married woman is by no means an exceptional figure in the industrial world."

Whether married or single, the wages paid women wageearners are extremely low. Says the Bureau of Labor Statistics report already quoted: "One of the most significant facts bought out by the investigation in practically all industries was the large proportion of woman wage earners who were paid very low wages-wages in many cases inadequate to supply a reasonable standard of living for women dependent upon their own earnings for support." Table VI gives the exact percentages of women 16 years of age and over in the four great industries, cotton, men's ready-made clothing, glass, and silk whose earnings fell below $6 and $8. In these industries, it appears, from two-fifths to two-thirds earned less than $6, and from two-thirds to more than ninetenths less than $8 in a representative week. Practically the same story is told for twenty-three other industries in Table VII.

Child Labor Problems in Agriculture.

The proportion of children at work differs widely in different parts of the country. Table VIII, for example, shows that in 1910, whereas in the East South Central division more than half of the boys and more than one-fourth of the girls from 10 to 15 years of age were engaged in gainful occupations, in the Pacific States only 8.1 per cent. of the boys and 2.2 per cent. of the girls were at work.

Numerically the problem of child labor is greatest in agriculture. Of all the children at work in 1910 more than seven out of every ten were engaged in agricultural pursuits. Moreover, though both the total number and the proportion of young children at work increased from 1900 to 1910, this increase, as is shown in Table IX, was solely in agricultural pursuits. This table shows, indeed, that a marked decrease took place between 1900 and 1910 in the number, both of boys and of girls, engaged in non-agricultural pursuits. Thus the problem of child labor has shifted from the occupations where it has been prohibited or regulated by law to the one great unregulated industry-agriculture.

The agricultural labor of children is to a great extent a problem of the South where the tenant and crop-mortgage system of farming forces families to put their children to work as soon as they can hold a hoe. Table X shows the contrast between the North and the South in the employment of boys and girls from 10 to 15 years of age on farms. In some of the northern states, notably Vermont, it appears that a considerable number of boys are employed in agriculture, but very few girls, whereas in each of the eleven southern states given, except Kentucky for girls, from 75 to 95

per cent., both of the boys and of the girls engaged in gainful occupations, were in agricultural pursuits.

The evils of child labor in agricultural pursuits are little known because the subject has never been investigated upon any large scale. About four-fifths of the children engaged in agriculture in 1910, however, were at work on the home farm. Nevertheless, the labor is hard, the hours are long, and the children are frequently exposed to bad weather. As Mr. Clopper and Mr. Hine have said in their report on "Child Labor in the Sugar-Beet Fields of Colorado,' published by the National Child Labor Committee: "Nearly three-fourths of our child laborers are engaged in agricultural pursuits, yet the movement for child labor reform, which has been so wide-spread and determined in the past quarter century, has not even touched this greatest field of all. It has resulted in protective legislation concerning employment in mines, factories, mills and mercantile establishments, but the only legislation which in any way protects children from premature or excessive work on farms is the compulsory education law, and this is effective only during certain hours of certain days for the school term-from five to nine months of the year. Moreover, the greatest agricultural activity comes usually in the school vacation period when there are no restrictions whatever upon the labor of children on farms." According to estimates made by the superintendents of schools in thirteen counties of Colorado, in these counties alone at least 5,000 children under 16 lose from two to twentytwo weeks of schooling because of work in the beet fields.

Conditions in Cotton Mills.

As for the work of children in manufacturing industries, though decreasing, this is still a serious problem. In manufacturing and mechanical industries in 1910 the Census reported 5,008 children from 10 to 13 years of age, and 27,657 children 14 and 15 years of age. The principal industries in which these children were employed, with the number of girls and boys of the different age groups engaged in each, are given in Table XI. The cotton mills, with all their bad conditions of noise, dust and humidity, evidently employ many more young children than any other manufacturing industry.

Of conditions in the cotton mills, which employ large numbers of women as well as of children, the report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics says: "The death rate is much higher among women working in cotton mills than among women not so employed, and female_operatives are especially susceptible to tuberculosis. The work done by children and most of that done by women is of a monoton

ous and deadening character, requiring no initiative and giving no general training. At the same time much of it demands close attention, and is, therefore, exhausting. The scale of earnings is low, and usually the combined wages of the family are required to meet the family expenses."

The Age Limit.

