The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1921-09-19

WASf1lNG lON, II. u, oSpl. 10
Thousands of dollars may be involved
in the question of how old a child is,
under the Child Labor section of the
Internal Revenue act, which is now in
force and is said by officials of the
bureau of internal revenue to be prac-
tically abolishing the employment of
children under IA years of age in the
industries to which it applies. The
validity of the law is yet TO be decid-
ed by decision of the supreme court
which will probably be made some
| time this fall
The law provides that a tax of 10
percent may be collected on the net
profits of an employer who employs
| children below a certain age. No
employer can afford to pay such tax.
| The law is said to work like a charm.
| Employers take every possible pre-
caution to avoid employing such chill
dren.
In 81 of the states the state laws
against child labor require the child
! to have certificate showing his age,
and this is accepted by the federal
| inspectors. In other states the federal
inspector must ascertain the child's
| age by what means he can. Where
vital statistics are properly kept, it is
| easy. In other cases baptismal rec
ords are available, but sometimes the
parents or employers of the children
are put into ingenious devices to
prove a child's age.
| In one case in Georgia no written
| evidence could be found to prove the
age of boy, who, his mother claimed
was IA years old. She took the in
4 y - la \,
family and stood it in a row. There
were IA children, the youngest babe
| in arms.
Count 'em yourself, lady" she in
! vited. There's your evidence"
/ Tombstone Proof
The tombstone of dead twin prov
ed the date of birth of boy who was
trying to prove himself IA years old.
One family was found which had pre-
pared a tombstone and set it in the
cemetery for their daughter when she
was born. The date of her birth was
carved on the stone. and space left
for recording her death. Decorated
mugs presented to children and in
scribed with the dates of their births
have sometimes been offered in evil
dence, and many families have been
found which had framed records of
all the family births hanging on the
wall. One father had dispensed with
the frame and merely written the
record on the wall paper. The family
record kept in a Bible is of course
the commonest form, and many per-
sons seem to have thought that any
record written in a Bible would be &C.
;, cepted. One inspector was surprised
to be confronted by a long file OF
: women and children bearing conspicu
. ously new Bibles.
, The effort TO abolish child labor, oi
which this tax is the latest manifesto
ton, is a good example of how we leg
islate in this country. Ten or Is years
/, ago child labor was one of the crying
abuses of American industry Chill
, dren from 10 to IA years of age were
employed in number of industries
{, and for long hours. Many of then
were undoubtedly stunted and killed
: A great deal of publicity was given the
subject. Newspaper editorials, maga
zine articles and cartoons aroused the
] public to the abuse. AS a result many
state laws were passed prohibiting OF
5 restricting child labor, and great ma
jority of the states now have such
= laws. Many of those that have no
) are agricultural states in which there
is little or no factory labor of any
kind. The serious abuse has for some
years been confined to a few state:
where the interest employing chile
labor were strong enough to Influence
the legislatures.
To those who were working for thu
abolition of child labor, a federal Law
prohibiting it in the whole countr.
L seemed the only means. They wer
opposed by the believers in state
rights, who see a threat of the com
. plete destruction of local autonom
in the rapid spread of federal author
: ity which recent years has witnessed
Z These persons declared that the Unit
= ed States us rapidly becoming hug