The figures and percentages refer to parts of the whole 13,740 boys and
girls found in the lines of work named. The drawings show roughly the
ratio of boys to girls in each line. “Housework” means housework in own
home.]
The following conclusions are drawn by the association as a result of
its study:
“1. That the problem of the working child is not an immigrant problem,
since over 50 per cent of those reported as at work are of the second
generation of American birth.
“2. That this is not the problem of the boy alone, since over 49 per
cent of the workers are girls.
“3. That the vast majority of children who leave school at fourteen to
enter industry go into those kinds of employment which offer a large
initial wage for simple mechanical processes, but which hold out
little or no opportunity for improvement and no competence at
maturity.
“4. That wages received are so low as to force a parasitic life.
“5. That but slight advancement is offered the fifteen-year-old over
the fourteen-year-old child worker.”