CHILD LABOR 



1326 



CHILD LABOR 



instruction, the problem of the exceptional and 

 the backward child. All these exceptional chil- 

 dren need an unusual amount of care. H.K.SS 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes, relating to children or to chil- 

 dren's activities, will be of interest in connection 

 with this topic : 



Baby Eugenics 



Boys' and Girls' Clubs Games and Plays 



Boy Scouts George Junior Republic 



Camp-Fire Girls Heredity 



Canning Clubs Industrial Art 



Child Labor Interior Decoration 



Children, Societies for Kindergarten 



Children's Bureau Montessori Method 



Child Study Natural Education 



Cruelty to Animals, So- (Subtitle under EDU- 



ciety for Prevention CATION) 



of Play 



Dolls Schools 



Dress Story-Telling 



Education Toys 



CHILD LABOR, a term relating to the em- 

 ployment of children in industry. Children 

 have been thus employed from the earliest 

 days of recorded history, but the problem of 

 child labor, as it is commonly understood, has 

 developed with the modern factory system. 

 In every country in which manufacturing in- 

 dustries have reached a high state of develop- 

 ment competition is keen and effort is con- 

 stantly being made to keep the cost of produc- 

 tion low. In such countries child labor is a 

 vital social and economic issue. 



The Development of the System. Under the 

 conditions of labor which preceded the factory 

 system, the employment of children was re- 

 garded as a part of their education. Either 

 as apprentices or in the workshops of their 

 parents they learned a trade and "habits of 

 steady industry." While there were many cases 

 of abuse under this system, there was a close 

 personal relation between the master and the 

 child, which usually checked the master's in- 

 difference to the child's good. The factory 

 system is characterized by two features which 

 did not exist under any preceding system of 

 labor: first, the employment of workmen in 

 large numbers has tended to destroy any per- 

 sonal relations between master and workman; 

 second, the operation of automatic machinery 

 frequently requires quickness and deftness 

 rather than physical strength. In England, 

 where child labor first became a social menace, 

 the demand for children to work in textile 

 mills was supplied by a vicious system, using 

 pauper children collected from the poorhouses. 

 These children received as pay only their food 

 and lodging. As" competition became more in- 



tense, the working and living conditions of 

 the children became worse, until they consti- 

 tuted a form of slavery. Children five years 

 of age were sometimes found in the mills. 

 Hours of work were unregulated, and a day 

 of twelve hours or "from sunrise to sunset" 

 was not uncommon. 



Such conditions existed in England during 

 the first quarter of the nineteenth century. In 

 the United States child labor did not involve 

 great numbers of children until the period of 

 industrial expansion which followed the War 

 of Secession. In Belgium, Germany and Italy 

 it began to trouble economists and sociologists 

 about 1875 to 1880, and in Canada the problem 

 is even more recent. 



The Regulation of Child Labor. The first 

 law regulating child labor, in the modern sense, 

 was passed by the British Parliament in 1802. 

 It applied to cotton mills only, forbade work 

 between 9 p. M. and 6 A. M., limited the working 

 day to twelve hours and required elementary 

 instruction for apprentices. An important act 

 of 1819 prohibited the employment of children 

 under nine years of age in establishments for 

 the preparation and spinning of cotton. These 

 early statutes were weakened, however, by 

 failure to provide for their enforcement. Step 

 by step greater protection was given to the 

 child, until now the minimum age for full- 

 time work is thirteen, and fourteen unless the 

 child possesses certain physical and educational 

 qualifications. 



Following the lead of England, Germany 

 passed its first law regulating child labor in 

 1839, and nearly all European countries now 

 give the child some degree of protection. The 

 following regulations apply to factories: In 

 Germany, thirteen is the age limit; children 

 from thirteen to fourteen may be employed 

 only six hours a day, and children from four- 

 teen to sixteen not over ten hours a day. 

 Thirteen is also the general age limit in France, 

 though a child of twelve may begin work if he 

 has a prescribed educational and medical cer- 

 tificate of fitness; ten years is the limit in 

 Spain, and fourteen in Switzerland and Nor- 

 way; in several other European countries the 

 age limit is twelve years. The enforcement of 

 the laws in Europe is generally very strict. 



In the United States and Canada the prob- 

 lem of regulation is newer. Here, as in other 

 countries, the tendency of many industries is 

 to overwork and underpay their child-workers, 

 and little attention is paid to their educational, 

 physical or moral well-being. All students of 



