THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 331.3 Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. U. of I. Library QFC 15 , OEC I9'3B JAN 29 1940 NGii i 9 1340 “•> ,v'u Jtffl -4 1965 r *.• ; ibn MOV -5 (34 i ck is mi JAN -2 1843 APfi ~2 1841 HflV 12 B f»? 9324-S 1 THE SOLUTION OF THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM THE SOLUTION OF THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM BY SCOTT NEARING, Ph.D. Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Author of “ Social Adjustment ” Formerly Secretary Pennsylvania Child Labor Committee NEW YORK MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 1913 Copyright, 1911, by SCOTT NEARING All Eights Reserved Published, February, 1911 Second Impression THE QUINN A BODEN CO. PRES9 RAHWAY, N. J. 0 *v. 0 FOREWORD So long as there are immature human be- ings struggling in the industrial arena, there will be a Child Labor Problem. The existence of the problem is scarcely questioned, — its causes and the proper rem- edies for it are alone in doubt. The writer acted for two years as Secre- tary of the Pennsylvania Child Labor Com- mittee, and during that time strove earnestly for prohibitory legislation. Subsequent con- sideration has led to a material change of attitude, which this paper is written to pre- sent. The Child Labor Problem will never be satisfactorily solved by excluding children ■ from the factory, because the two primary forces which are sending children to work, — family necessity and an uncongenial school v VI FOREWORD system, — are in no measure altered by such an exclusion. The axe must he laid at the root of the tree. Child Labor must be eliminated by eliminat- ing the causes which send children to work. Scott Nearing. University of Pennsylvania, •December, 1910. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM PAGE i. What is the Child Labor Problem? . . 3 ii. Maturity and Not Age the Real Test . 6 iii. Aspects of the Problem 12 iv. The Extent of Child Labor . . . 16 y. The Child as a National Asset ... 22 Chapter II CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD i. The Body and Work . . . . 25 ii. Play iii. The Intellect and Work . 34 iv. Morality and Play 38 v. Morality and Work . . . . . 41 Chapter III THE SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOR i. Child Labor and Social Ideals ... 47 ii. Child Labor and Family Life . . . 51 iii. Child Labor and Taxes 62 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS viii Chapter IV CHILD LABOR— AN INDUSTRIAL WASTE PAGE i. The Newer View of Industry VO ii. The Industrial Inefficiency of Child Labor V4 iii. The Cost to Industry vv Chapter V THE CAUSES OF CHILD LABOR i. The Discussion of Causes .... 83 ii. Industrial Evolution 84 iii. Greed as a Cause of Child Labor . 89 iv. Necessity and Child Labor . ... 97 V. Ignorance and Indifference as Causes of Child Labor 106 vi. The Why of Child Labor .... 112 Chapter YI A PROGRAMME FOR CHILD LABOR REFORM i. The Campaign for Negative Legislation . 126 ii. The Problem in Brief 130 iii. The Programme 144 THE SOLUTION OF THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM CHAPTER I THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM 1 I. What is the Child Labor Problem ? . The child labor problem is generally looked upon as a fourteen-year problem. The divid- ing line between the land of schooling and the land of work has been set at fourteen, hence the child of thirteen and eleven months has been rigidly excluded from tlie factory, while to the child of fourteen and one day, the factory doors have opened wide. The fourteen-year limit has been recognized and accepted by the state legislatures, and every- where laws exist which on the one hand prohibit the child under fourteen from work- ing, and, on the other hand, require attend- ance at school up to the age of fourteen. By common consent, expressed through widely adopted legislation, fourteen has been 1 Republished by permission of Educational Foundations. 3 4 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM made the open sesame to the industrial world. Practically all of the states place the mini- mum limit at fourteen, for one or more of the employments which children enter, — factory, mine, store, messenger service. In nearly all of these cases, however, the period from four- teen to sixteen is surrounded by certain re- strictions, such as a prohibition of night work, of work for more than fifty-five hours a week, of work in dangerous trades, and the like. The fourteen-year minimum is, however, a generally accepted standard, and it is on that standard that the campaign for the passage and enforcement of legislation is being waged. The age of fourteen has been made a fetish, and it is held constantly in the public eye. The period of legislative protection is be- ing extended, in a few cases, from fourteen to eighteen. Laws have been passed in eleven states which prohibit employment under eighteen in specific industries, at night, and for more than a stated number of hours per THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM 5 week. 1 The eighteen-year statutes, however, represent the exception. The fourteen-six- teen-year standard is the one generally adopted. Even the laws providing eighteen as a maximum limit of protection, set four- teen as the minimum. “ Could the fourteen- year limit be enforced, the child labor prob- lem would be solved,’ 1 thinks the man on the street. Should this attitude become general, a point will eventually be reached at which fourteen will be regarded as the “ right age.” The public will believe implicitly that child labor under the standard age limit of four- teen is “ wrong while child labor over that age is “ right.” The basis for the popular impression has already been- established by making compulsory education lawk; and laws prohibiting child labor, revolve about four- teen as planets revolve about the sun. Al- ready the age is generally accepted; a con- tinuation of the present policy will lead to its being reverenced; and any attempt to break away from this fetish will meet with 1 Handbook of Child Labor Legislation, 1909. National Consumers’ League, 105 E. 22d St., New York City. > 6 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM as many obstacles as are encountered in an attempt to persuade savages to cease from worshiping their Sun God. II. Maturity and not Age the Real Test What is the purpose in setting an age limit for child labor and why was that limit set at fourteen! An age limit seems necessary in child labor legislation, although it is extremely unsatis- factory. The real test of preparedness to work is not age but maturity. It must be perfectly evident, to even the casual thinker, that the years fourteen-sixteen have no rela- tion to maturity, and therefore have no ra- tional basis for their existence. They co- incide but roughly with the period of puberty in children, and with nothing in the law. At fourteen the body is still so plastic that it may be injured temporarily or permanently by work. Fourteen does not in any way co- incide with maturity, yet the constantly drop- ping water of agitation has worn away the stone of indifference and — ■“ children under fourteen should not work ” — represents pub- THE CHILD LABOE PEOBLEM 7 lie sentiment. Should this attitude persist, a point will eventually be reached where the indifference to all child labor legislation, so prevalent in the past, will have been replaced by a stratum of prejudice in favor of four- teen, harder to penetrate than the original in- difference. A dozen years ago, such child labor laws as were in existence, were based on a twelve- year minimum. Twenty-five years before that, children of ten might legally go to work. As wealth increased and the necessity for the work of the child diminished, the standard has been gradually pushed upward, until in 1910 it has reached fourteen. Is there any reason to believe that by 1930 it should not in the nor- mal condition of social legislation have risen to sixteen or seventeen or even eighteen? An eighteen- or nineteen-year minimum, with protection to twenty-one, would be far more rational than the present fourteen-year minimum with protection to sixteen. At eighteen or nineteen the body is usually mature, while twenty-one is the legal limit of maturity. If this standard were adopted, 8 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM the state would forbid work until physical maturity, eighteen or nineteen, and protect the worker until legal manhood, twenty-one. The age of twenty-one is at best an arbitrary one, but its adoption as the upper limit of child labor legislation would have the ad- vantage of making coincident the age of legal majority and the age of legislative protec- tion. “ But,” exclaims the man on the street, “ you couldn’t adopt such a standard now, it would throw millions out of work into hobo- ing, prostitution, and starvation. And think of the widowed mothers, dependent on their children for support. You couldn’t enforce such a law. ’ ’ Certainly not. So long as the man on the street believes that such a law cannot be enforced, it is unenforceable. Legislation which affects the real or imagined interests of capital requires a strong public opinion to pass and enforce it. What, then, is the ad- vantage of the discussion? Merely this. A child labor standard of eighteen-twenty-one does not appear to us nearly so extreme as a THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM 9 standard of fourteen-sixteen appeared to the man on the street in the United States in 1850, or in England in 1800. The whole thought of the early nineteenth century was opposed to any form of in- dustrial regulation, and when it was pro- posed to correct unspeakable child labor abuses, through legislation, a howl of protest was raised. After a long struggle, the