



Produced by Charlene Taylor, Heike Leichsenring and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)









                      CHILD LABOR IN CITY STREETS




                         THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
                      NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO
                         DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO

                        MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
                       LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA
                               MELBOURNE

                   THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
                                TORONTO




                              CHILD LABOR
                            IN CITY STREETS

                                   BY

                        EDWARD N. CLOPPER, PH.D.

              SECRETARY OF NATIONAL CHILD LABOR COMMITTEE
                         FOR MISSISSIPPI VALLEY




                                New York
                         THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
                                  1913

                         _All rights reserved_




                            COPYRIGHT, 1912,
                       BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.


Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1912. Reprinted
January, 1913.


                             NORWOOD PRESS
                 J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
                         Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.


Transcriber's Notes:

Text originally marked up as bold is surrounded by =, text in italics by
_, text in different font with ~. All footnotes can be found after the
chapter "Conclusion", before the Bibliography. Obvious printer's errors
have been remedied, a list of all other changes can be found at the end
of the document.




                                PREFACE


This volume is devoted to the discussion of a neglected form of child
labor. Just why the newsboy, bootblack and peddler should have been
ignored in the general movement for child welfare is hard to
understand. Perhaps it is due to "the illusion of the near." Street
workers have always been far more conspicuous than any other child
laborers, and it seems that this very proximity has been their
misfortune. If we could have focused our attention upon them as we did
upon children in factories, they would have been banished from the
streets long ago. But they were too close to us. We could not get a
comprehensive view and saw only what we happened to want at the
moment--their paltry little stock in trade. Now that we are getting a
broader sense of social responsibility, we are beginning to realize
how blind and inconsiderate we have been in our treatment of them.

The first five chapters of the book review present conditions and
discuss causes, the next two deal with effects, and the final ones are
concerned with the remedy. The scope has been made as broad as
possible. All forms of street work that engage any considerable number
of children have been described at length, and opinions and findings
of others have been freely quoted. I have attempted to show the bad
results of the policy of _laissez-faire_ as applied to this problem.
Simply because these little boys and girls have been ministering to
its wants, the public has given them scarcely a passing thought. It
has been so convenient to have a newspaper or a shoe brush thrust at
one, it has not occurred to us that, for the sake of the children,
such work would better be done by other means. Although good examples
have been set by European cities, we have not introduced any
innovations to clear the streets of working children.

The free rein at present given to child labor in our city streets is
productive of nothing but harmful results, and it is high time that a
determined stand was taken for the rights of children so exposed. A
few feeble efforts at regulation have been made in some parts of this
country, but this is an evil that requires prohibition rather than
regulation. There is no valid reason why just as efficient service in
streets could not be rendered by adults. Certainly it would be far
more suitable and humane to reserve such work for old men and women
who need outdoor life and are physically unable to earn their living
in other ways. We could buy our newspaper from a crippled adult at a
stand just as easily as we get it now from an urchin who shivers on
the street corner. It is only a question of habit, and we ought to be
glad of the change for the good of all concerned.

                                                             E. N. C.

    Cincinnati, 1912.




                                CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE

     I. THE PROBLEM OF THE STREET-WORKING CHILD--PUBLIC
         APATHY--RELATION TO OTHER PROBLEMS                            1

    II. EXTENT TO WHICH CHILDREN ENGAGE IN STREET ACTIVITIES IN
         AMERICA AND EUROPE                                           24

   III. NEWSPAPER SELLERS                                             52

    IV. BOOTBLACKS, PEDDLERS AND MARKET CHILDREN                      83

     V. MESSENGERS, ERRAND AND DELIVERY CHILDREN                     101

    VI. EFFECTS OF STREET WORK UPON CHILDREN                         128

   VII. RELATION OF STREET WORK TO DELINQUENCY                       159

  VIII. THE STRUGGLE FOR REGULATION IN THE UNITED STATES             189

    IX. DEVELOPMENT OF STREET TRADES REGULATION IN EUROPE            214

  CONCLUSION                                                         243

  BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                       245

  APPENDICES                                                         255

  INDEX                                                              277




                      CHILD LABOR IN CITY STREETS




                               CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM OF THE STREET-WORKING CHILD--PUBLIC APATHY--RELATION TO
OTHER PROBLEMS


The efforts which have so far been made in the United States to solve
the child labor problem have been directed almost exclusively toward
improvement of conditions in mines and manufacturing and mercantile
establishments. This singling out of one phase of the problem for
correction was due to the uneducated state of public opinion which
made necessary a long and determined campaign along one line, vividly
portraying the wrongs of children in this one form of exploitation,
before general interest could be aroused. Within very recent years
this campaign has met with signal success, and many states have
granted a goodly measure of protection to the children of their
working classes as far as the factory, the store and the mine are
concerned. The time has now come for attention to be directed toward
the premature employment of children in work other than that connected
with mining and manufacturing, for there are other phases of this
problem which involve large numbers of children and which, up to the
present, have received but little thought from students of labor
conditions. The three most important of these other phases are the
employment of children in agricultural work, in home industries and in
street occupations. This volume will deal with the last-named
phase--with the economic activities of children in the streets and
public places of our cities, their effects and the remedies they
demand.

The street occupations in which children commonly engage are:
newspaper selling, peddling, bootblacking, messenger service, delivery
service, running errands and the tending of market stands. The first
three are known as street "trades," owing to the popular fallacy that
the children who follow them are little "merchants," and are therefore
entitled to the dignity of separate classification. Careful usage
would confine this term to newsboys, peddlers and bootblacks who work
independently of any employer. Many children are employed by other
persons to sell newspapers, peddle goods and polish shoes, and such
children technically are street traders no more than those who run
errands, carry messages or deliver parcels. Consequently the term
"street trades" is limited in its application, and by no means
embraces all the economic activities of children in our streets and
public places.

Wisconsin has written into her laws a definition of street trading,
declaring that it is "any business or occupation in which any street,
alley, court, square or other public place is used for the sale,
display or offering for sale of any articles, goods or merchandise."[1]
This covers neither bootblacking nor the delivery of newspapers.

In Great Britain the expression "street trading" has been officially
defined as including: "the hawking of newspapers, matches, flowers,
and other articles; playing, singing, or performing for profit; plying
for hire in carrying luggage or messages; shoe blacking, or any other
like occupations carried on in streets or public places."[2]

Street traders and street employees may be classified by occupation as
follows:--

  STREET TRADERS              STREET EMPLOYEES
  (WORKING FOR THEMSELVES)    (WORKING FOR OTHERS)

  Newspaper sellers           Newspaper sellers (on salary)
                              Peddlers (on salary)
  Peddlers                    Bootblacks (in stands)
                              Market stand tenders
  Bootblacks (on street)      Messengers
                              Errand children
                              Delivery children

This classification is based upon the well-known economic distinction
between profits and wages. It is unfortunate that this distinction has
been applied to juvenile street workers, for it has operated to the
great disadvantage of the "traders." This class has been practically
ignored in the general movement for child welfare, on the ground that
these little laborers were in business for themselves, and therefore
should not be disturbed. Recently the conviction has been dawning
upon observant people that, in the case of young children at least,
the effects of work on an independent basis, particularly in city
streets, are just as bad and perhaps even worse than work under the
direction of employers. The mute appeal of the street-working child
for protection has at last reached the heart of the welfare movement,
and the first feeble efforts in his behalf are now being put forth,
regardless of whether he toils for profits or for wages.

This alleged distinction between street trading and street employment
should be clearly understood, as any movement designed to remedy
present conditions must be sufficiently comprehensive to avoid the
great mistake of protecting one class and ignoring the other. On the
one hand there is said to be an army of little independent "merchants"
conducting business affairs of their own, while on the other there is
an array of juvenile employees performing the tasks set them by their
masters. For purposes of regulation this distinction is hairsplitting,
narrow-minded and unjust, as it has been made to defeat in part the
beneficent aim of the great campaign for child welfare, but
nevertheless it must be reckoned with. Children under fourteen years
of age at work in factories and mines are often properly called
"slaves," and their plight is regarded with pity coupled with a
clarion cry for their emancipation. But tiny workers in the streets
are referred to approvingly as "little merchants" and are freely
patronized even by the avowed friends of children, who thereby
contribute their moral support toward continuing these conditions and
maintaining this absurd fiction of our merchant babyhood. As an
instance of this remarkable attitude, there was proudly printed in the
Pittsburgh _Gazette-Times_ of April 11, 1910, the picture of a
four-year-old child who had been a newsboy in an Ohio town since the
age of _thirty months_, and this was described as a most worthy
achievement!

That the term "child labor," whose meaning has so long been popularly
restricted to the employment of children in factories, mills, mines
and stores, is properly applicable to the activities of children in
all kinds of work for profit, is now virtually recognized by a few
states which prohibit employment of children under fourteen years of
age "in any gainful occupation." But unfortunately the courts have
rigidly construed the word "employ" to mean the purchasing of the
services of one person by another, hence newsboys, peddlers,
bootblacks and others who work on their own account, do not enjoy the
protection of such a statute because they are not "employed." Under
this interpretation a fatal loophole is afforded through which
thousands of boys and girls escape the spirit of the law which seeks
to prevent their _labor_ rather than their mere employment. It is for
this reason that, in states having otherwise excellent provisions for
the conservation of childhood, we see little children freely
exploiting themselves on city streets. This situation has been calmly
accepted without protest by the general public, for, while the people
condemn child labor in factories, they tolerate and even approve of it
on the street. They labor under the delusion that merely because a few
of our successful business men were newsboys in the past, these little
"merchants" of the street are receiving valuable training in business
methods and will later develop into leaders in the affairs of men. A
glaring example of this attitude was given by a monthly magazine[3]
which fondly referred to newsboys as "the enterprising young merchants
from whose ranks will be recruited the coming statesmen, soldiers,
financiers, merchants and manufacturers of our land."

It is extremely unfortunate that this narrow conception has prevailed,
as it raises the tremendous obstacle of popular prejudice which must
be broken down before these child street workers can receive their
share of justice at the hands of the law. The only fair and logical
method of approach toward a solution of the child labor problem in all
its phases is to take high ground and view the subject broadly in the
light of what is for the best interests of children in general.

The state recognizes the need of an intelligent citizenship and
accordingly provides a system of public schools, requiring the
attendance of all children up to the age of fourteen years. In order
that nothing shall interfere with the operation of this plan for
general education, the state forbids the employment of children of
school age. In respect of both these mandates, the state has really
assumed the guardianship of the child; it has accepted the principle
that the child is the ward of the state and has based its action on
this principle. A guardian should be ever mindful of the welfare of
his wards, and so, to be consistent, the state should carefully shield
its children from all forms of exploitation as well as from other
abuses.

However, in the matter of the regulation of child labor, a curious
anomaly has arisen--no one may employ a child under fourteen years in
a _factory_ for even one hour a day without being liable to
prosecution for disobeying the law of the state, because such work
might interfere with the child's growth and education; all of which is
right and indorsed by public opinion, but--merely because a child is
working independently of any employer, he is allowed to sell
newspapers, peddle chewing gum and black boots for any number of
hours, providing he attends school during school hours! Could anything
be more inconsistent? To this extent the state, as a guardian, has
neglected the welfare of its ward.

This lack of consideration for street workers was emphasized in a
British government report a number of years ago. Referring to the
statutory provisions for preventing overwork by children in
factories, workshops and mines, the report declared: "But the labour
of children for wages outside these cases is totally unregulated,
although many of them work longer than the factory hours allowed for
children of the same age, and are at the same time undergoing
compulsory educational training, which makes a considerable demand on
their energies. We think this is inconsistent. In the interests of
their health and education, it seems only reasonable that remedies
which have proved so valuable in the case of factory children should
in some form be extended to cover the whole field of child labour."[4]

To insure a good yield, a field requires cultivation as well as
planting; to effect a cure, a patient requires nursing as well as
prescription. So with the aim of the state--to insure a strong,
intelligent citizenship, its children must be cared for, as well as
provided with schools. If a patient is not nursed while the physician
is absent, his treatment is of little avail; if children are not
protected out of school hours, the purpose of the school is
defeated. No manufacturer would allow his machinery to run, unwatched,
outside regular work hours, for he knows how disastrous would be the
consequences; yet this is precisely what the state is doing by
ignoring the activities of children in our city streets--the delicate
machinery of their minds and bodies is allowed to run wild out of
schools hours, and the state seems to think nothing will happen! These
thoughts impel us to the conclusion that the state must watch over the
child at least until he has reached the age limit for school
attendance, and in the matter of labor regulation its care must not be
confined to the prevention of one form of exploitation while other
forms, equally injurious, are permitted to flourish unchecked.

Legislation regulating street trading by children in this country is
now in the stage corresponding to that of the English factory acts in
the early part of the nineteenth century,--the first meager
restrictions are being tried. Several of the street occupations, viz.
messenger service, delivery service and errand running, are ordinarily
included among those prohibited to children under fourteen years by
state child labor laws, because to engage in such work children have
to be employed by other persons. These occupations are covered by the
provision common to such laws which forbids employment of such
children "in the distribution or transmission of merchandise or
messages." The street "trades" of newspaper selling, peddling and
bootblacking are, as yet, almost untouched by legislation in the
United States, for there exist only a very few state laws and city
ordinances relative to this matter, and these of the most primitive
kind. The public does not yet realize the injustice of permitting
young children to engage, uncontrolled, in the various street-trading
activities. It was slow to appreciate the dangers involved in the
unrestricted employment of children in factories, mills and mines, but
when the awakening finally came, the demand for reform was insistent.
This gradual development of a sentiment favoring regulation
characterizes also the problem of street employment; the present stage
is that of calm indifference, ruffled only by occasional misgivings.
Even this is an encouraging sign, inasmuch as the factory agitation
passed through the same experience, and emerged triumphant,
crystallized in statute form.

It is hard to understand how the public conscience can reconcile
itself to the chasm between the age limit of fourteen years for
messenger service and freedom from all restraint in newspaper
selling--both essentially street occupations. Child labor laws are
framed in accordance with public sentiment, hence the people by
legislative omission practically indorse street trading by little
children while condemning their employment in other kinds of work.
Thus the state virtually assumes the untenable position that it is
right to allow a child of tender years to labor in the streets as a
newsboy without any oversight or care whatever, and that it is wrong
for him to work in the same field as a messenger, or an errand boy, or
a delivery boy, although such occupations are subject to some degree
of supervision by older persons. In other words, it is held that
little children are capable of self-control in some street
occupations, but not able to withstand the dangers of other similar
street work, even under the control of adults! After having described
the conditions prevailing in Philadelphia among newsboys, Mr. Scott
Nearing says: "There are many causes leading up to this condition.
Beneath all others lies the fundamental one--the lack of public
sentiment in favor of protecting these children. Closely allied to
this is another almost equally strong--the lack of public knowledge of
the true state of affairs."[5]

The Chicago Child Welfare Exhibit pointed out the fact that street
trades are quite untouched by child labor legislation in the city and
also in the state, declaring that in Illinois a boy or girl too young
to be permitted to do any other work may haunt the newspaper offices,
the five-cent shows, the theaters and saloons, selling chewing gum and
newspapers at all hours of the night.[6]

Among the arguments advanced in support of the unsuccessful effort to
secure legislation on street trading in Illinois in 1911 was the
following: "Each boy or girl street trader is a merchant in his or her
own right, and therefore before the law is not considered a wage
earner, although there is merely a fine-spun distinction between the
child who secures _wages_ as the result of his work and one who
obtains his reward in the form of _profits_. The effect on the child
of work performed under unsuitable conditions, at unsuitable hours and
demanding the exercise of his faculties in unchildish ways, is in no
wise determined by the form in which his earnings are calculated. That
the results of street trading are wholly bad in the case of both boys
and girls is universally recognized."[7] Miss Jane Addams has deplored
this situation in a public statement: "A newsboy is a merchant and
does not come within the child labor regulations of Illinois. The city
of Chicago is a little careless, if not recreant, toward the children
who are not reached by the operation of the state law."[8]

Even in the few localities where regulation of street trading has been
attempted, the delusion that there is some essential difference
between child labor in factories and child labor in streets persists
in the legislation itself. The latter form of exploitation is assumed
to merit a wider latitude for its activity, hence it is hedged about
by much less stringent rules. Attention is invited to this
inconsistency by the report of a recent investigation in New York
City: "We have in New York 4148 children between 14 and 16 years
employed in factories with their daily hours of labor limited from 8
A.M. to 5 P.M., while in mercantile establishments there are 1645 more
of similar age limit, none of whom can work before 8 in the morning or
after 7 in the evening. But on the streets of New York City we have
approximately 4500 boys licensed (to say nothing of the little fellows
too young to be licensed) to sell newspapers. That means 4500
legalized to work at this particular trade from 6 o'clock in the
morning until 10 o'clock in the evening (save during the school year,
when they are supposed to attend school from 9 A.M. to 3 P.M.) any day
and every day, seven days to the week if they so desire to do."[9]


                    _Broader Aspects of the Problem_

Let us consider the matter from another point of view and discuss the
opportunities for constructive work rather than confine our attention
to the need of the merely negative remedy of restrictive legislation.

The street is painted as a black monster by some social workers, who
can discern nothing but evil in it. Nevertheless the street is closely
woven into the life of every city dweller, for his contact with it is
daily and continuous. If it is all evil, it ought to be abolished; as
this is impossible, we must study it to see what it really is and what
needs to be done with it. It is the medium by which people are brought
into closer touch with one another, where they meet and converse,
where they pass in transit, where they rub elbows with all the
elements making up their little world, where they absorb the
principles of democracy,--for the street is a great leveler.

Dr. Delos F. Wilcox, in speaking to the subject "What is Philadelphia
Doing to Protect Her Citizens in the Street?" recently said: "The
street is the symbol of democracy, of equal opportunity, the channel
of the common life, the thing that makes the city.... I fancy that the
civic renaissance which must surely come, ... will never get very far
until we have awakened to a realization of the dignity of the
street--the common street where the city's children play, through
which the milk wagon drives, where the young men are educated, along
which the currents of the city's life flow unceasingly."[10]

An English writer has expressed a similar thought: "We have spoken of
the street as a dangerous environment from which we would gladly
rescue the children if we could, and so it undoubtedly is in so far as
it supplants the influence of the home, tends to nullify that of the
school and lets the boys and girls run wild just when they most need
to be tamed.... It is, in fact, so strange a mixture of good and evil,
so complex an influence in the growth of boy and girl, of youth and
man, among our great city population, that it is necessary to attempt
to analyze it a little more exactly. It is for the majority the medium
in which the social conscience is formed, and through which it makes
its power felt. In it the all-powerful agents of progress, example,
imitation, the spread of ideas and the discussion of good and evil are
incessantly at work."[11]

It is only natural that such a general agency for communication should
have been abused. Its popularity alone would inevitably lead to such a
result, with no restrictions imposed upon street intercourse. The very
popularity of the games of billiards, pool and cards and of dancing
led to their abuse and consequent disrepute in the eyes of many
persons who were blinded to their intrinsic worth as diversions, by
the abuses to which they were subjected. The marked success attending
the proper use of all these amusements in social settlements and
parish houses stimulates the imagination as to what might be
accomplished with the street if its abuses also were eliminated.

It is of course absurd to pass judgment summarily upon the street, for
the street can exert no influence of itself; the evil issues from its
abuse by those who frequent it, and it is this abuse that should be
suppressed. This immediately raises the question as to what
constitutes this abuse. We must bear in mind that the real purpose of
the street is to serve as a means of communication, a passageway for
the transit of passengers and commerce. It was never intended for a
playground, nor a field for child labor, nor a resort for idlers, nor
a depository for garbage, nor a place for beggars to mulct the public.
These fungous growths from civic neglect ought to be cut away. "A
place for everything and everything in its place" would be an
efficacious even if old-fashioned remedy: playgrounds for the
children, workshops for the idlers, reduction plants for the garbage
and asylums for the beggars. With these reforms effected and carefully
maintained, the street would soon become much more wholesome and
attractive.

These considerations have been advanced to indicate the intimate
relation which exists between the problem of the child street worker
and many other problems with which social workers are now struggling.
Child labor in city streets must be abolished, but at the same time
cooperation with other movements is necessary before a satisfactory
solution of the problem can be assured.

For example, it would be a short-sighted policy to prohibit young
children from selling goods in home market stands without reporting to
the housing authorities cases in which large families live in one or
two filthy rooms, displaying and selling their wares in the doorway
and from the window. Our Italian citizens are not committing race
suicide, but in spite of their numerous progeny they crowd together in
extremely limited space, combining their home life with the customary
business of selling fruit. Their young children assist in tending the
stands on market days and nights or sit on the sidewalk selling
baskets to passers-by; at closing time their goods are often stored in
the same room that serves for sleeping quarters, cots being brought
out from some dark hiding place. In such circumstances the mere
prevention of child labor is not sufficient--the housing conditions
also should be remedied so as to give the children a more suitable
place in which to play, study and sleep, a better home in which to use
their leisure.

Again, a movement to prohibit street work by children should give
impetus to that which seeks to make the public school a social center,
and especially to that for public vacation schools. Many of the homes
of city children very largely lack the element of attractiveness which
is so essential in holding children under the influence of their
parents, and this want must be filled as far as possible by making
the school an instrument not merely for instruction, but also for the
entertainment and socializing of the entire neighborhood.

Again, the regulating of street trading should be undertaken jointly
with the movement to supply adequate playground facilities.
Playgrounds are not a municipal luxury, but a necessary. Children must
have some suitable place for recreation. It is not a function of the
street to furnish the space for play, and as children cannot and
should not be kept at home all the time, it follows that ground must
be set apart for the purpose. On these points a British report says:
"We have no doubt that insanitary homes and immoral surroundings, with
the want of any open spaces where the children could enjoy healthy
exercise and recreation, are strong factors in determining towards
evil courses in the cases of the children of the poor."[12] The need
for more playgrounds in Chicago was partially supplied by having one
block in a congested district closed to traffic during August, 1911,
so that children could play there without risking their lives, from
eight in the morning to eight in the evening. In providing this
emergency playground, Chicago has set an example that will undoubtedly
be imitated by other cities.

In this way the abolition of child labor in city streets would result
in benefit not only to the children, but to the entire community as
well. It would promote a general civic awakening that would make each
town and city a better place to live in, a better home for our
citizens of the future.




                               CHAPTER II

EXTENT TO WHICH CHILDREN ENGAGE IN STREET ACTIVITIES IN AMERICA AND
EUROPE


There are no reliable figures either official or unofficial showing
the number of children engaged in street activities in any city of the
United States or in the country at large. The figures given by the
United States Census of 1900 are so inadequate that they can hardly
mislead any one endowed with ordinary powers of observation. It
solemnly declares that in that year there was a grand total of 6904
newspaper carriers and newsboys, both adults and children, in the
entire United States, of whom 69 were females.[13] In all probability
there was a greater number at that time in some of our larger cities
alone. In the group called "other persons in trade and transportation"
only 3557 children ten to fifteen years of age are reported, although
this group embraces nine specified occupations, of which that of the
newsboy is only one. Besides these, many other occupations (in which
63 per cent of the total number of persons reported are engaged) are
not specified.[14] Consequently the number of newsboys ten to fifteen
years old reported by the enumerators for the entire country must have
been ridiculously small.

Again, the total number of bootblacks ten years of age and upwards in
the country was reported as 8230, they being included in the group
called "other domestic and personal service." Only 2953 children ten
to fifteen years of age were reported in this group, which includes
five specified occupations, of which that of the bootblacks is only
one, and many others (in which 67 per cent of the total number of
persons reported are engaged) which are not specified.[15]

The inadequacy of these figures to convey any idea whatsoever as to
the extent of child labor in street occupations in this country is
painfully apparent; they are quoted here merely to show the poverty
of statistics on this subject. Their inaccuracy is practically
conceded by the report itself in the following words: "The limitations
connected with the taking of a great national census preclude proper
care upon the question of child employment. There is great uncertainty
as to the accuracy of a mass of information of this character taken by
enumerators and special agents, who either do not appreciate the
importance of the investigation or find it impracticable to devote the
time to the inquiry necessary to secure good results."[16]

There is reason to hope for more reliable data from the 1910 census;
but unfortunately the figures will probably not be available until
1913. The enumerators employed by the Federal government for the
Census of 1910, were instructed to make an entry in the occupation
column of the population schedule for every person enumerated, giving
the exact occupation if employed, writing the word "none" if
unemployed, or the words "own income" if living upon an independent
income. It was stated positively that the occupation followed by a
child of any age was just as important for census purposes as the
occupation followed by a man, and that it should never be taken for
granted without inquiry that a child had no occupation.[17]

However, upon inquiry by enumerators at the time of the census taking
as to the occupation of children, many parents undoubtedly replied in
the negative, even though their children may have been devoting
several hours daily outside of school to street work, under the
impression that this was not an occupation. Consequently it is safe to
assume that the figures for street-working children in the United
States according to the Census of 1910 when published will be under
the true number. Nevertheless, they can hardly fail to reflect
conditions far better than did the figures for 1900.


                               _Chicago_

It is only from the reports of occasional and very limited local
investigations that material as to the actual state of affairs can be
obtained. Social workers of Chicago had a bill introduced into the
Illinois legislature at its session of 1911, providing that boys
under ten years and girls under sixteen years should be prohibited
from selling anything in city streets, and some material was gathered
to be used in support of this measure. In connection with what has
already been said in Chapter I, it is interesting to note that
although the provisions of this bill were very mild, and strong
efforts were put forth by social workers to secure its passage, it was
not allowed to become a law largely because of the absence of public
opinion and partly because of the opposition by newspaper publishers
and others who were afraid that their interests might suffer through
the granting of protection to such little children.

In one of the schools of Chicago, pupils were found to be trading in
the streets in addition to attending school in the following
percentages:--

  65 per cent of 5th grade children
  35 per cent of 4th grade children
  15 per cent of 2d grade children
  12 per cent of 1st grade children
  (Figures for 3d grade were not given.)

All of these children were attending school twenty-five hours a week,
and many cases of excessive work out of school hours were found. Some
allowance should be made for possible exaggeration on the part of
these children, but nevertheless it is certain that many of them were
working to an injurious extent. The hours given were as follows:--

  1 boy over 50 hours
  4 boys over 40 hours
  5 boys over 35 hours
  7 boys over 30 hours
  18 boys over 20 hours

Their average earnings per week were found to be as follows:[18]--

  5th grade children      $1.18
  4th grade children        .85
  3d grade children         .60
  2d grade children         .43
  1st grade children        .36

In referring to the weekly income of the children from this source,
the Handbook of the Chicago Child Welfare Exhibit declared that it was
"a pitiable sum to compensate for the physical weariness and moral
risk attending street trades in a large city. School reports show that
street trades, when carried on by young children, lead to truancy,
low vitality, dullness and the breaking down of parental control.
Since the children are on the streets at all hours, careless habits
are developed which often lead to moral ruin to both boys and
girls."[19]

An instance was related wherein the teacher of a fifth grade in a
Chicago school asked those of her pupils who worked for money to raise
their hands. In the class of 38 pupils, 26 acknowledged that they were
little breadwinners! One boy said he worked ten hours a day besides
attending school; others had less striking records, spending from
twenty to forty hours a week selling chewing gum and newspapers,
blacking boots and pursuing the various other street occupations which
the Illinois law leaves open to children of all ages.[20]

Referring to the economic and home conditions surrounding young
children in Chicago and the many phases of danger to their moral
well-being, the Vice Commission of that city reported that its agents
had found small boys selling newspapers in segregated districts and
that one night an investigator had counted twenty newsboys from eleven
years upwards so engaged at midnight and after. Besides these
newsboys, many little boys and girls were found peddling chewing gum
near disorderly saloons where prostitutes were soliciting. Numerous
examples of employment in vicious environment are cited, principally
of the peddling of newspapers and chewing gum by young children at all
hours of the night in the "red light" districts, about saloons and
museums of anatomy. Even in the rear rooms of saloons, boys were seen
offering their wares and heard to join in obscene conversation with
the patrons of these resorts.[21]

A folder published in Chicago by the advocates of street-trade
regulation calls attention to these conditions, and states, with
regard to little newsgirls who sell papers in the vice regions: "It is
not surprising if some of them, becoming so familiar with the
practices of the district, take up the profession of the neighborhood.
The Juvenile Protective Association reports one little girl who
entered the life of a professional prostitute at the age of fourteen,
after having sold newspapers for years in the district."[22]

Another element of this problem, seldom considered, is described also
in this folder--the vagrants, who constitute a large and growing class
deserving the attention of both city and citizen. "Three classes of
persons, who add little to the general circulation, while detracting
much from the tone of the business and working a real injury to
themselves, are engaged in selling newspapers; these are the small
boy, the semi-vagrant boy, and the young girl. The business of selling
newspapers in Chicago is so systematized that the 'vagrant' cannot
prosper, and yet the 'vagrant' is in our midst. He can be found on
State Street at 11 o'clock on a Saturday night with one newspaper
under his arm--not attempting to sell it, but using it as a bait to
beg from the passers-by. He can be found in the _American_ news alley,
sometimes fifty, sometimes a hundred strong, sleeping on bags, under
boxes, or on the floor of the newspaper restaurant. With this boy,
and with all those who are obviously too young to be permitted to
engage in street trading, it is our duty to deal if we are to preserve
the attitude the American city takes toward the dependent child."


              NATIONALITIES OF BOSTON CHILD STREET TRADERS

  ====================================+======+==========
           PLACE OF BIRTH             |NUMBER|PERCENTAGE
  ------------------------------------+------+----------
          { Boston             1,556  |      |
  America { Elsewhere in Mass.   171  | 1860 |   70.
          { Other states         133  |      |
  Russia                              |  473 |   17.5
  Italy                               |  161 |    6.
  Other foreign countries             |  162 |    6.
  Not given                           |    8 |     .5
                                      |----- | ------
                                      | 2664 |  100.0
  ====================================+======+==========


                                _Boston_

In Boston, during the year 1910, there were issued to newsboys,
peddlers and bootblacks from eleven to thirteen years of age
inclusive, 2664 licenses. Of these nearly all (2525) were issued to
newsboys, while 114 were issued to bootblacks and 25 to peddlers. Of
these license holders 904 were eleven years old, 900 were twelve
years old, and 860 were thirteen years old. It is interesting to note
that nearly three fourths of these children were born in the United
States; the table on page 33 shows their distribution among
nationalities.


                            _New York City_

The actual number of children engaged in street activities at any
given time is less than the number of licenses issued during the year,
inasmuch as not all such children persist in pursuing this work, many
of them working only a few weeks, while a few never enter upon the
tasks which they have been licensed to perform. This is borne out by
the experience of investigators in New York City; the report of a
study made there recently says: "We are told by the department of
education issuing newsboy badges that 4500 boys have these badges, yet
when we secured the addresses of some of these from their application
cards ... we found that not 30 per cent of the 100 cases investigated
lived at listed addresses. Many such were bogus numbers, open lots,
factories, wharves, and in some cases the middle of East River would
wash over the house number given. When we did find a correct address,
the children so located in six cases out of ten were not following the
trade. In some instances they never sold papers, obtaining badges
simply because other boys were applying for them, and after receiving
a badge tucked it away in a drawer or maybe sold it or gave it
away."[23]


                              _Cincinnati_

In Cincinnati from June to December, 1909, 1951 boys from ten to
thirteen years of age were licensed to sell newspapers, this number
being about 15 per cent of the total number of boys of these ages in
the city. Their distribution according to age was as follows:--

  10 years         424
  11 years         466
  12 years         539
  13 years         522
                  ----
      Total       1951

The Cincinnati figures do not include bootblacks, peddlers or market
children, as no licenses were issued for such occupations, although
they are specifically covered by the municipal ordinance regulating
street trades.

The above data were available only because there has been some attempt
in Boston, New York and Cincinnati to restrict the employment of
children in street occupations; as in the great majority of cities and
states there is absolutely no regulation of this kind, there are of
course no figures to indicate conditions.


                          _The Padrone System_

In almost every city of the United States having a population of more
than 10,000, there is to be found the padrone system, which is
operated principally in the interests of the bootblacking business
which the Greeks control. The peddling of flowers, fruit and
vegetables in Chicago and New York is partly subject to the same
methods. The labor supply furnished by this system for peddling and
bootblacking consists generally of children from twelve to seventeen
years of age.[24]

The Immigration Commission states in its report that there are several
thousand shoe-shining establishments in the United States operated by
Greeks who employ boys as bootblacks, and that with few exceptions
they are under the padrone system.[25] A few boys under sixteen years
of age are employed under the Greek padrone system as flower vendors,
and these are found chiefly in New York City. They are hired by
florists to sell flowers in the streets and public places--largely old
stock that cannot be handled in the shops. These boys usually live in
good quarters, are well fed and receive their board and from $50 to
$100 a year in wages. When not engaged in peddling, they deliver
flowers ordered at the shops. The boys employed by the padrones to
peddle candy, fruit and vegetables usually live in basements or in
filthy rooms; here they are crowded two, three and sometimes four in
one bed, with windows shut tight so as to avoid catching cold. The
fruit and vegetables still on hand are stored for the night in these
bedrooms and in the kitchen. In each peddling company there are
usually three or four wagons and from four to eight boys.[26]


                       _Minor Street Occupations_

There are a few so-called street trades in which a relatively small
number of children are engaged which so far have not been mentioned in
this volume. These are the leading of blind persons and the
accompanying of beggars in general, little children being found
valuable for such work because they help to excite the sympathy of
passers-by. A few children also are employed as lamplighters to go
about towns lighting street lamps in the evening and extinguishing
them in the early morning. A class of street boys who have as yet
received no name in this country, but in England are called "touts,"
haunt the neighborhood of railroad depots and lie in wait for
passengers with hand baggage, offering to carry it to the train for a
small fee.

