THE GUARDIANSHIP OF THE STATE
The age of reconstruction is not complete, and for the moment we are left
with the products of sentiment as revealed in the tangled and piecemeal
legislation respecting boy labour. Before making new proposals, it is
desirable to survey the existing laws on the subject, in order to discover
to what extent the State acts as the guardian of the child by making
provision for the three essential factors of a true apprenticeship
system--supervision, training, opening. The present chapter will be
concerned with a description of the statutory machinery; in the next the
value of the machinery will be tested by examining its results in actual
experience.
I.
STATE SUPERVISION.
Supervision is the first essential of an apprenticeship system. A boy must
remain under adequate control, as regards his conduct and physical
development, until the age of eighteen is reached; before then he is too
young to be allowed safely to become his own master. What part does the
State, as guardian, play in this work of supervision? This volume is
concerned with the answer to the question only so far as that answer has a
direct bearing on the general problem of boy labour. A statement, for
example, of the criminal law, of the law relating to public health, or of
the poor law, lies outside its scope.
The guardianship of the State, in respect of supervision, is of two kinds.
On the one hand the State appears as the guardian of the boy by
restricting his employment, or by forbidding it under certain specified
unfavourable conditions--State regulation; on the other hand--as, for
example, in its system of education--it assumes a more active role, and
itself provides for the boy some of the discipline and training he
requires--State enterprise.
Sec. 1. STATE REGULATION.
The State, by regulation, may protect the boy in three ways--
1. _Prohibition._--The State may protect the boy by forbidding his
employment below a certain age or in certain classes of industry.
2. _Limitation of Hours._--The State may protect the boy by fixing a limit
to the number of hours during which he may be employed.
3. _Health and Safety._--The State may protect the boy by enforcing
certain regulations as regards sanitation in the workshop or the proper
guarding of machinery, or may require a medical certificate to show that
the boy is physically fit for the occupation in which he is engaged.
We shall best understand the measure of protection afforded the boy by the
State by classifying the statutory regulations under these three headings
rather than by taking the individual Acts and analyzing them separately.
The principal Acts concerned are the following:
The Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.
Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act, 1872.
Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887.
Mines (Prohibition of Child Labour Underground) Act, 1900.
The Shop Hours Act, 1892.
The Employment of Children Act, 1903.
The Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1894.
Children Act, 1908.
And the various Acts relating to compulsory attendance at school--
Elementary Education Act, 1876.
Elementary Education Act, 1880.
Elementary Education (School Attendance) Act, 1893.
And the Act amending this last Act, 1899.
To make what follows clearer, and to avoid repetition, it is desirable to
add a few remarks about two of these Acts.
The Factory and Workshop Act is concerned with the conditions of
employment in premises "wherein labour is exercised by way of trade or for
purposes of gain in or incidental to any of the following
purposes--namely:
"(i.) The making of an article or part of any article; or
"(ii.) The altering, repairing, ornamenting, or finishing of any
article; or
"(iii.) The adapting for sale of an article." [36]
Premises in which such operations are carried on are divided into these
four classes:
1. _Textile factories_, where mechanical power is used in connection with
the manufacture of cotton, wool, hair, silk, flax, hemp, jute, or other
like material;
2. _Non-textile factories_, where mechanical power is used in connection
with the manufacture of articles other than those included in (1), and, in
addition, certain industries, such as "print works," or lucifer-match
works, whether mechanical power is or is not employed;[37]
3. _Workshops_ where articles are manufactured without the aid of
mechanical power; and--
4. _Domestic workshops or factories_, where a private house or room is, by
reason of the work carried on there, a factory or a workshop, where
mechanical power is not used, and in which the only persons employed are
members of the same family dwelling there.[37]
The Act also has a limited reference to laundries, docks, buildings in
course of construction and repair, and railways.[39]
Certain definitions are important in the interpretation of the
regulations. The expression "child" means a person under the age of
fourteen, who is not exempt from attendance at school.[40] The expression
"young person" means a person who has ceased to be a child, and is under
the age of eighteen.[41] These expressions will be used with this
significance in the remainder of this chapter, unless the contrary is
stated.
The authority for the enforcement of the Factory and Workshop Act is in
general the Home Office, acting through its inspectors. In certain cases,
which will be mentioned later, the duty of enforcement is imposed on one
or other of the locally elected bodies.
The regulations comprised in the Employment of Children Act are in part of
general application, in part dependent on by-laws made by the local
authority, and approved by the Home Secretary. The local authority, for
the enforcement of the Act and for the making of by-laws, is, in the case
of London, exclusive of the City, for which the Common Council is the
authority, the London County Council; in the case of a municipal borough
with a population according to the census of 1901 of over 10,000, the
Borough Council; in the case of any other urban district with a population
of over 20,000, the District Council; in the case of the remainder of
England and Wales, the County Council.[42]
These are the chief Acts through which are regulated the conditions of boy
labour. Each in a more or less degree is concerned with prohibition,
limitation of hours, and health regulations. It now remains to examine the
extent of the protection provided.
_(a) Prohibition of Employment._
There is no law forbidding children below a certain age to work for wages.
