Child Labor
Reviews And Criticism.
The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. XXIX, No. 1, January, 1907.
This number of the “Annals” contains a collection of nineteen articles treating the subject of child labor from quite diverse points of view. The complete series presents a clear and comprehensive picture of the actual situation as it appears to men and women whose lives bring them into vital contact with the conditions which they discuss. Six of the articles describe the present status of child labor in the South, the Middle West, and the coal region. The physical effect of premature labor from the standpoint of the physician is discussed by Dr Albert F. Freiberg; the various means of dealing with the question by legislation, and the obstacles encountered in enforcing the labor laws, are discussed by Homer Folks, Senator Beveridge, and others; the relation of the child labor laws to the public schools is treated by Samuel McCune Lindsay, Nathan C. Schaeffer and Charles W. Dabney.
One is strongly impressed, in reading the volume, with the absolute necessity for more positive statistical information in regard to the actual child labor conditions in the several states, and the effect of premature labor on the mental, moral, and physical being of the child. At present, the advocates of reform have little to offer but general impressions and opinions; and no matter how true these are felt to be by those of us who are familiar with the conditions, they will not be accepted as facts by the industrial communities to whom child labor means wealth. This lack of positive data was keenly felt by the Ohio State Child Labor Committee, when asked by a group of manufacturers to substantiate their claim that physical deterioration results when children from twelve to sixteen years of age are kept at work ten hours daily. They were unable to furnish the desired proof, and therefore unable to make their plea for reform a strong one. Dr Freiberg, in writing of “Some of the ultimate physical effects of premature toil,” describes some pathological conditions resulting from child labor of the less strenuous type. Continued standing, or sitting, even when unaccompanied by arduous toil, he considers fatiguing in the extreme, and to the growing child very detrimental to normal development. Continued standing frequently results, either during childhood or later in adult life, in the painful disease known as “flat foot,” which often entirely incapacitates the individual for any lat>or which requires standing, and thus deprives him of his trade and with it his best means of livelihood. In order to relieve the fatigue” of continuous sitting the child assumes unnatural positions, often resulting in a lateral curvature of the spine, which leads to diminished chest capacity, to crowding and (89) displacement of the organs, and to an increased tendency towards pulmonary consumption. Sucli information, however, will not be accepted by the enemies of child labor reform, unless embodied in statistical reports, and this can only be accomplished, says Dr Freiberg, as the result of a series of examinations made by experts on large numbers of working children at stated periods in their development, and a similar series of examinations made on an equal number of nonemployed children. Dr Freiberg strongly urges that such an investigation be undertaken, not by a private society, for which it would be too great a task, but by the government. Senator Beveridge mentions, among the many objections which are made to national legislation on the subject, the opinion that “the evils of child labor are overdrawn” and that “it is a good thing for a child to have to work.” Even the convincing eloquence of Senator Beveridge is insufficient to overcome these objections without substantial proof that his statements are correct. Professor Lindsay also calls attention to the poverty of data supplied by the Educational Department, stating that the public cannot be expected to raise money enough to educate the vast number of children crowded into the schools by the enforcement of labor and compulsory education laws, unless it is accurately informed of the actual conditions and needs. The consensus of opinion seems to be that the remedy for the evil of child labor will be found in national legislation. Dr Felix Adler shows that the continuance of premature child labor is directly opposed to the modern attitude toward the child. The child is looked upon as “a promise of something that is to be, as the possibility of something finer, something better, something greater on the earth than has yet been.” While holding this ideal, our nation is sacrificing hundreds of thousands of little ones to the greed for gold; for the child who is compelled to work under fourteen is physically stunted, mentally crippled, and through his nervous exhaustion and the bitterness of spirit engendered by his condition, he is morally unfitted for good citizenship. Thus the existence of child labor prevents the evolution of that type of manhood which is the hope of the American people. Though Dr Adler is a strong advocate of state autonomy, he realizes that the commercial and industrial interests in many of the states are so strong that effective state legislation against child labor is impossible. He therefore advocates national action, believing that “when a part of the nation acts in such a way that the mischief of its action extends beyond its own borders, then the whole nation must intervene. When a part acts in such a way that the moral turpitude of its action is an offense to the consciousness of the whole people, then the whole people must intervene and put an end to that offense and that mischief, as in the case of slavery.” The attitude of the educator towards child labor legislation is presented in the papers of Superintendent Schaeffer, Professor Lindsay, and President Dabney. Dr Schaeffer emphasizes the moral value of training the child in habits of industry, and fostering in him a love of work for its own sake, before the burden of self-support is thrust upon him. He welcomes the release from labor which leaves the child a little longer in the school to profit by such training. Professor Lindsay recognizes that the result of the enforcement of child labor laws has at once increased the opportunities and the duties of the educator. It makes it incumbent upon the community to supply schools enough for all the children, and, moreover, to supply training in trades, which is at least equivalent to that which would be secured by the children in any factory or workshop. It makes it necessary to supply school facilities, and when poverty demands it, food and clothing for the one in every six children from ten to sixteen years of age, who is at present a wage-earner. To meet this demand a great increase in revenue will be necessary, and this will be forthcoming when the administrative department of the schools is able to present statistics which will demonstrate clearly to the public the needs of the department and the cost of supplying them. President Dabney is of the opinion that the schools themselves may do much to lessen child labor by improving the curriculum. The key-note of his article is, that children want to work because “there is nothing doing in the schools.” “When we provide,” says President Dabney, “for the full life of the child, we will not have 1o make so many laws for compulsory education or against child labor.” The volume also contains reports from the State and Local ChildLabor Committees, and the Consumers’ League; and, in a new “department of social work,” an account of the recent industrial exhibit in Philadelphia. It is accompanied by a supplement containing a compilation and analysis of the laws of the several states on child labor, prepared by the National Consumers’ League.
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