Some children are used as singers or performers upon musical
instruments, but this is in reality only another form of begging. The
writer found one instance of a young boy who was employed by the
public library of one of our large cities to gather up overdue books
about the city and to collect the fines imposed for failure to return
the same. Very frequently in the course of his work this boy had to
enter houses of prostitution, as the inmates are steady patrons of the
public library, reading light literature, and are quite negligent in
the matter of returning the books within the prescribed time.
Immediately upon the librarian's learning of the situation, he was
relieved of this duty, and a man was detailed to perform the task.
Such special occupations as these do not constitute a real factor in
the problem because of the small number of children involved, and
hence they are omitted from consideration.


                     _Conditions in Great Britain_

Turning to Europe we find much more information on this subject. In
Great Britain the House of Commons in 1898 ordered an inquiry to be
made into the extent of child labor among public school pupils, and
the education department sent schedules to the 20,022 public
elementary schools in England and Wales for the purpose of determining
the facts. A little more than half of the schools returned the
schedules blank, stating that no children were employed; this
introduced a large element of error into the return, as many of the
schoolmasters misunderstood the meaning of the schedules, and
consequently quite a number of children who should have been included
were omitted from the total. The 9433 schedules which were filled and
returned showed that 144,026 children (about three fourths boys and
one fourth girls) were in attendance full time at the public
elementary schools of England and Wales and known to be employed for
profit outside of school hours.

The ages of these children reported as employed were as follows:[27]--

  Under 7 years       131
   7 years          1,120
   8 years          4,211
   9 years         11,027
  10 years         22,131
  11 years         36,775
  12 years         47,471
  13 years         18,556
  14 and over       1,787
  Not given           817
                  -------
    Total         144,026

The standards or school grades in which these working children were
enrolled and the total enrollment for the year ended August 31, 1898,
were as follows:[28]--

  ==========================+============
                            |  TOTAL
      WORKING CHILDREN      | ENROLLMENT
  --------------------------+-----------
  No Standard           329 |
  1st standard        3,890 | 2,875,088
  2d standard        11,686 |   723,582
  3d standard        24,624 |   679,096
  4th standard       36,907 |   590,850
  5th standard       37,315 |   421,728
  6th standard       21,975 |   212,546
  7th standard        6,382 |    66,442
  Ex-7 standard         382 |     7,534
  Not stated            536 |
                    ------- | ---------
      Total         144,026 | 5,576,866
  ==========================+============

The occupations followed by these children were divided into three
main groups, and each of these groups was further divided into three
classes. These divisions and the number of children in each were as
follows:[29]--

  =======================+=======================+=========================
                         |                       |  DOMESTIC EMPLOYMENT,
    PIECEWORK, CHIEFLY   |  TIME-WORK, CHIEFLY   |  GIRLS ONLY, WITH ONE
           BOYS          |         BOYS          |    OR TWO EXCEPTIONS
  -----------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------
  Selling                | In shops or           | Minding babies   11,585
  newspapers      15,182 | running               |
                         | errands for           | Other housework,
  Hawking goods    2,435 | shopkeepers    76,173 | including
                         |                       | laundry work,
  Sports, taking         | Agricultural          | etc.              9,254
  dinners,               | occupations     6,115 |
  knocking-up,           |                       | Needlework and
  etc.             8,627 | Boot and knife        | like occupations  4,019
                         | cleaning, etc.        |
                         | (house boys)   10,636 |
  =======================+=======================+=========================

The return revealed a surprising variety of occupations followed by
these children--about 200 different kinds in all.

  HOURS PER WEEK     NUMBER OF CHILDREN
      Under 10             39,355
      10-20                60,268
      21-30                27,008
      31-40                 9,778
      41-50                 2,390
      51-60                   576
      61-70                   142
      71-80                    59
      Over 81                  16
      Not stated            4,434
                          -------
          Total           144,026

The number of hours per week devoted by these children to the various
employments will be found in the above table; it should be remembered
that these hours were given to work in addition to the time spent at
school.[30]

It was recognized that the figures given by this parliamentary return
did not represent the real situation, but nevertheless its revelations
were sufficiently startling to show the need of further investigation.
Accordingly in 1901 there was appointed an interdepartmental committee
which after careful study reported that the figures in the
parliamentary return were well within the actual numbers, but that the
facts it contained were substantially correct.[31] This committee
estimated the total number of children who were both in attendance at
school and in paid employments in England and Wales at 300,000;[32] it
declared that cases of excessive employment were "sufficiently
numerous to leave no doubt that a substantial number of children are
being worked to an injurious extent."[33]

Referring to the amount of time devoted by the children to gainful
employment outside of school, the committee reported, "On a review of
the evidence we consider it is proved that in England and Wales a
substantial number of children, amounting probably to 50,000, are
being worked more than twenty hours a week in addition to twenty-seven
and one-half hours at school, that a considerable proportion of this
number are being worked to thirty or forty and some even to fifty
hours a week, and that the effect of this work is in many cases
detrimental to their health, their morals and their education, besides
being often so unremitting as to deprive them of all reasonable
opportunity for recreation. For an evil so serious, existing on so
large a scale, we think that some remedy ought to be found."[34] The
committee estimated the total number of children selling newspapers
and in street hawking at 25,000.[35]

With reference to conditions in Edinburgh, an English writer says, "Of
the 1406 children employed out of school hours in Edinburgh, 307 are
ten years of age or under. Four of them are six years old, and eleven
are seven years of age. We hear of boys working seventeen hours (from
7 A.M. to 12 P.M.) on Saturday. For children to work twelve, thirteen
and fourteen hours on Saturday is quite common. The average wage seems
to be three farthings an hour, but one hears of children who are paid
one shilling and sixpence for thirty-eight hours of toil."[36]

In New South Wales boys are permitted to trade on the streets at the
age of ten years, and up to fourteen years may engage in such work
between the hours of 7 A.M. and 7 P.M. except while the schools are in
session; after they are fourteen years old they may trade between 6
A.M. and 10 P.M. Such children are licensed, and during the six months
ending March 31, 1910, 714 licenses were issued, 72 per cent of them
being to children under fourteen years of age; 92 per cent of these
children were engaged in hawking newspapers, the others being
scattered through such occupations as peddling flowers, fruit and
vegetables, fish, fancy goods, matches, bottles, pies and milk.[37]


                        _Conditions in Germany_

In December, 1897, the German Imperial Chancellor, referring to the
incomplete census returns as to child labor, requested the
governments to furnish him with information as to the total number of
children under fourteen employed in labor other than factory labor,
agricultural employment and domestic service, and the kinds of work
done. In this circular he said: "But, above all, where the kind of
occupation is unsuitable for children, where the work continues too
long, where it takes place at unseasonable times and in unsuitable
places, child labor gives rise to serious consideration; in such cases
it is not only dangerous to the health and morality of the children,
but school discipline is impaired and compulsory education becomes
illusory. For children cannot possibly give the necessary attention to
their lessons when they are tired out and when they have been working
hard in unhealthful rooms until late at night. I need only instance
employment in skittle alleys late in the evening, in the delivery of
newspapers in the early morning and the employment of children in many
branches of home industry. The most recent researches undertaken in
different localities show that the employment of children in labor
demands earnest attention in the interests of the rising
generation."[38]

Inquiries extending over almost the whole German Empire were
accordingly made by the different states from January to April, 1898.
It was found that 544,283 children under fourteen years were employed
in labor other than factory labor, agricultural employment and
domestic service. This was 6.53 per cent of the total number of
children of school age (8,334,919).

With regard to the effects of such work, this German report says: "As
the children who carry around small wares, sell flowers, etc., go from
one inn to another, they are exposed to evil influences, and are
liable to contract at an early age, bad habits of smoking, lying,
drinking.... The delivery of newspapers is a particularly great strain
on the children, as it occupies them both before and after school
hours."

Seven divisions of these children were made according to occupation,
four of them relating to street work. Under the heading _Handel_ were
included children in many kinds of work, among them hawking fruit,
milk, bread, brooms, flowers, newspapers, etc.; under _Austragedienste_
were included only the delivery and carrying around of bread, milk,
vegetables, beer, papers, books, advertisements, circulars, bills,
coals, wood, boots and shoes, washing, clothes, etc.; under
_Gewoehnliche Laufdienste_ were included only errand boys and
messengers; under _Sonstige gewerbliche Thaetigkeit_ were included,
among other occupations, blacking boots, leading the blind, street
singers and players, etc.

========================+========+========+=========+=========+============
                        |        |        | SEX NOT |         |
                        |  BOYS  | GIRLS  | STATED  |  TOTAL  | PERCENTAGE
------------------------+--------+--------+---------+---------+------------
Handel (retail trade)   |  7,507 |  4,540 |   5,576 |  17,623 |    3.31
                        |        |        |         |         |
Austragedienste         |        |        |         |         |
(delivery service)      | 67,188 | 36,966 |  31,676 | 135,830 |   25.52
                        |        |        |         |         |
Gewoehnliche Laufdienste |        |        |         |         |
(general  messenger     |        |        |         |         |
service)                | 23,321 |  2,134 |  10,454 |  35,909 |    6.75
                        |        |        |         |         |
Sonstige  gewerbliche   |        |        |         |         |
Thaetigkeit (other forms |        |        |         |         |
of labor)               |  6,281 |  2,387 |   3,119 |  11,787 |    2.21
========================+========+========+=========+=========+============


                        _Conditions in Austria_

The Austrian Ministry of Commerce began an investigation of actual
conditions in Austria late in 1907 in response to the agitation for a
new law that would regulate child labor not only in factories, but
also in home industries, in commerce, and even in agriculture. In his
Report on Child Labor Legislation in Europe, Mr. C. W. A. Veditz
refers to the findings of this investigation in a number of the
provinces. In Bohemia, of 676 children in trade and transportation,
but still attending school, 169 were engaged in peddling and
huckstering; in delivering goods and going errands 1554 children were
employed, being generally hired to deliver bread, milk, meats,
groceries, newspapers, books, telegrams, circulars--in fact, all
manner of goods.[39] In the province of Upper Austria children are
paid from two to seven crowns (40.6 cents to $1.42) a month for
delivering newspapers daily, while in the duchy of Salzburg the pay
varies from twenty to fifty hellers (4 to 10 cents) a day for
delivering bread or newspapers.

In the province of Lower Austria, "referring now to the other main
occupations in which school children are employed outside of industry
proper, the report [of the investigation] shows that ... those
working in trade and transportation usually help wait on customers in
their parents' stores; a number, however, sell flowers, shoe laces,
etc., or huckster bread, butter and eggs, or carry passengers' baggage
to and from railway stations. Most of those put down as delivering
goods are engaged in delivering bread, milk, newspapers and
washing."[40] Children who sell flowers, bread or cigars in Vienna
earn one to two crowns (20.3 to 40.6 cents) a day during the week, and
on Sundays as much as three crowns (60.9) cents. "The children
employed [in Lower Austria] to deliver goods and run errands are also
usually employed by non-relatives and receive wages in money. Those
who deliver milk, and who work one half to one hour a day, generally
receive twenty hellers to one crown (4 to 20.3 cents) weekly; in
exceptional cases two crowns (40.6 cents), and in some instances only
food and old clothes. For delivering bread and pastry, wages are
reported as thirty hellers (6 cents) a week and some meals, or fifty
hellers to two crowns (10 to 40.6 cents) a week without meals; in
exceptional cases, 10 per cent of the receipts. For delivering
papers, which requires one to two hours a day, children receive two to
ten crowns (40.6 cents to $2.03) a month. For delivering of washing,
thirty hellers (6 cents) for a two-hours' trip, or sixty hellers to
two crowns (12 to 40.6 cents) a week. Children who carry dinner to
mill laborers, requiring one half to one hour daily, get eighty
hellers to five crowns (16 cents to $1.02) a month. Messengers for
stores, hotels, etc., get a tip of two to ten hellers (.4 to 2 cents)
per errand, or, if employed regularly, twenty hellers to one crown (4
to 20.3 cents) a week."[41]

"The delivery of milk, pastry, newspapers, etc., in which many
children are employed in Vienna and other large cities, does not cause
frequent absences, but is responsible for tardy arrival at school in
the morning and for the fatigue that reduces attention and prevents
mental alertness."[42]




                              CHAPTER III

NEWSPAPER SELLERS


By far the majority of the children in street occupations are engaged
in the sale or delivery of newspapers. The newsboy predominates to
such an extent that he is taken as a matter of course. As Mrs.
Florence Kelley says, "For more than one generation, it has been
almost invariably assumed that there must be little newsboys." Ever
since he became an institution of our city life, the public has been
pleased to regard him admiringly as an energetic salesman of
penetrating mind and keen sense of humor. There seems to be a tacit
indorsement of the newsboy as such.

Ordinarily there are five classes of newsboys to be found in all large
cities--(1) the corner boys, (2) those who sell for corner boys on
salary, (3) others who sell for them on commission, (4) those who sell
for themselves, and (5) those with delivery routes. The bulk of the
business is handled by the first three of these classes, which are
always associated together and found on the busy corners of the
downtown sections of all our cities. The choice localities for the
sale of newspapers, namely, the corners in the downtown sections where
thousands of pedestrians are daily passing, come under the control of
individuals by virtue of long tenure or by purchase, and their title
to these corners is not disputed largely on account of the support
they receive from the circulation managers of the newspapers. In
former years the proprietorship of the corner was settled by a fight,
but now it undergoes change of ownership by the formal transfer of
location, fixtures and goodwill in accordance with the most approved
legal practice.

In Chicago a system of routes has been established by the newspapers
which send wagons out with the different editions published each day
to supply the men who control the delivery and sale of newspapers in
the various districts. These route men employ boys to deliver for them
to regular customers and also to sell on street corners on a
commission basis. In Boston, ex-newsboys known as "Canada Points" are
employed by the publishers at a fixed salary to distribute the
editions by wholesale among the twenty odd places in the city from
which the street sellers are supplied.


               _Ages, Earnings and Character of the Work_

The following individual cases will serve to illustrate the various
forms this business takes. One nineteen-year-old boy paid $65 for his
corner in Cincinnati about five years ago; he now earns from $4 to $5
a day clear and would not sell the location for many times its cost.
He works there from 11 A.M. to 6.30 P.M. on week days, starting an
hour earlier on Saturdays, while on Sundays he delivers the morning
newspapers over a route to regular customers. Two boys of about twelve
years of age work for him, to one of whom he pays 25 cents a day and
to the other 30 cents a day; their duties are to hawk the different
editions and to dispose of as many copies as possible by hopping the
street cars and offering the papers to pedestrians from 3.45 to 6.30
P.M. daily on week days. If they do not hustle and make a large number
of sales, they lose their job.

A corner in another part of the city is "owned" by a thirteen-year-old
boy who earns about 80 cents a day clear for himself in eight hours,
and on Saturdays in nine hours. He has two boys working for him on
commission, to whom he pays one cent for every four papers sold; they
average about 15 cents a day apiece for three hours' work. When
questioned, these commission boys admitted that they could make more
money if working for themselves, but in that case would have to work
until all the copies they had bought were sold, while on the
commission plan they did not have to shoulder so much responsibility.

Regulations made by the circulation managers of newspapers concerning
the return of unsold copies greatly affect the newsboys' business.
Naturally these regulations are made with an eye to extending the
circulation. Corner boys are allowed to return only one copy out of
every ten bought, being reimbursed by the office for its cost.
Consequently they urge their newsboy employees and commission workers
to put forth every effort to dispose of the supply purchased. The
independent sellers are never permitted to return any unsold copies,
except in the case of certain energetic boys who can be relied upon to
work hard in any event. These are known as "hustlers," and owing to
their having won the confidence of the circulation manager they are
granted the special privilege of returning at cost all copies they
have been unable to sell.

In Boston, beginners are often on a commission basis; "in this way
they secure the advice and protection of the more experienced while
serving their apprenticeship. These _strikers_, as they are called,
keep one cent for every four collected; few of them earn more than 25
cents a day, while many of them earn less than 10."[43]

An eleven-year-old Jewish boy who has been a newsboy for several years
now controls a comparatively quiet corner in Cincinnati, where he nets
from 40 to 50 cents a day, working about three hours. This boy's
father and mother are both living.

Submission to older persons is natural among children, and an
interesting instance of tyranny over small boys by adults was found in
the case of a newspaper employee who works inside the plant and
employs several young boys to sell newspapers on the streets for him.
These boys together earn about $1.30 when working about seven hours,
but only half of this amount goes into their pockets, the other half
being paid to their "employer." In New York City certain busy sections
having points of strategic value are under the control of men who
employ small boys to do the real work for a mere pittance, usually the
price of admission to a moving-picture show. However, under certain
circumstances, these little fellows often display a sturdy spirit of
independence. An amusing instance is innocently recorded by an old
wartime report of a newsboys' home: "It had been decided to give the
boys a free dinner on Sundays, on condition that they attend the
Sunday School; but last Sunday they desired the Matron to say that
they were able and willing to pay for the dinner."[44]

Independent newsboys must not stand in the territory controlled by
another; they must select some uncontrolled spot, or else run about
hither and yon, selling where they can. Under the unwritten law of
this business a boy who chances to sell in another's territory must
give the corner boy the money and receive a newspaper in exchange;
this results the same as if the corner boy himself had made the sale.
The earnings of these independent boys range from 15 to 65 cents daily
out of school hours, while on Saturdays they make from $1 to $1.50
working from 11 A.M. to 6.30 P.M.

An eleven-year-old lad who has been a newsboy for three years, selling
on his own account, disposes of most of his copies in saloons located
in the middle of a busy square, earning from 50 cents to $1.25 a day
even when attending school. His mother and father are both living.
Another example of this class is a sixteen-year-old boy who devotes
all his time to the trade, his net income averaging about $7.50 per
week. His attitude toward regular work is both interesting and
significant; he hopes to get a better job, but says that although he
has hunted for one, so little is offered for what he can do ($2 to $3
per week) that it would hardly suffice for spending money. Discussing
this difference between factory wages and street-trading profits, an
English report says: "Working from 11 A.M. to 7 or 8 P.M., with
intervals for gambling, newsboys over 14 years old can make from
10_s._ to 14_s._ a week if they have an ordinary share of alertness.
In a factory or foundry, working from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., a boy earns
about 13_s._ a week. The comparison needs no comment. The excitement
of their career tends to make them more and more reluctant to work
steadily.... Many newsboys protest that they want more permanent work,
but they rarely keep it when it is found for them."[45] The life of
the streets lacks the discipline involved in steady work and fixed
earnings.

As an example of the route boy there is a fourteen-year-old lad in
Cincinnati who has a list of fifty customers to whom he delivers
newspapers regularly, earning in this way 25 cents daily, delivering
after school hours. He declares that he finds it much easier to work
on a route than to sell on the corners or at random.

The morning papers employ a man as circulation manager for the
residence districts who controls all the corners in those sections.
When a corner becomes vacant, he assigns a youth to it. These older
boys are not to sell their corners nor to dispose of them in any way,
nor are they allowed to have any one working for them; they must "hop"
all the street cars passing their corners and are expected to put
forth every effort to accomplish a great number of sales. They get
their supply of copies at the branch office at 5 A.M., hurrying then
to their corners, where they remain until nearly noon, averaging in
this time from $2 to $3 per day clear. Nearly all of the afternoon
papers sold in the residence districts are delivered by route boys;
after having gone over their routes, some of these boys go to the
busier localities and sell the sporting extra during the baseball
season until about seven o'clock.


                             _Environment_

Strong emphasis was laid upon the evils of street trading by the New
York Child Welfare Exhibit of 1911, the Committee on Work and Wages
declaring that "The ordinary newsboy is surrounded by influences that
are extremely bad, because (1) of the desultory nature of his work;
(2) of the character of street life; and (3) of the lack of
discipline or restraint in this work. The occupation is characterized
by 'rush hours,' during which the boy will work himself into
exhaustion trying to keep pace with his trade, and long hours in which
there is little or nothing to do, during which the boy has unlimited
opportunities to make such use of the street freedom as he sees fit.
During these light hours newsboys congregate in the streets and commit
many acts of vandalism. They learn all forms of petty theft and
usually are accomplished in most of the vices of the street. In
building up their routes, the boys often include places of the most
degrading and detrimental character. On the economic side, the loss is
due to failure of the occupation to furnish any training for
industrial careers."[46]

The irregularity of newsboys' meals and the questionable character of
their food form one of the worst features of street work and are a
real menace to health. Many newsboys are in the habit of eating
hurriedly at lunch counters at intervals during the day and night,
while some snatch free lunches in saloons. In New York City their
diet has been found to consist chiefly of "such hostile ingredients as
frankfuerters, mince pies, doughnuts, ham sandwiches, cakes and
'sinkers'."[47] The use of stimulants is common, and the demand for
them is to be expected because of the nervous strain of the work.
Liquor is not consumed to any appreciable extent by street-trading
children, but coffee is a favorite beverage. In the largest cities,
where "night gangs" are found, from four to six bowls of coffee are
usually taken every evening. Tobacco is used in great quantities and
in all its forms; many boys even appease their hunger for the time by
smoking cigarettes, and the smallest "newsies" are addicted to the
habit. Evidence that this is not a recent development among street
workers is found in a report made nearly a quarter of a century ago,
which, with reference to newsboys, says "many of them soon spend their
gains in pool rooms, low places of amusement and for the poisonous
cigarette."[48]

An English report on the street traders of Manchester says:
"Drunkenness is rare among these boys ... they are in many ways
attractive; but the closer our acquaintance grows with them the more
overwhelming does this propensity to gambling appear. Indeed, it may
reasonably be said that the whole career of the street trader is one
long game of chance.... They tend to become more and more unwilling to
work hard; they are the creatures of accident and lose the power of
foresight; they never form habits of thrift; and their word can be
taken only by those who have learnt how to interpret it."[49]

There are tricks in newspaper selling as well as in other trades, and
children are not slow to learn them. A careful observer cannot fail to
note that certain newsboys seem always to be without change. Their
patrons are generally in a hurry and willingly sacrifice the change
from a nickel, even priding themselves on their unselfishness in thus
helping to relieve the supposed poverty of the newsboys. As a matter
of fact, such an act does real harm, for it arouses the cupidity of
boys and leads them to believe that honesty is not the best policy.
The temptation for newsboys to develop into "short change artists" is
an ever present one, for the bustle of the street creates a most
favorable condition for the practice of such frauds. Yet in spite of
the many temptations which assail them, numbers of newsboys are
scrupulously exact in the matter of making change, even under the most
trying circumstances. Another common form of deceit, used to play upon
the sympathy of passers-by, is practiced after nightfall by boys of
all ages in offering a solitary newspaper for sale and crying in
plaintive tone, "Please, mister, buy my last paper?" A kind-hearted
person readily falls a victim to this ruse, and as soon as he has
passed by, the newsboy draws another copy from his hidden supply and
repeats his importuning. Commenting on these features of street
trading, Dr. Charles P. Neill, United States Commissioner of Labor,
has said: "Unless the child is cast in the mold of heroic virtue, the
newsboy trade is a training in either knavery or mendicancy. Nowhere
else are the wits so sharpened to look for the unfair advantage,
nowhere else is the unfortunate lesson so early learned that
dishonesty and trickery are more profitable than honesty, and that
sympathy coins more pennies than does industry."[50]


                                _Hours_

Work at unseasonable hours is most disastrous in its effects upon
growing children, and the newspaper trade is one that engages the
labor of boys in our larger cities at all hours of the night. This
fact is not generally known. A prominent social worker recently said:
"I was astounded to find the other day that my newspaper comes to me
in Chicago every morning because two little boys, one twelve and the
other thirteen, get it at half-past two at night. These little boys,
who go to school, carry papers around so that we get them in the
morning at four o'clock all the year around. They are working for a
man with whom we contract for our newspapers. I was quite shocked in
St. Louis twice this fall (1908) to find a girl five or six years of
age selling newspapers near the railroad station in the worst part of
town after dark. We hear a great deal of sentimental talk about
newsboys' societies doing so much for newsboys, but they do not seem
to care anything for work of this kind."[51] In passing it may be
remarked that in the city of Toledo there is an active association
organized for the benefit of newsboys, which openly encourages street
work by boys of from eight to seventeen years. The manager insists
that such work affords the means of alleviating the poverty in the
families of these boys, but upon inquiry it was found that he had
never heard of the provision for the financial relief of such cases of
child labor, which is made by the Ohio law, and which had been, at the
time, most successfully administered for three years by the Board of
Education of his own city.

The Chicago newspapers have their Sunday editions distributed on
Saturday night, consequently the newsboys are up all night so as to
assure prompt service to patrons. In the absence of public opinion in
the matter, this abuse flourishes unrestricted, and the children's
health is sacrificed to meet the demand for news. Agents of the
Chicago Vice Commission reported having seen boys from ten to fifteen
years of age selling morning papers at midnight Saturday in the evil
districts of the city.[52]

The early rising of newsboys to deliver the morning week-day editions
also contributes to the breaking down of their health. The old adage
is a mockery in their case. There is abundant testimony relative to
the evil effects of such untimely work. "Children who go to school and
sell papers get up so early in the morning that they are so stupid
during the day they cannot do anything. That was clearly demonstrated
to me during my experience in teaching school."[53]

Another teacher said: "I have had instances in school where children
have gone to sleep over their tasks because they got up at two or
three o'clock in the morning to put out city lights and to sell
papers. In those instances we wanted the parents to take the children
away from their work. Where they would not do it, we prosecuted them
for contributing to the delinquency of their children."[54]

The delivery of newspapers by young boys in the strictly residence
sections of cities appears to be unobjectionable, yet even this simple
work should be under restriction as to hours, because otherwise the
boys would continue to rise at unseemly hours of the night in order to
reach the branch offices in time to get the newspapers fresh from the
press. In fact, every phase of street work should be under control.
Dr. Harold E. Jones, medical inspector of schools to the Essex County
Council, has testified that among the most injurious forms of labor
performed by boys is the early morning delivery of newspapers and
milk.[55] In his Report on Child Labor Legislation in Europe, Mr. C.
W. A. Veditz states, "Delivering milk before school in the morning
must be condemned, because it fatigues the children so that they
become, to say the least, intellectually less receptive."[56]

In his article on "The Newsboy at Night in Philadelphia,"[57] Mr.
Scott Nearing gives a graphic account of conditions in the City of
Brotherly Love. Although this description was written some years ago,
local social workers find that the same conditions still obtain, as
there is neither law nor ordinance to bring about a change. In this
city the closing of the theaters at eleven o'clock marks the beginning
of Saturday night's work. The last editions of the evening newspapers
are offered at this time, often as a cloak for begging. After the
theater, the restaurant patrons are available as customers until
midnight. Then the morning papers begin to come from the press, and
the newsboys abandon their begging and gambling and rush to the
offices for their supplies. A load of forty pounds is often carried by
the smallest newsboys, hurrying along the streets in the early morning
hours. The cream of the business is done at this time, for most of the
purchasers are more or less intoxicated and therefore inclined to be
generous with tips and indifferent as to change; sometimes a newsboy
takes in as much money on Saturday night and Sunday morning as during
the entire remainder of the week. In relating his experiences, Mr.
Nearing says, "On one night we saw fifteen boys in a group just as the
policeman was chasing them out of Chinatown at half-past three Sunday
morning; the youngest boy was clearly not over ten and the oldest was
barely sixteen." At this hour the officers of the law interfere and
quell the revels of the district. The open gratings in sidewalks
through which warm air comes from basements, are then sought, and here
the boys pass the time dozing until dawn, when they go abroad again to
cry the Sunday papers.


                       _Home Conditions--Poverty_

One of the reasons why the public is so indulgent toward the street
worker is that it takes for granted that the child is making a manly
effort to support a widowed mother and several starving little
brothers and sisters. Mrs. Florence Kelley calls this "perverted
reasoning" and scores the public which "unhesitatingly places the
burden of the decrepit adult's maintenance upon the slender shoulders
of the child."[58] Poverty has been made an excuse for child labor
from time immemorial by those who profit by the system. Newspapers are
not an exception to the rule; the newsboys extend their circulation
and incidentally give them free advertising in the streets--hence they
see nothing but good in the newsboys' work and fight lustily to defend
what they claim to be the mainstay of the widows. That this popular
impression and appealing argument are false and without justification
has been shown by students of the problem everywhere. The following
table gives the family condition of Cincinnati newsboys:--

  Both parents dead          12
  Father dead               239
  Mother dead                69
  Both parents living      1432
                           ----
    Total                  1752

Through a special inquiry it was found that in only 363 cases out of
this total were the earnings of the children really needed. These 1752
children, ten to thirteen years of age, were licensed from July to
December, 1909; their distribution as to age was as follows:--

  10 years      303
  11 years      348
  12 years      564
  13 years      537
               ----
    Total      1752

Upon investigation of the home conditions of several hundred newsboys
in New York City it was declared that "in the majority of cases
parents are not dependent on the boys' earnings. The poverty
plea--that boys must sell papers to help widowed mothers or disabled
fathers--is, for the most part, gross exaggeration."[59]

Concerning a study of Chicago newsboys, Myron E. Adams says, "A
careful investigation of the records of the Charity Organization
Society shows that of the 1000 newsboys investigated, the names of but
sixteen families are found, and of these ... only four received direct
help, such as coal, clothing or food."[60]

Mr. Scott Nearing says: "In many cases the boys want to go on the
streets in order to have the pocket money which this life affords, and
the ignorant or indifferent parents make no objections, but take the
street life as a matter of course. Sometimes, though not nearly as
often as is generally supposed, there is real need for the
selling."[61]

The British interdepartmental committee appointed in 1901 to inquire
into the employment of school children, denounced the tolerance of
street trading on the ground of necessity: "We think that in framing
regulations with regard to child labour and school attendance ... the
poverty of the child or its parents ought not to be made a test of the
right to labour.... We do not think it is needed; we think that all
children should have liberty to work as much and in such ways as is
good for them and no more."[62]

Another argument in favor of street trading advanced by those who are
interested in maintaining present conditions, is that it affords a
splendid training for a business career because of the competition
that rages among the boys. This is doubtless true, as far as it goes,
but the great difficulty is that street trading leads nowhere. It is a
blind alley that sooner or later leaves its followers helpless against
the solid wall of skilled labor's competition. An occupation that fits
a boy for _nothing_ and is devoid of _prospects_, is a curse rather
than a blessing in this day of specialization. In spite of the
division of labor so elaborately realized to-day, a boy or girl who
enters any of the regular industries has at least a fighting chance
for acquiring a trade. If the child is honest, capable and diligent he
will be promoted to a better position in time if misfortune does not
overtake him. The trapper boy in a coal mine is in a fair way to
become a miner. The lad who works in a machine shop has the
opportunity to make a machinist of himself. The girl who begins as a
wrapper in a dry goods shop may become a saleswoman, and then possibly
a buyer for her department. Yet in most states children may not enter
upon such work until they have reached the age of fourteen years,
while some states prohibit boys under sixteen years from being
employed in mines or in connection with dangerous machinery either in
machine shops or elsewhere. Bitter experience has taught us that these
restrictions are right and just, and we now have no hesitancy in
barring young children from such employment, regardless of the
training it affords. Why, then, do we exempt many forms of street work
from the operation of the law? Why do we allow little children to
work at any age, both night and day, as newsboys, bootblacks and
peddlers in the essentially dangerous environment of the street? Such
employment offers but a gloomy future--the useless life of the casual
worker. There is no better position to which it leads, no chance for
the discovery and development of ability, no reward for good service.
It seems incredible that we have been so engrossed with throwing
safeguards about the children in regular industries that we have
altogether neglected the street worker, for the arguments against
child labor in factories, mills, mines and retail shops apply with
even greater force to the work of children in our city streets.


