ISilP': A? /joy (flnrnell IGaro i>rlyooI IGibraty Cornell University Library KF 3552.A5N27 1907 3 1924 019 905 417 DATE DUE I f " CAYLORO PRlNTEDINU.S.A. Cornell University Library m The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924019905417 Gftfilh Halmr att& t\\t Stejmhiti: CONTENTS PAQB Poverty and Parental Dependence as an Obstacle to Child Labor Reform Homer Folks i The Awakening of the South Against Child Labor. . .A. J. McKelway 9 Some of the Ultimate Physical Effects of Premature Toil Albert H. Freiberg 19 Child Labor in the Soft Coal Mines ...Owen R. Love joy 26 The Extent of Child Labor in the Anthracite Coal Industry Owen R. Love joy 35 Obstacles to the Enforcement of Child Labor Legisla- tion Klorence Kelley 50 National Protection for Children Jane Addams 57 The Child Labor Laws of the Ohio Valley /. H. Morgan 61 The Child Labor Situation in the Ohio and Border States Wallace E. Miller 71 Children in the Glass Works of Illinois. . .Harriet M. Van der Vaart 77 Child Labor and the Public Schools Nathan C. Schaeffer 84 The Value of Publicity in Reform .Arthur T. Vance 87 The Enforcement of Child Labor Legislation in Illinois Edgar T. Davies 93 Child Labor and the Public Schools Samuel McCune Lindsay 104 Child Labor and the Public Schools Charles W. Dabney 1 10 Child Labor and the Nation Albert J. Beveridge 115 The Difficulties of a Factory Inspector Edgar T. Davies 125 The Enforcement of Child Labor Legislation Starr Cadwallader 132 The Attitude of Society Toward the Child as an Index of Civilization Felix Adler 135 Reports from State and Local Child Labor Committees and Consum- ers' Leagues: New York Child Labor Committee 142 George A. Hall, Secretary. Children's Protective Alliance of Missouri 145 Arthur O. Lovejoy, Secretary. Citizen's Child Labor Committee of the District of Columbia. . 152 Henry J. Harris, Secretary. Maryland Child Labor Committee 154 H. Wirt Steele, Secretary. Wisconsin Child Labor Committee 156 Edward W. Frost, Chairman. Pennsylvania Child Labor Committee 158 Scott N earing, Secretary. Iowa Child Labor Committee 159 /. A. Loos, President. Georgia Child Labor Committee 160 Rev. C. B. Wilmer, Secretary. '£*"* Jg PAGE Alabama Child Labor Committee 163 Benjamin J. Baldwin, Chairman. North Carolina Child Labor Committee 163 Charles L. Cone, Secretary. A. J. McKelway, Assistant Secretary of National Committee, for Child Labor Committees in Southern States 164 Child Labor Commission of the State of Oregon 166 Mrs. Millie R. Trumbull, Secretary. Child Labor League, Warren, Ohio 167 Miss Phebe T. Sutliff, Chairman. Consumers' League of the State of New York 168 Mrs. A. N. Beardsley, Secretary. Consumers' League of Philadelphia, Pa 169 Florence L. Sanville, Secretary. Consumers' League of Maryland 169 Mrs. Daniel Miller, Corresponding Secretary. Committee on Child Labor of Massachusetts Consumers' League 170 Miss Edith M. Howes, Chairman. Consumers' League of Detroit, Mich 172 Miss Florence G. Taylor, Corresponding Secretary. Consumers' League of Kentucky 173 Child Labor Committee of Consumers' League of Cleveland, Ohio 174 Catharine Avery, Chairman. Consumers' League of Cincinnati, Ohio 176 Miss Geraldine Gordon, President. National Consumers' League 178 Mrs. Florence Kelley, Secretary. National Child Labor Committee: Abstract of Secretary's Report, Year ending September 30, 1906 179 National Child Labor Committee : Treasurer's Report, Year ending September 30, 1906 182 Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting: Program and Resume of the Meeting 183 Address of Welcome, First Session, December 13TH. Hon. E. A. Jones, Commissioner of Schools, Columbus, 187 Hon. E. J. Dempsey, Mayor of Cincinnati 188 Resolutions on Federal Legislation 189 Introductory Addresses: Felix Adler, Chairman * 190 Copyright, 1907, by the American Academy of Political and Social Science. All rights reserved. The papers in this volume are reprinted from The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. XXIX, No. 1, Janu- ary, 1907, in which they were originally published as the Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the National Child Labor Committee. POVERTY AND PARENTAL DEPENDENCE AS AN OBSTACLE TO CHILD LABOR REFORM By Homer Folks, Vice-Chairman of the National Child Labor Committee, New York. The history of efforts for child labor legislation shows that they usually pass through three stages before reaching final success. When an agitation for a child labor law is started the first objection raised to it is that there are no children employed, or not at least any considerable number. After good people have gone to the mines and factories and have counted the children, and have gath- ered undeniable data disproving that statement, the next objection that is brought forward is that while there may be some children employed, after all such employment is a good thing for the chil- dren, and some very eminent men are named as having been employed in their childhood, by reason of which they became very distinguished when grown up. After further research as to the evil effects of child labor, such as has been made at great length by our two assistant secretaries, and by many others, and after it has demonstrated beyond question that this employment of children is bad for the children, there still remains one stronghold to be taken. It is then said : Well, yes, there are some children employed, and that perhaps it is not altogether exactly what one would regard as ideal, but nevertheless the earn- ings of these children are absolutely necessary for the maintenance of their families. Many of them, it is said, are the children of widows. In other cases their fathers have deserted or are ill, and, except for the earnings of these children, the families would suffer and might starve. That is the final stronghold to be captured by the friends of progressive legislation, not only for the restriction of child labor, but also for compulsory school attendance and for the exclusion of chil- dren from certain occupations dangerous to health or morals. <«) 2 Obstacles to Child Labor Reform What was said by the friends of such legislation until quite recently was substantially this, that we did not believe that there were many children whose earnings were really needed by their families ; that only a small proportion of the children could be the children of widows ; that only a small proportion of those widows were depen- dent upon the earnings of their children, and that in so far as it might be true that the earnings of the children were needed by their families, it was, in our opinion, a great deal better that their income should be supplemented from some other source, and, furthermore, that it was our conviction that other resources would be at hand if those earnings were stopped. That was a word of hope and of confidence, and of conviction indeed, but it was not at that time founded on actual experience. The task devolved upon me is to set forth the results of several years of actual experience in this direction, and if I speak with comparatively little first hand knowledge of child labor legislation and problems, I can speak with sixteen years of uninterrupted experience in the study and actual administration of charity. During the past three years child labor legislation has been adopted in many of the states of the Union, and those who have been most active in procuring that legislation have taken up in earnest the task of providing supplementary incomes, when needed, to replace the earnings of children excluded from employment by the new legislation. We now have back of us several years of obser- vation and experience of the actual facts as they exist, and we can now put the hope that we expressed a few years before to the test of practical application. In New York City the local child labor committee some fifteen months ago took this ground, that whenever the child labor law made it impossible for any child under fourteen years of age to be employed, if his previous earnings were a necessary element in the family income, it would give to that family, through the child, what it called a scholarship — a sum of money equal, as nearly as could be ascertained — to the amount the child would have earned, that is to say, from one to three dollars per week. An individual member of that committee very generously offered to contribute the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars per annum, or such sum not exceeding that amount as might be necessary to Obstacles to Child Labor Reform 3 provide these scholarships. Notice of this offer was sent to all the superintendents and principals of the public schools, to the State Labor Department, charitable societies, truant officers, settlement workers and social agencies generally. As the result of that experiment, 490 applications for scholar- ships were received from October 1, 1905, to December 15, 1906, Of these, 160 have been referred elsewhere, because the children were not of the age at which they could have been employed previously, that is to say, they were over fourteen, or were under twelve, and were not within the provisions of the recently enacted law. Of the remaining 330 applications coming within the age limits, 95 scholarships have been granted, that is a little less than 30 per cent. Bear in mind that these figures relate to the entire City of New York, with its population in round numbers of 4,250,000 of people, and that with all the publicity attached to this offer, and in the space of nearly fifteen months, only 95 cases have been found in which these scholarships should be given. These scholarships are adjusted to the probable amount of the child's earnings, ranging from $1 to $3 per week, and the total present outlay per month is at the rate of $5,000 per year, that is to say, it is about $100 per week. It seems possible that in the course of another year there may be some further increase, although the number is very nearly stationary at present. It seems to be well within the mark to say that $10,000 at the very most will meet all the deficiencies that arise from the discontinuance of the employ- ment of children by the new law, in so far as such income is a necessary part of the living expenses of the families. Here, as in nearly all the other cities reporting, the scholarship continues until the child reaches the age of legal employment, unless the need there- for ceases at an earlier date. I have been struck, in examining the reports which have been received by the National Child Labor Committee from each of the larger cities of the country, on this question, to find the very differ- ent conditions that seem to exist in different cities. In Chicago, for instance, where a similar plan has been in operation, under the joint auspices of the Consumers' League and the Bureau of Chari- ties, the total number of scholarships awarded during a period of three years is but fifteen. Only a small percentage of those who 4 Obstacles to Child Labor Reform filed applications for scholarships are found to be actually in need. The scholarships are largely provided by the women's clubs, though the investigations of the families and their oversight is in the hands of the Bureau of Charities. The scholarship is usually $3 per week. In Philadelphia, the Public Education Association and Child Labor Committee have established the same plan, and there during the year ending June 30, 1906, the number of scholarships granted has been twenty-eight — about one-fifth of the total number of appli- cants. There also the investigation of the family is by the Charity Organization Society. The scholarships, ranging in amount from 75 cents to $4 per week, are adjusted, not on the basis of the probable earnings of the child if employed, but on the actual need of the family. In St. Louis there is a compulsory school attendance law from which children may be excused, lawfully, on the ground of extreme poverty. The cases that have been so excused were inquired into recently as to the merits of the excuse, and it is reported (July, 1906) that so far as the investigation had gone it indicated that not more than fifty full term exemptions were granted during the past year, and judging by the results so far secured about twenty of these would prove to be cases calling for material assistance if the children attended school, and that the total expenditure for such aid would probably be covered by the sum of $1,000 per year. The Secretary of the Missouri Child Labor Committee reports : "In the case of parents claiming permanent or long-term exemptions in order that their children might work in stores or factories, a successful effort is being made this year in St. Louis to eliminate all such child labor by providing scholarships for children recom- mended for exemption by the truant officer. The chairman of the executive committee of the Children's Protective Alliance, Mr. W. O. Nelson, has proposed to the women's clubs of the city to share equally with them the expense of such scholarships ; and pending action by the women's clubs, Mr. Nelson is personally providing for all these cases, after they have been reported on by the truant officer and carefully investigated by the agents of the St. Louis Provident Association. The cases, of course, accumulate gradually through the year as the truant officers continue their work, so that it is impossible to say at this date how manv will present themselves per annum. I have not Mr. Nelson's authority Obstacles to Child Labor Reform 5 to say what the expense involved has thus far been. But a rough preliminary investigation of last year's long-term exemption cases indicated that the number of children properly entitled to scholar- ships would certainly not exceed fifty, and would probably be less than thirty. Something over a third of the cases approved for exemption by the attendance office are rejected after the Provident Association's investigation." In Pittsburg, during the year ending June 30, 1906, the number of scholarships granted was three, the amount being $2 per week in each case. The reply from Boston is, to my mind, very significant. I will quote one or two sentences : "Child labor has not been an issue in Massachusetts for many years. In the statutes of 1880 practically no employment of children under fourteen was permitted in school hours. There has been, therefore, in those who are dependents, no new problem to meet by keeping the children in school until four- teen, and there are no special scholarship funds or societies for such children. . . . The public outdoor relief, and the private charitable societies have always worked with the enforcement of the child labor law in mind." That is to say, the standards of relief, both on the part of the public authorities and of the private socie- ties, have been such as contemplate a full enforcement of the child labor law; so that instead of receiving aid in the form of scholar- ships from some newly-established agency, the parents in case of need receive the aid in the form of relief either from the public officers or from private societies. That appears to be the state of affairs in a number of other cities. In Buffalo, for instance, we find that the health department sometimes refers families to the Charity Organization Society, where the operation of the law would otherwise seem likely to work hardship. The families receive relief on the usual plans, but without any system of scholarships. In Minneapolis, the Associated Charities have adopted the schol- arship plan, and during the year ending June 30, 1906, ten full scholarships were granted, and in some thirty other cases partial t relief was given — a comparatively large number for a city of that size, as compared with other cities. About 10 per cent of the ap- plications were approved for some form of aid. It is to be noted that in most of the cities, but not in New 6 Obstacles to Child Labor Reform York, the amount of the scholarship is not based on the probable earnings of the child were he employed, but on the actual need of the family, aiming to make up the full amount that the family requires in order to live in accord with reasonable standards. The Associated Charities in Kansas City reports that, while the scholarship idea as such has not been developed there, that society assists, from private sources, widows with children, so that the children may attend the public schools and need not be employed. Such also is the report from Indianapolis, with the further statement that when the recent truancy and factory laws were passed it was expected that there would be a large increase in the demand upon the funds of that society for aiding widows, but as a matter of fact, there was but very little increase of that character. In the City of Baltimore, the law has recently taken effect, and a plan has been adopted by which the bureau of labor and sta- tistics refers to the Charity Organization Society all cases of ap- parent hardship, most of which, thus far, upon investigation, have been found not to be cases of actual need. From Milwaukee, we have the report that there are no schol- arships, but that the county superintendent of the poor extends addi- tional relief to certain families when it would otherwise be a hard- ship to require the child to attend school. There are several such cases, and the plan is resulting in better attendance in the public schools. The examination of these reports, with a study of the letters accompanying them, has suggested to me several conclusions, and especially this one — and I speak for myself only, and not as repre- senting the views of the National Child Labor Committee, having had no opportunity for conference with them on this subject — that this is at bottom essentially a phase of the relief problem ; that it is not primarily an educational problem or a problem of enforcement l.of law, but is a relief problem ; and that all moneys given out in the norm of scholarships, and under these circumstances, should be given with the same care and with the same adequacy and upon the same principles as govern the best relief work. It is not an exceptional thing to find that there are new demands upon relief-giving societies, and that the standards heretofore deemed adequate are no longer adequate. It is frequently neces- Obstacles to Child Labor Reform 7 sary for such agencies and for such public officials to revise their judgments as to what constitutes adequate relief, and this is, after all, the fundamental thing in all charitable work. We may have been in error sometimes in the past, and have been superficially sat- isfied in entering upon the record of a family that it is "self-sup- porting" without looking far enough ahead, and without consider- ing whether the family is self-supporting with full justice to its future, as well as to its present. It is quite possible that the family may be self-supporting now, but in such a manner as to insure the fact that in a very few years it cannot possibly be self- supporting. The incipient consumptive can remain at work and support his family for a considerable time, but with the certain result that at the end of a short time we will have upon our hands a widow and a family of children. We have revised our standards of relief-giving in view of our most recent knowledge of the treatment of tuberculosis. Similarly a widow can go out to work by the day for six days in the week, and thus be "self-supporting" and maintain her family, but with the certain result that in a comparatively short time her health must give way and we shall have upon our hands for an indefinite time a woman broken in health and a family of chil- dren. Under these circumstances, the families are not self-support- ing in any proper sense of the term. Our conception of the amount and character of the relief that should be given must be extended and extended and again extended; and it is a similar step that we must take in applying our relief system to families in which there are children who would be employed except for our child labor laws. While all this is true, and while in my opinion the scholarship is a passing phase of the relief problem, it has many tactical and temporary advantages. Charity has come to be something of a yellow dog. No one likes to receive charity; few persons particu- larly care to be engaged in dispensing relief. Institutions supported by charitable gifts always prefer to be known under some other heading. It may be well, therefore, not to raise that question for the moment and to disguise the relief under some pleasanter name. Furthermore, of course, those who are instrumental in securing child labor legislation feel, and very properly so, a certain moral responsibility for seeing that hardship does not result, even in a small degree, from the proposed legislation. Therefore, it is entirely 8 Obstacles to Child Labor Reform proper and justifiable — it is in some ways desirable — that they should be able to say to the community and to the legislators and to the public authorities that they know of their positive knowledge that the families deprived of the earnings of their children are not suffering; and that as an evidence of good faith they, from funds collected themselves, have met the need. There are perhaps many communities in which relief work is not sufficiently well informed and organized, or is not sufficiently strong to meet this situation, and until they can be improved — until the relief agencies, public and private, can be educated and strength- ened, and induced to adopt the larger view, it may be wiser and, in fact, may be highly important, that some temporary provision of scholarships be made. The important thing, however, from the point of view of the National Child Labor Committee, is this, that the experience of the past four years has given us the measure of the problem. It has demonstrated the soundness of our earlier position ; that the number of such families needing relief is small ; that funds would be forth- coming to meet this need ; that the problem is an easily managed one ; and that poverty and parental dependence should not be an obstacle to progressive child labor legislation. THE AWAKENING OF THE SOUTH AGAINST CHILD LABOR By Dr. A. J. McKelway, Assistant Secretary of National Child Labor Committee. Two years ago, at the first annual meeting of this committee, I said, with reference to child labor in the South: "It is only neces- sary that the facts shall be carefully investigated and published, for the demand to become irresistible, from the people themselves, that an industry shall not be built upon the basis of child labor; nor will it be long before the will of a kind-hearted people shall be translated into humane laws, that we may again present a serene front to civilization." Then followed a year of defeats to the child labor cause in the South, in North Carolina and Florida and Georgia and Mississippi and Louisiana, with no apparent advance, but rather a disastrous reaction, with the evil on the increase. But at the second annual meeting, with hope deferred but with faith unshaken, I said: "In spite of the ineffectiveness of present laws and the violation of sol- emn agreements (not to employ children under a specified age), and the utter absence of protective legislation in some of the states, I make bold to say, because I know my people and love my people, that the South is too kind-hearted to allow this sacrifice of her children." And now it is a proud moment of my life, at this third annual meeting, when I can speak of the southern awakening against child labor as an accomplished fact. Our committee is able to report four splendid victories for our cause : in Maryland, where Dr. Lind- say's efficient aid has already been gratefully recognized by the friends of the children; in Kentucky, where Mr. Lovejoy's timely intervention, at a critical moment, reconciled conflicting views and secured the enactment of the best child labor law of any southern (») io South Awakening Against Child Labor state; in Louisiana, where the law was amended in the right direc- tion ; and in Georgia, where for the first time a child labor law has been enacted ; the same legislature which had defeated what even the manufacturers called " a mild child labor bill," having passed at its second session, with but two dissenting votes in the House and unanimously in the Senate, a far more advanced bill, because that giant who rules America, who sometimes sleeps, but who once aroused is irresistible, had been awakened — Public Opinion. Nor is this all. The Democratic convention of Alabama, in nominating a prominent manufacturer for the office of governor, wrote child labor reform in no uncertain language into its party platform. From North Carolina and from Tennessee, from Florida and Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas, from the mother of states, old Virginia, and from the youngest daughter of the southern sisterhood, Okla- homa, there come cheering reports of an awakened public opinion, of an aroused public conscience ; while in South Carolina the manu- facturers are earnestly and sincerely pressing for the enactment of a compulsory education law which will help to solve the child labor problem. And at a meeting only this week in Kentucky, where the best brains and blood of the state were represented, among them the official of a powerful manufacturers' association, with representatives of the labor unions, a state committee of fifty was formed, with an associate membership that may be numbered by the hundreds, to amend and enforce the child labor law of Kentucky, and a message was sent from that gathering to Kentucky's representatives in the United States Senate to urge the passage of the child labor bills now pending in the National Congress. This awakening of the South to its social problems is but a part of its awakening on every line of human progress. And there is with it all a new note of nationalism, sounding as clear as a bugle amidst the strife of partisan politics, the clash of selfish inter- ests, and the dying groans of sectional prejudice, and that bugle note proclaims to willing ears, in the prophetic words of Ben Hill, of Georgia : "We are in the house of our fathers. Our brothers are our companions." Forty years ago the South found itself with its labor system destroyed, its transportation system annihilated and the flower of its manhood under the sod. Its colleges which, while slightly fewer in number, yet employed more professors and matriculated more South "Awakening Against Child Labor n students than the colleges of the rest of the nation, had their endow- ments swept away in the universal flood. A whole generation of students, who might have enriched the world with their contribu- tions to literature and science, were following the plow to keep * starvation from destroying what battle had spared. Nor was this all. There succeeded an era that was worse than the weary years of the war. The South had to endure not only the bitterness of defeat and the anguish of bereavement, but also the odium of having precipitated one of the costliest wars, in blood and treasure, that the world has known, and the additional odium of having been on the wrong side of the issue developed by the war, the perpetu- ation of human slavery. It, moreover, rested under the suspicion that its people did not accept the results of the war in good faith and could not be trusted to deal fairly with the ex-slaves. So the energies of the South, that might have been at once directed to its upbuilding, were employed in preserving the very life of our Cau- casian civilization, the integrity of the race, and the maintaining of government against threatened anarchy. I believe the rehabilita- tion of the South during the decade after the war to be the proudest chapter in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race. But during this decade the South became actually poorer than at the close of the war. I am old enough to remember the bitterness of that poverty, and have learned to appreciate the heroism of the sacrifice that the fathers and mothers of the South made for the education and advancement of their children. May I be pardoned for a word of personal reminiscence? I heard only this week in Washington a debate in the United States Senate over the District of Columbia child labor bill. One matter of grave discussion was the inquiry whether the little pages of the Senate would be deprived of the emoluments and advantages of their position during school hours by the terms of the bill. It had been agreed by the friends of the bill that such association was an education in itself. Then the Senate passed to the consideration of the widowed mother who had no other means of support than the labor of the immature child. And suddenly, to me, sitting there in the Senate gallery, there came the vision of my boyhood's home in old Virginia. We were "as poor as Job's old blue turkey-hen," as we used to say, and proud of it. It was at a time when it was 12 South Awakening Against Child Labor something of a disgrace to be rich, since that indicated that there had not been sufficient sacrifices for the Southern cause. I had been on a visit to Washington, where a prominent lawyer of the city had taken a fancy to the little boy, and, when I returned, a letter was sent offering me a position as a page in the Senate, with a salary that was then beyond the dreams of avarice. I never knew of the offer until it had been declined. I was just beginning to lay up my small store of Latin and Greek. A widowed mother had other ambitions for her son than the career in Washington offered before his education was finished. I do not know how hard the struggle may have been, but I do know what the decision was, and therefore I, this day, in this distinguished presence, with faltering voice and bowed head, do bless the memory of the sainted dead. Let me say, in simple justice, that the awakening of the South was first of all an industrial awakening. The South had been able to maintain its cotton-growing monopoly. Its people had formerly turned from manufacturing to agriculture because of the conditions that accompanied slavery. Now they began to turn again to manu- facturing. To-day it is difficult to exaggerate the extent of the advancement of the South along industrial lines. Last year the South manufactured more bales of cotton into yarn and cloth than all the mills of the rest of the nation. Birmingham has made Pitts- burg sit up and take notice in the iron and steel works. The min- eral resources of the South in coal and iron ore and petroleum are just beginning to be uncovered. The historic advice of Horace Greeley has been parodied to read, "Go South, young man, go South." But, lest this should read too much like a promoter's adver- tisement, consider finally the single fact that in the last two decades the cotton spindles of the South have increased from 667,000 to 9,500,000. Then came the educational awakening. The most mortifying thing that can be brought to the attention of an intelligent Southerner to-day is the place of the Southern States in the illiteracy column. It is related of a North Carolinian, whose state had once been at the bottom of the list, that while visiting the Washington Library he glanced up at a wall-map with the states arranged according to the percentage of illiteracy, and, finding that his state no longer occupied the lowest place, he shouted, "Thank God for South Carolina." The story of this educational revival is familiar to all South Awakening Against Child Labor 13 in its more recent spectacular presentations, but the real history of the times is that of patient courage amidst great difficulties, the South steadfastly setting its face toward the education of two races, with a doubly expensive system on account of the necessary separation of the races in the public schools, and the two races being educated for the most part by the taxes paid by one. And, now, with the increase of wealth, with a higher standard of wages and of living, with the school teachers going into all cor- ners that the people may be taught, there has begun what I con- ceive to be the most significant movement of this generation, the application of the best minds of the South to the solution of those vital problems, to the advancement of those social reforms which are infinitely more important than the economic questions which have occupied so much of the thought of the nation, or the consti- tutional questions which have seemingly monopolized the theoretical statesmanship of the South. The interdependence of the business world throughout the nation was first established. Business men of all sections met upon the common platform of building up the business interests of the South. They discovered that we were one people before the preachers or the politicians had found it out. Then the educational leaders of the nation have been coming to- gether in the series of southern conferences on education, and the North has found that it had something to learn from the South, while the South has been glad to gain from the experience of the North. The forming of a National Child Labor Committee marked an epoch in the development of this nation along the lines of social reform. The agitation had begun in the South, in Alabama, and the echoes of that battle for the children's rights was heard in Bos- ton and awakened the New England conscience to the shame of ; having New England mill owners of southern mills, with good laws in their own states for the protection of the children, founding their industry in the South upon the basis of child labor. The fight progressed to victory in the passage of the first child labor laws of Alabama, North and South Carolina, and Virginia. Then it slowly grew upon the national consciousness that this was a national evil, that while the percentage of child laborers was greater in the South, the actual number of the little toilers was far greater in the North. And now no one speaks in a general way of this national curse with- 14 South Awakening Against Child Labor out coupling with the evil of child labor in the southern cotton mills that of the sweat-shops of New York, the glass factories of New Jersey, the coal mines of Pennsylvania. But while the response of public opinion in the South to the appeal in behalf of the children, to the necessity of preserving with its wonted vigor the racial stock of the South, has been magnifi- cent, it would be only a half truth to point that out without indicat- ing also the defective and ineffective laws to which we have yet attained, and the long, slow, toilsome process by which those laws may be raised to the proper standard of effectiveness. The object of this reform is not to pass laws but to rescue the children from the mine and from the mill and to put them into the school. Let us review briefly the present situation, first as to legisla- tion, and then as to the number of children employed in one indus- try, which has been and still is the commanding industry of the South, but which may not long hold that position in the present general advance. Except in Kentucky and Tennessee, the twelve-year standard yet obtains in the South. In South Carolina and in Georgia and in Alabama it is yet possible for a ten-year-old child, by permis- sion of the law, to work twelve hours a day. There are sixty-six mills in North Carolina where twelve-year-old children may work a twelve-hour night, by law. The bald statement of these facts is a damning indictment. We have almost no machinery for the enforce- ment of the laws that we have, and their violation is a matter of common knowledge. Except in Kentucky and Maryland, we have no compulsory education laws in the South, though I regard it as a fallacy to say that we must put a child of tender years into the cotton mill, for instance, unless we can force him into the school.; And the plea for compulsory education first has been made the, instrument of sentencing thousands of little children to hard labor for no other crime than the supposed poverty of their parents, on the theory that little children, with no evil environments, from pure homes, be they ever so humble, must be forced to endure the long hours of the cotton mill, at constant employment, to keep them from becoming criminals. I resent that theory as a libel upon southern civilization. Now, take a glance at the statistics. How many children, of South Awakening Against Child Labor 15 what ages, are now employed in southern cotton mills, nobody knows. The manufacturing organs that are inclined to boom the industry, as to capital invested, the sum of wages paid and the num- ber of factories and spindles and looms, are apparently trying to convince the public that this vast industry is run with an insignifi- cant body of human workers. The census bulletins of manufac- tures just issued for 1905 are far below, in the statistics of em- ployees, the statements made by the same manufacturers, to the textile publications. And yet the percentage of children under sixteen reported by the manufacturers is enough almost to arouse a people to arms in their defense. Yet the Bureau of Statistics and Information of Maryland reports that it has issued twice as many permits for children under sixteen at work as were reported by the manufacturers in the census bulletin of 1905. To ask a manufacturer, perhaps sensitive on the subject of employing children, perhaps afraid of incrimi- nating himself, how many children under sixteen are employed in his establishment, is not the most scientific method of arriving at the tcuth. And yet when the census bureau compiles statistics gained in that way, the statement becomes an authority. Fortunately for the cause of the children, a recent study of the population tables of 1900 gives the result of that house to house canvass, as to the number of children, ten to fifteen years of age, engaged in particular industries. From that we learn (census bulletin 69) that three out of ten operatives in southern cotton mills are from ten to fifteen years of age. This takes no account of a quite appreciable number of children under ten so employed. An estimate of mine, published a year ago, that there were sixty thousand children under fourteen in the southern cotton mills has been widely challenged and abusively denied. The Blue Book, a recognized authority on textile statistics, corrected every year from the reports of the manufacturers, gives in actual numbers, or by fair computation from the few mills not reporting the number of their employees, the sum of 209,000 operatives in the cotton mills of the south. But three out of ten is thirty per cent, or 62,700 children from ten to fifteen years of age, to which two or three thousand should be added for children under ten years of age. It is my opinion that the percentage of children employed has increased since 1900 on account of the shortage of the labor supply and the. 16 South 'Awakening 'Against Child Labor demand for more operatives caused by the increase of fifty-five per cent in the number of spindles since 1900. The figure given, 60,000 children under fourteen, is thus seen to be a conservative estimate. I quote again the statement made by Mr. R. M. Miller, Jr., of Charlotte, N. C, formerly president of the Southern Cotton Spinners' Association, later president of the American Cotton Manufacturers' Association, considered an expert in cotton mill matters, that 75 per cent of the spinners of the North Carolina mills were fourteen years and under, while his predecessor in office, Mr. George B. Hiss, of Charlotte, told me that the usual calculation was that only 30 per cent of the operatives were adults. Nor is this all. From the mines of Alabama and Tennessee and Virginia and Kentucky comes the cry of the children, some of them allowed to work by law at the age of twelve, some of them working contrary to the law at that age. From the woolen mills of Virginia and Tennessee comes the same bitter cry; from the cigar factories of Florida, from its canning factories; from the silk mills, from the phosphate mines, the children stretch out their feeble hands to us for help. Pity them? pity the children? Of course we do. But there is a more serious problem here. We are brought face