first English Child Labor Law was passed in 1802. Although it related to apprentices only, reg- ulating their work up to the age of twelve, in an inadequate and insufficient manner, it was looked upon as the first step toward socialism and chaos. With the development of modern produc- tive machinery, the nation piles up year by year a greater and greater mass of wealth in the form of a social surplus. As this surplus grows, the community is better prepared to keep its children away from monotonous toil until they are so mature that the development of their bodies and minds will not be seriously impaired by it. The existence of a social surplus makes 10 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM possible a long, well-rounded childhood. The increase of the social surplus makes possible a gradual extension of the period of child- hood, and a fuller development of its possi- bilities. Why should these children work? We are already creating enough wealth for all. A point in the development of the social surplus has been reached which would amply justify the raising of the child labor age at least one and perhaps two years. Every ef- fort should therefore be made to prevent further emphasis on the fourteen-sixteen year standard. The age test is, however, at best unsatis- factory. As previously indicated, the child labor problem is a problem of maturity and not of age. Stanislaus Mattcvitcz may say in response to a question, “ Yes, me four- teen,” and he may prove his age by producing his passport or his immigration record, but has he proven his fitness to work? By no means: He has not proven that his body is mature, or that his mind will not be atrophied by five years of intimate contact with hides in a leather factory. THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM 11 On the other hand, suppose that a com- petent expert has examined his bone and muscle structure, ascertained his weight and height, and tested his mental development. These things are definite and indisputable, , and prove what the 11 me fourteen ” argu- ment can never prove; mature preparedness for work. No age limit can be fixed which will apply fairly or even adequately in a cosmopolitan country like the United States. Some races mature earlier than others, and in every race, individuals differ in their point of maturity. Some children of sixteen are as well prepared for work as other children of twenty. The leal criterion is not, therefore, c ‘ How old are you! ” but “ Are you mature? ” Unfor- tunately scientists have never come to an agreement as to an effective test of maturity. Weight and height are some index; the hard- ness of certain bones is another index; and the growth of hair on the face and body is still another. As to which one, or which com- bination of these indices, should be accepted as a rational basis for judging of the matu- 12 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM rity of a person, there is no general conclu- sion. Irrespective of the method of applying it, the true ultimate test of fitness to work will he maturity, and all immature children will be excluded from the factory, not because their birthday record does not show high enough, but because either in mind, in body, or in both, they are immature. The standard previously suggested of an eighteen-year minimum with protection to twenty-one would be prima facie evidence of maturity, but it would be by no means final. The ultimate test must inevitably be physical and mental capacity to withstand the deaden- ing influence of monotonous factory toil. III. Aspects of the Problem There is a child labor problem and it is not, as generally supposed, merely a problem of the child. It is a problem of many aspects, phases, and viewpoints, which can best be em- phasized by a few illustrations picked up in the world of working children. One bitter morning in March the snow THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM 13 whirled around the corner of a silk-mill. In the lee of the corner, with her thin shawl wrapped about her head and shoulders, stood a child who looked scarce thirteen. Her face was weary, though she had just hurried from bed into her clothes, and, after gulping down her breakfast, had run to the mill, “ So’s not to get docked for being late. ’ ’ But the night shift was slow in “ getting up its ends.” Half-past six came, but the spindles still whizzed on. Meanwhile the damp snow played havoc with the broken shoes. “ How old are you? ” “ Fourteen.” “ Fourteen! You look awfully small for fourteen. How long have you worked in this mill? ” “ Three years and a half.” “ Well, how old were you when you started? ” “ Thirteen.” When this girl began work the legal limit was thirteen; meanwhile the legislature had raised it to fourteen; but the child’s knowl- edge of mathematics was not sufficient tp 14 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM show her that thirteen plus three and one- half did not make fourteen. At last the night shift “ came off ” and this frail bit of humanity, who had worked three and a half years between her thirteenth and fourteenth birthdays, walked stolidly into the mill to stand for eleven hours in front of a spinning-frame, listening to the whirring of the machinery and watching the gliding of the threads. That side of the picture, the child’s side, is the one most frequently emphasized, but there are other aspects of equal importance. A boy of eighteen had been working for seven years in a soft-coal mine. “ Yes, I can write, — only my name, though. Read! Sure; I read the paper most every day, but it’s slow work.” “ Didn’t you go to school! ” “ To school! Did I! Well, I guess I did. It was in one door and out of the other. How is a feller going to school if he starts at eleven in the mines! ” The school is also interested in child labor. Then there is the manufacturer’s side of THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM 15 the child labor problem. On one mill hang two signboards, — For years the signs have hung there, until they are old and worn, and meanwhile the manufacturer has secured and is still secur- ing the merchandise which he desires. Every morning the children come trooping along the road and into the mill. Many of them answer well to the description of the sign. They are “ small.” While this mill is the exception, and while few advertisements for “ Small girls ” are seen, yet the low standard set by the ‘ ‘ small girl ’ ’ manufacturer must, in the competitive struggle, be accepted by other manufacturers ; hence the ‘ 1 small ’ ’ ones se- cure employment everywhere. So, from many sides, the child labor prob- lem is a problem. It is a problem to the child who works ; to the home which sends its chil- dren into the mills; to the schools which fail to educate the working children ; to the manu- Small Girls Wanted Small Boys Wanted 16 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM f acturer who wants ‘ ‘ small girls and boys ; ’ ’ and to the society which demands and gets cheap goods. IY. The Extent of Child Labor It is of little interest and of no practical importance that the census of 1900 places the number of children between ten and fifteen engaged in gainful occupations at a million and three-quarters, while certain critics state that it should be two millions. If the census figures are accepted, seven-tenths of the child laborers were boys and three-tenths were girls. But these definite figures are, as such, matters of little importance, because if there were but a hundred 'thousand, or even a hun- dred children, whose lives were stunted and misshapen by premature work, the conditions would imperatively demand recognition and reform. The only facts worth remembering in this connection are that the child laborers are very numerous, and that about one-third of them are girls. A discussion of the extent of child labor should include a distinction between the work THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM 17 of children on the farm, in the home, and in the factory, mill, and mine. Three-fifths of all of the child laborers are engaged in agri- culture, particularly in cotton-picking in the Southern States. As yet no attempt has been made to legislate against agricultural child labor. There has been considerable agita- tion regarding the child berry-pickers in the trucking states; and in some states, work in the canneries has been prohibited. Agricul- tural labor as such has not, however, been touched, first, because of the assumed educa- tive value of the work; second, because the farmers hold the balance of power in many if not most legislatures; and third, because domestic service and agricultural labor are generally regarded as of private concern and not subject to legislation. What are the relative merits of these argu- ments ? A child on the farm with his father or in the house with her mother will in a majority of cases receive an elementary training in- finitely superior to the training afforded by any school. As the majority of children en- 18 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM gaged in farm labor and domestic service are still working with their parents, it is neither possible, nor is it immediately desirable, to legislate regarding them. Domestic service and farm labor are, how- ever, undergoing a process of evolution. It is one thing to work at odd jobs around the farm, under the direction of a father, and quite another to pick strawberries twelve or fourteen hours a day under the eye of a boss. One occupation is educative; the other is monotonous and as physically harmful (save for the fresh air) as any factory toil. It is one thing to help mother around the home, making beds, dusting, and the like ; and quite another to slave, half-fed, in the kitchen of a boarding-house under the hawk-eye of its mistress. In a recent address 1 Dr. Woods Hutchin- son makes the statement that some forms of farm work are as badly in need of super- vision as is the factory work, — a statement 1 “ Overworked Children.” By Woods Hutchinson, M.D. Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference of the Na- tional Child Labor Committee, January 1, 1909, P. 119. THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM 19 which is greatly strengthened by a glance at the following quotation from Dr. Edward T. Devine : 44 On Wednesday night of this week, I happened to sit at dinner by the side of a gentleman who lives in Brooklyn, and raises cotton in the Panhandle of Texas. ... I asked him how early the children began to work, and he said without hesitation, 4 at six and younger/ 4 1 recall,’ he said, 4 one boy of six who earned fifty cents a day the season through.’ He had described the way the bag is slung about the neck and dragged on the ground behind so that the picker may use both hands. 44 1 inquired how big a boy had to be before he was strong enough to drag one of these bags, and he said, 4 Well, you see we made the bag to fit the child.’ I then inquired about the schools. . . . His answer was, 4 It is a pretty rough country. School is kept during the months where there is nothing to do in the fields. ... I admit,’ said he, 4 that is not ideal, but there is a saying down there that ignorance and cotton go together.’ 44 Finally, I asked him, 4 And what is the effect of cotton picking throughout the season on the health and strength and growth of the children ? ’ A thoughtful look came into his face (I honestly believe he had never thought about it before), and he said, 4 Of course, it destroys their vital- ity.’ ” 1 Thus far to a limited extent, but neverthe- less surely, farm labor and domestic service are ceasing to have their old significant rela- 1 “ The New View of the Child.” By Edward T. Devine, Ph.D. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting, Na- tional Child Labor Committee, 1908. Pp. 4-5. 20 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM tion to home life. As they broaden out into the larger spheres of labor-employing agencies, they must and will eventually be- come the subjects of legislation aimed to correct any abuses which may exist in them. In 1900, of the 1,750,178 working children between ten and fifteen, 60.7 $ were in agriculture. 16.2 $ were in manufacturing and me- chanical pursuits. 15.9$ were in domestic service. 6.9 $ were in trade and transportation. 0.2 i were in professional service. Thus there is a wide variation in the per- centages of children engaged in different oc- cupations. So, too, there is a variation from state to state. The Southern States lead in the total amount of child labor, but a large proportion of their children are engaged in cotton pick- ing. On the other hand, in the great manu- facturing states there is a smaller total of working children, but a larger proportion of THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM 21 them are engaged in manufacturing . 1 With the exception of Pennsylvania, the Southern States have the greatest totals of child labor- ers, while the great manufacturing states have the largest number in manufacturing. As “ Child Labor ” usually refers to manu- facturing rather than to agriculture, the real relation of the Northern States to the prob- lem is apparent. The official authority which comes into the most direct relation with the child labor prob- lem is the Factory Inspection Department. In some of the more advanced states, the is- suance of certificates has been placed in the hands of the school authorities, but even in such states, the factory departments have the largest measure of responsibility for enforc- ing the law. The statistics furnished by the factory departments are interesting, if not conclusive. The work of the factory inspect- ors is usually curtailed by lack of either in- spectors or of office force, or of both. The resulting figures show, with some degree of accuracy, the changes from year to year in 1 Census of Manufactures, 1900. Part ii, p. 987. 22 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM the amount of child labor, and they justify the statement that the problem is one of seri- ous magnitude. V. The Child as a National Asset Into this problem, with its peculiar setting and its broad interests, enters the “ Child Labor Reformer,” the “ Fanatic,” the “ De- luded Social Agitator,” emphasizing the human side of industry and the statistical side of the child labor question, and clamor- ing for legislation and later for its enforce- ment. Is he justified in his demand? The human appeal of the Reformer- Fanatic-Agitator is just and strong. Un- questionably the children are abused. Un- questionably they need protection. As has already been indicated, the statistical side of the problem is insignificant. What matter whether the true number of child workers be seventeen hundred thousand or twenty hun- dred thousand? Neither figure is within the bounds of definite comprehension and both are intolerable in their vastness. The child labor question is a question not of statistics, THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM 23 but of children. So long as children are wrongfully at work, there will he need for child labor reform. The reformer is often extreme ; some of his statements are unwarrantable; and his fig- ures are at times ridiculous. But one thing the reformer has done, and that one thing not only justifies his existence and activity, but makes of it a boon to his country, — the re- former has awakened the public conscience to a realization of the fact that the child is a national asset. The child is a national asset, an asset of the first magnitude. Slowly the public mind is being awakened to the fact that whether the national ideal be the building of battleships, the painting of pictures, or the manufactur- ing of undershirts, the one really essential thing to the attainment of the ideal is a high type of citizenship. A condition precedent to high type citizenship is protected child- hood. Many problems have been discussed in re- cent years. There has been talk of temper- ance, of labor unions, of wages, of religion; 24 CHILD LABOE PEOBLEM but no one has so direct a bearing on the future as the problem of child labor. The problem itself may not be so important, it may not bear on a large portion of the pop- ulation, but the ultimate result of the agita- tion has been a widespread interest in chil- dren. The child labor problem is a type of the modern social problem, the agitation of which has led to a real interest in childhood, — hence, in the future. CHAPTER II CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD* I. The Body and Work “ Oh, he’s well grown, the work won’t hurt him any,” is an attitude very commonly taken by people who are interested in the con- tinuance of the child labor system. But what does “ well grown ” mean? If it means “ partly grown,” the statement is correct. Children of fourteen are rapidly changing in body and mind. What shall be their environ- ment and inspiration during this expanding period? enthusiasm, play, and life, or grind, monotony, and degeneration. The bodies of children who go to work be- tween the ages of fourteen and sixteen are still growing. Some measurements recently made of a number of Chicago children who applied for work certificates show that ‘ ‘ The 1 Republished by permission of Education . 25 26 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM boys of fifteen years receiving permission to work averaged nearly a foot taller, and about four pounds heavier than the boys of four- teen ; and the girls of fifteen years averaged nearly one-half foot taller, and about fifteen pounds heavier than the girls whose ages averaged fourteen years. ’ ’ 1 The statement that children develop phys- ically between their thirteenth and their fif- teenth birthdays seems almost obvious, and the figures are cited only to prove beyond cavil the existence of the development and to show its extent. It might be well to con- sider carefully, when a boy is sent into the factory, whether the wheels of progress will shape his growing body into a man or a ma- chine. If the body develops in response to the factory environment it will be a machine. In animals, we respect this period of growth. What farmer is there who would hitch a colt to the plow and compel it to work ten hours a day? “ Assuredly not,” you exclaim, “ that would be such folly.” 