The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-27
State Officials Confer With Local Committee and Is-
 sue Explicit Orders
YOUTHS WHO WORK
 MUST SECURE BADGES
Specifications Relate to Selling and Distributing Newspapers, Elm plOyment in Theatres and All
 Other Kinds of Work

Too young to do street trading. too much staying out of school to work, and too much truancy have caused number of exceptional cases to arise in the local enforcement of the state child labor law Dr. w. H. Oates and his corps of assistants from the state department were in Birmingham yesterday to give rulings on these cases, and to explain thoroughly the act dealing with child la bor. conference was held with the To- cal committee, and the following import ant decisions were given out by the high officials:
 Boys under 12 years of age cannot do any kind of street work. Boys under 10 years of age cannot distribute newspa- pers or periodicals in the residential dis tricts. Round badges will be issued to boys between the ages of 10 and 12. These badges must be worn in plain sight when distributing.
 Any boy under F found selling or dis tributing downtown with or without a badge will be violating the law. The boy will be termed delinquent, and the per- son, firm, or corporation issuing papers or periodicals to boys under 12 for down town selling or distribution will be ar rested and charged with violating the state law.
 Boys who sell and distribute downtown must wear the badge, which is oval in shape, and on which is written Street Seller" Any boy under 16 who is found selling or distributing downtown without a badge or with any other shaped badge than the oval will be violating the state law. The round badge, on which l written Carrier" is for boys between the ages of 10 and 12, and are to be worn only by those boys who distribute in the residential districts
 MUST WEAR BADGES
 No boy under 15 may sell or distribute lat any time unless the badge is worn in plain sight while working nor may he work during school hours, not even sell extra editions; nor may he sell before D o'clock in the mornings, nor after 8 O. clock at night. And no badge can be issued for any purpose unless the appli- cant be a regular school attendant. The law does not apply to boys 16 years of Iage and over
 The law states that 'any firm, person or corporation" that issues papers or pe- riodicals or pamphlets or other forms of publica tions or articles for street trading contrary to IneSG TSRuldllODS VIII pc charged with violating the state laws All of the local newspapers and the news agencies have expressed ready desire to cooperate with the state officials in car- rying out the law. The law, however, will not go into actual effect until March 5, that much time being allowed the boys and parents to secure the badges. The badges are being issued by the Boys club in the Farley building. The boy must be accompanied by his parent, and must have a statement from his school principal that he is a regular school attendant before the badge can be issued A deposit of 25 cents is required on the badges. This deposit is refunded when the badge Is returned. All boys who wish to sell or distribute must secure the badges before March 5, or else stop their trading on that date until they secure them. Mrs. Lorana B. Bush, assistant to Dr. Oates, will be in Birmingham to enforce the law.
 OATES LAYS DOWN LAW Other sections of the child labor law were discussed at the meeting. Dr. Oates laid down the law that no child under 16 would be permitted to perform on any stage or concert hall or be permitted to work in any connection with any thea tre, picture show or theatrical perform aEce.
 No child under fl years of age can work in any kind of office shop or commercial establishment. No child under the age of IS can work before o'clock in the morn ing. nor after o'clock at night nor more than il hours in any one day, nor more than six days in any one week. All chill dren between the ages of 14 and Is must before working secure an employment certificate which states their age and which certifies that they have attended school 60 days during the year preceding the date upon which the certificate is is- sued.
 These employment certificates are issued by the Boys club. which IS acting as special agent for pr. J. H. Phillips, superintendent of city schools. The state law directs the su- perintendent of schools or his named assistants to issue the permits. For a while all of the school principals is
 sued the certificates. but it was thought wise to have one central agency to do this work. The Boys organization.
 Dr. Oates stated that these "excep- tional cases where it seemed that hardships and injustices were worked on the parents and the children al- ways occurred when reforms were be- ing brought about; and that to make one single exception would not only violate the law but would '1et down the bars" the result being a stam- pede upon the officials in which the law would be wrecked.
 NEED MORE PRECAUTION | Officials of the Boys club stated 1 that in practically all of the so-called exceptional cases an investigation showed that instead of work and aft ernoon occupation to keen the boy 1 off the street." however harmless ths work and the occupation" might ap. pear to be. the boy needed more real l play to properly develop his physical l body, more rubbing elbows and tuss l ling with regular boys in gymna- siums, and less of the business ex- perience," and less of the push and drive to make selling records and phe- nomenal school grades which ire quently resulted in an impoverished