The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-04-29
NEWSBOYS WORK
HARD that BIC
PAPERS PROFIT

CONTINUED from Page y

you can see any midnight in the one
armed lunch rooms and the pool
rooms, shouting their wares and striv-
ing to keep awake Their hours are
the hardest and the most hardening
and dangerous from the moral point
of view.
The Reuter-
With the reuters" every one is
familiar. And one may hesitate to
call having paper route dangerous
form Of child labor at first glance
But going into the subject a little
more thoroughly, we find this:
Take a typical "router" of twelve
years of age. He gets up at four-thirty
to get his quota Of Tribs, and starts
delivering until he goes to school. He
is kept in school at high nervous
tension, ESPECIALLY so now with the
too-large classes, over-worked teach
ers and inadequate buildings).
At four o'clock, or even before that,
he is out again delivering the Daily
News to his route, or the Evening
American Peach Edition. If he has an
averaged size route, he will get home
in three hours.
Twelve Hours on The Run
Now, that means, before supper,
twelve hours of activity of the most
nerve racking sort for the boy since
he arose in the morning. And it is
labor to his child body" How can
he keep up to par in his studies, or
get his rightful amount of healthful
play under these conditions? The an
swer, of course, is that he can't.
The newsboy is the retarded" child
in school. He takes his place in the
room for backward children. One
third Of the newsboys attending the
Chicago schools are seriously below
par physically.
corruptinu Environment
They have among them the greater
share of "truants," of juvenile delin.
quents, Of future criminals" of the
capitalist state. Go down to Hearst
alley any day in the week when the
Peach Edition is coming out and you'll
find out. You'll see these little "mer-
chants" waiting for their papers; hop
ing that there'll be snappy murder
or good divorce case so that they'll
make few extra pennies; shooting
craps to while away the time: lolling
on the benches to try to make up
for their lack of sleep; swapping the
stories of the environment that the
vicious capitalist system has thrust
them into.
\ And, Of course, the social agencies"
Of Chicago are busy trying to make
life easier for these manly independ-
emit youngsters" For the capitalists
realize keenly that all youth must be
won over to their side, to keep the
children for use in future wars and
to have them continue as slaves to
the system Of which they are the
puny victims.
Opportunity Bunk
The clubs, the social settlements,
are busy teaching what a wonderful
opportunity for service" these boys
have. Ayers Ned the Newsboy" is
held up to them as their manly ideal,
Of one who strove, was loyal to all
rich men, and finally achieved wealth
himself and married the boss daugh-
ter. Boys Week win undoubtedly have
a newsie's division in the Loyalty
Parade"
Asked to Join Junior Young Workers
League
The junior group Of the Young
Workers League are busy organizing
this branch of child laborers into its
fighting organization, striving to make
these, too, into valiant defenders Of
the working class.
Only thru a Communist organization
and the forming Of a workers govern
ment can such conditions as child
labor be abolished and system esta-
blished where all children will have
the happy. wholesome, healthful lives
to which they are entitled.