Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-31
STREET TRADING
|SCRIME SCHOOL
Departmental Committee in Lon
don Makes Report on Child
Employment Act
MAKES CHILDREN RESTLESS
Tendency Is to Create Dislike for
Steady Employment by
the Youngsters
MAKES CHILDREN RESTLESS

LONDON, July S0.-The depart
mental committee on the employment
of children act, 1903 has made re-
port in which it says:
I'VE have come to the conclusion,
after hearing a great deal of evidence
bearing on the point from many kinds
of witnesses, that the effect of street
who engage in it is only too frequent
Is disastrous. The youthful street
trader is exposed to many of the
worst of moral risks; he associates
with, and acquires the habits of, the
frequenters of the curbstone and the
gutter. If a match seller, he is likely
to become a beggar; If newspaper
seller, a gambler; the evidence before
us was extraordinarily strong as to
the extent to which betting prevails
among the boy vendors of the even
ing papers.
There was an almost equally strong
body of testimony to the effect that.
at any rate in crowded centers of pop
ulation, street trading tends to produce
a dislike or disability for more regular
employment. The child finds that for
few years money is easily earned
without discipline or special skill, and
the occupation is one which sharpens
the wits without developing the intel
Hgence 1t leads to nothing perma-
nent, and in no way helps to a future
career.
There can be no doubt that large
numbers of those who We're once street
traders drift into vagrancy and crime.
Chief constables testified that street
trading is the most fruitful appren-
ticeship to evil courses. These results
are especially noticeable in the case
of children who have continued street
trading after leaving school. Much
evidence was given to the effect that
the practice of street trading, ~ even
though only carried on in the intervals
OF school attendance, tends to produce
a restless disposition and a dislike of
restraint, which makes children un-
willing to settle down to any regular
employment.
$50 far as girls are concerned, there
must be added to the above evils an
unquestionable danger to morals in the
narrower sense. The evidence pre-
sented to us on this point was unan-
imous and most emphatic. Again and
again persons specially qualified to
speak assured us that when a girl took
up street trading she almost inVar-
tably was taking first step toward
a life of immortality. The statement
that the temptations are great and
the children practically defenseless
needs no amplification An occupa-
tion entailng such perils is undis-
putably unfit for girls"
The committee presents some strik
ing fgu es concerning the extent to
which street trading is carried on. In
England and Wales, exclusive of Lon
con, 22,194 licenses were issued during
1906 to persons C9,249 boys and 2945
girls under 16, and the number Of
licenses now in force is slightly larger.
In London, where badges take the
pace of licenses, 1888 boys and, APP
proximately, 1000 girls We're known to
be trading in the streets in July, 1909.
The committee recommends that
street trading by boys be wholly pro-
hibited by statute up to the age Of II
and that street trading by girls be
similarly prohibited up to an age of
not less than IS.