-1922

Vol. IV

THE NEW BULLETIN

The National Child Labor Committee announces to its members and friends that beginning with this number the AMERICAN CHILD, published as a quarterly magazine since 1912, will be issued monthly as a four-page bulletin.

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After careful deliberation the Board of Trustees has decided that at this crucial time the Committee can best serve its members and the public by a concise bulletin of this nature. AMERICAN CHILD has been of unique value in disseminating authentic facts on general phases of child welfare; it has been practically the only authoritative source of its kind. However, the Board feels that in view of the recent developments in the child labor situation, a bulletin issued more frequently than the magazine will be of greater service in keeping our members and friends in closer touch with progress in the field.

The constructive educational point of view which has been the editorial policy of the AMERICAN CHILD will remain unchanged. The new organ will continue to furnish accurate information, but with greater frequency than heretofore.

Census Figures and Child Labor

We have recently had a shock which awakened us to a sense of national inadequacy. The Supreme Court decision of May declaring the federal child labor act unconstitutional suddenly forced upon us the fact that the federal government is at present powerless to protect the children of America from exploitation in factories, mills, canneries, mines and quarries.

Now comes another shock-the census report of 1920 showing child labor apparently cut in half since 1910. The 1910 census reported 1,990,225 children 10 to 15 years of age as gainfully employed, whereas the 1920 census returns show 1,060,858 working children of that age, or a decrease of 46.7 per cent. The immediate result of this has been a return to a feeling of national complacency. Our public conscience is soothed into a state of lethargy. Our newspapers are glowing with self-satisfaction, and some states are patting themselves on the back, content with their present child labor laws, or lack of them.

No. 3

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In the words of Dr. Alba M. Edwards, census expert of the Department of Commerce, "The marked decrease in the number of children between 10 and 15 years old who are at work, shown by census figures for 1920 just published, is more apparent than real. The question of child labor remains a problem, accentuated by the Supreme Court's recent decision, despite the optimistic figures of the census of 1920." most important cause of this decrease attributed by the Census Bureau is the change of the census date. The 1910 census was compiled in mid-April; the 1920 census was taken in January, when agriculture is practically at a standstill. Other causes for the enormous decrease given by the Census Bureau are the seasonality of certain agricultural labor, the fact that children on the home farm are classed as gainfully employed only if their work constitutes a material addition to the labor income, and that children spending more than half their time at school are not classed as gainfully employed.

Moreover, even though we recognize these modifying factors, we still fail to get a true picture of child labor from the census reports. We must bear in mind that the census does not include children under 10 years of age, nevertheless hosts of children under that age are found working in the beet, cotton, tobacco and onion fields and in other forms of agriculture, as well as in tenement home work, street trades and domestic service.

In fact, it is these industries which constitute the real problem of child labor. Agriculture and domestic service are either specifically exempted from child labor regulation or totally ignored. Tenement homework is left an open field to exploiters of child life. The streets are a constant physical and moral hazard to hundreds of children under ten in large cities having no street trade regulations.

Friends of America's children are indeed gratified that there is a marked decrease in child labor during the last decade, for of course a great part of it is actual. Undoubtedly the decrease has been largely the result attendance laws and their better enforcement, as of improved state child labor and compulsory school well as of a growing public sentiment against exploitation.

To return to a state of inertia just because conditions have improved within the past decade is unworthy of a nation noted for its boundless vitality and energy in forging ahead to the final triumph.