The age limits commonly adopted by the States of this country are 14 years for ordinary occupations in factories, workshops, stores, offices, restaurants, etc.; 16 years for dangerous work such as mining, quarrying, the operation of dangerous machinery and employment in the dusty trades or where paints, acids, dyes, gases, etc., are made or used; and 18 years for extra hazardous occupations about railroads, blast furnaces, hoisting machines or where phos phorus, explosives or liquors are made or handled.
A majority of the States limit the work-day of children between 14 and 16 years to 8 hours. In some States this regulation does not apply to all kinds of establishments, but factories are affected wherever it has been adopted. Other States prescribe a nine-hour work-day for such children, some allow 10 hours and a few place no limit whatever upon hours of labor. Work at night by children under 16 years of age is prohibited by almost all the states.
The range in the requirements for the issu ance of work-permits to children between 14 and 16 years is very great. A few States make practically no requirements while others de mand completion of the elementary school course of eight years, physical fitness for work as determined by authorized physicians, as well as documentary proof of age and written promise of legal employment. The permit is issued in most States by the local public school authorities, in a few others by the State factory inspectors or board of health. It is kept on file by the employer of the child for examina tion by inspectors and therefore serves as the basis for the enforcement of the child labor law. Its careful issuance under strict require ments is therefore a very important part of any program of child protection.
The for enforcement of the law varies with the nature and stage of development of the industries carried on in each State, and also depends upon the extent to which the law applies to these industries. For example, in Mississippi, where at the present writing the child labor law affects only mills, factories and canneries, and where the number of such establishments is comparatively small, one factory inspector is charged with the duty of seeing that it is obeyed; in New York the law applies to factories, stores, offices, restaurants, hotels, tenements, bowling alleys, barber shops, places of amusement, bootblack stands, mines, quarries, distilleries, breweries, to delivery and messenger service and to news paper selling, and there is required to ensure its observance an elaborate organization which includes divisions of factory, mercantile and home-work inspection employing 150 inspectors. Most of the States have a department of labor or an industrial commission which is responsible for the enforcement of all State laws concern ing the employment of children as well as of all other labor acts.
The adoption by the States of such a variety of standards led to a movement having as its object the bringing about of some degree of uniformity in the legislation on this subject, and a so-called Uniform Child Labor Law was drafted by the National Child Labor Commit tee and recommended to the States for adoption by the United States Commissioners on Uni form Laws of the American Bar Association.
This effort had some effect, but the desired degree of uniformity was not attained. A few of the States neglected to pass laws embodying even the essential minimum standards. At tention was then turned to the possibility of control by the Federal government and as the Federal constitution grants to Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, agita tion was begun for the passage of a bill for bidding the shipment in interstate commerce of goods produced (1) in mines or quarries where children under 16 years of age were employed; (2) in factories where children under 14 years were employed; (3) in factories where children between 14 and 16 years were employed more than eight hours a day; and (4) in factories where such children worked at night. This bill was enacted into law by Congress in 1916 and on taking effect (in 1917) established a uniform minimum standard throughout the country so far as child labor in mines, quarries and fac tories is concerned, because the products of practically every such industry throughout the country are shipped in interstate commerce. The States are, of course, free to adopt standards higher than those fixed by the Federal law, and all forms of child labor not affected by its provisions are still subject only to State regulation.
The constructive measures in the program of child labor reform embrace compulsory at tendance at school, the development of indus trial education and the providing of oppor tunity for further instruction and recreation through the establishment of special schools, libraries, clubs, playgrounds, baths, etc. These form what is generally referred to as the con structive side of the movement, while restric tive legislation is known as the prohibitory part. These two elements are necessary in any well-balanced program for social welfare and especially so in child labor reform, because when the child is denied employment in industry a substitute that is better both for him and for society must be offered in its place.
Bibliography.—Adams, T. S., and Stunner, H. L., 'Labor Problems) (Ch. I, XI, XII, New York 1905); Addams, J., 'The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets' (Ch. V, New York 1909); Breckenridge, S. P., 'Child in the City) (Part V, Chicago 1912); Clopper, E. N., 'Child Labor in City Streets) (New York 1912); Davis, P., 'Street-Land) (Ch. VI, VII, VIII, Boston 1915); Freeman, A. 'Boy Life and (Ch. VIII, IX, London 1914) ; Hutchins, B. L., and Harrison, A., 'A History of Factory Legis lation) (London 1911); Jackson, C., 'Report on Boy Labour) (Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, Appendix Vol. XX, 1909) ; Keeling, F., 'Child Labour in the United (London 1914); Kelley, F., Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation) (Ch. I, II, New York 1905); Mangold, G. 13., 'Child Problems)