In default of local by-laws, it is still legal to employ children of any
age, however young, in a large number of occupations. Prohibition takes
the form of forbidding the employment of children in certain trades
regarded as specially dangerous to health or demoralizing to character.
1. It is illegal to employ children or young persons "in the part of a
factory or workshop in which there is carried on the process of silvering
mirrors by the mercurial process or the process of making white lead." [43]
And the Secretary of State has power to extend this prohibition to other
dangerous trades.[44]
2. It is illegal to employ underground in any mine boys under the age of
thirteen,[45] and no boy under the age of twelve may be employed
above-ground in connection with any mine.[46]
3. A child may not be employed "in the part of a factory or workshop in
which there is carried on any grinding in the metal trade, or the dipping
of lucifer-matches." [47]
4. A child under the age of eleven may not be employed in
street-trading--_i.e._, in "the hawking of newspapers, matches, flowers,
and other articles, playing, singing, or performing for profit,
shoe-blacking, or any like occupation carried on in streets or public
places." [48]
5. In theatres and shows, children under seven may not be employed at all,
and children under eleven can only be employed on a licence granted by a
magistrate.[49]
Omitting ways of earning money, as by begging, which cannot properly be
regarded as forms of employment, and ancient Acts, such as the Chimney
Sweepers Act of 1840, which prohibited the apprenticing of children under
the age of sixteen to the trade of the sweep, or the Agricultural Gangs
Act, 1867, which forbade the employment of children under eight in an
agricultural gang--Acts which have now little practical importance--the
regulations outlined above comprise the whole of the regulations which
prohibit throughout the country the employment of boys in certain forms of
occupation. For any extension of prohibition we must look to the by-laws
which may, but need not, be made by local authorities under the provisions
of the Employment of Children Act.
Under this Act the local authority may make by-laws prescribing for all
children below the age which employment is illegal, and may prohibit
absolutely, or may permit, subject to conditions, the employment of
children under the age of fourteen in any specified occupation.[50] The
by-laws may likewise prohibit or allow, under conditions, "street trading"
by persons under the age of sixteen.[51] But in either case the by-laws,
before becoming operative, must be confirmed, after an inquiry is held, by
the Home Secretary.[52]
As an example of prohibition through by-laws made under this Act, the case
of London outside the City may be cited. The by-laws of the London County
Council forbid the employment of all children under the age of eleven, the
employment of children under the age of fourteen as "lather boys" in
barbers' shops, and the employment of boys under the age of sixteen in
"street trading," unless they wear on the arm a badge provided by the
Council.
_(b) Limitation of Hours._
There is no law limiting for all children or for all young persons the
number of hours which may be worked. It is still legal in the majority of
occupations to employ young persons, and in default of by-laws
school-children on days when the schools are closed, for a number of
hours restricted only by the length of the day. As with prohibition, so
the matter stands with the limitation of hours. Glaring evils, just
because they glared, have from time to time been dealt with by
legislation; other evils no less serious have been ignored merely because
they have not chanced to attract attention. The result of this piecemeal
legislation and enactment by by-laws is a chaos of intricate regulations,
applicable to persons of different age and different sex, varying from
trade to trade and from place to place. I am, fortunately, concerned here
only with the male sex, and shall begin with the boy young person, and
then proceed to the boy child.
_The Young Person._--Far the most important, because the most detailed and
the most comprehensive, of the Acts dealing with the limitation of hours
is the Factory and Workshops Act. Under this Act the hours of employment
are restricted by specifying the hours during which alone employment may
be carried on. No employment is allowed on Sundays except in the case of
Jewish factories closed on Saturday, or of certain industries specially
sanctioned for the purpose by the Home Secretary.
In textile factories,[53] the period of employment for young persons is
from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., or from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with two hours for meals,
and on Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., with half an hour for
meals.[54] In non-textile factories and workshops the chief difference
lies in the fact that the interval for meals is half an hour shorter,
while on Saturdays employment is permitted between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., with
half an hour for meals.[55] In domestic factories and workshops the hours
of employment are from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., with four and a half hours for
meals, and on Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., with two and a half hours
for meals.[56]
Overtime is in general prohibited.[57] Employment inside and outside a
factory or workshop in the business of the factory or workshop is
prohibited, except during the recognized period, on any day on which the
young person is employed inside the factory or workshop both before and
after the dinner-hour.[58] Thus the maximum number of hours in a week,
including meal-times, during which a young person may be employed is, in
textile factories, 65-1/2; in non-textile factories and workshops, 68; in
domestic factories and workshops, 85; or, excluding meal-times, the hours
in the three classes are 55, 60, and 60 respectively.
The Act applies only to those employed in factories and workshops. It has
limited application to certain other trades, but the application is
unimportant in connection with boy labour. To the regulations quoted there
are numerous exceptions, and the Home Secretary has large discretionary
powers.[59]
A young person may not be employed "in or about a shop" for a longer
period than seventy-four hours, including meal-times, in any one week.