to face with the fact that the depreciation of our racial stock has already begun, that we have a cotton mill type that can be recognized, that the percentage of illiteracy in the mill villages surpasses even that of the mountain counties of some of our states, and that there is already beginning, in a few factory cen- ters, a moral collapse of which I hardly dare speak. And the South must face this more startling fact that its awakening has come too late, just as it came too late in England, to save a whole generation of its children. The South, with its traditions of states rights, must answer this question: Shall we, for the sake of one application of one constitutional theory, fail to ask the aid of our national government in securing an effective law and condemn a generation of our precious children that might be saved? I believe I know what the answer will be. We will build monuments to our fathers, but we will not cut ourselves among their tombs. Dead hands, long ago folded reverently and lovingly upon the breast, must not hold back the little children of the South from their right- ful heritage. While the politicians may find an issue, the people, South Awakening Against Child Labor ly whose hearts have ever beaten true, will have a word to say on this subject. Believing in states rights, but also believing in the sacred rights of childhood, I would deplore the making of any such issue as shall put the rights of the state over against the rights of the child, because the child will win. The very stars in their courses are fighting for his rights, and the obituary of the Herods will be the epitaph on the tombs of dead politicians: "They are dead that sought the young child's life." A moral revolution is sweeping over the nation, and the South is doing its part to swell the wave. After all, the south is a small part of the manufacturing life of the nation. We are as yet a rural people, loving the homely virtues of the soil. But it seems to me that the manufacturing and mining interests of the nation should take some recent warnings to heart. When the President called the coal operators and the coal min- ers to a conference, which referred their differences to arbitration, public sentiment was divided as to the rights of the two parties to the contention. But when in the course of that investigation the fact was developed of the wholesale employment of boys in the mines, public sentiment instantly veered to the side of the miners. Two years ago the business men of highest repute in this coun- try were the insurance officials. A family quarrel in one of the in- surance companies led to an investigation. That investigation proved the misuse of trust funds, the final result of which was the robbery of the children, orphaned by the death of the bread-win- ners; and now Alexander is in a madhouse, McCall is dead of a broken heart, the McCurdy's are banished, and all because in offend- ing the public conscience the children were also touched. Six months ago the trust question was a subject of academic discussion. Then one great trust was found to be poisoning the people with unwholesome meat, while others were convicted of adulterating food and drink and medicine and even the candy which the children craved. And now all are involved in indiscriminate condemnation, so that every time the department of justice begins a new prosecution the joyful people send a message of sympathy to the White House saying, "Hit 'em again." The protective tariff is just now a matter of academic discus- 18 South Awakening Against Child Labor sion. This committee, as a committee, has nothing to do with it. I suppose that it embraces all shades of opinion on that subject. But let this discussion of a national child labor law become the burning question in Congress, let the manufacturers or the coal combinations oppose it there, let the discussion develop the real facts of child slavery, and it is easy to predict that those who claim the right of the exploitation of infant industry will have fatally dam- aged their claim for the protection of infant industries. For this nation, of which the South is a loyal part, has set its face already as a flint against the oppression of childhood. It is not going to tolerate it one instant longer than it can be helped. And the danger always is, in a democracy, that when it has become pas- sionately aroused it may be indiscriminate in its punishment. There is no power on earth like the appeal which helpless childhood makes. There is no vengeance like that of the lioness robbed of her whelps. And woe betide those who would stand in the way of this nation, once it has heard the piteous cry of the children, and is rushing to their defense and their salvation. SOME OF THE ULTIMATE PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF PREMATURE TOIL By Albert H. Freiberg, M.D., Chairman of Ohio State Child Labor Committee. It is greatly to be regretted that it is as yet not possible to present to this committee a comprehensive report upon the physical effects of premature toil, based upon a thorough and scientific investigation. Many persons express surprise at learning that up to this time no such study has been made. In the course of a recent effort to improve the child labor law of this state, a discussion developed between the committee and a group of manufacturers objecting to certain of its provisions, the committee seeking to show that ten hours of work daily must be considered injurious to the organism of boys between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, even though the employment involved no great muscular exertion. We were met with the request to furnish reliable evidence that this is the case; evidence which we were unable to produce, even though we were perfectly sure in our own minds of the truth of our state- ment. It is apparent that the value of such evidence would be exceedingly great in the efforts to secure for the growing child its natural rights; of which efforts this meeting is so vigorous an expression. Unless one has devoted some thought to the subject, it might appear to be a task of no great difficulty or magnitude to collect the data incident to such an investigation. However, the reverse is true, as may be seen from the following requirements, which are none too severe if reliable information is to be obtained. It should be required: (a) That the investigation comprehend a large number of chil- dren in each of the groups to be mentioned. (b) That the measurements be made by those familiar with such work, in order that they may be trustworthy ; and by persons competent to detect physical abnormities even in their beginnings. Ciol 20 Physical Effects of Premature Toil (c) That a sufficient number of measurements be taken of each child so as to insure a convincing record of its physical condition. (d) That the children be examined upon beginning their fac- tory life and at certain intervals until the termination of adoles- cence. (e) That comparative investigation be made of a large number of children of the same types who have not been engaged in gainful occupations during the most active period of adolescence. The value of such an investigation may well be considered inestimable. It would determine beyond doubt whether the charge of physical deterioration from premature toil is a just one or not and would fix definitely the responsibility of the state in the protec- tion of its future citizens and mothers. We feel sufficiently sure of the result of such an investigation, made with skill and impar- tiality, as to court it most ardently. Upon thoughtful consideration it must, however, appear that the means and power necessary for the execution of so comprehensive a program cannot be within the reach of a private association. This should be a function of gov- ernment, and the need for it might well be looked upon as one of the most important arguments for the establishment of a Children's Bureau at Washington. In the absence of data dealing with the investigation of large numbers of toiling children and based upon a systematic plan of observation and record, it may nevertheless be of interest to call attention to certain effects of a purely physical character which professional experience has for years been accustomed to look upon as the results of environment and occupation, and especially when considered with reference to the physical peculiarities of the child between the ages of ten and sixteen years. In doing this, effort will be made to avoid that which is purely technical, but also that which is in any way still a matter of supposition rather than obser- vation, and therefore not generally accepted. The role of the play hours in the development of the young child, his innate desire for physical activity and especially in the open, are well recognized by all laymen, and there are few indeed who will not acknowledge how important these are in promoting the formative processes which are at this time of life actively going on. The statement that this natural desire for movement and exercise cannot be balked in the child eight to ten years of age, without Physical Effects of Premature Toil , 21 damage to his physical progress, will meet with little protest, and for the present discussion this is of minor importance, since, by far the greater number of children at work have at least passed their tenth year, and since no state, whose statutes do not ignore the question altogether, has ventured to place the limit for work below this. When the child arrives at its twelfth year, however, it enters a period which, lasting until its seventeenth year as a rule, is char- acterized not only by those changes of disposition, of mind and soul, of body and appearance, embraced by the term "puberty," but a period also during which the body experiences its most rapid growth in length. As the bones grow longer, at this rapid rate, the muscles controlling these bones must grow longer with them. The muscles must, however, increase not only in length but in volume if their strength is to be proportionate to the ever-increasing de- mands made upon them. That this increase of volume, therefore, of strength, is dependent upon exercise, is common knowledge ; that lack of use causes wasting and therefore weakening of muscle is no less so. It is likewise well known that excessive exercise of certain muscles will result not in increase of strength but in degen- eration and weakening, and that there is no surer way of inducing great fatigue than by using the same set of muscles for a long time without change, thus giving no opportunity for what is called rest but what is really the replenishing of muscle material which has been consumed. Let us now apply these statements in practice; to the case of a girl feeding material to a machine and sitting in one position for hours at a time; to the case of a boy handling small articles of manufacture, having perhaps nothing more to do than to remove them from one machine to another close by, or to per- form, in the standing position, a set of movements with rapidity but involving no test of strength whatever. Such work commonly develops quickness of eye and dexterity of fingers. It is certainly not looked upon as involving physical strain of any account. Here lies the fallacy; standing and sitting are looked upon as passive and involving no great muscular action. If this were true, why should we then tire so much more easily from standing than from walking, since this apparently requires much more use of the muscles ; why so much more easily from holding a weight continu- ously in one position than from moving it in various directions. As a matter of fact, standing and sitting are possible only by 22 Physical Effects of Premature Toil active muscular work, and, when prolonged, have connected with them the disadvantage of permitting but little change of activity to other muscles. It cannot be surprising to learn, therefore, that under these circumstances the tissues yield under unrelieved strain; that the leg and trunk muscles become excessively fatigued and thus compel the assumption, for relief, of faulty postures and attitudes which can at first be voluntarily departed from, but which finally take the place of the normal and leave the child more or less perma- nently deformed. Thus it is that, even before the advent of modern factory employment, certain deformities were recognized as being associated with certain occupations; the expression "baker's legs," for example, will be found in surgical treatises written many years ago. The argument that the labor performed by the child is not hard is therefore only a specious one. Keeping a growing individual at an occupation, for ten hours daily, which involves the use of only a limited set of muscles, when he is at an age when nature prompts running and jumping, deprives him of the need for deep breathing, and therefore expansion of the chest, which these bring with them, and of the stimulus to the blood circulation which, although often harmful to the man past middle age, is of the greatest value to the developing organism. However desirable it may be to preserve the normal form and symmetry of the human body, that it may be agreeable to look upon, there is underlying this a factor of greater import to humanity than mere personal vanity. This is the economic factor which takes into account the future of the individual, after the period of immaturity has passed and the child has become the citizen and has assumed the responsibilities of parentage. Whatever can be shown to now per- manently impair wage-earning capacity or to interfere with the performance of family duties, or indeed to shorten the tenure of life, will be acknowledged by all to be of prime importance. I shall not refer to such conditions as general weakness or diminished chest capacity and the tendency to acquire disease in consequence thereof, but rather to certain definite deformities which I have had frequent opportunity for observing, both in process of formation and in their final results. For the present, the various occupations of toiling children may be grouped according as the work is done in standing or Physical Effects of Premature Toil 23 sitting position. In general, and there are of course many excep- tions, boy's work requires standing and girl's work sitting. It may also be said, in the same general way, that the work which the boy does standing is an apprenticeship for work which the man also does, as a journeyman, in the standing position. This is corre- spondingly true of girl's work. Standing occupations naturally involve the feet and legs in greatest strain, and more especially the feet. In consequence we see developing, during the adolescent years, that condition known as weak and flat foot. This frequently occurs in the adult also from causes of similar nature, but only too fre- quently the result of conditions and weakening which must be attributed to the period of active growth. The deformity acquired in adult years, though it may be disabling and painful in high degree, but rarely assumes the severe form so frequently seen in the later period of adolescence as a sad testimony of the child's experi- ence. Commonly, the foot loses its strength and shape gradually, so that, at this time, but little notice is taken of it. Later, when the child has become the father, and the necessity for continuous employment is apparent, the feet only too frequently become so painful that long abstention from work is imperative, and it happens not rarely that an entire change of employment cannot be avoided; thus are lost the skill and aptitude acquired during the period of prematurity; for while medical science can do much for these unfortunates, they are often debarred from continuing in trades requiring constant standing. Frequently upon coming under med- ical care the condition is such that nothing short of a long stay in hospital will prove availing, and this means loss of income if not loss of independence for a greater or less period. I doubt whether it is generally realized how frequently such conditions are met as those to which I have just referred. While originally uttered in a somewhat different sense, the saying seems here most appropriate that "the boy without play is the father without a job." When the one weekly holiday comes, the accumulated fatigue of the week's standing is apt to be so great that only the exceptionally robust have the desire for outdoor exercise left in them. The day is therefore only too often used for repose of the body, which, while furnishing relief to the excessively fatigued muscles, does nothing for the remainder of the organism, which would otherwise invite active movement in the open air. 24 Physical Effects of Premature Toil Turning now to the girl in the sitting occupation, I would attract your attention to the frequent occurrence of curvature of the spine, spoken of as "lateral curvature." This deformity is often seen in school children and even in those leading luxurious lives. It betokens a weakness of fiber and a need for physical culture, which is, however, to be controlled by proper treatment. When this is within reach, the progress of the deformity is checked so that it does not become a menace to health, and it is objectionable chiefly as constituting an esthetic defect which the skilful dressmaker is usually able to conceal. Were this, however, the extent of the damage done to the organism by lateral curvature, I should have nothing to say of it in this place. It becomes of importance in this connection, however, because it is so frequently seen in girls who have been engaged in sitting occupations during the developmental period and because in them it assumes not only the role of a deformity of most severe type, not simply a most unfortunate disfigurement, but also because it now constitutes a very serious menace to health and the attain- ment of longevity of even average degree. I shall not discuss the deformity in detail except to say that when assuming the severe grades under discussion, its effects reach far beyond the spine itself, which bends not simply to one side or the other, but is always markedly twisted on its vertical axis also. In this twist the chest participates fully, so that not only is its power of expansion greatly interfered with, but its capacity is reduced and much crowding and displacement of the vital organs contained within can be deter- mined. Small wonder, then, that such severe degree of lateral curvature adds greatly to the likelihood of developing pulmonary consumption and that the heart cannot be thus pushed aside with impunity. It has been ascertained that, for these reasons, the dura- tion of life of individuals with severe lateral curvature is far below the average. The remoter effect of the deformity upon the pelvis of the girl I need only mention to the extent of saying that here, too, a distortion and diminution of normal capacity frequently results, so that this has always been recognized by medical men as of potentially serious influence upon the maternal function. In conclusion it is to be said that these deformities are by no means confined exclusively to the one sex or the other; neither is Physical Effects of Premature Toil 25 it to be interpreted that they occur in every child who works, or even in the greater number. It is asserted, however, that these deformities in the severe forms before referred to are particularly frequent among toiling children, or those who have toiled as chil- dren. That the unfavorable influences of premature toil are only too often augmented by unfortunate home influences, by dwellings that are unfit, by insufficient and improper food, does not alter the case. I have aimed to speak of these deformities in particular, because of their serious nature and because I have had abundant opportunity for observing them. On the other hand, it is not to be overlooked that these are by no means the only, or even the most common, evidences of physical deterioration to be observed among working children. CHILD LABOR IN THE SOFT COAL MINES By Owen R. Lovejoy, Assistant Secretary of the National Child Labor Committee. The committee's investigations of child labor in the soft coal region have extended over sections of Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia. The field thus far studied does not justify us in attempting any estimate of the number of children employed. Child labor in the bituminous industry differs from that in the anthracite, as in the former there is no slate picking and the children employed are inside the mine. They work as runners, drivers, door boys and couplers, while perhaps the larger percentage are employed with their fathers in loading coal. In one Pennsylvania mining borough where from 1,000 to 1,200 people are employed in the mines, it was estimated by several of the miners, two mine superintendents, the chief burgess and the superintendent of schools that between 175 and 200 boys under 16 were employed in the mines. The comment of the superintendent of schools is significant. He says : "Last year I received certificates signed by doctors certifying that children were unable to attend school on account of physical disability and we afterward found the children working in the mine. Of course, we got them back in school. Men take boys in the mine actually so small they can hardly carry their dinner bucket without dragging it, in order to claim an extra half turn, i. e., more cars to fill. The cause of this is that there are too many workers in the mine so as to have more tenants for the company houses and more customers for the com- pany stores. All are expected to trade at the company store." A borough policeman added that it was not difficult to get a small boy in the mines. He said : "I take my boy to the superintendent and tell him a hard luck story, and especially if I have a big family and trade at the company store, he will take him in. They do not ask for certificates of age in the mines here." Child Labor in Soft Coal Mines 27 These expressions throw light on several causes of the employ- ment of young children in the coal mines. These causes may be roughly classified as follows : First. The Company Store and the Company House. — It is claimed by many miners and citizens in the coal region that where the mining companies maintain general stores and own a number of houses for rent, they customarily bring to the region a larger number of people than can be regularly employed. The result is that while the mine is operated every day, each miner will get from three to four days' work in a week, while the number of coal cars assigned each man in a day is limited. If a man finds it impossible to maintain his family under these conditions he is tempted to take his own boys into the mine and on their account is allowed fifty per cent more cars (called a half turn) than if working alone. Sometimes it is said these boys are too small to be of any real assistance, but their presence enables the father, by over-working, to earn a larger wage. This explanation seems justified in many localities, while in others the number of cars supplied to the workers is unlimited, and the management vigorously discourages child labor. Second. Racial Traits. — We may illustrate this by one borough found in the central part of Pennsylvania, inhabited principally by Swedes and Italians in about equal numbers. Although in the lower grades of school the Swedish and the Italian children are about equally divided, in the third and fourth grades the Italian children begin rapidly to drop out and large numbers were found in the mines, while the Swedish children remain in school and go through the grammar grades, and several of them into the high school. It was a small borough and the schools wene not graded up to the standard of other borough and city schools, but so far as the opportunities afforded, those Swedish fathers and mothers were keeping their children in school and out of the mines. Yet the houses occupied by the two races were very similar : their economic condition appeared much the same. The Swedes had perhaps lived in the community a little longer and therefore were a little" more independent than the Italians, but the necessity for protecting these children of the Italians against the misguided ambition of their pa- rents is evident. These people are ignorant of our English language, ignorant of the value of our American institutions, ignorant of the 28 Child Labor in Soft Coal Mines handicap they are placing on their little ones by this premature employment. The necessity for the larger parent, the state, inter- vening to protect the children against their own parents is very well illustrated by the case of a little boy I discovered some weeks ago down in the mines in West Virginia. Two years ago, at the age of eleven, he came to school unable to understand a word of English. Through an older Italian girl who had learned the Eng- lish language the superintendent said to the little fellow that he was glad to have him there and that the school desired to do all it could to help him. Goaded on by the sense of being placed in a class with little children six and seven years of age while he was eleven, he was spurred to his best endeavors, and through those two years he passed successfully through the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh grades of the school. But at the end of those two years, just a few months ago, his father, an industrious, hard-working, patient Italian, thought the boy's education was complete and took him out of school. He took him away, outside the borough limits and beyond the jurisdic- tion of the school, and down three hundred feet underground to load coal, a mile and a half from daylight ! And little John, who would perhaps have been developed into one of our great artists or educators or statesmen had he been permitted to remain in school, now probably has educational opportunities closed to him forever. In the anthracite field the same sacrifice of the so-called foreign child is found. In one of the anthracite mining boroughs of Pennsylvania, with a school population of about 3,500, we found the people divided into two broad classes, Americans and foreigners. By "American" in that community was meant Americans, English, Scotch, Irish, Welsh and Germans, wherever they may have been born. By "foreigner" was meant Lithuanians, Greeks, Magyars, Italians, Poles — a large number of races lumped off together as for- eigners, or "Slavs," "Huns," "Dagoes," or by some other term, ac- cording to the moral and intellectual standpoint of the person describing them. There were these two classes, Americans and for- eigners. In the lower grades of school they compared very favor- ably. In the first two or three grades the foreign children — that is, the children of those called Slavs — slightly outnumbered the Amer- .,■• Child Labor in Soft Coal Mines 29 ican children. As we came up through the first two or three grades, they began to drop out, and by the time they reached the fourth grade the ranks of the foreign children were sadly depleted, so that at the end of the grammar school they had nearly disappeared, and in the high school of ninety-nine pupils there were only eleven of these foreign children. But I found this curious circumstance through comparison of the American and foreign children, that while there were only eleven foreign children out of ninety-nine in the high school, the honors for scholarship in the first and second grades of the high school were held by young Lithuanians, while the valedictorian of class 1905 was a young Jewess born in Russia. If we are to serve these elements that are coming to us from all shores, if we are to give them the chance to partake of our civiliza- tion and become familiar with the principles of our government, then it becomes our duty as American citizens, not out of pity for these children, but out of consideration for our democratic institu- tions, to offer them, not the worst we have, but the best we have — access to all our public institutions and privileges. Third. The Attitude of the Mine Management. — Sometimes in the same community the widest disparity is found between different mines. In one mining town in Central Pennsylvania we found two mines located on the same hillside. The thickness of the veins was about equal in the mines. The general conditions of mining, so far as could be discovered by one who does not understand the technical problems of mining or of mining conditions, were about equal. One of these mines is operated by a large concern closely identified with a great railroad corporation, and there I discovered not less than ten per cent, and possibly fifteen per cent, of all the employees were boys under sixteen years of age. The other mine was an independent concern, and so far as we could find not a boy under sixteen years of age was employed. One enemy of this mining company who was interviewed said he believed there were two or three boys not sixteen years of age, but was not quite sure. This we regarded as rather strong testimony in favor of that com- pany from one not in sympathy with it. This does not reflect upon the organization of the mine itself, for in other places we found the reverse true. The large corporations were freer from child employ- ment than some of the independent concerns. This instance is given only to show that in the same locality the difference seemed entirely 3° Child Labor in Soft Coal Mines due to the attitude of the mining superintendents. The superin- tendent in the one where the children were employed said he went to work when he was only eight years old, and it was the best thing that ever happened to him. He thought if the boy had not enough education when he reached twelve years of age to get through life successfully, he was no good anyway, and the sooner he went to work the better. The other superintendent, who had formerly been a superintendent of schools, said he cherished for every boy in that community the largest educational opportunity. He said: "If I know it, no boy gets inside this mine or any other mine in this borough until he has had a fair opportunity to lay the foundation for an American education." Fourth. Conditions of Labor. — A coal mining community in Maryland presents a striking contrast between mines located on opposite sides of the same mountain. In one, an independent con- cern, it was estimated by several of the employees, and was the judgment of the investigator who saw all the people going into the mines, that not less than forty per cent of those employed were under sixteen years of age; while in the other, a large railroad mining company, six or seven of whose mines were visited, no boys under sixteen could be found. We attempted to discover the reason for this disparity. There seemed to be no sentiment in the com- munity that would have turned the boys toward one mine and away from the other, but on examination we found widely differing con- ditions of labor in the mines. In the first mine where the boys were employed the vein is from three and a half to four feet thick. Small mules are used for hauling in the mines, because the company does not care to excavate more earth than is necessary to get the coal out from the headings. For driving these mules boys are convenient, as also for tending doors and for loading cars. In the other mines the vein is a large one, running from eight and a half to nine feet in thickness. The work is very heavy. The cars are large, and the boys are not found profitable there. The differences were due entirely to natural conditions. This illustrates clearly the error of attempting to take one mining operation or one factory, or one sweat shop, or one institution of any kind in the study of this problem, and making a generalization that covers the whole field. Fifth. Defective Laws. — In Pennsylvania, a boy cannot legally be employed in the anthracite mines until sixteen years of age. He Child Labor in Soft Coal Mines 31 may be employed outside the mine in the breakers at fourteen. At twelve years of age he may be employed in a bituminous mine if accompanied by his father, though he may not go in the mine inde- pendently until he is sixteen years of age. Because of the defective ' law, making it impossible to prove the age of the child, boys two or three years younger than twelve years of age are employed in the bituminous mines. Many whose parents confessed that the boys were ten and eleven years of age were found employed in some of the soft coal mines of Pennsylvania. In Maryland and West Virginia the school and child labor laws are little better, and where industrial conditions offer the temp- tation, the employment of children is extensive. The school oppor- tunities in many of these districts are very meager. Sections rich in coal deposits and laden with the clouds of smoke from the coke oven, have no accessible school privileges above the primary grades, while probably not over five per cent of the children of many of these communities pass beyond the grammar grades. One mining village in West Virginia was found containing about fifty homes with no school whatever, the nearest school house being said by a neighboring school principal to be a mile and a half down the rail- road — there is no public highway — and several citizens of the village expressed their doubt whether any of the children ever attended school there. The great educational awakening in West Virginia, however, gives promise that in the near future adequate school privileges will be provided for every child in the state. The same, I believe, may be said of the educational awakening in both the other states now under consideration. In Pennsylvania the activity of the school superintendents stationed in these mining sections is remarkable. Most of these teachers have the burden of this problem heavily upon their souls, and many are working beyond their strength to find some way to keep the child from being exploited, and to keep it in school. An important aim of the National Child Labor Committee is to co-operate actively with the school superintendents, the factory inspectors and other officers of those states for the enactment of such laws as will lift the burden, will make it easy instead of hard to have the law enforced, will make it natural instead of unnatural to have the truth told. $2 Child Labor in Soft Coal Mines We have been misunderstood frequently in speaking of the disposition on the part of many parents to deceive regarding the age of their children, and we were recently accused of charging widespread perfidy among the mining population of Pennsylvania. Of course, such a criticism is ridiculous. Consider one of these foreign parents who was never in school; knows nothing about reading or writing even in his own language. His child has been going to school for three or four years. The parent believes that now the child would be a valuable asset in the family income. Perhaps his labor is greatly needed. The parent believes he has already had sufficient opportunity to gain knowledge and that the best thing for the child is to put him to work. Many times, in fact, these parents do not know the nature of the oath they take. . I chanced in the office of a notary public some months ago in Pennsylvania, and there came a man, evidently a foreigner, with his boy, apparently about nine years of age. The man, in broken English, said he wanted "work paper" for the boy. The notary public was not in town that day. His brother, who was a traveling salesman for a local brewery, was in, and possibly desiring to receive the fee of twenty-five cents offered by the State of Pennsylvania for this valuable official service, he sat down at the table and asked the man his name and the name of the boy. Then he began to write. That was all the conversation that passed between them. After writing he stood up and read some- thing which I did not understand and this foreigner could not un- derstand, raised his hand and motioned to the man to do the same. Taking the paper — my errand not known at the time — I found that this little fellow was born on a certain day fourteen years and two weeks before, and therefore was two weeks over the legal age limit for employment. Such is the confusion that is spread through- out the community. The boy goes into the mine after being in this country about two months. The school authorities had not yet discovered him ; it would have been impossible to do so. If a mine inspector discovers what his age is he also discovers an official document of the State of Pennsylvania saying that the child is fourteen years of age and is entitled to be employed. If he takes legal action to remove the boy from the mine he may be doing justice to a boy here and there, and he may do injustice to some other boy who is undersized but of the proper age. Child Labor in Soft Coal Mines 33 Here, as in the anthracite region, the cost in life and limb forms a large percentage of our national expenditure for the pro- duction of coal. In this industry as in others employing young children, the children bear more than their share of the risk, except that the miners and their laborers engage in the extra hazardous department of the industry. Sam Madill is, unfortunately, not an exception in this region. Going into the mines when he was but thirteen years of age, he worked until two years ago, when he was run over by a car in the mine and his foot taken off. Then he came to school for two years, and is now employed as a clerk in a thriving mining village. We are told that many of the monks in the middle ages believed it necessary that the body should be mutilated in order for the soul to grow. Was there significance in this belief which led many of them to wound, expose, torture and cripple their bodies almost beyond recognition? Evidently the promoters of child labor in the coal fields think so, for in every large coal-producing com- munity one meets on the street boys and men who bear evidence to the bodily cost of their employment. On the theory of compensation, the children of the coal regions, deprived of school, in early years taken to work in the dark corri- dors of the mine, should have as the reverse side of their life picture a home of comfort and attractiveness. To many of them even this is denied. The coke-producing section of the soft coal fields presents a weird spectacle to the stranger. At night the string of coke ovens, perhaps half a mile in length, is strangely beautiful, as the night is lighted up by the winding line of flames, the dense cloud of smoke being brightly illuminated. By day the scene is desolation. No vegetation can grow in the shade of the coke oven smoke, and for many hundred feet on either side of the works appears no grass or flower or living tree, but grimy, unpainted houses, muddy streets and alleys and foul stenches from the unsew- ered yards. Yet with all the wealth of our national life and the unmeasured hidden treasures of these coal regions, this is the type of surroundings we offer hundreds of little children through all the days of childhood — this is their only definition of home. The National Child Labor Committee would urge upon the judgment and conscience of the American people the necessity of so amending the child labor and educational laws of the coal-pro- 34 Child Labor in Soft Coal Mines ducing states as to render it impossible for any child under sixteen years of age to engage in any labor inside a coal mine. We also heartily endorse the recommendation of the chief mine inspector of Pennsylvania that certain forms of labor which expose to special danger should be limited to those of higher age ; that runners should not be less than seventeen, loaders not less than eighteen, nor miners under twenty-one. But in the interest of safety, education and eco- nomic progress, we must protest against allowing a child of four- teen years of age inside a coal mine. The large percentage of acci- dents to mine workers under sixteen years of age and to non-English speaking workmen of all ages, is sufficient evidence of the neces- sity for such legislation as shall guarantee every boy who con- templates this dangerous employment both time and opportunity for the development of sound judgment, physical growth and a fair education. THE EXTENT OF CHILD LABOR IN THE ANTHRACITE COAL INDUSTRY 1 By Owen R. Lovejoy, Assistant Secretary National Child Labor Committee. The specific question proposed for discussion at this meeting is framed in the call recently issued by the National Civic Federa- tion: It is claimed on the one side that there are 12,000 boys under fourteen years of age in the anthracite coal breakers, whereas officials of the State of Pennsylvania, after investigating the matter, claim that there are not over 8,100 all told under sixteen, and that with only 760 of them is there any doubt about their being over fourteen — the age beyond which no attempt is made to prevent employment. When any statement is made that seems to throw new light upon the condition of child labor in our country, it is incumbent upon every one interested to analyze that statement and the method by which it was obtained. For this reason the National Child Labor Committee cordially accepts the invitation to engage in this discussion, not for the purpose of confirming or disproving any statement, but in a candid endeavor to arrive at the facts. In an address delivered by the speaker before the National Child Labor Committee at the second annual meeting in Philadel- phia, December 7, 1905, is the following paragraph : In every part of the region visited child labor was found to exist No colliery has been visited in which children have not been found employed at ages prohibited by the law of the state. Various estimates have been given of the number of boys under fourteen and under sixteen years em- ployed in and about the hard coal mines of Pennsylvania. The figures have ranged from 6,000 to 12,000 under fourteen years. All of these estimates are generalizations, based upon specific data which may, and may not, be 'This paper was read at the meeting of the National Civic Federation, New York, December 12, 1906, and, in part, in the proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the National Child Labor Committee. It 1b, therefore, Included In this volume. (38) 36 Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry sufficient. Our own estimates are based on the study of a number of bor- oughs believed to be typical of the region, and have been gathered in co- operation with school officials, mine officers, and other citizens interested in the moral aspects of our work. Without entering upon a detailed dis- cussion of the statistics collected, it may be stated that we have estimated not less than 9,000 or 10,000 boys under fourteen years of age in the mines and breakers of the region, while the percentage in oae borough investigated, if carried through the entire region, would give a total of 12,800. By the laws of the state no child under fourteen years of age may be employed at any labor about a coal mine. Reference had previously been made to the extent of child labor in and about the hard coal mines in an article published under my signature in the Outlook, August 26, 1905, as follows : Dr. Peter Roberts, in "The Anthracite Coal Communities," has esti- mated that there are in the anthracite region 6,400 boys under fourteen years of age employed in and about the mines. He based his estimate on the num- ber found in "an area in which 4,131 persons wholly dependent upon the mines lived," and adds that "in other sections of the coal fields the evil of employing children under age in breakers and mines is worse than in our limited area." If the borough we are now studying were to be taken as a basis for such a generalization, the number of boys under fourteen years of age working in the anthracite coal industry would be 12,800 instead! The actual number lies probably between these two figures, but until some accu- rate method of determining the age of the children has been applied the exact number will never be known. Possibly it is to one of these statements this call refers. It is doubtless to one of the above utterances the Honorable Chief of the Department of Mines refers in his anthracite report for 1905, in the following paragraph : During the latter part of 1905 a man by the name of Lovejoy made a tour of the anthracite counties inquiring into the ages of boys employed at the mines. In blazing head-lines the daily papers published, on Mr. Love- joy's authority, the statement that 10,000 boys were found at work in and about the breakers who were under the legal employment age of fourteen years. A newspaper reporter called my attention to this report, and asked if it was true. I answered that to the best of my knowledge it was not true; that it was a very extravagant statement. One of the district inspec- tors was also asked regarding the report, and he denied its accuracy, stating that in his opinion there were not more than 2,000 boys who were below the employment age, and even they had certificates from their parents or guard- ians to show that they were over fourteen. Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry 37 It is unfortunate that Mr. Roderick was led by "blazing head- lines" in "the daily papers" to print in his official report a direct charge of extravagant statement against one whose study of the subject had been entirely friendly and whose statements had never suggested either laxness or inefficiency in the inspection depart- ment. But we are confident that a frank discussion will remove any cause for misunderstanding, and the National Child Labor Com- mittee welcomes this opportunity to explain its methods of inves- tigation and of compiling estimates. It should first be observed that the statement "in blazing head- lines" was never made by my authority or the authority of the National Child Labor Committee that "10,000 boys were found at work in and about the breakers who were under the legal employ- ment age of fourteen years." It was said, discussing the estimate made by Dr. Peter Roberts, "if the borough we are now studying were taken as a basis for such a generalization, the number of boys under fourteen years of age working in the anthracite coal in- dustry would be 12,800." It was also specifically said in this same paper, "but until some accurate method of determining the age of the children has been applied, the exact number will never be known." The Method of Computing. The borough under consideration was one containing a popu- lation of 6,400, with between 2,300 and 2,400 people working in the mines; with a school population of 1,636, a school enrollment of 1,071, and an average attendance of 700. A list of eighty pupils who had left school under the legal age was taken and a personal investigation made of thirty-nine, who were found to range in age from 9 to 12 years, and who were working in the mines or break- ers of the borough. In this same borough at one breaker twenty- two boys were interviewed at noon, all but two of whom acknowl- edged that they were under fourteen; while of the remaining two, one was found by the school record to be ten instead of fourteen, as he had claimed, while the other boy, fifteen years old, had been out of school and at work for more than six years. These boys were all provided with affidavits from their parents certifying that they were fourteen years old, and the outside foreman had pre- 38 Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry viously expressed his belief that no boys under fourteen were employed. Not desiring to rely on this personal canvass, a statement was secured from the borough superintendent of schools, a man who could have no interest in exaggerating the estimate and who was entirely friendly toward the mining companies of the borough and the mine inspector of his district. His estimate of the number of children employed in the coal breakers of the borough under four- teen years of age was as follows: 9 years old, 35; 10 years old, 40; 11 years old, 40 ; 12 years old, 45, and he thought that 40 more would be found between 12 and 14 years of age. This accounts for 200 of the 300 boys believed by mine superintendents and others familiar with the industry to be working in the breakers of that borough. Since 2,350 mine workers (the number estimated in this borough) is approximately one-sixty- fourth of the 153,000 mine workers esti- mated as employed in the entire region at that time, sixty-four times the 200 in this borough would make the 12,800 referred to. But the investigation was not confined to this borough. Under- age children with fraudulent certificates were interviewed both at home and at work in many other parts of the coal region. Sum- maries from two other boroughs may indicate the general trend of the information secured. The superintendent of schools in a borough of 25,000 population reported that the school enrollment was 3,450; that boys usually left school at 13 or 14, and that "300 at least" under 14 were at work in the breakers. This was in a community in which improved slate-picking machinery has been extensively introduced, and the demand for child labor greatly decreased. In another borough of 12,000 population the school superintendent said 600 boys under 14 working in the breakers would be a conservative estimate. (This borough, it will be observed, if taken as a basis for the entire region, would give a total of 18,000, while if the average for the three bor- oughs had been made the basis, the total would be 15,200.) Later Testimony. Similar estimates have been received from time to time from various localities in the anthracite region and for the purpose of securing data to estimate the effect of the act of 1905, portions of Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry 39 which were declared unconstitutional, a letter was addressed in November to a number of borough and township school superin- tendents, and up to the present time the following replies have been received : The school superintendent of one borough, with a popula- tion of 6,000, with 900 enrolled in the public school, reports that boys usually leave school at ages ranging from 12 to 14, and that he believes 175 boys between 14 and 16 and 250 under 14 are em- ployed in the mines and breakers of the borough. He also affirms that these boys have no certificates showing them to be 14 years old. Probably he does not regard the parent's affidavit as a cer- tificate. The superintendent of schools in a borough of 18,000 population says that only about 1,840 of the 3,291 children of school age are in school and that the boys customarily drop out of school at 12 years of age to work, but gives no estimate of the number. Another superintendent of schools in a borough of 7,500 people, with 1,520 children between 6 and 16 years of age, of whom about 1,300 are in school, says that he assumes that 200 boys under 16 are employed in the mines and breakers, 50 of whom are under 14 in the breakers. In a borough of 15,000 population, with 4,000 mine workers, the superintendent of schools estimates 200 boys under 16 in the mines and breakers, but says the number under 14 is small. The superintendent of schools in a township of 15,181 population, in which the new child labor law was enforced even after its constitutionality was denied, and in which 400 under-age children/ were added to the school rolls last year, estimates that not less than 100 boys under 14 are working in the breakers. These, he claims, are working without certificates proving their age. This is in a township in which, after several days' stay, we had found a much smaller number. In another borough of 18,000 population, with 3,050 children in the schools, the superintendent estimates that of the 3,800 people employed in the mines and breakers, 350 are under 16, while 200 are under 14 years of age. In making this esti- mate, he says "conditions right in the borough are not so bad." He then explains that 9 of the largest breakers are just outside the borough limits, and that the larger number of miners are employed in these; but the 300 includes only those who work in the mines and breakers within the borough limits. Less than six months ago he had estimated 1,000 boys residing in the borough who were work- 40 Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry ing illegally in the collieries, whether within or outside the borough limits. These, with the three boroughs above referred to, give 9, with definite replies from 7. Taking the replies from these seven bor- oughs which give definite estimates, we found an aggregate popula- tion of 90,083, a school enrollment of 14,993, a mining population of 25,000, or approximately one-sixth of the mine workers of the anthracite region, in which these school superintendents estimate not less than 2,460 boys are working under age with certificates based only on the unsupported affidavits of the parent. A Reasonable Basis. That this portion of the field constitutes a fair percentage as a basis for computation, and that this method is entirely justified, is evident from a comparison with methods pursued by the United States Bureau of Labor in its investigations. In the eighteenth annual report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1903, on "Cost of Liv- ing and Retail Prices of Food," a total is estimated on the basis of an investigation of 25,440 families, representing 124,108 per- sons, or one person in every 644 of the population; while we here have an estimate based upon one-sixth of the entire population con- cerned, or 100 times the foundation on which the government rests its report. If the same proportion of child labor prevailed in the entire region which is estimated here by these school superin- tendents, the total would be six times 2,460, or 14,760 boys working under age, with falsified certificates, in the mines and breakers of the region. It is not claimed and has never been claimed by this com- mittee that the number of boys under age in the breakers is six times the 2,460 estimated by the school superintendents of these seven boroughs. The nearest approach to such a claim has been that if the same percentage prevailed throughout the region as found in these boroughs for which estimates were given by the school superintendents, the number in the mines and breakers would be not less than 10,000 or 12,000, but estimates of the number have been always accompanied by the contention that "until some accu- rate method of determining the age of children has been applied, the exact number will never be known." The school superintendents, the class of public officials most familiar with the children, com- Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry 41 plain of the difficulty in determining the age of the children in default of accurate vital statistics, while the obstacles met by the mine inspectors have been clearly set forth in this report of Mr. Roderick. Not Unfriendly. The superintendent of schools in the borough estimating the largest percentage of child labor says the "mine inspector is a warm personal friend of mine, and is very vigilant in the borough. As soon as we get on track of any children in the borough working under age I report and he does the rest." This sentence expresses the attitude of many of these superintendents who have corresponded with us on the extent of child labor in the mines and breakers, and may well serve to indicate the spirit in which our work has been prosecuted. Having taken up the discussion in the Woman's Home Companion, September, 1906, of the prevalence of child labor in the anthracite field because of the defective law in Pennsylvania, I reported the results of an investigation made in April and May of the present year, and said : Such instances do not reflect on the integrity or the ability of the mine inspectors. Each one is set to do the task of five or ten men, without even the arm of an enforceable law to support him. An inspector may be assigned to visit from fifteen to thirty mines, and frequently a mine will contain from forty to one hundred miles of gangways and headings, all of which should be carefully inspected for gas, loose overhanging slate, defective timbering and faulty ventilation. The thorough inspection of a lairge mine may require from five days to two weeks. It is requiring of a man nothing less than superhuman knowledge and ability to expect him to read at sight the ages of two or three hundred boys — especially in the face of legal documents which justify their presence. This attitude is far removed from that suggested in the report of the Department of Mines for 1905, which says : The general public by this most unreliable authority was asked to believe that through the neglect of the mine inspectors 10,000 children were allowed to work in and about the breakers in plain violation of the law. Difficulties of Inspection. The whole spirit of the work of the National Child Labor Com- mittee has been friendly to the Department of Mine Inspection, and every spoken or written utterance on the subject has laid emphasis 42 Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry on the difficulties attending the work of this department in view of the intolerable law now on the statute books of Pennsylvania gov- erning child labor in the mines. This is admirably set forth in Mr. Roderick's report in the following words: The difficult thing is to get at the correct ages of these boys, as at least seventy-five per cent of them were born in foreign countries. Besides this, the department has neither the time nor the money to spend in prose- cuting the parents or guardians of these children. If the next legislature could be induced to appropriate about $50,000 for this purpose, the depart- ment could enter proceedings to get at the true facts in the matter. This is a clear admission, perhaps unintentional, of the inability of the Department of Mine Inspection to secure with the funds and laborers at its command an accurate census of child labor in the anthracite region, and no one would more sincerely approve this wise recommendation for an adequate and accurate investigation than the National Child Labor Committee. We should regard the published results as an inestimable aid in our efforts to arouse pub- lic sentiment on the subject. The report cites one case in point of a boy reported by Mr. Nearing, secretary of the Pennsylvania Child Labor Committee, as at work under the legal age in a coal breaker. The department took up the case at once, but the attorney for the boy's father presented an affidavit from the father that the boy was two years older than the parents had represented to the witness of the commonwealth. The report continues: "As the oath of the father would have more weight than the oath of the agent of the society, the department felt that it could do nothing else than drop the case and pay the attorney's fee and expenses." A Startling Claim. Yet in the face of this acknowledgment of the extreme diffi- culty in gathering reliable data, the department makes the remark- able statement that "the boys of doubtful age number a little over 9 per cent of the total number employed." The inspector found 760 boys of whose age they were in doubt, though the chief reports that "it is very probable, however, that many of the 760 classed as doubt- ful by the inspectors are over 14." It has been the contention of the National Child Labor Commit- tee from the beginning of its study of this field that the mine Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry 43 inspectors have been hampered in their work by the fact that nearly all the boys have sworn certificates to their legal age for employ- ment; by the fact that the records at the mines show all boys to be of proper age; by the fact that the visiting inspector is usually' known to the boys, who are thus on their guard against any com- promising confession ; and also by the extent of the field to be cov- ered. The department reports an average of 45 mines for every deputy inspector, which, as every one familiar with the industry try knows, would require superhuman speed and strength of every one of these 15 representatives of the state. In his report for 1903, Mr. Roderick criticises the law requiring every mine to be inspected at least every two months in these words : "This requirement defeats the very purpose of the act and reduces the inspector to a mere walking machine with time only to note the most trivial matters." Discussing the legal age of boy employees, this report says : The law is emphatic in its requirement of properly attested certificates for children applying for employment, but unfortunately, under the present system no protection is afforded in cases where the age is falsely represented. The inspectors may frequently have doubts as to the eligibility of the boys who are given employment, but as the certificates have been accepted by the mine foremen, they are without authority to take action in the matter. After referring to his demand that the companies should require certificates of all boys employed showing them to be 14 or 16, according as they were employed outside or inside, he says (report for 1903) : While the certificates attested to .the ages fourteen or sixteen, it was evident that many of the boys were under that age. Not only are the mine inspectors dependent upon the records of affidavits in the office of the mining companies and the state- ments of the boys themselves for information regarding the number under 16 years of age — for these records show none under 14 — but every step they take toward preventing the employment of a boy of doubtful age must be taken in the face of a legal document, which is prima facie evidence of the employer's right to hire the child. It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that only 760 children of doubtful age were found by that investigation. The Department of Mine Inspection is to be credited with commendable energy in 44 Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry discovering even so many. But to grant that this is the total num- ber would be quite another matter. The Census Bulletin on Mines and Quarries for 1902, which reports 11,857 boys under 16, does not find any boys under 14 working (Table 7, page 14). The same Bulletin (Table 90) which shows an average of 3,822 boys employed under 16 above ground in the anthracite mines, does not find any boys under 16 below ground. Yet the commission appointed by President Roose- velt to arbitrate the coal strike of that year had no difficulty in finding that boys under 16 were employed in the mines and boys under 14 were employed outside in the breakers. These facts were not shown in the census for the obvious reason that the census col- lectors were dependent for information upon sources which could not furnish the facts discovered by the commission. No employer could have been expected to go through his file of work-certificates, which the state provides, and say "20, or 30, or 50 of these are based on false representation of age" ; he would have been doing an injus- tice to his employees had he done so. This is no criticism of the census, but is intended to point out the wrong done by the state to the child, the parent, the employer, and the accuracy of the census by this defective law. And it would be as reasonable for the Director of the Census to come forward and affirm because his representatives found no boys under 14 in the breakers and no boys under 16 in the mines, that there were none, as for the chief of the Department of Mines to insist that only 760 boys of doubtful age are employed, because only that number were found. While there is no way of determining the number of boys under any given age in the industry, the following figures from the last three annual reports of the Department of Mines will be instructive. The tables which classify the employees show for the kinds of labor in which boys are employed: 1903. 1904. 1905. Drivers and runners 11,252 11,607 12,069 Door-boys and helpers 3,067 3,173 3,284 Slate pickers (boys) 11,430 12,128 12,040 Slate pickers (men) 5,234 5,599 4,734 Excluding from this list the 4,734 slate pickers classed as men, it will be seen that the number of drivers, runners, door-boys, help- Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry 45 ers and slate pickers (boys) in 1905 was 27,393. In view of the large number of young boys to be found in all these branches of the industry, and the fact that their age certificates are so untrustworthy, the estimates given by the school superintendents of the number of under-age boys employed do not appear exaggerated. Sacrifice of Life Increases. Despite the discrepancy in the figures given by the mine inspec- tors and the school superintendents of the mining boroughs, no doubt all agencies working for the protection of childhood and all federal and state officials will, without prejudice, unite in their effort to ascertain and present to the public an accurate estimate. But with the recommendation in the report for 1905 (Depart- ment of Mines, page x) for the "enactment of one law, making the employment age 14 years for boys employed in and about the anthra- cite and bituminous mines," we are compelled to take issue. The effect of the adoption of such a recommendation can be seen by a study of the menace to life and health in the coal industry. The report of this department for 1905 shows that the number of fatal accidents in that year was larger than in any of the past twenty-five years. This might reasonably have been expected from the increase in the industry, but the same report shows (page xxxvi) that the number of lives lost inside the mines per thousand employed was larger in 1905 than in any year since 1883 with the single exception of 1891, and the number lost outside was larger per thousand em- ployed in each of the years 1903, 1904, and 1905, than in any year since 1880; while the entire number lost per thousand employed was larger in 1905 than in any year since 1880. The report also shows (page lviii) that with the single exception of 1895, there has been no year in the past eleven when so many lives were lost in propor- tion to the coal produced as in 1905. This is, indeed, a bad show- ing for an industry in which improvements in machinery and meth- ods are constantly being made, and in which, even were there no humane motive, the financial loss of such fatalities would prompt the employers to extreme precaution. With improved machinery, bet- ter ventilation, electric lighting and electric haulage, the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum instead of constantly increasing. 46 Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry Caused by Youth and Ignorance. The cause of this sacrifice of life is revealed in this report, and is a positive confirmation of the need of such protection as we are urging. There were, according to Mr. Doderick's report, in 1905 16,774 slate pickers, 8,124 (48.4 per cent) of whom were unde 16 years of age. Yet 75 per cent of the slate pickers killed were under 16. In other words, the average boy under 16 years in a coal breaker takes something over three times as much risk as the adult of losing his life. The report offers two lines of explanation of this sacrifice of children: the first relates to child nature; the second to education. First, the report says (page xi) : The dangers that menace the boys in and about the anthracite breakers are perhaps more serious than those that menace the boys working inside the mines. If the boys tending doors in the mines would stay at their work they would be practically safe from danger, but when there is a slack- ness in the work they frequently run away from the doors, and when they hear the cars coming, in their haste to return to their post of duty, they are apt to fall and be run over, or they are so late in opening the doors that the cars come upon them before they get out of the way, and the result is often injury or loss of life to themselves or the drivers. The same observation will apply to boys in the breakers. If they could be compelled to remain at their working places when the breaker is running empty, instead of going about, they would incur very little danger. The fact is, however, that the minute the chutes are cleared the boys run loose, climb on top and over the safety guards, and frequently fall on or into the machinery, and are injured or killed. They also run and jump on moving cars, and in many other ways invite disaster. The management should im- pose the penalty of discharge upon a boy who leaves his work in the breaker or in the mine. In other words, the breaker boy is surrounded with so many dangers that for his own protection he must be denied even a moment of respite in his eight- or nine-hour day bent over the coal chutes. The report recognizes that play is natural to a child of this age, but proposes its suppression by the immediate discharge of any boy who leaves his task for a moment. Second, the report shows that the larger number of accidents are suffered by non-English-speaking people. During 1905, 130 English-speaking miners and laborers were killed inside the mines, while 326 non-English-speaking miners and laborers were killed. Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry 47 "The department is unable to say," says Mr. Roderick (page xxxv), "what proportion of the employees in the mines are English-speaking persons, but it is evident that the fatalities among the employees designated as non-English speaking are largely in excess of their proportionate number. This is not surprising, however, and will continue to be the case until these people acquire sufficient knowledge of the English language to understand orders given by foremen, and thus be able to protect themselves in the performance of their duties." With the record of this preponderance of accident and death falling to children and to non-English-speaking employees, it is diffi- cult to harmonize Mr. Roderick's argument for a reduction of the age limit for employment in coal mines to 14 years. He says (page xi) : Under the present anthracite law great injustice in many instances is done to heads of large families, and more particularly to poor widows, by reason of their boys being prohibited from entering the mines until they are sixteen years of age. They are by this extreme enactment deprived of a natural and much-needed support. I am not, however, in accord with the bituminous law that makes the employment age twelve years. Both laws are radically wrong in this respect and should be amended on reasonable lines. In the anthracite region, as before stated, they bear unjustly upon the widows and heads of large families, and in the bituminous region they work injury to the boys by permitting them to go to work at too early an age. The bituminous workers contend, however, that the employment age should not be raised, for the reason that there is no employment for the boys in that region except inside of the mines. In my opinion there is no reason whatever for making any distinction between the ages of boys out- side and inside the mines. With the appeal for a uniform age standard in both fields we are in full accord, but from the recommendation that the employ- ment age should be fixed at 14 years, it would seem that every per- son and agency interested in child protection must dissent. Not only has the report demonstrated that boys are more liable to injury than men because they are boys and lacking in prudence and the appreciation of danger, but also that the mine workers who have no knowledge of English fall easy victims to dangers of which they are ignorant. But how are these ignorant mine laborers "to acquire sufficient knowledge of the English language to understand orders given by foremen and thus to be able to protect themselves 48 Child Labor in Anthracite Coal Industry in the performance of their duties," if they are to be permitted to enter the mines and breakers at 14 years of age, hundreds of them having never spent a year, or even a month, in a public school? The Hazard Admitted. That mining is a dangerous occupation is not denied. In the appellate court decision relative to the employment of children in coal mines in Illinois in 1904 (in the case of Struthers, plaintiff in error, v. The People), the court declared of the mine law in that state (page 4) : That employment in a coal mine is classed by the legislature among occupations dangerous to life, limbs and health. The title and every section of the act clearly shows it. Minute provision is made for the safety of employees from the moment they reach the shaft and enter the cage to descend to their work until they again reach the surface. It is recognized that danger lurks around them, descending and ascending, in roadways, rooms and entries; wherever they may be or go while in the mine; danger from breaking ropes, falling rocks, damp, dust, explosions, poisonous air and other things and conditions. To this court declaration should now be added the following utterance from Mr. Roderick. In the report for 1905 he says: The dangers that menace the boys in and about the anthracite breakers are perhaps more serious than those that menace boys working inside the mines. From these two authoritative sources we have the strongest possible argument for the enactment of a law in Pennsylvania which would make 16 years the minimum age limit for employment in or about any mine, on the ground that "coal mining is an occupation dangerous to the life and limb of those employed therein." (Illinois court.) If it were true, as the chief mine inspector affirms, that, "if a uniform law, with 14 years as a minimum, were passed, Pennsyl- vania would lead all other states and countries in practical and sensible protective legislation on this important question," then we would be constrained to say that other states and countries where coal mines are operated would sadly need reform. Fortunately the assertion is erroneous, for Illinois, Montana and Missouri forbid the employment of children under 16 in mines, while Arizona, Colorado, Child Labor in "Anthracite Coal Industry 49 Montana, Missouri and Utah limit the employment of children in mines to 8 hours in the 24. Austria forbids the employment in mines under 15 years, while both France and Germany, although not having a higher age limit for employment, require that all chil- dren employed shall have completed the common school course of education. Every advance in the line of protective legislation carries with it the need for an increased corps of officers to enforce the will of the commonwealth. We have every reason to believe that the Department of Mines has done faithful and efficient work in Penn- sylvania, but the magnitude of the field and the defectiveness of the law conspire to defeat all efforts. Let the law be so amended as to fix a reasonable age limit, accompanied by educational qualifica- tions, and the requirement of proof of age. Then place at the dis- posal of the department funds sufficient to carry on its work, and we may hope to see a marked decrease in the sacrifice of children to the production of coal. OBSTACLES TO THE ENFORCEMENT OF CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION By Mrs. Florence Kelley, Secretary National Consumers' League. Sixty years ago in England the great obstacle to the enforce- ment of child labor legislation, and even to the enactment of such legislation, was the attitude of the cotton manufacturers of that kingdom, who went in delegations to Parliament, and said, "Yes, there is child labor, and it is a good thing that the children should learn to work. We are carrying on schools to teach them to work. Moreover, it is good for the kingdom that there should be child labor, for on that rests the commercial supremacy of the nation." And the only answer possible at that time was a purely theoretical statement that nothing can be so important as the life, the health and welfare of the children of the nation. We have not that obstacle in this country. No great delega- tions of manufacturers go to Congress, or to any legislature, and say, "Yes, there is child labor, and it is a good thing for the chil- dren, and for the republic." They do not go to Congress at all on this subject, or to any legislature — not at all. Though their trade organs the great manufacturers say: "there is no child labor in this country. If there were it would be a bad thing. We do not employ young children. This is all exaggeration." But they do employ children, and the children are working to-night. I know that children six, seven and eight years old work this week in New York City tenements for reputable manufacturers. I have seen children in a cotton mill in Georgia whose employer told me they were ten years old, who were wretched dwarfs if they were really eight years old. That one man frankly showed children at work in his mill. On the whole, however, the entire attitude of the manufacturing (So) Obstacles to Child Labor Legislation 51 class has been revolutionized in sixty years. No one now says that it is a good thing for little children to work. The haggling now is as to whether a child shall legally begin at twelve, or at fourteen, or at sixteen years to work. It is ultimately the attitude of mind of the nation that decides whether child labor laws shall be enforced after they are enacted. And the attitude of mind has changed (as it exhibits itself in speech and in print) from the bold claim that the commercial supremacy of England was more important than the welfare of the English race, to the hypocritical attitude of this country, that we have not the evil and, therefore, need do nothing about it. I do not know which obstacle to the enforcement of law is more effective. The obstacle is there, and our legislation, taking the country over, is not effectively enforced. There are three objective tests of the enforcement of our laws. One is the presence of children in school. This is now being shown in an interesting exhibit of industrial conditions in Philadelphia. There is a chart showing the attendance of the children of Chicago at school in the year 1902. A small block symbolizes the attendance in that year. For the following year the same block repeated symbolizes the attendance ; but the next year, 1904, when the present drastic child labor law of Illinois had taken effect, the enrollment in the Chicago schools of the children of compulsory school age trebled. It required three times the original block to indicate the school attendance in the year after that new law took effect and was enforced. That statute carried a thousand children out of the stockyards in a single week; and later it car- ried 2,200 children out of the mines of Illinois in another week, following the decision of the enlightened judge of the Peoria dis- trict. And the increased school enrolment showed whither the children went. The second objective test of the enforcement of child labor laws is prosecution. The child labor law is enforced in Illinois by persistent prosecution. Hundreds of employers have paid thou- sands of dollars in fines, and the visible result of the success of those prosecutions is the presence of the children of compulsory school age in school. That is an infallible test of the effectiveness of the enforcement of the law which prohibits children working throughout the period of compulsory school attendance. 52 Obstacles to Child Labor Legislation South of Baltimore — south of Louisville — there are no prose- cutions ; there is no compulsory school attendance. In any south- ern state to-day school attendance does not serve as a test of the efficiency of the protection of the children, because there are not schools enough to enroll the children if they were all dismissed from the mills. The test of the presence of the children in the schools works only when there are schools enough to enroll the children. We enroll our children in New York City. I wish I might say that we kept them in school. We enroll them, at least, and the enrollment has increased under the recent efficient enforce- ment of the law in the factories by Commissioner Sherman. Even where there are not schools enough to admit the children, we can at least enroll them so that we may know where they are, and the opportunity to enroll them depends largely upon the efficiency of the prosecutions carried out by the factory inspectors. The enforcement of the law depends not only on the quality of the men to whom the work of enforcing it is entrusted; it de- pends far more largely on the quality of the community in which those men hold office. There are few blacker chapters in the his- tory of this republic than the everrrecurring story of removal of efficient officers because they have attempted to enforce child labor laws in communities which were willing to have those laws on the statute books so long as they were not enforced, but either repealed the statutes or removed the officers as soon as there was any effec- tive prosecution. There is a brilliant example of this in the history of the City of New York. The mercantile employees' law, when first drafted, provided that the same officer who enforced the law in factories should enforce it in the stores. But the Retail Dealers' Association of New York City objected, and prevented the enactment of the statute until a compromise was achieved. That was in the days when we had a very efficient inspector in office, the only efficient one we ever had before Mr. Sherman. A compromise was achieved, and the enforcement of the law in stores was left to local boards of health. The Retail Dealers' Association highly approved the ap- pointment of a leading philanthropic merchant of New York to the position of commissioner of health. This gentleman said quite frankly when he took office that he did not mean to hold it long, Obstacles to Child Labor Legislation 53 that he had only two aims which he wished to achieve. One aim was to get free sterilized and pasteurized milk for the children of the tenements ; the other aim was to cut out of the municipal budget the appropriation for local inspectors to enforce the child labor laws in stores. He achieved both these ends ; he cut out the munici- pal appropriation for the enforcement of the law in stores, and he established pasteurized milk for children in tenements. Then he resigned. His successor cut out the pasteurized milk; and then we had neither mercantile inspection nor pasteurized milk. And to this day the child labor law has never been enforced in stores. Notice is served upon the incoming commissioner of health by the secretary of the Retail Dealers' Association that they do not con- sider it desirable that the law should be enforced in stores with the same rigor with which it is enforced in factories. Two years ago I saw one hundred and fifty children working illegally at twenty minutes past ten o'clock at night in a perfectly reputable dry goods store in the City of New York on the Satur- day night before Christmas. If one of those children had stolen any small article, a doll or a penknife, the heavy hand of the law would have carried that child promptly into the juvenile court. But one hundred and fifty children were robbed of sleep in violation of the law; and the merchant, their employer who robbed them, has never been prosecuted to this day, and will never be prosecuted. The community does not insist that the great in New York City shall obey the law for the protection of the children ; and no com- missioner of health has had the moral courage to do that which his community does not wish done. While the community in New York does sustain the Commis- sioner of Labor in his prosecutions of manufacturers who employ children illegally, no commissioner of health has instituted proceed- ings under a similar law against any merchant in the city except in the case of one or two obscure men down in the lower East Side. It is difficult to induce men of high ability to give up their chosen occupations to take a position which involves them in an oath that they will enforce a law when there is always a sword hanging over their heads if they do enforce that law. If there is a great clamor in the community by a few people that the law shall be enforced, the temptation is terribly strong to enforce it 54 Obstacles to Child Labor Legislation against obscure offenders violating it in a small way, so as to make a record of something done without incurring powerful opposition for the official or for the law. The third test of the enforcement of the child labor laws is the published records of the officials appointed to enforce them. The friends of the children are growing in numbers, but they often lack technical acquaintance with the subject. It may be said of many of us that our intentions are good, but we have never been working children, we have never been employers, we have, perhaps, never been teachers of working children, and we do not speak with authority. Then we turn necessarily to official information on the subject; and it is a sad commentary on the interest of this nation in its working children that most of the carefully-stated informa- tion now available is non-official. It is furnished by voluntary bodies, and can be attacked as non-official and as amateur. And why? Why is it that, year after year, one searches the reports of the state bureaus of statistics (of which twenty or thirty volumes are issued), to find perhaps a dozen pages of lucid statement of the child labor conditions in some one state? Commissioner Sherman's reports are models of what we pray that some time we may have in all the states in which there is child labor. From time to time we receive at the office of the Consumers' •League a request to send a full file of official reports to Europe, and we make excuses for not doing so, for most of them we should be ashamed to send. They darken wisdom. They do not afford data for valid comparisons. In the same industrial exhibition in Philadelphia, of which I spoke, the most conspicuous objects are two huge signs which tell the story taken from the official records of Pennsylvania concern- ing enforcement of the child labor laws in manufacture and mer- cantile pursuits in that state. The latest available report is dated 1904, and this is the end of 1906. One of those signs says, in large letters: Pennsylvania — Children Employed, 40,140. Children Illegally Employed, 3,243. Prosecutions, 22. Obstacles to Child Labor Legislation 55 The other sign says: Pennsylvania — Children Employed, 40,140. Children Illegally Employed, 3,243. Fines Imposed, $750. Average Cost of Violation of the Child Labor Law in Pennsylvania, 23 Cents. Now, that is the sort of information for want of which we are not, on the whole, very intelligent about our working children in this country. The National Consumers' League, a volunteer philan- thropic body, publishes every year a Handbook of Child Labor Legislation. Why is this book left to be published by a volunteer body? Why does not the United States Department of Commerce and Labor publish it? And why has the predecessor of that depart- ment not done so for the past twenty years ? Why has the handbook been left to grow from a little leaflet of four pages, five years ago, to a little pamphlet of sixty-four pages now, published as a supplement to The Annals of the American Academy this year? Why are the American people content to have thousands of undecipherable offi- cial pages of unmeaning figures published year after year? Why have we endured being left with no official means of ready com- parison of the statutes of the different states, and the prosecutions of violations of the child labor law in the different states? Whether in Ohio it costs twenty-three cents for every violation of the child labor law, or twenty-three dollars, or $230, or $2,300, we do not know. We do not know this for any state unless we sit down and carefully and laboriously make computations for ourselves, which may then perhaps be in error. These, I believe, are the gravest obstacles at the present time to the enforcement of the child labor law : First, the general hypoc- risy of the American people, believing that child labor is an evil, and that, therefore, we do not tolerate it — when there are working children on the streets before our eyes, every working day in the year, in every manufacturing city. Second, the failure to make the work of enforcing the law a desirable and recognized profes- sion into which the ablest men will willingly go. Leonard Horner, the first of the English factory inspectors, held office thirty-four years. He laid the foundation for factory inspection throughout 56 Obstacles to Child Labor Legislation the world. His name goes down in history coupled with the name of Lord Shaftesbury — and honorably coupled with it. And from his day to the present the position of local factory inspector and shop inspector is an honorable one for which thoroughly efficient men eagerly compete in the English civil service. In America, wa leave an inspector at the mercy of the most influential man whom it may be his duty to prosecute, and at the mercy of every turn of the political wheel ; and then we wonder that we have not a race of noble martyrs who protect working children at cost of their own professional careers. And we fall to thinking that there is some- thing hopeless in the effort to put better laws upon the statute book if then they are to sleep upon its pages. The trouble is with ourselves. We get exactly the sort of care for the children through the officials that the community deter- mines they shall have; and we register our indifference in accept- ing such printed records as we have now, obscuring the actual con- ditions of the working children in nearly all the states. Where the employment of children is arrested, as is the case effectually in Illinois, partially in New York, partially in Massachu- setts, the records are so clear that any school child can under- stand them. The ability which makes it possible to arrest the growth of child labor makes it possible also to print records which we can all read and understand and use. The next step which we need to take is to insist that this is a national evil, and we must have a national law abolishing it. We must also insist that this is a matter of great import to the people of this country, that the government must give us information not only through a bureau for the children in the federal government but through all the existing departments, the Census Bureau, the Department of Commerce and Labor, the Department of Education. We must demand trustworthy records in our state publications, so that we shall not blush when a request comes to send a com- plete collection of our records for the use, for instance, of the Austrian government. NATIONAL PROTECTION FOR CHILDREN By Jane Addams, Hull House, Chicago, 111. It is sometimes a difficult matter to understand that the federal government should be willing to spend time and money to establish and maintain departments relating to the breeding, to the raising, to the distribution and to the exportation of cattle, sheep and hogs, and that as yet the federal government has done nothing to see to it that the children are properly protected up to the time when they may go to work without injury to themselves and without injury to the nation. This can only be explained by the attitude of the founders of our government, who, in their great desire to keep away from oppression and to avoid reproducing the tyranny which had driven them from Europe, came to believe that self-govern- ernment could be secured only through decentralized or local gov- ernment. If one would go over the early history of government in the United States and the machinery devised to secure greater freedom, one would find that the founders constantly distrusted centralized power as a result of the inheritance which they had brought with them and from which they could not escape. Only in one direction did they assume that a centralized government was necessary and that was in all of those things which pertain to international relations. As modern life developed, those things which pertained most naturally to international relations were the exports and imports with their tariff regulations, and so quite seriously the national government took up all of the things connected with com- merce and with its development in every direction. It seemed at last quite natural that hours and hours of discus- sion in the Congress of the United States should be expended upon commercial questions because they had to do with the relations of the United States to the world outside. It seemed quite right that millions of dollars should be spent that the best sort of grain might (5 7) 58 National Protection for Children be raised and carried to the sea ports ; that elaborate experiment sta- tions should be established upon the seashore that fish might be produced and protected. And during this development at any moment — I might say "at the drop of a hat" — the national govern- ment was ready to go to war in order to protect the seal or the fisheries interests. In the same spirit animal industries were pro- tected and developed because cattle of the west were a valuable national asset, soldiers were stationed throughout the territories that the ranchmen might be secure in their efforts to enlarge this great industry, which was national in character, and which deter- mined in a very large measure our commercial value to European nations. It was logical perhaps that the power of the federal gov- ernment should develop so exclusively along commercial lines, and if one may generalize from this very superficial survey, that any tendency on the part of centralized government, to develop in other directions should be resented by a liberty-loving people. This devel- opment along one exclusive line has, however, brought some embar- rassing results. For instance, quite lately, in Chicago, when we became greatly agitated in regard to the question of protecting the cattle after they had been killed and put into cans, the only way we could secure any protection was by following this same com- mercial line. The meat bill, I suppose, pushed very hard the interstate commerce clauses of the Federal Constitution. It went as far, I imagine, as it possibly could and still keep up the fiction of having to do with railroads and with the transportation of goods from one state to another, starting and ending logically, of course, with foreign exports. For it was in the development of interna- tional relations, when Germany and England insisted upon inspec- tion, that the entire system of meat inspection was developed. The United States sagely enacted very stringent regulations in order to meet the requirements of other nations, for so long as these regula- tions fostered international trade, no one objected to them. But when Congress attempted to pass measures requiring the inspection of meat as a product which was designed for domestic consumption, the legislators found it difficult both to pass and to enforce the regu- lations which they did not dream of attempting from any other point of view than that of interstate commerce. A few rash people thought that the matter of meat inspection might have been approached National Protection for Children 59 from a praiseworthy desire on the part of the federal government to preserve American citizens from death by poisoning, although we in Chicago were not afraid of being poisoned, for we have eaten the very worst stuff for years — stuff which was too bad to be taken out of the city at all — until we considered ourselves quite immune. Chicago citizens were glad to have this meat bill passed, however, because only through such a stretch of power of the federal govern- ment in its commercial relations could protection be afforded to the children, the women and the men who were working in the stock yards. It was possible to reach the producer only through the product, and it was possible to regulate the product only because it entered into interstate commerce. The federal government said, "O yes, we will go along the old path of regulating commerce and if, incidentally, we can protect the women and children, we will do it. If you ask us to protect them directly, we will certainly say no, for that interferes with state rights, and we cannot possibly undertake such a thing." There is doubtless a ray of hope in this legislation, although some of us wished that this protection might have been secured for women and children less indirectly. I will confess to certain scru- ples, that the nation should have been driven to secure sanitation in this round-a-bout way, although in certain instances it meant only hot water in which a man may wash his hands when they are covered with the blood of kine. Some of us wish that the govern- ment might secure so praiseworthy an object in a more direct way than through the Interstate Commerce Acts, but we will take it as it comes, and we are glad to have it come through such a measure, if we can secure it in no other way. And now comes Senator Beveridge and pushes this interstate commerce arrangement one step further. The meat bill controls the conditions surrounding the producer because it is only through control of these conditions that we can secure a product clean and wholesome enough for interstate commerce, and Senator Beveridge says that it is only by protecting the child, by not permitting him to work until he is fourteen, that we can produce a product that is moral enough, that is decent enough, that is righteous enough, to enter into interstate commerce. If we have government in which human welfare is not to be considered as an object of direct govern- 60 National Protection for Children mental action, and if we possess a well-rooted objection to humane legislation, I think we may congratulate ourselves that there have arisen in our midst men who are clever enough to "tackle" the ques- tion of human welfare through the Interstate Commerce Acts. Per- haps when we look at the provisions of this bill, we may be able to see that this, after all, is the most American way to get at the matter. What are we most interested in, in this country? Along which line do our blood and sinew and our imaginations and our hopes and our desires develop? I think that we would all agree that it is along the line of industry and commerce, and that it is exactly here that American children have suffered in so far as they have been put to premature toil, because our commercial and industrial life has been so ruthless and so self-centered that it has never given them a thought. To have this labor of children protected and regu- lated through legislation which, in its inception, was designed solely in the interests of commercial advancement, is perhaps a case of poetic justice — an instance of the return of the deed upon the head of the doer — of the punishment fitted to the crime, as it were. Some of us who are members of this convention had dreamed that the regulation of the labor of children might come through educational agencies, that it might be fostered through a federal bureau of education or a bureau dedicated to all the children of the nation, as other bureaus are dedicated to the interests of cattle and grain, but apparently it is destined to come another way, and we will protect the children through the products in which their labor is embodied, as we have protected the stock yards worker through the goods which he has put into cans. However, we may in time be justly proud, if we can say that no American product enters into foreign or domestic commerce which does not represent the free labor quality of an educated producer who is exercising his adult powers. At any rate, we will be thankful that at last there is a prospect of national regulation of a national evil. THE CHILD LABOR LAWS OF THE OHIO VALLEY By Hon. J. H. Morgan, Chief Inspector of Workshops and Factories in the State of Ohio. Six great states lie along the banks of the Ohio River, Penn- sylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, and we behold, for its full length, from Pittsburg to Cairo, and stretch- ing in either direction, a continuous line of shops and factories. The wheels are buzzing and the stacks are belching forth great volumes of smoke day and night, for many plants do not stop even for the Sabbath day. And, in passing, I would say I believe this to be a great menace to our American institutions. Men who have regard for God and the Sabbath are not so likely to go wrong in their dealings with their fellowmen. Strange it is that in this great country, and in this century, we have men who, in their individual characters, seem to be above reproach, but as captains of industry resort to chicanery and false principles in their conduct of business. If the Golden Rule instead of the rule of gold were their guide in industrial life, we would have no need for child labor laws. As might be expected, the industries pursued in these neigh- boring states are very similar, but the laws governing the employ- ment of minors in them are dissimilar in many respects. This variance in the laws makes it more difficult to enforce the provisions along the border lines than in the interior of the states ; the burden, of course, falling upon those having the more stringent laws. We find, too, that public sentiment in such districts is generally with the state having less stringent laws. I would say that such comparisons as I may make of the laws of the different states are not made in a spirit of unfriendly criti- cism, but with a view of bringing out the facts pointedly to show the great need of a uniform law that is at once practical and enforceable, for we must consider what is enforceable as well as what is practical. Public sentiment must support the law in order <6i) 62 Child Labor Laws of the Ohio Valley that it may be successfully enforced; otherwise the department under whose jurisdiction it is placed will either become derelict in its duty by not enforcing its provisions, or, through rigid enforce- ment, in spite of adverse sentiment, cause the repeal or radical amendment of the law. It is better, then, to progress slowly and surely than to run the risk of losing much by forcing a law on the people that is too far in advance of public sentiment. This, how- ever, need not prevent our having our ideal law on a much higher plane, nor keep us from doing our best to create public sentiment to that standpoint. Simply because we have a good law, it is no reason we should stop there. Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio occupy common ground in providing that children under the age of fourteen years shall not be employed in workshops, factories, mercantile or other establishments at any time. In West Virginia the age is fourteen during the school term, which, in at least half the counties, is not more than five months in the year. During the remainder of the year minors may be employed at the age of twelve years. In Ken- tucky the age for factory, shop, mill and mine is fourteen years; this age also applies to mercantile establishments, telegraph, tele- phone and messenger service, laundries and printing establishments, except during vacation of the public schools, when there is no age limit for this class of work. This, therefore, is the common ground on which all of the so-called Ohio Valley states meet, for while it is true that two of the states have made certain exceptions to the fourteen-year limit, it is good to know that we agree on the prin- ciple, and that we may look forward, and at no distant day, to see these two, as well as every other state in the Union, say to the workshops and factories, "You cannot rob the schoolhouse nor the playground of any child under the age of fourteen years at any time." Having seen, with two exceptions, that we agreed to fourteen years being young enough for a child to leave school to become little old men and women by becoming breadwinners, let us look at some of the special provisions which have been passed governing night work and other conditions. West Virginia has no restrictions on night work, which means that children twelve years of age may be employed to work at night during the six or seven months that Child Labor Laws of the Ohio Valley 63 the public schools are not in session. Kentucky prohibits boys and girls under sixteen years of age from working later than seven o'clock in the evening or earlier than six in the morning. Penn- sylvania prohibits children under sixteen years of age from being employed later than nine in the evening or earlier than six in the morning, with the exception, however, that boys over fourteen may, in certain industries, work at night, but the work hours in such cases are not to exceed nine in number. The laws of Illinois pro- hibit boys and girls under sixteen from working between the hours of seven in the evening and seven in the morning. The State of Indiana prohibits the employment of her women and girls from ten at night until six in the morning; her boys, however, may be employed at night at the age of fourteen, the same as during the day. In Ohio boys under sixteen and girls under eighteen are pro- hibited from working later than seven in the evening and earlier than six in the morning. West Virginia has no limit as to the number of hours a minor may work in a day or week. Kentucky restricts minors under the age of sixteen years from working more than ten hours a day or more than sixty hours in a week. Pennsylvania prohibits females and boys under sixteen years from working more than twelve hours in any one day or more than sixty hours in one week. Indiana prohibits girls under twenty-one and boys under eighteen from working more than ten hours a day or more than sixty hours a week. The Illinois law provides that no minor under the age of sixteen years shall be employed more than eight hours in any one day nor more than forty-eight hours in one week. In Ohio minors under the age of eighteen years are prohibited from working more than ten hours in one day or more than fifty-five hours in one week. The purpose for which the fifty-five hour clause in the Ohio law was enacted has not, in the main, been fully realized. It was to provide for the Saturday half-holiday. I am inclined to believe better results would be secured if we could have each day's work stand for itself. When the inspector visits a factory in the middle of the week, he ought not to be required to determine what the effect of the work hours of that day will be in the sum total several days hence, and besides, it is out of the question for him to be at very many places on Saturday at noon to see whether the law is violated or not. One factory will work nine hours each day of the 64 Child Labor Laws of the Ohio Valley week, and another ten hours for five days, and five on one day, and both factories will comply with the law in so doing. To be effec- tive each day should stand for itself and define clearly the number of hours a day required, which, in my opinion, should not be more than eight for boys, girls and women. No good reason can be given for taking a mortgage on our future citizenship by employing minors and their mothers for long hours in workshops and factories. West Virginia has no restrictions applying to employment of minors at dangerous machinery. Kentucky provides that no child under sixteen years of age shall operate an elevator, or sew or assist in sewing belts. In Indiana boys under sixteen and girls under eighteen are prohibited from operating dangerous machinery, and no person under eighteen is allowed to operate an elevator. In Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio the laws prevent minors under the age of sixteen years from operating dangerous machinery, including elevators. While the Ohio law prevents the employment of minors under sixteen at dangerous machinery or where their health is likely to be injured or their morals depraved, it does not specify what machinery is dangerous, nor in what kinds of establishments their health is likely to be injured or their morals depraved. I would, therefore, recommend the passage of the Illinois law, which specifies these occupations, but would add to that list the handling and manu- facture of tobacco and all places where intoxicating liquors are manufactured and sold. Minors under the age of sixteen years may not be employed in Pennsylv?.nia and Ohio unless they furnish an age and schooling certificate, properly issued, showing that they can read and write simple sentences in the English language. The same law applies in Indiana, unless the child is blind, and except for employment in vacation. In Illinois illiterates under the age of sixteen may not be employed unless they attend day or night school during employ- ment. The English language, however, is not specified. West Virginia and Kentucky have no educational requirement. You will note there is not so much uniformity in the laws of these states governing night work and the number of work hours in a day and week, and therefore there is greater difficulty in enforcing these provisions along the border lines of the states. The laws governing employment at dangerous machinery are very similar, and, with the exception of West Virginia, which has no Child Labor Laws of the Ohio Valley 6§ provision whatever, this group of states has practically agreed that sixteen years is the lowest age at which the responsibility of oper- ating dangerous machinery can be placed with any degree of safety. There is also more uniformity regarding the educational require- ments. In all these states the compulsory education laws dovetail into the child labor laws, and require that the child shall attend school the entire school year, which, in some states, is entirely too short. There is one section of our Ohio school law which is especially worthy of consideration in connection with a discussion of this subject. It reads as follows : Sections 4022-9. (Relief to enable child to attend school required time.) When any truant officer is satisfied that any child, compelled to attend school by the provisions of this act, is unable to attend school because abso- lutely required to work, at home or elsewhere, in order to support itself or help support or care for others legally entitled to its services, who are unable to support or care for themselves, the truant officer shall report the case to the authorities charged with the relief of the poor, and it shall be the duty of said officers to afford such relief as will enable the child to attend school the time each year required under this act. Such child shall not be considered or declared a pauper by reason of the acceptance of the relief herein provided for. In case the child, or its parent or guardian, refuse or neglect to take advantage of the provisions thus made for its instruction, such child may be committed to a children's home or juvenile reformatory, as provided for in sections 4022-9 of the revised statutes of Ohio. In all cases where relief is necessary it shall be the duty of the board of education to furnish textbooks free of charge, and said board may furnish any further relief it may deem necessary, the expense incident to furnishing said books and the relief to be paid from the contingent funds of the school district. The operation of this law would practically mean public school pension, provided by taxation, for those who are entitled to it, in order that we may have an educated, though poor, people. You will observe there is a wide range in the requirements of the laws of these six states, from the one allowing children of twelve years to be employed more than half the year, without any restrictions whatever relative to the number of work hours, danger- ous machinery, night work or educational requirements, to the law which, when rigidly enforced, practically raises the age to sixteen and eighteen years, with restrictions even then as to the number of work hours. 66 Child Labor Laws of the Ohio Valley It is no wonder, then, with this great divergence in the laws governing the employment of minors, that we hear manufacturers threaten to move their factories to states where they are shown more consideration. And what does this mean, except that manu- facturers who can make use of child labor are not averse to the bar- gain-hunting fever, and are willing to move their entire plants across the borders into states whose less stringent laws heap the bargain counters with thousands of children whose labor is a great money- saving and dividend-producing factor ? Whatever other inducements localities or states have to offer industrial enterprises, the sacrifice of childhood should not be added. I do not say this from a sentimental standpoint alone, but rather from the selfish point of view that our states and the Union must be preserved and their future assured by protecting the children who are too young to realize how much depends upon them. This alone should be incentive enough to all patriotic people to not only insure their hearty support of such child labor legislation as we have, but to demand better from time to time. I do not mean that children should be encouraged in idleness,, but that they should not be deprived of their playtime, nor the opportunity of growing into well-developed and healthy young men and women, capable of assuming and discharging the duties that will devolve upon them. There are those who advocate and believe that sixteen years should be the minimum age when a child should be allowed to begin to work, and there are many good reasons that can be advanced favoring such legislation. But we must keep in mind the general welfare of all, remembering that state laws apply to the small cities and towns and to the rural districts, as well as to the large cities. I am not sure but what, if our state constitutions would permit, it would be a very good plan to have a general law applicable to the entire state, and then vest the cities with authority to pass such ordinances in advance of the state laws as public sentiment would support. As I have said before, it is well to have an ideal law as a goal, but we must be careful about forcing too radical a law on the people, especially as it could not, in all probability, be passed in adjacent territory. Industrially, as well as geographically, we of the Ohio Valley are one people, and our laws should be uniform, not only that they Child Labor Laivs of the Ohio Valley 67 may be the easier enforced, but in justice to the manufacturers who pursue the same industries in the several states, and therefore come into close competition one with another. I should not, however, be willing to see any state lower its present standard to secure this uniformity of law, and do not believe it will be necessary. To be effective, the child labor law should be simple, practical and en- forceable, and I present the following as a good working foundation upon which to build: 1. No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed, regardless as to time, occupation or conditions. 2. Boys under sixteen and girls under eighteen years of age shall not be employed after 7 p. m. nor before 6 a. m., nor at any occupation that is dangerous to life, injurious to health or likely to deprave morals. (The list of occupations should be stated clearly in the statute, and made to include all places where intoxicating beverages are manufactured or sold, as well as all the tobacco industries.) 3. Minors under eighteen years of age shall not be employed for a longer period than eight hours in any one day, nor more than forty-eight hours in one week. 4. Minors between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years shall present age and schooling certificates issued under the direc- tion of the superintendents of public schools, same to be kept on file in the office of the establishment where employed. 5. A child desiring a certificate must appear before the super- intendent of schools, accompanied by one of his parents, or a guar- dian, who shall have an employment slip certifying that the child has work to go to, and who shall also be required to certify that the child's wages are necessary for his support. The superintendent shall be authorized to inquire into the facts, and if in doubt as to the worthiness of the claimant, shall refuse the certificate, and require the attendance of the child at school. If the certificate is granted, the child shall be required to sign it in his own handwriting in order that it may be used for the purpose of verification. 6. Employers of minors between fourteen and eighteen years of age shall keep a register containing the name, age, birthplace and residence of every such minor, same to be open to the inspection of authorized officers. 