The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-07
The Child LABOR LAW
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By Frederic J. Haskin, Director.
Washington, d. g.

ii washington u. Y. III
Washington, D. c., Sept 7.-On
September / the child labor law went
into effect. The United States govern
ment has constituted itself the guar
dian of all children under fourteen
years of age and some chlldren unoer
sixteen years of age, depending on GER
tain circumstances. 1t will not per-
init any child under fourteen to work
| in a cannery, workshop or cotton mill,
and it forbids any child under sixteen
to work in a mine or quarry.
Many parents who for years have
enjoyed a comfortable income by the
hire of their progeny, as well as many
employers who have enjoyed an even
more comfortable income by the same
| circumstances. are indignant In many
| places parents are constructing clever
plans for evading 1t, and in North
Carolina the matter has already been
| taken to court on the grounds that
| the law is unconstitutional.
A visit to the United States Chill
dren's Bureau. which has been
| charged with the execution of the
| law, might prove enlightening to the
North Carolina agitators and save re-
less thinking. The Children's Blu
reau has added a whole new depart
ment to its organization for the sole
purpose of seeing that the Child labor
Law is enforced. There are profess
| sional investigators, detectives, law
yers, doctors and sociologists in this
| department, all trained specialists in
child welfare work.
The chief is a Chicago woman, Miss
Grace Abbot, who was associated with
Jane Adams at Hull House for sew
eral years. II am very glad the mat
ter has been taken to court" she as
| serted when asked what she thought
| of the North Carolina action. THE
IL = - -
| the sooner we will get a decision"
| Obviously, Miss Abbot is not kept
| awake nights worrying about an ad
verse decision.
Alarming Conditions of Child Life.
Miss Julia Lathrop. head of the
children's bureau deserves great cred
| it for the law. She has long been in
vestigating the question of infant NOR
| tality in various parts of the country
with an idea to improving, If possible,
some of the alarming conditions that
| impair child life.
| soon discovered that the great secret
of infant mortality, was economic con-
ditions. She found hundreds of homes
where fathers made such low wages
that mothers were compelled to work
| too. The babies were left at home
alone all day and fed at infrequent in
tervals; the homes themselves were
naturally unkempt. the ventilation in
adequate and the fires prolific. Conse-
| quently, many babies die, which is
escorted to the industrial market at
the earliest age at which they can be
smuggled Unusually under twelve
| and are forced to become a part of the
industrial routine. In some states this
means-or meant up to September 1
working ten hours a day, or ten
hours night, according to the shift.
The new federal law establishes eight
hours as the maximum working day
| Now, of course, the great RESPONSE
bility for child labor rests upon the
parents They are usually quite will
ing to exploit their children for the
sake of increasing the family income.
Many of them are immigrants who
can neither read nor write, and hence
they do not see the necessity of edu-
cation for the younger generation. The
one thing they recognize the value of
is money, and their sole problem is
earning it in the swiftest and surest
way possible.
The Need of Government Protection.
In this one particular the lower
classes and the upper classes meet on
common ground 1t is the parents of
the middle class who put the value of
them into the world deliberately, and
afterwards struggle and sacrifice to
make them sturdy and well-educated
citizens. Nevertheless, many children
of this class also are in urgent need
of governmental protection, 1t has re-
} Gently been shown.
| While the parents are primarily re-
sponsible. however, it Is only thru the
employers that the government car
control the exploitation of children
| Parents even in the face of a law tc
the contrary would doubtless invent
and connive ways of working then
children. But when employers are
subject to fine and Imprisonment every
= III
teen years old, it is practically GER
, tain that they are not going to take
any chances. Thus the Child Labor
law places the responsibility upon the
employers. 1t reads:
THAT no producer, manufacturer
, or dealer shall ship or deliver fol
shipment in interstate or foreign com
merce any article or comm odity, the
product of any mine or quarry, sit
: uated in the United States. in which
, within thirty days prior to the time
of removal of such product therefrom
' children under the age of sixteen have
3 been employed or permitted to work
or any article or commodity the
product of any mill, cannery, work
5 SHOP factory, or manufacturing estab
lishment situated in the United States
7tc."
But in enforcing this law, Mis-
, Lathrop and Miss Abbot of the chill
= dren's bureau intend to leave no loop
hole uncovered. They are going t.
investigate the registration of chill
dren by parents as well as their EN-
ployment. Birth certificates or othel
$ absolute evidence must be produced
, by parents to show that their children
are of employment, and these will
be closely scrutinized by public in
t spectors. Only the other day a par
/ entail fraud was disclosed by vigi
, liant inspector in a small manufactur
ing town. The parents had brough
= an old and decrepit Bible as evidenc,
n that their little daughter was IA. Oh
q the f1y-leaf was the neat Inscription
Martha Lejowsky-or some sucl
name-Born July "a, 1909
4 The child was rather large, and tn
o inspector would have passed her ex
= | cept that it occurred to her strang
= | that the birth of only one child shnnli