favourable openings; it cannot in itself alter the direction of the demand
for labour. It might, therefore, be asked what is the use of an exchange
for boys who can already find employment of a sort more easily than is
good for them? First, there are the advantages of supervision and the
opportunities for friendly advice and sympathy; secondly, there is the
task of collecting accurate information which will lead up to legislative
action, and the system of regulation which is ultimately inevitable;
thirdly, while not closing the door to the "blind-alley" occupations,
there is no need for the advisory committees to press them on the parent.
They would, on the contrary, point out the evils, and suggest either that
the opening should be refused or accepted only as a temporary expedient.
The object should be to induce the parent to refuse situations which did
not afford any prospects of learning or allow time off to attend a
continuation school. The "blind-alley" occupations would disappear
to-morrow if parents stubbornly refused to permit their boys to fill them.
For the moment, moreover, the advantage is all on the side of the parent,
as the demand for boys outruns the supply. But neither individual parent
nor individual boy can take advantage of this fact; they have not the
knowledge or the opportunity to make their voices effectively heard. There
is no trade union of parents or trade union of boys, or, indeed, can be,
in the "blind-alley" occupations. Collective bargaining must be done for
them, and the advisory committee must be its instrument. They must first
create the opinion among the parents, and then give effect to it through
the Exchange. If employers found that, so long as they refused to offer
better conditions, they were either unable to get boys or only got the
least satisfactory boys, there would be a strong inducement for them to
change their ways. Finally, there is the reverse of this system of
educating the parents--the educating of the employers. There is already
growing up a feeling among employers that if they cannot give the boys
employment as men they might at least offer them opportunities of
continuing their education. At a conference held in 1910 between agencies
interested in the welfare of boys and employers of labour, under the
presidency of the Chairman of the London Chamber of Commerce, the
following resolutions were unanimously adopted: "That the London Chamber
of Commerce be asked to consider the advisability of establishing a
register of its members who would be willing to engage or apprentice boys
with a view to the co-operation of the Chamber with the various
institutions interested in the welfare of boys." "That employers of labour
be recommended, by reducing the present hours of labour or otherwise, to
give such facilities as may be possible consistently with the requirements
of their business to enable boys and youths to obtain technical
instruction." Judicious canvassing among a certain class of employers
may, therefore, lead to most beneficent results. It should also be borne
in mind that in London and other towns into which there is a large
immigration of adult labour, there is room for new openings leading on to
skilled trades.
While much can unquestionably be done under existing conditions to improve
and supervise the conditions of boy labour by means of the Juvenile Labour
Exchange, it is certain that sooner or later there will be need of
regulation by Act of Parliament. Probably the best course would be to give
the Board of Trade power in the case of certain occupations to limit at
their discretion the employment of boys to boys engaged at the Exchange.
If in addition the proposals made in the previous sections were to become
law, we should be in a very strong position to launch the youth on the
ocean of manhood with all the prospects of a successful voyage.
IV.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.
At the end of a long and rather complex discussion it is desirable to
attempt some general summary of what has already been achieved and of the
proposals necessary for the creation of a true apprenticeship system. It
will make for clearness if we take a boy and follow his career through its
various stages.
At the age of five or thereabouts he will enter the elementary school. It
is to be hoped that the reorganization of the public health services and
the more careful attention devoted to the period of infancy may send him
to the school free from those physical defects so common now, and healthy
within the limits of nature. Here he will begin his education. Improved
methods of teaching will make for increased intelligence and the growth of
numerous interests, while physical exercises, medical inspection and
treatment, added to the supply of wholesome food to the necessitous, will
promote the healthy development of his body.
At the age of eleven comes an important epoch in his career. It is then
that, if found suitable, he will, with the help of a scholarship, be sent
to the secondary school, and thence be led along a broad road to the
University. Failing the winning of a scholarship, he will, if he display
any special aptitude, be drafted off to a central school with a commercial
or industrial bias. Failing, again, the proof of any exceptional ability,
he will remain in the ordinary school. In either case he will continue at
school till the age of fifteen, will be forbidden to work for wages
outside school hours, and will throughout be periodically examined by the
school doctor.
With the approach to the age of fifteen begins the second important epoch
in his career. Some time before the day of leaving school arrives he will
have been interviewed by a friendly volunteer, who, with the help of the
school record and medical register, will be able to decide for what form
of employment he is best suited. In the meanwhile the Labour Exchange will
have found for him a suitable opening, or, failing this, a temporary
situation pending a more satisfactory and permanent position. If he gain a
place in a skilled trade, the half-time school, which he must attend for
the next three years, will add to the training of the workshop that
all-round training, whose result is intelligence and adaptability,
required to make of him an efficient artisan. If he is destined to fill
the ranks of unskilled labour, he will likewise attend a half-time school
carefully designed to enable him to play a useful part in the world of
life. In both cases he will remain for half-time under the supervision of
the education authority; in both cases periodic medical inspection will
watch over his physical development, and if it show him physically unfit
for the work he has undertaken, he will be found employment more suitable
to his strength; in both cases the advisory committee of the Labour
Exchange will receive reports from the home, the school, and the employer,
and these reports will enable them to discover whether the occupation and
the training are well adapted to foster his natural abilities. For three
years, while at work, he will also remain at school; for three years his
training will be guided by employers who will see to it that it turns out
the efficient workman, and by the education authority, which, acting in
the interests of the community, will see that it makes for the efficient
citizen.