68 Child Labor Laws of the Ohio Valley 7. The inspector shall have authority to take any child into custody, or require it to leave the establishment, in the event of his refusal to give name and age when there is reasonable ground for doubt as to the child's being of legal age. 8. A physical standard should be required as well as a mental. I would also suggest that the compulsory education laws be enforced by state officers instead of local, and that these state officers be required to enforce all the provisions of the child labor and com- pulsory school laws, and to thoroughly investigate any cases which would come within the provisions of the public school pension fund, mention of which has previously been made. These pensions should be paid only on the order of the chief inspector and the secretary of the state board of charities, and, when countersigned by the commissioner of common schools, the fund would thus be protected from those unworthy. It is my opinion, too, that the age and schooling certificates should be issued from one central source, and not, as in some states, by any person who chances along, including the chief factory inspec- tor and his entire force, the school superintendents, teachers and notaries public. Notwithstanding the fact that we have had some rather peculiar experiences in this matter, I am still inclined to believe that the superintendent of public schools is the one best qualified to have supervision over the issuing of certificates. The only place where I think discretionary power should be vested in any of this work is with the superintendent, when, if in his judgment, the best interests of the child will be subserved, and the home condi- tions will warrant it, he should have the authority to refuse a certifi- cate, even though the child is past fourteen years of age. This is my reason for requiring one or the other of the parents, or a guar- dian, to accompany the child, so that the superintendent may get the facts. The only danger is that this power might be abused where a superintendent were financially interested in a factory or workshop, or where a board of education would be, and exert an influence over the superintendent. In this connection it might not be out of place to refer to some cases we have found. We have taken up certificates on the face of which it was shown that the ages were furnished by friends or neighbors. In one case a mere statement was made that the five Child Labor Laws of the Ohio Valley 69 boys, whose names were not given, were qualified to work. This, too, in face of the fact that every superintendent of schools and board of education has been supplied with a copy of the certificate formulated by the commissioner of common schools in accordance with the law. This condition is not general, however, and I am glad to say that our superintendents of public schools are taking more interest in this matter than in former years, and giving us their support in the work. I sincerely believe the Ohio law should be amended so that parents or guardians could be prosecuted for falsifying as to the age of minors, for until parents and guardians are made to under- stand that they are just as liable to prosecution as the employers, we will have more or less trouble with this particular feature of the law. A great help in this direction would be the passage of a law requiring the reporting of vital statistics, which, when available, would insure the employer against those people who will even perjure themselves to secure work. It would, of course, be years before any benefit could be derived from such records, but if we fail to make a beginning, we never shall have any corroborative evidence. One of the chief elements of success in any law is the enforcement thereof. It has long ago been learned that a social evil is not remedied merely by making it illegal. Each of these six states has departments organized whose duty it is to enforce these laws, but very few of them have anything like an adequate force of inspectors to perform the work in the creditable manner which should be required. I know this is true of Ohio, and while we have had some severe and unfair criticism, my only surprise is that we have fared as well as we have, considering how few people have any conception of the magnitude of the work performed by the Ohio department. One of the great needs in Ohio, and I doubt not in other states as well, is a large increase in the number of inspectors, a fair percentage of whom should be good, competent women. The true woman, in the factory as elsewhere, is modest, and it can be readily appreciated that if abuses are practiced that not half the story will be told to a man. A woman's wrongs will be more plainly told and effectually to one of her own sex. The character of the work of these departments is such that men and women should neither be appointed nor retained in the yo Child Labor Laws of the Ohio Valley service who are not in hearty accord with the work, and fully com- petent to fulfil the duties imposed upon them. The tenure of office should be assured against political or powerful influences, and officials should be upheld for performing their duty in enforcing the law. It is not enough to enact laws. The work is then but half done. We must have officers whose special duty it is to see that the laws are enforced, and they must be backed up by an enlightened and enthusiastic public sentiment in order to secure the best results. This work of creating public sentiment favorable to the passage and enforcement of good laws can only be accomplished through the combined efforts of such organizations as the National Child Labor Committee, the Consumers' League, the trades unions, and the whole backed up by the Christian influence of the church. The Great Teacher called a little child unto Him, and set him in their midst, saying, "whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name, receiveth Me ; . . . and whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in Me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were cast into the depth of the sea." May the American people rise in their might, throw off the millstone, and be able to say, as did the Roman mother of old, "These are my jewels." THE CHILD LABOR SITUATION IN OHIO AND BORDER STATES By Wallace E. Miller, Secretary of Ohio State Child Labor Committee. The extent of child labor in Ohio and border states is not known in detail. Therefore, in respect of the number of children employed in factories, mines and elsewhere we have to content ourselves with general statements. It is apparently true that child labor exists in greatest degree in our industrial centers and in our greater towns. However, it is also true that juvenile labor abounds away from these industrial centers and larger towns to an increasing extent. Factories of various kinds are coming more and more to be located in rural places. The causes for it I will not discuss here. One result of this movement of the factory away from the large town is better control on the part of the employer of his labor force, due partly to isolation from disturbing influences, and due to the fact that he may have moved into the vicinity of a new supply of labor. Practically every boy and girl of the wage-earning classes can work and does work at some gainful occupation during some part of the year. The demand for labor of all kinds is so great and, taken gen- erally, so much in excess of the supply that it is not difficult for any boy or girl to get work to do if he or she wishes to. Much of this is work that is not harmful to the young worker, but it is inevitable that some toil in places where they should not and at times when they should Be at home, in school, or at play. I believe there are many more rural factories now than there were ten years ago. These factories are accessible to a large part of our rural youth, and the rural youth do find their way to them. Everywhere one hears from the farming population complaints as to the scarcity of labor that may be hired; that all the young people seem to have gone to some factory. The consequence is that often the boy is (71) 7 2 Situation in Ohio and Border States doing a man's work on the much approved farm and drawing for it nearly a man's pay. Another cause for child labor is the haste of the wage-earning classes to get as large a share as possible of the prevailing pros- perity, to get money to spend for the things that give satisfaction; in short, as one speaker has well said, to get more life. This desire, this greed of money getting, affects the small getters quite as much and with as great harmfulness as it does those of their elders, who are amassing or attempting to amass colossal fortunes. In this greediness it is inevitable that some selfish or lazy parents should try to shoulder some of the burden of the support of the family upon shoulders too young and tender to bear it. And it is this that a good child labor law prevents. Turning now from these apparent economic causes of child labor in the Ohio Valley states, let us observe that the Ohio Valley states, that is, those comprising the country drained by the Ohio River, have similar industries. In fact, situated as they are, and with their well known natural resources, it is difficult to name an industry found in one state that is not found in the other states drained by the Ohio River. Whatever national law is passed, it is highly probable that the states will continue to have laws regulating their own local indus- tries in respect to child labor. Whatever is done by the national government, local conditions will be dealt with by the local or state legislature. This must be so, since the states present so great a variance of industrial conditions. We have almost as many sets of conditions as we have states, but it seems to some of us highly desirable that states having similar industries should have similar child labor regulations. Especially is this desirable where two states with similar industries border upon each other. An industrial map of the United States would not regard political boundaries, for our coal beds were laid down ages before there was any society to be divided politically; our cotton industry is located according to climate and the nature of the soil, and not according to political boundaries; forest-covered areas, wheat- growing areas, cattle-raising areas, ore-bearing areas are defined by lines that do not correspond to those drawn by government. With the exception of the water courses, rivers and lakes, natural lines have had nothing to do with the division of the country into Situation in Ohio and Border States 73 states. Our state boundaries may, therefore, be said to be arbitrary, and this arbitrariness is reflected in the state regulations of industry. In a sense child labor laws share in this imposed arbitrary nature of legislation. This condition of affairs is creating confusion in the enforce- ment of the child labor laws where such laws exist. Where two states lie side by side, the one with a good child labor law, the other with a poor one or none at all, it is difficult in the state with the good law to enforce it, for children will come across the border to work and return home at night. This is believed to be true in thousands of cases along the Ohio River. They are not residents of the state, and neither the children nor their parents are amenable to the laws of the state in which they work. The employer of such labor is able practically to set at naught the laws of his own state in this particular. He gets his low-priced labor and the consequent advantage over his competitor who may be located further away from the boundary, where the latter cannot get cheap labor. If the inspector goes to such an employer in an effort to enforce the laws of the state under which he carries on business, often the children are not there. They are across the boundary, there is no record, the inspector is involved in complicated interstate relations in trying to apply the law in a case where the residents of another state are involved. As a consequence, there is little or nothing of a practical nature that he can do. He is dealing with a situation that was not contemplated by the legislature. There is still another feature of enforcement that is of even more importance than the foregoing. Suppose an attempt is made, as has been done repeatedly in Ohio, to enforce the law upon the border. The employer of child labor says, "If you enforce this law here we will move into the next state, where the conditions are more favorable to our business." They tell our legislators that ; all do not believe they will move out of the state, but some do, enough do to weaken not only the enforcement of a good law, but to put an effective stop to the movement for better legislation. Such an argument has weight, for a state does not wish to lose any of its industries, for laws inimical to industrial development drive indus- tries away, and such are not a good thing for the state. We may question honestly that the threat to move will be carried out, yet it is a sufficiently potent argument to hamper the enforcement of a law 74 Situation in Ohio and Border States and the attempt to extend its best features. In states where there is no law, but where one is in contemplation, I can readily see how this condition would exist and the border employers would resist its enactment. Let us look at this now from the standpoint of the employer. Let us suppose there are two states lying side by side, one having an age limit of fourteen, the other having no age limit, or, at least, a lower one. The man in the state with the age limit wishes to conform to the law and yet if he does he is put under a disability. His competitor across the boundary has the advantage in competi- tion, an advantage which he is quick to see and turn to his own uses. He is able to underbid the man who has a more limited supply of labor. The latter is continually harassed by this condition because he is less able to get and keep sufficient force for his factory. Then, too, he has to pay higher wages. This gives the employer of younger children an advantage in that his rate of wages is very likely to be lower than in the industry where child labor is more restricted. In all fairness, therefore, to these two men, they should, as far as possible, be subject to the same regulations, at least as far as ages and hours are concerned. I believe that employers them- selves would prefer the latter condition, for it would put them on an equality, which would give their business stability. Stability and certainty are two things which every careful business man appreciates. The man in the state with a good child labor law is subject to the uncertainty which arises from unfair competition, and the man in the state with no child labor act is subject to the passage of one and the taking away of a source of profit. Sooner or later he will lose, but in the meantime undesirable conditions continue. Hence it seems to me a plain proposition that adjoining states with competing industries should have as much uniformity as pos- sible in their child labor regulations. It is therefore pertinent and useful to inquire as to the points upon which uniformity is possible. Of the various points covered in our best child labor laws there are points upon which our experience enables us to be in substantial agreement. First among these is the age limit. A child of thirteen in one state is the same as a child of thirteen in another state. What is Situation in Ohio and Border States 75 bad and harmful for one is bad and harmful for the other. If it is injurious for a child of thirteen years to work in a factory in Ohio, it is injurious for a child of the same age to work in a factory in West Virginia, California, New York or anywhere else. It would seem, therefore, practical for the states to have the same regulation regarding age, and this would be the first long step toward uni- formity. The same remarks could be made with equal applicability in regard to hours. A twelve-hour strain is a twelve-hour strain, and is just as harmful on a fourteen-year-old boy or girl in one state as another. The same statements are valid for specified occupations. A circular saw or belting is just as dangerous in Kentucky as in Ohio, and a child should not be permitted to work around such machinery in either state. Both states should prohibit it. There ought to be no difficulty in getting such a law passed in any state. In other points, such as certificates, inspection, public notices, educational tests, physical tests, fines, etc., there might conceivably be room for a difference of opinion and of policy. But my conten- tion is that on the fundamentals of child labor law adjoining states with the same industries should be in agreement for the sake of the child, for the sake of the industry, and for the sake of respect for law. How shall this desirable result be achieved? I know of no sure way except by educating the people of a state that is back- ward in this matter up to a point where they will introduce the desirable changes and improvements, and themselves see that they are carried out. It seems to me undesirable in the extreme that our Ohio law should be set at nought and rendered worse than no law by the children that come into Cincinnati daily from the towns across the river to work in the factories and stores of this city. It is undesir- able that children should be ferried across the river from West Virginia to work in our glass factories, or that our children should be ferried to West Virginia to work in their glass factories. It is undesirable that Kentucky children should penetrate sometimes thirty miles inland in Ohio to work in some canning factory. It is undesirable that a boy of a widowed mother able to support him in school should go to work in a box factory, after lying about his age, and there contract vicious habits, there to exhaust his nerve 76 Situation in Ohio and Border States strength so that the cheap garish theatre is all that will satisfy his craving for excitement. It is undesirable that the cupidity of a parent should prompt him to go to the school superintendent and lie about his child's age that the parent may get the fifty-five cents per day earned in a bolt factory to spend on lodges and euchre parties. It is undesirable, I say, that a boy of twelve years be sent nightly to disorderly places with telegraph messages, where vice is flaunted in his face and he is made familiar with its poisonous details. It is extremely undesirable that immigrant children, truant from school, should pick coal in the mining region. These are the undesirable features of the child labor situation in the Ohio Valley in recent years and months. They are not set down here out of fancy, but are set down out of fact. Some of them are things that could never be touched, even remotely, by a national statute of a general nature, because a railroad, steamboat or other common carrier has nothing whatsoever to do with the operation. They must be regulated by the individual state exer- cising its functions as the guardian and instructor of its youth. It must be done by the state in co-operation with every other adjoining state. Whatever may be said about other kinds of uniformity, the states touching the Ohio River must work in harmony or in unison for similar regulations, or a desirable adjustment of the present discord will be far to seek. CHILDREN IN THE GLASS WORKS OF ILLINOIS By Mrs. Harriet Van der Vaart, Of Chicago, Vice-Chairman of Industrial Committee of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. All who have had experience in child labor legislation know that each state — sometimes a group of states — has its own particular problem to solve, relating to the employment of children in the industries of that state. In some states it is the mining industry; in others the cotton industry, and in Illinois, as in many others, it is the glass industry. When we were working for our present law, the glass manu- facturers of Illinois kept some one at Springfield to watch and oppose each step of the law, and in all of the arguments they always closed with, "If this law goes into effect it will drive this industry out of the state." Perhaps all do not know the character of the work in a glass factory. Every glass blower has to have two or three boys to assist him in the work. The glass blower pours the molten glass into the molds; a boy sits and closes the molds; another one picks the bottles out of the molds and puts them on a long stick or handle, and puts them in front of a small furnace, which is called "the glory hole," where the top or the neck of the bottle is finished. Then they are placed on a long tray, and the boys carry them into the annealing furnaces, where they are gradually cooled. One of the arguments advanced by those who are most inter- ested in keeping boys in the glass factories is that it requires the agility and activity of boys to carry these bottles to the annealing furnaces, for they cannot get men or adults to run as these boys do most of the time betwen the ovens and the furnaces. The day shift of one week is always the night shift of the next, which means that the boy who worked during the day this week, the next week will work at night. The night shift generally leaves the factory at (77) 78 Children in the Glass Works of Illinois half-past three or four o'clock in the morning. Now it is very easy to see that coming away from those heated furnaces out into the chilly, cool air of the winter morning makes the boys liable to colds and pulmonary diseases. The moral influences surrounding the boys in a glass factory are generally bad. Anyone who visits a glass factory will see little saloons or grog shops all around the factory, and while a great many factories prohibit liquor being brought into the factory, all do not. In some factories the boys carry the liquor, but where it is prohibited this temptation meets them when they first leave the fac- tory and, coming out into the chilly morning air, debilitated by the labor and heat, of course the temptation is great to take something that will stimulate them. Around all the factories there is a high board fence, and on top of this fence are two or three barbed wires. When I inquired at one of the factories the reasons for this, one of the reasons given me by one factory was, "Well, it keeps the boys in for one thing." The glass blowers are very dependent upon their helpers, and if the boys leave at a critical time the glass blowers are obliged to stop their work. Of course, I do not mean to say that this is the only reason for this high fence, but it is doubtless one. The work of the boys in the factory is irregular and requires no training nor skill. In some factories where I visited I found that boys received forty cents extra at the close of the week if they worked the entire week and if they did good work. Through the National Child Labor Committee two years ago I was permitted to visit a large number of the glass factories in both Indiana and Illinois. I not only visited the factories, but the homes also, to learn the health of the child, the grade he was in when he left school, the conditions of the factory, if he worked nights, and his wage, These and many other questions the schedules of the Child Labor Committee required to be answered. During this investigation I came to the conclusion that the character of the young help in the glass factory was greatly changed; that the most intelligent parents throughout the country were becoming con- vinced that the glass factories were not the places for their boys. It was very seldom that the child of a glass blower was found in the factory. Generally the children of glass blowers were kept in Children in the Glass Works of Illinois 79 school. Mr. Root, of the Root Glass Company, said : "The smaller number of boys that are found in the factories throughout the country is due to the changed conditions of labor. The large glass industries attract to them large numbers of foreigners, and the American boys are not being employed in the glass factories as they were some time ago." I was told a number of times that the Glass Blowers' Union was the only thing that kept the intelligent workmen in the trade, and that manufacturers never objected to this union, because they recognized this fact: it is the only inducement that is offered to intelligent men and to parents to allow their boys to enter the work. The apprenticeship system among the glass blowers is such that a very long time is required, and it is a fact that a very few of the boys who enter the glass factories ever become apprentices. One manufacturer admitted to me that the boys in the glass industry generally were smaller and not as well developed as the boys who had lived a normal life outside. He said he thought this did not argue that they were not as well. Mr. Root did not object to the prevailing laws as long as his competitors were subject to the same restrictions; he did not think that a law prohibiting boys under sixteen from being employed could be enforced. He said he knew of one manufacturer where there had been returned thirty-two indictments against him, not one of which had ever been brought to trial. At the time of my investigation I was convinced that there was some degree of reason in his remarks. At least I felt quite sure that the glass manufacturers were not obeying the laws in this respect. I talked with the president of one of the large glass blowers' unions in Indiana. He said that he had been in that particular fac- tory for three years ; that during that time he had never seen an inspector or the results of a visit from one; that in the factories where affidavits were required the manufacturer simply sent home a paper by one of the children which was signed by the parent and brought back. In one of the factories in Indiana I insisted upon seeing the affidavits. There was a little bundle of affidavits brought out to me that were several years old, none of which could apply to any of the children that were at that time employed in that factory. 80 Children in the Glass Works of Illinois The president of the union in Indiana said that he had worked in Alton as well as in Indiana, and he thought that the conditions were much worse in Indiana than they were in Illinois. Night work is not prohibited in Indiana. It was quite the customary thing for school children to go into the factory at night and work until eleven and twelve o'clock and go to school during the day. This would be found especially true on Thursday and Friday nights. I went to the inspector's office in Indiana and talked with him in regard to the condition in Indiana, and he told me that he only had five inspectors; that with five inspectors a state the size of Indiana could not be inspected. This is something for us to con- sider. The factory force should have the number of inspectors that is necessary for thorough work and a sufficient appropriation to carry on the work. The best factory I found was in Indiana — the Ball Brothers factory — which I hope is a sample of the future glass factory, where machinery is gradually taking the place of the boy. In talk- ing with Mr. Ball, he said that he thought that the time was not far distant when machinery would take the place of boys in all glass factories. It seems to me that the glass manufacturers are not only not living up to the law themselves, but that they are educating children to be law-breakers. When we visited Alton two years ago we went through the factory, both in the afternoon and in the evening, and we found a model factory. The next day when I was visit- ing in the homes of the children who worked in the factory, in order that I might gain the data required, I was told in quite a number of homes that this factory had known that we were to visit them, and had been prepared for our visit. After I had received a great deal of this information I went back to the factory and made known what I had discovered during the afternoon: that I had learned that they were prepared for our visit. Mr. Smith, of the Alton Glass Factory, said to me : "But, madam, if you were informed that the enemy was in the field, what would you do ? Wouldn't you take all precautions that were necessary to protect yourself?" When I was asked to talk upon this subject at the Third Na- tional Child Labor Convention I did not think it would be fair to speak upon the conditions as I found them two years ago. It seemed Children in the Glass Works of Illinois 81 obligatory at least to visit the largest plant, the Alton glass factory. I reached Alton last Wednesday morning, at eight minutes past six. I took a car and went down at once to the glass factory. On the way there a gentleman in the car told me that a few days before he had seen two little, very ragged, dirty boys taking the dinner out to their father in the factory, and he asked them why they were not in school. They said they did not have clothes to go to school, and one of them told him that the oldest one would be old enough next year to go to work. He told me that these two boys were growing up there without any education and were being kept at home for the sake of carrying their father's dinner every day. When I arrived at the glass factory it was about half-past six. There are two large gates at the Alton factory where the employees enter to work. I stood at the upper gate from half- past six until a few minutes past seven, until all the employees had entered for work. I saw perhaps two or three hundred employees enter the yard. I did not keep an actual tally of the children that entered. But I am sure that I am giving a conservative estimate when I say that the age of at least forty or fifty of the children that went into that yard would have been questioned by any dis- interested person. I was told that our factory inspectors had been through Alton only a week before, and had found quite a number of violations, and that they had quite heavily fined the firm. Perhaps that is the reason why I saw so many that morning. I presume it is quite natural for a factory to feel that after a visit from the inspectors they certainly have a little time when they need not be so strict. In the forenoon of this same day I went back to the Alton Glass Factory and asked if I might go through the factory. I was quite peremptorily refused. Mr. Levis said he didn't think it would do any good; that they had been painted quite as black as they could be, and he wasn't willing for me to go through their factory. Not far away from where the factory is located there is a tract of land that is very low and swampy, a very uncomfortable place to live, but where a great many of the people live whose children work in factories. I went down into that locality and visited from house to house. At the second house I went into the sister told me that her brother was asleep ; that he had worked the night before in 82 Children in the Glass Works of Illinois the factory. I asked her how old he was ; she said he was fifteen. The next house that I went into there was a small boy in the room who, his mother said, was twelve. The boy said he had been sent home from the factory that morning because the inspectors were there. I asked her if he had an affidavit; she said, no. I asked him : "How long have you worked in the factory ?" He said : "I've worked here one month — one week, days, and one week, nights." In going from house to house, I found a number of children whose mothers told me they were not sixteen; they were fourteen and fif- teen, who had worked all night the night before in the factory. It seems to me from what I saw and heard that the Alton glass works are not living up to the requirements of the law. Being so near East St. Louis, I also visited the glass factory there. On my way to the office I was overtaken by two girls, who told me that anyone could walk in, and one of them said, "I will take you where the children work, "we girls hide the kids when the factory inspectors come in." I said: "Why do you do it?" "O, well, I would like to be hid if I was their age; but," she said, "I think it is a mistake to send them to work so young. They are employing boys for thirty-five and forty cents a day to do men's work." It was the time of recess, and at the door of the factory there was quite a large group — at least ten or twelve very small boys — who, at the sound of the whistle, scampered back to the furnaces. When I went into the factory the foreman tried immediately to attract my attention. He said: "I want to show you where they are putting glass into the furnace to be melted and where they are packing, that you may know the work is not hard. I saw at a glance that he was trying to give these boys time to get out of the way, but I saw a number of boys that any one would have said were certainly very small to be working in a glass factory. From this investigation and my own judgment, I have come to the conclusion that the glass manufacturers throughout the country are not obeying the laws for the regulation of child labor; that they are not only not living up to the requirements of the law, but that they are teaching our young children that it is not necessary to obey laws. Education is helping to eliminate the American child from the Children in the Glass Works of Illinois 83 glass factories, and that education must be extended. We must have a type of public school that will appeal to our foreigners ; we must have more industrial education ; we must have trade schools. If the parents and children were convinced that continuing in school meant industrial training; that it meant a step nearer receiving a living wage, and entering a more skilled trade, our factory and our com- pulsory education laws would be more easily enforced than they are at present. CHILD LABOR AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS By Hon. Nathan C. Schaeffer, Ph.D., State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Pennsylvania. Two problems which keep the superintendent awake at night are: to get all the children to school, and to get good teachers for all the schools. The superintendent very soon finds that he cannot solve the first of these problems unless the child labor laws are enforced; and the work of the National Child Labor Committee in helping to secure and to enforce these laws cannot bear its legiti- mate fruit unless we put good teachers into the schools. There does seem to be a time in the life of the average boy when he holds the almighty dollar so close to his eyes that he sees nothing else in God's universe. You can sometimes keep the boy at school by showing him the value in future earning power of an education; but there are multitudes of boys, and even girls, whom you cannot get to school if they are allowed to go to work, that is, if they see at the end of the week several dollars that they can spend. Suppose you have kept the child out of the factory and out of the mine, what have you done? You have only begun the work. Punctuality is a school virtue; industry is another school virtue; obedience is still another school virtue. I feel in this con- nection like emphasizing veracity as a school virtue. I do not look upon deception about a child's age as an unimportant thing; the child that is taught to give an age two or three years below the real age in order that it may cheat the trolley company out of a nickel thereby forms habits of dishonesty that very easily lead to dishon- esty toward the employer and the commonwealth and the nation. If I had to write above the school the one grand aim of the effort of the school, I would put there in electric letters, "Truth." Truth is the aim on the intellectual side, and what truth is in the domain of the intellect, that truthfulness or veracity is on the side of conduct. (84) Child Labor and the Public Schools 85 Does the child acquire these school virtues upon the street? Does it even acquire these virtues in a school in charge of a poor or inefficient teacher ? The very atmosphere of a good school incul- cates school virtues without which the individual cannot hold a place in any industrial establishment, even though he knows the catechism by heart, or can repeat entire chapters of the sacred Scriptures. I claim, then, that on the side of character building we have only begun the work when we have excluded the child from the mine and the factory. Work, it has been said this evening, is an essential in the development of the child. It is the business of the school to prepare the child for civilized life; and it is characteristic of civilized man that he works, and that he finds pleasure in work, and that he is never quite satisfied when he is out of work, as for instance, during a strike. The savage, on the other hand, dislikes work. He may impose it upon others, upon his captive or his squaw, but as for himself, he prefers sport and games and gambling, the excitement of the chase and of war. Now if the child is to be trained for civilized life, it must be taught while at school not only how to work, but to find pleasure in work. It must acquire not only habits of work, but the power to stick to work even when the work becomes irksome; and that is only done under an efficient teacher. We may view work as to its products. The products of work outside of the school bring a price in the market, and that is what interests the manufacturer; but the laws of nearly all states now say that the time of the child up to a certain age is so valuable that it must not be spent upon making things that will sell, but must be devoted to school work that will fit the child for the duties of civilized life. There is another aspect of work that interests you people, and that is the reflex influence of work upon the worker. The very first paper to-night discussed the reflex influence of factory work upon the body of the worker. That is not all that this organiza- tion should study. The reflex influence of work upon the heart and the mind, upon the disposition and upon the character is quite as important as the reflex influence of work upon the body of the 86 Child Labor and the Public Schools worker. It is right there that I think the school must step in and help the work that you are trying to accomplish. If the reflex influ- ence of the work that is done at the school makes the boy despise work with the hand, all your effort to have the child excluded from the factory and the mine and put into school is labor lost. If the life of that school does not beget in the pupil the ability to find pleasure in work, the ability to stick to work when the work becomes irksome, the ability to stand at his post and do his duty, then the school has failed, and your work is also a failure. It is from this point of view that we have taken a profound interest in all this child labor legislation. I studied many phases of history when I was a student at the University, but of all the kinds of history that gave me encouragement in my studies, the history of legislation to save the child from white slavery in England was the most encouraging; and in spite of all the defects in the enforcement of our child labor laws, I still see in these efforts a happy day dawning upon us; I see in these efforts a means by which the superintendent can bring all the children to school. THE VALUE OF PUBLICITY IN REFORM By Arthur T. Vance, Editor of the Woman's Home Companion. A large corporation was giving a dinner to its heads of depart- ments to celebrate the year of prosperity which had just closed. After feasting, speeches were in order, and finally came the turn of the gentleman who had charge of the German department. He got up and expressed himself as follows: "Gentlemens: Ve vas all here, hafing a mighty goot time. Ve haf a right to haf a goot time, because ve haf been prosberous in business. Ve was also feeling goot, because ve haf lots of goot thinks to eat. Ve vas habby, because ve vas able to sit here und drink our champaign at four dollars a bottle, und smoke our cigars at fifty cents apiece mit de satisfaction of knowing dat the house vas standing for de whole exbense. But, gentlemens, ve must not forgot dose unfortunates elsewhere in de world who ain't feelin' so fine as ve vas to-night; dose unfortunate people who haf not got goot champaign to drink at four dollars a bottle und cigars to smoke at fifty cents apiece. Ve must not forgot dose poor peoples who haf not efen got a crust of breat on vich to lay their veary heads. Gentlemens, I tink ve should do somethings to show our feelings for dose poor peoples. I feel from de bottom of my bosom up dot now is de time to show our sympathy. Gentlemens, I probose dot ve gif tree cheers for de poor." Now, the gentleman was earnest and meant well in his remarks, and really did not do any harm. In fact, if you look at it in the right way you will see that he was doing his best to give publicity to the cause of philanthropy. I hope I shall not be accused of stealing Senator Beveridge's thunder if I tell you the story he told me of how he was led to intro- duce his much talked of federal child labor bill. A year ago Senator Beveridge prepared a stump speech which he delivered at various 88 Value of Publicity in Reform public gatherings up and down the land. In this speech was a four line reference to child labor. The child labor paragraph was lis- tened to with interest, of course, but it did not seem to arouse any especial enthusiasm. This was last year's speech. In starting out on this year's political campaign, Senator Beveridge was once more called to the stump. Now, Senator Beveridge is a mightly inter- esting talker any way, and we always listen to what he has to say, but this year he noticed in his very first speech, when he came to the little reference to child labor, that his audience began to sit up and take notice, so, with the inherent instinct of the born orator, ever watching the opportunity to drive home a good point, he added a few lines off hand. And thus the child labor paragraph began to grow with every repetition, as Senator Beveridge noticed more and more interest in that topic, until child labor came to be the dominant note of his address. He looked around him for the reason for this remarkable increase in interest, and soon found out to his own satisfaction that it was due to the way the magazines and newspapers of the country had been talking about child labor month after month until public sentiment had been so thoroughly aroused that it had become a national issue. Here is a specific instance of the value of publicity in child labor reform. Let us look at the situation from another point of view. Pub- licity in reform is merely the application of modern business methods to reform work. This statement is so obviously true that it seems almost unnecessary to make it. The manufacturer who has a product in which he believes, spends thousands of dollars in buying publicity in the newspapers and magazines to tell the people of the country about the virtues of his product. We call this sort of publicity, advertising, and it is good advertising if the product lives up to the claims he makes for it. We, who are interested in reform, do precisely the same thing when we take steps to interest the newspapers and magazines in our pet theories, and if our reform is a good thing the people of the coun- try will stand by and back us up. In other words, advertising pub- licity and reform publicity both accomplish the same thing. They arouse public interest and public sentiment in favor of the object which they have in view. Value of Publicity in Reform 89 I do not think any great reform ever has been accomplished or ever will be accomplished without what we call public sentiment back of it. It is possible, of course, to persuade legislatures and congresses to pass laws, but laws are never adequately enforced unless backed up by public sentiment. Not long ago a certain state passed a child labor law, not a very good one, but better than nothing, and among the inspectors appointed was a man who liked to sit on the fence until public opinion directed him on which side he should flop. He went among his neighbors, dropping a question here and a hint there to see if strict attention to the law would be required of him. He speedily discovered that rigid enforcement was expected and without delay. Public sentiment against child labor was rampant in that state, and the law just passed was a law that had been demanded by the women and mothers of the community, and they were determined that it should not become a dead letter. Publicity has always been the active factor in the production of this public sentiment. This was true even in the old days. But then it was generally accidental publicity. When Charles Reade wrote "It Is Never Too Late to Mend" he did not think that his book was going to be so influential in hastening the cause of prison reform in England. When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" she did not dream of the great reform her story was destined to work. Yet this was publicity of the finest sort. What a great thing it would be for child labor reform if the horrors, the pathos, the pity, the sin of it all could be masterfully presented in the form of a great novel. But nowadays we plan publicity in a. more systematic, more scientific manner. The problem is merely one of how best to reach the people whom we want to interest, whose help we want to enlist in the cause. A modern campaign of publicity is planned precisely as a campaign of advertising. And in both cases the effectiveness of the campaign depends upon the worthiness of the cause. We have come to place a greater dependence than ever upon the power of the magazine in molding public opinion. This is not a reflection upon the daily press, whose good work the magazines always supplement, but it is simply due to a better insight on the part of the general public into the making of newspapers and maga- zines. 