The Cairo bulletin., 1910-12-21

Expert Investigator Reports That Laws
Are Usually Disregarded-Many Be-
Gin Work at the Age Of Six--Wcrk-
shops insanitary.
Sensational charges Of repusiye con
ditlons In child labor In continental
Europe are made in Il special report
published in a bulletin of the United
States bureau Of labor. The report
was made by DR. G. W. A. Nedlz, d
professor Of sociology In George Wash
ington university, who made q special
investigation in Austria, Belgium,
France, Germany, Switzerland and It
ally. He gathered all his data from Of
ticial records and sources Of informa-
ton.
Child labor In Belgium not paid nc
all, children in Austria beginning work
before six years old and child laborers
in France drilled to disappear through
trapdoors at the approach Of inspee-
tors and generally Indifferent en-
forcement Of the laws through which
employers find II 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 essen
| tlal respects poorly enforced ana that
| the penalties imposed for violations
I are ridicuously small and or pfactl-
cally no deterrent value. The report
indicates that In most OF these coua-
/ tries it would be Il physical imp0ssl-
| bility for the inspectors to do more
| than fractional part Of their work or
! 10 do that part Thoroughly and that
(, the courts are astonishingly lenient
, with offenders.
In Austria child labor is not regti-
lated in workshops, in household in
nents. A recent official investigation
showed that about half the children
began work before they were eight
years old, while large number be-
! gan 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 re-
ceived from 50 cents to S1.50 u month.
In Belgium many violations escape
detection One-fourth of the iaborers
under sixteen get no money wages al
all or earn less than 10 cents a day
more than half receive between 10 and
20 cents day, and less than one-fiftf
receive 30 cents or more.
In France Or, Vedltz says, some OF
the glass workers go so far as to drill
their child laborers in quickly disap
pearing through trapdoors TO avoid de
lection, and the employers offer prizes
for the children most agile IN that per
Torrance Among the most frequent
and most Migrant violators of the
rules are religious and charitable in
stitutions, such as orphanages, n
which the children usually get no
wages, are worked overtime and under
| conditions violating the law and the
ordinary rules OF hygiene A traillt
has sprung up, especially among the
Italian children imported into France
In droves for employment mainly II
glass works, brickyards and as chin
ney sweeps and bootblacks.
Germany's industrial code was rec
ognized as having not so much abol
ished child labor as having forced !
out of the factories into home indus
try.
III Italy factory inspection is of 81
recent date and so poorly organized
that it may be said to be nonexisten
in large part Of the kingdom.
In Switzerland conditions do not at
fer essentially from those in German!
and France.