                          _Better Substitutes_

There is no reason why newsboys should not be replaced as the medium
for the sale and delivery of newspapers by old men, <DW36>s, the
tuberculous and those otherwise incapacitated for regular work. In
London, the _Westminster Gazette_, the _Pall Mall Gazette_, the
_Evening Standard_ and the _Globe_ (all penny papers) are sold in the
streets by old men; the _Westminster Gazette_ pays them a wage of
1_s._ for selling eighteen copies and after having disposed of this
number they are given a commission of 8_d._ a quire of twenty-six
copies, a few men selling from six to eight quires a day. This
newspaper has followed this method for many years, and its general
manager declares that it is the most satisfactory system that they
have been able to evolve. Boys have no sense of responsibility, while
old men cling to their posts very faithfully. He admitted that the
_Westminster Gazette_ employed some boys as carriers and that the
whole subject lay somewhat heavily on his conscience because,
"practically speaking, these boys have no future ... a few of them may
become cyclists carrying the newspapers ... in a few years their
usefulness as cyclists has gone ... then they simply drift away, we
don't know where, but we do know that they drift to places like
Salvation Army Shelters, etc. How they earn their living is always one
of the mysteries of London.... But they have learned nothing from us,
nothing that gives them any usefulness for any other occupation....
The great majority become casual labourers dependent entirely on
casual work.... It is a life in which very little is gained, although
one would suppose that the open air would be of great benefit. But
one must remember the insufficient food that these street traders
have, and the bad conditions of living and the irregular hours. Many
of these boys, of course, are up all hours of the night.... It is
quite as bad for a boy in the long run to be engaged as a carrier
distributor as for him to sell newspapers in the street. There is no
possible argument for the system except that one's competitors do it,
and that so long as they do it we must do the same.... We get
practically all our men from Salvation Army and Church Army Shelters.
There is an abundant supply.... The ordinary man whom we employ is
over fifty years of age and runs up to about seventy years.... I think
if the police would give us every facility for introducing kiosks it
would be a great improvement upon the present system. If boys were
prohibited from selling newspapers altogether on the streets, it would
automatically send the public to the kiosk; ... the public get into
the habit of getting the newspapers from the boys."[63]

It should be remembered in connection with the above statements that
the _Westminster Gazette_ is a penny paper, and its manager was of
opinion that the half-penny papers could not afford to employ men
because they depended largely for their circulation upon the
persistence of newsboys in thrusting copies upon the attention of
people in the streets; he believed that the use of old men would
curtail their circulation because men are not so active as boys. On
the other hand, news agents protested against the competition of
street traders and maintained that they alone were fully able to meet
the demands of the public. The departmental committee of 1910
reported: "There can, we think, be little doubt that an active child
is an effective agent in promoting the circulation of half-penny
papers, and that if the employment of children were forbidden,
newspapers would have to rely upon facilities of a more staid and less
mobile character. But we see no reason to think that purchasers of
newspapers need be put to any inconvenience, since the news agents
would be in a position considerably to extend their business, and it
might reasonably be expected that the system of employing old men as
salesmen would also be developed. It appears to us economically
unjustifiable to use children to their own detriment for work which
can be done by other means."[64]

Referring to the great possibilities for good involved in confining
the sale and delivery of newspapers to adults who need outdoor work
and are unable to provide for themselves in other ways, the Secretary
of the New York Child Labor Committee says: "Where such cities as
Paris and Berlin do entirely without newsboys--corner stands taking
their places--it would seem that the least that can be done in
American cities is to adopt some adequate system of regulation. In
this connection, the opportunity presented in newspaper selling to
give work to the aged and handicapped--who otherwise would have to be
supported by private charity--should not be overlooked."[65]


                         _The Newsboys' Court_

In an effort to control to some extent the tendency of newsboys to
become delinquent and to imbue them with a sense of personal
responsibility, an interesting experiment in juvenile suffrage and
jurisprudence has been undertaken in Boston.

During the year 1909, about three hundred newsboys were taken before
the juvenile court of that city charged with violation of the local
license rules. As the docket of this court was crowded, these newsboy
cases were necessarily delayed, and as a result of this situation the
boys conceived the idea of establishing a newsboys' court which should
have jurisdiction in all cases of failure to observe the rules
governing their trade. The following year a petition was presented to
the Boston School Committee which was favorably acted upon by that
body, and accordingly on the regular election day of that year the
newsboys cast their ballots to select three juvenile judges of the
court. These three boys, together with two adults appointed by the
School Committee, compose the court. Election of these boy judges is
held annually, and all licensed newsboys who attend the public schools
are qualified electors. The court is empowered to investigate and
report its findings with recommendations to the School Committee in
all cases of infraction of the newsboy rules. Under the Massachusetts
law the School Committee is authorized to regulate street trading by
children under fourteen years of age, hence the newsboys are subject
to purely local supervision. The supervisor of licensed minors, also
an appointee of the School Committee, can, in his discretion, take
complaints in his department before the newsboys' court instead of the
juvenile court. The newsboy judges are paid fifty cents for their
attendance at each official session of the court. The charges made
before the Trial Board, as the Boston newsboys' court is called, range
from selling without a badge or after eight o'clock in the evening or
on street cars, to bad conduct, irregular school attendance, gambling
or smoking. The disposition of these cases varies from reprimands and
warnings to probation or suspension of license for a definite period,
or complete revocation of license.[66]


                               _Summary_

Although the work of selling newspapers has been, to some extent,
subdivided and systematized by circulation managers, it has so many
features highly objectionable for children that a radical departure
from present methods of handling this business should be taken. We
know that the work of the newsboy lacks the oversight and discipline
of adults, that it exposes the children to the varied physical dangers
lurking in the streets, that the early and late hours cause fatigue,
that the opportunities for bad companionship are frequent, that
irregularity of meals and use of stimulants tend to weaken their
constitutions, that it offers no chance for promotion and leads
nowhere. We know further that the presence of the newsboy in our
streets cannot be justified on the ground of poverty. It has been
demonstrated in other countries that children are not essential to the
sale and delivery of newspapers; in fact, it has been shown that
selling at stands and the use of men instead of children in the
streets are both feasible and satisfactory. Why cannot such practices
be introduced into the United States? There can be but little doubt as
to the advisability of this step, but the innovation will certainly
not be made voluntarily by the newspapers. The law must force the
issue by prohibiting street work by children.




                               CHAPTER IV

BOOTBLACKS, PEDDLERS AND MARKET CHILDREN


                              _Bootblacks_

The itinerant bootblack is gradually disappearing from our cities, but
he is still found in Boston, Buffalo, New York City and a few other
places. He is being supplanted by the worker at stands, which are
conducted almost invariably by Greeks. As a result of this change the
bootblacking business will soon cease to be a street occupation; it is
discussed here because of the abuses it involves and because it is
unregulated in many states, owing to its omission from the list of
employments covered by child labor laws.


                          _The Padrone System_

The New York-New Jersey Committee of the North American Civic League
for Immigrants reports that: "The condition of Greek boys and young
men in such occupations as pushcart peddling, shoe-shining parlors and
the flower trade is one of servitude and peonage. It has been found
that many boys apparently from fourteen to eighteen years of age
arrive here alone, stating that they are eighteen years old, but in
reality less than this, and that they are going to relatives. They
have been found working in the shoe-shining parlors seven days a week
from 7 A.M. to 9 P.M. and living with the 'boss' in groups varying
from five to twenty-five under unsanitary conditions, overcrowding and
irregularity of meals wholly undesirable for young boys. They are
isolated from learning English or from American contact, and receive
for their work from $7 to $15 a month and board and lodging. The
majority of the flower peddlers have been unable to obtain permits,
with the result that the boys who work for them are arrested for
violating the law. Boys who have been in the country from three months
to a year state they have been arrested several times--their first
experience in this country--and are already hardened so that they
think nothing of paying fines."[67]

The bootblack business is the chief industry to which the Greek
padrone system is applied. The United States Immigration Commission
found[68] that boys employed as bootblacks live in extremely
unwholesome quarters. Wherever the room is large enough, several beds
are gathered together with three and sometimes four boys sleeping in
each bed. In some places the boys merely roll themselves up in
blankets and sleep on the floor. The bootblacking stands are opened
for business about 6 o'clock in the morning, consequently the boys are
obliged to rise about an hour earlier, and wherever their sleeping
quarters are located at considerable distance from the stands, they
have to get up as early as 4.30. Arrived at the stands, they remain
working until 9.30 or 10 at night in cities, and on Saturday and
Sunday nights the closing hour is usually later. The boys eat their
lunch in the rear of the establishment, this meal consisting generally
of bread and olives or cheese. Supper is eaten after the boys reach
"home," and after having eaten it they retire without removing their
clothes. Even after their excessively long work day, two of the boys
are required to wash the dirty rags used for polishing the shoes daily
so they can be used the next day.

These boys are compelled to work every day in the year without
vacation. The Immigration Commission found that they are under
constant espionage, as at every stand the padrone places relatives who
both work for him and act as spies on the other boys. Their employer
instructs them to make false statements to questions asked by
outsiders relative to their ages or conditions of work; many padrones
also censor the letters written by the boys to their parents or others
and examine all incoming mail, so as to forestall any efforts made by
outsiders to induce the boys to leave for other places.

The majority of them cannot read or write their own language, and are
unable to secure any education in this country because of their long
work hours. According to the Immigration Commission their mental
development is perceptibly arrested by the physical fatigue they
suffer as a result of their long-sustained work without recreation.
They receive no good advice, nor do they hear anything that would
tend to elevate them morally. The Commission does not hesitate to
brand these conditions as deplorable; it declares that the ravages on
the constitutions of these boys laboring in shoe-shining
establishments under this system are appalling. It attributes these
effects to the following causes: long hours, close confinement to
their work in poorly ventilated places, unsanitary living conditions,
unhealthful manner of sleeping, excessive stooping required by their
work, inadequate nourishment due to the "economy" of the padrones who
furnish the food, the microbe-laden dust from shoes, the inhaling of
injurious chemicals from the polish they use, the filthy condition of
their bodies resulting from their failure to bathe and the lack of
proper clothing for the winter season.

The Greek Consul General at Chicago, himself a physician, in a letter
to the Immigration Inspector of that city under date of November 16,
1910, declared that as a result of his experience in examining and
treating boy bootblacks he was convinced that all boys under eighteen
years of age who labor for a few years in shoe-shining establishments,
develop serious chronic stomachic and hepatic troubles which
predispose them to pulmonary disease; he further declared that
because of the conditions under which they work the majority of them
ultimately contract tuberculosis, and that in his opinion it would be
more humane and infinitely better for young Greeks to be denied
admission into the United States than to be permitted to land if they
are intended for such employment. Similar statements are made by other
Greek physicians of Chicago.

The importation of Greek boys for use as bootblacks in the United
States started about 1895, when the Greeks began to secure their
monopoly of the industry by taking it away from the Italians and the
<DW64>s, confining it, however, to stands or booths. Most of the early
padrones have become financially independent. Their success attracted
other Greeks to this industry, and in a short time almost every
American city with a population of more than 10,000 had bootblack
stands operated by them. Thus the traffic in Greek boys began to
flourish.

The Bureau of Immigration helped to have a number of padrones indicted
and convicted for offenses against the conspiracy statute and the
Immigration Act, and these prosecutions made the importers very
careful as to their manner of procedure. They now bring the boys here
through the instrumentality of relatives in Greece in such a way that
the padrones are almost beyond the reach of our criminal statutes.

In some cases it has been found that on leaving Greece for this
country the boys are told to report to a saloon keeper in Chicago or
in some other western city, hence they do not know their final
destination. The saloon keeper has his instructions from the padrones
and acts as their distributing agent. Padrones who operate in places
distant from ports of entry easily avoid detection in this way.

In most cases these padrones derive an income from each boy of from
$100 to as high as $500 a year. The Commission explains this as
follows: The wages paid by the padrones now to Greek boys in
shoe-shining establishments range from $80 to $250 per year, the
average wages being from $120 to $180 per year. The boys are bound by
agreement to turn their tips over to their padrones: in most cases as
soon as the tipping patron has departed the boy deposits his tip in
the register, while in other places tips are put into a separate box
to which the padrone holds the key. In smaller cities and even in the
poorest locations each boy's tips may exceed the sum of 50 cents per
day, while in large cities they average higher. The Greek padrone,
therefore, receives in return from tips alone nearly double the amount
of wages paid. By deducting the wages and the annual boarding expenses
for each boy--an expenditure seldom exceeding the sum of $40 per
year--there is still a sum left to the padrone to pay him for the
privilege of allowing the boy to work in his place. In other words,
from the total amount of tips--money that belongs to the boy by
right--the padrone is enabled to pay the boy's annual wages and still
have a respectable sum left, all this independently of the legitimate
profits of his business.

Relatives of the padrones in Greece often pay the steamship passage of
boys with the understanding that they are to go to the United States
and serve the padrone for one year to reimburse him for the passage
money advanced. A mortgage is placed on the property of the boys'
father as security, purporting that the father is to receive in cash
an amount equal to the wages commonly paid to Greek bootblacks for
one year in the United States, but as a matter of fact a steamship
ticket and $12 or $15 in money are all that is given. The cash is to
serve as "show money" to help secure admission to this country past
the immigration officers at the ports of entry. Advertising is
systematically carried on throughout all the provinces of Greece with
a view to exciting the interest of the parents so that they will send
their boys to the United States, and no efforts are spared in letting
it become known that there is a great demand here for boy labor at the
bootblack stands. The padrones themselves even go to Greece every two
or three years, and while there manage to become godfathers to the
children of many families; this relationship gives them great
influence, and through it they are able to secure many boys for their
service.

Concerning the prevention of these abuses, the report says: "In the
investigations conducted by the Bureau of Immigration many conferences
were held with United States attorneys in various jurisdictions with
the view of instituting proceedings against padrones, if possible,
under the peonage statutes. The attorneys generally agreed that under
the evidence submitted to them those laboring in shoe-shining
establishments are peons, but as the elements of indebtedness and
physical compulsion to work out the indebtedness are missing, peonage
laws cannot apply.

"Our immigration laws as now on the statute books provide specifically
for the exclusion of boys under sixteen years of age only when not
accompanied by one or both of their parents. This provision cannot
apply to those boys that come in company with their parents, nor to
those who have their parents in the United States, nor to such as
successfully deceive immigration officers by posing as the sons of
immigrants in whose charge they come. If held for special inspection
at the ports of entry, these aliens can only be excluded if it appears
that they are destined to an occupation unsuited to their tender
years. In the absence of any such evidence, the boards of inquiry
generally admit. Once landed, it becomes a hard matter to trace them
and almost impossible to secure evidence in the majority of cases, for
the boys understand that they will be punished by deportation. This
knowledge makes them persistent in withholding any information as to
the manner of their entry into the United States."[69]

Quite recently a young Greek bootblack who was working at a stand in
an Indianapolis office building confessed to a truant officer that he
was twelve years old, whereupon the chief truant officer of the city
went to the place, but on his arrival the boy had changed his mind and
declared that he was fourteen years old, and every one connected with
the stand supported the statement. Nevertheless the chief truant
officer proceeded with the case and found that the boy had been in
this country only about six months, his parents being still in Greece.
An older brother had a position as a railroad porter but did not stay
with the little fellow even on the few occasions he was in the city.
The boy lived at the home of the proprietor of the stand, whose
relationship to him was a combination of employer and guardian. This
man operated four stands in the city, and his dozen or more other
employees all lived at the same place. The chief truant officer
charged the man with having worked the boy from 7 A.M. to 9 P.M.
seven days in the week, which was admitted before the Juvenile Court
by the defendant, who also volunteered the information that the boy
worked until 11 P.M. on holidays and on Saturdays. Of course the boy
was being kept out of school.

In its issue of August 12, 1911, the _Survey_ published a letter from
a correspondent concerning a case of peonage among bootblacks in the
city of Rochester, N.Y. This particular case was of a pale, thin,
under-sized Greek lad who worked at a large stand in a local office
building. He explained that he worked every day in the week from 7
A.M. to 9 P.M., including Sundays, and that on Saturdays the hours
were lengthened to 11 P.M., adding that he had not been absent from
his stand one day in four years except at one time when he was sick in
the hospital.

A letter which was written by a Greek in Syracuse, N.Y., on May 4,
1911, to the editor of the Syracuse _Post-Standard_ was printed in the
same magazine.[70] This letter recites the wrongs of the bootblacks
and is reproduced below because of its value as one of the rare
protests which come from the victims of the system:--

"Before I came to this country from Greece, I heard that this country
is free, but I don't think so. It is free for the Americans, not for
the shoe shiners. In this city are too many shoe shiners' stands, and
the boys which work there--they work fifteen hours a day, and Sunday,
and almost eighteen on Saturdays. They make only from $12 to $18 a
month and board, but we don't have any good board neither, but our
patrons give us bread, tea and a piece of cheese for dinner, supper,
but no breakfast. We don't have any time to go to the church, not in
school, and without them we won't be good citizens. They won't let us
read newspapers, because they are afraid if we learn something we will
quit, but we can't quit because we can't speak English, and we can't
find another job. Now I don't mean the boys working in the barber
shops. They make $10 to $18 a week, and they don't work as hard as we
do. We wish to work as they do. We want the public and Mr. Mayor to
cut the hours from fifteen to ten, not Sundays, because we want time
for school, and weekly work, not monthly. I think I wrote enough."


                     _Peddlers and Market Children_

The licensed peddlers of Boston are under orders not to engage little
children to sell for them with or without compensation. "These
peddlers have hitherto crowded the markets of this city by inviting
children to help them in the business, frequently for no other
compensation than the offal of their pushcarts or stands."[71]

The peddling of chewing gum is a common form of street occupation for
children. In reality it is merely begging in disguise. The Chicago
Vice Commission reports that its agents found boys under fourteen
years of age selling gum late at night in the segregated districts of
the city. At intervals of from two to three hours their investigators
returned to the same neighborhood and found these little children
still engaged in this very questionable form of work. One agent
reported having seen two little girls of about eleven years in the
company of a small boy of about eight years selling chewing gum in
front of a saloon in the vice district between nine and ten o'clock at
night.[72]

The following table gives the sex, age, nationality, standing in
school, orphanage and occupation of seventeen children found by one
person in a single trip through the markets of Cincinnati:--

  ====+=====+====+=====+===========+==========+==========+==============
      |     |    |     |           |  FATHER  | MOTHER   |
      |     |    |     |           |  LIVING  | LIVING   |
      |     |    |     |           +-----+----+-----+----+--------------
  BOYS|GIRLS|AGE |GRADE|NATIONALITY| YES | NO | YES | NO | SELLING
  ----+-----+----+-----+-----------+-----+----+-----+----+--------------
   1  |     |  9 | 2d  |  Italian  |  1  |    |  1  |    | baskets
   1  |     | 10 | 4th |  American |  1  |    |  1  |    | fruit
   1  |     | 10 | 3d  |  German   |     |  1 |  1  |    | vegetables
   1  |     | 10 | 2d  |  Italian  |     |  1 |  1  |    | fruit
      |  1  | 10 | 4th |  Italian  |  1  |    |  1  |    | fruit
      |  1  | 10 | 3d  |  Italian  |     |  1 |  1  |    | baskets
   1  |     | 11 | 4th |  Italian  |     |  1 |  1  |    | fruit
   1  |     | 11 | 3d  |  Italian  |  1  |    |  1  |    | baskets
      |  1  | 11 | 6th |  German   |  1  |    |     | 1  | vegetables
   1  |     | 12 | 4th |  American |  1  |    |  1  |    | vegetables
   1  |     | 12 | 3d  |  American |  1  |    |     | 1  | baskets
   1  |     | 12 | 4th |  American |  1  |    |  1  |    | sassafras
   1  |     | 12 | 6th |  Italian  |  1  |    |  1  |    | fruit
   1  |     | 13 | 5th |  Italian  |  1  |    |  1  |    | baskets
   1  |     | 14 | 3d  |  American |  1  |    |  1  |    | sassafras
   1  |     | 14 | 8th |  American |  1  |    |  1  |    | vegetables
      |  1  | 14 | 4th |  Italian  |     |  1 |  1  |    | fruit
  ====+=====+====+=====+===========+=====+====+=====+====+==============

Of these seventeen children nine were Italians, six were Americans,
two were Germans. Five of the children, all of whom except one were
Italian, were engaged in selling baskets to the passers-by in markets.
Six of the children, all of whom except one were Italian, were selling
fruit. Six of the children were selling vegetables and herbs, all of
them being Americans and Germans. The occupational characteristics of
these different peoples are shown by their children, the Italians
predominating in the sale of fruit, the Germans in the sale of the
products of their market gardens, the Americans, all of whom were
boys, in the sale of the herbs they had gathered or the vegetables
cultivated on their home farms.

Of these seventeen children nine were in their normal grades at
school, while eight were backward and none ahead of their proper
grades. This large percentage of retardation is due principally to the
lack of time for preparation of school lessons on the part of these
children, as much of their afternoons and evenings is taken up either
with the work of selling in the markets or with the work of assisting
with the garden duties at home. Of the eight backward children, four
were Italians and four were Americans. One of the backward Italian
girls was fourteen years of age and had left school three weeks prior
to the inquiry; she was the oldest of six children; her father was
dead, and she was working for her mother in their fruit store selling
the fruit from early morning until midnight every day in the week
except Sunday. As she was the oldest child in the family, it is of
course easily seen that her retardation in school was largely due to
her having been kept at work in the shop during the afternoons and
evenings while she was still attending school. An American boy, who,
although twelve years of age, was only in the third grade at school,
was employed by his parents to sell baskets in the market, in spite of
the fact that his father had a store and was fully able to support the
child properly. This boy was found, as were many other such children,
selling baskets in the market at eleven o'clock at night after having
been there since early in the morning. A thirteen-year-old Italian boy
was only in the fifth grade; he was selling baskets in one market in
the morning and in another market during the afternoon and evening;
both of his parents were living, and his father had a "city job."
There were six children in the family, two of whom were older and
employed. The entire family of eight persons occupied two rooms.

It is noteworthy that the fathers of twelve of the children were
living, only five being dead; while the mothers of fifteen were
living, only two being dead. Not a single child was a full orphan. In
the great majority of cases it was not necessary for these children to
work so prematurely.




                               CHAPTER V

MESSENGERS, ERRAND AND DELIVERY CHILDREN


Accustomed to seeing messenger boys engaged during the day in the
unobjectionable task of delivering telegrams to residences and
business offices, one is likely to regard this service as an
occupation quite suitable for children and to give it no further
thought. However, the character of the work done by the messenger boy
changes radically after nine or ten o'clock at night. At that hour
most legitimate business has ceased, and the evil phases of city life
begin to manifest themselves. From that time on until nearly dawn the
messenger's work is largely in connection with the vicious features of
city life. The ignorance of the general public as to the evil
influences surrounding the night messenger service is strikingly
illustrated by what one Indiana boy told an investigator; he declared
that if his father knew what kind of work he was doing, a strap would
be laid across his back and he would be compelled to abandon it. But
the father did not know; he thought his boy was simply delivering
telegrams.

The delivery of telegrams forms but a small part of the boy's work at
night, because few messages are dispatched after business hours.
Instead, calls are sent to the office for messengers to go on errands.
The boys wait upon the characters of the underworld and perform a
surprising variety of simple tasks; they carry notes to and from the
inmates of houses of prostitution and their patrons, take lunches,
chop suey and chile con carne to bawdyhouse women, procure liquor
after the closing hour, purchase opium, cocaine and other drugs, go to
drug stores for prostitutes to get medicines and articles used in
their trade, and perform other tasks that oblige them to cultivate
their acquaintance with the worst side of human nature. One instance
was found in which the boy was required to clean up the room of a
prostitute and to make her bed. The uniform or cap of the messenger
boy is a badge of secrecy and enables him to get liquor at illegal
hours or to procure opium and other drugs where plain citizens would
be refused; hence these boys are thrown into associations of the
lowest kind, night after night, and come to regard these evil
conditions as normal phases of life. Usually the brightest boys on the
night force become the favorites of the prostitutes; the women take a
fancy to particular boys because of their personal attractiveness and
show them many favors, so that the most promising boys in this work
are the ones most liable to suffer complete moral degradation.

Messenger service not only gives boys the opportunity to learn what
life is at night in "tenderloin" districts, but the character of the
work actually _forces_ them into contact with the vilest conditions
and subjects them to the fearful influences always exerted by such
associations. Some believe that this evil could be prevented by
forbidding the office to allow messenger boys to go on such errands,
but this is not practicable for two reasons: first, because an
essential feature of the messenger service is secrecy--the office does
not inquire into the nature of the errand to be performed, and even if
it did so, a false statement could easily be made by the patron over
the telephone; and second, it would be necessary to send a detective
along with the boy on each trip to see that he observed the rules.
Boys are eager to run errands for prostitutes for various reasons, one
being the extra income assured, as these women give tips with liberal
hand.

Like other street occupations, the messenger service is a blind alley;
it leads nowhere. A very few boys are promoted to the position of
check boy in the telegraph office, and fewer still have an opportunity
to learn telegraphy. Some of the boys become cab drivers because they
have familiarized themselves with the city streets; others become
saloon keepers because they have become well acquainted with this
method of making a livelihood; some are attracted by the life of
"ease" which opens before them and enter into agreement with
prostitutes, upon whose earnings they subsist; others have the courage
to get away from these influences and secure work as office boys or in
some other line entirely different from the messenger service.

A considerable number of the inmates of state reform schools were
formerly messenger boys, indicating that this service is one of the
roads to delinquency. As the immoral influences surrounding this work
are especially active among youths, the age limit for such employment
at night should be made high enough to prevent their being so exposed.
New York State was first to declare that if this work is to be done at
night it must be done by men, and has fixed the age limit at
twenty-one years. The late Judge Stubbs, of the Indianapolis Juvenile
Court, speaking before the Conference of Juvenile Court Officers held
in that city in November, 1910, said that messenger boys, and newsboys
who sell papers in the downtown streets, were the boys most frequently
charged with delinquency before his court, and declared that
twenty-one years was low enough as an age limit for night messenger
service.

Other temptations assail the messenger boy in his work, and are
frequently yielded to. The old practice of raising the amount of
charges on the envelope of a telegram is notorious and is still an
ever present problem to the companies. When a boy has been detected in
this petty crime and is questioned about it, he too often adds to the
one misdeed the other equally grievous one of lying, whereupon his
dismissal usually follows.

Under the direction of the writer an investigation of the night
messenger service was made in 1910 in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, the
following cases being typical of the conditions found in all cities.
In one of the larger towns of Indiana, a fourteen-year-old messenger
boy was interviewed one night by an agent of the National Child Labor
Committee who had called up the telegraph office by telephone
requesting that a messenger be sent to him. Early in the course of
conversation, of his own volition, the boy referred to houses of
prostitution. Upon being asked what he knew about such places, he
replied: "Too much--I am there half the night. You see they call for
messengers to run errands for them. Sometimes I get them drinks,
opium, medicines from drug stores or anything they want. No matter
what they ask us to do--it's our business to go ahead and do it." The
boy led the agent to a disreputable <DW64> district and described his
activities in this region. "No night passes without my making a dollar
down here," said he. "The <DW65>s are great smokers of opium, and I
get it for them; they give me a little jar, and I have it filled up
for them. It costs them $1.50, and I usually get the change from $2."
The agent feigned doubt so as to elicit more information, whereupon
the boy offered to get some opium if he were given a tip. The agent
gave the boy one dollar and told him he might keep the change; in ten
minutes he returned with a card of opium which was subsequently
analyzed in a laboratory and found to be the kind ordinarily prepared
for smoking purposes. This experience was repeated again and again by
agents of the National Child Labor Committee in different cities and
proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that these young boys are forced
into familiarity with the most degrading conditions.

Another fourteen-year-old messenger boy in the same town told the
agent that there were but few business calls at night, and that nearly
all of their work was in connection with houses of prostitution. This
boy spoke of the money he received in tips from inmates and patrons of
these houses, of his receiving liquor and cigarettes from them, and
remarked, "I do not have to do this work, but I like it; this job is
too good to give up; I'm learning a lot of things." This little fellow
described some extremely revolting scenes of which he had been
witness in these houses, and upon being asked whether his manager was
aware of the kind of places he was called to, he replied, "Sure he
does, for he gets the message over the telephone, then he calls one of
the boys and sends him to the house."

Another messenger in the same city, who was seventeen years old and
had been in this service for four years, working daily until half past
two in the morning, said, in talking about the use of drugs by
prostitutes, "When they are so full of dope that they don't know what
to do, they call up for a messenger, and sometimes I have had them
send me out to a drug store for paris green; they want to kill
themselves, they are crazy with opium; of course I take their money
and never show up again." This boy also bought a small package of
opium for the agent. He declared that he knew every house of
prostitution in the city and was well acquainted with their
proprietresses. To prove this, he wrote out a list of fourteen such
places, putting down the streets and numbers at once from memory.
These were subsequently referred to persons familiar with the city and
verified.

It is very distressing to read the testimony of a fourteen-year-old
messenger boy of another city who had been thrown by his work so much
in contact with evil conditions that he had come to regard these as
normal. Although only fourteen years of age, he had lost all faith in
womankind. In walking through the segregated district with the agent,
this boy called out in advance the number of each house of
prostitution, thus showing his familiarity with the whole region. In
his childish, schoolboy hand, he wrote on a slip of paper a list of
the bawdyhouses, putting down very promptly from memory the names of
the proprietresses, the names of the streets and numbers of the
houses.

Another fourteen-year-old messenger boy in this city related many
disgusting details of his experiences in the service at night--of
prostitutes smoking, cursing and sprawling on the floor dead drunk. He
stated that he had never smoked before he became a messenger, but that
when he saw the women using tobacco in all the houses, he thought
there could be no harm in it. "If ladies do it, why shouldn't I? So I
began, and now I smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. I get twenty for a
nickel and smoke all night. If I didn't, I suppose I'd fall asleep. I
once lit a cigarette from an opium pipe in one of the houses--but no
more opium for me." When asked whether his manager knew that he was
sent to these houses, he replied: "Sure he does, he's the one that
sends us; if we don't go, we get fired. He knows all the women, too,
because he jokes with them over the telephone when they call up for a
boy."

A fifteen-year-old night messenger, when asked what he did with the
money he received as tips, replied: "Last week I lost a dollar in a
crap game, and I go to moving-picture shows during the day and buy
different things; I suppose if my people knew the kind of work I was
doing, I would get a thick leather strap over my back. They have an
idea that the messenger business is just taking telegrams to reputable
people. There are very few business calls at night at our office;
almost all of them come from houses of prostitution. This is going to
be a very busy week with us because a convention starts to-morrow, and
the delegates will want us to take them to the houses."

Another Hoosier messenger was only sixteen years of age, although he
had been in the service of one company for four years and had
previously been discharged from another company for having defrauded a
patron. This lad was a typical boy of the street; his features were
drawn, black lines were below his eyes, and his walk could be
described best as a drag. "I know every single house of prostitution
in this city," said he. "I have been in every one. I get drinks in
most of them, and many a time I was drunk for a whole day in some
woman's room." This boy, having been in the service several years,
spoke of the ravages dissipation had wrought on the women of the
underworld. He had known many of them when they were just starting in
their life of shame, and remarked their rapid decline. Voluntarily he
spoke of the venereal diseases from which he had suffered. He said
that he had been discharged from his first job as a messenger for
having defrauded patrons. To illustrate how the scheme worked, he
said: "A woman wanted me to carry a package to some place and asked me
what it would cost; I said one dollar, and she said she wouldn't pay
it because it was too much. I told her to speak to the manager and
gave her the telephone number where my pal was waiting for the call.
She asked him whether he was the manager, and he said, 'Yes'; then she
asked how much the charge was, and he answered one dollar. Then I went
on the errand, and we split the difference. Somehow the manager got
wise, and out we went." This boy's conversation was a continuous flow
of vulgarity. When the agent mentioned gambling, the boy drew from his
pocket two sets of dice and said they were "ready at any time to do
business. When the first of the month comes around, I am generally
short or ahead $5. I lost $8 once. When I have no ready cash, I play
on account of my salary."

An eighteen-year-old messenger said: "I have been in this business
here for five years, and a night never passes that I don't go to a
house of prostitution; that's our main business at night. They could
not afford to have a messenger service in this town at night if it
were not for the red light district. We have to do all their work,
because they trust us." This boy spoke of the venereal diseases other
boys in the service had, and admitted that he had contracted them
twice himself.

Another eighteen-year-old messenger boy, who has been in the service
four years and is afflicted with an exceptionally bad venereal
infection, said among other things, "There are lots of messengers who
are kept by women. The boys work only for appearances. I knew two
messengers who worked with me who were kept by two prostitutes for a
year, then they gave up the job at the same time and took the
prostitutes to Chicago, where the women worked for them. One of these
boys is only about nineteen years old now. You don't learn anything in
the messenger business except to knock down (overcharge a patron) and
to go around with prostitutes and gamblers. It kills a fellow. I know,
because I went down the line, and I'm coming out the wrong end." When
asked why he didn't quit the job, he replied: "You don't suppose I
want to work for $3 or $4 a week? I'm used to making pretty good money
and having a good time." He said that he made from $40 to $75 a month
according to the tips he received, and spent it as fast as he got it.
Most of it went in gambling.

A fourteen-year-old messenger boy in another city who works from 6
P.M. to 7 A.M., in speaking of the use of whisky in houses of
prostitution, said: "We get it for them; the saloons know the
messengers, and we stand in with them; the more a house sends for
whisky the better they stand in with the saloon keeper. If the
proprietress gets locked up, she will always be bailed out by the
saloon keeper, but if she don't buy enough stuff from him, he will
refuse to do it. When a proprietress is put in jail, the cops ring up
for a messenger from the station house, and they send me to the cell
where the woman is, and she always gives me a note to take to the
saloon keeper and he goes down and gets her out." This boy said his
manager knew the kind of places he visited, but was not in the office
all night. During the late hours of the night the telegraph operator
and the clerk were left in charge, and the boy remarked that they had
told him to try to get a woman into the office if he found one on the
street, and related instances in which this had been done. He was paid
a salary of $22 a month.