1 “ From School to Work in Chicago.” By Anna E. Nichols. Charities , vol. xvi, p. 235. CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD 27 And why! Simply because the body of the colt is still plastic and unformed; as yet it is not prepared to meet the physical strain in- volved in plowing. The farmer has learned this fact traditionally and perhaps by experi- ence; but he has learned it, and he respects the period of growth because lack of respect for it will almost inevitably mean money loss. Why is this discrimination made in favor of the colt! The child of fourteen years is still develop- ing, with a body plastic and unformed like that of the colt. Yet such children are ex- pected, as indicated by the laws of nine-tenths of the states, to work ten, eleven, and in some extreme cases, twelve hours a day in a fac- tory, at tasks which prove as burdensome as is the galling plow collar to the colt. Why such a contrast! Why such a sharp distinction between the treatment of a grow- ing colt and of a growing child! Is the child better prepared to do the work! The figures just cited show that the body of the child of fourteen, like the body of the colt, is develop- ing and rounding out, and that it is, there- 28 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM fore, as readily ruined in one case as in an- other. Why the contrast! It would seem that the money element is the chief consid- eration. In one respect the colt differs from the child, — it possesses cash value. It re- quires an outlay of money to replace a colt; a ‘ ‘ wanted ’ ’ sign will replace the child. It is interesting to note that one never speaks of a “ colt’s work ” as contrasted with a “ horse’s work,” because the colt is not called upon to work at all. Its period of youth is left free for play and invigorating, out-door exercise. It has remained for human beings to divide up the work of the world among theanselves, — to call a part of it “ child’s work,” a part of it “ woman’s work,” and a part of it “ man’s work.” * II. Blaf The growing child is not prepared to go into modern, subdivided industry and take up a task that involves a monotonous daily grind, for he is physically and mentally incapable of withstanding the pressure of such labor. His natural instinct leads toward play, and CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD 29 if he is prohibited from playing, he has lost a part of his life which he can never replace. During early youth, when the body is de- veloping and plastic, there are two forces con- stantly at work, the one calling the child to higher ideals of life and growth, and the other tending to brutalize him for the sake of the few dollars which his unformed hands will earn. All of the future is conditioned on that struggle; if the forces of the ideal con- quer, the child will develop through normal channels into a fully rounded man; if the forces of the dollar win, the child life is set and hardened into a money-making machine, grinding for a space and then giving place to another machine which has not yet been subject to the wear and tear of the life struggle. Long youth means long life. Slowly this truth is penetrating the public mind. After years of experiment and hes- itating speculation, the nation is realizing that the child who goes into life without hav- ing learned to play, has taken the shortest road to the almshouse or the penitentiary; if 30 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM he does not reach his destination, society is not responsible, for it presented him with a first-class passage to one of these institutions when it robbed him of his childhood. ^ Mr. Nibecker, Superintendent of the Glen Mills (Pa.) House of Refuge, was asked, “ What proportion of your boys were school boys, and what proportion were working boys at the time of their arrest? ” His answer was, “ I can give no proportion for the rea- son that the school boy is such a rare excep- tion with us. I can say out of our experience here that the lines of commitment and lack of schooling run parallel. We have very few, if any, boys who were not working boys at the time of their arrest or just previous to their arrest .” 1 “ Lines of commitment and lack of school- ing run parallel.” This “ lack of school- ing ” means lack of the chance to be young. Truly, placing an undeveloped child at work in the world of modern industry, is fraught with grave consequences. With these boys 1 The Cost of Child Labor: a pamphlet issued by the Pennsylvania Child Labor Committee. P. 22. CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD 31 in the House of Eefuge a shortening of the period of youth meant a shortening of the work period : — child workers turn easily into child criminals. “ Civilization is the result of man’s having been young ; play has laid the foundation of culture by organizing his instincts and busying them in ways that tell for the future of the man. Play extends its influences over everything in childhood, and for the child everything can be made the subject of play.” 1 If it be true that long youth means a high development, and that any shortening in youth means a proportionally shortened period of usefulness of the individual, it might be worth while to cast about for some means to preserve that youth to the necessary extent. Such a means can be found in play; — the chief guardian of youth. “ The animal or child does not play because he is young, but has a period of youth because he must play . . . the very exist- ence of youth is due to the necessity for play. ’ ’ 1 Through expression, the body of the grow- 1 The Child. By A. F. Chamberlain. London : Scott, 1901. P. 443. 32 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM ing child is developed most surely and most completely. The originalities of a child “ arise through his action, struggle, trial of things for himself, and in an imitative way. ’ ’ 1 The child of twelve or fourteen who stands at a machine, tying threads for eleven hours a day, is not growing through expression, but is being narrowed by an unvarying, monoto- nous impression. Slowly but surely he takes the shape into which this impression is forc- ing him, until he has become “ A spinner at $6 a week.” As the machine before him is a machine at $500, so he is a ‘ £ mill-hand at $6. ’ ’ If the expert workman is to have a quick eye, a firm step, and a steady hand to do the work of the world, he must play in youth. “ As play is the most expressive form of action, so it gives a growth, both in power to do and power to appreciate, that does not come in equal measure from work. ’ ’ 2 An ef- 1 Social and Ethical Interpretations. By J. M. Baldwin. New York: Macmillan Co., 1897. P. 99. 2 Moral Education. By E. H. Griggs. New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1904. P. 76. CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD 33 ficient, strong, noble citizenship can be de- veloped only by building upon childhood. Play is a part of childhood, and only upon a foundation of play and childhood can such a superstructure be erected. To grow in mind, the child must play. He must construct and evolve; at first houses of blocks; then whistles; then games; then school problems; and finally engines, and books, and theories, and truths. The child who sits for eleven hours a day and guides a piece of cloth as it rushes past him on the machine, neither constructs nor evolves; his mind sleeps — and too often iLis-ihe-sleep- of intellectual death. Play is the first step in the constructive work of a man’s life. “ Education, perhaps, should really begin with directing childish sports aright. Frobel thought it the purest and most spiritual activity of childhood, the germinal leaves of all later life. Schooling that lacks recreation favors dullness, for play makes the mind alert and its joy helps all anabolic activities. . . . Johnson adds that it is doubtful if a great man ever accomplished 34 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM his life work without having reached a play interest in it. ” 1 At an early period in life the child is not prepared to take a place in the great work of affairs and when called upon to do so, it is overwhelmed just as a day laborer would be if called upon to take charge of the New York Central Bailroad. The task would be one outside of the scope of his development. So to the child, thrust out early into the rush and clamor of the market-place, the task is over- whelming. The child in monotonous, sub- divided industry is out of its natural environ- ment, and it gasps for its native air of play as a fish on the sand gasps for water. III. The Intellect and Work “ A strong mind in a strong body ” goes the old saying. How detrimental to the de- velopment of a strong body child labor may be, has already been indicated. That child labor may stunt physical development can- not be questioned, — having wrought havoc in 1 Adolescence, By G. Stanley Hall. New York: Apple- ton, 1904. Yol. i, pp. 231-232. CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD 35 the body, how easy it is to wreck the mind! “ The greatest evil of child labor outside of the physical effects, is the mental and moral loss suffered in the deprivation of an edu- cation and the substitution of a daily round of monotonous labor, which is mere profitless drudgery so far as preparation for adult life is concerned, and is calcxilated to blunt the undeveloped faculties of the child. ’ ’ 1 Play means growth for the body and de- velopment for the mind. The children who play, grow, and grow because they play. There is no sadder experience in the whole range of human life than to see a bright, intelligent, wholesome child leave school and start work in a factory. Gradually the flame of enthusiasm grows less bright, then it flick- ers hopelessly, and finally it goes out. The tale is told in the lack-luster eye, the harsh, indifferent voice, the languishing gait. The working child at first has no time for play; then he forgets to play, and finally he has no desire to play. The factory has done its 1 Labor Problems. By Adams and Sumner. New York: Macmillan Co., 1905. Pp. 64-65. 