Further, an employer may not knowingly employ a young person who has
already on the same day been employed in a factory or workshop, if such
employment makes the total number of hours worked more than the full time
a young person is permitted to work in a factory or workshop.[60]
By-laws may be made limiting the hours of employment of young persons
under the age of sixteen engaged in "street trading." [61] The by-laws of
the London County Council forbid the employment of such persons "before 7
a.m. or after 9 p.m., or for more than eight hours in any day, when
employed under the immediate direction and supervision of an adult person
having charge of a street stall or barrow; before 7 a.m. or after 8 p.m.
when employed in any other form of street trading."
With the exception of the regulations outlined above, there is no limit to
the number of hours during which young persons may legally be employed.
_Children._--The most important Acts regulating the hours of employment
for children are the Acts which enforce attendance at school. They limit
hours, not by fixing a maximum number of hours during which children may
be employed, but by pursuing the far more effective plan of seeing that
the children are in school, and therefore not in the workshop, during part
of the day.
Taken together, these Acts provide that children shall be at school, and
consequently not at work, at all times when the schools are opened until
the age of twelve is reached. There is one exception to this regulation:
children may, under a special by-law of the local education authority, be
employed in agriculture at the age of eleven, provided that they attend
school 250 times a year up to the age of thirteen. This exception is of
small importance, as "the number of children who are exempt under this
special by-law seems to be very small, not exceeding apparently 400 in the
whole country." [62]
Between the ages of twelve and fourteen attendance is compulsory, subject
to a complex scheme of partial or total exemptions, depending on the
by-laws of the local education authority. It rests, for instance, with
each local education authority to decide "whether, as regards children
between twelve and fourteen, they will grant full-time or half-time
exemption, or both, and upon what conditions of attendance or attainments,
always subject, of course, to the fact that the by-laws must be approved
by the Board of Education, and must not clash with any Act regulating the
employment of children." [63] For all practical purposes, it is possible
for the local education authority, if they think fit, to insist on such a
standard of attainment to be reached before exemption is allowed that,
with a few exceptions, relatively insignificant, children are compelled to
attend school until the age of fourteen. It is important to remember that
these Acts limit the employment of children only during times when the
schools are opened. As a general rule, the hours of attendance are
between 9 and 12 in the morning, and between 2 and 4.30 in the afternoon;
while the schools are open on five days a week during some forty-four
weeks in the year. During holidays, and on Saturdays and Sundays, so far
as these Acts are concerned, there is no limit to the numbers of hours a
child may work.
A further limit is put on the hours children may work by the Employment of
Children Act, 1903. A child under fourteen may not be employed between 9
p.m. and 6 a.m. This provision is subject to variation by local
by-laws.[64] Local by-laws may prescribe for children under fourteen:
(_a_) The hours between which employment is illegal; (_b_) the number of
daily and weekly hours beyond which employment is illegal; and (_c_) may
permit, subject to conditions, the employment of children in any specified
occupation.[65]
Under this Act the by-laws of the London County Council provide that a
child liable to attend school shall not be employed on days when the
school is open for more than three and a half hours a day, nor--
(_a_) Between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.;
(_b_) Before 6.30 a.m. or after 9 p.m.;
and on days when the school is not open--
(_a_) Before 6.30 a.m. or after 9 p.m.;
(_b_) For more than eight hours in any one day.
On Sundays a child shall not be employed except between the hours of 7
a.m. and 1 p.m. for a period not exceeding three hours. A child liable to
attend school shall not be employed for more than twenty hours in any week
when the school is open on more than two days, or for more than thirty
hours in any week when the school is open on two days only or less.
Additional limitations are imposed on the number of hours during which
children may be employed by the Factory and Workshop Act. A child between
"twelve and thirteen, who has reached the standard for total or partial
exemption under the Elementary Education Acts, and consequently may be
employed, must still, if employed in a factory or workshop, attend school
in accordance with the requirements of the Factory Act. So must a child of
thirteen who has not obtained a certificate entitling him to be employed
as a young person." [66] The famous half-time system is not, as sometimes
supposed, a special privilege allowed to workshops and factories. It is
permissible in all forms of occupation in a practically unrestricted
shape. In factories and workshops the conditions are subject to definite
regulations. It is, however, only in factories and workshops, and, indeed,
only in certain trades among these, that the half-time system has much
practical importance. The general regulations, subject, however, to
certain variations, are as follows:[67] Employment must be either in
morning and afternoon sets, or on alternate days The morning set begins
at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m., and ends--
(_a_) At one o'clock in the afternoon; or
(_b_) If the dinner-hour begins before one o'clock, at the beginning
of dinner-time; or
(_c_) If the dinner-time does not begin before 2 p.m. at noon.
The afternoon set begins either--
(_a_) At 1 p.m.
(_b_) At any later hour at which the dinner-time terminates; or
(_c_) If the dinner-hour does not begin before 2 p.m., and the morning
set ends at noon, at noon--
and ends at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m.
On Saturdays the period of employment is the same as for young persons--6
a.m. to 11.30 a.m.--but a child shall not be employed on two successive
Saturdays, nor on Saturday in any week if on any other days in the same
week his period of employment has exceeded five and a half hours.
A child must not be employed in two successive periods of seven days in
the morning set, nor in two successive periods of seven days in an
afternoon set.