In process of time, with the gradual accumulation of experience, and with
the knowledge of the Board of Trade behind it, the advisory committee will
be able to adjust the supply of boys in course of special training to
meet the demands of special trades, and even if some unforeseen
transformation of industry upsets the calculations, there should be no
insurmountable difficulty of disposing of lads at the age of eighteen who
are at once well conducted, physically fit, and intelligent.
We come back to the position from which we started in the
introduction--the need of securing for the youth of the country adequate
supervision up to the age of at least eighteen, appropriate training
during that period, and at its conclusion the provision of an opening in
some occupation for which special preparation has been given. We have seen
that for at any rate a large section of the people these conditions were
satisfied during the best days of the gilds, and that they were satisfied
in direct proportion to the extent to which the gilds stood for the common
interests. With the decay and disappearance of the gilds the training of
the youth became a matter of individual bargaining between parent and
employer. No authority, standing for the common good, superintended the
process. Apprenticeship might be enforced; its efficiency could not be
guaranteed. Further, the existence of apprenticeship tended to create a
privileged class who resented the intrusion of those who entered a trade
by other means. With the coming of the industrial revolution, training
itself became more difficult. The large workshop and the division of
labour were unfavourable to apprenticeship. Employers wanted to use boys,
and not to train them. Rapid progress of invention continually discounted
the value of acquired manual skill, and parents could not see at the
conclusion of the apprenticeship any prospect of a favourable opening in a
skilled trade; while the gradual break-up of the system of supervision
bred a spirit of independence among boys which rendered them disinclined
to bind themselves for a period of years. Finally, competition, with the
urgent need of surviving the struggle of to-day, made it hard for
employers to prepare for the future by providing for the training of the
future workmen. The industrial system gave no guarantee for the efficiency
of the next generation of workers. The old apprenticeship system had
broken down.
But in the period of general disintegration there was slowly
developing--at first unconsciously, and later with more clearly directed
effort--an organization which made for constructive reform. It was called
into being as a last resort, and to save the country from the ruin which
was threatened by the exploitation of children. Competition demanded the
sacrifice of to-morrow to-day; the State, whose interests belong to all
time, was driven to forbid the sacrifice. Competition demanded that
children of tender years should labour in the mines and the factories, and
under conditions that made all health a mockery; the State insisted on a
minimum standard of health and safety for its children. The standard, low
at first, has steadily been raised. Thus has grown up the regulation of
child labour and the Acts relating to factories and workshops. Competition
cared nothing for the education of the children; it wanted to use them up
and cast them on the waste-heap. The State, recognizing the dangers of an
uneducated people, established by slow degrees a system of universal
education. So the struggle between the two has gone on, the State only
interfering as a last resort and in despair of other means to stop the
evil. Throughout its action has been generally beneficial, but the
benefits have been limited because that action has been partial and
patchy. Much of the expenditure, for example, on education has been wasted
just because the education came to an end too soon. The time had come for
a more comprehensive study of the situation that should indicate the
faults of the existing system.
Such a study has been attempted in the present volume. The task has been
comparatively easy, because the evils are generally admitted. What has not
hitherto been recognized sufficiently is the fact that these evils are
growing, and not in course of removal. The various factors in the process
have been examined, and, ignoring the State, they are clearly inadequate,
and progressively inadequate, to the task of solving the problem. As a
last resort the State remains. If the principles underlying the training
of youth are admitted, if out of the various possible forces concerned all
with one exception have been proved defective, then we must put our hopes
in the one exception. We must enlarge the sphere of influence of the
State. How this should be done has been shown in the present chapter.
The principles underlying the proposals have all been drawn from
experience, and are founded on the apprenticeship system, but applied with
modifications suitable to changed conditions. Under the gild system there
were three interests concerned and conjoined--the interests of the master,
the interest of journeyman and apprentice, and the interest of the
community. Since the gilds have gone these interests have become separate
and increasingly antagonistic. For the successful training of the youth of
the country the claims of these clashing interests must again be brought
together and reconciled. Ultimately and in the long-run they are
identical; it is only competition, with its dimmed and narrow vision, that
made the cleavage. It is hoped that the proposals outlined in this chapter
will point the road towards a final peace. Let us, in conclusion, bring
them to the test of the three essentials for which a true apprenticeship
system must make adequate provision.
There must be supervision--supervision of conduct, supervision of health.
