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

permit The framing of these bylaws Is 10 a certain extent affected by the provisions of the law with regard to cruelty to children, Sunday trading and 1 other matters But bylaws in force do | in fact permit of a child being em- ployed as a wage earner for as much as l Il 1S hours a day on a school holiday, and five hours a day in addition to a l full days schooling, so long as this employment is between the hours of $ a. m. and 9 p. m. The impossibility i of Neducating in any proper sense q young child who is in school for six hours and wage earning for five needs no pointing out and the new education l al act puts a stop to the worst of these l casSs of cruel wastefulness by pro- visions that no child under 12 shall be 1 employed on Sunday, and that no child ! of t2 or over shall be employed for | more than two hours on Sunday. No | child of 12 shall work more than one hour before in the morning on a 1 school day, and if he works for an hour before school he shall be linn | ited' to one hour in the afternoon.
 CHILD STREET TRADERS
 These regulations will sweep away many iniquitous bylaws and be a con | siderable protection for children in dis | tricts where no bylaws exist. They might have been much more drastic, and the reason why they are compara- 1 lively mild are of interest to citizens of o Eher countries which are in process of regulating the employment of chil- ] dren outside factories But before deal ing with them mention must be made of the bylaws regulating street. 1 trading and other occupations danger
 ous to the health or morality of chil- | dren and young persons of either sex. Street trading by children was not ! effectively regulated till the present l century, and in 1897 it was found that more than 10000 children of school 1 age were employed in street trading | either for employers, for their parents, or on their own behalf. In 1902 the sys- tenn was introduced whereby local au- ] thorilties issued licenses for street trad- ing and control it by bylaws. Un- ! fortunately plying for hire" or carry | Ing luggage or messages was expressly | excebted from the definition. The com- mittee on wage earning children failed
 to q arry legislation on the subject 1 through Parliament in 1912 and 1913. 1 Consequently, the only conditions gov 1 ering the framing of bylaws are that i which fixes II as a minimum age for { the Street-trade, and the limit (some- | timeA varied by by-laws) of 6 a. m. and D. m, as the legal limit of hours. | ohdon has adopted 14 for boys and | 16 for girls as the minimum age, but ! does not allow boys under 15 to trade unless exempt from school attendance. 1 some towns allow no trading after s, many prohibit Sunday employment, or i allow It only for the sale of milk, many restrict the trading of girls unless ac companied by their parents. Some in-
 sist on proper clothing and proper times for meals. Some require consent | of the child's parents. It is generally felt that much more careful regulation 1 of this traffic is needed, especially as prosecutions during the war have been 1 lew 0wlng to scarcity of police officers. The new education act will apply to these as to factory children and to chil- | dren in General Employment"
 Why are the hours and conditions Of child labor not further regulated by the l central government? The chief reason is the ingrained dislike of Englishmen for legislation which is unlikely to be well administered. It is obvious that there | is extreme difficulty in distinguishing | cases of intermittent wage earning by children from cases of merely helping in the family business or domestic work When bylaws have been made by a small community for it's own governance, the presumption is that private citizens will have 2 certain interest in seeing that they are observed And in practice such bodies as the advisory committees for juvenile employment the Association of Workers With Boysf the Liberal Christian league.
 and the Charity Organization society, 1 have done much to ensure the enforce l ment of bylaws. much more, probably, than would have been accomplished if the regulation had been generally compul- sorry.
 There is also a general disincriminatior to discourage temporary employment at l school age which may lead to satisfac-
 tory permanent employment later, and a 1 recognition that the school childs leisure
 hours may be worse spent than in light
 work out of doors, and that his holidays.
 if occupied in seasonal agricultural work
 may be more beneficial to his health
 than if spent in loafing. There is the
 argument that the child's earnings may
 be needed to supplement an insufficient
 family wage and that they will probably
 be mainly spent on his own food anc
 clothing.
 CONSCIENCE SATISFIED
 The public conscience is as rule satis-
 fled by the prohibition of such undesir-
 able occupations as those connected with
 the sale of intoxicating liquor, billiari
 marking, barber's lathering, programme
 selling in theatres or hotel kitchen work.
 At tn Is time particularly parents and
 children alike will resent and evade any
 large interference in their right of wage
 earning and where this is their attitude lnfringements of the law are with diffi-
 culty brought home to employers. The
 war has added to the difficulties of regu-
 lation. Boys of school age have been re-
 leased without certificate of exemp-
 ton from the education authority and
 have obtained high wages. In some cases
 boys of 13 have earned what was recl1-
 oned as a mans wage before the war.
 Boys of 16 who left school prematurely