On the alternate day system, the period of employment is the same as for a
young person--_i.e._, from 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., with two
hours for meals; and on Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., with half an
hour for meals. Under this system a child may not be employed on two
successive days, nor on the same day in two successive weeks.
Under all the systems a child may not be employed continuously for more
than four and a half hours without an interval of half an hour for
meals.[68] Nor must a child be employed on any one day on the business of
the factory or workshops both inside and outside the factory or
workshop.[69]
This system of regulation refers to textile factories, but these include
the vast majority of half-timers. The regulations with regard to
non-textile factories and workshops are less rigorous; and in the case of
domestic workshops and factories there is additional relaxation of the
rules.
The parent or guardian of the half-timer is responsible for the child's
attendance at school. As an additional precaution against truancy, the
employer may not employ the child unless each Monday the child has
obtained from the school a certificate of attendance during the past
week.[70]
If we take into account the hours worked in the factory and the hours
spent in school, we shall find that the half-timer's week of strenuous
effort is a long and a weary one. "Taking one week with another, the
employment of the half-timer is for twenty-eight and a quarter hours a
week in a textile factory, and thirty in a non-textile factory or
workshop; and as he is in school for thirteen or fourteen hours, his total
week in school and factory is from forty to forty-four hours." [71]
In view of proposals made later, I have thought desirable to insert in
detail the half-time regulations, in order to show how, in the actual
carrying out of industrial operations, a half-time system can be put into
effect.
_(c) Protection of Health._
There is no law prescribing in all cases the conditions as to buildings,
sanitary arrangements, and safety, under which alone children and young
persons may be employed. There is no law requiring in all cases a medical
certificate from children and young persons to show that they are
physically suited for the employment in which they are engaged.
It is no doubt true that the buildings in which juveniles are employed
come, in respect of sanitation, drainage, and water-supply, under the
general Public Health Acts. It is no doubt a fact that local building
by-laws occasionally insist on means of escape in case of fire in premises
where more than a certain number of persons are employed. It is likewise
part of the law of the land that, if a lad in the course of his work meets
with a fatal accident, twelve just men and a coroner must sit on the dead
body and investigate the cause.
But, apart from such regulations, which are not confined to the employment
of juveniles, or, indeed, to employment generally, it is only in special
forms of occupation that there are required additional precautions
designed to protect the health and safety of the workers. Elaborate rules
prescribe the conditions which must be observed in the management of a
railway or a mine. The Shop Hours Act requires that seats should be
provided for shop assistants. Such Acts have in practice only a limited
application in the case of children and young persons, who do not to any
large extent come into the classes affected.
Here, as in regard to the regulation of hours, the chief Act of importance
is the Factory and Workshop Act. This Act makes careful provision, so far
as premises are concerned, for the health of the workers, juveniles and
adults alike. Whether the provisions are in practice always enforced is a
matter open to some doubt.
In the case of factories,[72] the outside walls, ceilings, passages, and
staircases must be painted every seven years, and washed every fourteen
months; and in general the premises must be kept clean and free from
effluvia, and the floors properly drained. Ventilation must be adequate,
and all gases, dust, and other impurities generated in the course of work
rendered, so far as is practicable, innocuous to health. In certain cases
the inspector may insist on the provision of ventilating fans.
Overcrowding is prevented by requiring a minimum space in each room of 250
cubic feet for each person, or during overtime of 400 cubic feet. A
reasonable temperature must be maintained in each room in which any person
is employed. There must be sufficient and suitable supply of sanitary
conveniences. In textile factories a limit is set on the amount of
atmospheric humidity. In certain dangerous or poisonous trades additional
precautions are required. The Secretary of State has large powers of
imposing additional regulations on the one hand, and of granting
exemptions on the other. The authority for enforcing the regulations in
factories is the inspector acting through the Home Office.
The regulations applicable to workshops do not differ very materially from
those imposed on factories, but the enforcing authority is different. The
authority in the case of workshops is the district or the borough
council--_i.e._, the public health authority. The medical officer of
health and the inspector of nuisances have for this purpose the power of
factory inspectors. A breach of the law on the subject is declared to be a
nuisance, and may be dealt with summarily under the Public Health Acts.
The district or borough council are compelled to keep a register of the
workshops within their area; and the medical officer of health is required
to report annually to the council on the administration of the Factory
Acts in the workshops and workplaces in the district. A copy of this
report must be sent to the Secretary of State, who remains the supreme
authority, and in certain cases of default may authorize a factory
inspector to take the necessary steps for enforcing these provisions, and
recover the expenses from the defaulting council.
An attempt is also made to regulate the sanitary conditions under which
out-workers are employed. Where provisions are made by the Secretary of
State, the employers concerned are made responsible for the condition of
the places in which his out-workers carry on work. The employer must keep
lists of out-workers. The district council, in cases where the place is
injurious to the health of the out-workers, may take steps to have the
evil remedied or the employment stopped.
The Act requires machinery to be properly fenced, and special precautions
to be taken in cleaning machinery in motion. Children may not clean any
part of machinery in motion, or any place under such machinery other than
a overhead gearing. Children and young persons may not be allowed to work
between the fixed and traversing parts of a self-acting machine while the
machine is in motion.