Under the new apprenticeship system the State will be the ultimate
authority for the supervision of conduct. Till the age of fifteen the boy
will remain subject to the control of the schools. Long experience has
demonstrated the beneficent influence exercised by the teachers over the
children even under present conditions, when the school career is brought
to an end at the age of thirteen or fourteen. There is, therefore, nothing
wild in the expectation that, with compulsory attendance extended to the
age of fifteen, we shall receive richer and more lasting fruits. For the
next three years, the critical period of a boy's life, with its first
experience of the workshop and the sense of independence which comes with
earning wages, the supervision of the State will only in part be
withdrawn. During these years he will be compelled to attend the half-time
school, and so continue under the control of the education authority. Nor
is this all. The advisory committee of the Labour Exchange will advise him
in the choice of employment, assist him to obtain it, and generally watch
over his career. Thus, helped on his journey and surrounded with wise and
friendly influences, he will approach the threshold of manhood with such
promise of success as good habits and an ordered life may bring.
The State, likewise, will be responsible for the supervision of the boy's
health. Periodic medical inspection will watch and aid his physical
development. We have not yet learned to appreciate the full value of this
periodic inspection; it is, however, destined to become the most powerful
instrument of reform. The ill-nourished child, the delicate child, the
child in the early stages of phthisis, the child of negligent parents, the
child from the overcrowded or insanitary home--all these, the future
weaklings of the nation, we know them now only when the evil has too often
outrun the possibility of a cure and it is too late. Under the new
conditions we shall detect the evil in its first beginning, while there is
yet hope. Medical inspection is also the key to the situation after the
boy goes out to work, and for three years he will remain under its
control. At the present time we only dimly realize the disastrous effects
that come to a boy from the choice of an occupation ill-suited to his
strength. We forbid a few forms of work, attempt for the most part
ineffectively to limit the hours of employment in a few others, but in our
clumsy fashion legislate as a rule for the normal child, and it is the
abnormal child that suffers most. Under the new conditions there will be
no work for children under the age of fifteen, while for the three
following years medical inspection will enable us to legislate for the
individual boy, taking into account his physical characteristics. Not only
shall we be able to help a boy to avoid making a wrong choice, but we
shall be able to remove him as soon as medical inspection shows him unfit
for the work. Thus, to the age of eighteen the State has its finger on the
pulse of the youth.
Secondly, there must be an adequate provision of training, special and
general, accessible to all. Here, again, we are building on the firm rock
of solid experience. The elementary schools have proved themselves to be
schools for the cultivation of intelligence. With a year or two added to
the school life; with the relief from that distracting influence which
comes from wage-earning while at school; with the improved methods of
teaching and a clearer differentiation of types of school to suit varying
types of mind--reforms already under way--we may fairly hope for a general
rise in the intelligence of the boys. The half-time school, with its three
years' course, will supply the more specialized training required in the
different trades and occupations, while committees of employers will
provide the expert criticism essential to success.
Finally, there must be the provision of an opening in some form of
employment for which special preparation has been given. The Labour
Exchange, the juvenile branch worked in close co-operation with the adult
section, will supply the opening, while the technical training will give
good guarantee for the adequacy of the preparation. The Elementary School,
the Half-time School, the Education Authority, and the Advisory Committee,
all acting together, will insure a safe passage from youth to manhood.
The new apprenticeship system is more complex than the old--it lacks
something of the picturesqueness of the Middle Ages--but it finds its
compensation in an organization at once more flexible and more
comprehensive, and therefore better suited to stand the shock of those
huge changes in methods of production and methods of living which have
been the ungainly offspring of the industrial revolution.
LIST OF AUTHORITIES
I
PARLIAMENTARY AND MUNICIPAL PUBLICATIONS
Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages), Parts I. and II.,
Parliamentary Return. 1899.
Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Employment of
School-Children. 1901.
Report of the Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children Act,
1903. 1910.
Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and the Relief of
Distress. 1909.
Report by Mr. Cyril Jackson on Boy Labour. 1909.
Report of the Commissioners of Prisons for the year ending March 31, 1908.
Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education for the year
1909.
Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on Higher
Elementary Schools. 1906.
Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on
Attendance, Compulsory or Otherwise, at Continuation Schools. 2 vols.,
1909.
Report on the By-Laws made by the London County Council under the
Employment of Children Act, 1903, by Chester Jones. 1906.
London County Council Report of the Medical Officer (Education) for the
year 1906.
London County Council Report of the Medical Officer (Education) for the
year 1909.
London County Council: Medical Treatment of Children attending Elementary
Schools--Report of Education Committee. 1909.
London County Council: Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children in
Twelve Selected Schools. 1909.
London County Council: The Apprenticeship Question. 1906.
London County Council: Report of the Higher Education Sub-Committee on
Apprenticeship: Agenda of Education Committee, February 24, 1909, pp.
412-425.
London County Council: Technical Education Board Report on the Building
Trades. 1899.
London County Council: Report by Miss Durham, Inspector of Women's
Technical Classes on Juvenile Labour in Germany. 1910.
London County Council: Report by Mr. R. Blair (Education Officer) on
Organization of Education in London. P. S. King and Son, Westminster.
County Council of Middlesex: Report by Mr. A. J. Bird (Inspector of
Schools) on Employment Bureaux for Children of School-leaving Age.
