The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-04-17

4oAte&A8 09e ttA8t IA many D+CbAU4aA
Of the country employers. BY false
appeals 10 patriotic motives, are get
ting and exploiting child labor on
such q scale that the situation has
become alarming.
Other States
in some neighborhocd COT other
states) we have been told there is
scarcely q child fourteen or over
not working" Miss Beatrice Nc
Council, director Of the Industrial
Division, q. 8. Children's Bureau,
Is quoted IS saying. "And many
children, some under fourteen, are
working long hours after school,"
"In the fiscal year 1884," accord
ing 70 Q report Of the Childrens
Bureau, "there was an increase Of
iS2 per cent In the number Of min-
ors found Illegally employed. OF
these children, Is per cent were un-
der 10; 81 per cent were under IL:
and IL per cent were under IL.
Many were 10, O., Q, and eveA
younger"
When Connecticut employers be-
gan using child labor In whole
sale lots, the Golfers article reports,
the state labor department had an
urgent need Of more inspectors but
did something about It."
The article reports:
we knew the violations were
mounting and had 10 be uncovered
according to Miss Edna M. Purtell
the departments industrial iivestl-
gator, "but we hadn't enough in.
Spectors. So we drafted an in
formal, casual little QUESTIONABLE
asking school children II they were
working, and II so, to give details
we picked the crowded defense
cities Of Hartford, Bridgeport, New
Britain and New Haven, and asked
the school superlntendents to cir
culate our QUESTIONABLE In junior
and senior high schools. The ques-
tionnatre was not 10 be taken home,
but answered then and there BY
each child.
1.-THE questionnaires were all
given out on the same day. 1t
was done very casually. That way
we got the real truth. Every child
IN those schools that day answered
N his own handwriting"
Tabulated
The tabuleted results, according
to Golfers showed that tout Of IT,
900 high school boys and girls In
those four cities, over 4,70O were
employed exclusive Of domestic
service and street trades; and OF
this number, over 1000, more than
one-fifth, were under 10 - illegally
employed.
"0f the 1889 high school students
OF bridgeport, New Haven and New
Britain who were working after
school, 2,726 worked days o week;
627 worked till 10 p. M, and SOC
worked till midnight and after"
We found children twelve, thtr-
teen, fourteen and fifteen years old
working up to sixty hours q week,
Miss Purtell said. 1.-THE bowling
alleys were the greatest offenders
OF all, employing the youngest chill
dren the longest hours under the
worst conditions. In o Hartford
alley, we found q boy of twelve
working sixty hours q week, seven
days q week. quitting at 4 a. m.
each day. Some Of the bowling
alleys had back rooms filled with
cots where local pin boys and some
rlnaways could sleep and play crap
games. Last year, one twelve-year
old, Supplied by drowsiness, lost
two fingers Of his left hand when a
bowling ball struck him. In one
alley. both girls and boys were
found to be employed"
Miss Purtell declared that the
state labor departments work has
done great good. '.Tirst", she says,
1T led us to the violators. Second,
1t has stirred public indignation to
such pitch that we have obtained
a large number Of convictions.