36 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM work, — the child’s mind has changed from an impressionable, plastic mass, to a set, change- less thing for which education is no longer probable or even possible. The universal testimony of those who teach in night school is that children who perform monotonous la- bor for ten hours each day are not capable of learning when night comes. The nervous strain and the reaction from it are too great. The child under sixteen can seldom be counted upon to do intellectual work after a ten-hour day of factory monotony. Said a boy of twenty-one who had worked for two years in a woolen mill, starting when he was thirteen: “ If I had stayed in that mill, I should be dead now, or, at any rate, dead to the world. We had a good boss, but the work was awful, — not hard, but so un- varying, day after day, that it ground out your soul.” This is generally true of child labor, but all child labor is not drudgery, particularly in the small establishments where the owner can and does take a personal interest in his employees. The great evil comes with the CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD 37 growth of the large factories in which the child forms but one of the cogs in the ma- chinery, where the very essence of the work is monotony. As industries are standard- ized, there are more and more places created where a machine, guided by a child, or an unskilled adult, does the work formerly per- formed by skilled men. If the child were learning to manufacture paper boxes, that would be, in itself, an education ; but the child who spends its days turning in the edges of box covers, neither learns nor grows. The task is standardized and, from its very na- ture, hopelessly monotonous and deadening. Child labor is a process of mind stunting. First the child is removed from the possibil- ity of an education, taken from the school and placed in the factory where he no longer has an opportunity to learn; and then he is sub- jected to monotonous toil, for long hours, often all night, in unwholesome places, until his body and mind harden into the familiar form of the unskilled workman. When the child drops from the ideal of play and joy to the misery of work and pain, 38 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM lie exchanges a mental life for a physical one. Henceforth he lives for the body, — neither knowing nor caring for those necessary higher things. IV. Morality and Play Play has a moral code of its own. Not only does the hard player make the hard worker, but he makes the good citizen as well. Boys seldom cheat once at marbles; never twice. Ostracism from the group is the penalty, one which the average boy dare not incur. The rules of top spinning are inviolable. It is de- cided for all time who shall “ show the first shake ” and who shall have the first shot. No one cares to take a shot out of turn. Thus in their play each group of boys forms its social organization, and formulates the rules by which it is to be governed. The child who grows up as an “ only child ’ ’ among older people lacks the develop- ment that comes from this group action and group morality of child plays. He is “ dif- ferent ' ’ from the other children, and when he goes to school for the first time he is in a new CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD 39 world, which is wholly apart from his former experience. Such a child has no conception of the group morality which comes from the games of other children, and in con- sequence of this he often experiences difficulties in getting into the spirit of the others. So, too, with the working child who has, from his earliest years, engaged in labor which meant nothing to him, — he lacks the group instinct. He does not know how to play with the others. It is obvious that in his work he is wholly deficient in any de- sire to co-operate in the common labor of his group. If co-operation is desirable and group action advantageous, what utter folly it is to foster a system like child labor, which deadens the very instincts that lead to ef- fective group action. “ Playing fair ” means much to the child and to the community. It is the element that makes the desirable citizen and the desirable associate. The child who learns to play fair will, nine times in ten, work fair, in the world of business. “ Play at its best is only a 40 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM school of ethics. ’ ’ 1 That is why, unlike gym- pasties, play has as much soul as body. “ When a little girl plays ‘ dolls ’ or ‘ keep- ing house, ’ she is living herself into the deep- est springs of human life .” 2 The child who plays has the greatest opportunity for that soul growth for which there is always a de- mand far above the supply. Among the army of working children, there is more of cigarette smoking, loud talk, and bad talk than there is of play. Play is to the child what poetry is to the man. Deprive either of this essential ele- ment, and from the misdirected sowing is reaped a harvest of misdirected lives. In- still into a boy’s mind learning which he sees and feels not to have the highest worth, and which cannot become a part of his active life and increase it, and his freshness, spon- taneity, and the fountains of his play slowly run dry. Such is the fate of the average child who spends his play time feeding with 1 Adolescence. By G. S. Hall. New York: Appleton, 1904. Vol. i, pp. 283-284. 2 Moral Education. By E. H. Griggs. New York: B. W. Huebseh, 1904. P. 77. CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD 41 hand and body the modern industrial mill. Premature work and premature decay of moral fiber are kindred forces running hand in hand toward the almshouse. V. Morality and Work The child who gets no chance to play loses the opportunity for moral development which play affords; the child who goes to work almost inevitably gains a positive code of immorality which could not be duplicated elsewhere. Entering the workroom with adults, young and old, people of all types of morality and immorality, the child ceases to be a child in knowledge while he is still a child in ideas. There is no home influence or school influence to ward off the dangers, no mother or teacher to point out the hidden rocks. The child is pilot and captain, but how easily influenced and misguided ! In a great many cases, the nervous strain of the workroom is very great. The children are “ speeded up ” with the adults. When an outside opportunity offers any change, any 42 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM counter-excitement, it is seized eagerly, no matter what its character may be, for the sake of the change. Very, very often it is of the wrong character. “ Child labor is gen- erally acknowledged to be an irreparable injury to the children and to society at large. Bodies and minds are stunted and de- formed; crime, violence, and all of the social evils which spring from a brutalized pop- ulation are fostered .” 1 To be making a living, associated with all classes of people at an early and immature age, to be contributing to the family fund, and hence to be more or less independent, — what unwholesome things for the average child! Independence, before the proper age of independence, often means ruin. Those who do not believe that factory chil- dren are knowing far beyond their years, should spend a noon hour with a group of factory boys, fourteen or fifteen years of age, and listen to their conversation. It is usu- ally a thousand times more foul than that 1 Labor Problems . By Adams and Sumner. New York: Macmillan Co. a 1905. P. 20. CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD 43 heard around the average saloon. One im- moral person in a factory will easily con- taminate the whole. Immorality is an infec- tion which spreads quickly in a crowded workroom. If the factory life is detrimental to the morals of the average boy, it is far more so to the average girl. One who believes other- wise should read “ The Long Day,” a story of a New York working-girl as told by her- self. One of the phases of the problem is aptly described by Juliet Wilbor Tomkins. “ I know a ramshackle old building in New York in which the top floor is used by a manufac- turer of electrical goods. On the floor be- neath is a laundry, separated from the street by three long flights of stairs, which are ut- terly dark except for the gas jets insisted on by the authorities. At half-past five, every afternoon, the men come trooping down just as the laundry girls are let out, tired with the hardest kind of work, and flushed and warm with the long day in a steaming, enervating atmosphere. And night after night the gas 44 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM jets are mysteriously put out, so that all flock down together in pitch blackness. When you are tempted to believe that the evils of child labor are exaggerated, think what they mean to a girl when she is too young to pro- tect or even to understand herself. Terrible things have been begun on those stairs, yes, and happened there ; and they are not the only dark flights of stairs in the New York fac- tories.” 1 After a thorough study of conditions in Pennsylvania, Mr. Peter Roberts writes: — ‘ ‘ In interviews with physicians, each of them dwelt upon the moral and social evil of the factory life. Dr. Gerhardt of Allentown said that no vice was unknown to many girls of fifteen years, working in the factories of Al- lentown. ...” Dr. Davis of Lancaster said : — ‘ ‘ The result of it all is that these girls fade at an early age, and then they cannot discharge the functions of mothers and wives as they should. ’ ’ 2 1 “ Turning Children Into Dollars.” By Juliet Wilbor Tompkins. Success Magazine, January, 1905. 