Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-06-06
TALKED ABOUT
Child LABOR
WOULD HAVE THE PRESENT
LAWS sTAD BUT WOULD
HAVE THEM N
New YORK IS TOO STRICT
Children Should Receive Voca
tional or rade Educations in
q Large Measure.

The United States Commission on
Industrial Relations today turned its
attention to the general subject of in
dustrial education, aprenticesh hip, and
the administration of Child Labor
laws. DR.. r. c. Richards, director
of Cooper Union, was the first of the
witnesses who testified on this sub
!ect. The hearing was held in the
Council Chamber of City Hall, and
the examinations were conducted by
William O. Thompson, counsel to the
&C mmission.
DR.. Richards, when he took the
stand, testified concerning the work
done by Cooper Union, and outlined
the general scheme of its education
work. Most Of the pupils, he said,
attend night classes, because they
e employed during the day.
Asked as to his opinion of the child
labor laws in NewssYork, state. DR..
Richards declared that he considered
them too strict. He cited the limita-
ton Of hours of labor possible for
children of fourteen or less, and indi-
Gated that children were often turn.
ed away from employment by fac
tories because their employment was
not practicable under existing condi.
tions. At the same time, he said,
he was not in favor of a repeal of
these laws, but asserted that the pro-.
per remedy would be action by the
state in the way. of establishing vo-
cational schools, where the children
might profitably employ themselves
until it became possible for them to
secure ~remunerative industrial work.
Place Of Vocational Training.
Vocational education. he added,
was a broad term, practically synony.
nous with trade school, except for
the fact that it, embraced many kinds
of education besides that designed to
fit pupils for trades. "A trade school,
he said, was a school for beginners,
to take the place of apprenticeship.
The best schools for correcting the
difficulty in the child-labor laws, said
DR.. Richards, were those designed to
give whole-time instruction in indus.
tries to children under sixteen year
OF age. There are twenty-five or
thirty Of these schools in New York,
mostly in the upper part of the state.
The first were started in Rochester.
Their general intent is to give boys
and girls who attend them a chance
to find their feet before they actually
begin the serious work of winning a
livelihood.
rs there a demand for vocational
training in the night schools%
"A very distinctive demand" an.
swered the witness. There has been
such a demand in this country for
fifty years."
Praise for Part.T im. Schools.
DR.. Richards explained that q part
time school is one in which a worker
in some industry gives some part of
his working time. lie declared it TO
he the ideal school for workers be-
tween fourteen and eighteen years,
but did not believe this would he
widely appreciated for many years
vet. The best way would be to bring
the employers gradually to unle.-
stand the value of such schools and
leave their establishment to individ-
ual initiative.
A permissive state law, allowing
communities to establish such schools
or to require their establishment,
would probably be the first step.
During the time DR.. Richards was
on the stand, Upton Sinclair, accom-.