Evening star., 1933-04-30
A Chance to Free the Child
The Nahou5 First Woman Member Of Presidents Cabinet Gives Her Vius Child
That Children Gradually Eliminated
and the Decline May Become Permanent Congressional Action Recent Years.

in canvassing, and in types of manufac-
ture where the breakdown of standards
is general. The latter, in fact, are re-
sponsible for figures in some Northern
cities showing actual increases in the
number of child workers since 1929.
In the more desirable occupations, such
as clerical workers, apprentices and
clerks, there has been a consistent de-
cline. Apprenticeship figures for Wis~
consin, the only State which has SUI
pervised system of apprenticeship, show
only 73 new indentures in trade in 1881,
as compared to 755 in 1929.
And in States where high standard
of child protection exists by law there
has been great pressure to break down
standards. The actual need for work at
any wage or age, and the urge for profits,
however small, have Debated wages and
led to violation of age and hour stand
ards, while at the same time budgets
for factory inspection and the enforce
ment of child labor laws have necessarily
been cut.
In certain industrial localities, espe-
cially those where the garment trades
flourish, return to sweatshop condi-
tions, reviving the notorious evils of
past generation, has been widely de-
plored.
The Massachusetts, Minimum Wage
Commission, for example, last Spring
learned that 10 cents an hour, and in one
case, five cents an hour, were paid to
girl workers in Fall River, and that hum
dreds were earning less than IS a week.
From another source we learn that
nearly half the children under Is were
earning less than So week in the cloth
ing factories of Pennsylvania, and that
more than fifth were earning less than
81. In Scranton the median wage for
a group of IA and IS year old children
was $4@ for boys and $420 for girls.
Conditions are worse in the so-called
contract shops, but these in turn
threaten the employers Of good intention
who see their business imperiled by the
competition Of unscrupulous rivals, and
thus the whole industrial fabric is en-
dangered.
A MOTHER class of occupation which
causes grave concern is the CONF
mission job for boys, involving house-to-
house canvaSsing, with the recitation Of
hard-luck stories in which they have
been secretly coached Domestic service
is in some localities about the only work
available for juveniles, but the New York
Junior placement service in February
refused to fill two-thirds Of the posi-
ticos because of unsuitable conditions
Of wages and environment.
The menace to child health in this
substandard employment adds another
element Of danger to the unwholesome
picture. For children already suffering
from malnutrition resulting from low
cred economic standard in the home,
employment under such conditions may
mean sacrifice of vitality for the re-
mainder of their lives and an additional
burden on the public treasury. Yet in
many towns no adequate physical ex-
animation is linked with the issuance of
work papers. The value Of such exami-
nations is demonstrated statistically in
reports from Philadelphia, where in 1880
and 1881, before the depression had un-
der1nined the health Of growing chill
dren, the number Of IA and is year old
boys and girls refused permits for rea-
sons Of Ill health was only one-dfth Of
the total. BY 1882 one-third were not
allowed to 60 to work because Of poor
physical conditions.
Granted, then, that the time Is ripe
for more decisive action In the ash3
against child labor, the problem axieee