The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-13

county and from town to town; its pro- visions are inperfectly understood by employers and parents it Is often made quately safeguarded by inspection, and its infringement is seldom punished by moro than trifling fines. This is regulation by local bylaw of indu strles outside the factory acts. During the war regulations of both kinds have been relaxed, not through negligence, but from sad neces- sity. And when the ed ducation act of 1913 comes into force the first kind will be at once extended to cover two additional years of a child's life and the second will in two important resp ects be made uni form and compulsory all over the country.
 Child labor regulation in Britain all ready compares very favorably in fact (though not on paper) with that of any other country, and in the near future 1t will be well ahead of any rival, unless the United States speeds up it's already rapid progress in this matter. The new educa- tion act, the Childrent s Charter of lslS' is to come into force on day not earlier than the termination of the war It may then be the law of the lana any time after midsummer
 There was an old hymn learned by countless children two generations ago. which made the infant
 Thank the Goodness and the Grace
 Which on my birth has smiled,
 And made me in this Christian land
 A happy English child.
 This gratitude in the middle of last century must have bee n rather ironical. The blackest of Eng lands industrlai crimes against childre In still went on. The baby sweeps, bogS and sometimes girls, whom James Ha1way found In l'oo climbiner chiuneys naked and half suf- located from the age of 5, were in 17SS protected by an act of Parliament which shows with startling clearnesS now cal lous was the public cd dnscience of those days. It is a landma rk as oeing the first measure protecting employed chll- dren; it forbade masters to send boys up chimneys actually on fire, made 5 the minimum age for "clilh hbing boys, pre- scribed that on Sundays they shoudl pe washed and properly dressed and sent 10 public worship, and that when working they should be properly clothed.
 A DEAD LETTER
 rut +his act remained largely dead letter, and the chimney sweeps boy, lm mortalized by Blake, the poet. ana Charles Kingsley, was little better OH when the act of 1S40 prohibited chimney climbing by persons under 21. Still there were no inspectors to enforce the act, and prosecutions were left to pupnc-splIiteu individuals and associatE Eons among whom the seventh Lord Shaftfsbury was prom inent. Not till 1875 did the long mar txyrdor, come to an enid As Frederick Kaeline saws in his "Child Labour in the United Kingdom:"
 teWe have the spectacle, at once tragic and ridiculous, of the legislature spehu- ing 90 years in unsuccessful attempts to protect a few thousand boys from the of hair or crippled"
 Far more important as regards the numbers of children affected were|the factory acts. In 1902 the apprentices act allowed children of 12 to work lz hours a day But it set the good eN- ample much later followed in other countries of forbidding night work a1 this age Not till 1901 was this pro vision extended to IA years. America cannot throw stones, for in the early years of this century little girls m 1 Pennsylvania were doing night work in 1 mills In 1919 English cotton manutac- l turers were forbidden to employ chli- dren under g, but boys and girls con tinued to work underground in coal mines till 1S42, often doing the worh of pit ponies And act followed act, l excluding children from dangerous 1 trades until in 1901 no child under l2 1 could be employed in any factory or | workshop. and in 1911 no child under fl l in mines.
 1 The movement to restrict hours went | on currently. Twelve hours was the 1 legal maximum till 1S44, with work 1 ing week of 69 hours for factories. Al ter that 10 to 1O1s hours prevailed in l both factories and mines till 1901, but Y, the working week was reduced to pe- ! riod of 54 to 50 hours, depending on occupation. This reduction of adult working hours in many occupations in this year, 1919, makes these hours for | children seem cruelty long, and legis- lation will be called for without delay. But it must be remembered that the 10- hour day was maximum, the normal working day being much shorter.
 Ara laws 6ead letter and