Another fourteen-year-old messenger in this town is paid $17 a month
salary and makes $10 or $12 a month in tips.

A thirteen-year-old messenger in another city, after having related
some of his experiences in the segregated district, said: "I tell you,
it's mighty dirty work for a boy to be in, but I suppose a fellow has
to learn these things somehow, and I may as well learn them in the
messenger service as in any other way. I smoke perique so I can sleep
in the daytime."

A fourteen-year-old messenger in the same city, employed from noon to
midnight, had been in the service only one week when interviewed by
the agent; among other things he said: "All the last week I have been
doing nothing but go to the red light district. I didn't know what
this messenger business was until I got into it, and I am going to
quit just as soon as I see a little more of that kind of thing."

In a certain Indiana city there was found a "kid line" messenger
service, so called because the proprietor was a mere boy who was
formerly in the service of another messenger company. He had two day
boys, but at night answered the calls himself. He was fourteen years
old and told the agent that he had lived in the "red light" district
more than at his home on account of the number of calls he had to
answer there, but of course this was exaggeration intended to convey
the fact that most of his business was with that region. When he
entered into business for himself, he went to all the prostitutes in
the "red light" district and told them that he was commencing on his
own account and that he wanted them to be his customers. "I get a good
deal of their business. I get it because I know how to treat them. I
can get them beer on Sunday and can sneak it into their houses. I know
all the women and can introduce you to any of them, and can get you
any amount of beer or whisky that you want. When I was working for
the---- messenger company there was another boy on the force who tried
to take all the good calls; he divided his tips with the manager, so
he was sent to all the houses where good tips were given. There was
one prostitute who liked me pretty well and gave me ten or fifteen
cents for myself every time I went to her house. I started to answer a
call there one night, and the other boy ran after me. We got to the
place at the same time and had a fight in the hall; the men and women
in the place gathered around us and offered to give us two dollars
each if we would scrap for them, so we started right in, and before I
was through with him he had two black eyes and his face was bleeding,
then he pulled out a knife, but they took it away from him, and the
next day I was fired. There is a young girl in one of the houses who
is a chambermaid and wants me to live with her, and maybe I will but
I'm afraid my mother will get wise."

The fifteen-year-old messenger of another office showed the agent the
list of about one hundred calls sent in the previous night, nearly
every one of which came from the "red light" district.

After weighing such evidence we can readily comprehend the justice of
the opinion rendered by Dr. Charles P. Neill in the following words:
"The newsboys' service is demoralizing, but the messenger service is
debauching.... And, saddest of all, this service appeals strongly to
the children. The prurient curiosity of the developing boy would
itself incline him to like these calls to houses of prostitution, but
they quickly learn also that women who live in these sections are more
generous with their earnings in the way of tips than are the people in
the more respectable sections of the city.... It can be said that all
the boys who go into the messenger service do not go to the bad, but
it can be said with equal truth that it ruins children by the dozens,
and that if any boy comes out of this service without having suffered
moral shipwreck he can thank the mercy of God for it, and not the
protecting arm of the community that stands idly by and makes no
attempt to save him from temptation."[73]

In 1908 Congress passed a child labor law for the District of Columbia
which provided, among other restrictions, that no messenger boy under
sixteen years should be employed between 7 P.M. and 6 A.M.,--_sixteen
years_, the beginning of the period of adolescence, when boys have the
greatest need of protection from the vices running riot in cities!

The Chicago Vice Commission devotes several pages of its report to a
recital of the experiences of messenger boys in connection with their
work in the segregated districts. One of the telegraph companies
maintains a branch office close to one of these districts, where eight
boys from fifteen to eighteen years of age are employed as
messengers. These boys are called upon to work at all hours of the day
and night, their tasks being the same as those of the messengers in
other cities. A number of specific instances of the wretched
environment into which these boys are thrown, are given. One of them
who works from midnight until 10 A.M. was sent by a prostitute to a
drug store for a package of cocaine hydrochloride, for which he paid
$5.78, receiving $1 from the prostitute as a tip for the service.
Another messenger was sent out on a similar errand by another
prostitute two weeks later and purchased for her a hypodermic needle
for a syringe; he was charged $2 for this needle, the cost to the
druggist being 19 cents. A few days later a boy was called by another
prostitute who confided to him that she had discontinued the use of
messenger boys for purchasing "dope" because she found that they
talked too much and could not be trusted, adding that she now had a
newsboy, who sold papers at a near-by corner, buy the cocaine for her.
A woman who lives in an apartment house and is the owner and
proprietor of houses of prostitution in the restricted district, is in
the habit of sending in an order for cocaine to a druggist, who calls
a messenger boy to deliver it to her residence. This messenger opened
one of the packages and, suspecting that it was cocaine, sniffed a
little of it himself. He confessed that he had done this quite often
since, and it appeared that he had derived a good deal of pleasure
from it. The same messenger is sent about three times monthly by a
certain man to a Chinaman, from whom he buys a package of opium for
$4. On returning from one of these trips he watched the man open the
package, take a quantity of the stuff, roll it and heat it, but at
this point the messenger was told to leave the room. Another messenger
boy has been employed at this particular branch office for more than
three years, although he is now only seventeen years old; his earnings
average about $10 per week, including tips. He is of small stature,
not mentally bright and at present is afflicted with syphilis of three
months' duration. Another messenger is a boy of foreign parentage,
only fifteen years of age, who said he had recently been called quite
often to a certain house of prostitution where an inmate gave him a
box with a note to a druggist; the contents cost $1.75, but upon
returning to the woman he would declare that he had paid $2.50, thus
obtaining 75 cents on false pretenses, and in addition a tip of half a
dollar. On one of his trips for this prostitute he had opened the note
and found that it was a requisition for cocaine; on returning he
placed some of the contents upon his tongue, but did not like the
sensation and never repeated it. He is in the habit of picking up
discarded cigarettes and smoking them. In spite of his age, he knows
the name of nearly every prostitute in this district and can recognize
these women at sight; he stated that whenever he entered a house of
prostitution they would nearly always kiss him, and at different times
he had had sores on his lips.

Another boy who was attending high school was employed as a messenger
in the downtown district during Christmas week of 1910. He was sent to
deliver a message in a house of prostitution, and the girl who
received it offered to cohabit with him free of charge as a Christmas
present, stating that it was customary to do this for messenger boys
on Christmas Day.[74]

A number of other messengers told of similar experiences, stating that
they were often called to houses of prostitution to perform small
personal services for the inmates. As to regulation of the service, a
police order was issued in Chicago in April, 1910, to the effect that
no messenger or delivery boy under eighteen years was to be allowed in
the segregated districts at any time.

In arguing against the further restriction of the night messenger
service, the telegraph companies and other interested organizations
insist that the majority of these boys are working to support their
widowed mothers or incapacitated fathers; a recent government report
says, in referring to the table of families in which there are
messengers and errand and office boys ten to fourteen years of age,
classified by percentage of older breadwinners, for Boston, Chicago,
New York and Washington, "These statistics point to the conclusion
that the greater part of the families now furnishing children from ten
to thirteen years of age and fourteen years for the occupation of
messengers and errand and office boys are by no means either entirely
or largely dependent upon the earnings of such children for the
family support."[75] The restriction advocated does not contemplate
the prohibition of this work to boys of fourteen years and upwards in
the _daytime_; its object is to shield the youths from the vile
associations necessarily connected with this work at _night_.


                  _Night Service by Men--Not by Boys_

Mr. Owen R. Lovejoy of the National Child Labor Committee, in speaking
of the study of the night messenger service undertaken by this
organization, says: "The evidence collected justified the committee in
cooperating with its affiliated organizations to secure legislation,
and, counting on the _moral interest of the public_ to promote the
effort, we made the question one for practical and immediate decision.
Results apparently justify the policy chosen. A bill was unanimously
passed by the legislature of New York State [in 1910], excluding any
person under twenty-one years of age from this occupation between ten
o'clock at night and five o'clock in the morning."

Massachusetts in 1911 forbade the employment of messengers under
twenty-one years of age between the hours of 10 P.M. and 5 A.M.,
except by newspaper offices. Utah fixed the same age limit for this
work in cities of first and second classes between 9 P.M. and 5 A.M.
New Jersey did likewise as to cities of the first class, fixing the
age limit at eighteen years for smaller places, the prohibited hours
being from 10 P.M. to 5 A.M.

Wisconsin also passed a law in 1911, prohibiting the employment of any
one under twenty-one years of age as a messenger between 8 P.M. and 6
A.M. in cities of the first, second and third classes. Ohio, in 1910,
fixed the age limit for messenger service between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M. at
eighteen years.

Michigan now prohibits the employment of messengers under eighteen
years between 10 P.M. and 5 A.M., as do also New Hampshire, Oregon,
Tennessee and California.

Other states having the advanced type of child labor law prohibit the
employment of children under fourteen years in the messenger service
during the day and under sixteen years at night. The states of
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North
Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming do
not yet provide any age limit for this work.

The evil effects of the messenger service have also been noted in
Great Britain. A schoolmaster of Edinburgh says, "Insolence, coarse
intonation, swearing, lying, pilfering and lewdness are the chief
products of message going by boys."[76]

A London health officer has testified as follows: "There is a very
large employment of boy labour now, boys employed as messengers and
errand boys, which teaches them nothing useful for their future life;
and when they have outgrown the age at which they can be employed in
this way, the risk of drifting into the ranks of the unskilled
labourer is a very large one."[77]

"The government post office telegraph messengers are not employed
unless they have passed the seventh standard at school and each
candidate has to provide a satisfactory certificate of health from his
own medical attendant. A boy of fourteen must also be over four feet
eight inches in height. The minimum starting wage in London is seven
shillings a week, rising by a shilling a week annually to eleven
shillings. On reaching the age of sixteen the boy has to pass a
further examination in order to qualify for retention. The various
_private_ telegraph companies offer much the same terms, though in
some cases they are able to get boys slightly cheaper, as the
qualifying standard is not such a high one. It is only during the rare
periods when the supply of boy labour is more plentiful than usual
that the private telegraph companies will refuse a boy on account of
his size. The varied nature of the work they are called upon to
perform is an undoubted attraction in the eyes of many.... That it is
bad for them morally is less open to doubt. Even when they are more
actively employed the most that they can hope to learn is a very small
amount of discipline. A more serious point is the future of the boys
when they cease to be messengers."[78]

"It is well to point out that the commonest of these occupations, that
of errand boy or messenger boy, is seldom a desirable one, quite
apart from the fact that it generally leads nowhere. It lacks almost
necessarily what the boy most needs--the compulsory training of the
habit of disciplined effort."[79]

As Mrs. Florence Kelley says, "The test of the work, however, should
be not whether boys can do it, but what it does to boys."[80]




                               CHAPTER VI

EFFECTS OF STREET WORK UPON CHILDREN


All the evil effects of street work upon children observed by students
of the problem have been here divided into three groups, under the
headings of physical, moral, and material deterioration. It must be
understood that this is a summary of such effects and that while the
influences of the street are unquestionably bad, any one child exposed
to them is not likely to suffer to the full extent suggested below.
However, deterioration in one form or another is invariably noted in
children who have been engaged in street work for any length of time,
and this is sufficient proof of the undesirability of such employment
for our boys and girls.


                   EFFECTS OF STREET WORK ON CHILDREN

  Material        { Form distaste for regular employment.
  Deterioration   { Small chance of acquiring a trade.
                  { Drift into large class of casual workers.

                  { Night work.
                  { Excessive fatigue.
                  { Exposure to bad weather.
  Physical        { Irregularity of sleep and meals.
  Deterioration   { Use of stimulants--cigarettes, coffee, liquor.
                  { Disease through contact with vices.

                  { Encouragement to truancy.
                  { Independence and defiance of parental control.
  Moral           { Weakness cultivated by formation of bad habits.
  Deterioration   { Form liking for petty excitements of street.
                  { Opportunities to become delinquent.
                  { Large percentage of recruits to criminal population.

These are the insidious influences permeating street work and rampant
in all our cities. They are minimized and even denied by certain
ignorant or interested parties who base their assertions upon the fact
that prominent men of to-day were once newsboys or bootblacks, and
therefore jump to the conclusion that their success is due to the
training received in this way when young. The truth is more likely to
be that such individuals have succeeded, not because of this early
training, but in spite of it. Boys of exceptionally strong character
will force themselves out of such an environment unscathed, but the
great majority of children have not sufficient mental and moral
stamina to withstand these influences. The minority will take care of
itself under any circumstances,--it is with the weaker majority that
we must deal. The problem is an urgent one, but generally ignored,
for, as Myron E. Adams says, the public sees the street worker at his
best and neglects him at his worst.

The charge that in street work a child has small chance of acquiring a
suitable trade is one of the worst counts in the indictment. Street
work leads to nothing else; the various occupations are so many
industrial pitfalls, and the children who get into them must sooner or
later struggle out and begin over again at some other line of work, if
they would succeed.

"These children (street traders) furnish a very large proportion of
recruits to the criminal population. Those who do not graduate into
crime form a liking for the petty excitements of the street and a
distaste for regular employment. They lack skill and perseverance,
shun the monotony of a permanent job, and as they grow older either
follow itinerant and questionable trades or become ill-paid and
inefficient casual laborers. Therefore these young people are a source
of waste to society rather than of profit."[81]

The large percentage of former newsboys among the inmates of boys'
reformatories recently induced an active social worker to send an
inquiry to the superintendents of such institutions and to juvenile
court judges in different parts of the country relative to the effect
of newspaper selling on schoolboys. The statements received in reply
are set forth in a leaflet which was published in 1910.[82]

These officials are practically unanimous in condemning street trading
by boys, declaring that newsboys are generally stupid and almost
always morally defiled; that the pittance they earn is bought at great
sacrifice; that the spending of their earnings without supervision is
the worst thing that can befall them; that the life leads to gambling,
dishonesty and spendthrift habits; that it is a dead-end occupation
leading to nothing; that it abounds in evil temptations; that the boys
are comparatively idle and see and hear the worst that is to be seen
and heard on the street; that the work subjects boys to bad influences
before they are strong enough to resist them; that delinquency results
from their enforced association with all classes of boys; and
concluding that every possible protection should be thrown about the
young boy. Some of these officers gave due consideration to the
advantages of street trading, and one made the naive statement that
newspaper selling was not a bad business for a boy who could withstand
its temptations.

Although the law of New York State provides a modicum of regulation
for street trading, nevertheless it has not been effective because of
extremely indifferent enforcement. Like almost all other
street-trading laws in the United States, it places the age limit at
the ridiculous age of ten years. A movement was started recently in
Buffalo to remedy the situation, and the following statement was
published:--

"During the past year we have sought to discover, not by theorizing,
but by uncovering the facts, what is the effect of street work on the
boy. School records of 230 Buffalo newsboys were secured. Eighteen per
cent were reported as truants; 23 per cent stood poor or very poor in
attendance and deportment. Twenty-eight per cent stood poor or very
poor in scholarship, while only 15 per cent of the other children in
the same schools failed in their work. An investigation at the truant
school showed that 46.6 per cent of the boys there had been engaged in
the street trades. On the basis of these facts and studies made in
connection with the schools, juvenile courts and reformatories
elsewhere, we hope to secure legislation raising the age below which
boys may not engage in the street trades to twelve years, and making
it illegal for boys under fourteen to sell after 8 P.M. We are also
striving to secure better enforcement of this law in Buffalo and other
cities."[83]

This folder also states that circular letters were sent to all Buffalo
school principals asking about the effect on scholarship of the early
morning delivery of newspapers by their pupils, and also to
physicians inquiring about the effect of such work on physical
development. The hours for such newspaper delivery were from 4.30 A.M.
to 7 A.M. Eight principals and six physicians denounced such work to
every one who favored it. Referring to the occupational history of
reformatory inmates, a recent report for New York City says: "The
parental school (school for truants) statistics show that 80 out of
its 230 inmates were newsboys, while 60 per cent of the entire number
have been street traders. The Catholic Protectorate, full of Italians
(noted as street traders), gives us a record of 469 or 80 per cent out
of their 590 boys interviewed, who have followed the street
profession, and 295 or 50 per cent had been newsboys selling over
three months. The New York Juvenile Asylum gives us 31 per cent of its
inmates as newsboys and 60 per cent as street traders. The House of
Refuge repeats the same story: 63 per cent of those committed to that
institution had been street traders, of whom 32 per cent were
newsboys. If 63 per cent of the House of Refuge inmates have been
street traders, and if the majority of such have begun their so-called
criminal careers, which end invariably in the state penitentiary, why
do we permit children to trade on our streets?"[84]

Another American writer says: "Whatever the cause, the effect on the
newsboy is always the same. He lives on the streets at night in an
atmosphere of crime and criminals, and he takes in vice and evil with
the air he breathes. If he grows into manhood and escapes the
tuberculosis which seizes so many of these boys of the street, the
things that he has learned as a professional newsboy lead in one
direction,--toward crime and things criminal. The professional newsboy
is the embryo criminal."[85]

The dangers to the morals of children are particularly emphasized by
those who have given this subject any attention. Mr. John Spargo says:
"Nor is it only in factories that these grosser forms of immorality
flourish. They are even more prevalent among the children of the
street trades,--newsboys, bootblacks, messengers and the like. The
proportion of newsboys who suffer from venereal diseases is alarmingly
great. The superintendent of the John Worthy School of Chicago, Mr.
Sloan, asserts that 'one third of all the newsboys who come to the
John Worthy School have venereal diseases and that 10 per cent of the
remaining newsboys at present in the Bridewell are, according to the
physician's diagnosis, suffering from similar diseases.' The newsboys
who come to the school are, according to Mr. Sloan, on an average of
one third below the ordinary standard of physical development, a
condition which will be readily understood by those who know the ways
of the newsboys of our great cities--their irregular habits, scant
feeding, sexual excesses, secret vices, sleeping in hallways,
basements, stables and quiet corners. With such a low physical
standard the ravages of venereal diseases are tremendously
increased."[86]

The economic aspect of this work is magnified by most people beyond
its true proportion; the earnings of street-working children are not
needed by their families in most cases, and even in those instances
where their poverty demands such relief it is wrong to purchase it at
the price paid in evil training and bad effects of every kind.
Commenting on this point the chief truant officer for Indianapolis
says: "A large number of truants are recruited from that large
unrestricted class whose members are to be found competing with one
another on our street corners from early until late. The pennies which
many of them earn are a material aid in replenishing the depleted
resources of some of our homes. Yet, it is a question whether such
child laborers will not in the future bequeath to society an abundant
reward of human wreckage which may be traced to such traffic and its
many temptations."[87]

As to the bad judgment of parents in seeking the premature earnings of
their children, a Chicago physician says: "The average newsboy, if he
works 365 days a year, does not earn over a hundred dollars; if he
becomes delinquent it costs the state at least two hundred dollars a
year to care for him. When we remember that twelve out of every one
hundred boys between ten and sixteen become delinquent, and that over
60 per cent of these boys come from street trades, it does not take
long for a business man to figure out that it is rather poor economy
to let a ten-year-old boy go into at least this field of labor....
From an economic standpoint the family that sends out a ten-year-old
boy to sell papers loses a great deal more in actual money from the
boy's lack of future earning capacity than the boy can possibly earn
by his youthful efforts. In other words, this sort of labor from an
economic standpoint is an absurdity."[88]

In its splendid report on street trading, the British departmental
committee of 1910 stated: "We learnt that much of this money, so
readily made, is spent with equal dispatch. The children spend it on
sweets and cigarettes, and in attending music halls, and in very many
cases only a portion, if any, of the daily earnings is taken home....
In many towns the traders are drawn from the poorest of homes, but
numerous witnesses have emphatically stated that their experience
leads them to think that cases where real benefits accrue to the home
are rare."[89]

The lack of proper training during childhood almost invariably brings
about a tragedy in the lives of working people. The premature
employment of children at any kind of labor which interferes with
their education and their training in work for which they are fitted
is most disastrous in its effects and far outweighs in future misery
the little income thus secured in childhood. A careful student of the
working class declares: "Many bright and capable men and women in this
neighborhood [Greenwich Village, New York City] would undoubtedly have
been able to occupy high positions in the industrial world if they had
not been _forced into unskilled work when young_."[90]

With reference to the effects of street trading an English writer
says: "It is difficult to imagine a life which could be worse for a
young boy. Apart from the moral dangers, it is a means of earning a
livelihood which perhaps more than any other is subject to the most
violent fluctuations. But the uncertainty of the income is a trifling
evil by comparison with the certainty of the bad moral effects of
street trading on boys and youths. The life of the street trader is a
continual gamble, unredeemed by any steady work; it is undisciplined
and casual, and exposed to all the temptations of the street at its
worst. The great majority of the boys who sell papers drift away into
crime or idleness or some form of living by their wits."[91] The same
writer also declares: "Few things could have a worse effect than this
street trading on those engaged in it. It initiates them into the
mysteries of the beggar's whine and breeds in them the craving for an
irregular, undisciplined method of life."[92] And the editor of these
English studies adds: "It is part of the street-bred child's precocity
that he acquires a too early acquaintance with matters which as a
child he ought not to know at all. His language and conversation often
reveal a familiarity with vice which would be terrible were it not so
superficial."[93]

Speaking of immorality in the narrow sense of the word, the same
writer says: "We do not believe that immorality of this kind is
universal among the boys and girls of the labouring classes, nor do we
believe that the town youth is any worse than his brother and sister
of the country. Coarseness and impurity are not the distinguishing
mark of any one class or any one place. We question whether comparison
of sins and self-indulgence would work out at all to the disadvantage
of the town labouring class as a whole. It must be remembered that one
commonplace factor, the glaring publicity of the street, is all on the
side of the town youth's virtue. The street has its safeguards as well
as its dangers."[94]

With reference to the blind alley character of street work, another
English writer avers: "As in London, the labours of the school
children [in Manchester] are in no wise apprenticeship or preparation
for their future lives. The grocer's little errand boy will be
discharged when he grows bigger and needs higher wages; the chemist's
runner is not in training to become a chemist. The three farthings an
hour on the one hand, and the physical, moral and intellectual
degeneration on the other, are all that the little ones here, as
elsewhere, get out of toil from which many a grown man would
shrink."[95]

Another English student of labor conditions declares:
"Teachers--together with magistrates, police authorities, ministers of
religion and social workers--are practically unanimous in condemning
street trading as an employment of children of school age. In this
occupation children deteriorate rapidly from the physical, mental and
moral point of view."[96]

Still another writer says: "One great evil which results from this
life of street trading in childhood is the fact that it is fatal to
industrial efficiency in after life."[97]

The testimony of Sir Lauder Brunton, M.D., given in 1904, on the
occasion of the inquiry into physical deterioration in Great Britain,
is to the point, in spite of the fact that the committee directing the
inquiry stated that "The impressions gathered from the great majority
of the witnesses examined do not support the belief that there is any
general progressive deterioration."[98] Sir Lauder Brunton's testimony
was as follows: "The causes of deficient physique are very numerous
... it is very likely that in order to eke out the scanty earnings of
the father and mother the child is sent, out of school hours, to earn
a penny or two, and so it comes to school wearied out in body by
having had to work early in the morning, exhausted by not having had
food, and then is sent to learn. Well, it cannot learn."[99] Later the
same witness testified, "One of the very worst causes [of physical
deterioration] is that children in actual attendance at school, work
before and after schooltime."[100]

In a special inquiry into the physical effects of work upon 600 boys
of school age made in 1905 by Dr. Charles J. Thomas, assistant health
officer to the London County Council's education department, it was
found that many of the children suffered from nervous strain, heart
disease and deformities as a result of prolonged labor. Of the 600
boys, 134 were shop boys, 63 were milk boys, 87 were newsboys and the
others were scattered among various employments. It was found that
work during the dinner hour and also the long work-day on Saturday
were particularly harmful. As to fatigue among the newsboys, of those
working 20 hours or less, 60 per cent were affected; of those working
between 20 and 30 hours, 70 per cent; while of those working more than
30 hours per week, 91 per cent showed fatigue. As to anaemia, among the
newsboys, of those working 20 hours or less it appeared among only 19
per cent; but of those working 20 to 30 hours, 30 per cent showed it;
while of those working over 30 hours per week, 73 per cent were
afflicted in this way. As to nerve strain, of those working 20 hours
or less 16 per cent were suffering from it; of those working 20 to 30
hours, 35 per cent; while of those working over 30 hours, 37 per cent
showed nerve strain. As to deformities, none were noted among boys
working less than 20 hours a week, but 10 per cent of those working 20
to 30 hours or more were found to be afflicted. All elementary
schoolboys showed deformities to the extent of 8 per cent, but of
those engaged in different kinds of work from 20 to 30 hours a week,
21 per cent showed deformities. Flatfoot was found to be the chief
deformity produced by newspaper selling, this being caused by the
boys' having to be on their feet too much.[101]

One of the most decisive blows delivered against street work by
children in Great Britain was the statement of Thomas Burke of the
Liverpool City Council, a son of working people, who had lived in a
crowded city street for twenty years, had attended a public elementary
school until fourteen years of age, where the number of child street
traders was very large, and had become convinced that "work after
school hours was decidedly injurious to health and character."
Referring to the material condition of his street-trading
acquaintances, he said: "Almost all the boys sent out to work after
school hours from the school referred to have failed in the battle of
life. Not one is a member of any of the regular trades, while all who
were sent to trade in the streets have gone down to the depths of
social misery if not degradation ... a great proportion of those who
did not work after school hours, or frequent the streets as newspaper
sellers, occupy respectable positions in the city."[102]

Miss Ina Tyler of the St. Louis School of Social Economy in a study of
St. Louis newsboys made in 1910, found that of 50 newsboys under 11
years of age, 43 gambled, 42 went to cheap shows and 23 used tobacco;
while of 100 newsboys 11 to 16 years of age, 86 gambled, 92 went to
cheap shows and 76 used tobacco.[103]

Among the conclusions of the British interdepartmental committee of
1901 is the following: "Street hawking is not injurious to the health
if the hours are not long, and the work is not done late at night; but
its moral effects are far worse than the physical, and this employment
in the center of many large towns makes the streets hotbeds for the
corruption of children who learn to drink, to gamble and to use vile
language, while girls are exposed to even worse things."[104]

The British departmental committee of 1910 declared: "In the case of
both boys and girls the effect of this occupation on future prospects
cannot be anything but thoroughly bad, except, possibly, in casual and
exceptional cases. We learn that many boys who sell while at school
manage to obtain other work upon becoming fourteen, but for those who
remain in the street the tendency is to develop into loafers and
'corner boys.' The period between fourteen and sixteen is a critical
time in a boy's life. Street trading provides him with no training; he
gets no discipline, he is not occupied the whole of his time; for a
few years he makes more money and makes it more easily than in an
office or a workshop, and he is exposed to a variety of actively evil
influences."[105]

An important division of the study of street-working children concerns
their standing in the schools. In New York City a few figures are
available through a study recently made there. The distribution of 200
newsboys under fourteen years of age among the school grades is shown
in the following table:[106]--

  ========================================================
        |            GRADES             |         |
   AGES +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ SPECIAL |TOTALS
        | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |         |
  ------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---------+-------
      7 | 2 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |         |   2
      8 |   | 3 | 2 |   |   |   |   |   |         |   5
      9 |   | 1 | 6 | 1 |   |   |   |   |         |   8
     10 |   |   | 6 | 3 | 3 |   |   |   |         |  12
     11 |   | 5 | 7 |10 | 7 | 4 | 1 |   |    2    |  36
     12 |   | 1 | 1 |19 |21 | 9 | 7 | 1 |    3    |  62
     13 |   |   |   |15 |10 |23 |17 | 7 |    3    |  75
        +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---------+-------
  Totals| 2 |10 |22 |48 |41 |36 |25 | 8 |    8    | 200
  ========================================================

Applying the rule that in order to be normal a child must enter the
first grade at the age of either six or seven years and progress with
enough regularity to enable him to attend the eighth grade at the age
of either thirteen or fourteen, it is found that of the 177 newsboys
ten to thirteen years of age inclusive, 118 are backward, 57 are
normal and 2 are beyond their grades. This is shown in the following
table:--

  ==============================================
     AGES    |BACKWARD | NORMAL | AHEAD | TOTAL
  -----------+---------+--------+-------+-------
       10    |    6    |    6   |   0   |  12
       11    |   22    |   11   |   1   |  34
       12    |   42    |   16   |   1   |  59
       13    |   48    |   24   |   0   |  72
             +---------+--------+-------+-------
  Totals     |  118    |   57   |   2   | 177
  Percentages|  67%    |   32%  |   1%  | 100%
  ===============================================

This table shows that of the 177 newsboys ten to thirteen years of
age, 67 per cent are backward and 32 per cent are normal, while only 1
per cent are ahead of their grades. Boys of these ages are subject to
the restrictions prescribed by the state law as to hours, and it is
probable that the percentage of retardation would have been even
greater if work at night had not been to some extent prevented.

A report of New York City conditions made in 1907, before the newsboy
law was enforced, says: "The shrewd, bright-eyed, sharp-witted lad is
stupid and sleepy in the schoolroom; 295 newsboys compared with
non-working boys in the same class were found to fall below the
average in proficiency. They were also usually older than their
classmates, that is, backward in their grades."[107]

Referring to Manchester newsboys above the age of fourteen years, an
English report[108] says: "They are not stupid, or even markedly
backward, judged by school standards.... As they grow older they sink
to a lower level, both morally and economically--in fact, little
better than loafers, without aspiration, and content with the squalor
of the common lodging-houses in which they live, if only they have
enough money for their drink and their gambling." Concerning the
younger newsboys the same report continues: "Those who are the
children of extremely poor, and often worthless parents, are often
upon the streets selling their papers during school hours, and their
attendance at the schools, in spite of prosecution of their parents,
is so irregular that they make very little progress. These boys take
to the streets permanently for their livelihood; a few of them
continue, after the age of fourteen, to earn their living by selling
newspapers, but most of them sink into less satisfactory kinds of
occupation." In connection with these statements it should be
remembered that they portray conditions existing prior to the adoption
in 1902 of local rules on street trading. With reference to the
alleged cleverness of street Arabs, a British observer draws this
distinction: "Street-trading children are more cunning than other
children, but not more intelligent."[109]

In St. Louis there was no regulation until the Missouri law of 1911
was passed; and in 1910 Miss Ina Tyler, in a study of 106 newsboys of
that city, found the following conditions:--

                           NUMBER BELOW NORMAL
  YEARS                      SCHOOL GRADE

  10                       10  out of  16  62%
  11                       12  out of  16  75%
  12                       16  out of  28  57%
  13                       25  out of  33  75%
  14                       11  out of  13  84%
                           --         ---  ---
                           74         106  70%

These figures were copied by the writer from charts displayed at the
child labor exhibit of the National Conference of Charities and
Correction in St. Louis in 1910, but efforts to ascertain the method
of determining these percentages were unavailing. Therefore they
cannot be compared with the figures in the preceding tables, because
it is by no means certain that the standard ages for normal school
standing were adopted in the compilation of this table.

In Toledo, Ohio, there is no regulation governing street work by
children, although a local association makes an effort to look after
the welfare of newsboys. In October, 1911, the writer visited the four
public common school buildings nearest the business district of this
city and found 287 children in attendance who were regularly engaged
in some form of street work out of school hours. The great majority of
them were newsboys. The distribution of these children according to
age and grade is given below:--

                                  AGES
  =====================================================================
  Grade | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Totals
  ------+---+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-------
    1   | 1 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 4 |  1 |    |    |    |    |    |    |  23
    2   |   |   | 7 |12 | 8 |  2 |  3 |    |  2 |    |    |    |  34
    3   |   |   | 1 | 5 | 8 | 22 |  4 |  7 |  3 |  1 |    |    |  51
    4   |   |   |   | 3 | 7 | 17 |  9 | 11 |  6 |  2 |  1 |  2 |  58
    5   |   |   |   |   |   |  8 | 10 | 10 |  7 |  5 |  4 |    |  44
    6   |   |   |   |   |   |    |  7 |  7 | 16 |  3 |  4 |    |  37
    7   |   |   |   |   |   |    |  1 |  5 |  6 |  9 |  3 |  1 |  25
    8   |   |   |   |   |   |    |    |    |  5 |  7 |  3 |    |  15
  ------+---+---+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-------
  Totals| 1 | 8 | 13| 24| 27| 50 | 34 | 40 | 45 | 27 | 15 |  3 | 287
  =====================================================================

Adopting the same method for determining retardation as in the case of
the New York figures, we find that of these 287 street-working school
children of Toledo, 55 per cent are backward, 43 per cent are normal
and 2 per cent are ahead of their grades. Or, selecting the children
ten to thirteen years of age, as was done with the New York figures,
we have the following results:--

  =========================================================
    AGES     |   BACKWARD  |  NORMAL  |   AHEAD  |  TOTAL
  -----------+-------------+----------+----------+---------
     10      |      25     |    25    |          |    50
     11      |      16     |    17    |     1    |    34
     12      |      28     |    12    |          |    40
     13      |      34     |    11    |          |    45
   Totals    |     103     |    65    |     1    |   169
  -----------+-------------+----------+----------+---------
  Percentages|      61%    |    38%   |     1%   |   100%
  =========================================================

These percentages show that conditions in Toledo are only slightly
better than in New York City. This is surprising because of the great
difference in the working conditions of the two cities, the
metropolitan street children being subjected to far greater nervous
strain because of the more congested population and heavier street
traffic.


