South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-05-06
CHILD LABOR
IN WAR TIME
EngIand'S Experience Shows
Best Interests OF Children
Were Sacrificed.

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 IL she
has found, in spite Of the increasins
strain of the passing months, that
children's welfare has been need
! lessly sacrificed, surely the testimony
Of her officials is timely and import
ant for us.
England has been granting special
/ exemptions from school attendance.
/ Between the outbreak of the wal
and the first of May last year IS
/ 0 children of school age had been
excused from school for farm work
/ What do the English records show
about the need for these children'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 il appears from avail
able reports that they have man.
aged without the children when the
school authorities stood firm.
Granting Exemptions.
The board of education during
the first year of the war advised the
local authorities as follows: Exemp-
tons should be granted only to in
dividual children after personal in
vestigation of each case; no general
breakdown of the laws in any dis
trict was intended the employment
Of children of school age should be
regarded as an exceptional measure
and should be allowed only where
the authority was satisfied that no
other labor was available The au-
thOrities were TO ascertain that
application had been made to the
labor exchange with an offer of ad-
equate wages. In no case were the
authorities 10 excuse children if
older children past the age Of COM
pulsory attendance were availab BILE;
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-
II a l.
on the fact that the urgency OF the
J need for the child's help might be
tested by the amount of wages of
4 fered; also. they said. a register
should be kept of children exempt
ed. and exemptions should be re-
viewed at least once in three months
| to ascertain that the conditions
under which they were granted
still existed.
| In spite of this, the latest report
of the chief medical officer of the
| board Of education says: THE board
have already expressed their con-
Germ 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"
Other Ways 10 Meet Demand.
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 volunteer
ed for farm work Machinery has
been increasingly used.
The Labour Gazette refers also to
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 giver
by some members as an important
reason for the demand for child
labor. Unofficially it is stated that IL
those parts of the country where
rural wages are highest the least use
has been made Of children.
That the best interests of the chill.
dren themselves have been sacrificed
is recognized. As the chief medica
i officer of the board CT educatioc
puts il in his last report: ITO with.
!. draw the child from school at ar
earlier age than that contemplated
i by the attendance bylaws is TO ar
/ rest his education on the threshold
Il Of the years when he is probably
/ just commencing TO assimilate anC
/ consolidate the instruction he ha.
/ received and is receiving at school
/ HIS introduction 10 labor at thi.
time renders him liable TO condi
tons OF strain detrimental to hi
Il Dhvsica1 we'll heipp"