Urban District Council of Finchley: Annual Report of the Medical Officer
of Health, including the Report to the Education Committee for the year
1908.
Gloucestershire Education Committee: Report of the Minor Committee to
consider Certain Proposals for the Creation of an Apprenticeship Fund and
a Labour Bureau. 1907.
II
AUTHORS
ABRAHAM AND DAVIES: Factories and Workshops. 1902.
ABRAM, A.: Social Life in the Fifteenth Century. 1909.
ALDEN, MARGARET: Child Life and Labour.
ASHLEY, W. J.: Introduction to English Economic History. 1888.
BEVERIDGE, W. H.: Unemployment. 1909.
BLACK, CLEMENTINA: Sweated Industry. 1907.
BLAIR, R.: Some Features of American Education. 1904.
BOOTH, CHARLES: Life and Labour of the People, 9 vols. 1896.
BRAY, REGINALD A.: The Apprenticeship Question, in _Economic Journal_,
September, 1909.
BRAY, REGINALD A.: The Town Child. 1907.
CHRISTIAN SOCIAL UNION: Report on the Employment of Boys in the London
Area. 1910.
Continuation Schools in England and Elsewhere, edited by M. E. SADLER.
1907.
CREASEY, CLARENCE H.: Technical Education in Evening Schools. 1905.
CROWLEY, RALPH H.: Hygiene of School Life. 1909.
CUNINGHAM, W.: Growth of English Industry and Commerce: Early and Middle
Ages. 1905.
CUNINGHAM, W.: Growth of English Industry and Commerce: Modern Times, 2
vols. 1903.
DAVIES, MAUDE F.: Life in an English Village. 1909.
FRERE, MARGARET: Children's Care Committees. 1909.
GIBB, THE REV. SPENCER J.: The Problem of Boy Work. 1906.
GIBB, THE REV. SPENCER J.: Boy Work and Unemployment. C.S.U. Pamphlet.
GORDON, OGILVIE: Handbook of Employments. 1908.
GREEN, J. R.: History of the English Peoples, vols. i. and iv. 1896.
GREEN, MRS. J. R.: Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, 2 vols. 1894.
HALL, G. STANLEY: Adolescence, 2 vols.
HASBACH, W.: History of the English Agricultural Labourer. 1908.
HAWKINS, C. B.: Norwich: A Social Study. 1910.
HAYWARD, F. H.: Day and Evening Schools. 1910.
HOGARTH, A. H.: Medical Inspection of Schools. 1909.
HUTCHINS AND HARRISON: A History of Factory Legislation. 1907.
JACKSON, CYRIL: Unemployment and Trade Unions. 1910.
JEBB, EGLANTYNE: Cambridge: A Brief Study in Social Questions. 1906.
KEELING, FREDERIC: The Labour Exchange in Relation to Boy and Girl Labour.
1910.
KIRKMAN, GRAY B.: A History of English Philanthropy. 1905.
KIRKMAN, GRAY B.: Philanthropy and the State.
KNOWLES, G. W.: Junior Labour Exchanges. 1910.
MACMILLAN, MARGARET: Labour and Childhood. 1907.
MOSELEY: Educational Committee Report. 1904.
NICHOLLS, SIR G.: History of the English Poor Law. 1898.
ROGERS, J. E. T.: Six Centuries of Work and Wages. 1884.
ROWNTREE, B. S.: Poverty: A Study of Town Life. 1901.
RUSSELL, C. E. B.: Manchester Boys. 1905.
RUSSELL AND RIGBY: The Making of the Criminal. 1906.
RUSSELL AND RIGBY: Working Lads' Clubs. 1908.
SHADWELL, ARTHUR: Industrial Efficiency. 1909.
Studies of Boy Life in our Cities, edited by E. J. URWICK. 1904.
TAWNEY, R. H.: The Economics of Boy Labour, in _Economic Journal_,
December, 1909.
Trades for London: Boys. Compiled by the Apprenticeship and Skilled
Employment Committee. 1908.
Trades for London: Girls. Compiled by the Apprenticeship and Skilled
Employment Committee. 1909.
TUCKWELL AND SMITH: The Workers' Handbook. 1908.
WEBB, SIDNEY AND BEATRICE: History of Trade Unionism. 1907.
WEBB, SIDNEY AND BEATRICE: Industrial Democracy, 2 vols. 1897.