      RETARDED CHILDREN IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (TOLEDO), 1910-1911

             _Grades_

               |    FIRST
             +-+--------------
             | |NORMAL AGE 6-7
             |
             |      |   SECOND
             |    +-+--------------
             |    | |NORMAL AGE 7-8
             |    |
             |    |      |    THIRD
             |    |    +-+--------------
             |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 8-9
             |    |    |
             |    |    |      |    FOURTH
             |    |    |    +-+--------------
             |    |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 7-8
             |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |      |     FIFTH
             |    |    |    |    +-+----------------
             |    |    |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 10-11
             |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |      |     SIXTH
             |    |    |    |    |    +-+----------------
             |    |    |    |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 11-12
             |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |      |    SEVENTH
             |    |    |    |    |    |    +-+----------------
             |    |    |    |    |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 12-13
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     EIGHTH
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    +-+----------------
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 13-14
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |     |PER CENT OF
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |     |ALL RETARDATIONS
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |     +-----+----------
             V    V    V    V    V    V    V    V           V
==========+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+======+======
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    TOTAL
----------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+------
Retarded  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
1 year    | 325| 449| 500| 483| 528| 507| 366| 209| 3,367| 53.5
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Retarded  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
2 years   |  91| 170| 215| 346| 384| 324| 194|  72| 1,796| 28.5
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Retarded  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
3 years   |  33|  53| 101| 152| 219| 119|  33|  17|   727| 11.5
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Retarded  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
4 or more |  16|  42|  74| 131| 105|  19|   3|   5|   395|  6.2
years     |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Total     |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
retarded  | 465| 714| 890|1112|1236| 969| 596| 303| 6,285|
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Enrollment|    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
each grade|3114|2680|2548|2400|2209|1856|1284| 901|16,992|
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Per cent  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
each grade|14.9|26.6|34.8|46.3|55.9|52.2|46.4|33.6|  36.9|
==========+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+======+=======


  RETARDED STREET WORKERS IN FOUR TOLEDO COMMON SCHOOLS, OCTOBER, 1911

             _Grades_

               |    FIRST
             +-+--------------
             | |NORMAL AGE 6-7
             |
             |      |   SECOND
             |    +-+--------------
             |    | |NORMAL AGE 7-8
             |    |
             |    |      |    THIRD
             |    |    +-+--------------
             |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 8-9
             |    |    |
             |    |    |      |    FOURTH
             |    |    |    +-+--------------
             |    |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 7-8
             |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |      |     FIFTH
             |    |    |    |    +-+----------------
             |    |    |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 10-11
             |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |      |     SIXTH
             |    |    |    |    |    +-+----------------
             |    |    |    |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 11-12
             |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |      |    SEVENTH
             |    |    |    |    |    |    +-+----------------
             |    |    |    |    |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 12-13
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |     EIGHTH
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    +-+----------------
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | |NORMAL AGE 13-14
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |     |PER CENT OF
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |     |ALL RETARDATIONS
             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |     +-----+----------
             V    V    V    V    V    V    V    V           V
==========+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+======+======
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |TOTAL |
----------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------+------
Retarded  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
1 year    |   4|   8|  22|   9|  10|  16|   9|   3|    81| 51.6
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Retarded  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
2 years   |   4|   2|   4|  11|   7|   3|   3|    |    34| 21.7
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Retarded  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
3 years   |   1|   3|   7|   6|   5|   4|   1|    |    27| 17.2
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Retarded  |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
4 or more |    |   2|   4|   5|   4|    |    |    |    15|  9.5
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Total     |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
retarded  |   9|  15|  37|  31|  26|  23|  13|   3|   157|
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Enrollment|  23|  34|  51|  58|  44|  37|  25|  15|   287|
street    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
workers   |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
          |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |      |
Per cent  |39.1|44.1|72.5|53.4|  59|62.1|  52|  20|  54.7|
==========+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+======+=======

A comparison between the table given in the report of the Toledo Board
of Education for 1911 showing the total number of retarded children in
the elementary schools, and a similar table compiled from the figures
for the street-trading children in four Toledo schools given on pages
154 and 155, is most significant. The retardation among the total
number of pupils enrolled is to be found on page 154.[110]

The corresponding figures for the 287 street-trading children in the
four schools are to be found on page 155.

It is especially noteworthy that the percentage of retardation among
the street workers is very much greater than among the total number of
pupils, in every grade except the eighth, while for all the grades it
is 17.8 per cent greater. This becomes all the more significant when
it is remembered that the figures for the total enrollment include the
street workers; hence the excess of retardation among the latter makes
the showing of the former worse than if they were excluded, and
consequently the comparison on page 155 does not appear to be as
unfavorable to the street workers as it is in reality.

On consideration of the figures in the tables on pages 154 and 155,
the conclusion is inevitable that street work greatly promotes the
retardation of school children. There are, of course, other factors
which contribute to bring about this condition of backwardness, such
as poverty, malnutrition and mental deficiency, but there can be no
doubt that the evil effects of street work are in large measure
responsible for the poor showing made in the schools by the children
who follow such occupations.

The many quotations in this chapter from authoritative sources with
reference to the harmful effects of street work upon children
constitute a most severe indictment. Students of labor conditions,
specialists and official committees bitterly denounce the practice of
permitting children to trade in city streets, and cite the
consequences of such neglect. Material, physical and moral
deterioration are strikingly apparent in most children who have
followed street careers and been exposed to their bad environment for
any length of time. We have provided splendid facilities for the
correction of our delinquent children through the medium of juvenile
courts, state reformatories and the probation system, but surely it
would be wise to provide at the same time an ounce of prevention in
addition to this pound of cure. Social workers have returned a true
bill against street work by children. What will the verdict of the
people be?




                              CHAPTER VII

RELATION OF STREET WORK TO DELINQUENCY


The most convincing proof so far adduced to show that delinquency is a
common result of street work is set forth in the volume on "Juvenile
Delinquency and its Relation to Employment,"[111] being part of the
Report on the Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
States, prepared under the direction of Dr. Charles P. Neill, United
States Commissioner of Labor, in response to an act of Congress in
1907 authorizing the study. The object of this official inquiry into
the subject of juvenile delinquency was to discover what connection
exists between delinquency and occupation or non-occupation, giving
due consideration to other factors such as the character of the
child's family, its home and environment. This study is based upon the
records of the juvenile courts of Indianapolis, Baltimore, New York,
Boston, Newark, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, showing cases of
delinquency of children sixteen years of age or younger coming before
these courts during the year 1907-1908. The total number of
delinquents included in the study is 4839, of whom 2767 had at some
time been employed and 2072 had never been employed. The entire number
of offenses recorded for all the delinquents was 8797, the working
children being responsible for 5471 offenses, or 62.2 per cent, while
the non-working children were responsible for 3326 offenses, of 37.8
per cent. This shows that most juvenile offenses are committed by
working children. The ages of the children committing the offenses
recorded, ranged from six to sixteen years, and the report adds, "When
it is remembered that a majority, and presumably a large majority, of
all the children between these ages are not working, this
preponderance of offenses among the workers assumes impressive
proportions."[112]

With reference to the character of the offenses it was found that the
working children inclined to the more serious kinds. Recidivists were
found to be far more numerous among the workers than among the
non-workers. Summing up the results of the discussion to this point
the report says: "It is found that the working children contribute to
the ranks of delinquency a slightly larger number and a much larger
proportion than do the non-workers, that this excess appears in
offenses of every kind, whether trivial or serious, and among
recidivists even more markedly than among first offenders."[113]

With reference to the connection between recidivism and street work
the report says: "The proportion of recidivism is also large among
those who are working while attending school, and the numbers here are
very much larger than one would wish to see. Some part of the
recidivism here is undoubtedly due to the kind of occupations which a
child can carry on while attending school. Selling newspapers and
blacking shoes, acting as errand or delivery boy, peddling and working
about amusement resorts account for over two-thirds of these boys
(478 of the 664 are in one or another of these pursuits). These are
all occupations in which the chances of going wrong are numerous,
involving as they usually do night work, irregular hours, dubious or
actively harmful associations and frequent temptations to dishonesty.
In addition, something may perhaps be attributed to the overstrain due
to the attempt to combine school and work. When a child of 13, a
bootblack, is 'often on the street to 12 P.M.,' or when a boy one year
older works six hours daily outside of school time, 'often at night,'
as a telegraph messenger, it is evident that his school work is not
the only thing which is likely to suffer from the excessive strain
upon the immature strength, and from the character of his
occupation."[114]

While reflecting on the excess of working children among the
delinquents, one may be inclined to attribute this to bad home
influences; but the report shows that only one-fifth of the workers as
opposed to nearly one-third of the non-workers come from distinctly
bad homes, while from fair and good homes the proportion is
approximately 76 per cent to 65 per cent. Consequently, the working
child goes wrong more frequently than the non-working child in spite
of his more favorable home surroundings.[115]

Of the total number of delinquent boys, both working and non-working,
under twelve years of age, 22.4 per cent were workers, while of those
twelve to thirteen years old, 42.4 per cent were workers, and of those
fourteen to sixteen years old, 80.8 per cent were workers. As
comparatively few children under twelve years are at work, the fact
that more than one-fifth of the delinquent boys in this age group are
working children "becomes exceedingly significant." Of all children
twelve to thirteen years of age, the great majority are not employed
because of the fourteen-year age limit prevailing in all the states
studied except Maryland; hence the larger proportion of working
offenders cannot be explained by the influences of age. The increase
of working delinquents above fourteen years is to be expected, because
so many children go to work on reaching that age.

Remembering that the proportionate excess of workers varies from two
to nine times the ratio of non-workers, it is evident that this excess
cannot be explained by a corresponding excess of orphanage, foreign
parentage, bad home conditions or unfavorable age. As the report says,
"It seems rather difficult to escape the conclusion that being at work
has something to do with their going wrong."[116]

The strongest argument against street work by children is to be found
in the following table[117] of occupations pursued by the largest
number of delinquents and giving the percentage of total delinquents
engaged in each.

As the report says, the following classification shows that the
largest number of delinquent boys were found in those occupations in
which the nature of the employment does not permit of supervision--namely,
newspaper selling, errand running, delivery service and messenger
service. Boys engaged in these occupations, together with bootblacks
and peddlers, all work under conditions "which bring them into
continual temptations to dishonesty and to other offenses."[118]

====================================================================
                       | PER CENT |                      |PER CENT
        BOYS           |   OF     |        GIRLS         |   OF
                       |  TOTAL   |                      |  TOTAL
Industry or Occupation |DELINQUENT|Industry or Occupation|DELINQUENT
                       |  BOYS    |                      |  GIRLS
-----------------------+----------+----------------------+----------
Newsboys               |   21.83  | Domestic service:    |
Errand boys            |   17.80  |  Servant in private  |
Drivers and helpers,   |          |    house             |  32.18
   wagon               |    7.30  | In hotel, restaurant |
Stores and markets     |    4.23  |    or boarding house |   5.44
Messengers, telegraph  |    2.59  | Home workers         |  16.33
Iron and steel         |          |    Total in domestic |----------
Iron and steel         |    1.84  |         service      |  53.95
Textiles, hosiery and  |          |                      |
  knit goods           |    1.84  | Textiles, hosiery and|
Bootblacks             |    1.77  |   knit goods         |  12.36
Peddlers               |    1.71  | Stores and markets   |   5.44
Building trades        |    1.64  | Clothing makers      |   4.95
Theater                |    1.57  | Candy and            |
Office boys            |    1.43  |   confectionery      |   4.45
Glass                  |    1.30  |  Laundry             |   1.98
====================================================================

The offenses with which the boys were charged are divided in the
report into sixteen classes. The messenger service furnishes the
largest proportionate number of offenders charged with "assault and
battery" and "immoral conduct"; the delivery service those charged
with "burglary"; bootblacking those charged with "craps and gambling,"
"incorrigibility and truancy"; peddling those with "larceny and
runaway," and "vagrancy or runaway." The report calls attention to the
greater tendency of messengers to immorality, and remarks that it is
easy to see a connection between bootblacking and the offenses in
which bootblacks lead. The report continues: "It is worthy to note
that neither the newsboys nor errand boys, both following pursuits
looked upon with disfavor, are found as contributing a _leading_
proportion of any one offense. They seem to maintain what might be
called a high general level of delinquency rather than to lead in any
particular direction, errand boys being found in fourteen and newsboys
in fifteen of the sixteen separate offense groups."[119]

For the purpose of clearly defining the connection between occupation
and delinquency, and determining whether the delinquency inheres in
the occupation or in the conditions under which it is carried on,
there were selected six kinds of employments which are generally
looked upon by social workers as morally unsafe for children, and a
comparison was made of conditions as to the parentage, home
surroundings, etc., prevailing among the workers in these occupations,
the working delinquents generally, and the whole body of delinquents,
both working and non-working. Of the delinquent boys under twelve
years engaged in these six groups of employments (delivery and errand
boys, newsboys and bootblacks, office boys, street vendors, telegraph
messengers and in amusement resorts), nearly three-fourths were found
to be newsboys and bootblacks. As four-fifths of the working
delinquents under twelve years of age in all occupations are found in
these six groups, it is evident that this class is largely responsible
for the employment of young boys, and "comparing these figures with
those for the working delinquents in all occupations we find that 58.6
per cent, or nearly three-fifths of all the working delinquents up to
twelve, come from among the newsboys."[120]

It was found that 54.6 per cent of all the working delinquents had
both parents living, while newsboys and bootblacks, street vendors and
telegraph messengers were found to be more fortunate in this respect
than the great mass of working delinquents, even surpassing the whole
body of delinquents, working and non-working. As the report says, "One
so frequently hears of the newsboy who has no one but himself to look
to that it is rather a surprise to find that the orphaned or deserted
child appears among them only about half as often relatively as among
the whole group of workers."[121]

Of the delinquent delivery and errand boys, 78.9 per cent were found
to have fair or good homes, of the newsboys and bootblacks 75.8 per
cent, of the street vendors 65 per cent, and of the telegraph
messengers 78.9 per cent, and in this connection the report declares,
"Certainly the predominance of these selected occupations among the
employments of delinquents cannot be explained by the home conditions
of the children entering them."[122]

The findings with respect to the messenger service fully corroborate
the charges brought against it by the National Child Labor Committee.
The report says: "Turning to the messengers, it is seen that they are
in every respect above the average of favorable conditions. Moreover,
it is well known that boys taking up this work must be bright and
quick; there is no room in it for the dull and mentally weak. Plainly,
then, in this case the occupation, not the kind of children who enter
it, must be held responsible for its position among the pursuits from
which delinquents come ... the chief charges brought against it are
that the irregular work and night employment tend to break down
health, that the opportunities for overcharge and for appropriating
packages or parts of their contents lead to dishonesty, and that the
places to which the boy is sent familiarize him with all forms of vice
and tend to lead him into immorality."[123] Referring again to the
messenger service, the report says: "The unfortunate effects of the
inherent conditions of the work are, however, manifest. Its
irregularity, the lack of any supervision during a considerable part
of the time, the associations of the street and of the places to which
messengers are sent, and the frequency of night work with all its
demoralizing features, afford an explanation of the impatience of
restraint, the reckless yielding to impulse shown in the large
percentage of incorrigibility and disorderly conduct. A glance at the
main table shows that the two offenses next in order are assault and
battery and malicious mischief, both of which indicate the same
traits. On the whole, there seems abundant reason for considering that
the messenger service deserves its bad name."[124]

With reference to errand and delivery boys, the report finds that as
the level of favorable conditions keeps so near to the average, it
seems necessary to attribute the number of delinquents furnished by
this class more to the conditions of the work than to the kind of
children taking it up.

The occupational influences of amusement resorts, street vending and
newspaper selling "are notoriously bad, but a partial explanation of
the number of delinquents they furnish is unquestionably in the kind
of children who enter them. It is a case of action and reaction. These
occupations are easily taken up by immature children, with little or
no education and no preliminary training. Such children are least
likely to resist evil influences, most likely to yield to all that is
bad in their environment."[125]

Having shown that a connection can be traced between certain
occupations and the number and kind of offenses committed by the
children working in them, the report next determines to what extent a
direct connection can be traced between occupation and offense. If a
working child commits an offense, first, during working hours, second,
in some place to which his work calls him, and third, against some
person with whom his work brings him in contact, a connection may be
said to exist between the misdemeanor and the employment. The report
insists that either all three of the connection elements must be
present, or else the offense must be very clearly the outcome of
conditions related to the work, before a connection can be asserted;
and it reminds the reader that the number of connection cases shown
represents an understatement, probably to a considerable degree, of
the real situation. The number of boy delinquents in occupations which
show more than five cases of delinquency chargeable to occupation was
found to be 308; of these, 100 were errand or delivery boys, 129 were
newsboys, 16 were drivers or helpers, 13 were street vendors and 10
were messengers.

The number of boy delinquents working at time of last offense and the
number whose offenses show a connection with the occupation are
compared, by occupation, in the following table,[126] p. 173.

"Among the errand and delivery boys the percentage (of connection
cases) is large and the connection close. Larceny accounts for over
nine-tenths of these cases, the larceny usually being from the
employer when the boy was sent out with goods, though in some cases
it was from the house to which the boy was sent. It will be remembered
that in respect to parental and home condition, age, etc., the
delinquent errand boys came very close to the average, and their
antecedents gave no reason to expect they would go wrong so
numerously. That fact, together with the large proportion of
connection cases, seems to indicate that the occupation is distinctly
a dangerous one morally."[130]

  ========================+=============+========================
                          |             | BOY DELINQUENTS WHOSE
                          |             |    OFFENSES SHOW A
                          |     BOY     |    CONNECTION WITH
                          | DELINQUENTS |       OCCUPATION
                          | WORKING AT  +--------+---------------
   OCCUPATION OR INDUSTRY |   TIME OF   |        |   Per Cent
                          |    LAST     |        |    of Boy
                          |   OFFENSE   | Number |  Delinquents
                          |             |        | in Occupation
                          |             |        |    Working
  ------------------------+-------------+--------+---------------
  In amusement resorts    |     40[127] |    7   |     17.5
  Domestic service        |     50[128] |   14   |     28.0
  Driver or helper        |    107      |   16   |     14.9
  Errand or delivery boys |    261      |  100   |     38.3
  Iron and steel workers  |     27      |    7   |     25.9
  Messengers              |     38      |   10   |     26.3
  Newsboys and bootblacks |    346[129] |  129   |     37.2
  Street vendors          |     25      |   13   |     52.0
  Stores and markets      |     62      |   12   |     19.3
  ========================+=============+========+===============

As the various forms of immorality are practiced in secret, the report
truly says that the evils which are most associated with a messenger's
life could hardly appear in these studies. "A trace of them is found
in the case of one boy sentenced for larceny. After his arrest it was
found that he was a confirmed user of cocaine, having acquired the
habit in the disreputable houses to which his work took him. Perhaps
something of the same kind is indicated by the fact that one of the
few cases of drunkenness occurring among working delinquents came, as
a connection case, from this small group of messengers. For the most
part, however, the connection offenses (by messengers) were some form
of dishonesty, usually appropriating parcels sent out for delivery,
though in some cases collecting charges on prepaid packages was added
to this."[131]

The newsboys almost equal the errand boys in their percentage of
connection cases, though their offenses have a much wider range; in
fact, the connection cases for newsboys include a greater variety of
offenses than any other occupation studied. Beggary appears for the
first time, there being two cases, in both of which the selling of
papers was a mere pretext, enabling the boys to approach passers-by.
Street vendors were found to show the highest percentage of connection
cases, larceny being the leading offense.

The report concludes: "It is a striking fact that in spite of the
incompleteness of the data, a direct connection between the occupation
and the offense has been found to exist in the cases of practically
one-fourth of the boys employed at the time of their latest offense.
It is also a striking fact that while the delinquent boys working at
the time of their latest offense were scattered through more than
fifty occupations, over six-sevenths of the connection cases are found
among those working in street occupations, and that more than
three-fifths come from two groups of workers--the errand or delivery
boys, and the newsboys and bootblacks. It is also significant that the
connection cases form so large a percentage of the total cases among
the street traders, the messengers, and the errand or delivery boys,
their proportion ranging from over one-fourth to over one-half,
according to the occupation."[132]

In considering the effect of night work upon the morals of children,
the report says, "The messengers and newsboys show both large numbers
and large percentages of night work, thus giving additional ground for
the general opinion as to the undesirable character of their work";
and again, "In the following occupations the cases of night work are
more numerous than they should be in proportion to the number ever
employed in these pursuits: bootblacks, bowling alley and pool room,
glass, hotel, messengers, newsboys and theaters and other amusement
resorts."[133]

More than one-fourth of the working boy delinquents were found to be
attending day school. More than half of these pupils were newsboys and
bootblacks. It was found that the more youthful the worker, the
stronger is his tendency toward irregular attendance at school.

Eighty-three boy delinquents were devoting eleven or more hours per
day to work, and of these, 31 were errand or delivery boys, 7 were
hucksters or peddlers, 6 were messengers and 2 were newsboys or
bootblacks.

"For both sexes, the workers show a greater tendency than the
non-workers to go wrong, even where home and neighborhood surroundings
appear favorable, but this tendency is not so marked among the girls
as among the boys."[134]

This report of the government investigation furnishes most conclusive
evidence as to the evil character of street trading in general. It
bears out the description so aptly made by a recent writer: "The
streets are the proverbial schools of vice and crime. If the factory
is the Scylla, the street is the Charybdis."[135]

Another American writer has lately declared: "A prolific cause of
juvenile delinquency is the influence of the street trades on the
working boy. No other form of work has such demoralizing
consequences.... These boys are brought into the juvenile court, and
their misdemeanors are often so great that reformatory treatment is
necessary for them. Accordingly they represent a large proportion of
the boys in the different institutions. The demoralization produced by
the street trades affects others than those engaged in such trades,
but the latter are the chief sufferers; therefore the importance of
legislation which will shut off this source of infection."[136]

A Chicago physician took occasion to look into the records of the
juvenile court of that city in 1909, and found that the first 100 boys
and 25 girls examined that year were representative of the 2500
delinquents brought into the court during the preceding year. Not less
than 57 of these boys had been engaged in street work--43 as newsboys,
12 as errand boys and messengers and 2 as peddlers. Only 13 out of the
entire number had never been employed. Sixty of them were physically
subnormal; the general physical condition of the girls was found to be
much better than that of the boys of the same age, although 40 per
cent of the girls were suffering from acquired venereal disease.[137]

In the autumn of 1910 there were 647 boys confined in the Indiana
state reformatory, which is known as the Indiana Boys' School, at
Plainfield. Of this number 219, or 33.8 per cent, had formerly been
engaged in street work. To determine the relative delinquency of
street workers and boys who have never pursued such occupations, it
would be necessary to compare these 219 delinquents with the total
number of street workers in Indiana and also to compare the total
number of inmates who had never followed street occupations with the
total number of boys within the same age limits in Indiana. A
comparison of the two percentages would be illuminating, but is
impossible because it is not known how many street workers there are
in the state. However, it is safe to assume that the number of
street-working boys in Indiana is much less than one third of the
total number of boys. If we accept this as true, then the figures
indicate that street work promotes delinquency, because one third of
all the delinquents in the state reformatory had been so engaged. The
frequent assertion that, merely because a large percentage of the
inmates of correctional institutions were at some time engaged in
street work, such employment is therefore responsible for their
delinquency, cannot be accepted alone as proof of the injurious
character of this class of occupations, as it is not known how long
each offender was engaged in such work, nor are the other causes
contributing to the delinquency of each boy properly considered or
even known. This defect is avoided in the government's Report on
Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment, which, with
reference to the common practice of jumping at conclusions in this
way, says, "This appears to show that selling newspapers is a morally
dangerous occupation, but the danger cannot be measured, since it is
not known what proportion of the working children are newsboys, or
what proportion of the newsboys never come to grief."[138] The
following tables are of interest as showing in detail the facts as to
Indiana's delinquent boy street workers, who are confined in the state
reformatory:--


              STREET WORKERS IN INDIANA BOYS' SCHOOL, 1910

            _Table A. Distribution among Street Occupations_

  ==============+============+=====+======+=====+========+======+=====
  COMMITTED FOR | MESSENGERS |NEWS-|BOOT- |PEDD-|DELIVERY|CAB   |TOTAL
                |            |BOYS |BLACKS|LERS |BOYS    |DRIVER|
                +-----+------+     |      |     |        |      |
                | Day |Night |     |      |     |        |      |
  --------------+-----+------+-----+------+-----+--------+------+-----
  Larceny       |  3  |  22  |  88 |   3  |  6  |   3    |      | 125
  Incorrigi-    |     |      |     |      |     |        |      |
     bility     |     |   5  |  30 |   1  |  3  |        |   1  |  40
  Truancy       |     |   2  |  27 |      |  3  |        |      |  32
  Assault       |     |      |     |      |     |        |      |
  and battery   |     |   2  |   5 |   1  |     |        |      |   8
  Burglary      |     |   1  |     |      |     |   2    |      |   3
  Forgery       |     |   2  |     |      |     |        |      |   2
  Manslaughter  |     |      |   1 |      |     |        |      |   1
  Other charges |  1  |   2  |   5 |      |     |        |      |   8
  --------------+-----+------+-----+------+-----+--------+------+-----
  Totals        |  4  |  36  | 156 |   5  |  12 |    5   |   1  | 219
  ==============+=====+======+=====+======+=====+========+======+=====


           _Table B. Ages when at Work at these Occupations_

  ==================+=======+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+========
                    | UNDER |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
                    |   10  | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | TOTALS
  ------------------+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+--------
  Day messengers    |       |    |    |  1 |  1 |  2 |    |    |    4
  Night messengers  |    1  |  2 |  2 |  5 | 12 | 11 |  3 |    |   36
  Newsboys          |   29  | 29 | 28 | 36 | 19 | 14 |  1 |    |  156
  Bootblacks        |    3  |    |  1 |    |  1 |    |    |    |    5
  Peddlers          |    1  |  4 |    |  2 |  3 |  1 |    |  1 |   12
  Delivery boys     |       |  2 |    |  1 |  1 |    |    |  1 |    5
  Cab drivers       |       |    |    |    |  1 |    |    |    |    1
  ------------------+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+--------
    Totals          |   34  | 37 | 31 | 45 | 38 | 28 |  4 |  2 |  219
  ==================+=======+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+========


                 _Table C. Ages at Time of Commitment_

================+=======+===+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+======
                | UNDER |   |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
 COMMITTED FOR  |   9   | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | Total
----------------+-------+---+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------
Larceny         |   1   | 2 |  8 | 16 | 16 | 24 | 28 | 19 | 10 |  1 |  125
Incorrigibility |       | 1 |  4 |  4 |  2 |  7 |  7 |  7 |  8 |    |   40
Truancy         |       | 2 |  3 |  6 |  4 |  7 |  6 |  3 |  1 |    |   32
Assault and     |       |   |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
  battery       |       |   |    |    |  1 |  1 |  5 |  1 |    |    |    8
Burglary        |       |   |    |    |    |    |  2 |    |    |  1 |    3
Forgery         |       |   |    |    |    |    |  1 |  1 |    |    |    2
Manslaughter    |       |   |    |    |    |    |  1 |    |    |    |    1
Other charges   |       |   |    |    |  3 |  1 |  2 |  2 |    |    |    8
----------------+-------+---+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------
  Totals        |   1   | 5 | 15 | 26 | 26 | 40 | 52 | 33 | 19 |  2 |  219
================+=======+===+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+======


         _Table D. Nationality and Orphanage of Street Workers_

                                                         OCCUPATIONS
                  +--------------------------------------- Day messengers
                  |     +--------------------------------- Night messengers
                  |     |     +--------------------------- Newsboys
                  |     |     |     +--------------------- Bootblacks
                  |     |     |     |     +--------------- Peddlers
                  |     |     |     |     |     +--------- Delivery boys
                  |     |     |     |     |     |     +--- Cab driver
                  |     |     |     |     |     |     |
                  V     V     V     V     V     V     V    Totals
===============+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=======
AMERICAN       |   3 |  25 |  69 |   4 |   6 |   2 |   1 |  110
<DW64>          |     |   5 |  59 |   1 |   2 |   3 |     |   70
GERMAN         |     |   3 |  13 |     |   1 |     |     |   17
IRISH          |     |   1 |   8 |     |   1 |     |     |   10
POLISH         |   1 |   1 |   3 |     |   1 |     |     |    6
FRENCH         |     |     |   2 |     |   1 |     |     |    3
SCOTCH         |     |   1 |     |     |     |     |     |    1
ITALIAN        |     |     |   1 |     |     |     |     |    1
JEWISH         |     |     |   1 |     |     |     |     |    1
---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------
FATHER   | Yes |   4 |  30 | 107 |   5 |   7 |   4 |     |  157
  LIVING | No  |     |   6 |  49 |     |   5 |   1 |   1 |   62
---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------
MOTHER   | Yes |   3 |  30 | 119 |   5 |  11 |   5 |   1 |  174
  LIVING | No  |   1 |   6 |  37 |     |   1 |     |     |   45
=========+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=======


            _Table E. Hours and Earnings of Street Workers_

(In only 91 cases were the hours given, and earnings in only 116
cases.)

                                                       OCCUPATIONS
                       +-------------------------------- Day messengers
                       |    +--------------------------- Night messengers
                       |    |    +---------------------- Newsboys
                       |    |    |    +----------------- Bootblacks
                       |    |    |    |    +------------ Peddlers
                       |    |    |    |    |    +------- Delivery boys
                       |    |    |    |    |    |    +-- Cab driver
                       |    |    |    |    |    |    |
                       V    V    V    V    V    V    V   Totals
====================+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=======
HOURS               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
  Day               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
    All             |  3 |    | 29 |  5 | 11 |  5 |    |   53
    Morning         |    |    | 10 |    |    |    |    |   10
    Afternoon       |    |    | 11 |    |    |    |    |   11
--------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-------
  Night             |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
    All             |    |  6 |  1 |    |    |    |    |    7
    Before midnight |    |  2 |  4 |    |  1 |    |  1 |    8
    After midnight  |    |  1 |  1 |    |    |    |    |    2
      Totals        |  3 |  9 | 56 |  5 | 12 |  5 |  1 |   91
====================+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=======
DAILY EARNINGS      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
  Under 50 cents    |  1 |    | 47 |  1 |  6 |    |    |   55
  50-75 cents       |  1 |  8 | 23 |  3 |  3 |  3 |    |   41
  75 cents-$1.00    |  1 |  4 |  5 |    |  3 |  2 |  1 |   16
  $1.25-$1.50       |    |  1 |  3 |    |    |    |    |    4
    Totals          |  3 | 13 | 78 |  4 | 12 |  5 |  1 |  116
====================+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=======


      _Table F. Non-Street Workers in Indiana Boys' School, 1910_

                                                   COMMITTED FOR
                  +--------------------------------- Larceny
                  |     +--------------------------- Truancy
                  |     |     +--------------------- Incorrigibility
                  |     |     |     +--------------- Burglary
                  |     |     |     |     +--------- Assault and battery
                  |     |     |     |     |     +--- Other charges
                  |     |     |     |     |     |
                  V     V     V     V     V     V    Totals
===============+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=======
AMERICAN       | 156 |  66 |  53 |   5 |   2 |  11 |  293
<DW64>          |  40 |  10 |   7 |   1 |   2 |   5 |   65
GERMAN         |  12 |   4 |   4 |     |   1 |   2 |   23
IRISH          |   7 |   3 |   5 |     |   1 |   1 |   17
POLISH         |  10 |   3 |   3 |     |     |     |   16
ENGLISH        |   3 |     |   1 |   1 |     |     |    5
JEWISH         |   1 |     |   1 |     |     |     |    2
SWEDISH        |     |     |   1 |     |     |     |    1
FRENCH         |   2 |     |     |     |     |     |    2
MEXICAN        |   1 |     |     |     |     |     |    1
ITALIAN        |   1 |     |     |   1 |     |     |    2
HUNGARIAN      |   1 |     |     |     |     |     |    1
---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------
TOTALS         | 234 |  86 |  75 |   8 |   6 |  19 |  428
---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------
FATHER   | Yes | 168 |  62 |  44 |   6 |   3 |  15 |  298
  LIVING | No  |  66 |  24 |  31 |   2 |   3 |   4 |  130
---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------
MOTHER   | Yes | 182 |  62 |  50 |   7 |   5 |  17 |  323
  LIVING | No  |  52 |  24 |  25 |   1 |   1 |   2 |  105
=========+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=======


      _Table G. Non-Street Workers in Indiana Boys' School, 1910_

                                               COMMITTED FOR
              +--------------------------------- Larceny
              |     +--------------------------- Truancy
              |     |     +--------------------- Incorrigibility
              |     |     |     +--------------- Burglary
              |     |     |     |     +--------- Assault and battery
              |     |     |     |     |     +--- Other charges
 AGES AT      |     |     |     |     |     |
COMMITMENT    V     V     V     V     V     V    Totals
===========+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=======
 UNDER   9 |   9 |   7 |   1 |     |     |   2 |   19
         9 |   7 |  10 |   7 |     |     |   3 |   27
        10 |  10 |  10 |   4 |   1 |     |   2 |   27
        11 |  20 |  10 |   9 |   2 |     |   3 |   44
        12 |  25 |  17 |   8 |     |     |   1 |   51
        13 |  33 |  14 |  10 |   2 |   1 |   1 |   61
        14 |  46 |  10 |  14 |   1 |   1 |   1 |   73
        15 |  47 |   5 |   8 |   1 |   2 |   3 |   66
        16 |  28 |   3 |  12 |     |   1 |     |   44
        17 |   9 |     |   2 |     |     |   3 |   14
 OVER   17 |     |     |     |   1 |   1 |     |    2
-----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------
  TOTALS   | 234 |  86 |  75 |   8 |   6 |  19 |  428
===========+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=====+=======


                   _Table H. Behavior in Institution_

  =========+================+====================
           | STREET WORKERS | NON-STREET WORKERS
  ---------+----------------+--------------------
  Good     |    39 or 18%   |      95 or 22%
  Average  |   175 or 80%   |     321 or 75%
  Bad      |     5 or  2%   |      12 or  3%
  ---------+----------------+--------------------
    Totals |   219          |     428
  =========+================+====================

By far the largest number of street-working delinquents had been
newsboys, these being followed by messengers, peddlers, bootblacks and
delivery boys in the order given. From a hasty glance at these tables
one might conclude that street workers are not so liable to become
delinquent as those who never follow street occupations, because of
the smaller number of the former; but it should be remembered that the
ratio of street-working inmates to the entire number of street-working
boys in Indiana is much greater than the ratio of the other inmates to
the whole body of non-street-working children in the state.

