Evening star., 1914-04-26
Drawings by John R. Neill

@HILD labor is not new development
L in the United States, but an inheritance
from England; although the apprentice
ships of the seventeenth century, where the
children served in close association with their
masters are not comparable to the present.
day factory system, with its minute division
of labor and the steady tension OF deadenlngly
monotonous toll. Yet they serve as link
with the factory system, and explain why
children were put to work IN factories,
where they could become more quickly re-
munerative to parents and guardians than
under the old system. At the time one
could foresee the import of transferring the in
dustrial work of children from the house to
the factory, nor it to be expected that an
agricultural and rural population would fore
see the evil results the new machine technic
would produce.
The change of front toward the employ
nent of children in factories in the nine Z.
teenth century necessarily slow. The :
traditions existing before the Revolution "
could not be changed suddenly or without \
knowledge of the new evils. The protectionists y
had not only the best of the argunent,-for the -
Revolution had made plain the necessity Of
manufacturing and the weakness of purely
agricultural State in time of war,-but IN 4
actual fact, for they proposed nothing new
or startling, but simply built up on the con-
servative views of the day. Alexander Ham
ilton, in his famous report on manufactures,
emphasized the fact that they rendered women
and children more useful and the latter more
useful than they would otherwise be-; while the
notion that Employment the mother of Virtue
utilized to do away with possible preudices against
ploying either.
AS result, practically the only child labor legis
advocated and indorsed by the labor party up to
had to do chiefly with restricting hours of labor,
only in few cases with age limitation
With the passage of the Massachusetts, child
law of 1866 the labor organizations were not slo
demand the legal prohibition of child labor bell
minimum age limit. Since then the demand has
voiced not only by labor organizations, but by all
of societies. womens clubs, and general welfare be
As result of the changed position there is in me
the States much legislation restricting the employ
of children Nearly all forbid employment below
tain fixed age, usually fourteen years, and documel
proof is generally required
Most States compel children below the age of
ployment to attend school, while the principle o
tory inspection is embodied in the laws nearly e
where Factory inspectors usually cooperate
school authorities and truant officers to see tha
children are not illegally employed and that they
school. In those industrial States with large TO
population, ignorant of English, precautions have
taken that minors above the compulsory educatio
learn to read and write our language. Pernissi
continue at work IS often maze conollloHal uPo
tendance at night school. The authority to ISSUE
ployment certificates, allowing children to wor
ordinarily vested in school authorities; but the
of New York has put this into the hands of the
authorities Of the town city, with the proviso
where documentary proof of the child's age is not
coming physicians certificate of the child's age
cepted. The physicians are designated by the h
officers, and they make physical examination.
certify that child has reached at least the require
and is in fit physical condition to perform the We
intends to do. Furthermore, the hours of labor