INDEX
Abraham and Davies, 45, 49, 53
Abram, A., 9
Adler, Miss, 106
Adolescence, vi, 176, 198
Agricultural Gangs Act, 42
Apprentices, statute of, 13-15;
effect, 16, 17;
pauper, 15, 17-19;
repeal, 22
Apprenticeship, break-up of, 165-175
charities, 19;
decay, 25, 135, 164, 165-175, 177;
difficulties of, 12, 188;
essentials, 43, 237;
indentured, 5, 135, 187-189;
meaning, 1;
under gilds, 4-11, 234, 237;
under industrial revolution, 26-29;
under statute, 11-19;
universal, 3, 13, 189
of to-day: contribution of home, 92-103;
of philanthropy, 89-92;
of State, 73-74, 76-89;
of workshop, 103-165
the new: Juvenile Labour Exchange, 231-231;
new half-time, 191, 197-202;
prohibition of employment, 191, 195-197;
raising school age, 191-195, 217;
summary, 231-240
Ashby, W. J., 4
Attendance at school, Acts relating to, 38, 46-48;
percentage of, 83, 106, 105
Blair, R., 86
"Blind-alley" occupations, 87, 112, 123-130, 145, 157, 158, 163,
169-172, 180, 227
Board of Education, 61, 64
Board of Trade, 71, 72, 223, 233
Booth, C., 95, 104, 136, 139
Borstal Association, 169
Boy labour: difficulties of regulation, 79, 80;
effects of regulation, 77-82, 88, 89
half-time, 49-52, 78, 197-202, 204, 205
health and safety, 52-58, 77, 197-202
limitation of hours, 43-52, 197-202
prohibition of, 41-43, 195-197, 203, 204
regulation under gilds, 7-11, 234, 237;
under industrial revolution, 20-25;
under statute, 13, 14
Boys: clubs, 90;
errand, 82, 112, 119, 129, 145;
lather, 43;
office, 119, 126, 158;
shop, 122, 126, 128, 145;
telegraph, 126, 131, 145;
van, 82, 119, 145
Boys: employment of, at school, 103-113, 151-155;
on leaving school, 114-119, 163;
entering manhood, 143
unemployed, 119;
under London County Council, 132
Bursaries, 65
Chamber of Commerce, 230
Chapman, Professor, 211
Child, definition of, 40
Children Act, 38, 59, 61, 80
Children, employment of. _See_ Boys
Chimney Sweepers Act, 42
Cloete, J. G., 126, 129
Coal Mines Regulation Act, 38, 42
Competition, 177, 235
Cuningham, W., 4, 6, 10, 16, 20, 22, 28
Davies, Miss Maude, 161, 164
Distribution of trades, 115-118, 142-149, 163;
normal, 147-149
Durham, Miss, 196, 228
_Economic Journal_, 116, 159
Education Acts, 1902-03, 62
Administrative Provisions Act, 1907, 58, 60, 61
Provision of Meals Act, 61
Employment of children. _See_ Boys
Employment of Children Act, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48, 57, 58, 77, 80,
81, 111, 166
Factory legislation, causes of, 30
Factory and Workshops Act, 38, 168;
authority for enforcement, 40, 51;
definitions, 39-41;
effects of, 77, 81, 82, 88;
half-time, 49-51;
health and safety, 52-56;
limitation of hours, 43-52;
prohibition of employment, 41, 42
Furness, Sir Christopher, 213
Gibb, Spencer J., 124, 158
Gilds, 4-11, 234, 237
Girls, vii
Green, Mrs. J. R., 12
Half-time system, 49-51, 78, 197-203, 204-205
Hall, G. Stanley, vi
Hasbach, W., 25
Health and Morals of Apprentices Act, 17, 18, 23, 29
Hutchins and Harrison, 23, 29
Idealist, triumph of, 28
Indenture, old, 6
Individualist, triumph of, 32-34
Industrial revolution, 20-26;
effects of, 26-29, 173-175;
characteristics, 177-185
schools, 61
Jackson, Cyril. _See_ Report on Boy Labour
Labour Exchange, 70, 125;
Juvenile, 71, 72, 83, 201, 221-231, 232-240
Lather-boy. _See_ Boys
London, employment of school-children, 105-113;
entry to a trade, 113-142;
passage to manhood, 142-151
Medical certificate, 56, 57, 58
inspection, 58, 60, 61, 85, 86, 94, 168, 197, 231, 232, 233, 238,
239
Messenger-boy. _See_ Boys
Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act, 38
Mines (Prohibition of Child Labour Underground) Act, 38, 41
Necessitous children, 94, 95
Nicholls, Sir G., 18
Occupations, clerical, 140-142;
distribution of, 115-120, 143, 142-149, 163;
skilled, 132-140;
unskilled, 112, 121-133
Office-boy. _See_ Boys
Opening. _See_ Provision of
Poor Law, Elizabethan, 15;
Amendment Act, 23-26;
Report of Royal Commission. _See_ Reports
Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 38, 42
Provision of opening, need for, 2;
Labour Exchange, 70-72, 221-231, 240;
under gilds, 8-11;
under industrial revolution, 20-26
Report of Board of Education, 64
of Commissioners for Prisons, 169
of Consultative Committee on Continuation School, 47, 81, 154, 192,
201
of Consultative Committee on Higher Elementary Schools, 214
of Departmental Committee on Employment of Children Act, 81, 125
of Interdepartmental Committee on Employment of Children, 51, 110, 152
of London County Council on Apprenticeship, 66, 115, 128, 135, 136,
139, 140, 143, 187, 192, 194
of Medical Officer, Board of Education, 152, 174
of Medical Officer (Education) of London County Council, 96, 109, 110
Report of Poor Law Commission, 31, 104, 155, 156, 172, 191, 192, 206,