In comparing Tables C and G it is seen that the street workers and the
non-street workers were committed for practically the same offenses,
and that their distribution according to offense does not vary widely.
It is significant that a much smaller proportion of the street workers
were committed to the institution under the age of ten years, than of
the non-street workers, indicating that street occupations (which are
not usually entered upon before the age of ten years), if followed for
a year or two, contribute largely to the promotion of delinquency.

From a comparison of Tables D and F it will be observed that the
prevalence of delinquency among the street workers cannot be explained
on the ground of orphanage, as only 28 per cent were fatherless and 21
per cent motherless, while of the non-street workers 30 per cent were
fatherless and 25 per cent were motherless. This indicates (1) that
street work in the great majority of cases is not made necessary by
orphanage, and (2) that street work causes delinquency in spite of
good home conditions so far as the presence of both parents
contributes to the making of a good home. Furthermore, it will be
noted in Table E that nearly half of the children for whom figures on
income could be obtained earned less than fifty cents per day--a small
return on the heavy investment in the risk of health and character.

The difference in behavior at the institution between the street
workers and the others is shown in Table H to be almost negligible,
the latter making a slightly better showing.

An English writer says: "There is no difficulty in understanding how
street trading and newspaper selling lead to gambling. We are told by
those who are best able to judge, that of the young thieves and
prostitutes in the city of Manchester, 47 per cent had begun as street
hawkers. For the younger boys and girls such an occupation, especially
at night, turns the streets into nurseries of crime. The newspaper
sellers are not exposed to quite the same dangers, but they are nearly
all gamblers. They gamble on anything and everything, from the horse
races reported hour by hour in the papers they sell, to the numbers on
the passing cabs, and they end by gambling with their lives."[139]




                              CHAPTER VIII

THE STRUGGLE FOR REGULATION IN THE UNITED STATES


The economic activities of children in city streets, commonly called
street trades, are not specifically covered by the provisions of child
labor laws except in the District of Columbia and the states of
Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Nevada,
New Hampshire and Wisconsin. The laws of many other states as well as
of those mentioned, however, prohibit children under fourteen years of
age from being employed or permitted to work in the distribution or
transmission of merchandise or messages. If newspapers are
merchandise, then children under fourteen years would not be allowed
to deliver newspapers under the provision just stated. This raises a
nice question as to what is included in the term "merchandise." That
there is any distinction between newspapers and merchandise is
practically denied by the street-trades laws of Utah and New
Hampshire which provide that children under certain ages shall not
sell "newspapers, magazines, periodicals or _other_ merchandise in any
street or public place"; the question of delivery, however, is left
open by these laws. The Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia,
in the case of District of Columbia _vs._ Reider, sustained the
juvenile court of the District in its decision that newspapers are not
merchandise and consequently that children under fourteen years of age
engaged in delivering newspapers are not affected by the law.[140] The
judge of the trial court stated in his opinion, "No one will seriously
contend that the nature of the employment in the case at bar is at all
harmful to the child." The case at bar was the prosecution of a route
agent for a morning newspaper on account of having employed a minor
under fourteen years of age to deliver newspapers. This opinion is
typical of the misplaced sympathy so commonly bestowed upon these
young "merchants" of the street. In the case cited, the court
permitted itself to be drawn aside into an interpretation of the
letter of the law instead of viewing the matter in the light of its
spirit. The purpose of such a law is to _prevent the labor_ of
children, not to distinguish between closely related forms of labor.
Its object is to afford protection, not to provoke discussion of
purely technical points. The _labor_ of delivering merchandise does
not differ in any respect from the _labor_ of delivering newspapers
(the possibly greater weight of merchandise does not alter the case,
inasmuch as it is usually carried about in wagons); and as the child
labor law of the District of Columbia forbids the delivery of
merchandise by children under fourteen years at any time, it follows
that the delivery of newspapers by such children should not be
allowed, because the intent of the law is to protect them from the
probable consequences of such work. Moreover, the District of Columbia
law prohibits children under sixteen years from delivering merchandise
before six o'clock in the morning; yet, under the interpretation given
by the juvenile court, it is perfectly proper for a child even under
the age of _fourteen_ years to perform the _labor_ of delivery before
that hour, provided he handles newspapers instead of packages. The
inconsistency of this is only too apparent. The spirit of the law is
lost sight of in the close interpretation of its wording. This is one
of the obstacles always encountered in the movement for child labor
reform after prohibitory legislation has been enacted.

American legislation on street trading still clings persistently and
pathetically to the theory that uncontrolled labor is much better for
children than labor under the supervision of adults, and consequently
authorizes very young children to do certain kinds of work in the
streets on their own responsibility, while forbidding them to work at
other street occupations even under the control of older and more
experienced persons. This official incongruity must ultimately be
rescinded and replaced by more rational and comprehensive legislation.
The fallacy of permitting such a distinction on the ground that the
child is an independent "merchant" in the one case and an employee in
the other, must also be abandoned in favor of a more enlightened
policy.


                     _Present Laws and Ordinances_

The following table shows all the laws and ordinances governing
street trading by children in existence in the United States in 1911.

The city council of Detroit passed an ordinance in 1877 which forbids
newsboys and bootblacks to ply their trades in the streets without a
permit from the mayor. No age limit is fixed, no distinction is made
between the sexes and no hours are specified. Applicants for the
permit are customarily referred to the chief truant officer for
approval, and as a rule permits are not issued to boys under ten years
of age or to girls. An annual license fee of ten cents is charged, and
the license holder is supplied with a numbered badge which must be
worn conspicuously. Owing to its manifest weakness, this ordinance is
of little avail.

It will be observed from the following table that the common age limit
for boys in street trading is ten years. When we pause to reflect on
the import of this, it is hard to realize that intelligent American
communities actually tolerate such an absurdly meager restriction; yet
the movement for reform has progressed even this far in only a very
small part of the country--in most places there is no restriction
whatever! Some day, and that not in the very remote future, we shall
look back upon the authorized exploitation of the present period with
the same degree of incredulity with which we now regard the horrors of
child labor in England during the early part of the nineteenth
century.


                                STATE LAWS

============+===========+==========+=======+=============+=================
   STATES   | AGE LIMIT | LICENSES | HOURS | ENFORCEMENT |    PENALTIES
------------+-----------+----------+-------+-------------+-----------------
Colorado,   |Girls, 10; |          |       |Factory      |$5-$100 fine for
1911        |any work   |          |       |inspectors   |first offense,
            |in streets |          |       |             |$100-$200 fine or
            |           |          |       |             |imprisonment 90
            |           |          |       |             |days for 2d
            |           |          |       |             |offense for
            |           |          |       |             |employers. $5-$25
            |           |          |       |             |fine for parents
------------+-----------+----------+-------+-------------+-----------------
District of |Boys, 10;  |Boys,     |6 A.M. |Factory      |Left to
Columbia,   |Girls, 16; |10-15     |10 P.M.|inspectors   |discretion of
1908        |bootblack- |          |       |             |juvenile court
            |ing,       |          |       |             |
            |selling    |          |       |             |
            |anything   |          |       |             |
------------+-----------+----------+-------+-------------+-----------------
Missouri,   |Boys, 10;  |          |       |Factory      |Max. fine $100 or
1911        |girls, 16; |          |       |inspectors   |max. imprisonment
            |selling    |          |       |             |one year, for
            |anything   |          |       |             |child
------------+-----------+----------+-------+-------------+-----------------
Nevada, 1911|Boys, 10;  |          |       |             |Child dealt with
            |girls, 10; |          |       |             |as delinquent
            |selling    |          |       |             |
            |anything   |          |       |             |
------------+-----------+----------+-------+-------------+-----------------
New Hamp-   |Boys, 10;  |          |       |Factory      |$5-$200 fine or
shire, 1911 |girls, 16; |          |       |inspectors;  |imprisonment
            |publica-   |          |       |truant       |10-30 days, for
            |tions or   |          |       |officers     |employers and
            |other mdse.|          |       |             |parents
            |Boys, 10;  |          |       |             |
            |girls, 10; |          |       |             |
            |bootblack- |          |       |             |
            |ing        |          |       |             |
------------+-----------+----------+-------+-------------+-----------------
New York,   |Boys, 10;  |Boys,     |6 A.M. |Police and   |Dealt with accor-
1903        |girls, 16; |10-13     |10 P.M.|truant       |ding to law
            |publica-   |          |       |officers     |
            |tions      |          |       |             |
------------+-----------+----------+-------+-------------+-----------------
Oklahoma,   |Girls, 16; |          |       |Commissioner |$10-$50 fine or
1909        |publica-   |          |       |of Labor     |imprisonment
            |tions      |          |       |             |10-30 days for
            |           |          |       |             |child
------------+-----------+----------+-------+-------------+-----------------
Utah, 1911, |Boys, 12;  |Boys,     |Not    |             |$25-$200 fine or
1st& 2d     |girls 16;  |12-15     |after  |             |imprisonment
class       |publica-   |          |9 P.M. |             |10-30 days, for
cities      |tions or   |          |       |             |employers and
            |other mdse.|          |       |             |parents
            |Boys, 12;  |Boys,     |       |             |
            |girls, 12; |12-15     |       |             |
            |bootblack- |Girls,    |       |             |
            |ing        |12-15     |       |             |
------------+-----------+----------+-------+-------------+-----------------
Wisconsin,  |Boys, 12;  |Boys,     |5 A.M. |Factory      |$25-$100 fine or
1909, as    |girls, 18; |12-15     |6.30   |inspectors   |imprisonment 10-
amended     |publica-   |          | P.M., |             |60 days for pa-
1911, 1st   |tions.     |          |winter |             |rents permitting,
class       |Boys, 14;  |          |7.30   |             |and others em-
cities      |girls, 18, |          | P.M., |             |ploying, child
            |all others |          |summer;|             |under 16 to
            |           |          |publi- |             |peddle without
            |           |          |cations|             |permit. Same for
            |           |          |       |             |newspapers allow-
            |           |          |       |             |ing boys under
            |           |          |       |             |16 about office
            |           |          |       |             |between 9 A.M.
            |           |          |       |             |and 3 P.M. on
            |           |          |       |             |school days
------------+-----------+----------+-------+-------------+-----------------
Massachu-   |Mayor and aldermen or selectmen may make re-|Max. fine $10 for
setts, 1902 |gulations of bootblacking and sale of news- |child; max. fine
as amended, |papers, merchandise, etc; may prohibit such |$200 or max.
1910        |sale or trades; or may require license to be|imprisonment 6
            |obtained from them. School committees in    |months for parent
            |cities have these powers as to children     |allowing, person
            |under 14 years.                             |employing, or
            |                                            |any one furnish-
            |                                            |ing articles to,
            |                                            |a child to sell
============+============================================+=================


                             CITY ORDINANCES

==========+===============+==========+=========+=============+=============
  CITIES  |   AGE LIMIT   | LICENSES |  HOURS  | ENFORCEMENT | PENALTIES
----------+---------------+----------+---------+-------------+-------------
Boston,   | Boys, 11;     | Boys,    | 6 A.M.  | Supervisor  |Revocation
1902, by  | girls, 14;    | 11-13    | 8 P.M., | of licensed |of license
school    | bootblacking, |          | winter  | minors,     |and fine as
committee | selling       |          | 9 P.M., | police and  |stated for
          | anything      |          | summer  | truant      |Massachusetts
          |               |          |         | officers    |
----------+---------------+----------+---------+-------------+-------------
Cincin-   | Boys, 10;     | Boys,    | 6 A.M.  | Police,     |Fine $1-$5
nati, 1909| girls, 16;    | 10-13    | 8 P.M.  | truant and  |for child
          | bootblacking, |          |         | probation   |
          | selling       |          |         | officers    |
          | anything      |          |         |             |
----------+---------------+----------+---------+-------------+-------------
Hartford, | Boys, 10;     | Boys,    | Not     |             |Revocation
1910      | girls, 10;    | 10-13    | during  |             |of license
          | selling       | Girls,   | school  |             |by school
          | anything      | 10-13    | hours   |             |superinten-
          |               |          | or      |             |dent
          |               |          | after 8 |             |
          |               |          | P.M.    |             |
----------+---------------+----------+---------+-------------+-------------
Newark,   | Boys, 10;     | Boys,    | Not     | Police and  |Child placed
1904      | girls, 16;    | 10-13    | between | truant      |on probation
          | newspapers    |          | 9 A.M.  | officers    |or committed
          |               |          | and 3   |             |to Newark
          |               |          | P.M.    |             |City Home at
          |               |          | nor     |             |expense of
          |               |          | after   |             |parent
          |               |          | 10 P.M. |             |
==========+===============+==========+=========+=============+=============

In an attempt to minimize the bad effects of street trading most of
the communities which have enacted laws or ordinances on the subject
provide for the issuance of licenses to boys, and in some cases also
to girls, in the belief that in this way the work of the children can
best be brought under some degree of control. However, this is merely
temporizing, although it affords an opportunity to gather facts and
undoubtedly marks a step toward a better solution of the problem. This
is brought out clearly by a recent British report on street trading:
"Our general impression, gathered in towns in which by-laws had been
made, was that, though in exceptional cases much good had resulted
from their adoption, on the whole this method of dealing with what we
have come to consider an unquestionable evil, has not proved adequate
or satisfactory. In many instances it has been pointed out to us that
a system of licensing and badging is but a method of legalizing what
is indisputably an evil, and that a set of by-laws, however rigorously
enforced, can at best only modify the difficulties of the
position."[141]

The social workers of Chicago, keenly alive to the menace of the
situation, bewail the lack of protection for street workers in the
following words: "The child labor law and the compulsory school law
and the juvenile court law form the body of protective legislation
which has been developing in behalf of the children of Illinois during
the past twenty years. By none of the three, however, except in so far
as street trading by a child under ten is counted an element in
dependency, is the street-trading child safeguarded against parental
neglect or greed, the vicious sights and sounds of the city street and
the demoralizing habit of irregular employment."[142]


                       _Opposition to Regulation_

The opposition to bringing the street trades under some degree of
restriction has come, as might be expected, from very interested
sources. In Illinois the newspaper publishers figured prominently in
the movement to prevent the passage of the street-trades measure
introduced in the legislature of that state at its session of 1911.
This has not always been the case, however, as the circulation
managers of the five leading daily newspapers of St. Louis wrote
letters to the legislature of Missouri favoring the passage of that
section of the child labor bill of 1911, which provided that boys
under ten years and girls under sixteen years should not sell anything
in any street or public place within the state. This provision was
enacted into law, but it is safe to say that if the rational age limit
of sixteen years for boys had been advocated instead of ten years, the
newspapers would have been most active in opposing this section. In
Cincinnati the circulation managers of the newspapers most affected by
the street-trades ordinance passed by the City Council in 1909 agreed
to its provisions before the measure was submitted to the Council,
and consequently it passed without opposition.

In New Haven and Hartford repeated attempts have been made to secure
regulation of street trading by means of city ordinances, and at two
sessions of the state legislature bills have been introduced which
provided for such restriction, but all these efforts have been
persistently fought by a leading newspaper of Hartford in which city
it has always been customary to have girls as well as boys selling
newspapers on the street. In 1910, a city ordinance was passed in
Hartford providing that boys and girls under ten years should be
prohibited from trading in the streets and that between the ages of
ten and fourteen years they should be licensed and not allowed to sell
after 8 P.M. The newsgirls were not banished from the street because
it was held that they were "a pretty good sort of girl after all," and
that so long as it could not be proved that they were _demoralized_ by
the work, they should be permitted to go on with it. In other words,
the city clings to the fine old American policy of delaying action
until some calamity makes it necessary.

The objections offered by interested parties to the by-laws drafted by
the London County Council at a hearing held in 1906, show that the law
of self preservation operates in England as in other quarters of the
Earth. News agents, employing little boys to deliver newspapers,
declared that conditions were not bad; that the work was healthful;
that the wages were a great help to poor parents; that they could not
afford to employ older boys; that the lads should be allowed to begin
at 6 A.M. and work not more than ten hours a day outside of school
with a maximum weekly limit of twenty-five hours; that to prohibit the
delivery of newspapers before 7 A.M. and after 7 P.M. would be a great
injustice to the trade; that boys wouldn't stay in bed even if 7 A.M.
were fixed as the hour for beginning work; that such work does not
interfere with schooling; that the boys are well looked after; in
short, that the by-laws would ruin them and bring starvation to the
children. One news agent in declaiming against the hours fixed for the
delivery of newspapers, insisted that the restriction would throw boys
out of employment and send them to trade in the streets with their
undesirable associations, apparently unmindful of the fact that
delivery boys themselves worked in that environment. The dairymen were
horrified at the limit placed on hours, urging that the little boys in
their employ should begin to deliver milk at 5 A.M., as early work was
beneficial and the wages useful to poor parents. Shopkeepers denounced
the by-laws as too drastic, because they would prevent such light work
as errand running at noon and casual employment in the evening after
7, resulting in hardship to both parents and children; one
acknowledged that if he were prevented from employing cheap labor his
business would suffer; another said that he employed a boy at noon and
also from 5.30 to 9 P.M., the work being light and the parents
satisfied, and that the training was good for boys. A fruiterer
actually declared that the limit of eight hours on Saturday would make
a boy valueless to him; another said he employed a boy for one hour in
the morning, from 6 to 9 in the evening, and also on Saturday morning
and evening, in running errands, and that the work was not heavy;
another employed boys after school from 6 to 9.30 P.M., insisting that
the work was good for them, as it kept them from the street and gave
them an insight into business habits.[143] It should be remembered
that all this work was performed by the children in addition to
attending school both morning and afternoon.

The testimony given before the British Interdepartmental Committee of
1901 by the secretary of an association representing many thousand
retail shopkeepers, would be amusing if it were not so sinister. He
presented the subject of child labor in a most favorable aspect,
declaring that the wages were needed on account of poverty in the
families; that the work was light and had a _very beneficial_ effect
on health because it was done in the open air; that good meals were
given in addition to cash wages and were _very beneficial_; that the
effect on the boys' character was _very beneficial_, as the work
cultivated businesslike habits and kept the boys from running the
streets, frequently affording promotion to the higher grades of
shopkeeping.[144] Another British Committee, investigating conditions
in Ireland, reported, "We found but one witness (a newspaper manager
of Belfast) to testify that the present conditions of selling papers
in the street were satisfactory and cannot be improved; and that
instead of tending to demoralize, they have the opposite effect."[145]


               _Ways and Means of Regulating Street Work_

As to the control of street trading by children there are two methods
by which the desired end may be approached. First, a mutual agreement
as to self-imposed restrictions among the managers of all the business
interests in connection with which children work on the streets. This
method, however, can be dismissed from consideration at once on
account of its impracticability. Street work embraces many different
kinds of commercial activity, and as one manager is the competitor of
all others in the same line of business and is free to adopt such
lawful means of placing his wares on the market as he sees fit, it
would be clearly impossible to force any one into such an agreement
against his will. Moreover, new competitors may enter the field at
any time who would not be bound by the agreement of the others, and
consequently this would soon be broken by the force of competition
following the intrusion of these new parties.

Second, regulation by constituted legislative authority. This is the
more feasible method, and such regulation may be obtained from either
of two sources--the municipality or the state. There is a question as
to which of the two is the better for the purpose. Regulation by the
state has the advantage of making the provisions apply uniformly to
all cities within its borders and is obtained by no more effort than
is required to get an ordinance through the Council of a single
municipality. On the other hand, the municipal ordinance has the
advantage of being secured by residents of the community who are
intelligently concerned in the local problem and who will therefore
take an active interest in having its provisions enforced. However,
the good features of both these methods are united in the English
plan, a modification of which has been adopted by Massachusetts.
According to this plan the state fixes a minimum amount of
restriction and authorizes local authorities, including boards of
education, to increase the scope of restriction, and provides
penalties for violation of the same.

As to the degree of regulation, an ultra-conservative measure would
prohibit boys under ten and girls under sixteen years from selling
anything at any time in the streets or public places of cities, while
the age limit for boys is raised to fourteen years for night work. The
issuance of licenses to boys ten to fourteen years of age who wish to
engage in street trading is the usual accompaniment of such
restriction, and while ordinarily of little avail, it could be made of
some assistance to truant and probation officers in their efforts to
enforce the compulsory education and delinquency laws. The age limit
for boys has been advanced to eleven years by the School Committee of
Boston, and to twelve years for newsboys and fourteen years for other
street workers by the state of Wisconsin. But all efforts to secure
such regulation should be based upon the principle that street trading
is an undesirable form of labor for children, and consequently should
be subject to at least the same restrictions as other forms of child
labor.


               _Probable Course of Regulation in Future_

American child labor laws usually contain a provision to the effect
that no child under sixteen years shall engage in any employment that
may be considered dangerous to its life or limb or where its health
may be injured or morals depraved. This is sonorous, but
ineffective,--the particular kinds of improper work should be
specified. In this list of undesirable forms of labor, street work
should be included. Great Britain has had far more experience in the
matter of regulating the work of children than any state of this
country, and, in the light of all this experience, her departmental
committee of 1910 has emphatically declared that street trading by
boys under seventeen and girls under eighteen years should be
absolutely prohibited. This should be our ideal in America. Commenting
on the banishment of young girls from the streets of New York City,
Mrs. Florence Kelley says, "If the law against street selling and
peddling by girls to the age of sixteen years can be thus effectively
enforced in a city in which the depths of poverty among the immigrants
are so frightful as they are in New York, there is no reason for
assuming that it is impossible to prohibit efficiently street selling
by boys."[146] Girls under eighteen years should never be allowed to
go out in the streets for commercial purposes, no matter how innocent
these purposes may be in themselves. One of the most important
features of the movement in America should be the absolute prohibition
of such work by minors under eighteen years at night; this is urged
because it is in harmony with the provisions of our most advanced
child labor laws and is fully justified because of the evil character
of the influences rampant in cities after dark, and because such night
work affords children a constant opportunity to cultivate their
acquaintance with, if not to know for the first time, conditions from
which every effort should be made to isolate them. For night messenger
service the age limit should be twenty-one years.

The enforcement of such regulation as is now provided by the few
states and cities which have given this subject any attention, is
variously intrusted to factory inspectors, police, truant and
probation officers, but in Boston the school committee has delivered
this task into the hands of one man who is known as the supervisor of
licensed minors. The Boston plan for enforcement seems to have given
better results than the common system of intrusting the enforcement to
officers already overburdened with other duties, but it is clearly
impossible for one officer to handle the situation unaided in a large
city--the plan would be considerably improved by the appointment of
several assistants.

"The licensing by the Boston School Committee of minors of school age
to trade in the streets of Boston came about through an act of
legislature in 1902. The need of supervision of minors licensed under
this act became very apparent, as their numbers increased and their
street influences reacting on their school life became better
understood. To meet this need a supervisor of licensed minors was
appointed whose duties are to secure the strict enforcement of the
law, regulations governing the various forms of street work of
children of school age, also to have general supervision of the
details of the licensing department."[147]

Human nature in children is not in the least unlike human nature in
adults. Just as we need an interstate commerce commission backed by
the federal government to supervise the large business affairs of men,
so do we need a supervisor of children's commercial activities in city
streets, clothed with authority by the municipal government.

The Boston plan is now being advocated for New York City: "In the
street trades the Committee recommends that the principle of
supervision of licensed minors, as practised for a number of years in
Boston, be adopted, and that an office be created in the Department of
Education that shall have supervisory control of all minors engaged in
street trades. It recommends furthermore that the minimum age limit
for licensing boys be raised from ten to fourteen years, and that the
legal limit for selling at night be reduced from 10 to 8, to
correspond more nearly with the provisions of labor legislation
dealing with children in factories."[148]

The first attempt to control the situation in New York City was
intrusted to the police, but the results were not satisfactory, as
they looked upon the matter with indifference. Subsequently the truant
officers also were charged with this duty, and in 1908 four men were
assigned to give their entire attention to this work between 3 P.M.
and 11 P.M., and at present eight men are so engaged, but no very
marked improvement is noticeable. In Rochester the enforcement of the
state law was brought about through the efforts of the women of that
city; both business women and shoppers were asked to consider
themselves members of a vigilance committee and to notify the board of
education and the police department by telephone whenever any
violations of the law were observed upon the streets. Within five days
so many complaints had been received that both the superintendent of
schools and the president of the board of education arranged a meeting
at which their attention was invited to the widespread disregard of
the law. As a result, steps were taken at once to insure enforcement,
and finally the board of education appointed one truant officer, and
the commissioner of police detailed a policeman especially for the
work of reporting violations.

In addition to providing an improved method of enforcement, efforts
have been made in Boston to deal more effectively with the difficult
problem of keeping street traders out of saloons, the licensing board
having issued an order to all holders of liquor licenses to prohibit
minors from loitering upon the licensed premises, more especially
newsboys and messenger boys.

The efforts of the school committee to regulate street trading in
Boston have been further supplemented by organizing a Newsboys'
Republic, which is described as follows: "Perhaps the most important
result of supervision so far has been the gradual introduction of a
plan for self government among the licensed newsboys through the
so-called Boston School Newsboys' Association. This association is
pledged to the enforcement of the license rules and the suppression of
smoking, gambling and other street vices, more or less common among
the street boys of certain neighborhoods. The association is run by
the boys themselves, through officers of their own choosing,
consisting of one newsboy captain and two lieutenants for each school
district; also a chief captain and general secretary and an executive
board of seven elected from the ranks of the captains. The general
duties of the captains and lieutenants are, first, to see that all
licensed newsboys of their respective school districts live up to
their license rules, and the principles of the association. Secondly,
to see that all boys not licensed shall not interfere with or in any
way hurt the business of the licensed newsboys. These duties are
performed through weekly inspections on the street, supplemented by
monthly inspection at schools, at which time branch meetings of all
the boys in each district are frequently held."[149]




                               CHAPTER IX

DEVELOPMENT OF STREET TRADES REGULATION IN EUROPE


                            _Great Britain_

Attention was called to the problem of street trading by children in
England for the first time, in a comprehensive way, in 1897. A few
close observers of social conditions noticed that the situation was so
grave as to demand an immediate remedy, and accordingly, upon their
initiative, an organization was effected for the purpose of studying
the subject. This organization took the form of a private association
known as the Committee on Wage-Earning Children. The committee
conferred with the officers of the board of education and succeeded in
arousing their interest to the extent of securing a promise for the
collection of a return from the elementary schools of England and
Wales concerning the labor of public school pupils, their ages, and
other relevant information. In 1898, the House of Commons ordered
this inquiry to be made, and in June of that year copies of a schedule
were sent by the educational department to all the public elementary
schools in England and Wales. Many schoolmasters misunderstood the
meaning of this schedule and failed to report the children of their
schools who were actually engaged in various forms of work outside of
school hours. Only about half of the schedules were filled and
returned, but these showed that 144,026 children were following some
kind of gainful occupation in addition to attending school. Many
schoolmasters reported pitiable cases of child exploitation, as, for
example, the following: "Boys helping milkmen are up at 5 o'clock in
the morning, whilst those selling papers are about the streets to a
very late hour at night. During lessons many fall off to sleep, and if
not asleep the effort to keep awake is truly painful both to boy and
teacher. The educational time, as a consequence, is materially
wasted."[150] "These are sad cases, viz. one boy (aged eleven, in
Standard III) works daily, as a grocer's errand boy, for 1_s._ 6_d._
a week, from 8 to 9 A.M., from 12 to 1.30 P.M., and from 4.30 to 7.30
P.M. On Saturday from 8 A.M. to 10 P.M. Another boy, aged ten in
Standard III, works also as a grocer's errand boy for 1_s._ 6_d._ per
week, from 8.30 to 9 A.M., from 12 to 1.30 and from 5 to 8 P.M., and
on Saturday from 8.30 A.M. to 11 P.M." And all this in addition to
twenty-seven and one half hours of school every week! A boy who works
for 56-3/4 hours a week, selling papers, is employed as follows:
"Monday to Friday, from 7 A.M. to 8.45 A.M., from 12 to 1 P.M., and
from 4 to 10 P.M., and on Saturday from 7 A.M., to 10 A.M., from 12 to
2 P.M. and from 3 to 11 P.M." "This is a very bad case: called at 2
and 3 o'clock A.M., the boy (aged eight) is so tired that he is
obliged to go to bed again, and is often absent from school, and made
to work in the evening as well."[151] Many schoolmasters also
testified to the need of a remedy; one of these wrote on the schedule:
"May I be allowed to express my gratitude to the education department
for making this inquiry, and express the hope that the department will
be able to frame some regulation to meet and relieve the onerous
conditions under which many of the young have to gain education.
Without exaggeration I can truthfully assert that there are to-day in
our national and board schools thousands of little white slaves."[152]

Nothing more came of the movement until January, 1901, when the
Secretary of State for the Home Department appointed an
interdepartmental committee "to inquire into the question of the
employment of children during school age, and to report what
alterations are desirable in the laws relating to child labour and
school attendance and in the administration of these laws." After
making careful investigation this committee declared: "In the case of
street-trading children very strong powers of regulation are required.
These children are exposed to the worst influences; they enter public
houses to ply their trade, they are kept up late at night and exposed
to inclement weather, and the precarious nature of their trade
disinclines them to steady work, and encourages them to dissipate
their earnings in gambling ... there should be power to prohibit
street trading by children; to make regulations as to the age and sex
of street traders, and the days and hours on which they may ply their
trade; to grant licenses to those permitted to trade and to require
the wearing of badges or uniforms; to forbid street traders to enter
public houses or to importune or obstruct passengers; and generally to
control their conduct and to cope with the evil in every reasonable
way."[153] The committee further reported: "Our main recommendation is
that the overworking of children in those occupations which are still
unregulated by law should be prevented by giving to the county and
borough councils a power to make labour by-laws; ... further we
suggest that the gaps that may be left by local by-laws should be
filled up by a general prohibition of night labour by children and of
labour manifestly injurious to health."[154] This committee reported
that the number of children in England and Wales attending school and
also in paid employment was far greater than as reported by the
parliamentary return, estimating that the total number was no less
than 300,000 in 1898.[155]

One of the witnesses before this committee was a London truant officer
of eighteen years' experience, who testified that every month he met
with hundreds of cases of milk boys who "go to work at 5 A.M. and
knock off at 8.30 and get to school at 9.45. At twelve they return to
work, and after school at 4.30 they go again and wash up. The latest
hour they work is about 8 P.M. I have frequently seen these children
fast asleep in school. It is a common thing to see children of tender
age outside the different theatres trying to sell newspapers at 11
o'clock at night. The percentage of cases in which this work is
necessary is very small; it simply means that a little more money is
spent in the public houses."[156] The report of this committee
contains a great mass of testimony from persons in many walks of life,
nearly all of whom declared that street trading by children is bad and
should be regulated. They differentiated between the hawking of
articles in the streets and their delivery for employers, and one of
the witnesses from Liverpool testified that the local regulation of
street trading by children in that city did not apply to bootblacks
nor to boys who carried parcels because they were not selling
anything.[157]

In 1902, an interdepartmental committee was appointed to study the
subject in Ireland, and in its report stated: "The principal dangers
to which they [street traders] are exposed are those arising from late
hours in the streets, truancy, insufficient clothing, entering
licensed premises to find sale for their goods, obstructing, annoying
or importuning passengers, begging, fighting with other children,
playing football or other games in the streets, using bad language,
playing pitch and toss (a gambling game), smoking--all of which are
matters of common observation, and have been testified to by many of
the witnesses. In our opinion these evils can be lessened, if not
entirely removed, by the simple system of regulation, licenses and
badges."[158]

The direct result of the reports of these committees was the passage
by Parliament of the Employment of Children Act, 1903. Section 3 of
this act provides, first, that no child under eleven years shall
engage in street trading; second, no child under fourteen years shall
be employed between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M.; third, no factory or workshop
half-timer shall be employed in any other occupation; fourth, no child
under fourteen years shall handle heavy weights likely to result in
injury; fifth, no child under fourteen years shall engage in any
injurious employment. Sections 1 and 2 of this act give to local
authorities power to make by-laws regulating the employment of
children. The provisions of Section 2 concerning street trading are in
substance as follows: any local authority may make by-laws with
respect to street trading by persons under the age of sixteen years
and may prohibit such street trading subject to age, sex or the
holding of a license; may regulate the conditions on which such
licenses may be granted and revoked; may determine the days and hours
during which and the places at which such street trading may be
carried on; may require such street traders to wear badges and may
regulate generally the conduct of such street traders; provided that
the right to trade shall not be made subject to any conditions having
reference to the poverty or general bad character of the person
applying for this right, and provided also that the local authority
shall have special regard to the desirability of preventing the
employment of girls under sixteen years in streets and public places.