When there occurs in a factory or workshop any accident which either (_a_)
causes loss of life to a person employed in the factory or workshop, or
(_b_) causes to a person employed in the factory or workshop such bodily
injury as to prevent him on any one of the three working days after the
occurrence of the accident from being employed for five hours on his
ordinary work, written notice shall forthwith be sent to the inspector for
the district.
In the case of new factories erected since January 1, 1892, and of new
workshops erected since January 1, 1896, in which more than forty persons
are employed, a certificate must be obtained from the local authority for
building by-laws, stating that reasonable provision for escape has been
made in case of fire. With regard to older factories and workshops, the
local authority must satisfy itself that reasonable means of escape are
provided. From these regulations it will be seen that precautions guarding
the health of boys are taken in the case of factories and workshops. There
are rules, there is an enforcing and inspecting authority, and there is
required a report in all cases of serious accident. But, with one
exception, no steps are taken to test the adequacy of the precautions by a
periodic medical examination of children and young persons, or to prevent
the employment of certain individuals who are physically unfit for the
work.
The exception is important, and observes attention, because it indicates a
possible line of reform. "In a factory a young person under the age of
sixteen, or a child, must not be employed ... unless the occupier of the
factory has obtained a certificate, in the prescribed form, of the fitness
of the young person or child for employment in that factory. When a child
becomes a young person, a fresh certificate of fitness must be
obtained." [73] A certifying surgeon is appointed for each district. "He
must certify that the person named in the certificate is of the age
therein specified, and has been personally examined by him, and is not
incapacitated by disease or bodily infirmity for working daily for the
time allowed by law in the factory." [74] "The certificate may be qualified
by conditions as to the work on which a child or young person is fit to be
employed," and the employer must observe such conditions.[75] The surgeon
has power to examine any process in which the child or young person is
employed.[76] A factory inspector who is of opinion that any young person
or child is unsuited on the ground of health for the employment on which
he is engaged may order his dismissal, unless the certifying surgeon,
after examination, shall again certify him as fit.[77]
This provision only applies to young persons under the age of sixteen, and
to children. It does not, moreover, apply to workshops. In the case of
workshops, the employer may obtain, if he thinks fit, a certificate from
the certifying surgeon.[78] The Secretary of State has, however, power to
extend the regulation to certain classes of workshops, if he considers the
extension desirable.[79]
In these cases, and these cases alone, is it necessary to call in the
doctor to certify the physical fitness of the boy for the employment in
which he is engaged. But under the Employment of Children Act, 1903, taken
in conjunction with the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907,
it is possible to extend considerably the system of medical tests. Under
the first of these Acts, which applies to children under the age of
fourteen--
"Sect. 3 (4). A child shall not be employed to lift, carry, or move
anything so heavy as to be likely to cause injury to the child.
"(5) A child shall not be employed in any occupation likely to be
injurious to his life, limb, health, or education, regard being had to his
physical condition.
"(6) If the local authority send a certificate to the employer saying that
certain employment will injure the child, the certificate shall be
admissible as evidence in any subsequent proceedings against the employer
in respect of the employment of the child."
If the child has left school--and under certain conditions a child can
leave school at the age of twelve--it is not easy to see how the local
authority can enforce these provisions. But with children attending
school, whole or part time, circumstances are different. Medical
inspection of school-children is now compulsory, and it is within the
power of the education authority to inspect any such children.[80] They
are therefore at liberty to examine any children known to be at work, and
any certificate of "unfitness" sent to an employer would probably be
effective.
Further, under the Employment of Children Act, Sects. 1 and 2, a local
authority may make by-laws permitting, subject to conditions, the
employment of children under the age of fourteen in any specified
occupation; and in the case of "street trading" the age is extended to
sixteen. It would be possible therefore, subject to the approval of the
Secretary of State, to make by-laws requiring a medical certificate of
fitness in certain forms of occupation in which children under the age of
fourteen are engaged.
Sec. 2. STATE ENTERPRISE.
In the preceding sections the State has played a passive part in the
supervision of the boy. It has contented itself with giving orders to
others, and with taking some more or less inadequate steps to see that its
commands are obeyed, but has directly done nothing itself. We are now to
see the State assuming duties of its own, and appearing as the active
guardian of the child. Individual or voluntary effort having failed, it
has been driven, at first reluctantly, but later with increasing
readiness, to fill the gap.
The State has now made itself directly responsible for providing schools
for the children of the nation. The schools play an important part in the
supervision of character. Attendance at school may be either compulsory or
voluntary. The law of compulsory attendance has already been stated.[81]
As a rule children must attend school till they reach the age of twelve,
and under local by-laws can in general be retained till they reach the age
of fourteen. In certain cases, important from the point of view of
discipline, the period of compulsory attendance can be prolonged. Children
under fourteen found begging, or wandering without home, or under the care
of a criminal or drunken guardian, or in general living in surroundings
likely to lead to crime, may be brought before a magistrate and sent to an
industrial school.[82] Here they are boarded and lodged, and may be kept
there up to the age of sixteen, after which time the managers of the
school have duties of supervision for a further period of two years, with
power of recall if desirable. Children who are truants or are convicted of
criminal offences can be treated in the same way.
