CHILD LABOUR IN THE UNITED STATES The U. S. Census of 1930 reported over 667,118 children io to 15 years of age, inclusive, as "engaged in gainful occupations" in the United States. This number was approximately one-twentieth of the total number (14,300,S 76) of children of that age in the entire country. The number of child workers io to 13 years of age, inclusive, was 235,328.
The census does not report the number of working children under ten years of age, but it is known that such children are em ployed in considerable numbers in agriculture and in smaller num bers in other occupations.
Of the child workers Io to 15 years of age, inclusive, in 1930 or 70%, were reported to be employed in agricultural pur suits, the large majority (86%) as labourers on the home farm. There were 68,266 children, or 10.2%, employed in manufacturing and mechanical industries. Over 16,00o children were engaged in some type of clerical occupation; about 50,00o were in trade; 46,145, majority of them girls, were working at occupations clas sified "domestic and personal service"; and 1,184—almost all of them boys—were employed in the extraction of minerals.
During and since the World War the number of working chil dren fluctuated greatly. By the latter part of 1915 the effect of foreign orders for war goods was beginning to make itself felt, and an unprecedented rise in the number of children employed in factories followed.
Available statistics show that in most places the peak in the employment of children was reached in 1918. The shutting down of war industries and the return of soldiers resulted in a temporary decline in 1919, and the census of 1920 showed a considerable decrease in the number of children reported at work as compared with 1910. Although the total child population to to I5 years of age, inclusive, increased 15.5% the number of work ing children reported decreased almost half (46.7%). As a re sult between 1920 and 1930 when the child population io to 15 years of age increased 14.4%, the census showed a decrease in the number of working children of 37.1%. In 1910, 18.4% of all the children of these ages were employed in gainful occupations; in 1920, 8.5% and 4.7%. Between 1920 and 1930 the decline was most striking in extraction of minerals ; clerical oc. cupations (78.9%) ; and manufacturing and mechanical industries (63.2%) and least in domestic and personal service (14.6%).
The most important legislation between 1910 and 1920 was the enactment of the first Federal child labour law, which came into operation in Sept. 1917. This Act prohibited the shipment in interstate or foreign commerce of the product of any mine or quarry in which children under 16 were employed, and the prod ucts of any mill, cannery, factory, workshop or manufacturing establishment in which children under 14 were employed or chil dren between 14 and 16 were employed more than eight hours a day, or six days a week, or before 6 A.M. or after 7 P.M. It was attacked as unconstitutional and on June 3, 1918, the U.S. Su preme Court held, by a vote of 5 to 4, that it did not constitute a valid exercise of Congress' constitutional authority to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. A child labour tax clause was then inserted in the Revenue Act of 1918. It placed a io% tax on the net incomes of establishments employing children of the ages and for the hours specified in the previous Federal law. This was held an unconstitutional exercise of Congress' authority by the Supreme Court in 1922. A proposal for an amendment to the United States Constitution specifically giving to Congress the right to regulate or prohibit the labour of persons under 18 years of age received the requisite two-thirds vote in Congress and was submitted to the States in June 1924. Up to June 1, states had ratified the child labour amendment, leaving 12 more ratifications necessary for adoption.
Under the National Recovery Act a i6-year minimum age standard was included in more than Soo codes, and prohibitions against the employment of minors under 18 years of age in dan gerous occupations were included in a large per cent of the codes. As the U. S. Supreme Court held an N.R.A. code unconstitutional in the Schechter case, whether or not these gains will be held will depend upon the voluntary action of employers, action by the sev eral states, or an amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifically authorizing social welfare legislation by Congress.
In the child-labour legislation enacted by the various states there are many differences. It is usually required:— 0) That a child must reach a specified age and an educational and physical standard before he can be industrially employed ; (2) That an official work permit must certify his ability to meet the standards established by the statute; (3) That the age at which children may be employed at night or in hazardous or unhealthful occupations must be higher than the age at which they may be employed in general occupations.
Of these standards the minimum age was the first to be generally adopted. Every State except one (Wyoming) has prohibited the employment in industry of children under 14 years of age. That the present tendency is toward the establishment of a higher age is indicated by the fact that seven States (Connecticut, Montana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin) have adopted a 16 year minimum, while 5 states (Michigan, Maine, Rhode Island, California and Texas) have a 15 year minimum.
In 45 States child-labour laws prohibit the employment at night of children at least up to 16 years of age in an enumerated list of occupations. The hours vary. For example, New York prohibits the employment of children under 16 years after 5 P.M. or before 8 A.M.; California after 10 P.M. or before 5 A.M. In 43 States, including those of most importance industrially, laws prohibit the employment in certain unhealthful or hazardous processes of children, usually under 16 years of age, sometimes 18 years of age. (G. AB.)