Section 2 b of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1904,
imposes a penalty upon _adults_ who cause, procure or allow boys under
fourteen or girls under sixteen to trade in the streets between 9 P.M.
and 6 A.M.

An official report made in 1907 gives the names of all counties,
boroughs and urban districts in Great Britain which had up to that
time made by-laws to regulate street trading by children. In England
and Wales, 2 counties, 60 cities and boroughs and 4 urban districts
had done so; in Scotland, 3 burghs and the school board districts of
11 burghs and 12 parishes; and in Ireland, 4 cities and boroughs and 1
urban district had made such by-laws.[159]

By 1910, out of 74 county boroughs in England and Wales, not less than
50 had made street-trading by-laws, and these included most of the
larger places; but out of 191 smaller boroughs and smaller urban
districts only 41 had done so; while among 62 administrative counties
only 3 had made by-laws. In addition to these, 4 county boroughs and 2
of the smaller boroughs had made street-trading by-laws under local
acts.

In Scotland, of the 33 county councils empowered to make by-laws, not
one had done so by 1910; while of 56 burghs only 3 had passed by-laws;
of 979 school boards only 27 had made such regulations. Edinburgh
passed by-laws under a private act.

In Ireland, out of 33 county councils not one had made by-laws; of the
43 councils of urban districts with a population of over 5000, only 5
had passed regulations.

In 1909 the Secretary of State for the Home Department appointed a
departmental committee to inquire into the operation of the Employment
of Children Act, 1903, and to consider whether any and what further
legislative regulation or restriction was required in respect of
street trading and other employments dealt with in that act. This
committee confined its report, which was submitted in 1910, to the
subject of street trading; and its great contribution to the cause of
child welfare is its recommendation that street trading should be
_prohibited_ rather than regulated. The statute of 1903 prohibits all
work by children under the age of eleven years, and its restrictions
on street employment by children above that limit, out of school
hours, are prohibitions of _night_ work after nine o'clock,
consequently a child above the age of eleven years who engages in
street trading is restrained, during the day, only by such by-laws as
may have been adopted by the local authority. The committee found that
even in communities where by-laws had been adopted they were not
always observed, and also that where no by-laws had been passed the
minimum statutory restrictions were frequently ignored. The report
declared that: "A considerable amount of street trading is still done
by children under eleven. Special censuses taken in Edinburgh revealed
the fact that children as young as seven were trading in the streets.
The great bulk of the evidence received in and from Scotland points
to the conclusion that the Act [of 1903] has been almost a dead-letter
in that country.... Infringements of the Act in Ireland are no less
common. In Waterford newspapers are sold by children of nine years old
up to 11 P.M. and later."[160] The issuance of licenses and badges was
denounced as giving the stamp of official approval to what is
recognized as an evil, the adoption of by-laws resulting merely in a
partial improvement of conditions even when rigorously enforced.

After having devoted several months to the inquiry, during which
evidence was gathered in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Dublin, Belfast, Birmingham and Liverpool in addition to receiving the
testimony of witnesses from Sheffield, Nottingham, Bolton and other
centers, the committee made this very noteworthy and significant
declaration: "We have come to the conclusion ... that the effect of
street trading upon the character of those who engage in it is only
too frequently disastrous. The youthful street trader is exposed to
many of the worst of moral risks; he associates with, and acquires the
habits of, the frequenters of the kerbstone and the gutter. If a match
seller, he is likely to become a beggar--if a newspaper seller, a
gambler; the evidence before us was extraordinarily strong as to the
extent to which begging prevails among the boy vendors of evening
papers. There was an almost equally strong body of testimony to the
effect that, at any rate in crowded centres of population, street
trading tends to produce a dislike or disability for more regular
employment; the child finds that for a few years money is easily
earned without discipline or special skill; and the occupation is one
which sharpens the wits without developing the intelligence. It leads
to nothing practically, and in no way helps him to a future career.
There can be no doubt that large numbers of those who were once street
traders drift into vagrancy and crime.... Much evidence was given to
the effect that the practice of street trading, even though only
carried on in the intervals of school attendance, tends to produce a
restless disposition, and a dislike of restraint which makes children
unwilling to settle down to any regular employment. So far as girls
are concerned, there must be added to the above evils an
unquestionable danger to morals in the narrower sense. The evidence
presented to us on this point was unanimous and most emphatic. Again
and again persons specially qualified to speak, assured us that, when
a girl took up street trading, she almost invariably was taking a
first step toward a life of immorality. The statement that the
temptations are great, and the children practically defenseless, needs
no amplification. An occupation entailing such perils is indisputably
unfit for girls."[161]

The need for _prohibition_ of street trading was realized by this
committee, the change being urged in the following epoch-making
statement: "After carefully considering the operation of the by-laws
adopted since 1903, and comparing the present state of affairs with
that existing before the passing of the act, we have come to the
conclusion that the difficulties of the situation cannot be said to
have been met, or any substantial contribution to a solution of the
problem made, by the existing law and the machinery set up for its
enforcement. Regulation, however well organized and complete, will not
turn a wasteful and uneconomic use of the energies of children into a
system which is beneficial to the community. Consequently we feel that
we have no choice but to recommend the complete statutory prohibition
of street trading either by boys or by girls up to a specific age. In
the case of boys we feel that it would be wise to name an age which
would render it likely that they would have had full opportunities of
taking to regular work before they could legally trade in the streets.
We think the most suitable age would be seventeen, which gives an
interval of three or four years after the ordinary time of leaving an
elementary school.... So far as girls are concerned, we feel that the
arguments in favor of prohibiting trading increase rather than
diminish in force as the age of the traders advances. The entire body
of testimony laid before us has forced upon us the conclusion that
street trading by girls is entirely indefensible, and that no system
of regulation is sufficient to rid the employment of its risks and
objections. On the other hand, we have not been able to discover any
trace of hardship having resulted in any of those towns in which
by-laws have prohibited trading by girls, or have restricted the ages
during which trading is permitted. We think that the age of
prohibition should be higher for girls than for boys, and, while we
feel that it should, in any event, not be less than eighteen, we
should be willing to see it fixed as high as twenty-one."[162]

As to the administration of the law, the committee declared that this
should be delivered into the hands of the education authorities who
could charge the regular truant officers with the work of enforcement
or employ special officers for the purpose. The placing of
responsibility upon the parents of child offenders was indorsed, but
the committee criticised administrators because of the small penalties
imposed as fines, the amounts being easily covered by the earnings of
the traders, and hence an increase of the maximum fine was
recommended.

A minority report was submitted by four members of this committee who
declined to support the recommendation of the majority that street
trading should be immediately and universally prohibited in the case
of boys up to the age of seventeen. These members held that the cause
of street trading should first be removed by organizing employment
bureaus for children, by giving the children the benefit of vocational
direction, and by promoting industrial education for boys both while
attending the elementary schools and after.


                              _Liverpool_

As to local efforts to regulate the street-trading evil, the first
steps were taken in Liverpool. In this city the condition of child
street traders was particularly bad; half of them were girls, and the
stock in trade was usually newspapers and matches--the children were
dirty, ragged and running the streets at all hours of the night, the
apparent trade in newspapers and other articles being frequently used
to cover up much worse things; in fact, many of the girls were
practically prostitutes. Quite a number of these children were nothing
more or less than beggars, and deliberately appeared in ragged
clothing for the purpose of exciting sympathy. A local association
undertook to supply them with clothing, but many refused this aid
"because it would interfere with their trade." Commenting on similar
practices among the street traders of Dublin, Sir Lambert H. Ormsby,
M.D., said in 1904: "They sell other things besides ... matches
principally. Of course the selling of matches is merely a means of
evading being taken up by the police for begging. The matches are only
humbug; they do not want to sell them ... they do it for begging
purposes."[163] In 1897 the Liverpool Watch Committee appointed a
subcommittee to consider the question of children trading in streets,
and this subcommittee reported that: "The practice is attended, first,
with injury to the health of the children; second, with interference
with the education of such as are of school age; third, with danger to
the moral welfare of the children inasmuch as the practice frequently
leads to street gambling, begging, sleeping out and other undesirable
practices, and in some cases to crime." They were of opinion--in which
the inspector of reformatories concurred--that much of the money
earned by the children went to indulge the vicious and intemperate
propensities of parents and guardians.

By the Liverpool Corporation Act, 1898, Parliament gave the city power
to regulate street trading by children, and accordingly the following
provisions were made by the city council: (1) no licenses to any child
under eleven; (2) boys eleven to thirteen and girls eleven to fifteen
inclusive, to be licensed if not mentally or physically deficient,
with consent of parent or guardian; (3) licenses good one year; (4)
badges also to be issued; (5) no charge for license or badge; (6)
licenses may be revoked by Watch Committee for cause; (7) no licensed
child to trade after 9 P.M., nor unless decently clothed, nor without
badge, nor in streets during school hours unless exempted from school
attendance, and no licensed child may alter or dispose of badge, or
enter public houses to trade, or importune passengers. These
regulations took effect May 31, 1899, and marked the formal beginning
of the movement against street trading by children.

In 1901 the Liverpool subcommittee reported that it was "of opinion
that the application of the powers conferred by the Act has had the
effect of greatly reducing the number of children trading in the
streets, especially during school hours and late in the evenings, and
of improving the condition, appearance, and behaviour of those
children who still engage in street trading." This subcommittee
recommended raising the boys' age limit for licenses from fourteen to
sixteen years, and was inclined to advise the total prohibition of
street trading by girls.[164]


                                _London_

Under the powers conferred on local authorities by the Employment of
Children Act 1903, the London County Council framed in February, 1905,
a set of by-laws, the provisions of which seemed quite innocuous.
Nevertheless a considerable outcry was raised by persons whom they
would affect, and thereupon the Secretary of State withheld his
confirmation and authorized Mr. Chester Jones to hold an inquiry at
which complaints could be heard as well as arguments in favor of the
by-laws. This inquiry was held in June and July of 1905, and
schoolmasters, attendance officers, police inspectors, news agents and
others testified. Mr. Jones held that it was his duty "to endeavour to
discover where the line should be drawn, and that it was not open to
argument either that child labour should entirely be prohibited or
that it should be unregulated."[165]

In his report Mr. Jones took up each by-law separately and discussed
it, recommending that it be either confirmed or rejected in accordance
with his findings. He also drafted a set of by-laws and submitted them
with the recommendation that they be adopted instead of the ones
originally passed by the London County Council. Referring to these, he
says: "An important respect in which my suggested by-laws differ from
the County Council by-laws is in differentiating between employment in
connection with street stalls and other forms of street trading. It
seemed to be the general opinion [of witnesses] that the former
employment, being under the supervision of some adult person, probably
the parent, is not so harmful in its effects on the morals of the
child as the latter, and it must be remembered that the main objection
to street trading was on the ground rather of its affecting the
morality than the health and education of the children."[166] The
regulations drafted by Mr. Jones were not even so drastic as those
proposed by the London County Council, and in recommending milder
restrictions Mr. Jones says: "A set of by-laws should not err upon the
side of overstringency, nor should they be in advance of public
opinion; the first, because taking a step more or less in the dark
might cause hardships impossible to avoid, and the second, because any
by-laws of this sort, being most difficult of enforcement, will
certainly be evaded unless backed up by the weight of public
opinion."[167]

The County Council, however, did not follow Mr. Jones's
recommendations in their entirety, but adopted a more stringent set of
by-laws which were put in force in October, 1906. In December, 1909,
the County Council again amended the by-laws, and an inquiry relative
to these changes was held by Mr. Stanley Owen Buckmaster in October,
1910. Mr. Buckmaster recommended a number of changes of minor
importance which were adopted by the Council, and accordingly the new
by-laws were adopted and took effect on June 3, 1911. This set of
by-laws will be found in the Appendix, page 264. The most significant
feature which they present is the raising of the age limit for boys to
fourteen years and for girls to sixteen years without exemption. The
old by-laws prohibited street trading by children under sixteen years
between the hours of 9 P.M. and 6 A.M., and this provision was
retained in the new by-laws, applying, however, only to boys, inasmuch
as girls under that age are prohibited from trading in the streets at
any time. These London by-laws on street trading are identical with
the provisions of the most advanced American child labor laws on
factory employment, and consequently they blaze the way for the
application of these provisions in the United States to street trading
as well as to employment in factories, mills and mines.


                              _Manchester_

Although the British departmental committee of 1910 was not favorably
impressed by the results of regulation as a cure for the evils of
street trading, nevertheless it gave due credit to the city of
Manchester for what had been accomplished there under the license
system. Referring to this city, the report says: "In Manchester such
good results as can be arrived at by the method of regulation were,
perhaps, more apparent than anywhere else. In that city the entire
evidence testified to the fact that the regulation of street trading
is very highly organized; a special staff of selected, plain-clothes
officers, giving their whole time to the work, knowing the traders
personally, visiting the homes, advising the parents, clothing the
children and apparently exerting a most beneficial influence. All that
can be done through the instrument of regulation seems to be done
there, the various authorities working together to that end."[168]

An English writer says that regulation in Manchester "has greatly
improved the conditions of the newspaper boys and others who earned
their living by hawking goods in the streets. It is something to the
good at any rate that a boy should be compelled to be decently
dressed and so avoid the obvious temptation of appealing to the
sympathies of the public by the picturesque raggedness of his
clothing. At the same time one cannot help feeling that halfway
legislation of this sort is only playing with the problem and that the
only really satisfactory law would be one which prohibited street
trading by children altogether."[169]


                           _New South Wales_

The British Colony of New South Wales has adopted some mild
restrictions under the Employment of Children Act, 1903, and the
president of the State Children Relief Board for New South Wales
states in his report for the year ending April 5, 1910, that "the
Board is not favorably impressed with the principle of street trading
by juveniles, realizing that even under the most careful
administration children, when once licensed to engage in street
trading, are exposed to great temptations."


                                _Canada_

The province of Manitoba, Canada, forbids children under twelve years
from trading in the streets at any time; licenses are issued to boys
twelve to sixteen years old, who are not allowed to sell after 9 P.M.
Some boys have been denied licenses because of their poor school
record, others because of lack of proof as to age, others on account
of not being physically qualified, and still others because there was
no need for their earning money in this way. The licensed boys are
kept under supervision; their attendance at school is watched; and if
they persist in selling after 9 P.M. or disobey instructions, their
licenses are revoked.[170]


                               _Germany_

The Industrial Code of Germany prohibits children under fourteen years
from offering goods for sale on public roads, streets or places, and
peddling them from house to house. In localities in which such sale or
peddling is customary, the local police authorities may permit it for
certain periods of time not exceeding a total of four weeks in any
calendar year. "Under this provision there was considerable street
trading, especially in the larger cities. In Berlin, for instance,
during the weeks preceding Christmas, numerous children under fourteen
were thus employed. Protests against the practice were made by the
Consumers' League and similar organizations, and resulted in the
passage of a police regulation, for its restriction; and in 1909 a
further step was taken by providing that no exceptions of this sort be
thereafter permitted, so that now the employment of children under
fourteen years of age in street trading is absolutely forbidden in
Berlin."[171]

The Industrial Code forbids children under twelve years to deliver
goods or perform other errands except for their own parents. Children
over twelve years may so engage for not more than three hours daily
between 8 A.M. and 8 P.M., but not before morning school nor during
the noon recess nor until one hour after school has closed in the
afternoon; on Sundays and holidays such children may do this work only
for two hours between 8 A.M. and 1 P.M., but not during the principal
church service or the half hour preceding it. Such children must
first obtain the _Arbeitskarte_ from the local police authority, which
is issued upon request of the child's legal representative. Employers
must notify the police authority in advance of the employment of such
children.


                                _France_

The labor of children in France is regulated by the law of November 2,
1892, as amended by the act of March 30, 1900. This law applies to
factories, workshops, mines and quarries, exempting home industries,
agricultural work and purely mercantile establishments.[172] The work
of children in city streets is not even mentioned. New legislation has
recently been proposed to regulate the employment of minors under 18
years of age and of women in the sale of merchandise from stands and
tables on sidewalks outside of bazaars and large stores. According to
its provisions, the work of such persons would be prohibited for more
than two hours at a time and for more than six hours a day, while
seats and heating facilities would have to be supplied the same as
for employees inside the large establishments.[173]

In Paris, newspapers are sold almost exclusively at kiosks on street
corners, presided over by middle-aged women.




                               CONCLUSION


Many years ago Macaulay declared, "Intense labor, beginning too early
in life, continued too long every day, stunting the growth of the
mind, leaving no time for healthful exercise, no time for intellectual
culture, must impair all those high qualities that have made our
country great. Your overworked boys will become a feeble and ignoble
race of men, the parents of a more feeble progeny; nor will it be long
before the deterioration of the laborer will injuriously affect those
very interests to which his physical and moral interests have been
sacrificed. If ever we are forced to yield the foremost place among
commercial nations, we shall yield it to some people preeminently
vigorous in body and in mind." To-day these words seem to us a
veritable prophecy--but we must not forget that they apply to America
no less than to England. If our civilization is to continue and to
improve with time, every child must have a proper opportunity to grow
under conditions as nearly normal as possible; we must secure to the
children their birthright--the right to play and to dream, the right
to healthful sleep, the right to education and training, the right to
grow into manhood and into womanhood with cleanness and strength both
of body and of mind, the right of a chance to become useful citizens
of the future. Eternal vigilance is the price of protection for
childhood, and while "Women and children first" is a rigid law of the
sea, "Children first" is the fundamental law both of Nature and
civilization.




FOOTNOTES:

  [1] Wisconsin Statutes, Section 1728 p., Laws of 1911.

  [2] Report of Interdepartmental Committee on the Employment of
  Children during School Age in Ireland, 1902, Minutes of Evidence, Q.
  71. Cf. also Great Britain--Employment of Children Act, 1903, Section
  13.

  [3] _The Newsboy_, Pittsburgh, April, 1909.

  [4] Great Britain--Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Employment
  of School Children, 1901, pp. 18, 19.

  [5] Scott Nearing, "The Newsboy at Night in Philadelphia," _Charities
  and The Commons_, February 2, 1906.

  [6] "The Child in the City," Handbook of Chicago Child Welfare
  Exhibit, 1911, p. 25.

  [7] "A Plea to Take the Small Boy and Girl from the City Streets," a
  folder issued by Chicago Board of Education and a committee
  representing local organizations, 1911.

  [8] Pamphlet 114 of National Child Labor Committee, p. 8.

  [9] Elizabeth C. Watson, "New York Newsboys and their Work," 1911.

  [10] _The Survey_, April 22, 1911, p. 138.

  [11] "Studies of Boy Life in Our Cities (England)," edited by E. J.
  Urwick, 1904, p. 296.

  [12] Report of Interdepartmental Committee on the Employment of
  Children during School Age in Ireland, 1902, p. vii.

  [13] Twelfth Census of United States, Vol. II, Population, Part II, p.
  506.

  [14] Twelfth Census of United States, Special Reports, Occupations,
  1904, pp. xxiv, cxxxiii.

  [15] _Idem_, pp. xxiii, cxxxiii.

  [16] Twelfth Census of United States, 1900, Vol. VII, p. cxxv.

  [17] Instructions to Enumerators, Thirteenth Census of the United
  States, pp. 32-34.

  [18] These tables were copied from charts displayed at the Chicago
  Child Welfare Exhibit, May, 1911.

  [19] "The Child in the City," Handbook of the Child Welfare Exhibit,
  Chicago, May 11-25, 1911, p. 25.

  [20] _Idem_, p. 25.

  [21] "The Social Evil in Chicago," by the Vice Commission of Chicago,
  1911, pp. 241-242.

  [22] "A Plea to take the Small Boy and the Girl from the City
  Streets," by the Chicago Board of Education and a committee
  representing local organizations, 1911.

  [23] Elizabeth C. Watson, "New York Newsboys and their Work," 1911.

  [24] Abstract of Immigration Commission's Report on the Greek Padrone
  System in the United States, 1911, p. 9.

  [25] A more detailed presentation of this matter will be found in
  Chapter IV.

  [26] Immigration Commission's Report, p. 9.

  [27] Elementary Schools (Children working for Wages), House of Commons
  Papers, 1899, No. 205, p. 17.

  [28] _Idem_, p. 21.

  [29] _Idem_, p. 17.

  [30] Elementary Schools (Children working for Wages), House of Commons
  Papers, 1899, No. 205, p. 25.

  [31] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on
  Employment of School Children, 1901, p. 8.

  [32] _Idem_, p. 9.

  [33] _Idem_, p. 10.

  [34] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on
  Employment of School Children, 1901, p. 18.

  [35] _Idem_, p. 16.

  [36] Robert H. Sherard, "Child Slaves of Britain," 1905, p. 178.

  [37] Report of President of State Children Relief Board of New South
  Wales for year ending April 5, 1910, pp. 39-40.

  [38] Vierteljahrshefte des Kaiserlichen Statistischen Amts, 1900, Heft
  III, p. 97. See also Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental
  Committee on Employment of School Children, 1901, App. 3, p. 294.

  [39] Bulletin 89 of United States Bureau of Labor, 1910, p. 84.

  [40] Bulletin 89 of United States Bureau of Labor, 1910, p. 56.

  [41] _Idem_, p. 63.

  [42] _Idem_, p. 65.

  [43] _The Hustler_, organ of Boston Newsboys' Club, February, 1911.

  [44] Report of the Newsboys' Home Association of Washington, D.C.,
  1863-1864, p. 7.

  [45] "The Education, Earnings and Social Condition of Boys Engaged in
  Street Trading in Manchester," by E. T. Campagnac and C. E. B.
  Russell; Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on
  Employment of School Children, 1901, App. 45, pp. 456-457.

  [46] Handbook of New York Child Welfare Exhibit, 1911, p. 33.

  [47] "Child Labor on the Street," _The Newsboy_, leaflet of New York
  Child Labor Committee, 1907.

  [48] Report of Newsboys' and Children's Aid Society of Washington,
  D.C., 1889, p. 10.

  [49] "The Education, Earnings and Social Condition of Boys Engaged in
  Street Trading in Manchester," by Campagnac and Russell, 1901.

  [50] Child Labor at the National Capital, an address delivered in
  Washington, December, 1905, Pamphlet 23 of National Child Labor
  Committee.

  [51] Mary E. McDowell, Pamphlet 114 of National Child Labor Committee,
  pp. 6-7.

  [52] "The Social Evil in Chicago" by the Vice Commission of Chicago,
  1911, p. 242.

  [53] Miss Todd, Pamphlet 114 of National Child Labor Committee, p. 12.

  [54] National Child Labor Committee, Pamphlet 114, p. 12.

  [55] Great Britain, Minutes of Evidence Taken Before Departmental
  Committee on Employment of Children Act, 1903, 1910, Q. 9724.

  [56] Bulletin 89 of United States Bureau of Labor, 1910, p. 46.

  [57] _Charities and The Commons_, February 2, 1906.

  [58] "Some Ethical Gains through Legislation," 1905, p. 12.

  [59] "Child Labor on the Street," _The Newsboy_, leaflet of New York
  Child Labor Committee, 1907.

  [60] "Children in American Street Trades," 1905, Pamphlet 14 of
  National Child Labor Committee.

  [61] _Charities and The Commons_, February 2, 1906.

  [62] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on
  Employment of School Children, 1901, p. 23.

  [63] Great Britain, Minutes of Evidence Taken before Departmental
  Committee on Employment of Children Act, 1903, 1910, Q. 1837 _et seq._

  [64] Great Britain, Report of Departmental Committee on Employment of
  Children Act, 1903, submitted in 1910, p. 13.

  [65] George A. Hall, "The Newsboy," in Proceedings of Seventh Annual
  Meeting of National Child Labor Committee, 1911, p. 102.

  [66] School Document, No. 14, 1910, Boston Public Schools, pp. 42-44.

  [67] Report of New York-New Jersey Committee of the North American
  Civic League for Immigrants, December, 1909-March, 1911, pp. 33-34.

  [68] Abstract of Immigration Commission's Report on the Greek Padrone
  System in United States, 1911, p. 10.

  [69] Abstract of Report on Greek Padrone System in United States, by
  Immigration Commission, 1911, p. 22.

  [70] _Survey_, Vol. XXVI, p. 591.

  [71] School Document, No. 10, 1910, Boston Public Schools, p. 133.

  [72] "The Social Evil in Chicago," by the Vice Commission of Chicago,
  1911, p. 242.

  [73] "Child Labor at the National Capital," an address delivered in
  Washington, December, 1905, Pamphlet 23 of National Child Labor
  Committee.

  [74] "The Social Evil in Chicago," by the Vice Commission of Chicago,
  1911, p. 244.

  [75] Bulletin 69 of Bureau of Census, "Child Labor in the United
  States," 1907, p. 170.

  [76] Robert H. Sherard, "Child Slaves of Britain," p. 179.

  [77] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Physical
  Deterioration, 1904, Vol. II, Q. 10,440.

  [78] J. G. Cloete, "The Boy and his Work" in "Studies of Boy Life in
  Our Cities," edited by E. J. Urwick (England), 1904, p. 121.

  [79] E. J. Urwick, "Studies of Boy Life in Our Cities" (England),
  1904, p. 305.

  [80] "Some Ethical Gains through Legislation," 1905, p. 15.

  [81] Victor S. Clark, "Women and Child Wage Earners in Great Britain,"
  Bulletin 80, United States Bureau of Labor, p. 28.

  [82] "Newsboy Life--What Superintendents of Reformatories and Others
  think about its Effects," Leaflet No. 32 of National Child Labor
  Committee, 1910.

  [83] "Buffalo Child Labor Problems," folder issued by New York Child
  Labor Committee, 1911, p. 3.

  [84] Elizabeth C. Watson, "New York Newsboys and their Work," 1911.

  [85] Scott Nearing, "The Newsboy at Night in Philadelphia," _Charities
  and The Commons_, February 2, 1906.

  [86] John Spargo, "Bitter Cry of the Children," 1906, p. 184.

  [87] James L. Fieser, "Causes of Truancy," Indiana Bulletin of
  Charities and Correction, June, 1910, p. 227.

  [88] James A. Britton, M.D., "Child Labor and the Juvenile Court,"
  Pamphlet 95 of National Child Labor Committee, 1909.

  [89] Great Britain, Report of Departmental Committee on Employment of
  Children Act, 1903, submitted in 1910, p. 12.

  [90] Mrs. Louise B. More, "Wage-Earners' Budgets," 1907, p. 148.

  [91] J. G. Cloete, "The Boy and his Work" in "Studies of Boy Life in
  Our Cities (England)," edited by E. J. Urwick, 1904, p. 131.

  [92] _Idem_, p. 135.

  [93] E. J. Urwick, "Studies of Boy Life in Our Cities," 1904, p. 307.

  [94] _Idem_, p. 309.

  [95] Robert H. Sherard, "Child Slaves of Britain," 1905, pp. 179-180.

  [96] Constance Smith, Report on the Employment of Children in the
  United Kingdom, 1909, p. 11.

  [97] Margaret Alden, M.D., "Child Life and Labour," 1908, p. 118.

  [98] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Physical
  Deterioration, 1904, Vol. I, paragraph 68.

  [99] _Idem_, Vol. II, Q. 2453.

  [100] _Idem_, Vol. II, Q. 2479.

  [101] Great Britain, Minutes of Evidence taken before Departmental
  Committee on Employment of Children Act, 1903, 1910, Q. 9503 _et seq._

  [102] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on
  Employment of School Children, 1901, App. 39, p. 418.

  [103] Copied from Charts in Child Labor Exhibit at National Conference
  of Charities and Correction, St. Louis, May, 1910.

  [104] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on
  Employment of School Children, 1901, p. 11.

  [105] Great Britain, Report of Departmental Committee on Employment of
  Children Act, 1903, 1910, p. 12.

  [106] Elizabeth C. Watson, "New York Newsboys and their Work," 1911.

  [107] "Child Labor on the Street," leaflet of New York Child Labor
  Committee, _The Newsboy_, 1907.

  [108] "The Education, Earnings and Social Condition of Boys Engaged in
  Street Trading in Manchester," by Campagnac and Russell, 1901.

  [109] Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Employment of Children
  during School Age in Ireland, 1902, Q. 3862.

  [110] Report of the Board of Education of the Toledo City School
  District, 1910-1911, p. 141.

  [111] "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment," Vol. VIII
  of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
  States, Senate Document No. 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session.

  [112] "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment," Vol. VIII
  of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
  States, Senate Document No. 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session, p. 39.

  [113] _Idem_, p. 42.

  [114] "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment," Vol. VIII
  of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
  States, Senate Document No. 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session, p. 44.

  [115] _Idem_, p. 59.

  [116] "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment," Vol. VIII
  of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
  States, Senate Document No. 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session, p. 62.

  [117] _Idem_, p. 69.

  [118] _Idem_, p. 71.

  [119] "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment," Vol. VIII
  of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
  States, Senate Document No. 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session, p. 73.

  [120] _Idem_, p. 84.

  [121] "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment," Vol. VIII
  of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
  States, Senate Document No. 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session, p. 86.

  [122] _Idem_, p. 87.

  [123] _Idem_, p. 90.

  [124] "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment," Vol. VIII
  of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
  States, Senate Document No. 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session, p. 91.

  [125] _Idem_, p. 92.

  [126] "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment," Vol. VIII
  of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
  States, Senate Document No. 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session, p. 105.

  [127] Includes 17 in bowling alleys and pool rooms and 23 in theaters
  and other places of amusement.

  [128] Includes 2 in boarding houses, 26 home workers (precise
  character of work not specified), 10 in restaurants, and 12 in private
  families.

  [129] Includes 26 bootblacks and 320 newsboys.

  [130] "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment," Vol. VIII
  of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
  States, Senate Document No. 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session, p. 106.

  [131] _Idem_, pp. 106-107.

  [132] "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment," Vol. VIII
  of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United
  States, Senate Document No. 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session, p. 108.

  [133] _Idem_, pp. 116-117.

  [134] _Idem_, p. 134.

  [135] Davis Wasgatt Clark, "American Child and Moloch of To-day,"
  1907, p. 40.

  [136] George B. Mangold, "Child Problems," 1910, p. 232.

  [137] James A. Britton, M.D., "Child Labor and the Juvenile Court,"
  Pamphlet 95 of National Child Labor Committee, 1909.

  [138] Vol. VIII of Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners
  in the United States, 1911, p. 22.

  [139] E. J. Urwick, "Studies of Boy Life in Our Cities (England),"
  1904, p. 304.

  [140] Bulletin 81, United States Bureau of Labor, p. 416.

  [141] Great Britain, Report of Departmental Committee on the
  Employment of Children Act, 1903, submitted in 1910, p. 9.

  [142] "A Plea to take the Small Boy and the Girl from the City
  Streets," by the Chicago Board of Education and a committee
  representing local organizations, 1911.

  [143] Report on Bylaws made by London County Council under Employment
  of Children Act, 1903, by Chester Jones, 1906, pp. 24-27.

  [144] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on
  Employment of School Children, 1901, App. 33, p. 403.

  [145] Report of Interdepartmental Committee on the Employment of
  Children during School Age in Ireland, 1902, p. vii.

  [146] "Street Trades," in Proceedings of Seventh Annual Meeting of
  National Child Labor Committee, 1911, p. 108.

  [147] School Document No. 15, 1909, Boston Public Schools, pp. 34-35.

  [148] Committee on Work and Wages, Handbook of New York Child Welfare
  Exhibit, 1911, p. 33.

  [149] School Document No. 15, 1909, Boston Public Schools, p. 36.

  [150] Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages), House of
  Commons Paper, 1899, No. 205, p. 14.

  [151] Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages), House of
  Commons Paper, 1899, No. 205, pp. 26-27.

