New-York tribune., 1910-11-12
CHILD LABOR IN EUROPE
Shocking Conditions Shown in
Report of Expert.
LAWS OFTEN DISREGARDED
Many Begin Work at Six Years
Old-Sman Pay and Unsan-
itary Workshops.

Washington, Nov. n.-Sensational charges
Of repulsive conditions in child labor in
continental Europe are made in a special
report published IN the bulletin Of the
United States Bureau Of Labor. The re-
port was made by DR.. C. w. A Vedftz. a
professor of sociology in George Wash
ington University. who made a special in
vestgation in Austria, Belgium, France.
Germany, Switzerland and Italy. He
gathered all his data from official records
and sources of information.
Child labor in Belgium not paid at all;
children in Austria beginning work before
six years old and child laborers in France
drilled to disappear through trap doors at
the approach OF inspectors. and general
Iy Indifferent enforcement of the laws
through which employers find It more
profitable to pay the nominal fines imposed
than to obey the regulations are some Of
the conditions described
The general conclusion is that child
labor laws abroad are in many essential
respects poorly enforced. and that the
penalties imposed for violations are ridic-
ulously small and of practically no deter
rent value. The report indicates that in
most Of these countries it would be a
physical fmpossibilty for the inspectors
TO do more than a fractional part of their
work or to do that part thoroughly, and
that the courts are aStonishingly lenient
with offenders
In Austria child labor is not regulated
in workshops. in household industries or
in commercial establishments. recent
official Investigation showed that about
half the children began work before they
were eight years old while a large num-
ber began before they were six years old.
Their pay varied all the way from food
and certain articles of clothing to s14 a
year for those in agricultural occupations.
A large proportion received from so cents
to 81 80 a month
In Belgium many violations escape de-
lection. One-fourth of the IabOrers under
sixteen either get no money wages at all or
earn less than 10 cents a day, more than
half receive between 10 and 20 cents a day
and less than one-fifth receive 30 cents or
more.
In France, DR.. Veditz says, some of the
glass works go so far as to drill their child
laborers In quickly disappearing through
trap doors TO avoid detection, and the en-
ployers offer prizes for the children most
agile in that performance. Among the most
frequent and most fragrant violators or the
rules are religious and charitable instttu-
tions such as orphanages, in which the chill
dren usually get no wages, are worked
overtime and under conditions violating the
law and the ordinary rules OF hygiene A
traffic has sprung up, especially among the
Italian children imported into France II
droves for employment mainly In glass
works, briokyards and as chimney sweep:
and bootblacks.
Germanys industrial code was recognized
as having not so much abolished child Ia
bor as having forced It out of the factories
into home industry.
In Italy factory inspection is Of so recent
date and so poorly organized that 1t may o'
said 10 be non-existent IN a large part o
the kingdom.
In Switzerland conditions do not differ
essentially from those IN Germany and
France.