The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-18
CHILDREN SLAVES.
TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND OF
THEM IN LONDON.

The Youngsters Must HeIp Pay Rent
and Other Expenses and u Ork Long
Hours for N Mere PittanCe.
The struggle that is raging in Eng
land to-day over the education ques-
tion-primary and technical education
is bringing to light some distinctly
unpleasant facts-facts which reflect
the very worst light on Britain's eco
nomic and industrial position as re-
CARDS the working classes in the coun-
try.
The bishop of a large London East
End district (Stepney) states after very
careful examination that there are fully
twenty-five thousand little children,
aged from eight to twelve years, whose
labor out of school hours calls for gov
eminent interference. These children
have to attend school, and they work
from twelve to sixteen hours day Gn-
Guiding the time spent at SCHOOL, for
wages ranging from sixpence (tWelve
cents) to six shillings "a dollar and
half a week.
These children generally attend
school from nine to twelve o'clock, and
from two to four o'clock. They do all
sorts of odd jobs to earn few pence.
One acts as barman-he is only thirteen
years old--and does fifty-eight hours
week at this. He starts at six o'clock
in the morning and resumes after
school at five o'clock p. m. up to twelve
o'clock midnight, the pay being sixty
two cents a week and his food Curl
ously enough, English law p rohibits
children to fetch beer for their parents;
but it allows them to serve it to adults
in public houses.
Many schoolgirls from eight to ten
years of age clean the front door steps
of houses and windows before going to
school, receiving a penny (two cents)
each task, totaling about sixty cents
week. Lads, who can hardly reach the
knockers on the front doors of houses
act as knockers up to folk who want
to be Weakened early. The lads have to
be up by five o'clock in the morning and
do three or four hours work before
school, the pay being quarter Of
dollar. Others act as guides to blind
beggar men and blind vendors of small
goods; they also take cans of milk
araund the London streets while mill
lions Of Londoners are sleeping in their
beds.
Thus it is that many of these twenty
five thousand little children give about
twenty-seven a week to school and for
ty-five hours a week to work, the re-
ward being the barest pittance. 1t all
shows the extreme poverty of the pa
rents, because the children's earnings
go to pay part of the rent of the one or
two rooms inhabited by the family.
A leading British philanthropist (Dr.
Barnado) stated recently at meeting
of representative sociolagists that
street trading was an absolute necessi-
fifty among children of this class, as
they had to become bread-winners. In
deed. some of them are expected to pay
the weekly rent from their earnings
Life Is SO hard among these people that
it is thought to be impossible to abolish
such trading. Experts suggest regula-
ting it by licensing the children.
mentioned above that there are
twenty-five thousand of these children
in London; but if we take the whole of
the United Kingdom the number totals
one hundred and fifty thousand. About
forty thousand children work as long
out of school as in it. At least three
thousand work forty hours week or
none, It should be noted that adult OPP
eratives claim that forty-eight hours a
week is enough for grown men and Wo-
men. There are many children at
school In Britain who work for wages
upwards of fifty hours, and cases have
been found in which this slavery ex-
tends to sixty hours.
The legislation that is now proposed
to deal with this proposition of affairs
is as follows:
1. To fix the age at which employ
ment of any sort may begin.
2. To fix the hours between which
children shall be allowed to work.
8. To set a limit of hours per wook
upon their work.
4,'To control street selling by a sys-
tenn Of licenses.
s. To regulate the carrying of weights
by an age scale, as in France.
In g. previous communication to the
s'Protectionist'' I dealt with the alarm
ing and steady deterioration in the ply
siuue of the inhabitants in English
towns especially among the British
operative class. The physique of many
of the town military recruits during the
South African war was so very low
that even the war office authorities had
to reject them.
The educational system of Britain is
now being overhauled, but no system OF
tuition avails when child is faint with
hunger and tired with hours of work
previous to school hours.
Extreme poverty and extreme knave-
ry are responsible for such child labor.
Where it is not the former the parents
simply live in idleness an the money
earned by their children. Unless the
decline in the physical condition of
town jewellers is arrested and turned
back the outlook for the next genera
ton is indeed gloomy. Free trade has
certainly not brought healthy lives to
Britain
The Milk of tho Cav.