2 From an unpublished Report by Peter Roberts to the Pennsylvania Child Labor Committee. CHILD LABOR AND THE CHILD 45 All factory life is not immoral, and im- morality is not an essential element in factory life, but under present conditions, factory life and immorality too often go band in hand, and it behooves society to look carefully to these things and see that they be reduced to the veriest minimum. Play is the accompaniment of youth. Man has his play time : it is childhood. Man has his work time: it is adult life. The child cannot hope to escape all work, but the greater part of its life must be devoted to play if the functions of the adult life of work are to be well fulfilled. The child who works loses the opportunity for the spontaneous ex- pression of the new life that can come only through play. The child’s body is forming at fourteen, and its growth should not be hampered or marred by imposing upon it the restrictions that come with factory life. As the body of the developing child is de- nied its complete development by work, so its mental development is curtailed and its moral sensibilities are often stunted by work. Child 46 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM labor does not necessarily mean stunting and degradation, but the probabilities are that child labor will mean child deteriora- tion. CHAPTER III THE SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOR I. Child Labor and Social Ideals There is a child labor problem, first be- cause a large number of children are at work, and second because the probable result of their work will be the stunting of body or mind. All child workers do not have stunted bodies. As one great man of the nation, towering to his full six feet two, exclaimed, “ I went to work in a factory when I was seven, and look at me.” There is only one answer, — thousands of other children have gone to work at seven and look at them. At ten they bear the factory stamp, and they carry it through life. In the vast majority of cases, the factory child of seven does not become great. He disappears among the “ submerged tenth,” an inefficient, fagged-out worker. The child worker does not as a rule develop into the 47 48 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM skilled artisan, the expert business man, or the picked soldier. What child labor em- ployer is there who would exhibit the children in his factory as ideal types of American children? How many employers of child la- bor give their own children the advantages of a life of factory toil? Child labor is really harmful to the child. Even if its body is not stunted, and its mind blunted, by the work performed, the child loses an opportunity for mind training in the schools, which can never be duplicated in later life. What then? The child is the embryo citizen. The citi- zen is the -unit of society, and the society of to-morrow, composed of its individual citi- zens, will depend for its standard upon the training received by the children of to-day. If the men and women of to-day decide to ad- vance civilization, to build strong and safe for the future, to know that the coming gen- eration is working out some of the problems which have so vexed the present age, — in short, if the men and women of to-day have SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOR 49 social ideals, they must protect the children of to-day for the society of the future. There are those who deny that there is any obligation on the present generation to pro- vide for the future. A certain member of the English Parliament is reported to have demanded, — ‘ ‘ What should we do for poster- ity? What has posterity ever done for us? ” Generally speaking, however, the whole mat- ter resolves itself, for each individual, into one question, “ Have you social ideals? ” What are social ideals? When men speak of heaven they voice a so- cial ideal; when they dream of prosperity they anticipate a social ideal ; brotherhood is a social ideal, and so are education, art, lit- erature, and every other great and good hope or prophecy for the future. No matter what the basis, no matter what the form of the ideal, its goal is a state of society in which every man, woman, and child will have rights, privileges, and opportunities, equal to those of every other man, woman, and child. Child workers are * debarred from this equality. Long hours of monotonous toil un- 50 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM der unvaryingly wearisome conditions; tlie loss of play time; the loss of adequate school- ing; the lack of any character-building in- fluence, such as is supplied in the home or school, — these things are involved in child labor. They prove for the child worker a handicap which in the majority of cases is never overcome. A wealthy nation, provided with an in- come sufficient to give to every citizen a com- fortable living, cannot honestly believe in a social ideal and permit the existence of child labor. Each generation should hand down to the next generation a higher type of social structure if progress is to be insured. A so- cial structure honeycombed and weakened by child labor can scarce be considered worthy of transmission to the future. So much may be said in general terms of the undesirability of transmitting to the future children stunted and worn by prema- ture toil. There are two very concrete ways in which child labor injures the society of the present and thus indirectly that of the future. In the first place it helps to destroy family SOCIAL COST OP CHILD LABOE 51 life ; and in the second place, it helps to raise taxes. II. Child Labor and Family Life “ The Peril and Preservation of the Home ” is the title of one of Jacob Eiis’s books. To him it is of great importance, if national integrity is to be preserved, that the home be maintained at a high standard. In this position he is vigorously supported by the best sentiment of every Anglo-Saxon com- munity. It is, then, of the utmost importance, in dealing with the cost of child labor, to determine what changes in the status of the home have been made by the entrance of children into industrial competition. How can child labor influence family life? There are two ways in which the influence may be felt. It may be either an influence exerted by the child in the family group to which it belongs as a child, or it may be an in- fluence exerted by the child, grown to adult years, upon the family of which he or she is the head. Child labor may influence the fam- ily by taking children away from the home 52 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM for eleven hours a day and giving them an at- titude wholly independent of home control, or it may stunt them physically or mentally, thus making them incapable of fulfilling the functions of fathers and mothers, of home- makers and home-keepers. In either case, child labor thwarts the purpose of the home. In some localities all of the members of the family work in the mill. Many such in- stances are furnished in the South, where in- dustry is developing for the first time. There it is customary for the children to work in the mill with both parents. If one remains out- side of the mill, it is apt to be the father. Under these conditions the mother has no op- portunity to maintain a family standard. She starts out with the children early in the morn- ing, and, after spending ten or eleven hours at the factory, returns to the home to partake of the hastily and probably badly prepared meal, remains only long enough to sleep and eat, and then hurries hack to the mill. If the children have any leisure time, they spend it on the streets, for the home presents no attractions. SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOR 53 Again and again writers emphasize the premature independence from family control enjoyed by the child wage-earner. Miss Jane Addams tells of a working-girl who was be- ing anxiously watched by the Hull House authorities. The girl had a good home and a hard-working, conscientious mother, but she was gradually being led into worse and worse ways by the bad company that she kept on the streets at night. Finally a protest was made to the girl’s mother. “ Why do you allow your daughter to run the streets at night? Don’t you know what she is getting into? ” they asked her. The mother was heart- broken, and replied that she feared to say anything to her daughter, because she con- tributed to the family income, and would leave home if crossed in her wild whims. The girl’s attitude was plainly expressed when she said: “ My ma can’t say anything to me, — I pay the rent.” The same point is emphasized by Mr. Emil G. Hirsh, an employer : “ If I dared venture into the moral bearings of this part of the subject, I should insist with good reason that 54 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM nothing tends toward disrupting and under- mining the family so perniciously as the premature independence of its immature members. ’ ’ 1 It is not customary to intrust to a child loaded, dangerous weapons, yet no weapons could he more dangerous than the in- dependence of home control which comes with helping to earn the family living. In addition to coming prematurely into a state of independence from family control, the child worker is surrounded by none of the influences which are ordinarily associated with home life. Ten or eleven hours in a factory, with a half hour to come and go, leaves little of the day that is not taken up with eating and sleeping; and a place in which one eats and sleeps is a lodging-house, not a home. Not only is the child cut off during its work- ing-hours from any uplifting influence, but it is often surrounded by unbearable monotony, bad air, unlovely companions, and every other 1 “ Child Labor from an Employer’s Point of View.” By Emil G. Hirsh. Annals of American Academy , vol. xxv, p. 554. SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOR 55 form of undesirable influence that may be de- veloped where indiscriminate grouping of men and women occurs. Working under such conditions, and becoming gradually ac- customed to such low standard surroundings, the child laborer adopts and accepts a low standard as a matter of course. Accustomed to a low standard of work as a child, the worker fails to demand a high standard as a man. The standards of child work are very low, as anyone who has visited industrial establishments will have observed. Gener- ally, the greater the proportion of women and children in an establishment, the worse the conditions of the light, the air, and the sani- tation. Men rebel. Women and children seldom complain except to one another. Thus the child laborer is generally educated as a low standard laborer. Low standards are imposed upon child la- bor industries. The child, growing to man- hood, and accepting these low standards, im- poses them upon his family, and the gradual acceptance of such low standards lowers the standard of the entire community. 