209, 210, 211, 213
Report on Boy Labour, by Mr. Cyril Jackson, 104, 123, 124, 125, 128,
129, 131, 144, 145, 146, 156, 157
on Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children, 95
Rogers, J. E. Thorold, 5
Rural Districts, 161-165
Sadler, M. E., 157, 171, 195
Scholarships, 66-68, 86, 232
School: age, 46-48, 192-195;
central, 64, 65;
elementary, 46, 47, 63-65, 83-86, 218, 224, 231;
evening, 60, 67, 69, 86;
industrial, 59, 61;
part-time, 68, 132, 187, 218-221, 231;
secondary, 60, 67, 86, 232;
Sunday, 89;
technical and trade, 60, 66, 68, 208
Scott-Holland, Canon, 124
Shop-boy. _See_ Boys
Shop Hours Act, 38, 46, 79, 81
Skilled Employment Committees, 91, 92, 185
Supervision, need for, 2;
under gilds, 8-11;
under statute, 13-15;
under industrial revolution, 20-26;
by State regulation, 37-58;
by State enterprise, 59-70;
effects of State, 76-88;
by philanthropy, 89-92;
in home, 92-103;
in workshop, 125;
in London, summary, 149, 150;
general summary, 165-168;
under new apprenticeship, 191-202, 221-231, 237, 238
Tawney, R. L., 159, 160
Technical instruction. _See_ Schools
Trades, distribution of, 115-120, 142-149, 163;
picking up, 136-140;
skilled, 133-142, 208-214, 218, 239;
unskilled, 112, 121-133, 155-160, 165-175, 208, 215, 216, 219, 239
Training, need for, 2;
under gilds, 9-12;
under statute, 13, 14;
under industrial revolution, 20-27;
in single operation, 21, 137-139;
in elementary schools, 63-65;
in continuation schools, 65-70;
in workshops, 111-113, 121-142, 165-175;
in new apprenticeships, 207-221, 233
Van-boy. _See_ Boys
Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, 8, 21, 22
Young person, 40, 44-46, 81, 83
THE END
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD
FOOTNOTES:
[1] G. Stanley Hall, "Adolescence," vol. ii., p. 83.
[2] See, for a general description of gilds, "Economic History," by W. J.
Ashby; "Growth of English History and Commerce: Early and Middle Ages." by
W. Cunningham.
[3] J. E. Thorold Rogers, "Six Centuries of Work and Wages," p. 566.
[4] Quoted, Cunningham, pp. 349-350.
[5] Sidney and Beatrice Webb, "A History of Trade Unionism," p. 17.
[6] Cunningham, p. 460.
[7] _Ibid._, p. 345.
[8] A. Abiam, "Social England in the Fifteenth Century," p. 118.
[9] Cunningham, p. 509.
[10] Mrs. J. R. Green, "Town Life in the Fifteenth Century," vol. ii., p.
102.
[11] 5 Elizabeth, Cap. iv.
[12] Sect. 3.
[13] Sect. 25.
[14] Sect. 26.
[15] Sect. 31.
[16] 5 Elizabeth, Cap. iv., Sect. 35.
[17] 43 Elizabeth, Cap. ii., Sect. 5. Similar powers had been given to
Justices of the Peace in earlier Acts (see 27 Henry VIII., Cap. xxv.; Edw.
VI., Cap. iii.)
[18] W. Cunningham, "Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern
Times," pp. 29-30.
[19] _Ibid._, p. 33.
[20] See 3 Chas. I., Cap. v.
[21] Sir G. Nicholls, "History of the Poor Law," vol. ii., p. 223 _et
seq._ 1898.
[22] James I., Cap. iii.
[23] Cunningham, p. 615.
[24] _Ibid._, pp. 640-641.
[25] Sidney and Beatrice Webb, "History of Trade Unionism," p. 47.
[26] Sidney and Beatrice Webb, "History of Trade Unionism," p. 47.
[27] Cunningham, p. 660.
[28] _Ibid._
[29] 54 George III., Cap. xcvi.
[30] Hutchins and Harrison, "History of Factory Legislation," p. 16.
[31] Herr W. Hasbach, "A History of the English Agricultural Labourer,"
pp. 224, 225.
[32] Quoted by Cunningham, "Growth of Industry and Commerce in Modern
Times," p. 776.
[33] Quoted by B. L. Hutchins and A. Harrison, in "A History of Factory
Legislation," p. 15.
[34] In the Report of the Poor Law Commission we have an interesting
example side by side of the two forces that make for reform. The Majority
Report is altogether the work of sentiment. The proposed variation in the
terminology applicable to those in receipt of relief, the loosening of the
deterrent system, the advocacy of the more generous treatment of the young
and the sick, the general neglect to consider remote causes, and the total
absence of any consistent principle, can be explained in no other way. Its
cold reception by the British Constitutional Association--that body of
people who still hold aloft the tattered banners of the individualist--is
but another proof that sentiment, and not the _a priori_ assumptions of
the old school, is the guiding spirit. In the Minority Report we see
everywhere the mark of the imaginative reason--that reason which, starting
with facts and not with theories, strives to picture the long chain of
cause and effect which leads up to the sufferer, and finally, seeing the
whole process in its true proportions, strikes at the evil where it begins
and can be prevented, and not where it ends, when only a more or less
modified failure can be looked for.
