When we come to deal with the child-labor problem, or, rather, with the
problem of its repression by legislative enactment, we are at once
confronted with a great difficulty that arises out of our political
system rather than out of industrial conditions. The child-labor problem
is a national one, but when we face the question of its solution, we are
handicapped by the division of the country into forty odd states, a
division which makes it almost impossible to deal with any of our great
social and industrial problems nationally upon uniform principles. The
same difficulty exists, of course, in connection with all our social and
industrial problems. We have legislation in the various states of a
conflicting character, adding to the complexity of the problem the
legislators meant to solve. But because this is conspicuously so in the
case of child-labor legislation,—every advance made in the Northern
states serving as a premium upon reaction and delay in the Southern
states,—I have chosen to deal with it in this connection.
[Illustration:
WEIGHING BABIES AT THE MUNICIPAL INFANTS’ MILK DEPOTS (_GOTA DE
LECHE_), MADRID
]
Up to the present time, the advocates of child-labor legislation have,
apparently, shrunk from making any definite proposals upon this
important question, while fully recognizing its tremendous importance.
Sooner or later, if ever our greatest social problems are to be
intelligently dealt with, the question of state rights will have to be
fought out and the paramountcy of the nation in all such matters
established, and I can imagine no better issue for raising that question
than the legislative protection of children. Here, again, we must turn
for guidance and suggestion to the Old World. In Germany they have had
to face a similar problem, the difference being one of degree only, and
they have found a solution which might well be adopted in the United
States. Child labor in Germany is regulated partly by the ordinances of
the federal council and partly by the legislation of the different
states of the Empire. The federal enactments establish a minimum
standard for the whole Empire, and it is specifically provided that each
state may enact more stringent measures as it may desire.[182] It is
difficult to see why this principle could not be applied to the problem
here in the United States, giving us a uniform minimum standard of
legislation throughout the whole country. Such a law should prohibit the
employment of any child under fifteen years of age at any employment
whatsoever, and the employment of any child or young person under
eighteen years of age in all “dangerous occupations” specified by a
federal commission. It would be well, also, to insist upon a certain
educational test up to eighteen years, the test to be made in all cases
by the school authorities.[183]
Coming to details for legislation within the states, it is perfectly
obvious that legislation necessary for, and suited to, big cities would
be useless and unsuited to the small towns and rural communities. In the
case of messengers and newsboys, for example, in a town of 10,000
inhabitants, conditions are entirely different from those existing in a
city of 50,000 or 100,000. What would be a perfectly harmless and
unobjectionable occupation in the former city becomes in the latter a
serious menace to health and morals. In the smaller community, the boy
is under the supervision of his parents, his employers, and many of the
citizens who know him personally. His paper business is not of the kind
which takes him out upon the streets as early as four or five o’clock in
the morning and as late as midnight, or after. The New York legislature,
in April, 1903, amended the law relating to children employed in the
streets and public places in cities of the first class, of which there
are two—New York and Buffalo. The amendment provided “that no male child
under ten and no girl under sixteen shall, in any city of the first
class, sell or expose for sale newspapers in any street or public place.
No male child actually or apparently under fourteen years of age shall
sell or expose for sale unless provided with a permit and a badge. No
child to whom such a permit and badge are issued shall sell papers after
ten o’clock at night.” Such a law as that might, I think, be applied to
the smallest town in the country without injustice to any one, but it is
almost ridiculously inadequate to a great city. The city ordinance of
Boston is a good deal better, though it is also inadequate to the needs
of a great city. The ordinance provides that no child shall work as a
bootblack or newsboy unless he is over ten years of age, nor sell any
other article unless he is over twelve years of age. No minor under
fourteen years of age is allowed to sell or expose for sale, in any
street or public place, any books, newspapers, pamphlets, fuel, fruit,
or provisions, unless he has a minor’s license. These minors’ licenses
are only granted upon the recommendation of the principal of the school,
or school district to which the child belongs. Of this law, again, I
should say that it might very well be adopted as applying to all towns
and villages in the United States up to a certain size, but that, in
view of the terrible menace to the health and morals accompanying these
occupations in our great cities, they should be absolutely forbidden for
children or young persons under eighteen years of age. It should be
borne in mind that the usual objection urged against child-labor
legislation—that it would inflict hardship upon the parents—scarcely
applies at all to these boys of the streets in our large cities. Most of
them, it has been shown over and over again, are not at all subject to
parental control, and contribute little or nothing at all to the support
of their families.[184]
It seems to me important also that, in the larger cities at least, and
perhaps generally, the present system of allowing boys and girls to work
during the vacation period should be abolished. The system not only robs
the child of the rest the vacation was intended to give it, but it is a
fruitful source of child labor. Many of those who go to work during the
vacation periods never return to school again. The parents become
dependent upon the extra earnings of the children in a surprisingly
short time, and the children themselves are naturally unwilling to lose
their newly acquired freedom and the extra pocket money which their
labor entitles them to. The ideal system would be to establish summer
school camps, something like the school colonies of Europe, in the
country, where recreation amid healthful surroundings could be combined
with a certain amount of instruction.
[Illustration: