MISS JULIA C. LATHROP'S PAPER 85 



The Children's Bureau was established by Act of 

 Congress on April 9, 1912, although it did not go 

 into operation until August 23 of the same year, when 

 the appropriation for its maintenance became available. 

 The statute defines its duties thus : 



" The said Bureau shall investigate and report to 

 said department upon all matters pertaining to the 

 welfare of children and child life among all classes 6f 

 our people, and shall especially investigate the questions 

 of infant mortality, the birth-rate, orphanage, juvenile 

 courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents and 

 diseases of children, employment, legislation affecting 

 children in the several states and territories. . . . The 

 chief of said Bureau may from time to time publish 

 the results of these investigations in such manner and 

 to such extent as may be prescribed by the Secretary 

 of Commerce and Labour " (now Secretary of Labour;. 

 For the discharge of these duties, the statute provides 

 a staff of fifteen persons and an annual appropriation 

 of about thirty thousand dollars. 



As to the scope of the Bureau "all matters 

 pertaining to the welfare of children and child life" 

 this provision indicates that it covers all the children 

 of the nation. But the statute does not define a child, 

 nor indeed is there any uniform authoritative definition 

 as to the age at which childhood ends. If we turn to 

 the last Census, we get a view of the numbers of 

 American children, divided according to the Census 

 method into five-year age groups. The group up to 

 5 years shows 10,631,364 children; 5 to 9 years, 

 9,760,632 ; 10 to 14 years, 9,107,140; 15 to 19 years, 

 9,063,603. So that, if we were to limit our attention 

 to children before they reach the school age, we 

 should have a field of over 10 millions of children. 

 If we enlarge the scope to include the children up to 

 the close of the standard school period 14 years 

 we should have twenty-nine and a half millions. And 

 if we add the nine million odd young people under 20, 



