New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-27
BY PERCIyAL II. BARKER

There are l,SoO,OOO chlldren IN local
industries who will not be affected by
the Federal child labor law, according
to Owen r. Lovejoy, general secretary
of the National Child Labor Commit
tee.
Mr.. Lovejoy admitted yesterday that
he had feared lest many organizations
should withdraw their support from the
work under the misapprehension that
the Federal law ended the child labor
problem. The 10000 synagogues and
churches which have promised to OBJ
serve either to-day or tomorrow as
Child Labor Day have convinced him
that there is no diminution in interest,
but that, on the contrary, people are
keenly alive to the Importance of the
work which remains to be done.
The recent passage of the Federal
child labor law has made the regulation
OF child employment in factories, mills,
canneries, mines and Quarries uniform
throughout the country, but children
working in stores and Offices, on the
streets as messengers and in other
industries not engaged in interstate
commerce, are outside the field of Fed
eral legislation and must be protected
by the state. Many states neglect to
regulate these industries, and yet the
possibility of exploitation and exposure
to physical and moral dangers is as
great in many of these occupations as
in factories and mines. at is not the
child in some PARKWAY mill or mine we
ask you to think Of" said Mr. Love
JOY, "but the child just around the
corner-the cash girl in the downtown
department store, the bakers delivery
| boy, the newsie, the child workers you
see every day. They are not all work
ing under good conditions. Many OF
them work long hours; many of them
come in contact with evil influences;
many of them have not had their
proper schooling"
In Manhattan and throughout this
state Child Labor Day this year is Of
special significance. The Wellington
law, enacted last spring, which re-
quires all undergraduates who are less
than Is years Of age to remain in
school until that birthday, goes into
( effect next Wednesday. This law is
not retroactive and will not have any
effect upon the $4,000 children now at
work. 1t applies only TO the children
who desire to leave school after Feb
ruary to go to work. In New York
City IL is estimated that 10000 children
will thus receive the advantage Of more
schooling, some Of them for at least an
entire year.
During the last year the demand
for child labor has been almost un-
precedented," said George A. Hall, Sec
rotary Of the New York Child Labor
Committee, as he commented yesterday
on the success of his committee in
passing the Wellington law. every
where one is greeted on our streets by
signs, Little Girls Wanted and Boys
/ Wanted This demand is reflected in
/ the large increase in the number Of
children receiving work permits in this
state during 1915. approximately 1000
new recruits TO the child labor army
were thus added from the school popu-
lstion of this state. In New York City
alone $4,000 children were certificated
for work, which is an increase Of p
per cent, or 10000. over 1916"
The tremendous increase IN the num-
Der Of children going into industry
represented by these figures, in the
opinion Of the leaders in the child labor
movement Of this state, more than JUS
titles the enactment Of tne Wellington
law. which should furnish a powerful
check TO this annual exodus of boys
and girls from school into an indus
trial life which offers them so little
of educational or economic advantage.
Among the clergymen OF Greater
New York who will observe Child La
Dor Day are the Rev. DR.. John F. Car
son. of the Central Presbyterian
Church, Brooklyn; the Rev. Howard J.
Melish, rector of the Holy Trinity
Church, Brooklyn; the Rev. Percy ).
Grant. rector Of the Church Of the AS
cension; the Rev. j. Herman Randall,
of the Mount Morris Baptist Church;
the Rev. Henry mottet, rector of the
Holy Communion; DR.. Stephen S. Wise,
of the Free Synagogue; DR.. S. Parkes
Cadman. of the Central Congregational
Church, Brooklyn; the Rev. Christian
+. Reisner, of the Grace Methodist
Church; Rabbi Ephrsim Frisch, Of the
New Synagogue; Rabbi D. de Sofa Pool,
Of Sheareth Israel, and Rabbi Edward