News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-03-12
OyERWORKED CHILDREN.
Some Born in New Jersey Know Less
than those Brought from Great Britnin.

New Jersey has Child Labor Law
which forbids the employment in manu-
factories of boys under twelve years Of
age and girls under fourteen, and also
provides that no child under fourteen
shall be employed over sixty hours q
week. Last July an amendment to the
law went into effect. This says that nc
child between twelve and fifteen shall
be employed in any mandatory unless
such child shall have attended school foI
twelve weeks within one year simmedi-
ately preceding the employment. The
annual report of Lawrence T. Fell, the
Inspector of Factories and Workshops,
has just been made.
There are 5000 factories in the State,
employing about Is, 900 youths and chill
dren. When the educational section of
the law went into operation hundreds of
had attended school were turned out of
the shops. They, or their guardians,
made application for permits for them
to work, and during the rest of the year
the inspectors were largely engaged in
considering these cases. Through these
examinations the inspectors discovered
startling facts concerning the ignorance
of the children.
The average age at which they
went to work was nine years, after one or
two years of schooling. All of them had
been accustomed to work ten hours a
day, and many of them even fourteen
hours. Those who had entered the
shops the earliest in life were the punt
est and the most ignorant. Some of
them were set at work at so tender an
age that they could not tell when they
began. The weekly wages Of the chill
dren do not average 50. Many of the
children often complained that they did
not have full dinner hour, and when
doing overtime they got only fifteen or
thirty minutes for supper. A girl under
fifteen years was found by Inspector Fell
working at ten o'clock at night in fac
tory where the temperature was over 100
degrees. After her thirteen hours and
half of toll, she had to walk two miles
before reaching home.
The vast majority of the children can
not spell words of more than one sylla-
bic, and many cannot spell at all. They
cannot answer the simplest questions in
geography. A girl of thirteen years told
an inspector that Europe was in the
moon. A few more were found who
never heard of the sun, or moon, or
earth, and large number who could
not tell where or when they were born.
A boy born in New York and living in
Paterson said that New York was in
Jersey and Jersey was in Paterson. This
boy had been at work from his eighth
year. 1t was the opinion of some that
Europe was an ocean. Ninety-five per
cent. could answer no questions about
other States or cities of the United
States. Children who had been brought
to this country before their sixth year,
IN some cases, never heard the name OF
their native country. Some children
born in Holland never heard of that
country, and some children born in Ire
land said that Ireland was in America.
Boys and girls who had been brought to
this country from Great Britain, Ireland
and Germany, between the ages of
twelve and fifteen years, were better
educated and knew more about the
geography and history of America than
children born and reared in the State.
Mr. Fell says the work of the inspec-
tors has crowded day and night schools,
and he suggests that the State provide
more adequate school accommodations
n every county. He also recommends
that law be passed for the protection
Of children employed where the sale of
goods is carried on. The present law
applies to factories only.