For the majority of boys State guardianship is confined to the years of
compulsory attendance. But a considerable number continue their education
in various ways, and so remain under some sort of supervision. Children
may remain at the elementary school till the close of the school year in
which they attain the age of fifteen. The education authority has power to
provide and aid secondary and trade schools, and to make these
institutions accessible by means of scholarships; and secondary schools,
if in receipt of grants from the Board of Education, must in general
reserve a quarter of the places for pupils whose parents cannot afford to
pay fees. The education authority has power to provide evening
continuation classes for those who desire to avail themselves of the
opportunities thus afforded. Those who choose to attend these places of
higher education continue in some degree under the supervision of the
State.
But the supervision of the State through its schools is not confined to
the supervision of conduct. The education authority now exercises
important duties in connection with the health of the children in the
elementary schools. It is now obligatory on every education authority to
inspect medically all children on their admission to school, and at such
other times as may be prescribed by the Board of Education.[83] In their
original memorandum to education authorities the Board of Education
required these inspections--on admission to school, and at the ages of
seven and ten.[84] These regulations have not at present been enforced,
but the London County Council has now adopted a scheme which practically
embodies them. The local education authority is empowered, with the
consent of the Board of Education, to make arrangement for attending to
the health of the children.[85] Medical inspection is compulsory, medical
treatment optional. Further, the local education authority may draw on the
rates to feed school-children, whether their parents are destitute or not,
provided it is satisfied that the children, for lack of food, are unable
to profit by the instruction given.[86]
Finally, the local education authority may receive into its day industrial
schools children at the request of their parents, who must pay towards the
expense such sum as may be fixed by the Secretary of State.[87]
It will be seen that, acting through the local education authorities, the
State has now assumed large duties in connection with the supervision of
children. To submit to the discipline of the schools the vast majority of
the children of the county; to examine medically all children in these
schools; to feed the necessitous children, and to treat medically the
ailing children in the elementary schools; to remove and provide for until
the age of sixteen unfortunate children exposed to an unfavourable
environment--these are powers which constitute no small measure of State
enterprise.
II.
STATE TRAINING.
Training that shall fit a boy for a trade is of two kinds, general and
special. The first must develop those mental qualities of alertness,
intelligence, and adaptability required in all forms of occupation; the
second must give definite instruction in the principles and practice of
some particular industry or branch of industries. For the first provision
is made in the elementary school system, with its powers of compelling
attendance. For the second we must look to the various types of
continuation school. Here, under existing conditions, the State can only
offer facilities; it cannot enforce attendance.[88]
Since the passing of the Education Act, 1902 and 1903, progress has been
marked in both directions. The old "voluntary" schools, whose rolls
contained the names of half the scholars in the country, and whose limited
funds constituted an impassable barrier to all advance, are now maintained
out of the rates; and the gap between non-provided and council schools is
closing up. The breaking up of the small School Boards and the
establishment of larger authorities controlling all forms of education
have made for efficiency, while the merging of educational matters in the
general municipal work is insuring that practical criticism of his schemes
which the educationalist always resents but always requires.
_(a) The Elementary School._
It is obvious that, with the variety of children every school contains and
their tender age, no definite trade training can be given in the
elementary school. On the other hand, we have advanced far beyond the old
educational ideal of providing a common and uniform type of instruction in
the common school. Types of school are being multiplied to meet the needs
of different kinds of pupils. Provision has long since been supplied for
the mentally and physically defective, and serious attempts are now being
made to break up and classify that huge group which includes the so-called
normal child. In addition to the varying types of elementary school which
are in process of being adapted to the differing needs of the locality,
and the different classes of child, we have, under the elementary school
system, what is known as the "higher elementary school." Originally a
school specializing in science and of little value, it is tending to
become, under the more recent regulations of the Board of Education, a
school where a definite bias, either in the direction of commerce or
industry, is given to the curriculum. It is true that the number of
schools called "higher elementary" shows little signs of increase.[89]
This is due to the rigid and inflexible rules of the Board of Education,
which seem expressly designed to kill, and not to encourage, the
experiment. But while the name is being dropped, the thing is being
preserved and multiplied. London, for example, has recently adopted a
scheme for the development of sixty of these types of school, to be called
"central schools." The curriculum of each school is determined after
taking into account the industrial needs of the neighbourhood in which it
is placed. The education given is general in character, but the selection
of subjects has special reference to some profession or group of trades.
Broadly speaking, there are two general types of school, the commercial
and the industrial. The industrial type is already subdivided into the
woodwork and the engineering type, and further subdivisions will gradually
be formed. In these schools no attempt will be made to teach a trade, but
such subjects are included in the curriculum as will be found useful in
the trade. In the woodwork type, for example, in addition to a
considerable amount of time devoted to practical instruction in woodwork,
special attention is given to the kinds of arithmetic and drawing required
by the intelligent carpenter. An elaborate scheme for picking out between
the ages of eleven and twelve the children suitable for these different
kinds of school has been drawn up. A four years' course of instruction is
provided for. In order to induce the poorer parents to allow their
children to remain beyond the age of compulsory attendance, the education
committee offers bursaries, thereby exercising that negative form of
compulsion technically known as a bribe. Other education authorities are
establishing schools with similar aims. The experiments are recent, and
mark an important and new development. Two advantages are anticipated.
