Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-08
Done i'm the District to Bring About Model Child Labor Conditions

seem serious enough to deserve a severe
penalty: and yet il is hardly fair to over
look it. The boy who lives up to the
law is bound to be adversely affected
when another boy on the same corner can
violate ii without consequences.
''In one respect our investigators have
found child labor conditions in Washing
ton better than in other cities in the east
This is i'm the night messenger service.
in which. according to the present law.
no boy under sixteen may be employed.
Washington is conspicuous among the
cities of the east for strict police regula-
tons enforcing this provision OF the law
In marked contrast to conditions in the
Capital city We're those in New York
and New Jersey. before these states
passed laws forbidding the employment
of night messenger boys under twenty
one years Of age.
In those two states il was found that
a majority Of the calls after o'clock at
night were not for the delivery of tele-
graph messages in the ordinary course
of business, but were from the segregated
section Of the cities. The boys them
selves were intimately acquainted with
the scenes and customs OF the under
world. in which they were purveyors of
opium cocaine and whisky after the sa-
looms were closed This sort of work is
apparently almost unknown to Washing
ton night messenger service boys al
though even here they are employed to
conduct strangers through the restricted
environment"
Such are some of the facts relating to
the child worker in Washington which
half a dozen co-ordinated societies have
discovered after months OF patient in
vestigation And. a result of all this
study. a scheme of action has been drawn
up which, when put into effect. will
transform the future OF thousands OF
District boys and girls. allowing them to
live happier lives now and make more
comfortable livings on arriving at ma
ture years.
In the first place there has been or
ganized the juvenile advisory committee
Of the children's council, of which DR..
McKelway is chairman. the new body
coming into existence only a few weeks
ago. This committee is the outgrowth
of work done by the council. and its
function will be to meet every child as
he leaves school. advise with him as to
the occupation he should take up and
help him in every way possible to be-
come self-supporting. self-respecting.
money-saving member of the community
At present about LOCO children leave
school at fourteen, which is the earliest
age at which the present child labor law
will allow them to go to work. and at
fifteen The advisory committee Will do
all it can to persuade many of these
children as possible to return to their
desks whenever 1t is found that they are
not absolutely needed for their parents
support.
If the child insists upon going to work.
the committee will endeavor to induce
him to keep out of the so-called blind
alley occupations in which he learns
nothing and cannot get ahead into some
thing better. In every instance. parents
will be warned in the most impressive
way possible of the dangers which will
follow permitting the child to enter the
night messenger service.
A similar course will be taken by the
committee in advising with girls as they
leave the public schools. Instead of tax
ing up work which has no future career
to offer. the committee will urge the girl
to follow some occupation in which the
ordinary worker can make comfortable
wages, with the prospect in time of be-
coming an expert, with correspondingly
increased salary. Ultimately it is the
hope of the various child labor organiza-
lions that this Juvenile advisory commit
tee will develop the need for a full
hedged vocational bureau, supported by
the District and managed in conjunction
with the public schools.
x *
The second part of the plan to make
Washington a still better place for the
working boy or girl to live in is EN-
bodied in the draft of a child-labor law
known as the uniform child labor law.
recently Endorsed by the American Bar
Association, which it is the intention to
present to the consideration of Congress
this coming winter. This law prohibits
any child under fourteen from working
in number of specified employments.
while children under sixteen are to be