CHILD LABOR. The term labor* is difficult to define because what is regarded as labor in one community or under certain ditions is often not so regarded in other munities or under other conditions; neither is there agreement as to the length of childhood. The definition of the term depends upon the state of public opinion and upon the tion of that opinion in the form of restrictive and constructive measures for the benefit of children. In the early days of the movement in England to protect children from economic exploitation, the term was understood to apply only to the employment of very young children in mills and mines. Gradually its application was broadened to include the work of children in many other establishments and occupations and the minimum age limit for employment was raised. To-day in the United States, not only the employment of children by merchants, ufacturers and mine operators is considered as child labor, but also the independent activity of boys and girls for gain, as in the so-called street trades of newspaper selling, bootblacking and peddling, in which the child is virtually in business on his own account. There is also a growing conviction that the labor of children in agricultural pursuits and domestic service, which are not now regulated by law and tofore have been commonly looked upon as wholly beneficial occupations, also may be jectionable under certain conditions. The possibility of exploitation in any line of work is now generally recognized and this more enlightened public opinion has caused a steady expansion in the application of child welfare principles, until now every use that is made of industrially ndustrially is subject to careful scrutiny. The United States bureau of the census in its report of the 13th census uses the term °gainful workers* as applied to children, to include all workers except those working at home merely on general household tasks, on chores, or, at odd times, on other work. There is no definite period fixed as the result of scientific inquiry to mark the limit of childhood in respect of ability to labor, but for purposes of regulation in this field the age of 16 years is generally accepted as marking the transition from childhood to youth.
According to the United States census for 1910, there were engaged in gainful occupations in this country 1,990,225 children from 10 to 15 years of age inclusive, or 18.4 per cent of all the children belonging to this age group. Nearly half of these were under 14 years, the number of such children exceeding by more than 100,000 the corresponding num ber in the census report for 1900; this increase, however, was confined to those in agricultural pursuits, and the number of children under 14 years of age engaged in other occupations was reduced almost half (from 186,358 to 95,839). The bureau of the census attributes the in crease in the number of child agricultural workers to the more exacting nature of the instructions given to the census enumerators in 1910 as compared with those given in 1900, rather than to any marked change in the actual extent of child labor on the farms.
Public opinion against the employment of older children (those 14 and 15 years of age) has been steadily growing, and even before 1910 several States had forbidden the employ ment of children under 16 in certain dangerous occupations, but not until after this census was taken did any State, with the single ex ception of Montana, attempt to establish an age limit higher than 14 for employment in the common kinds of work other than agriculture and domestic service. Therefore we find a far smaller decrease in the number of older child workers, 461,806 children 14 and 15 years old being reported in non-agricultural occupations in 1910, as against 501,849 10 years earlier. The distribution of child workers in the United States, among industries, by age groups, accord ing to the census of 1910, is as follows: Children reported , banrstav 10-13 14-15 Tote.