CHILD LABOR. Efforts to regulate conditions under which children are em ployed in industrial operations have continued since the great industrial ex pansion in the United States, following the Civil War. Abuses in the employ ment of children reached the point where legislation was essential. In 1879 children of 8 to 11 years of age were employed in factories from 11 to 14 hours daily. According to the census of 1900, children under 1G formed 13.3 per cent. of all persons engaged in cot, ton in the United States. As a result of legislation, this per tentage had declined in 1909 to per ,cent. Laws relating to child labor in the United States usually fix a certain age limit, prohibit certain kinds of em ployment for children, as dangerous to health or morals, limit the number of hours a person under a certain age may be employed, prohibit night work for children, and, in a large number of cases, fix educational requirements for children under a given age. The age limit in most States is from 14 to 16 years. In California and Michigan children under 18 may not be employed in factories more than 9 hours a day. In New York children under 16 are limited to an eight-hour day. Nearly all the States prohibit the employment of children in work that is especially dan gerous. Night work is prohibited in many States.
The restrictions that were gradually being placed about child labor with a view to race betterment, were sensibly relaxed during the World War, because of the great demand for labor in every department of activity among the Allied nations. With the close of the conflict, the subject came once more to the fore in economic discussion and legislation. It was carefully considered by the Com mission on International Labor Legisla tion at the Peace Conference at Paris, 'which recommended: "No child should be permitted to be employed in industry or commerce before the age of 14 years, in order that every child may be assured reasonable opportunities for mental and 'physical education; between the ages of 14 and 18, young persons of either sex may be employed only on work which is not harmful to their physical develop ment and on condition that the continua tion of their technical or general educa tion is assured." In a somewhat mod ified form, these recommendations were adopted by the Conference. At three successive international conferences held in 1919 in Washington and Montevideo, practically similar resolutions were adopted. In the United States, a new Federal Child Labor Law was passed through both Houses in 1918 and signed by President Wilson, Feb. 24, 1919. This
was designed to take the place of the previous Child Labor Law which had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1918, because its en forcement had been sought through in terstate commerce regulations. The new law used the Federal Taxation Power as the medium of enforcement, and a summary of its provisions is as follows: "The amendment imposes a tax of 10 per cent. on the net profits from the operation of (a) any mine or quarry sit uated in the United States in which chil dren under the age of 16 years have been employed or permitted to work dur ing any portion of the taxable year; or (b) any mill, cannery, workshop, factory or manufacturing establishment sit uated in the United States in which chil dren under the age of 14 years have been employed or permitted to work, or chil dren between the ages of 14 or 16 years have been employed or permitted to work more than eight hours in any day or for more than six days in any week, or after the hour of 7 o'clock p. m. or before the hour of 6 o'clock a. m. during any portion of the taxable year. Such a tax is not to apply in case of an em ployer relying in good faith upon an employment certificate issued under reg ulations prescribed by a board composed of the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue; nor in case of an employer who satisfies the Secretary of the Treasury that his employment of a child under the prescribed ages was due to an honest mistake of fact as to the age of the said child." The law went into effect April 25, 1919, but scarcely a week later, on May 2, was declared unconstitutional by Fed eral Judge Boyd of North Carolina, who based his decision on his conviction that "Congress was trying to do by indirection what it had no constitutional power to do directly." The case was sent back to the Supreme Court of the United States for final adjudication.
Whatever the final fate of the national law, the States were still left free to enact such legislation as they might see fit in relation to child labor. During the year 1919, thirty States strengthened legislation of this character and only two, Connecticut and Vermont, made the existing law less stringent. Progress has also been made in foreign lands, notably in England, Poland, Germany, Mexico, and Russia. In connection with the latter, an official statement was made, that when commercial relations should be resumed with other countries, no goods would be allowed to enter Rus sia that had been manufactured by child labor.