56 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM In a community where child labor is ex- tensively employed, the entire family is forced to work for what proves to be a bare living. Looking at the question from the standpoint of the family, it is not therefore economical to have the children at work. Dr. J. E. McKelway, Assistant Secretary of the National Child Labor Cpmmittee, said in a recent address: — “ Child labor reduces wages. Only 30 per cent, of the factory operatives of England are able to support their children through the sixteenth year without putting them to work. And here comes in the economic law that those occupations which admit the labor of women and children pay the whole family what the man alone receives in the occu- pations in which he is the sole bread- winner.” It will be more readily understood why the child fails to assist the family materially when the rate at which child workers are paid is borne in mind. The wage of the working child is startlingly low. “ It ranges from $2.00 to $5.00, seldom $6.00 even in the more SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOR 57 agreeable industries. ” 1 In cities particularly this wage means very little, because of the great demands made upon it for car fare, lunches, and better clothes. ‘ ‘ The wage value of the years from fourteen to sixteen is hardly more than the educational value . . . that he [the child] contributes to the family more than $1.50 is extremely doubtful.” 1 Child workers’ wages are very low and, as a rule, add little to family income. Not only is this true, but the child who goes to work at fourteen probably deprives the family of earning capacity. There is little definite information on this point, but the Massa- chusetts Commission on Industrial and Tech- nical Education concludes : — ‘ ‘ The most im- portant fact in the consideration of wages is that the child commencing at sixteen over- takes his brother beginning at fourteen in less than two years. That his total income in four years would equal that of his brother for six years we cannot prove, but the slight data at hand so indicates.” 1 1 Report of the Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and Technical Education, 1906. Pp. 88-89. 58 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM The probable effects of child labor on the home of its parents are, therefore, three : — 1. The child becomes prematurely inde- pendent and indifferent to home re- straint. 2. The wage of the father is lowered by the competition of the child. 3. The child who goes to work at fourteen is capable of earning less in the ag- gregate than the child who goes to work at sixteen. Were these the sole effects of child labor on the family, the problem might well be called a serious one, but the family life of the whole present generation of child laborers is threatened by the existence of child labor. It is sad to think of children growing to man- hood and womanhood, incapable of attaining even a normal physical or mental standard; but it is far more terrible to think that a large percentage of these low standard men and women will marry, and in their turn raise children to a similar mode of life. The standard of the community can be maintained only by maintaining a high stand- SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOE 59 ard of home life. The high standard of home life depends forJJs existence and maintenance upon the standard of the father and the mother. The father must have the capacity to earn for his children a good living. He must likewise have the mental development and the development of character which will enable him to set for them a high standard of example. The absence of these qualities in the father almost inevitably disrupts the home. Judge Lindsay relates a story of an ex- ceedingly “ tough ” kid who was brought into his Juvenile Court. After being ques- tioned for some time the boy admitted that the whole trouble lay with his father, who constantly beat and abused him, until in self-defense the boy ran away from home, be- came a tramp, and, never having learned to work, he stole in order to live. Such cases are common in the Juvenile Court. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, and unless proper fathers are provided, proper children are an impossibility. The influence of the father upon family life 60 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM is of the utmost importance, but it is insig- nificant as compared with the influence of the mother. The father is usually away from home, but the mother spends the greater por- tion of her time there. It is with her that the children come into most intimate contact, and hers is by far the most important influence in the home. The women who enter a factory at the age of twelve and spend the years from twelve to twenty inside of four dark, dirty walls amid whirring machines, in constant associ- ation with bad men and women, have not, in the first place, the physical stamina neces- sary to bring strong children into the world. As Dr. Davis of Lancaster, Pa., a great women-employing center, puts it, — “ These factory girls fade at an early age, and then they cannot discharge the functions of mothers and wives as they should.” In the second place a girl who has spent her life in the factory is usually untrained in the maintenance of a home. There is a wide difference between an intense, high- strung, exciting factory life, and the quiet SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOR 61 routine of a properly conducted home, and the change from one to the other is difficult to make. There are a thousand things which girls who grow up at home learn, hut which never become a part of the education of a fac- tory child. There are arts of cooking and of cleaning, arts of care-taking and home-making that come only from the actual contact with these problems in the home. This contact the factory child has never had. An eleven-hour day in the factory precludes the possibility of any housework except the merest drudgery. This lack of home-making knowledge has its inevitable consequences. There is a very def- inite relation between tough meat and under- done potatoes for supper, and a long session in the saloon for the husband after supper. A washerwoman who did much of the drying of her clothes in the two small tenement rooms in which the family sat, ate, and slept, was offered an opportunity to do the work at stationary washtubs in a Neighborhood House close by. Her ground for refusal was that she had always done her washing in her own room, and that it was too much trouble 62 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM to go outside. What refuge have the father and the children in such a family, save the open streets, the saloons, the public squares? Bad companions and unwholesome life are in- finitely preferable to the dank, nauseating smell of clothes, forever washing and drying, and, as it seems, never washed or dried. The solidarity of family life can be main- tained only by trained mothers and capable fathers, mothers who will make inhabitable homes to the extent of their means, and fathers who will use every effort to provide the means with which to make the home in- habitable. Factory work for children goes far to thwart both ideals, by making of the boy an unskilled worker, incapable of earning large means, and by making of the girl a wife and mother, incapable of doing her duty by her husband, her home, or her children. III. Child Labor and Taxes There is a second social aspect of the prob- lem, of almost equal interest with the effect of child labor on the family. What effect has child labor on taxes? A definite, accurate an- SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOR 63 swer to the proposition is impossible. Nothing can be done except to indicate some evident tendencies, and point to some appar- ent conclusions. Taking all of the facts into consideration, it would appear that child la- bor results not only in disintegrating family life, but in increasing taxes as well. When the Superintendent of a Boys’ House of Refuge was asked what proportion of the children who came to him were working chil- dren and what proportion were school chil- dren, he said that he could give no propor- tion, because the school child was a rare exception in his institution. The community which allows its children to start work early in life, and in pursuit of their badly directed ideas, to learn things that result in their being committed to the House of Refuge, pays the penalty for its folly in the increasing taxes that go to support penal institutions. The point is well illustrated by a study made recently in Chicago, of the first hundred delinquent boys who appeared before the Chi- cago Juvenile Court in 1909. Of this group 64 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM of one hundred boys, sixty-five were past fourteen, one had finished the eighth grade, eleven had finished the sixth grade, ninety were born in the United States. And, most important of all, for this study, “ only thir- teen of the one hundred claimed to have never worked. Of this thirteen six were past four- teen years of age. Not a single boy had ever been apprenticed in any trade.” “ At this present rate, 8 per cent, of all the children and 12 per cent, of all the boys born in Chi- cago, who live to be ten years of age, will be brought into the Juvenile Court as delin- quents before they are sixteen. The City of Chicago pays for its delinquent children committed to reformatories $168,600 per year.” 1 The child, particularly the boy, who is thrown out upon the world too early in life, and made to face its responsibilities, is over- whelmed with its bigness and wearied by its never changing monotony. He seeks relief 1 “ Child Labor and the Juvenile Court.” By James M. Britton, M.D. Proceedings of the Fifth Conference, Na- tional Child Labor Committee, 