[35] A striking instance of this is supplied by the Municipal Reform Party
on the London County Council. Opposed in principle to feeding or treating
medically children at the cost of the rates, they have yet been compelled
to do both these things. And they have been compelled to take action, not
by the pressure of public opinion--the public opinion of their own side
generally condemned them for forsaking their principles--but by the sheer
inability of members to learn, week after week, that hungry children were
unfed and sick children left without treatment.
[36] See Part X. of the Act. Needless to say, the decision as to what
kinds of industry come within these definitions has exercised the
ingenuity of the lawyer. In one case (Law _v._ Graham), for example, Lord
Alverstone, Chief Justice, expressed the opinion that bottling beer is not
within paragraph (i.) or paragraph (ii.) above; that by a somewhat
strained construction it might be said to be within paragraph (iii.), as
being an adapting of an article for sale, but that the powers used in
washing the bottles was not "in aid of the process of bottling."
[37] For complete list of such industries, see Sch. VI. of the Act.
[38] See Part VI. of the Act for details and exceptions.
[39] Sects. 103, 104, 105, 106.
[40] Sects. 71 and 156.
[41] Sect. 156.
[42] Sect. 13.
[43] Factory and Workshop Act, Sect. 77.
[44] Sect. 99.
[45] Mines Act, 1900, Sect. 1.
[46] Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, Sect. 7.
[47] Factory and Workshops Act, Sect. 77.
[48] Employment of Children Act, Sects. 3 and 13.
[49] Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1894, Sect. 3.
[50] Sect. 1.
[51] Sect. 2.
[52] Sect. 4.
[53] For definitions, see p. 39.
[54] Sect. 24.
[55] Sect. 26.
[56] Sect. 111.
[57] Sects. 51, 53.
[58] Sects. 31, 46.
[59] The best detailed account of the Act is found in "The Law Relating to
Factories and Workshops," by Abraham and Davies.
[60] Shop Hours Act, Sect. 3.
[61] Employment of Children Act, Sect. 2.
[62] Report of the Consultative Committee on Continuation Schools, vol.
i., p. 22.
[63] _Ibid._, vol. i., p. 21.
[64] Employment of Children Act, Sect. 3 (1).
[65] Sect. 1.
[66] Abraham and Davies, "The Law Relating to Factories and Workshops,"
fourth edition, p. 41.
[67] Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, Sect. 25.
[68] Sect. 25.
[69] Sects. 31 and 46.
[70] Sect. 69.
[71] Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Employment of
School-Children, p. 12.
[72] The summary of the provisions that follow is founded on "The Law
Relating to Factories and Workshops," by Abraham and Davies, chap. ii.
[73] Factory and Workshop Act, Sect. 63, (1) and (2).
[74] Sect. 64 (4).
[75] Sect. 64 (5).
[76] Sect. 64 (6).
[77] Sect. 67.
[78] Sect. 65.
[79] Sect. 66.
[80] Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, Sect. 13.
[81] See pp. 46-48.
[82] Children Act, 1908, Sect. 58.
[83] Education (Administration Provisions) Act, 1907, Sect. 13.
[84] Board of Education Circular 576, Sect. 12.
[85] Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, Sect. 13.
[86] Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906, Sect. 3.
[87] Children Act, Sect. 77.
[88] I am here speaking of England; in Scotland there are limited powers
of enforcing attendance.
[89] Report of Board of Education, 1908-09, p. 110.
[90] For a more detailed account of the machinery considered desirable,
see the Report of the London County Council on "The Apprenticeship
Question."
[91] See Report of the Consultative Committee on Continuation Schools, p.
22.
[92] Report of the Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children
Act, pp. 6, 7.
[93] "The Organization of Education in London," by R. Blair, Education
Officer to the London County Council, p. 29.
[94] "Studies of Boy Life in Our Cities," edited by E. J. Urwick. Dent and
Co.
[95] "Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children in Twelve Selected
Schools." Report of the London County Council.
[96] See "Medical Treatment of Children attending Elementary Schools," in
Report of the Medical Officer (Education) of the London County Council for
the year 1909. See also Report of the Medical Officer of the Board of
Education for 1909.
[97] "Studies of Boy Life," pp. 22-25 _passim_.
[98] "Studies of Boy Life," pp. 26-28 _passim_.
[99] "Studies of Boy Life," p. 32.
[100] Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages) Parliamentary Return,
1899, p. 32.
[101] Report on Employment of School-Children, p. 8.
[102] _Ibid._, p. 9.
[103] Report on the Employment of School-Children, p. 9.
[104] Quoted from "Studies of Boy Life," p. 24.
