The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-07-04
WHITE SLAVE BOOK
HAS BEEN ISSUED
Government Bulletin Attempts to Ar
sWer Question, Why Girls
Leave School.


sWer Question, Why Girls
Leave School.
by Burton K. Standish, Written for
the United Press
WASHINGTON, July Interesting
because of its bearing on the testi.
mony as to girls employment recently
investigated by the Illinois senatorial
white slave" probing committee, is a
bulletin just issued by the bureau of
education, It attempts to tell why
girls leave school," and 1t is wr- item
after a careful study OF trade and la.
Dor conditions among girls in Worces-
ter schools than can be accounted for
by increase In the population. Only
about II percent of them had finished
the grammar schools; most Of them
left in the sixth or seventh year. Wor-
cester is taken as fair index Of any
OF the manufacturing towns in the
country.
Why did these girls leave school?
Various reasons were assigned by the
girls themselves. Some thirty said
they did not like school; could not
get along with the teacher: were not
promoted, or wanted to go to work"
Two were working to help pay for a
piano. One Of these was cash girl OF
IA years who had left the ninth
grade to 60 to work In department
store for $500. Later she got $3.50
per week. Another was girl of 10
from the eighth grade who went to
work In a corset factory for $1.o0 and
rose to $4.S2 per week. Still another
girl was taking music lessons and con-
tributing to the payment OF piano.
Twenty-seven girls were found at
home. In some cases they had left
school to help with the homework.
while a few left at time of temper
airy stress and then had not returned
Four girls had changed places with the
mother, who worked In corset fat,
tory, laundry, or some such place.
while the girl, whose wage earning
power was small, kept house for the
mother Of the children.
Curious differences as to what the
parents thought they could affors
were discovered. The mother OF a
family Of eight children living appar-
emily In the direst poverty, would have
been glad to have sacrificed and
pinched still further to have had her
daughter stay in school longer, If she
would. The mother Of another fam
lily Of six, living in a comfortable
apartment house, with hardwood
floors, piano and other Injuries, said
her daughter wished to stay in school
longer, but the burden of supporting
the family was too heavy for the fatn-
er to bear alone, SO the girl was taken
out of school to go to work. A visit
to Swedish family revealed car
penter and his wife. a washerwoman,
three-story apartment house. Yet the
Is year old daughter with seventh
grade education had been sent to
work in paper goods factory at $500
per week. The question why did you
leave school" was put to 336 more ma
luic WOlhClS Ill litC SOloCt bNihS7
ty-one per cent of these women had
left school between the ages of 10 and
16, and fully 80 percent because of
their dislike for school or because
they wanted to go to work. OF "a
workers in clothing factory. IS per
cent had left school between the ages
of Is and 16, and of these Is per cent
left school of their own volition.
In the opinion Of the board of edH
cation conditions such as found at
Worcester emphasize the imperative
need for special training of a practical
sort for girls between Is and 15. In the
main the girls left school simply be-
cause they dislilted the school work.
Not getting the kind of training they
might have liked and would have prof
tied by, they blindly Joined the army
of shifting, inefficient, disconnected
girls that go from one monotonous
factory job to another and, because OF
their lack of training, rarely rise
above the class of low-paid, unskilled
workers.