9° Value of Publicity in Reform The public has figured out that the magazine, in the nature of things, is able to reflect a more mature opinion. Everybody knows that the magazine is the product of weeks and months, while the newspaper is the product of hours. The natural sequence is that the magazine article is given the greater credit and reliability. It was magazine publicity that brought about the final downfall of the Louisiana lottery. It was magazine publicity that downed Bill Tweed. It was a magazine that prepared the way for the present investigations into Standard Oil. It was a magazine article that stirred up all this talk about the conditions in Panama, that finally led to the President going down there himself to inves- tigate. The magazines have been foremost in the fight for pure food, and for the regulation of patent medicines. It can be safely- said that the magazines of to-day are one of the greatest powers for good in the country. It was also a magazine that aroused the public sentiment which has made child labor reform a national issue. The Woman's Home Companion took up the cause of child labor last spring. We did it because we thought it was a good thing and deserved our support. We decided then and there, with sincere enthusiasm and earnest purpose, to fight the evils of child labor with all our might and main. Reform should begin at home, so we looked to our own factory in Springfield, Ohio. There was no child labor there to stop, I am mighty glad to say, and there never had been, but after careful consideration of the case from every point of view, we voluntarily decided to give our employees at Springfield the eight- hour day, and now after 4.30 in the afternoon every man and woman in the plant is through with his or her work and given an oppor- tunity to go home to their families, to till the garden and enjoy God's sunshine. We have worked in sympathetic co-operation with the National Child Labor Committee from the start. We felt that we were in the position to give the National Child Labor Committee just exactly the assistance it most needed — publicity. We consulted with them and sent out our investigators and began to publish the series of articles on the evils of child labor, with which you all are familiar. The next step in this publicity campaign was to call upon our read- ers to manifest their interest in the cause by joining our Anti-Child Value of Publicity in Reform 91 Slavery League. We asked Dr. Edward Everett Hale, America's grand old man, to write an appeal to the women of America to help in the anti-child labor crusade. Exploited and made public in this manner, the Anti-Child Slavery League grew rapidly. The earnest people of the land, from Maine to California, hastened to enroll their names. Attorney generals of several states asked us to suggest adequate laws, presidents of colleges and of a multitude of societies wrote for information upon which addresses could be based, ministers of the Gospel everywhere applauded the work and offered to organize branch associations, the rank and file of the people took an active interest in the work, and finally we were asked by the National Child Labor Committee to merge more completely with it, so that the work of both organizations could be directed under one head and without duplication of energy. We enlisted 2,000 of the most prominent newspapers of the United States to help us in our publicity campaign, thus placing the progress of child labor reform before the eyes of more than 5,000,000 people a week. We talked child labor reform from one end of the land to the other. In short, we brought to the work of the National Child Labor Committee and its kindred organiza- tions just what they wanted and needed. And now, that an amalga- mation between the National Child Labor Committee and the Anti- Child Slavery League of the Woman's Home Companion has been made, we are more heartily and earnestly enlisted in the cause than ever. The results of this co-operative effort are already beginning to manifest themselves. It was this widespread publicity campaign that led Senator Beveridge to realize the importance of the child labor issue. It was this same publicity that helped influence President Roosevelt to make the recommendation in his annual message that the national government take a hand in investigating child labor conditions. The President still further recognizes the value of this publicity in a signed statement, printed in the Woman's Home Companion for January, in which he expressed ' in ringing terms just where he stands on child labor reform. This is only the beginning of the campaign of publicity in behalf 9 2 Value of Publicity in Reform of child labor reform. I can pledge the continued support of the magazines and newspapers of the country. We have just begun our efforts in behalf of child labor reform. We will continue to do our share, and more than our share, wherever possible, until the glorious work of saving the children of the nation is an accom- plished fact. THE ENFORCEMENT OF CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS By Hon. Edgar T. Davies, Chief Factory Inspector of Illinois. Modern industrialism has produced modern individualism. It has developed a parenthood that is prone to raise children as human commodities for the factory, the mills, the mines and other places where avenues of employment are ever open to children. The result has been the growth of a child labor evil that is the shame of modern civilization. It has been fostered through three agencies — the em- ployer ; the commercialism of parenthood ; and a lack of uniformity of legislation, restricting the employment of children under fourteen years of age, and regulating the employment of children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. Lack of enforced laws in some states and lax methods of factory inspection in others have con- tributed in a measure to the result. There are states in which there have not been sufficient appropriations along with legislation ; while in others the responsibility for the enforcement of laws has not been properly defined, and laws cannot enforce themselves. In some localities child labor laws are not supplemented by adequate compulsory education laws, and in many states the age limit is too low, and there is not sufficient educational test. Possibly the curriculum of our public schools should be expanded to include the utilitarian as well as the educative, and to expand manual train- ing that would educate the hand as well as the head. The inclination of most boys is for the manual as well as the academic. Some states do not protect children engaged in hazardous employment. All of these defects tend to a great social waste during that period of childhood that is most precious to the building up of the mind and muscle of future citizenship. The question of child labor has become a source of such national apprehension that Senator Beveridge advocates a bill aimed at those (o.O 94 Child Labor Legislation in Illinois industries that encourage it. The question is one, however, that cannot be settled solely by a law that would regulate common car- riers. The parent, the consumer and the public must do their share in a suppression of the evil. I am pleased to announce, and I speak advisedly, when I say there has been a decrease in child labor in Illinois in the past three years to the extent of eighty per cent. This gratifying result is due to the enforcement of the new child labor law which was enacted in 1903; to the policy of individual inspection; to tempering the enforcement of the law with a campaign of education among em- ployers, giving them an opportunity to be heard before they are prosecuted for alleged violation of the law; and to the policy of the state factory inspector's office in enforcing a measure that was enacted in the name of humanity and at the request of all creeds. I believe in prosecution where moral suasion fails. Where repeated carelessness among employers caused technical violations of the law, the offenders have been prosecuted with good results. Prior to 1903 our factory inspectors were handicapped by inadequate legislation. One of the great evils that caused so much child labor in Illinois previous to 1903 was a law which exists to-day in a number of other states, viz.: "The issuance of certificate merely upon the affidavit of the parent or guardian." This pernicious sys- tem merely places a premium upon child labor and perjury. Out of one hundred test cases in Chicago in 1902, it was found that eighty- two of the children involved were so small in stature, as to arouse the suspicion of factory inspectors, who investigated the baptismal and birth records of these children, and ascertained that they were only eleven, twelve and thirteen years of age, notwithstanding the fact that they had gone to work on certificates issued by notaries public, and sworn to by their parents, attesting that these children were fourteen years of age. Based upon these test cases, it was estimated, at that time, that out of 15,000 children employed in Cook County on affidavits 3,000 were under fourteen years of age, the legal age limit to go to work. The false affidavit system which exists to-day in many of the states in a large measure contributes to the employment of children under the legal working age, aided and abetted by parents, who place commercialism above conscience, and by the notary public, who is guided by the spirit of greed to get his fee at the sacrifice of the future welfare of the child. In Child Labor Legislation In Illinois 95 view of the fact that these test cases in Chicago in 1902, demon- strated that one out of five children who were then employed was under fourteen years of age, it is logical to deduct, without fear of successful denial, that where a child labor law does not require abso- lute proof of age such legislation in every state is responsible, to a great degree, for the federal census returns, showing the employ- ment of so many children under fourteen years of age. Doubtless the parents gave the child's correct age to the census enumerator, and then perjured themselves to the notary public, or the official who issued the working certificate. Another defect in the old child labor law of Illinois — which exists to-day elsewhere — was the lack of requirement for an educa- tional test before the child was eligible for employment. This merely encourages illiteracy. It is a menace to the future produc- tive value of the child, and will be an inevitable contributor to delinquency or dependency in youth, and eventually the prison or the poorhouse when that child's life ripens into maturity. Useful- ness and success in civic and industrial life depends upon the funda- mental principles of health and education; upon the moral and intellectual advancement of childhood, and proper mental and physical equipment for the occupational life. Under the old statutes of Illinois there was not sufficient pro- tection to children in hazardous employment, in those vocations that jeopardized health, life and limb. This inadvertence, which Illinois has remedied, still exists in other states to-day, with the exception of Ohio. Nothing so appeals to the sympathy of human kind as the child on the crutch, or the child whose life has been deformed, and its vitality sapped as a result of the shortsighted policy of care- less employers, who permitted the child to be employed at a danger- ous or injurious occupation before that child was old enough to exercise proper discretion for personal safety. The result has been, the child was crippled for life. Under the old law in our state, small children were employed in industrial plants, flitting like little shadows of the night in the domain of an industrialism, that even defied the laws of nature. While thousands of more fortunate children were at home in bed, many of the victims of child labor worked all night in the glass works, withering their young lives away before the hot glare of the furnaces. Humanity demanded, and humanity obtained, a clause in g6 Child Labor Legislation in Illinois the new law, which provides that children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen cannot work between the hours of 7 p. m. and 7 a. m. It also demanded that if eight hours was long enough for a man to work, it was long enough for a child to work. As a result, improved legislation regulating and restricting the hours of employment of children in Illinois has been of great value to the health of thousands of children employed in manufacturing, mer- cantile and other pursuits. The eight-hour clause of our law applies to every day and month in the year. Some states make an exception for the busy season. Childhood should be protected at all seasons — particularly during the rush incident to the Christmas holidays — in department stores and in other places of employment, where increased activity places an extra burden of long hours upon the shoulders of tired and overworked childhood. The Illinois statute of to-day provides that no child under fourteen years of age shall receive a certificate to go to work, and that no child between fourteen and sixteen shall receive a certificate to do so, unless said child can read and write simple sentences. The system of issuing certificates safeguards proof of age and requires this educational test. It further provides for an initiatory certificate, to be obtained from the principal of the school the child last at- tended, which it presents to the superintendent of public or parochial schools, who then issues the age and school certificate, or permit, upon which the child goes to work. As evidence of the fact that many children enter industrial life before they have completed an elementary education, the official records show that from July, 1903, to the close of 1905, 30,643 working certificates were issued in Chicago by the superintendent of public schools, and that of this number only 6,601 pupils had finished eighth grade, and 16,199 had not reached seventh grade. As evidence of the great value of co-operation between com- pulsory education and child labor laws, the enactment of a new compulsory education law in Illinois at the same time that a new child labor law was passed in 1903, made it possible for factory inspectors and truant officers to co-operate in the successful pro- motion of attendance at both the public and parochial schools. The school enrolment and average daily membership in Chicago — par- Child Labor Legislation In Illinois 97 ticularly in the elementary grades — have been greatly improved within the past three years. The average annual truancy absences in Chicago, including repetitions, one year prior to the enactment and enforcement of the child labor and compulsory education laws, were 7,536 ; one year after these laws went into effect these truan- cies were decreased to 5,673, or a reduction of nearly 2,000 truancies within the period of one year. And in addition to checking truancy, there was an increase at the public schools, according to Superin- tendent E. G. Cooley, of some 8,000 pupils above the natural increase in population. There was also an increase in the parochial schools, notably in St. Stanislaus Parish, where it became necessary to build an additional parochial school, to accommodate the demand for seats. This parish is in the heart of one of the cosmopolitan centers of Chicago, in which the Polish nationality predominates, and among a class of children, many of whose parents formerly adhered to the theory of the productive instead of the educative. There has also been a reduction in the employment of children in the Chicago sweatshops from 14J4 per cent to 9 per cent. The percentage of children employed in Illinois, in 1893, was 8.2 per cent; the present percentage has been reduced to 1.5 per cent. When we consider that the Illinois inspectors cover every possible kind of an industrial or mercantile plant, store, or shop, mine or factory, this is the lowest reported percentage of child labor of any state in the Union. In 1893, out of every thousand wage-earners employed in mercantile and industrial establishments, eighty-two were children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. In 1905 this ratio was reduced to fifteen children of every thousand persons employed. Child labor has been driven from the coal mines of Illinois. This was accomplished by my interpretation of the clause of the law governing hazardous employment — an interpretation that was combatted by the coal operators' association. A test case was subse- quently brought in the courts, in which I was sustained, and as a result 2,200 children were emancipated from a life of underground servitude. Consequently, to-day no child under the age of sixteen can work in a coal mine in Illinois. These results could not have been achieved if our efforts had been confined to moral suasion. Persuasion is a divine and beautiful 98 Child Labor Legislation in Illinois thing, but the enforced law, with a penalty attached, is more effective. During the year ending December, 1905 — the latest obtainable for comparative statistics — we prosecuted and secured convictions of 531 defendants on 994 counts. The vigilance of inspectors, backed by the firm policy of the department in prosecuting offenders, has been the greatest factor in the reduction and gradual elimination of child labor in Illinois. When the law was first enacted, the department, realizing that enforcement should be tempered with fairness, distributed 72,000 copies of the law to educate employers throughout the state, and thus the industrial and mercantile public was fully advised of the requirements of the new statute. This action was prolific of good results. It proved a source of much value, not only to employers, but to school authorities, the press, and the labor and public-spirited organizations interested in an enactment that was for the immeas- urable good of the commonwealth. It is the policy and the system of the Illinois state factory in- spector's department, to inspect industrial and mercantile establish- ments in every town and city, of a thousand population and over. The work covers every store, office, laundry, mercantile establish- ment, theatre, concert hall, place of amusement, factory and work- shop in each town and city visited. The inspectors question indi- vidually each child employed. They record all suspects. They call upon the public and parochial school authorities and ascertain the true age of all such suspected children, and obtain from the school authorities the names and addresses of all children who deserted the school for the factory without having obtained from the school authorities a proper permit. We have women as well as men inspectors. We also maintain a night inspection as well as day inspection, recording all inspections made, so that we may be guided in properly disposing of any viola- tions found on a future visit. School authorities are required by the statutes to report to us all violations coming to their attention. All complaints — from all sources — are acknowledged and investi- gated, and the complainant informed as to the results of the inves- tigation. This system required the inspection in the last year of over 70,000 places, representing 264 towns. All children under the Child Labor Legislation In Illinois 99 age of fourteen found employed are reported to the school au- thorities. In Illinois we believe in a spirit of co-operation between the factory inspector, the truant officer, the teacher, the social settlement worker, the probation officer, the club woman, and all humanitarians who are soldiers in the common cause of battling for the protection and the advancement of child life. Unity of effort among child- helping agencies and representatives of every creed, and every organization interested in childhood was responsible for the victory in the legislature that gave us our new child labor law, in spite of the powerful opposition of corporations that opposed it. We believe that the repression of child labor and the necessity of compulsory education are essential for the good of the community, for the good of future citizenship, for the safety of society and the destiny of the republic. The spirit that demands the emancipation of children from industrial slavery is but natural in the state that Lincoln loved. Particularly do we realize the fact that if factory inspectors exclude a child from employment in a factory or workshop, that child should not be permitted to run at large upon the streets, for it is upon the street that evil associations corrupt childhood. For that reason the return of the child by the truant officer is a factor in insuring an intellectual future after the child has been dismissed from employment. We are in need, however, of additional legislation in Illinois, that will compel a child, after having reached the age of fourteen, to either go to work or continue at school, after it has attained this maximum of the compulsory attendance age. A child between the ages of fourteen and sixteen should not be permitted to waste these two valuable years of its life in idleness that will inevitably con- . tribute to crime in the future. It is from juvenile delinquency that adult crime receives so many recruits. The census figures of 1900, relative to the number of children employed at gainful occupations in Illinois, do not apply to present conditions, as the census was taken six years ago. It must be realized that Illinois is a great agricultural state, and that many children between the ages of ten and fifteen were employed on farms at certain periods of the year. In the urban life, most particularly in Chicago, many children sell newspapers ioo Child Labor Legislation in Illinois after school hours, and are exempt under the child labor law. It is to be remarked in the passing that the school records show that thousands of children, some of whom formerly worked in the fac- tories under the old affidavit system, were taken from their places of employment and placed in school in 1903-04. The question of the employment of children under fourteen years of age does not apply in any marked degree to present conditions in Illinois. It must also be remembered that the census enumerators quite likely included in their estimate of females between ten and fourteen years of age, a number of girls who were engaged in domestic service in the home, as well as boys who assisted on the farm. At the time the census was taken there were doubtless thousands of children em- ployed in the coal mines of the state. This evil has since been eradicated by the decision of the courts, which makes it impossible for a child under sixteen to work in a coal mine. The latest available statistics of the number of children em- ployed at gainful occupations are in the annual report of the Illinois state factory inspector for the year 1905, which shows the results of inspection in 70,539 industrial and mercantile plants, stores and offices, and other places where children were employed. The num- ber of children under sixteen years of age employed in these 70,539 places in the state, in 1905, was 11,752, compared to 19,839 in 17,209 places inspected in 1901. These figures do not apply to agricultural pursuits, or street trades, or domestic service. Our problem in Illinois, therefore, is confined largely to the regulation, protection and hours of employment of children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. The new child labor law abso- lutely prohibits the employment of children under fourteen at any time of the year in any store, office, laundry, mercantile institution, factory or workshop, etc., or in any other occupation during the period that the schools are in session. The present procedure of proving age by methods other than the mere statement of the parent, practically abolishes the employ- ment of children under fourteen. Therefore it will be seen that the former conditions in Illinois, that prevailed in 1900, and which were made possible by a lax law and a lax method of inspection of only 14,219 plants in that year, have been supplanted by improved legis- lation, that is both stringent and effective ; by an increased activity * V 19! : : Child Labor Legislation In Illinois v '%,' 11 '/ I f^iol of inspectors, that has made it possible to cover 70,539 plants in 1905, and to show a decrease in child labor between fourteen and sixteen years of age from 3.3 per cent in 1900, when the census was taken, to 1.5 per cent in 1905. The new compulsory education law of Illinois now compels children in the country districts — between the ages of seven and fourteen — to attend school the entire time the school is in session. The minimum period in the country districts is no days of actual teaching, and the period in the city districts is forty weeks, or the full school year. In Chicago there is a great cosmopolitan population. Of the parents who send their children to work only 20 per cent of these parents are of American birth. About 23 per cent are born in Germany ; 12 per cent in Bohemia ; 10 per cent in Sweden, Norway and Denmark; 8 per cent in Russia; 8 per cent in Ireland; 5 per cent in Italy ; 4 per cent in Poland, and the remaining 10 per cent from the other countries of Europe. About 20 per cent of the children go to work within one month after they are fourteen years of age, and 40 per cent within four months thereafter. This shows a tendency on the part of many parents to send their children to work as soon as they have completed the compulsory school attend- ance age, at fourteen. Many of these parents have a limited knowl- edge of English, and quite a number of them cannot read or write. From a physical standpoint, the children of American-born parents appear to be in the best condition. The Polish children are poorly developed in chest measurement and are stunted in growth. The Italian and Russian children are usually short in stature. It seems to be the perversity of fate that in large families the revenue is small, and the lack of socialization of the parents and their poverty in life is due to their own deficiency of education. Hence, were it not for legislation in Illinois, that requires compulsory school attend- ance, these children would receive the unfortunate heritage of an illiterate and indifferent parenthood. It has always been the apology of the south, for the prevalence of child labor, that it was a charitable impulse to put children to work who were the products of the impoverished home, and who came from large families, where the combined earnings of children were necessary to assist in the support of the parents. It is, there- 102 Child Labor Legislation in Illinois fore, apparent that the conditions in Chicago, in the colonies of the foreign-born population, made possible by our present lax immigra- tion laws, present the same excuse, because it was the custom of the parents abroad to send children to work at a premature age. But the Illinois law inculcates the American principle into the hearts of these immigrant*, with the result that they are compelled to send their children to school until they are fourteen years of age. Hence the children are not a menace to the wage scale of the adult, and we work parents more and children less. We must not blame the south alone for the prevalence of child labor in its mills, so long as northern capital operates these mills and is deaf to the cry of the children. The ideal child labor law does not exist. But I believe the present statute of our state is one of the best and in advance of any so far enacted by our legislatures. It can be further improved, however, by imposing increased authority upon a factory inspector, to demand, wherever necessary, a certificate from a physician of good repute, showing that the child in question is physically able to perform all of the duties required of it, and that the employment of said child will not imperil its health. It should also be amended to state specifically that the child should be able to read and write in the English language, and to pass a reasonable educational test in that language, instead of being accepted for employment on the present limited educational test of reading and writing simple sen- tences in any language. There should also be provisions to regulate the street trades, such as newsboys, venders, etc., and an amendment to protect girls between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, and to prevent their employment at night, or the employment of any girl or boy between these ages in any concert hall or place of amusement where intoxi- cating liquors are sold. The boys and girls of this day and generation represent the fathers and mothers of the future. If child labor is permitted to increase; if we do not throw safeguards about the children of to- day, to protect their health, their morals and their education, the question of this republic will not only be one of race suicide, but race decay, that will result in this country losing the laurels which it now possesses, as the most enlightened and progressive in the world. Child Labor Legislation In Illinois 103 Our flag waves a welcome to the oppressed on foreign shores. But the immigrant must be impressed when he comes from the fatherland of Europe, that this is America, and that the precious trinity of our national life is the home, the school, and good citizen- ship. Upon these tenets a great country has risen to stand supreme among the nations of the earth, with fidelity and protection for its children, as well as the stability of its people and the purity of its homes. And we should say unto capital at home, "Do not permit the competitive life to build up our industrial institutions upon the vitality of little children, or permit the factory to rob the school of that rising generation, upon whose shoulders rests the future and the fate of this republic. CHILD LABOR AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS By Samuel McCune Lindsay, Ph.D., Secretary of the National Child Labor Committee. The restriction or the abolition of child labor will impose new duties and open up new opportunities for the public school every- where. What is the cost of child labor, not to the children in terms of stunted bodies and dwarfed minds, but to society, in terms of racial and industrial deterioration? We frequently ask that ques- tion and usually answer it by coming to a firm conviction that it does not pay. It is not worth the price we pay for it. It is equally necessary that we should ask ourselves what will it cost society to restrict or to abolish child labor. This cost will be measured largely in terms of the cost of additional schools, better and more varied training, including, of course, trade schools, and some additional relief for poverty. Education is fundamental in the normal evolution of societv and of the state. Therefore the public school should be as compre- hensive as the needs of the state itself, and the supreme object <">f public responsibility. We are still far from a realization of this axiomatic truth in any part of these United States of to-day, though we seem to have set our faces in that direction even in the poorest and most backward sections of our country. The great Social Education Congress recently held in Boston is a proof of this fact. Not many years ago, in another section of our country, only a few hundred miles from Boston, I heard emphatically defended from a public platform another doctrine, namely, that the state has no responsibility nor concern for education beyond furnishing the mere rudiments to pauper children, and that the proper function of the public school is to be in reality nothing more than a pauper school. While such doctrine would meet with little acceptance in any com- munity now, it is well to recall the fact that it is less than a centurv since we established anywhere a system of public schools based (104) Child Labor and the Public Schools 105 upon a radically different idea. Many of us still act as though we were satisfied that the state had discharged its full responsibility when it has taught the spelling book to only a fraction — even though a large fraction — of its children. Education carried beyond the spelling book becomes increasingly expensive and the taxpayer's voice and vote increasingly insistent that we do not go too far. It is to be earnestly desired that, in every public gathering like this, where the permanent welfare of the child is an objecf of concern and discussion, we ask how far is far enough. Let us ask this question in a wholly disinterested manner, having taken note not only of the interest of the taxpayer, important as that is, but also of the equally important interests of the state, and of all her children who constitute her greatest asset, even when measured in terms of their economic value. We shall be able to answer the question: How far must the state go in the use of its power and revenues for the promotion of public education, for our own day and generation, if we study carefully the new duties and responsi- bilities which the Zeitgeist imposes. I shall now endeavor to point out two or three ways in which some new expansive forces are acting on the public school : (1) A new and more intense social spirit pervades the republic. This is an inevitable consequence of improved communication, a result of the development in transportation by land and water, the telegraph, telephone, newspaper, the increase in wealth and inter- change of products. The individual, family, town, city or state can no longer live an isolated life, but is almost instantly affected by the prosperity, health and wealth, or by the poverty, disease, ignorance and vice of other groups with whom they are in close relation, but over whose acts they have only an indirect control. It is no longer possible within the bounds of our western civilization to keep social opportunities at radically different levels, to have a part of the population densely ignorant and inefficient and to guar- antee the advantages of culture and efficiency to another part. Inter-communication, which is the very life of modern commerce, is the siphon that connects the various sections of our country which provide unequal opportunities and educational advantages which must henceforth seek a common level or some basis of equalization. (2) All the children of the republic are equally objects of its concern. We can no longer fail to ponder seriously the facts that 106 Child Labor and the Public Schools show 10.7 per cent of the population over ten years of age illiterate, which must mean that it has not been touched at all by the school, public or private; that show only 50.5 per cent of the population five to twenty years of age attending school; that show only 79.8 per cent of the population ten to fourteen years of age attending school in those years which should be so sacredly guarded as the golden educational and preparational period in the life of every boy and girl ; facts that show that one in every six children ten to sixteen years of age is engaged in some gainful occupation, trying to earn his or her own bread, or contribute to the support of a family ; and finally the fact that at least 500,000 children of these ages are engaged in specially hazardous occupations which are quite likely to sap their nervous energy, stunt their physical growth, blight their minds, destroy their moral fiber and fit them for the social scrap heap before they have ever had any real chance to respond to stimuli that probably would make of most of them valuable mem- bers of society. The public school has not fulfilled its mission until it can answer for the whereabouts of every child within its jurisdic- tion and guarantee to the state that all its children are being prop- erly educated, their energies properly safeguarded, until they reach the age of full discretion, whether at work, study or play — and all three of these factors should enter into the growth of every child. (3) The demand for efficiency is a demand for training. Not only must all the children of the nation be reached by the school, not only is it the legitimate concern of the people of Georgia to see that the children of Massachusetts are being reached by the public school, and vice versa, but also must we see that these children are raised at least to a certain minimum level of efficiency in doing the things at which they are destined to spend the major portion of their lives, and through the doing of which they in turn will support themselves and the state. There is no place in a democracy for public education that is not vocational in addition to being cultural. Are American standards of humanity, of political sagacity, and of common business shrewdness sufficiently high? Will they protect childhood from the greed of employers who are grappling with the difficulties of a short labor supply and high wages, and who would draft the child into their service because he can be had easily and for small wages? Will they protect children from the greed of vicious parents who would rid themselves of the duties and respon- Child Labor and the Public Schools 107 sibility of parenthood, or from the indifference of ignorant parents to the sacrifice of their children, or from the dire necessity of the poor parent who is driven by hunger to offer his child unto Moloch ? If we are prepared for legislation forbidding child labor under four- teen years of age in all occupations, and under sixteen years of age at night work and in specially dangerous occupations, we must also be prepared to pay the cost of this new social standard. The cost means more schools and better schools, schools that will do all in the way of trade education and more for the child than he can receive from any factory, mine or workshop, and finally make pro- vision for his physical necessities sufficient to enable him to improve the opportunities in all cases where the poverty of parent or guar- dian makes this impossible. The state now furnishes a school room, desks, pencils, books and materials, irrespective of the child's ability to pay for them, because in this way, and only by so doing, as experience proves, do we get the desired community result from the school as a whole. It is an equally important factor in the ability of the pupil to do a good day's work