Denver labor bulletin., 1918-08-31

English National Teachers Union held
more than year ago, that body gave
voice to a statement that may be
prophetic: "This great war, with its
terrible wastage of human life and
material has brought into bold relief
the economic potentialities of the child.
AS never before, the nation now real
ICES that efficient men and women
are the best permanent capital the
state possesses"
Sooner or later America, too, must
recognize the all-importance of inten-
styling its watchful care of the ma
tion's boys and girls. That care ex-
tends now over their school years.
Our compulsory school laws insist that
for nine months of every year all
children between the ages of seven
and fourteen shall attend school,
where they are under constant super
vision, their health as well as their
mental training being the care of the
state. By fourteen, if the children
have reached the eighth grade, their
education ceases to be compulsory; by
sixteen, no matter what their school
standing may be, the responsibility
of the state for their supervision
ends. The child in fortunate circum-
stances passes on to the high school !;
all is well with him. Those signifi-
cant years from fourteen to seven
teen-significant both as to his ply
sical and moral development-are
watched and nurtured.
But what of those others-the chill
dren of the poor, whose families wait
for the day when Ellen or Johnnie
can secure their working papers and
be allowed by law to earn something
toward the family budget?
In New York City, during 1917,
80 .290 boys and girls were furnished
with working papers by the depart
nIent of health. Does the state or
city know where those children are
employed today? Has it been ascer-
tanned that their employment is con-
structive-that it is training them for
lives Of usefulness, that it is contrib
uting toward the future health and
efficiency of the child? Unfortunate
ly, no. 1t is estimated that 90 per
cent Of those boys and girls have been
swallowed up by one or other of the
child-employing jobs that are referred
TO as blind alleys" because they teach
nothing, lead to nothing. Those boys
and girls began work as unskilled
I workers, and unskilled workers they
are likely to remain all their lives.
/ And one of the inconsistencies of
this situation is that, having allowed
our children to grow up into laborers
without trade, limited in education
and capacities, we then proceed to or
ganize charities to provide aims for
the families these incompetents are
unable TO support. While on one hand
we add TO our army of industrial Grip
Piles by allowing unskilled workers to
enter the factories, on the other, we
erect hospitals and provide free medi-.
cal care for the injured. Where is
that little ounce of prevention that
we have from childhood been taught
to realize is worth so infinitely much
more than all the remedies that can
be provided after the harm is done?
In one of the New York City schools
public school 147, situated in the
very heart of the East Side, where
the population is most dense-an in
teresting experiment in vocational
guidance is being made, as an effort
TO Offset this condition. The Henry
street settlement is responsible for it.
and has made another instance when
settlement has made use of its re-
sources in the capacity of an expert
mental laboratory for social problems.
For ten years the Henry street set
Element has concerned itself with the
future of the young industrial worker.
They have become convinced that to
see iuat u Cnllu secures tne training
essential to equip him for skilled
work is n policy whose far-sighted-
ness and constructive results super
sede any efforts at temporary relief.
For that purpose they founded ten
years ago their vocational scholarship
committee, whose purpose was to pro-
vide a small weekly scholarship to the
fourteen-year-old child who was be-
ing forced into work on account of
economic pressure at home, and to
enable him Cor her) to take n two
years course at a trade school, Dur
ing the two years the committee in
charge keeps in close touch with the
child by means of weekly interviews,
and has been able to follow his prog
ress after entering industry.
The results achieved with these chill
dren gave conclusive proof not only
that the extra years under supervised
care are of inestimable value to the
child's general development, but that
his wage-earning capacity is almost
doubled. Further than that, case after
case has shown that where a scholar
ship is given to the oldest of n fam
| lily, it has been the means, eventually,
of raising the economic status of the
entire family.