The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-06-01


English Farms)
The various propositions which
are now being made for the use Of
children in farm work lend interest
to the English experience with farm
labor of children. England is put
ting her all into this war, and if
she has found, in spite of the in
creasing strain Of the passing months
that children's welfare has been
needlessly sacrificed, surely the tes-
timony of her officials is timely and
important for US.
England has been granting special
exemptions from school attendance.
Between the outbreak of the war
and the first of May last year, 28,-
900 children Of school age had been
excused from school for farm work.
What do the English official records
show about the need for these chill
dren's help and the effect upon them
Of their employment?
The granting or Withholding Of
exemptions has been in the hands Of
the Local Education Authorities and
their policy has not been uniform.
Many Of them in all sections Of the
country have consistently refused to
excuse children from school. The
farmers of these districts have clam
ored as loudly as others for child
helpers, but it appears from avail
able reports that they hay3 managed
without the children when the school
authorities stood firm.
The Board of Education, during the
first year of the war, advised the
Local Authorities as follows: EX-
emptions should be granted only to
individual children after personal in
vestigation Of each case; no general
breakdown Of the laws in any district
was intended; the employment Of
children Of school age should be re-
garded as an exceptional measure and
should be allowed only where the
authorities were satisfied that no
other labor was available. The au-
thorities were to ascertain that ap-
plication had been made to the La
Dor Exchanges with an offer of
adequate wages. In no case were
the authorities to excuse children if
older children past the age Of com
pulsory attendance were available;
the authority should secure particu-
lars of the work, the wages offered,
and the period for which the labor
was required; the work should be
light and suited to the capacity of
the child.
A year later the Board of Educa-
ton urged a stiffening of these con-
ditions. They laid special emphasis
on the fact that the urgency of the
reed for the child's help might be
tested by the amount of wages Of
fered; also, they said, a register
should be kept Of children exempted,
and exemptions should be reviewed at
least once in three mnoths to as
certain that the conditions under
which they were granted still eX-
isted
In spite of this, the latest report
of the Chief Medical Officer of the
Board of Education says: "The Board
have already expressed their concern
to Local Education Authorities at
the large number of exemptions
which have been granted far too
freely and without sufficiently care
full ascertainment that the condi-
tions of exemption prescribed by the
government were fulfilled"
The British Board of Trade speaks
of various other ways in which the
shortage of men for farm labor has
been met. Older children have been
employed Women have volunteered
for farm work. Machinery has been
increasingly used.
the low wages offered by the farm
ers. And in the parliamentary de-
bates on child labor in agriculture
the farmers liking for a boy who
will work for siXpence a day is
given by some members as an i'm
portant reason for the demand for
child labor. Unofficially it is stat
ed that in those parts of the coun-
try where rural wages are highest
the least use has been made Of chill
dren.
That the best interests of the chill
dren themselves have been sacrificed
is recognized. AS the Chief Medi-
cal Officer Of the Board of Educa-
ton puts it in his last report; "To
withdraw the child from school at
an earlier age than that contemplated
by the attendance by laws is to ar
rest his education on the threshold
II - bo hlN- i,tet