at school that he come to school properly fed and clothed, and we must be prepared to provide in some way for the physical needs of underfed and improp- erly clothed school children if we expect our schools to be really efficient. Whether we do this from the public school budget or not, as we now buy text-books and maps, is not half so important a question as the fact that the school is now committed of necessity to seeing that it is done. The public may decide that it prefers to rely upon private agencies or philanthropy to provide the means, nevertheless, in seeing that it is done, the school is brought into closer organic relations to the life of the community and the vital interests of the child are enhanced. (4) The public school is an administrative department of gov- ernment. The President's Cabinet needs a Secretary of Education even more than a Secretary of War— and the present versatile, high-minded and able-bodied occupant of the latter post could most worthily hold the educational portfolio. Every Governor needs a Superintendent of Public Instruction as a more active member of his council than a Secretary of the Commonwealth can possibly be, and the Mayor of every town and city needs the Superintendent of Schools as a right-hand adviser more than he needs a Police Com- missioner. Our public schools must be prepared to enlarge their 108 Child Labor and the Public Schools administrative duties if they expect to get a larger share of the public revenues so urgently needed to carry on their work. Already in large cities the tenement house inspectors, the health officials and sanitary inspectors, the factory inspectors and many other public officials depend increasingly on school teachers and school officials for aid in their work, because the teachers and school officials are in closer and more vital relation to the homes of the people than any other body of public officials. It is a short-sighted policy for any school official to resist these new demands on his already over- taxed fund of energy, because by responding to them he will find the quickest relief which will come through public appreciation of the great burdens he is now carrying and the willingness to give him more adequate support. Unfortunately, few departments of administrative government are in general so poorly organized on the business side as our departments of public education. In none is it more difficult to get satisfactory reports of what is being done, enlightening statistics that enable one to measure results or to calcu- late the relative cost of work done and that which is left undone because of lack of means. All this works to the disadvantage of the school and the teacher, because the public at large is more sympa- thetically inclined to support and develop public education than any other department of social work, if its needs can be properly pre- sented for public discussion. It is safe to say that there is no city system of schools in the United States that could not legitimately absorb within the next ten years the total sum of money now raised and that will be raised at the present tax rate for all public expenses in that city each year during the next ten years, and that the legiti- macy of this demand would be admitted and the means found through new sources of revenue, if the facts were placed before the oublic by the school officials, who should know them, and in a way to be clearly understood by the public and the organized agencies now doing the social work of these several localities. What I have iust said of our city system of schools, I believe, would hold equally good for many smaller town and country districts. (5) The public school, next to the parent, is the proper guar- dian of the rights of childhood. It must in all cases co-operate with the parent in the performance of this duty, and where the parent is wanting or unfit, as is sometimes the case, the school, as the chief agent of the state for this purpose, becomes the sole executor. In Child Labor and the Public Schools 109 our present-day industrial system, the rights of childhood are being invaded and nullified in no more important and unnecessary manner than in the widespread prevalence of child labor. Why have schools at all, and why pass compulsory education laws, if at the same time we permit the employment of children of school age and thereby create conditions which tempt employers, parents and children alike to make both schools and laws of no avail. The public school should, therefore, be the leader of the forces militantly and wisely engaged in the efforts to abolish child labor and regulate the abuses of the rights of childhood. CHILD LABOR AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS By Charles W. Dabney, Ph.D., LL.D., President of the University of Cincinnati. As a member of the profession of school teaching in Cincinnati, I am very happy to have the opportunity to express our apprecia- tion of the Convention of the National Child Labor Committee meeting in our city. Although we have very good laws in Ohio, comparatively speaking, and we believe that they are enforced as well as might be under present conditions, we find ourselves quite in the position of the good people of New York. We need to be educated, we need to have the public opinion of our community better informed and our hearts and consciences quickened to the importance of the exe- cution of these statutes. A gentleman told me yesterday an incident that will illustrate our need in this respect. A rather prominent lady who saw an advertisement of the great meeting last night in the daily papers remarked to another lady, "Well, I am glad to see that there is going to be a meeting here for child labor. I am really tired of seeing so many big children ten years old playing in the streets." I think I will take her remark for my text. As was said at the meeting last night, the object of govern- ment is not merely the protection, but the development of men. That lesson was enforced last night by every speaker, I believe, who addressed us. In Cincinnati, as in other parts of the country, we are coming to realize better and better that government does not mean merely jails and policemen, but it means every agency for the complete development of the child and the man. As I look at it, there are a number of institutions in society that develop man, five of which I will mention: the home, the school, the church, the state, and the professional and industrial occupations. Through them man is to be developed and made a complete human being. (tta) Child Labor and the Public Schools in The most important of these is the home ; for the home is that institution in which the child discovers his relations to his brethren. In the school the child discovers his relations to the youth of his own age. In the state he discovers his relations to his fellow-men. In business he learns more about his relations to his fellow-men and their needs. And in the church he discovers the relations of his spirit to the great Father of all spirits. It is through these institutions, then, that we are to develop this complete man. In considering their relative importance in this process we are led to ask, is the home doing its duty, here in Cincinnati and in America? My friends, let me say this much: I do not believe that this curse of child labor is to be attributed entirely to the greed of manufacturers. I think we may have put too much emphasis on that. They are greedy for cheap labor, to be sure, but what about the greed of the parent ? Neither is it true that child labor is to be traced altogether to the greed of the parent combined with the greed of the manufacturer. The child himself is often greedy — greedy for activity, for association, for money, and so for work. Though doubtless he is encouraged in this from the very first by his parents, his greed is one influence. Let us not put the responsibility for it wholly upon any of these. I tell you one great reason that the child goes to the factory is that the home is not what it ought to be ; and one great reason that the home is not what it ought to be is that here in America we have not a proper distribution of the results, the products of labor. It is the poverty of the home that drives the child into the factory. If we had in this so-called free republic a proper distribution of the wealth of all the people through the homes of all the people, we would not have that curse of poverty which is driving the children into the factories and causing child slavery. I wish I had the time to speak of the home as an influence against child slavery ; but I must say that wherever the home is what it ought to be, there the man and the woman are the citizens they ought to be. Take the great German nation as an example. It is the home tie that makes the German what he is. It is his love of home and love of the school, which is everywhere the supplement of the home, that has made Germany the great power in Central Europe. So it is with the English people ; and with the Scotch more especially. It is their pure Christian homes and their schools H2 Child Labor and the Public Schools that, ever since the days of John Knox, have made them a power in Great Britain. I believe every member of the present Cabinet of the Liberal Party in England is a Scotchman, and with two exceptions, that there is not a single English lord in the list. It was Scotchmen who established nearly all of our American insti- tutions and who built practically all of our schools. In the land where we find pure homes and good schools, there we find strong men and strong women coming up in every generation. Next in order would come the influence of the church and religious societies in the development of the spirit ; but I must pass that over and talk to you for a few moments from the standpoint of the teacher about the school as a preventive of child slavery. In old times here in America, and more particularly in Germany, in Eng- land and the other older countries, there were home industries, besides those of the farm, to train the children to work. For I hold, my friends, that every child needs to be taught to work ; but he needs to be taught not in the factory, but in the home and on the farm, with proper surroundings and under proper conditions. I believe that it is a part of the education of every child to be so trained to honest toil. It is just as much a part of his education as training to write or cipher. The old Hebrews believed this; every truly great people have had some system of training their children in manual labor. Under the old conditions the American child was trained in many trades and industries on the farm. In my boyhood I knew such a farm home in old Virginia. How glad I am that I had that privilege. Upon that old farm there were the flour mill, the cooper shop, the blacksmith shop, the sawmill, the carpenter shop, the tannery and shoe shop, and many other like industries, and we boys had the opportunity of gaining some familiarity with all of them. Then there was not merely the kitchen, but there were the spinning and loom house, the dyehouse, and various other domestic industries grouped around the old plantation home, in which the white girls took part with the negro women. So the boys and girls both had a training in hand work at home under the most healthful conditions that it is possible to conceive. So it was all through the country to a larger or smaller extent. The trouble at the present day is that since this crowding into cities and this infinite division of industries, opportunities are no Child Labor and the Public Schools 113 longer afforded in the home for teaching the children to work. So we let them go to the factory. Now, the child really loves work; the normal child is filled with the love of activity ; the desire to do things is constantly stirring him and seeking an outlet. The boy naturally wants to be doing something. A little boy came to my office and wanted to hire as an office boy. I looked at him and said, "My little fellow, you ought to be in school. What do you want to hire out here for ?" He said, "I am tired of school — nothing doing." That was a new idea to me — tired of school here in Cincinnati because there was "nothing doing." This boy of fourteen years wanted to go to work because there was "nothing doing" in our schools. I asked myself what that meant. On further inquiry I learned that he meant that he did not see any good in it at all. He had learned to read, write and cipher, and something of geography, history, etc., but he wanted to take an active part in the life of this great city. He wanted to be working, to be making some money and having something to spend, perhaps, but, most of all, to be out in the big world and doing something. The child wants to get into life, or to be where there is "some- thing doing," and the trouble is that in too many of our schools there is "nothing doing" to meet the active mind of a boy. He is not satisfied with the conventional education, just the three R's and nothing else. What then have we to do as school teachers ? Give them manual training? Yes, manual training is a very good thing as far as it goes. But we have to do more than that; we must put real indus- trial training in the schools, because we now have nothing of that in the home or on the farm. We live in the cities ; we cannot supply our children with such opportunities ; we therefore must have more of them in our schools. "Too many big children playing in the street," the lady said. You laughed at it, as I did at first ; but do you know that is a great truth? There are too many children here in Cincinnati playing in the streets. A friend tells me that there are probably fifty thousand children in this city who have no other place to play and go into the streets, because by the very law of their natures they have got to play. So that one of the things we have to do is to provide trade education, industrial education. We must provide opportunities for 114 Child Labor and the Public Schools the development of the whole life of the child — not merely his intellect, but his physical and his moral being also — and it is chiefly through play, through association with his fellows, that he develops these phases of his nature. Next to industrial education the great needs of our schools are playgrounds and recreation centers. If we provide for the whole life of the child; for the develop- ment of his whole nature; if we provide sufficient avenues for his characteristic powers and activities; if we give him opportunity both to learn and to work as he wants to work and to build up and develop his social nature as he desires, and do it in the school, he will continue there as long as we want him to stay. Let us have not merely manual training, but industrial education; let us have play- grounds in greater measure; let us give the life of the child free vent. The great longing of every human being is for life, ever more and ever more life. This is the great call that comes up from the poor and oppressed everywhere; from the poor farmer living in his sod hut in the far west, as from the factory slave in his dark tenement in the city, ever the call comes, "Life, more life !" It is the demand of every human heart, young and old. "It is the infant crying in the night, the infant crying for the light." When we provide for the full life of the child we will not have to make so many laws for compulsory education or against child labor. CHILD LABOR AND THE NATION By Hon. Albert J. Beveridge, United States Senator from Indiana. The purpose of this republic is to make a better type of man- hood and womanhood. The reason for free institutions is that they develop nobler human characters than any other institutions develop. The meaning of a democratic form of government is to make people happier and better, and to make life more worth the living. The glory of this Nation is not in the exhaustless fertility of our far flung valleys and plains ; not in the amazing wealth of our mines of coal, and iron, and copper and gold ; not in our tremendous aggre- gation of riches ; not in our vast network of railways ; not in our astounding commerce and trade. All these are splendid ; but these are not the chief sources of our pride. No, the supreme glory of the American people is a pure, clean, independent citizenship — a type of manhood and womanhood, sound of body, clear of mind, stout of heart, aspiring of soul. And to become such a human being as that is the absolute right of every boy and girl under our flag, and any system which prevents any American boy or girl from realizing that ideal is a crime against humanity and treason against liberty itself. And yet, such a system is in operation this very night. This very night this crime against humanity and free institutions is being committed. As I speak to you, thousands and thousands of little children are at work in cotton mills, in glass factories, in the sweat shop, and, every day, on the breakers of the mines. Their bones are not yet hardened, their muscles still are water, their brains are still the brains of infants. They are in that period which should be the period of the first beginning of their growth, the period when the whole foundation of their life's development should be laid. And yet, the very materials for that foundation are being for- ever shattered. Their normal growth is being stopped, their bones n6 Child Labor and the Nation made crooked, their backs bent with the stoop of age, their minds stunted, their characters malformed. Weak nerved, vicious souled, they are being made degenerate by a system of greed, as foolish as it is wicked. For a child to work upon the farm is a good thing if he is not forced to labor beyond his strength. I would even go so far, although many might object to it, as to say, as our honorable President once put it — advocate the teaching of children to work properly as a part of their education. But the child labor which I denounce is the child destroying labor of the factory, the sweat shop and the mines. This maiming of the bodies of the American children goes forward. This murder of infant characters and souls is being com- mitted, this perversion of citizenship is being done to-night; and in committing their offense against God and man, an even greater crime is committed against free institutions themselves. For child labor is daily pouring into the mass of American citizenship streams of social and political poison which will be fell for ill in this Republic as the decades pass. As these children reach what should be the conditions of maturity, if they have not already been put in their graves, they become unthinking enemies of society — irreclaimable enemies, because the injury that has been done to them can never be undone, nor this cost repaid. When they grow up and compare themselves with other young men and women, they clearly see, and even more keenly feel, that they are inferior — inferior in body, in- ferior in mind, inferior in soul, not inferior naturally, but made inferior by the slavery of their infancy. They feel that they have been robbed, not robbed of money, not robbed of property; but robbed of intellect, health, character, of life itself. And so they become, all over the land, living engines of wrath against human society itself. When the lords of gold tremble for the safety of their widespread investments, let them remember that child labor is daily creating an element in this republic more dangerous to their physical property itself than ever was packed in dynamiters' bombs. This danger is not only manifested in incendiary fires, and all the manifestations with which we are so familiar, but it will soon manifest itself in votes to the destruction of the very purposes and reason for which this government of free and equal men was founded. I think I understand personally exactly how these young men Child Labor and the Nation 1 17 and women who, as Dr. Adler said, had been exhausted in their youth, feel when they attain manhood. I myself began physical labor earlier than twelve, hard labor — too hard for any child of eighteen or nineteen. But after all, that was in the open air, in the field, beautiful with the waving banners of the corn, and fragrant with the smells of the brown earth, upturned by the ploughshare; it was on the grades of railways with great, gross, rough, but vital and kindly men about me, it was in the logging camps, with the majesty of the woods about me. It was bitter work; it was too heavy for any child, but, after all, over me by day always was the marvelous blue of God's splendid dome or the glory of his clouds, or over me by night the eternal stars kept their sentinel watch and always there was the pure and unpolluted atmosphere to breathe, and through it all, now and then, was the uplifting influence of religion, and finally a college, and then all those influences of the true and the beautiful and the good in life. And yet, in spite of all that, I do not like to think of the years from twelve to nineteen, because it makes me bitter. But suppose my work had not been in the open air? Suppose it had been in the cotton mills of Georgia, or the sweat shops of New York, or the glass factories of West Virginia, or on the breakers of the mines of Pennsylvania ? Suppose I had been forced to breathe the poison and had acquired the low vices and habits which always result from such physical and nervous degeneracy. Even if, as it is, a senseless and unreasoning resentment begins to burn in my breast, what would have been my condition of mind if I had lived the life that the child slaves of America are living to-night ? Our papers contain much resentment if one anarchist is found among our European immigrants. Yet, we are at work creating the same sort. And this not the worst; for these young men and young women, who as children are overworked, through their veins inning the poison of an unthinking hatred, become the fathers and mothers of degenerate children. These go to work at the same system that made their parents incapable of having perfect children, made them the ancestors of a race of degenerates. These are the facts. This is the truth, and I say to you to-night, as I have been saying all over this country for the last three months, that this making of possible anarchists and degenerates in America has got to be stopped. n8 Child Labor and the Nation We cannot leave it to the states to stop it. They cannot stop it if they would, and they would not stop it if they could. In the states, for example, where this social disease is most violent, the great manufacturing and mining interests are so powerful that they prevent the passage of any thorough or effective state law, or they do what is a great deal worse, secure the passage of a mutilated law, leading the people to think that their legislature has done all they could, and still the evil goes on. And often, in these states, when a good law is passed, these same interests remain still so powerful with the Executive Department that the law is not ex- ecuted, and the evil goes on. Even if one state or a dozen states were to pass excellent laws and thoroughly enforce them, not much would be accomplished, because the evil would exist in other states, and still go on. And even if in one, or a dozen states, good laws were still executed, the business man in the good state would be at a disadvantage to the business man in the bad state, because the latter could employ cheap child labor, and the business man in the good state could not employ cheap child labor. And so, by this system of trying to end a national evil by segregated legislation, the very quality of the American citizen is destroyed. Here, I think, is the generalization which decides what the state should do and what the Nation must do. It is this, when an evil is a national evil, it must be cured by a national remedy. Where the evil is purely local — where it is confined to one state and no other — that state might possibly be left to cure it. For example, if child labor existed in no place in the United States except in Ohio, then we might, perhaps, consider the question of leaving to Ohio herself the curing of this evil. But if child labor is scattered all over the land, if some states are clear of it, and others are foul with it, then it becomes a subject for the combined intelli- gence and massed morality of American people to handle. And even if every state in the Union but two or three were to remedy the evil effectually, still those two or three states would be pouring streams of bad citizens into the whole Nation, and the whole Nation would be affected by them, because every citizen is a citizen, not of one state only, but the Nation as a whole. And so we see clearly that this matter cannot be left to the states to handle, first, because they cannot act uniformly, and do not — never have on any subject, not on any subject. Second, they Child Labor and the Nation I 19 cannot act effectively, even if they were so disposed. Third, where one state acts well, and another state acts ill, the business man in the latter state has the advantage of the business man in the former state. And finally, if there is only one state where the infamous practice is carried on, it is still daily pouring pollution into the whole body of American citizenship. I have heard it said the past week in conversation on the floor of the senate — it is something I am rather familiar with, after seven years down there — "Let us not be in a . hurry about this thing." Let us be in a hurry to pass a currency bill, and in a hurry pass something of that kind, but let the children go. They say, "Well, after a while, in time, the states will all have a uniform law, uni- formly executed, by uniformly good, safe and honest governors." Well, if such an impossible day should ever come, we know that it would be a generation from now ; and in the meantime, the murder of hundreds of thousands of American children would go on; in the meantime, the character and souls of hundreds of thousands of American children would be ruined; in the meantime, other hun- dreds of thousands of American children would be forever degen- erate — made into engines of wrath, and the parents of still other hundreds of thousands engines of wrath. Shall this infamy go on? Shall this undermining of the very foundations of free institutions be permitted just to please some well-meaning theorists on the one hand, and some selfish dema- gogues and millionaires already over-rich with unrighteous wealth on the other hand ? Shall the slaughter of the innocents and recruit- ing of this swelling army of degenerates continue while we endlessly debate, in Congress and elsewhere, the wisdom of curing a national infamy by a national law? Why, what is this Republic for? What are free institutions for ? Why did we ever establish this Nation of liberty ? What does the flag mean ? What do all these things mean, if they do not mean the making of a splendid race of clean, strong, happy, noble, exalted charactered men and women. The life of one American child, the making of one American citizen is worth one hundred years of academic discussion about the danger of the American people curing national evils through national government We hear it said that we are going too far in the curing of national evils by national laws. But isn't the contrary true? Have 120 Child Labor and the Nation we not been straining the other theory in preventing and delaying the nation from remedying the evils of the nation? Why should the barrier of the states be interposed in the national reform of the national evil of child labor? To be sure, that same barrier was raised against the meat inspection bill, but the aroused conscience of the American people swept it away. To be sure, it was raised against the pure food bill, but the American people said that the health and lives of themselves, their wives and their children were more important than some theory which did not affect them. Last session we passed unanimously the national quarantine law. Its purpose was to protect the ports of our Gulf states, and our Pacific states, from yellow fever and bubonic plague. It was an absolute, unqualified and admitted denial of the rights of those states. For one hundred years each one of them had had its own quarantine laws. And yet, from the very beginning, the practical human folly of it was seen, because if yellow fever is kept out of the ports of one state and let in through the ports of another state, it affects the people of both states and the whole republic, for yellow fever is no respecter of state lines. Yellow fever crosses the boun- daries of states without stopping, just as the telegraph and the railroad, and our agencies of good cross state lines without stop- ping. Very well, if the theory of state rights was yielded by the states that most insisted upon them in order to pass the quarantine law designed to prevent yellow fever which kills possibly twenty people in twenty years, cannot it also yield to the national child labor law to stop that crime which kills and ruins hundreds of thousands of American children every year? At the great meeting of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion for Western Ohio and Eastern Indiana, held at Richmond, Indiana, a few weeks ago, I formally gave notice that at the begin- ning of the present session, I would introduce a bill which would cut the heart out of this evil from ocean to ocean, and that, having introduced it, I would fight this session and the next session, and every other session so long as I was in public life until it was passed. I say to you to-night that I have redeemed that pledge. I have introduced that bill, and I repeat to you that I shall fight for it this session as I fought for the meat inspection and pure food bills last session, and will fight the next session, and the session after, if its enemies can for so long delay it, until it shall be passed. Child Labor and the Nation 121 It is a very simple bill, a very brief bill. It provides that the carriers of interstate commerce, the railroads and the steamboat lines, shall not transport the products of any factory or mine that employs or permits the labor of children under fourteen years of age. It provides for any officer of a factory or mine, who violates that act, the punishment of a money fine and a sentence in the penitentiary. I spoke about the difference between this and the meat bill, and I will confess that I drew them on different theories. I will try to make it clear to you why, although it is a complicated legal ques- tion. As a matter of fact, the constitution, which was made for the people and not for the lawyers, is a very simple instrument. And upon that point I wish to say that the American people were not made for the constitution; the constitution was made for the American people. It is our servant; we are not its servants. The difference between the meat inspection bill and this bill is just this, the meat bill goes directly to the evil and says to the packing houses in Illinois, "If your products are intended for interstate commerce, if you are preparing them to ship into another state, that is enough, railroad or no railroad, you must submit to the inspection of these products and the sanitation of these factories by the agents of the American people's national government." I at first thought of drawing this bill on these lines, and saying, "Be it enacted, that no factory or mine whose products are intended for interstate commerce shall employ children under fourteen years of age," and then providing a fine and penalty. I did not do it, I will frankly say here, in confidence among ourselves — there are only about four thousand of us here and I am sure what I say will not get out — for tactical reasons: first, because it takes hard work to get any of these bills through — we never would have gotten the meat inspection bill through in the world but for that mighty storm of wrath which the revealed facts aroused from ocean to ocean, from Mexico to the Dominion, and even as it was, they pulled nearly all the teeth out of the bill — we got all back but two — and we almost gained those two when we finally passed the bill. I did not follow the strict analogy of the meat bill in the child labor bill, first, because a plausible though not valid constitutional argument could be made against such a bill as that. Second, because I feared that the great factory interests of the south, New Jersey and of Maine, the great 122 Child Labor and the Nation mining interests everywhere, would all combine together and join the great packing interests, and they would not only defeat this bill, but possibly overthrow the meat bill, too. It will be a hard struggle with the individual interests alone, and I do not particularly care to tackle them in combination with all the other trusts there are in the country at the same time. The other day in the senate somebody said, "I wonder" — and then looked very profound — "whether the men who drew the inter- state commerce clause of the American Constitution ever contem- plated any such thing as we are doing?" Why certainly they did not. Read the debates on the interstate commerce clause in the national convention, one hundred and twenty-five years after they were made. I remember Mr. Pinckney, one of the ablest men, said, in discussing this clause, "The interstate commerce clause was designed so that one state would not override the other." He said, "The interests of New England are and always will be rum and fish." He said, "The interests of the Southern states are and always will be cotton and indigo ; the great agricultural centers of the country are and always will be New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and New York is the only one that is a manufacturing center that will be affected by free trade." It was under such debates as that that the interstate commerce clause of the American Constitution was formed. But I have always believed that every one of the saving clauses in that instrument, just as I believed that everything else that has occurred in American history was directed from above. And when I have thought about that interstate commerce clause — how it enables the people, who are one people with one flag, to deal with each other, I have felt how true were the words of Emerson in that immortal poem, "The Problem," and how true it was when applied to the interstate commerce clause: The hand that rounded Peter's dome, That crowns the hills of Christian Rome, Wrought in a sad sincerity; Himself from God he could not free, He builded better than he knew. So this bill, which proposed in a national way to stop this national evil, is so drawn that its entire constitutionality is freely admitted by its foes. It is so simple and effective that both its Child Labor and the Nation 123 friends and enemies alike concede that it will stop the evil in every great factory and mine throughout the entire republic. It is resisted upon the following grounds: First, that perhaps, as a matter of policy, we are going a little too fast and too far in the expansion of national power to the curing of national evils. Sec- ond, it is said that the evils of child labor are greatly overdrawn, and as one member of the house the other day said, "This is, after all, only a storm blown up by some of those reformers ;" and, third, it is a mighty good thing for the child to have it work. Now these are the three arguments that are made against this bill. These are the points you will see discussed in the newspapers. These are what you will see in the reports of the debates in Con- gress. In Washington all the public men are for every reform of every evil — "if it exists," they say. They want to be sure that it "exists," you know. Many of the worst enemies of reform are apparently for it, but earnestly against any effective method of handling it. One of the most effective ways of defeating any great reform measure is for its enemies to divide the real friends of the reform into different groups, each earnestly contending as to which is the best of several different methods of curing the evil. It was the favorite tactics of the great Napoleon on the battlefield to so maneuver as to get the armies of the enemy separated into smaller armies, and then subse- quently attacking them and defeating them successively. But the legislative Napoleons do better than that. They not only get the real friends of the reform divided into little groups, each sincerely attached to a different method of effecting the reform, but they so maneuver as to get these groups of real friends of the reform contending among each other, wasting time, and energy, and strength, instead of uniting for a common cause against a common enemy and achieving a common triumph. And wherever the enemies of a reform have got its friends in that condition their victory is assured. My friends, the time has come when we have got to get right down to earnest business in this great cause. We have got to appeal to the intelligence, the hearts, the morality of the American people. We have got to arouse and marshal public opinion upon this meas- ure, and when you make such an appeal to the American people they will not fail us, for they never have failed to respond to such 124 Child Labor and the Nation an appeal. And when the American people make their will known to Congress, Congress will act. There is just one thing that will unfailingly move the American senate, and that is the concentrated and crystallized will of the American people spoken in terms that will not be denied. Ohl these American people — that they shall be increasingly the mightiest power for righteousness and human helpfulness in this world, is the passion of my life. Let us all do what we can to help make them so. We glory in the men of Concord and Valley Forge, and we justly glory in them. Let us then be worthy of their deeds and their memories, and cast from our Nation the body of this death to which it is bound. Only so shall our flag be unsullied ; only so shall we indeed be "a people whose god is the Lord;" and only so shall this "government of the people, for the people and by the people" not perish from the earth. THE DIFFICULTIES OF A FACTORY INSPECTOR By Hon. Edgar T. Davies, Chief Factory Inspector of Illinois. Officials who are charged with the enforcement of laws, and have tried to do their full duty, are naturally very jealous of their official reputation. I personally am also sincerely interested in this proposition, that if by inadvertence a false understanding should go out through this country, that the Illinois glass manufacturers are not obeying the law, then the glass companies who in other states are opposing restrictive measures in any additional legislation which is being asked for by various organizations interested in child saving, will say to the advocates of such measures, "See here, the glass companies of Illinois do not obey the child labor law of Illinois." I understand that such has been the protest of the glass companies in Ohio, in Pennsylvania and in Indiana, when additional or restric- tive legislation has been under consideration by the various general assemblies of those states. The statement that the Illinois glass companies are obeying the law is a statement of fact, and that the argument might not be lost, let us see why it is a statement of fact. We have with us to-day Mrs. Van der Vaart, who was the preceding speaker, and who in her remarks said that she had recently investigated the glass companies located at East St. Louis and Alton, Illinois, and as a result of her visit to these two localities, she makes the broad statement that the child labor law is not being enforced against the glass companies in Illinois. We have many glass companies in Illinois, scattered throughout the entire state, and a statement so broad as the one made by the preceding speaker should certainly have been based upon a visit to each of the glass companies within the state. A statement that the glass companies of the state are not obey- ing the law reflects not only on the two localities visited by the 126 Difficulties of a Factory Inspector speaker, but also on the other glass companies located within the