In manufacturing industries, however, and to a lesser degree in practically all other occupations except agricultural pursuits, the number of child workers is limited by laws prohibiting labor under a certain minimum age and regulating it under a still higher age. According to the report of the U. S. Children's Bureau on Child Labor Legislation in the United States (Bureau Publication No. 10, Industrial Series No. 1), the minimum age on January 1, 1916, for employment in factories was 14 in all States and Territories except Ohio where it was 15 for boys and 16 for girls; California and Michigan where it was 15; Nevada and Texas where, though the age was 14, it applied only to employment during school hours; Mississippi where it was 12 for boys but 14 for girls; Alabama (14 after Sept. 1, 1916) and North Carolina where it was 13; South Carolina where it was 12; Porto Rico where it was 10; and New Mexico, Wyoming, Hawaii and the Philippine Islands where there was no age limit whatever. But for work during vacations the age limit was 12 in California, Colorado, Idaho and Oregon, and 10 for boys in Arizona. In case of poverty it was 14 in California, 12 in Georgia and in the District of Columbia, and apparently there was no minimum age for poor children in Delaware or South Dakota. Children over 12 could work also in North Carolina in an apprenticeship capacity if they had attended school 4 months during the year; in Virginia they could work on a "release" from a court; and in Washington they could work in occupations not considered "dangerous or injurious to health or morals." Even in factories, therefore, at the beginning of 1916, children could legally work at 12 years of age and in some cases even younger, under certain conditions or during certain parts of the year, in some twenty-one out of fiftythree states or other political divisions.

Hours of Labor.

The hours of labor of women as well as of children are often limited by law, and in some states night work is prohibited. As in the case of the minimum age all these regulations apply more frequently to manufacturing establishments than to any other places of employment. On January 1, 1916, no woman was permitted to work in a factory more than eight hours a day and forty-eight a week in California, District of Columbia, or Porto Rico; eight a day in Colo

rado; nine a day and fifty-four a week in Arkansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, or Utah; nine a day in Montana, or Oklahoma; ten a day and fifty-four a week in Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island; ten a day and fifty-five a week in Connecticut. Delaware, and Wisconsin; ten a day and fifty-six a week in Wyoming; ten a day and sixty a week in Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oregon and Texas; ten a day in Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Virginia; ten and a half a day and fifty-seven a week in Tennessee; ten and a quarter a day and fifty-five a week in New Hampshire; eleven a day and fifty-eight a week in Vermont; eleven a day and sixty a week in South Carolina; and sixty a week in Georgia and North Carolina. In Washington a commission had power to fix hours. The only states or territories in which night work of adult women was prohibited were Connecticut (where the law is ineffective by reason of its wording), Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Porto Rico.

In most states women are not permitted to work in mines, and in some states they cannot be employed in occupations which require them to stand constantly. In Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont in 1916 they were not permitted to work for a certain period before or after childbirth.

All the states and other political divisions had in January, 1916, laws limiting the hours of labor of children under sixteen in factories except Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico, the Philippine Islands and West Virginia. Montana and Texas only regulated the hours of girls by the same provisions as for women. Porto Rico had a seven hour day and a fortytwo hour week. But the most common hours permitted children under 16 were eight a day and forty-eight a week, which was the limit in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi (in cotton and knitting mills boys could work ten hours a day and sixty a week), Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. Of the other states the legal hours for children under 16 were nine a day and fifty a week in Vermont; nine a day and fifty-one a week in Pennsylvania; nine a day and fifty-four a week in Florida, Idaho and Indiana; fifty-four a week in Delaware, and Utah (for boys only under 14); ten a day and fifty-four a week in Michigan and Rhode Island; ten a day and fifty-five a week in Connecticut; ten a day and fifty-six a week in Wyoming; fiftyseven a week in Tennessee; ten a day and fifty-eight a week

in Maine; ten a day and sixty a week in Louisiana, and South Dakota; ten a day in Maryland, Oregon, and Virginia; sixty a week in Georgia, and North Carolina; ten and a fourth a day and fifty-five a week in New Hampshire; and eleven a day and sixty a week in Alabama and South Carolina. In Washington, as in the case of women, hours were regulated by a commission and not by the State Legislature. Night work in factories was prohibited for children under 16 in all the states and other political divisions except Alaska, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, the Philippine Islands, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming; but in Hawaii only night work of girls was forbidden.

The efficacy of this legislation depends, however, upon its enforcement, and whether or not it is adequately enforced depends in great measure upon the methods used in its administration. In most states employment certificates are issued by local school authorities, but in Connecticut they are issued by the State Board of Education, in New York by local health departments, in Maryland by the State Bureau of Statistics and Information, and in Wisconsin by the Industrial Commission or by a local judge, while in Virginia any notary public can issue an employment certificate. To see that children are not employed under the legal minimum age or without certificates under the regulated age, two agencies are generally depended upon, first, local school authorities in their function of enforcing through attendance officers the compulsory education law, and second, a state department of inspection or of labor enforcing through inspectors all or most of the labor laws of the state.

The Federal Law.

A federal act prohibiting the shipment in interstate commerce of manufactured goods produced in whole or in part by the labor of children under 14 years of age or of children under 16 who have worked more than eight hours a day is to go into effect in 1917. The shipment of the products of mines and quarries in which children under 16 are employed is also prohibited. This act is to be enforced by the Secretary of Labor under regulations to be framed by the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Commerce and the Attorney General.