentice them to employers; and destitute or dissolute parents sold their offspring into such service by written contracts. In the early years of the century gangs of helpless little ones from six and seven years upward, secured in this way, were auctioned off, thousands at a time, to great factories, where their life was a ghastly slavery. They received no wages; they were clothed in rags; their food was insufficient and of the coarsest kind, and often they had to eat standing at their work while the machinery was in motion. They were driven to work from twelve to sixteen hours a day, often by inhuman torture; they had no holidays; and the few hours for sleep were spent in filthy beds, from which some other relay of little workers had just been roused. Schooling or recreation there was none; and the poor little waifs-girls as well as boys-grew up, if they lived at all, amid shocking and brutal immorality. When one batch of such labor had been used up, another was always ready, at practically no cost; and the employers showed a disregard for even the mere physical well-being of their "white slaves," such as no negro-driver could ever afford toward his costly black chattels.

The first child labor law of the world was passed by Great Britain in 1802. It passed Parliament in the face of vehement opposition. It forbade the employment of children in cotton and woolen mills more than twelve hours a day. In 1819 Parliament tackled the problem again and forbade the employment of children under nine in factories, but left the hours of work for ten-year-old children at twelve per day. This seems a callous treatment of childhood, but we must remember that the burly manufacturer was in his seat in Parliament, and politicians then, as now, were reluctant to injure the interests of the manufacturer. Moreover, we should remember that this was the first and the only humane child labor legislation that had been enacted.

The history of child labor laws is a long one. Child labor is a difficult question to handle. In poverty stricken districts children must earn bread or be given bread, or they must die of starvation. The progress of legislation in the United Kingdom is manifest in the Employment of Children Act of 1903:

1. No child may work before six in the morning or after nine at night. 2. The carrying of heavy weights, and employment in occupations likely to prove injurious to health are prohibited. 3. The age for the prohibition of the employment of children in theatrical performances is raised from seven to ten years. 4. Local authorities (the councils of county boroughs, municipalities of over 10,000 inhabitants, urban districts with over 20,000 inhabitants, elsewhere the county council) are empowered to make by-laws, regulating all occupations of children. Separate regulations for street trading may be enacted.

Under authority of the last clause above over sixty boroughs have adopted fitting regulations. The more important of the by-laws adopted by the London County Council are:

1. No child under eleven years may be employed. 2. Children engaged in industrial work at home may only be employed between 5 and 8 P. M. 3. No child may be employed for more than three and a half hours per day, or for more than twenty hours per week. 4. A child may not be employed in a laundry, or in connection with the sale or delivery of intoxicating liquors, except where such liquors are sold in sealed vessels. 5. A child under twelve years may not be employed as a lather boy in any barber's or hair-dresser's shop. 6. A girl under sixteen may not be employed in street trading except in the company of a parent or guardian. 7. A child liable to attend school full time may not engage in street trading before 7 A. M., between 8 A. M. and 5 P. M., or after 8 P. M., except when in company of a parent or guardian. Between April 1st and September 30th, the hour may be extended to 9 P. M. 8. A boy engaged in street trading must wear a badge on the upper part of his right arm in such manner as to be conspicuous.

A brief statement of the child labor situation in various countries is interesting:

Austria: Age limit twelve years. Hours of labor not to exceed eight. Night work between 8 P. M. and 5 A. M. forbidden to women and children.

Belgium: Age limit twelve years. Time limit ten to twelve hours. Boys may not spend more than ten hours underground, i. e. in mines; nor work between 9 P. M. and 5 A. M. Females under twenty-one may not work underground.

France: Age limit thirteen years. Time limit ten hours, eight underground. Females may not work underground. Children may not labor between 9 P. M. and 5 A. M.

Germany: Age limit thirteen years. Time limit six hours. Night work forbidden. Parents may work their own children ten years of age in their own factories or shops not to exceed three hours per day or during school vacations four hours. Young children may run errands, serve milk, or deliver newspapers so far as these duties are not excessive and do not interfere with attendance at school. No female may work underground. In the coal districts boys fourteen years old may work underground seven hours.

Italy: Age limit twelve years. Time limit eleven hours. No female may work underground or more than twelve hours. The minister of agriculture may issue permits to children to work twelve hours in the planting and the harvest season.

Switzerland: This is the country of the referendum. Age limit fourteen years, the highest in Europe. Time limit for all persons, eleven hours. Persons under sixteen years of age may not tend circular saws, drawbridges, steam boilers, dynamos, or work in dangerous places or with dangerous chemicals, etc. Women and children are forbidden to work after eight at night and on Sundays.

United States: In the United States no authority has been granted the general government to regulate child labor, but valuable service has been rendered by investigations and reports. The several states have enacted laws. The age limit in the cotton states is quite generally fixed at twelve. South Carolina authorizes the employment of even younger children in case of poverty. In Louisiana, New England, New York, the North Central States, and on the Pacific coast, the employment of children under fourteen is prohibited in factories. Many states forbid any employment whatsoever during school hours. The time limit runs from eight to ten hours per day, save that North Carolina permits eleven hours a day or sixty-six per week, and Pennsylvania (1905) permits five days of twelve hours each weekly. The several states employ inspectors whose duty it is to visit factories and shops and enforce the laws enacted for the protection of childhood.

In nearly all cases, attendance at school for a part of the day is compulsory.

There is no question that childhood should be devoted to sleep and play and reading and the lightest of work. Boys and girls required to labor at muscular work too early do not develop properly in body or in mind. Of all occupations for children, out-of-door farm work is the best; but it should not be allowed to interfere with proper sleep, sport, and schooling. The number of children engaged in factories and other indoor breadwinning employments is large enough to render the reader thoughtful:

In 1904 the number of operatives in the textile industry, cotton and woolen, of the United Kingdom was 1,026,378 persons. Of this number but 31,744 were boys and girls under fourteen years of age, and they were on half time, going to school for half a day. On the face of these returns the United States does not make a favorable showing. As a matter of fact, a part of our factory children work for a few weeks only. Large numbers are employed in canning vegetables and fruits. In this way they earn a little ready money for books and clothing and are free to attend school the rest of the year. Nevertheless, the employment of children in American factories and in trade and transportation has gained ground in twenty-six states since 1900, and requires attention.

See Factory System; Wages