1909. Pp, 112-114. SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOR 65 for his strained nervous system in some kind of activity which leads ultimately to the door of the police court. The freedom of the fac- tory, and of wage-earning, do more than aught else to break home restraints. The working boy is usually the street boy, be- cause the street offers more opportunity for relaxation after the long strain of a day’s work, presenting a pleasing contrast with the dull sameness of home. A vast proportion of criminals begin their criminal career as boys by some petty offense, small in itself, and often committed through ignorance, and not through intent to do wrong. It would be interesting to know how much of this ignorance is the result of early wage-earning, with its lack of opportunity for real training. How much of the cost of the criminal sys- tem may be traced in its origin to the prema- ture employment of children, is uncertain. One point, however, is evident. If it be true that “ lines of commitment and lack of schooling run parallel ’ ’ at least a proportion of the tax cost of the criminal system may be 66 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM laid to child labor, which inevitably means lack of schooling for the child laborer. In addition to facing the problem of sup- porting, in its houses of refuge and its peni- tentiaries, boys and men whose criminal careers have been started by a too early ex- posure to the trials and temptations of mod- ern industrial life, the community must face the problem of maintaining in its hospitals and almshouses the crippled and degenerate and inefficient, who have been thrown out of the great industrial tread-mills and left ruined for life, — broken, incompetent work- ers. The studies which have been made in- dicate that the proportion of industrial acci- dents among working children is far higher than that among adult workers. Children are essentially ignorant and careless. They do not realize the dangers connected with their occupations, and constant injuries and accidents are the result. The average child who enters industry at an early age closes behind him the door of opportunity to a higher and better industrial plane. The child laborer becomes a less ef- SOCIAL COST OF CHILD LABOR 67 fective producer than the child who had addi- tional schooling advantages. As Jane Ad- dams puts it: — “ The pauperization of soci- ety itself, however, is the most serious charge. ’ ’ To paraphrase an illustration used by the Webbs, the factory says of the com- munity, “ You have educated the children in the public schools; now please give them to me, I will use them until they begin to demand an adult wage, and then I will turn them out again. If I have broken them down the community will take care of them in the poorhouse and the hospitals.” What connection is there between child labor and pauperism? In his book on American Charities, Dr. A. J. Warner takes statistics from various cities, and com- piles, under several heads, the causes of pauperism. The first cause in importance is non-employment. In almost every case, the men who first lose their places and are most quickly thrown out in an industrial crisis, and who are the last to be taken on in times of industrial prosperity, are the men who are inefficient because they have neither sufficient 68 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM training nor sufficient bodily vigor to sustain long periods of activity. How far is child labor responsible for this class of paupers! “ We have a municipal lodging house in Chicago filled with tramps. ... It is surprising to find how many of them are tired to death of monotonous labor, and begin to tramp in order to get away from it, as a business man goes to the woods because he is worn out with the stress of business life. This desire to get away from work seems to be connected with the fact that the men have started to work very early, before they had physique to stand up to it, or the mental vigor with which to overcome its difficul- ties, or the moral stamina which makes a man stick to his work whether he likes it or not.” 1 Laying aside for the moment any humane considerations, both crime and pauperism are expensive. A ready method of doing away with one element in these expensive, inhuman maladjustments is to do away with child la- 1 “ Child Labor and Pauperism.’ 5 By Jane Addams. Charities, vol. xi, p. 302. SOCIAL COST OP CHILD LABOR 69 bor, which so readily leads to crime, pauper- ism, or both. In the social fiber, in family life, in taxes, child labor is costly. It breaks down the in- dividual, it destroys the family life of the present, and threatens the family life of the future, and last, probably least in importance, it adds to the number of incompetent that the community must support. From any social viewpoint, child labor is costly. CHAPTER IV CHILD LABOR— AN INDUSTRIAL WASTE I. The Newer View of Industry The Treasurer of the Alabama City Cotton Mill, Alabama, wrote to bis agent: — “ Every time I visit this mill, I am impressed with the fact that it is a great mistake to employ small help in the spinning-room. Not only is it wrong from a humanitarian standpoint, but it entails an absolute loss to the mill .” 1 In a letter to the Boston Transcript the same gen- tleman writes : — ‘ ‘ I have never been South without protesting to the agent . . . against allowing children under twelve years of age to come into the mill, as I did not consider them intelligent enough to do good work. ’ ’ 1 There can be little question that child labor is a social waste. It hurts the children’s 1 Child Labor in Alabama: a pamphlet published by the Alabama Child Labor Committee. 70 CHILD LABOR— INDUSTRIAL WASTE 71 bodies, deprives them of needed education, and often places them in questionable moral surroundings. Child labor is a social waste, and as such should be summarily dealt with ; but what of its relations to industry? Soci- ety looks upon the destruction of its working material with comparative indifference, be- cause society has not a “ business view- point; ” but what must be the viewpoint of industry? Would it not be a discovery fraught with the most far-reaching sig- nificance for American industry if the state- ment made by the Treasurer of the Alabama City Cotton Mill proved to be correct? What a waste would be involved in the employment of thousands of “ small help ” in the vari- ous branches of American industry ! The members of any social group are, un- der present conditions, liable to emphasize the individual problems much more than the social ones. “ Let us abolish child labor,” cries the social reformer. “ Wait,” warns the manufacturer, ‘ ‘ you will drive me out of business.” Is that true? 72 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM In western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, and eastern Ohio, there is a region of natural gas deposits around which a glass bottle industry developed. The glass bottle industry formerly employed a large number of boys, some of whom assisted the blower, while others carried the bottles when blown to the annealing-oven, where they were cooled. As this geographically centered industry com- prised three states, any attempt at legislation in one state was met by a prompt statement, “ If you raise the age in Pennsylvania, we move our industry to West Virginia. We’ve got to have the boys in our business. If you legislate ’em out of it, we move.” This threat, combined with consistent lobbying, for years prevented the passage of child labor legislation in these three states. In Pennsylvania and Ohio the minimum age for night work in glass houses was fourteen, and in West Virginia, twelve, while in Indi- ana and Illinois, the two states directly west, the minimum limit for night work was six- teen. Slowly the supply of natural gas was exhausted in the Pennsylvania-West Virginia CHILD LABOR— INDUSTRIAL WASTE 73 field, and new fields were discovered in In- diana and Illinois, when, marvelous to relate, the glass industry began to move from a state with fourteen-year minimum to a state with a sixteen-year minimum. And the boys ! the “ problem ” over which the reformers and glass men had contended for years! They were replaced by adults or by machinery. The real crux of the situation was not the boys at all, but the natural gas supply — the cheap fuel. This is a single instance of the effect of eliminating child labor from an industry. Is it an isolated case, or a general rule! Has the cotton industry developed in the South because of the presence of quantities of chil- dren, ready to work in the mills, or because of the proximity to the fields where the cotton is produced, to a cheap fuel supply, and to an abundance of water-power! If children un- der sixteen were prohibited from working in the Southern cotton mills, would the manu- facturers move! Would it not be a discov- ery pregnant with the most far-reaching im- portance for the future, if it were found that 74 CHILD LABOR PROBLEM child labor is not at all necessary to industry, and that, after all, it entails just as great an industrial waste as it does a social one! Child labor is wasteful to industry. The statement of the Treasurer of the Alabama City Mill is not an isolated opinion. Manu- facturers everywhere are being forced to the new viewpoint. The philosophy is well summed up by a silk manufacturer: — “ So far as the economy of production goes, as a manufacturer I think we can do without the labor of children .” 1 Child labor is un- doubtedly cheap labor. But is not the prod- uct cheaper than the labor involved in its creation? II. The Industrial Inefficiency of Child Labor Leaving aside for a moment the very per- tinent question as to whether the extensive employment of children will materially af- fect their efficiency as adult workmen, it may 1