New-York tribune., 1920-01-27
Children Seeking
Employment Must
Pass Physical Test
Labor Department Names
Permanent Committee to
Bar From Industry All
Who Are Untitled for 1t

The imperative need of physical
tests for children about to enter en-
ployment and of continuous supervision
over the health of children at work
has received national recognition in the
organization by the Children's Bureau
of the United States Department of
Labor of permanent committee to de-
terminc physical standards for working
children.
Little has been done up to the pres
ent time in the United States to pre-
vent children from going into work for
which they are physically unfit and
practically no study has been made of
the effects Of early labor on the growth
of the body. Yet the children who be-
gin work between the ages of fourteen
and eighteen, and in many instances RS
early as twelve, or even younger, are
the children of least resistance in the
community. They are in general the
children of the poor, and in conse-
quence are likely to be the ill-nour-
ished, the undersized and the anemic
Already handicapped, their growing
bodies can put up no resistance to the
exacting demands of industry on
turing years they are peculiarly liable
to injury from overstrain and pecu-
liarly sensitive to all sorts of indus.
trial hazards
Work Unfit for Them
A great deal of the work done by
children is, moreover, totally unfit for
them. 1t often involves too much sit
ting or too much standing, the carry
ing of weights beyond the chlds
strength, the overeXercisng of one set
OF muscles at the expense of another.
and, in certain occupations, the loss of
sleep. Foreign Investigations have
shown that the sickness rate among
Juvenile laborers is alarming, especial
~. during the second year of working
lie, when the injurious effects of early
labor upon already undeveloped bodies
have had time to make themselves felt
A physical minimum" for children
entering employment was provided in
the standards adopted by the Chill
dren's Bureau conferences held in
May and June, 1919. This minimum
declared that "a child shall not be al
lowed to go to work until he has had
physical examination by public
school, physician or other medical Of
flcer especially appointed for that pur-
pose by the agency charged with the
enforcement of the law and has been
found to be Of normal development for
child of his age and physically fit for
ployed.' 1t provided also that "there
shall be an annual physical examina-
tlon of all working children who are
less than eighteen years old"
To Provide Standards
But what constitutes normal devel-
opment" for boys and girls of different
ages, and what indicates that a child
is physically fit" for the employment
which he is about to enter? Only
through exact observation and measure
ment can it be demonstrated that a
child is unfit for certain kinds of work.
or that too early and too eXacting labor
is endangering his physical develop
ment. The standards to be applied
constitute vitality important part of
the problem of child labor.
The committee appointed by the Chill
dren's Bureau will undertake to pro-
vide these standards. The committee
consists Of DR.. George P. Barth, di-
rector of hygiene, City Health Depart
ment, Milwaukee, chairman; Dr.. Emma
NJ. Appel employment certificate de-
partment, Chicago Board of Education;
Dr.. s. Josephine Baker, chief. bureau
of child hygiene, Department of Health,
New York City; DR.. c. Ward Cramp-
ton, dean, Normal School of Physical
Education. Battle Creek. Mich; Dr. D.
l.. Edsall, dean, Harvard Medical School;
DR.. George W. Goler, health officer, Ro-
chester, N. Y; DR.. Harry Linenthal, di-
rector of industrial clinic. Massachu-
Rude, director, hygiene division, United
States Children's Bureau; DR.. Thomas
D. Wood, chairman on health problems
and Education, Columbia University,
New York City.