[105] Report on Employment of School-Children, p. 10.
[106] _Ibid._, p. 11.
[107] Report on Employment of School-Children, p. 11.
[108] Report of the Education Committee submitting the Report of the
Medical Officer (Education) for the year 1906. P. S. King and Son.
[109] Report of Medical Officer, p. 22.
[110] Report of the Medical Officer (Education) 1906, p. 23.
[111] _Ibid._, p. 23.
[112] _Ibid._, p. 24.
[113] See p. 43.
[114] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, Minutes of the Education
Committee of the London County Council for February 24, 1909, p. 414.
[115] The substance of what follows appeared in an article published in
the _Economic Journal_ for September, 1909, and is reproduced by the kind
permission of the Editor.
[116] L.C.C. Report of Medical Officer (Education), 1906, p. 23, showed
that this was the most injurious form of work in which school-children
were engaged.
[117] Report of Mr. Cyril Jackson on Boy Labour, prepared for the Poor Law
Commission.
[118] Report on Boy Labour, p. 7.
[119] Report on Boy Labour, pp. 7 and 8.
[120] Canon Scott Holland, Introduction to "The Problem of Boy Work," by
the Rev. Spencer J. Gibb.
[121] Report on Boy Labour, p. 4.
[122] Report of the Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children
Act, 1903, 1910, p. 14.
[123] "Studies of Boy Life," p. 111.
[124] Cyril Jackson, Report on Boy Labour, p. 14.
[125] The Rev. Spencer J. Gibb, "The Problem of Boy Work," p. 33.
[126] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, Minutes of the Education
Committee of the London County Council, February 24, 1909, p. 424.
[127] Report on Boy Labour, p. 27.
[128] Mr. Cloete, in "Studies of Boy Life," p. 125.
[129] Report on Boy Labour, p. 20.
[130] _Ibid._, p. 20.
[131] _Ibid._, p. 26.
[132] Report on Boy Labour, p. 17.
[133] _Ibid._, p. 16.
[134] _Ibid._, p. 17.
[135] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, p. 1. London County Council
Publications. P. S. King and Son.
[136] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, p. 2.
[137] Charles Booth, "Life and Labour of the People," vol. ix., p. 222.
[138] This Advisory Committee contains representatives of the chief
woodwork industries of the district.
[139] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, p. 4.
[140] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, p. 4.
[141] Minutes of the Education Committee, February 24, 1909, p. 415.
[142] Report on Boy Labour, p. 47.
[143] Report on Boy Labour, p. 20.
[144] _Ibid._, p. 20.
[145] _Ibid._, p. 22.
[146] _Ibid._, p. 23.
[147] Report on Employment of School-Children, p. 5.
[148] Report of Chief Medical Officer of Board of Education for 1909, pp.
80-81, _note_.
[149] Report of Consultation Committee on Continuation Schools, p. 206.
[150] Majority Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 325.
[151] _Ibid._, p. 325.
[152] Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 1166.
[153] _Ibid._, p. 1166.
[154] Minority Report on the Poor Law Commission, p. 1166.
[155] Report on Boy Labour, p. 5.
[156] _Ibid._, p. 27.
[157] M. E. Sadler, "Continuation Schools," Preface, p. xii.
[158] M. E. Sadler, "Continuation Schools," Preface, p. xiii.
[159] The Rev. Spencer J. Gibb, "The Problem of Boy Work," p. 33.
[160] _Economic Journal_, December, 1909, p. 522.
[161] _Ibid._, p. 522.
[162] _Economic Journal_, December, 1909, p. 532.
[163] Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages) Act, Part (2),
Return for England and Wales, 1899, p. iv.
[164] Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages) Act, Part (2),
Return for England and Wales, 1899., p. vii.
[165] M. F. Davies, "Life in an English Village," chap. x.
[166] Report of the Commissioners of Prisons for the year ending March 31,
1908, p. 14.
[167] Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 325.
[168] _Morning Post_, January 3, 1909, letter from Professor M. E. Sadler.
[169] Russell and Rigby, "Working Lads' Club," p. 286.
[170] Majority Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 326.
[171] Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 1165.
[172] _Ibid._, p. 1166.
[173] Minutes of the Education Committee, February 24, 1909, p. 422.
[174] Minutes of the Education Committee, February 24, 1909, p. 416.
[175] Minutes of the Education Committee, February 24, 1909, p. 416.
[176] M. E. Sadler, "Continuation Schools," p. 334.
[177] "Berlin, though growing luxurious, is not yet as spendthrift of
young life as is London. The newspaper-boy and the street-trader are
unknown" (Report to the London County Council, by Miss Durham, p. 3).
[178] See Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education
on Continuation Schools, chap. x.
[179] Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 346.
[180] Report of the Poor Law Commission, pp. 346-347.
[181] _Ibid._, Professor Chapman, footnote, p. 346.
[182] Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 351.
[183] Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education in
Higher Elementary Schools, p. 7.
[184] Report by Miss Durham to the London County Council on Juvenile
Labour in Germany, p. 7.