First, the variety in the types of school and the careful selection of
scholars will promote intelligence by providing that particular kind of
educational nutriment best adapted for encouraging the growth of a
particular order of mind. Secondly, by guiding the interests of boys in
the direction of various occupations, it is hoped that on leaving school
these interests will lead the boys to enter those occupations for which to
some extent they have been prepared, and in which they are most likely to
succeed. The elementary schools, as a body, will thus become a kind of
sorting-house for the different trades, and be freed from that charge, to
some extent justified, of catering only for the lower ranks of the
clerical profession.
_(b) The Continuation School._
It is becoming year by year more generally recognized that a system of
education which comes to an end somewhere about the age of fourteen is
incomplete and profoundly unsatisfactory. Without attendance at a
continuation school of some kind, a boy rapidly loses much of the effect
of his previous education, and at the same time is deprived of all
opportunity of enjoying the advantages of a more specialized training. To
meet this need a complex system of continuation school has grown up. It
lacks, however, the element of compulsion, except that negative form
already alluded to--the bribe of a scholarship. Looking at the machinery
as a whole, it may be admitted that the State does afford considerable
opportunity to those anxious to continue their general education, or to
obtain some specific form of technical instruction. Whether sufficient use
is made of this opportunity is a question that must be answered in the
following chapter. But taking the machinery as a whole, and as it exists
under the best education authorities, the machinery does touch to some
extent the principal trades and professions.[90]
1. Provision is gradually being made for those likely to succeed in the
higher branches of industry and commerce. The number of secondary schools
is being increased, their quality improved, and their types varied.
Technical institutes providing day and evening classes of an advanced
character are being rapidly multiplied. University instruction, aided out
of public funds, is becoming more plentiful and efficient, and, whether
during the day or in the evening, is year by year offering larger
opportunities to students. Progress is especially marked in the faculties
of economics and technology. Scholarship systems, more or less
incomplete, make access to these institutions possible for the poorer
classes of the community. The trend of development seems to suggest that a
system of organization, calculated to provide training for the highest
positions in the industrial and commercial world, is developing along the
following lines:
Between the ages of eleven and twelve the brightest children will be
transferred from the elementary to the secondary school. The secondary
school will provide a course of instruction extending to the age of
eighteen. Broadly speaking, there will be three types of secondary school,
the first giving a general and literary education, the second specializing
in commerce, and the third in some branch of science and technology. At
the age of eighteen the suitable students will be removed to the
University, where they will receive a three or four years' course of
instruction suitable to the profession they are intending to enter. It is
probable that at the age of fourteen there will be an additional, though
smaller, transfer of children from the elementary schools, in order that
provision may be made for those who have slipped through the meshes of the
scholarship net at the first casting. Scholarships with liberal
maintenance grants will make readily accessible to all who are fit the
advantages of a prolonged education. Evening classes, leading even to a
degree, will remain for those who, for one reason or another, have failed
to obtain in their earlier years the advanced instruction they now
require.
An organization of this kind is not at present found anywhere in its
complete form, but it is sufficiently complete in certain directions to be
considered here, where we are concerned with attainments, and not reserved
for a later chapter, where we shall be examining new paths of progress.
2. For those likely later to fill the position of foreman, or to become
the best kind of artisan, the day trade school is provided. The boys enter
the trade school on leaving the elementary school about the age of
fourteen or fifteen, and go through a two and sometimes a three years'
course of instruction. These schools continue the education of the boy,
with special reference to the trade concerned, and at the same time devote
a large amount of time to supplying an all-round training in the various
skilled operations the trade requires. They are essentially practical in
character, and this practical character is often assured by a committee of
employers, who visit the school and criticize the methods of instruction.
3. For those already apprenticed to, or engaged in, the trade two forms of
instruction are provided. The most satisfactory are the classes attended
during the day. Attendance at such times can only be secured by inducing
the employers to allow their lads time off during working hours. In some
cases the element of compulsion is introduced by the employers, who make
attendance at such classes a condition of employment. The other form of
instruction is provided during the evening at a technical institute. In
either case the instruction is of a practical nature, and designed to
supplement the training of the workshop.
4. For those who have entered, or desire to enter, the lower walks of
commerce, or the civil or municipal service, there is the evening school
of a commercial type, usually held in the building of an elementary
school.
5. Of the boys who, engaged in unskilled work during the day, are anxious
to continue their general education or to improve their position, the
evening school again supplies the need. Some practical work is done in the
woodwork or metal centres, but the limited equipment of the elementary
school stands in the way of any advanced technical instruction. If we omit
the commercial classes, already mentioned, attendance at an evening school
often means little more than attendance once a week at a class where
instruction is given in a single subject, and not infrequently the
recreative element is predominant. Recently, and with considerable
success, the "course" system has been introduced. Here the students,
instead of being present at a single class once a week, attend on several
evenings during the week, and go through a course of instruction in
several subjects connected together and leading up to some definite goal.