state; and it is manifestly unfair to say that these other companies are not obeying the law without first having visited their plants, to see if they were complying with the law or no. If they are, then give them credit ; do not say they are not complying unless you have evidence to substantiate such a broad statement. I am pleased to note that we also have with us to-day Mrs. Florence Kelley, my predecessor. Now, then, let us try to arrive at the right conclusion. When Mrs. Kelley was chief inspector of Illinois the glass companies were in business. She had full authority to prosecute and convict. In her book, "Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation," she says that she found there were eight hundred children employed by the glass companies located at Alton ; many of the children being of very small stature and quite young in years. Upon taking office I found no record of a conviction of a glass company in the state. I make no reflection upon Mrs. Kelley's administration ; I know her to be a woman who was sincerely inter- ested in her work, a competent official who accomplished grand results. I do not speak disparagingly of her efforts, because I know what it is to go up against these strong combinations, extensive employers of labor. I only wish I had been able to help her in her work. I speak of this because of the great difficulties encountered by the official in the securing of convictions of the glass companies who violate the law. During my administration, as chief inspector, I have secured the conviction of every glass company in the state, from Galena to Cairo ; and had prosecuted and convicted the Illinois Glass Company only the day before Mrs. Van der Vaart's visit to Alton. Our inspectors had gone to Edwardsville, the county seat of Madison County, to prosecute the company ; they believed they could there secure a trial along less partial lines than in Alton, the town in which the glass company in question is located. I have the court records of that trial in my hand now; $620 is the penalty imposed upon them for not complying with the child labor law. And this conviction, if you please, in the face of the fact that the Alton Glass Company is not only evasive, but constantly on the lookout. The whole town seems to be with them. The truant officer seems to be in sympathy with them ; the school census was taken in the spring and the superintendent of schools never got it until many months Difficulties of a Factory Inspector 127 afterward, when it was valueless, because it had been held up by the City Council. It is reported that if you, a stranger, walk into the town and should resemble an inspector, the glass companies know it. Should an inspector pass a saloon or any of the stores, some one telephones ; if you stop at the hotel the glass companies' officials know you are there. This glass company's plant covers many acres; it is claimed to be the largest glass company in the world ; they have a complete telephone system. This great piece of territory is all fenced in with a huge fence surmounted with barbed wire ; two gates for the inspec- tor to get in and lots of holes for the kids to get out. It was only recently in an address delivered by me, I stated that laws do not enforce themselves. I dwelt upon the fact that machinery cannot run without coal ; that it required fuel, oil and water, and that if the legislature failed to appropriate sufficient money for the proper enforcement of the laws, do not blame the official. We have in our department the munificent sum of ten thousand dollars, to pay, outside of salaries, all railroad expenses, hotel bills, telephone bills, printing bills, office expenses, stenographers, clerk hire and incidentals — ten thousand dollars to cover a territory embracing three hundred and fifty-two towns. It is a shame. There have been held to account influential gentlemen of the appropriations committee of the senate and the house for their failure to appropriate the necessary money. Members of the legislature are as a rule proud of their record made in the legislature. At least, when they are running for re-election, they come and tell you of the great and good bills they voted for ; they voted for this reform and that reform, and therefore are always very happy to have their legislative record shown. The people should know, and I take the liberty of stating to 1 you, that when I asked for an appropriation to cover a deficiency, when we did not have a dollar left in the department, and three months to run, a certain member of the appropriations committee told a member from my own district, who was working in behalf of the allowance of the requested appropriation being made, "No, I think we will leave Davies ; he fined a friend of my friend $160 for violating the law.' It is to be regretted that men who have been elected to office, and who have in their power the authority to grant or refuse to grant adequate appropriations — most necessary money — should refuse, and 128 Difficulties of a Factory Inspector have as their only excuse for refusal, the fact that an official charged with enforcing the law had done his duty. Do you people know or realize what it means to go up against the glass companies of Illinois? Do you realize what it is to have millions of dollars invested in glass companies in the state, and to have to go up against the combined forces controlled by them? There is not a glass company in the State of Illinois, not one of them, that I have not convicted. Eight hundred children, by my predecessor's book, were em- ployed by the Alton Glass Company in 1893. Let us take the record now. As we must always be fair to employers as well as being fair to employees, I cannot protest, and I cannot protest too strongly, against people who make the statement that children are under age, without first obtaining proof that the children are under age; be- cause you cannot go on your own judgment. I have been an inspector and head of a department for almost six years, and thousands of these children have passed through my office. I have carefully noted in a scientific way every fact. The usual difference between an American boy and a Polish boy of four- teen years of age is fifteen pounds. I have in my office the correct scientific figures. There is two and one-half to three inches usual difference between the height of a Bohemian boy and an American boy of fourteen years of age. These statistics are garnered through the system in vogue in our office, where we have measured and weighed 51,000 children. You must take into consideration the fact that the working children are dressed poorly, are wearing last year's undersized garments, and they look smaller than your children who are dressed in up-to-date garments. These and other facts must always be taken into consideration. We have said to employers, "We demand that you have a school certificate," and therefore it is no more than our duty as inspectors to see that they have, but if they have we should say to the employer, "This school certificate will protect you if you live within the pro- visions of the law." We must protect the employer somewhere, and the person to be prosecuted is not the employer for having a false certificate, but the school official who issued the false certificate, or the person who falsified in obtaining the certificate. Put the respon- sibility where it belongs. When I went into service in Illinois, as chief factory inspector, Difficulties of a Factory Inspector 129 the first year of my administration the Illinois Glass Company had three hundred and seventy-seven children employed many of whom were under fourteen years of age, and there were many hundreds of children employed in the glass companies throughout the state. Is the Illinois child labor law enforced in the glass companies of Illinois? Let us see. What is the condition to-day: Instead of three hundred and seventy-seven children employed by the Illinois Glass Company, many of whom were under four- teen, there are now eighty children employed ; all holding certificates showing them to be between fourteen and sixteen years of age ; there may be some on false certificates who are under fourteen. The glass companies located at Streator I found upon taking office had two hundred and fifty-seven children employed ; they now have twenty-three. Obear-Nestor Glass Company had ninety-two children employed; they now have thirty-two; and so on down through the line of glass companies. The company at Alton have one-fifth of the child employees they had when I took office. The company at Streator have now only one-eleventh of the child em- ployees they formerly had, during the year previous to my adminis- tration. I want to say that these thirty-two indictments referred to by Mrs. Van der Vaart, that were never brought to trial, were not in Illinois. The notary public affidavits referred to by her as being two years old were in Indiana, not in Illinois. Mr. Joseph Nestor, manager of the glass company at East St. Louis, whom I personally know, and whose establishment was re- ferred to indirectly by Mrs. Van der Vaart in her reference to the company located at East St. Louis, is a man who would never tell you aught but the truth. When our inspectors, in talking with Mr. Nestor, ask him if he has been obeying or violating the law since they have been gone, he will give them a truthful answer. Although we have indicted Mr. Nestor on thirty-eight counts, and have several times prosecuted him for violations of the child labor law found in his establishments, we have never found him guilty of telling a lie regarding conditions in his plant. His plant was formerly a violator of the law, but during the past year we have found no flagrant violations there. He is honestly endeavoring to have his establishment strictly comply with the law at the present time, and has endeavored to do so for a long while. He tried to 130 Difficulties of a Factory Inspector defeat the passage of the child labor law when it was being con- sidered by the legislature; he appeared in Springfield in the open and tried to prevent the measure being placed upon the statute books, because he did not want its restrictive provisions to apply to his business. I have had some experience in child labor legislation ; I enforced the old law of Illinois ; was chairman of the committee which drafted the present law. A brother of mine, who was a member of the general assembly, introduced the law in the legislature, and now, as the proper statutory official, I hold the obligation of its enforcement. I refer to this, to make clear my interest, as well as my respon- sibility, in the work. During the years of my administration I have secured convic- tions in over six thousand cases of violation ; and I wish I could say about all other employers of child labor what I have spoken in regard to Mr. Joseph Nestor. I speak of him, because I believe in giving an employer of labor, who was frank enough to fight the passage of the law in the open, credit for obeying that law after it was placed upon the statute books. Let us take up the proposition or provision which prohibits night work. Somebody told me to-day that the Board of Health of the City of New York has charge of the enforcement of the child labor laws of New York, in their application to the mercantile estab- lishments, etc. While the board of health means a whole lot, the obligation of the enforcement should be placed in the hands of an individual; the trouble with departments of health or boards or commissions is that, in cases of complaint, the complaint is referred to somebody ; somebody else says, "See what is the matter, here is a complaint; why don't you investigate it?" It is referred to some- one else for investigation. What is the outcome of the complaint? Usually it is not investigated, and if it is the complainant does not know it. In Chicago we have the largest department stores in the coun- try outside of New York City. We had in the fall of 1902 fourteen hundred children in the department stores; when, in December, 1903, it was necessary to send the children home at seven o'clock; the department stores were to be open during the evening; I was called upon, it seems, by all persons they could muster together and asked to let the enforcement of the law go until they could get Difficulties of a Factory Inspector 131 in shape. They said, "How are we to get along after seven o'clock unless we have our cash boys and cash girls, our boys and girls to wrap our bundles?" "How are we going to run our business and keep our stores open?" "We cannot run our own cash or wrap our bundles." It is the same all along the line in many other industries. I had to stand the pressure of the argument, the pressure political, and sometimes had to meet the argument of something else, which is considered by some a material one. But my answer is a matter of record. All the children went home, some fourteen hundred of them, marching out at seven o'clock. I want to say that it is easy to criticise; it is easy to find fault with officials, but officials need the co-operation of charitable or- ganizations and philanthropic bodies that will help the inspector, aid and assist him ; stand back of him and say, "We are with you, go ahead and enforce the law." Because without this co-operation he has not that much-needed public support, which will encourage and help him in doing his duty. When he goes into a county he is confronted, not only by divided public sentiment, but by strong political opposition. What you all need to do is to stand back of the inspectors and officials charged with enforcing laws and make them do their duty, and if they are derelict or remiss then dismiss them summarily. If they have done their duty, support them. Do not withhold your words of encouragement, because your aid and your assistance and your words of encouragement are his greatest source of support, and your word, "that his duty has been well done," his greatest hope of reward. THE ENFORCEMENT OF CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION By Starr Cadwallader, Esq., of Cleveland, Ohio. I shall discuss the enforcement of the Ohio law only in so far as it applies to the work of girls under eighteen and boys under sixteen after seven o'clock in the evening in Cleveland. Some two years ago the Consumers' League of Cleveland, just before the holiday shopping began, went through the retail district of the city and found, as in former years, that preparations were being made in various stores to do work after seven o'clock — partly in preparation for the trade of the next day, and partly for other purposes. The members of the league went to the factory inspectors of the district and asked for enforcement of that provision of the law. The factory inspectors of the district excused themselves on the ground that they were very busy inspecting the devices for the protection of machinery; and then, too, they were not ready to prosecute any one engaged in the retail business for violations of the child labor law. As a matter of fact, they stated at the time that they were not in favor of prosecution. The members of the league then went to the City Solicitor, asking advice as to what could be done. The City Solicitor told them that if they were perfectly sure the law was being violated, and that at the same time employers were cognizant of the pro- visions of the law, he thought steps could be taken which might help. Although the members of the league had made investigations previously, they went about again to find out whether copies of the law were posted in the various stores, and also whether children were employed during the hours after seven o'clock. They found a copy of the law somewhere in every one of the stores. Sometimes it had fallen behind a desk. Sometimes it was posted in a room on the top floor, where, perhaps, it had not been seen by anybody for weeks; but they found it, and they found in every case that the Enforcement of Child Labor Legislation. 133 employers were familiar with the law. They also found that chil- dren were employed. They found children under school age, as well as children under sixteen and under eighteen, employed in the evening. A member who made inquiries in one clothing store on Euclid avenue had a rather humorous experience. There were double doors, opening one to the right, one to the left. At either door was a small colored boy. They were very beautifully dressed in purple uniform, with brass buttons down the front. They wore caps with tassels, and white gloves. After the usual inquiries had been made, the member of the league pointed to the two boys and asked, "What about those boys? Are they not under age?" The manager of the store held up his hands and said, "Good God, Madam ! Don't take those boys away from us ! We have just bought those uniforms, and they were made to order." In another store on Euclid avenue the proprietor calmly said that they em- ployed children under age, and that he intended to do so whenever they were needed. When it was stated that they would be reported to the inspector, he was very little concerned about that. Return- ing to the City Solicitor with the information which he had asked, they were told that an order would be issued to the Chief of Police calling his attention to the law, and also saying that the officers should see that the law was enforced. A printed copy of this letter, together with a printed copy of the law, was distributed by the police on the various beats, and in the course of a few days a delegation arrived at the City Solicitor's office. The delegation was headed by an attorney, who, on entering, said, "We have come, Mr. Baker, to talk over the enforcement of the child labor law. Of course, we recognize that it was the thing for you to call atten- tion to it just at this time — very proper. It was your duty ; but we have come to talk it over with you." Then various members of the delegation told the City Solicitor how absolutely impossible it would be to do business if the child labor law were enforced ; that it was absolutely necessary to employ boys under sixteen and girls under eighteen after seven o'clock in the evening, especially during the holiday season; that otherwise trade could not go on. After they had talked all around they arose and were bowing themselves out, saying that they were glad to have had the interview. Now they were quite sure everybody understood the situation. The City Solicitor then said that he would regret very much if any of them 134 Enforcement of Child Labor Legislation went away under a misapprehension. The letter sent to the Chief of Police was not sent because it was the holiday season, or because it was the fitting thing to do, or for any other reason than that it meant just what it said. He added that in so far as he was con- cerned he intended that the Chief of Police should see that this law was enforced during the holiday season as well as at other times. The result was that several hundred children were discharged the first year, and older boys and girls, or men and women, took their places. The State Factory Inspector was at first inclined to look upon this action by the City Solicitor as interference with his preroga- tives. He came up to Cleveland to say so. After two years — it was two years ago that this order was first issued to the police — the situation is something like this: The factory inspectors for the district — one of them has been changed — are enforcing the law and prosecuting cases of violation. There is co-operation be- tween them and the school authorities and other people who are interested in the enforcement of the child labor law. This year, before the Christmas holidays, advertisements for boys and girls were put in this form, "Boys over sixteen and girls over eighteen wanted." The effect of all this has been wider than that, however, upon the retail stores. The laundries are now making it a rule not to employ any girl under eighteen in a position where night work is possibly required. I say "possibly required." Night work in most of the laundries is not required all the time, but only on certain days of the week and in certain parts of the laundry. The telephone companies have also just decided to employ no girls on their night shifts who are under eighteen years of age. These changes are due, in part at least, to a growing public sentiment in favor of the enforcement of the law. For five years in Cleveland something has been done to create opinion in favor of the enforce- ment of the law, and to-day the situation is very different from that in 1901. THE ATTITUDE OF SOCIETY TOWARD THE CHILD AS AN INDEX OF CIVILIZATION 1 By Felix Adler, Ph.D., Chairman of the National Child Labor Committee. It seems at first almost incredible that the attitude of society toward the child should ever have been otherwise than tender and considerate. It is almost past belief that in a country and civiliza- tion as advanced as ours, as proud of its humanity, as hospitable toward all good causes, it should be necessary for the members of the National Child Labor Committee to convene in order to pray the American people to hold their protecting hand over the future citizens of this republic and to pray enlightened men and women to brush aside the web of sophistry with which the practice of exploit- ing the young child has been defended. I shall detain you for a little while before we approach the practical question which is before us to ask your attention to a brief historical retrospect. We find to our amazement that far down in primitive ages, not universally, but very widely, there existed cruel and inhuman practices with respect to children. Even the higher animals are attached to their offspring. Even the lioness defends her cubs ; but it seems that the most advanced and most enlightened of nature's offspring, man, he who ascends the greatest heights, is also capable of descending to depths beneath those even of the higher brutes. The explanation, perhaps, is partly to be found in the extreme destitution and poverty of those early ancestors of ours; partly in the evil influence of crass and fantastic superstition. We find that infanticide was widespread. Seneca boasted that exposure of chil- dren prevailed among the Romans. Children were sometimes sold into slavery. Among certain tribes a child was killed if it was born 'A resume 1 and partial report of Dr. Adler's opening address at the Third Annual Meet- ing of the National Child Labor Committee, held in Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, December 13, igo6. (I3S) 136 Attitude of Society Toward the Child in stormy weather because this was considered an ill omen. If the child cut its upper front teeth before it cut its lower front teeth it would be killed because this was an ill omen. Deformed children would often be killed, not because they were deformed, but because they were uncanny. Mr. Westermarck in his book, "The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas," gives many examples of this sort. In some places it was customary for the mother to have the privilege of the first life, the first infant; and after that it was at the option of the father whether the child should live or not. In other cases, the mother had the right to the first three lives. After that she was compelled to bury alive her offspring. Cruel, strange, fantastic aberrations ! But they were exceptional. On the whole, we may say that wherever extreme poverty, wherever a certain frenzy or mania did not obsess the human mind, the human parent was kinder to his offspring than the animal. Indeed, the long period of infancy and parental care is regarded by many as the origin of man's higher civilization, as a means of developing the unselfish instincts by which this civilization is graced. Human parents have loved their human children and cared for them. Natural parental love has been disturbed, however, at times all along the line of human develop- ment, and is still disturbed to-day by excessive poverty and by frenzies. This modern greed of wealth-getting is also a frenzy. We cannot regard it otherwise than in the nature of a superstition, and of an obsession from which the American people to-day is rudely awakening, seeing itself on the brink of an abyss. Next to the development and occasional vagaries of parental feeling, there have been at different periods in human history ideal- istic values attached to children. These have varied in different epochs. What I mean is not the love value, the emotional prizing, but certain ideal values that have made children esteemed and cared for. I shall mention two of these, and then proceed to that which ; s characteristic of our own age, upon which I desire to dwell. The first of these idealistic values, aside from natural affection, we find throughout antiquity, and it persists in large measure down to the present day. The child was regarded as that being upon which depended the continuance of the life of the parent in the hereafter. Consider what this meant, that a father or mother facing the future would realize that upon their child — upon their 'Attitude of Society Toward the Child 137 son, especially, but also upon the daughter, would depend their own continuance. We are apt to think in these modern times that immor- tality is assured, considering it once gained, always owned. The ancient view was different. They regarded the tenure of the other life as precarious, and they believed that it depended on the child — on the fidelity of the child — to insure the continuance of life in another world. What a strange, fantastic idea it was ! The picture is that of the disembodied spirit of the father looking back after death upon this earth and seeing his offspring, who, by their fidelity or infidelity to his memory, decided the spiritual preservation of him who gave them being. Men believed that unless the funereal rites were properly performed the spirit would be compelled to haunt the place where the body lay and would find no rest. Priam prostrating himself at the feet of Achilles, kissing the hands that slew his son; Antigone sacrificing her life for the privilege of sprinkling sand on her brother's body, without which the poor ghost could not rest, are instances in point. Then, too, there was brought to the tomb, at stated times, food and drink, upon which the life of the deceased person depended. The same thought in a higher form is also found in the Jewish world and in the Christian world, where it is believed, popularly, at least, that if not the preservation, yet the well-being of ancestors in the future life depends upon the fidelity with which the sons repeat the mourner's prayer or the priest performs mass for the repose of the deceased. Now this was one idealistic thought value attaching to the child. A parent would look upon his child in the light of a preserver of his spiritual existence when he should have left this earth. A second idealistic value attaching to the child is more con- spicuous in those states of society in which society is divided into hard and fast classes; as, for instance, during the feudal period in Europe. The child, especially the eldest son, is regarded as the preserver, not so much of the life of his parent, as of something impersonal, for which the succession of generations stands — the family, the family name, the family title, the family property, the family rank. The advent of a son is hailed with joy because upon him depends the perpetuation of this impersonal thing of which the different generations are the vehicles. I shall not attempt to follow my historical retrospect in detail, not wishing to wander too far from the practical question which we 138 Attitude of Society Toward the Child have before us. This background, however, may serve as a means of throwing into greater contrast the third idealistic value which attaches to the child to-day concerning which we are not always aware how modern it is. For upon us has dawned the conception of an evolution, and in the light of that we feel about the child, am! speculate about it, and do for it, and dream about it, in a way quite unknown to our forebears. The child to us is no longer chiefly the preserver of something that has been, either of the parental life or of the family name ; but it is the promise of something that is to be. The idealistic value we attach to the child is that we see in it the possibility of something finer, something better, something greater on this earth than has yet been. The idealistic view of the past was backward-looking ; ours is forward-looking, and especially is this true of us in America. We are a people of hope ; we are pre- eminently priests of the future. It is the greatest mistake to sup- pose that our American democracy, or the American nation, is complete. It is only in the beginnings, in the making. What gives our country greatness is the great men whom we have already produced and whom we honor. But those great men are only the first harbingers of a greatness which no human eye can fairly trace and no human tongue can fully describe, which rises before us a divine vision and a dream. This American democracy exists for a purpose. For what purpose? To create an environment in which the liberty of each shall consist with the liberty of all. Is that our highest and best work — to create a government in which every one shall be well fed, and every one well clothed ? Is this our dream ? Or does not our American democracy rather mean for us the develop- ment of a new type of civilization, of entirely new conceptions of life, of new contributions to art and to science, and to social living? And now we have reached the point where we can pass on and speak of practical matters. One of the ancient superstitions of which I spoke is that if you wish to build a great edifice, or bridge, or city wall, or anything that shall stand, you must sacrifice a child's life, take a child's blood and paint it on the foundation stone, or bury the child under the foundations. As late as only a few years ago, on the authority of Baring-Gould, there was found in a breach cut in the city walls of Bremen when they were demolished, em- bedded in the foundation, the skeleton of a child. That was a cruel superstition of the past. That must not be repeated by us. We must Attitude of Society Toward the Child 139 not attempt to build up the civilization of America on the prostrate form of American children. We must not return to those ancient barbarisms. We must not allow this new frenzy, this obsession, this mania of money making at any cost, to lead us into similar frightful aberrations. Now the argument which has been chiefly emphasized in this child labor movement, is that we must not allow these hundreds of thousands of children to be sacrificed. No one can tell you how many there are — there is a dispute whether there are two hundred thousand or two millions, no one knows exactly, the statistics being quite imperfect, how many hundreds of thousands there are — but there are at least hundreds of thousands American children in this land who are exploited and prematurely exhausted by the burden of toil which is laid upon them. The usual argument presented is that this premature toil exists and that physically and mentally and morally it lowers the standard of civilization. If we allow this thing to go on, it is said, the next generation, that has been maltreated in this fashion, that has been put to premature labor in cotton mills and in mines and in sweat shops, this next generation will become degenerate, and the standard of American civilization will be lowered. I admit the force of this argument. Like a tree that is made to bear too soon, so the child when made to labor too soon is exhausted. I have heard it said that for the child to go to work is good. Some strong, robust men who have worked on farms, perhaps worked their way up, have an idea that work is good for little children ; but work on the farm is one thing, and work in a cotton mill, especially at night, and work in a sweat shop and work in a cigar shop, breathing the dust of tobacco in the little lungs, is quite a different matter. That does not make for health, that does not make for physical development. Brush aside then that sophistry. The child under fourteen that is set to work is physically stunted, is mentally crippled, and gets no chance at the time when his mind is plastic, to be in school. This child labor movement must be accompanied by a movement for compulsory education in every state. Morally the exploited child has no chance, partly because of his associations, partly because of the craving for drink which is often aroused in him by the excessive irritations and nervous exhaustion to which he is subjected, and partly because, as Senator Eeveridge has told us on another occasion, the child when 140 Attitude of Society Toward the Child treated unfairly in his youth, becomes anti-social in his instincts, hates the society that has deprived him of sunshine, and is fairly launched on a career of crime. Yes, it is the physical, mental and moral degeneration of hundreds of thousands of future fathers and mothers of this country to which we have got to put an end. If we continue to sanction premature child labor we not only degrade and lower the standard of citizenship, but we prevent that future growth, that development of American civilization, that new type of man- hood which we must give to the world in order to contribute to the world's riches. We prevent the evolution of that type; we cut off that dream. And now in closing let me ask : How shall we remedy this great evil? Shall we leave this matter in the hands of the states, or shall we call in the aid of the nation? Well, I am one of those conserva- tive radicals who, by temperament, by prejudice and by predilection, cling to local self-government and dread the expansion of the federal power. I believe that, in the first place, the expansion of the federal power brings with it a certain enfeeblement of the responsibilities of the individual and of the states, and accustoms us to turn to the national government in matters which we ought to take care of ourselves, and encourages a paternalistic attitude. I believe that, local governments are important, because our national representatives are often unacquainted with the conditions that prevail locally and are therefore unable to properly legislate for those conditions and those needs. I believe that local government is educative, inasmuch as it fits us to consider and wisely act upon the larger public ques- tions that concern the nation. For all these reasons I cling with every fiber of my being to state autonomy, as far as its limits can possibly be extended. And yet the question has got to be faced even by one as reluctant to face it as I am, whether the time has not now come when, despite the emphasis on state responsibility, it is necessary for us to ask for an exercise of national power and authority in order to draw back this nation from this precipice on the brink of which it stands, and cure it of this obsession, this frenzy to which it is subjected. When a part of the nation acts in such a way that the mischief of its action extends beyond its own borders, then the whole nation must inter- vene. When a part acts in such a way that even if the mischief does not technically and literally extend beyond its borders, yet the moral "Attitude of Society Toward the Child 141 turpitude of its action is an offense to the conscience of the whole people, then the whole people must intervene and put an end to that offense and that mischief, as in the case of slavery. And when the state authorities are powerless or insufficiently competent to deal with the evil, when the work of remedy is too slow in the most advanced states, then we are bound to ask what is it that enfeebles and palsies the hands of the state, of the commonwealth, and we are bound to ask whether, perhaps, despite our reluctance, the hand of the great mother of us all must not be called in to strengthen the incompetent and unsatisfying efforts of the several states. What is it then that prevents the abolition of child labor in the different com- monwealths; what is it that prevents the satisfactory enforcement of child labor laws, after they have been put on the statute books. It is the power of those commercial and industrial interests that exploit the child which prevents the execution of the law and retards the enforcement of the law. It is those powerful interests — too powerful in many states — against whose unenlightened selfishness the law is directed that make the work of reformation so tardy in the most advanced states and so wholly unsatisfactory in the back- ward states. And what are the forces we have at our command to deal with those powerful interests in the several states. There is no other but public sentiment. Public sentiment is the only force that can avail to drive back those large, powerful interests. But in the several states public sentiment acts spasmodically, acts tenta- tively, goes to sleep and wakes up again, gathers force and loses force, and therefore the question arises whether to overcome these interests and evil forces it is not necessary that we should open the sluice gates and let the wave of national sentiment come in and sweep away the evils of unrighteousness in the several states, how- ■' ever strongly they may be entrenched. There is an old, beautiful saying of a Greek dramatist, "The sea washes away all sins." Perhaps the time has come, and I expect to hear from others whether in their opinion it has come, that we must let in the sea of national patriotism to sweep away our economic sins. Reports from State and Local Child Labor Committees and Consumers' Leagues Made to the National Committee at the Third Annual Convention, Held in Cincinnati, December 13-15, 1906. REPORT OF THE NEW YORK CHILD LABOR COMMITTEE Since the last annual meeting of the National Child Labor Committee, in December, 1905, the New York committee has been actively engaged in pur- suing the work for which it was organized in 1902, namely: "To increase the efficiency of existing child labor laws by securing legislation in the form of amendments which may seem necessary; to assist the authorities in the enforcement of laws relating to compulsory education and child labor, and to educate public sentiment concerning the preventing of child labor." The legislative work of the committee at the last session of the New York legislature was attended with considerable success, and a number of measures were passed which mark a real advance in child labor legislation. The most notable of these was the law bringing New York State practically into line with Illinois, Ohio and Massachusetts in the matter of evening work. Formerly children under sixteen were allowed to work in factories in our state as late as 9 o'clock at night, and in stores, messenger offices, res- taurants, hotels and apartment houses until 10 o'clock. Since October I, 1906, the closing hour has become 7 p. m. for all establishments, with the exception of places outside of New York and Buffalo ( where the 10 o'clock provision regarding mercantile establishments remains unchanged. The enforcement of this new law will be watched with much interest, particularly in New York City, during the busy holiday season. Through the vigorous protests of the committee and of its contributors and endorsers, a serious situation was averted last spring when the legislature early in the session not only failed to give the state department of labor a larger appropriation in order to increase the efficiency of this law-enforcing body, but reduced the appropriation $8,000 under that of the previous year. As a result of the agitation of the committee and of other interested organizations and friends the department finally received the increased appropriation sought after, and the appointment of twelve additional inspectors was made possible. Several other bills which would have had a tendency to weaken th? child labor law were actively opposed by the committee and failed of passage. It is with much pleasure that the committee is able to report a marked improvement in the adequacy of the enforcement of the laws with respect