If to these various types of continuation school we add the large number
of lectures on numerous subjects, we shall see that the State through its
schools supplies a considerable amount of technical instruction. It would
be false to say that the boys receive all the training that they need, but
it would not be beyond the mark to assert that in the case of many
education authorities they are afforded all, and not infrequently more
than all, the opportunities for which they ask. It is the demand, and not
the supply, that is deficient.
III.
STATE PROVISION OF AN OPENING.
Until the year 1910 the provision of openings in suitable occupations was
not considered among the duties of the State. It is true that here and
there, usually in co-operation with voluntary associations, an education
committee made some attempt to place out in trades the boys about to leave
school. But any expenditure in this direction was illegal, and under no
circumstances was it possible to do anything for those who had already
left school. But in the year 1910 the State, without premeditation, has
found itself committed to the duty of finding openings for children and
juveniles. The revolution was upon us before we had seen the signs of its
approach.
This assumption of a new duty was the unforeseen result of the
establishment of Labour Exchanges. The Act of 1909 thought nothing, said
nothing, about juveniles. It was passed as a measure intended to deal with
the problem of adult unemployment. Now, there is no problem of
unemployment in connection with boys and youths; the demand of employers
for this kind of labour appears insatiable. Nevertheless, no sooner were
Labour Exchanges opened, than the question of juveniles came to the
front. Employers asked for juveniles, and the managers of the local Labour
Exchange, eager to meet the wishes of the employer, searched for and found
juveniles. Enthusiastic about his work, and prompted by the laudable
desire to show large returns of vacancies filled, it did not occur to him
that the problem of the juvenile and the problem of the adult had little
in common. He was not permitted to remain long in this condition of
primitive ignorance. Questions were asked in the House, letters were
written to the papers, deputations waited on the President of the Board of
Trade, all complaining that the Labour Exchange was becoming an engine for
the exploitation of boy labour. In the case of adults, no bargain as to
conditions was struck with the employer; the man had to make his own
terms. But the boy could not make his own terms, and public opinion had
for some years been uneasy about the increasing employment of boys in
occupations restricted to boys, and leading to no permanent situation when
the years of manhood were reached. Returns showed that it was largely into
situations of this character that lads were being thrust by the Labour
Exchange. The Board of Trade rapidly realized the evil, and set itself to
work to repair the unforeseen mistake. It wisely decided to grapple
seriously with the problem, and did not, as it might well have done,
restrict the Labour Exchange to adults.
It determined to appoint Advisory Committees to deal with juveniles. In
London the following machinery is in process of being established: There
is a Central Advisory Committee, consisting of six members nominated by
the Board of Trade, six by the London County Council, and six by the
committee of employers and trade unionists, who advise the Board of Trade
on questions of adult employment. The duty of this Central Committee is to
advise the Board of Trade as to the appointment of the local Advisory
Committees, which will be formed to control the juvenile department in
connection with each of the London Labour Exchanges. It will also be the
duty of the Central Advisory Committee to advise generally on questions
affecting the employment of juveniles. Though the duties of this committee
are nominally advisory, its work will in practice become administrative in
character. Here then is an organization which in course of time will
probably have to deal with the problem of finding suitable occupations for
the child and juvenile population of London. Similar bodies are being
formed in other towns. As will appear later, this is one of the most
important social questions of the day. How these committees will do their
work only the future can show. But if the Board of Trade act liberally in
matters of expenditure, there is no cause for despondency, and we may well
hope that, by the purest of accidents, we are on the threshold of a new
era in the history of industrial organization. Chance is not always blind,
and some of its wild castings hit the mark.
Such, in broad outline, have been the achievements of the State during the
age of reconstruction, so far as concerns the problem of boy labour and
apprenticeship. Guided by sentiment, partial and limited in the sphere of
its operations, the State has yet drifted far from the moorings of
_laissez-faire_, and is destined to drift farther as the years go by.
How far the intricate machinery, slowly pieced together during the last
three-quarters of a century, is successful when judged by results, what
are its more serious defects, and what should be the lines of future
advance, before the establishment of a real apprenticeship system, it will
be the object of the following chapters to explain. But one truth should
now be abundantly clear: of the three essential factors of that system,
not one has been altogether neglected by the State, and in certain
departments its guardianship has been widely extended. In the department
of supervision it has, through its schools, created an organization to
watch over and to control the conduct of all its children; it has recently
recognized through the same agency its duty to provide for them at least
the elements of physical well-being; and through numerous Acts it has
endeavoured to insure for the boy worker a minimum standard--low, indeed,
but still real--of proper conditions of employment. In the department of
training it has covered the land with a network of educational
institutions, which offer to all the possibilities of nearly every kind of
instruction. While, as regards the provision of an opening, it has
realized the urgency of the problem, and has taken the first steps to
supply the deficiency. These are all, in spite of many shortcomings, solid
achievements, hopeful in the present, and more hopeful for the promise
they bring of a larger measure of State guardianship in the years that are
to come.