  [152] _Idem_, p. 16.

  [153] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on
  Employment of School Children, 1901, pp. 20-21.

  [154] _Idem_, p. 24.

  [155] _Idem_, p. 9.

  [156] _Idem_, Q. 1123.

  [157] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on
  Employment of School Children, 1901, Q. 7203.

  [158] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on the
  Employment of Children during School Age in Ireland, 1902, p. 6.

  [159] Great Britain, Return of Local Authorities which have made
  By-laws under the Employment of Children Act, 1903, 1907.

  [160] Great Britain, Report of Departmental Committee on Employment of
  Children Act, 1903, submitted in 1910, p. 7.

  [161] Great Britain, Report of Departmental Committee on Employment of
  Children Act, 1903, submitted in 1910, p. 11.

  [162] Great Britain, Report of Departmental Committee on Employment of
  Children Act, 1903, submitted in 1910, p. 13.

  [163] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Physical
  Deterioration, 1904, Vol. II, Q. 12757-12759.

  [164] Great Britain, Report of Interdepartmental Committee on
  Employment of School Children, 1901, App. 37, pp. 415-416.

  [165] Report on the By-laws made by the London County Council under
  the Employment of Children Act, 1903, by Chester Jones, 1906, p. 5.

  [166] _Idem_, p. 16.

  [167] _Idem_, p. 15.

  [168] Great Britain, Report of Departmental Committee on Employment of
  Children Act, 1903, submitted in 1910, p. 9.

  [169] J. G. Cloete, "The Boy and his Work" in "Studies of Boy Life in
  our Cities," 1904, p. 131.

  [170] "Citizens in the Making," Annual Report of Superintendent of
  Neglected Children for Province of Manitoba, Canada, 1910, pp. 31-34.

  [171] C. W. A. Veditz, "Child Labor Legislation in Europe," in
  Bulletin 89 of United States Bureau of Labor, 1910, p. 242.

  [172] Henry Ferrette, "Manuel de legislation industrielle," 1909, p.
  149.

  [173] Daily Consular and Trade Reports, 14th Year, No. 106, p. 566.



                              BIBLIOGRAPHY


                                 BOOKS

  ADAMS, MYRON E., _Children in American Street Trades_, in Proceedings
     of First Annual Meeting of National Child Labor Committee, 1905,
     pp. 25-46.

  ---- _Municipal Regulations of Street Trades_, in Proceedings of
     National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1904, Vol. XXXI,
     pp. 294-300.

  ALDEN, MARGARET, _Child Life and Labour_.

  BRITTON, JAMES A., _Child Labor and the Juvenile Court_, in
     Proceedings of Fifth Annual Meeting of National Child Labor
     Committee, 1909, p. 111.

  BROWN, EMMA E., _Child Toilers of Boston Streets_.

  _Buffalo Child Labor Problems_, folder issued by New York Child Labor
     Committee, 1911.

  CAMPAGNAC AND RUSSELL, _Education, Earnings and Social Condition of
     Boys Engaged in Street Trading in Manchester_, Board of Education
     Special Reports on Educational Subjects, 1902, Vol. VIII, pp.
     653-670.

  _Child Labor in Germany Outside of Factories_, in Report of United
     States Commissioner of Education, 1900-1901, Vol. I, pp. 54-80.

  _Child Labor on the Street--The Newsboy_, leaflet of New York Child
     Labor Committee, 1907.

  _Child Labor in the United States_, Bulletin 69 of Bureau of Census,
     1907.

  CLARK, DAVIS W., _American Child and Moloch of To-day_, 1907, p. 40.

  CLARK, VICTOR S., _Woman and Child Wage Earners in Great Britain_, in
     Bulletin 80 of United States Bureau of Labor, January, 1909.

  CLOETE, J. G., _The Boy and his Work_, in _Studies of Boy Life in Our
     Cities_, edited by E. J. Urwick, 1904, pp. 129-133.

  CLOPPER, EDWARD N., _Children on the Streets of Cincinnati_, in
     Proceedings of Fourth Annual Meeting of National Child Labor
     Committee, 1908, pp. 113-123.

  ---- _Child Labor in Street Trades_, in Proceedings of Sixth Annual
     Meeting of National Child Labor Committee, 1910, pp. 137-144.

  CONANT, RICHARD K., _Street Trades and Reformatories_, in Proceedings
     of Seventh Annual Meeting of National Child Labor Committee, 1911,
     pp. 105-107.

  _Employment of Children Act_, 1903, Great Britain, in J. N. Larned's
     _History for Ready Reference_, 1910, Vol. VII, p. 87.

  DAVIS, PHILIP, _Child Life on the Street_, National Conference of
     Charities and Correction, 1909.

  FIESER, JAMES L., _Causes of Truancy_, in Indiana Bulletin of
     Charities and Correction, June, 1910, p. 227.

  FLEISHER, ALEXANDER, _The Newsboys of Milwaukee_, in Fifteenth
     Biennial Report, Part III, of Wisconsin Bureau of Labor, 1911-1912,
     pp. 61-96.

  GIBBS, S. P., _Problem of Boy Work_.

  GREAT BRITAIN, Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages),
     Parliament Sessional Papers 1899, Vol. 75.

  ---- Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Employment of School
     Children, 1901.

  ---- Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Employment of Children
     during School Age in Ireland, 1902.

  ---- Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration,
     1904, Vol. II, Q. 2453-2479, 10,440, 12,757.

  ---- Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Partial Exemption from
     School Attendance.

  ---- Report of Departmental Committee on Employment of Children Act,
     1903, 1910.

  ---- Report on By-laws made by London County Council under Employment
     of Children Act, 1903, by Chester Jones, 1906.

  ---- Report of Education Committee of London County Council, March 21,
     1911, pp. 690-696.

  Report of President of State Children Relief Board of New South Wales
     for year ending April 5, 1910, pp. 39-40.

  Citizens in the Making, Annual Report of Superintendent of Neglected
     Children for Province of Manitoba, Canada, 1910, pp. 31-34.

  _Greek Padrone System in United States_, Abstract of Immigration
     Commission's Report on, 1911.

  GUNCKEL, J. E., _Boyville_, 1905.

  HALL, GEORGE A., _The Newsboy_, in Proceedings of Seventh Annual
     Meeting of National Child Labor Committee, 1911, pp. 100-102.

  HENDERSON, CHARLES R., _Street Trading of Children_, in his
     _Preventive Agencies and Methods_, 1910, Vol. III, pp. 97-100.

  _Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment_, Vol. VIII of
     Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in United
     States, Senate Document 645, 61st Congress, 2d Session.

  KELLEY, FLORENCE, _Children in Street Trades_ and _Telegraph and
     Messenger Boys_, in her _Some Ethical Gains through Legislation_,
     1905, pp. 11-26.

  ---- _Street Trades_, in Proceedings of Seventh Annual Meeting of
     National Child Labor Committee, 1911, pp. 108-110.

  MANGOLD, GEORGE B., _Child Problems_, 1910, p. 232.

  NEILL, CHARLES P., _Child Labor at the National Capital_, in
     Proceedings of Second Annual Meeting of National Child Labor
     Committee, 1905, pp. 17-20.

  _New York Child Welfare Exhibit, Handbook of_, 1911, p. 33.

  _Newsboys' Home Association of Washington, D.C., Report of_,
     1863-1864.

  _Newsboy Law_, in Handbook of Child Labor Legislation, 1908, National
     Consumers' League, p. 63.

  _Newsboys' and Children's Aid Society of Washington, D.C._, 1889.

  _Newsboy Life--What Superintendents of Reformatories and Others Think
     about its Effects_, Leaflet 32 of National Child Labor Committee,
     1910.

  North American Civic League for Immigrants, Report of New York-New
     Jersey Committee, December, 1909-March, 1911, pp. 33-34.

  PEACOCK, ROBERT, _Employment of Children with Special Reference to
     Street Trading_, in Proceedings of Third International Congress for
     Welfare and Protection of Children, 1902, pp. 191-202.

  _Plea to Take the Small Boy and Girl from the City Streets_, a folder
     issued by Chicago Board of Education and a committee representing
     local organizations, 1911.

  _Problems of Street Trading_, in Proceedings of Fifth Annual Meeting
     of National Child Labor Committee, 1909, pp. 230-240.

  _Saving the Barren Years_, in The Child in the City, Handbook of
     Chicago Child Welfare Exhibit, 1911, pp. 25-27.

  School Document No. 14, 1910, Boston Public Schools, pp. 41-44.

  School Document No. 10, 1910, Boston Public Schools, pp. 132-138.

  School Document No. 15, 1909, Boston Public Schools, pp. 34-37.

  SCOTT, LEROY, _The Voice of the Street_.

  SHERARD, ROBERT H., _Child Slaves of Britain_.

  SMITH, CONSTANCE, _Report on Employment of Children in United
     Kingdom_.

  _The Social Evil in Chicago_, Report of Chicago Vice Commission, 1911,
     pp. 241-245.

  SPARGO, JOHN, _Street Trades_ in his _Bitter Cry of the Children_,
     1906, pp. 184-188, 258-259.

  STELZLE, CHARLES, _The Boy of the Street_, New York, 1904, pp. 7, 41.

  URWICK, E. J., editor of _Studies of Boy Life in Our Cities_
     (England), 1904.

  VEDITZ, C. W. A., _Child Labor Legislation in Europe_, Bulletin 89 of
     United States Bureau of Labor, July, 1910.

  WATSON, ELIZABETH C., _New York Newsboys and their Work_, 1911.

  WHITIN, E. S., _Child Labor: Street Trades_, in his _Factory
     Legislation in Maine_, 1908, pp. 137-138.

  WILLIAMS, M., _The Street Boy: Who He is and What to do with Him_,
     National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1903.

  WILLIAMSON, E. E., _The Street Arab_, in Proceedings of National
     Conference of Charities and Correction, 1898, Vol. XXV, pp.
     358-361.


                           MAGAZINE ARTICLES

  Child Labor, by Florence Kelley, _Twentieth Century_, 1911, Vol. V,
     pp. 30-34.

  Child Laborers of the Street--The New York Bills, _Charities and
     Commons_, 1903, Vol. X, pp. 205-206.

  Child Labor and the Night Messenger Service, by Owen R. Lovejoy, _The
     Survey_, Vol. XXIV, pp. 311-317.

  Child Street Trades in London, _Charities and Commons_, 1903, Vol. X,
     pp. 149-150.

  Children as Wage Earners--Street Sellers, _Fortnightly Review_, 1903,
     Vol. LXXIX, pp. 921-922.

  Committee on Wage-earning Children--Third Annual Report, _Economic
     Review_, 1904, Vol. XIV, pp. 208-211.

  Convalescent Men for Newsboys, _The Survey_, 1910, Vol. XXV, p. 809.

  Enforcing the Newsboy Law in New York and Newark, by J. K. Paulding,
     _Charities and Commons_, 1905, Vol. XIV, pp. 836-837.

  Ethics of the Newsboy, by A. Saxby, _Western_, Vol. CLVIII, pp.
     575-578.

  The Greek Bootblack, by Leola Benedict Terhune, _The Survey_, 1911,
     Vol. XXVI, pp. 852-854.

  The Greek Boy Who Shines Shoes, _The Survey_, 1911, Vol. XXVI, p. 591.

  Hartford Regulates Child Street Trades, _The Survey_, 1910, Vol. XXV,
     p. 511.

  Industrial Democracy: A Newsboys' Labor Union and What It Thinks of a
     College Education, by R. W. Bruere, _Outlook_, 1906, Vol. LXXXIV,
     pp. 878-883.

  John E. Gunckel of Toledo: the Newsboys' Evangelist, by A. E. Winship,
     _World To-day_, 1908, Vol. XV, pp. 1169-1173.

  De Kid Wot Works at Night, by William Hard, _Everybody's_, 1908, Vol.
     XVIII, pp. 25-37.

  Milwaukee Regulates Its Street Trades--Other Wisconsin Child Labor
     Advances, _Survey_, 1909, Vol. XXII, p. 589.

  New Jersey Children in Street Trades by E. B. Butler, _Charities and
     Commons_, 1907, Vol. XVII, pp. 1062-1064.

  New Rules for Street Trades in Boston, with a Comparison of
     Regulations in Liverpool, _Charities and Commons_, 1909, Vol. XXI,
     pp. 953-954.

  New York's Newsboy Lodging House, _Charities and Commons_, 1908, Vol.
     XXI, pp. 147-148.

  New York's Newsboys Licensed, _Charities and Commons_, 1903, Vol. XI,
     pp. 188-189.

  The Newsboy at Night in Philadelphia, by Scott Nearing, _Charities and
     Commons_, 1907, Vol. XVII, pp. 778-784.

  The Newsboy Breadwinner Story, _Charities and Commons_, 1903, Vol. XI,
     pp. 482, 568.

  Newsboy Wanderers are Tramps in the Making, by Ernest Poole,
     _Charities and Commons_, 1903, Vol. X, pp. 160-162.

  Newsboys Elect Their Own Judge, _Survey_, 1910, Vol. XXV, p. 312.

  Night Messenger Service, by Owen R. Lovejoy, _Survey_, Vol. XXV, p.
     504.

  The Press and its Newsboys, by John Ihlder, _World To-day_, 1907, Vol.
     XIII, pp. 737-739.

  Sale of Goods on Sidewalks (in France), Daily Consular and Trade
     Reports, 14th Year, No. 106, p. 566.

  School Children as Wage Earners, by E. F. Hogg, _Nineteenth Century_,
     1897, Vol. XLII, pp. 235-244.

  School Children as Wage Earners--Street Trading in Liverpool, by J. E.
     Gorst, _Nineteenth Century_, 1899, Vol. XLVI, p. 16.

  Street Children, by Benjamin Waugh, _Contemporary Review_, 1888, Vol.
     LIII, pp. 825-835.

  Street Labor and Juvenile Delinquency, by Josephine C. Goldmark,
     _Political Science Quarterly_, 1904, Vol. XIX, pp. 417-438.

  Street Trades and Delinquency, _Survey_, 1911, Vol. XXVI, p. 285.

  The Street-trading Children of Liverpool, by Thomas Burke,
     _Contemporary Review_, 1900, Vol. LXXVIII, pp. 720-726.

  Street Trading by Children (Bradford, England), Daily Consular and
     Trade Reports, 14th Year, No. 89, p. 246.

  Two O'clock Sunday Morning, by Scott Nearing, _The Independent_, 1912,
     Vol. LXXII, No. 3297, pp. 288-289.

  A Western Newspaper and its Newsboys, by W. B. Forbush, _Charities and
     Commons_, 1907, Vol. XIX, pp. 798-802.

  Waifs of the Street, by Ernest Poole, _McClure's_, Vol. XXI, pp.
     40-48.

  What Boston Has Done in Regulating the Street Trades for Children, by
     Pauline Goldmark, _Charities and Commons_, 1903, Vol. X, pp.
     159-160.

  What of the Newsboy of the Second Cities? Investigations carried on in
     Buffalo, _Charities and Commons_, 1903, Vol. X, pp. 368-371.




                               APPENDICES




                               APPENDIX A

                                  LAWS

The law of Wisconsin relative to street trading, as amended in 1911,
is given below in its entirety, because it is the most advanced law of
its kind in the United States.


                              _Wisconsin_

SECTION 1728 p. The term "street trade," as used in this act, shall
mean any business or occupation in which any street, alley, court,
square or other public place is used for the sale, display or offering
for sale of any articles, goods or merchandise. No boy under the age
of twelve years, and no girl under the age of eighteen years, shall in
any city of the first class distribute, sell or expose or offer for
sale newspapers, magazines or periodicals in any street or public
place.

SECTION 1728 q. No boy under fourteen years of age, shall, in any city
of the first class, work at any time, or be employed or permitted to
work at any time, as a bootblack or in any other street trade, or
shall sell or offer any goods or merchandise for sale or distribute
hand bills or circulars or any other articles, except newspapers,
magazines or periodicals as hereinafter provided.

SECTION 1728 r. No girl under eighteen years of age shall, in any city
of the first class, work at any time, or be employed or permitted to
work at any time, as a bootblack or at any other street trades or in
the sale or distribution of hand bills or circulars or any other
articles upon the street or from house to house.

SECTION 1728 s. No boy under sixteen years of age shall, in any city
of the first class, distribute, sell or expose or offer for sale any
newspapers, magazines or periodicals in any street or public place or
work as a bootblack, or in any other street or public trade or sell or
offer for sale or distribute any hand bills or other articles, unless
he complies with all the legal requirements concerning school
attendance, and unless a permit and badge, as hereinafter provided,
shall have been issued to him by the state factory inspector. No such
permit and badge shall be issued until the officer issuing the same
shall have received an application in writing therefor, signed by the
parent or guardian or other person having the custody of the child,
desiring such permit and badge, and until such officer shall have
received, examined and placed on file the written statement of the
principal or chief executive officer of the public, private or
parochial school, which the said child is attending, stating that such
child is an attendant at such school with the grade such child shall
have attained, and provided that no such permit and badge shall be
issued, unless such officer issuing it is satisfied that such child
is mentally and physically able to do such work besides his regular
school work as required by law.

SECTION 1728 t. Before any such permit is issued, the state factory
inspector shall demand and be furnished with proof of such child's age
by the production of a verified baptismal certificate or a duly
attested birth certificate, or, in case such certificates cannot be
secured, by the record of age stated in the first school enrollment of
such child. Whenever it appears that a permit was obtained by wrong or
false statements as to any child's age, the officer who granted such
permit shall forthwith revoke the same. After having received,
examined and placed on file such papers, the officer shall issue to
the child a permit and badge. The principal or chief executive officer
of schools, in which children under fourteen years of age are pupils,
shall keep a complete list of all children in their school to whom a
permit and badge has been issued, as herein provided.

SECTION 1728 u. Such permit shall state the place and date of birth of
the child, the name and address of its parents, guardian, custodian or
next friend, as the case may be, and describe the color of hair and
eyes, the height and weight and any distinguishing facial marks of
such child, and shall further state that the papers required by the
preceding section have been duly examined and filed; and that the
child named in such permit has appeared before the officer issuing
the permit. The badge furnished by the officer issuing the permit
shall bear on its face a number corresponding to the number of the
permit, and the name of the child. Every such permit, and every such
badge on its reverse side, shall be signed in the presence of the
officer issuing the same by the child in whose name it is issued.
Provided, that in case of carrier boys working on salary for newspaper
publishers delivering papers, a card of identification shall be issued
to such carriers by the factory inspector, which they shall carry on
their person, and exhibit to any officer authorized under this act,
who may accost them for a disclosure of their right to serve as such
carriers.

SECTION 1728 v. The badge provided for herein shall be such as the
state factory inspector shall designate, and shall be worn
conspicuously in sight at all times in such position as may be
designated by the said factory inspector by such child while so
working. No child to whom such permit and badge or identification card
are issued shall transfer the same to any other person.

SECTION 1728 w. No boy under fourteen years of age shall, in any city
of the first class, sell, expose or offer for sale any newspapers,
magazines or periodicals after the hour of six-thirty o'clock in the
evening, between the first day of October and the first day of April,
nor after seven-thirty o'clock in the evening between the first day of
April and the first day of October, or before five o'clock in the
morning; and no child under sixteen years of age shall distribute,
sell, expose or offer for sale any newspapers, magazines or
periodicals or shall work as a bootblack or in any street or public
trades or distribute hand bills or shall be employed or permitted to
work in the distribution or sale or exposing or offering for sale of
any newspapers, magazines or periodicals or as a bootblack or in other
street or public trades or in the distribution of hand bills during
the hours when the public schools of the city where such child shall
reside are in session. Provided, that any boy between the ages of
fourteen and sixteen years, who is complying and shall continue to
comply with all the legal requirements concerning school attendance,
and who is mentally and physically able to do such delivery besides
his regular school work, shall be authorized to deliver newspapers
between the hours of four and six in the morning.

SECTION 1728 x. The commissioner of labor or any factory inspector
acting under his direction shall enforce the provisions of this law,
and he is hereby vested with all powers requisite therefor.

SECTION 1728 y. The permit of any child, who in any city of the first
class distributes, sells or offers for sale any newspapers, magazines
or periodicals in any street or public place or works as a bootblack
or in any other street trade, or sells or offers for sale or
distributes any hand bills or other articles in violation of the
provisions of this act, or who becomes delinquent or fails to comply
with all the legal requirements concerning school attendances shall
forthwith be revoked for a period of six months and his badge taken
from said child. The refusal of any child to surrender such permit,
and the distribution, sale or offering for sale of newspapers,
magazines or periodicals or any goods or merchandise, or the working
by such child as a bootblack or in any other street or public trade,
or in distributing hand bills or other articles, after notice, by any
officer authorized to grant permits under this law of the revocation
of such permit and a demand for the return of the badge, shall be
deemed a violation of this act. The permit of said child may also be
revoked by the officer who issued such permit, and the badge taken
from such child, upon the complaint of any police officer or other
attendance officer or probation officer of a juvenile court, and such
child shall surrender his permit and badge upon the demand of any
police officer, truancy or other attendance officer or probation
officer of a juvenile court or other officer charged with the duty of
enforcing this act. In case of a second violation of this act by any
child, he shall be brought before the juvenile court, if there shall
be any juvenile court in the city where such child resides, or, if
not, before any court or magistrate having jurisdiction of offenses
committed by minors and be dealt with according to law.

SECTION 1728 z. Any parent or other person who employs a minor under
the age of sixteen years in peddling without a license or who, having
the care or custody of such minor, suffers or permits the child to
engage in such employment, or to violate sections 1728 p to 1728 za,
inclusive, shall be punished by a fine not to exceed one hundred
dollars nor less than twenty-five dollars, or by commitment to the
county jail for not more than sixty days or less than ten days.

SECTION 1728 za. Providing that no badge shall be issued for a boy
selling papers between the ages of twelve and sixteen years by the
state factory inspector, except upon certificate of the principal of
either public, parochial or other private school attended by said boy,
stating and setting forth that said boy is a regular attendant upon
said school. No boy under the age of sixteen years shall be permitted
by any newspaper publisher or printer or persons having for sale
newspapers or periodicals of any character, to loiter or remain around
any salesroom, assembly room, circulation room or office for the sale
of newspapers, between the hours of nine in the forenoon and three in
the afternoon, on days when school is in session. Any newspaper
publisher, printer, circulation agent or seller of newspapers shall
upon conviction for permitting newsboys to loiter or hang around any
assembly room, circulation room, salesroom or office where papers are
distributed or sold, shall be punished by a fine not to exceed one
hundred dollars nor less than twenty-five dollars, or by commitment to
the county jail for not more than sixty days or less than ten days.


                           _London, England_

          BY-LAWS ADOPTED BY THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL AND PUT IN FORCE
  ON JUNE 3, 1911

          By-laws 1-9 concern the employment of children generally.

10. No girl under the age of 16 years shall be employed in or carry on
street trading.

11. No boy under the age of 14 years shall be employed in or carry on
street trading.

12. No boy under the age of 16 years shall be employed in or carry on
street trading before 6 in the morning or after 9 in the evening.

13. No boy under the age of 16 years shall at any time be employed in
or carry on street trading unless

(1) He is exempt from school attendance, and

(2) He first procures a badge from the London County Council, which he
shall wear whilst engaged in street trading on the upper part of the
right arm in such a manner as to be conspicuous.

The badge shall be deemed to be a license to trade, and may be
withheld or withdrawn for such period as the London County Council
think fit in any of the following cases--

(_a_) If the boy has, after the issue of the badge to him, been
convicted of any offense.

(_b_) If it is proved to the satisfaction of the London County Council
that the boy has used his badge for the purpose of begging or
receiving alms, or for any immoral purpose, or for the purpose of
imposition, or for any other improper purpose.

(_c_) If the boy fails to notify the London County Council within one
week of any change in his place of residence.

(_d_) If the boy commits a breach of any of the conditions under which
such badge is issued; such conditions to be stated on such badge or
delivered to the boy in writing.

14. A boy to whom a badge has been issued by the London County Council
shall in no way alter, lend, sell, pawn, transfer, or otherwise
dispose of, or wilfully deface, or injure such badge, which shall
remain the property of the London County Council, and he shall, on
receiving notice in writing from the London County Council (which may
be served by post) that the badge has been withdrawn, deliver up the
same forthwith to the London County Council.

15. A boy under the age of 16 years, whilst engaged in street trading,
shall not enter any premises used for public entertainment or licensed
for the sale of intoxicating liquor for consumption on the premises
for the purpose of trading.

16. A boy under the age of 16 years, whilst engaged in street trading,
shall not annoy any person by importuning.

17. Nothing in these by-laws contained shall restrict the employment
of children in the occupations specified in section 3 (_a_) of the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1904, further than such
employment is already restricted by statute.


                               APPENDIX B

TWO TYPES OF NEWSBOY BADGES.

[Illustration: BADGE USED IN CINCINNATI.]

[Illustration: BADGE USED IN BOSTON.]


                               APPENDIX C

                        CARDS FOR INVESTIGATIONS

The cards used in the inquiries into the newsboy situations of
Philadelphia and Milwaukee are reproduced here, in the hope that they
will be of use in furnishing suggestions to any organization or
individual who contemplates making such an investigation elsewhere. It
will be observed that these cards are practically confined to
questions affecting newsboys only, and would have to be considerably
amplified, if intended for use in a general study of street work by
children.


     Cards used by Boston School Committee for Issuance of Licenses

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                        APPLICATION FOR A LICENSE

  To the School Committee of the City of Boston:

   I hereby apply for a license for my son as NEWSBOY--PEDLER--BOOTBLACK.

                                                                SIGNATURE
                                                                OF PARENT

   I promise to see that he lives up to the license rules. ________________

                                                               SIGNATURE
                                                                 OF BOY

   I promise to live up to the license rules.              ________________

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
  SCHOOL RECORD OF BOY TO BE FILLED OUT BY THE TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL
  ---------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------
     PLACE OF BIRTH    |   DATE OF BIRTH   |              RESIDENCE
                       |                   |
  -------+-------------+-------------------+-------------------------------
   GRADE | SCHOLARSHIP | PHYSICAL DEFECT?  |  SIGNATURE OF TEACHER
         |             |                   |
  -------+-------------+-------------------+-------------------------------

   I hereby certify that this Boy's attendance is______ His conduct is_____


         SIGNATURE OF PRINCIPAL                            SCHOOL

   ____________________________________       _____________________________


    GRANTED WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE:

               __________________________ SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                    (CARD RETURNED TO SCHOOL FOR FILE)
                             LICENSED MINORS
                                 _________


  ________________________________________      No.________________________

  Birth date

  Teacher                                       Grade

  School

  Badge given              Expires and must be returned
  =========================================================================

                             READ AND COPY

              LICENSE RULES OF THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE

                               _________

    No boy can get a license unless he is eleven years of age and able to
  understand and COPY the following:

                           A LICENSED NEWSBOY

                MUST                               MUST NOT

  1. Must ATTEND school regularly.  |   6. Must not sell before 6 A.M.
  2. Must be "GOOD" in conduct.     |   7. Must not sell after 8 P.M.
  3. Must have no UNLICENSED        |        (9 P.M. in baseball season.)
       boy help him.                |   8. Must not sell in SCHOOL HOURS.
  4. Must keep the badge TO         |   9. Must not sell on CARS.
       HIMSELF.                     |  10. Must not sell without wearing
  5. Must RETURN his badge to the   |        the badge IN PLAIN SIGHT
       Superintendent of Schools    |        ALL THE TIME.
       when ordered to do so.       |

    Any boy who breaks any of the above rules is liable to have his license
  revoked or go to court and pay a maximum fine of TEN dollars.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


        Form of Application for License used in Hartford, Conn.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                             ~City of Hartford~


  TO THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS:--

    I hereby make application for a Street-Sales Permit for
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Born in ______________________________________________________________

  Age ______________ Sex _______________ Complexion ____________________

  Eyes _____________ Hair ______________ Figure ________________________

  Living at_________________________________________ Street ____________

  If such license is granted I agree that it shall be for this child and
  for no other.

  ________________________________________ Parent, Guardian, Next Friend

  Hartford, ____________________________


                          =School Information=

  ______________________________________________________________________

  Living at _______________________________________ _Street_____________

  is pupil in this School, is regular in attendance, and is a suitable
  child to have a Street-Sales Permit.

                             ________________________________ Principal.

                             __________________________________ Teacher.

  __________________________________ School.

  The age, sex, complexion, eyes, hair, and figure, should be as
  described above.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


  Form used in Obtaining Information before the Issuing of a Badge in
                     Province of Manitoba, Canada.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                            LICENSED NEWSBOY

  No. __________________          Date _________________________________

  Child's name _____________________________________ Age _______________

  Father's name ____________________________ Address ___________________

  Mother's name ________________________________________________________

  Father's occupation __________________________________________________

  School and Grade _____________________________________________________

  Principal's name _____________________________________________________

  Church __________________ Clergyman __________________________________

  Address ______________________________________________________________

  Is child of apparently normal development? ___________________________

  What proof has been given that he is over twelve years of age? _______

  ______________________________________________________________________

  Why do parents want him to sell papers? ______________________________

  Can child read? ______________________________________________________

  Can child write? _____________________________________________________

  Has badge been granted? _____________ No. of badge ___________________

  If badge has not been granted, state why _____________________________

             _____________________________________________
                 _Superintendent Neglected Children,
                                  Province of Manitoba._

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


  Sample of Card used in Investigation of Street Trades in Philadelphia


  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Name_______________________________Address_______________________________

  Age_______________sells__________________________at______________________

  From________to________every day. Works from________to________on Saturday.

  How long in street trades_____________Income________________per__________

  Parents living_____lives at home_______contributes_______per_____to home.

  If not living at home where does boy reside?

     Lodging house___ Furnished room___

  Some relative___$__per___paid for board. Does boy gamble__drink__smoke___

  Habit acquired prior to engaging in street trades________________________

  Does vendor save part earnings___________________________________________

  Where and with whom does boy spend non-working hours_____________________

  At what hour does newsboy reach home_____Has boy a route (exclusive)_____

  General health of boy____________________________________________________

  Schooling________________________________________________________________

  Is selling boy's own choice______________________________________________

  How many nights so far this summer has boy stayed out all night__where___

  Investigator________________________________Date_________________________


                    =Philadelphia Investigation Card=

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


      Sample of Card used in Investigation of Newsboys in Milwaukee

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   NAME                  ADDRESS                CITY
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| I. FAMILY                                                               |
+======================+=================+=============+==================+
|Name of   {Guardian}  | Nationality:    | Religion:   | Occupation:      |
|person he {Parent  }  |                 |             |                  |
|lives with{        }  |                 |             |                  |
+--------------------+-+------+--------+-+-------+-----+------------------+
|Number in Family:   |Mother  |Father  | Total   |Number contributing     |
|                    |        |        |Children | to family support      |
+--------------------+--------+--------+---------+------------------------+
|Age of Boy, yr. mo. |Number of years  |Papers handled Daily  Sunday     *|
|                    | selling papers  |               Weekly             |
+--------------------+-----------------+----------------------------------+
|Sells papers as Employer      Employee of               Individual      *|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Sells at (street)                                                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------+---------------+
|Sells: Morning    Afternoon    Evening    After 9 P.M.  *|Permit Number *|
|                                                         |Has none       |
+------------------+--------------------------+-----------+---------------+
|Does he come      |Where else does he eat?   | How often (elsewhere)     |
|home for supper?  |                          | per week?                 |
+------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+
|Arrives home      |P.M. Saturday nights      |Leaves to {deliver}   A.M.*|
|P.M. week nights  |                          |          {sell   }        |
+------------------+---------------+----------+-+-------------------------+
|Does he stay out    How often     |Shoot       |Go into {Saloons   }     |
|all night?          per week?     |"craps"?    |        {Tenderloin}     |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+
|Does he like           |Family require         |Why is he working?       |
|the work?              |his working?           |                         |
+=======================+=======================+=========================+
| II. SCHOOL                                                              |
+==============================+==========================================+
|School attended:              | Location:                                |
+-------------------------+----+----------+-------------------------------+
|Informant:               | Grade:        | Years in school:              |
+-------------------------+---------------+-------------------------------+
|Boy's standing in  Good   Fair   Poor   *| Conduct: Good   Fair   Poor  *|
|school work:        Poor                 |                               |
+------------------+----------------------+-------------------------------+
|Is Boy drowsy?    |Is school work injured by selling papers?  Yes  No   *|
+------------------+--------------+--------------------+------------------+
|Attendance: Regular  Irregular  *|Number of days      |Absences excused  |
|                                 |absent last month:  |                  |
+---------------------------------+--------------------+------------------+

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


           Reverse Side of Milwaukee Newsboy Investigation Card

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+--------------------------------------------++---------------------------+
|     III. INCOME (AMOUNT RECEIVED BY        ||                           |
|          FAMILY CASHIER)                   ||IV. TO BE OBTAINED FROM BOY|
+----------------------------------+---------+|                           |
|SOURCE  OCCUPATION  PER  NO. WEEKS| TOTAL   ||                           |
|                   WEEK  PER YEAR |PER YEAR ||                           |
+----------------------------------+------+--++---------------------------+
|Newsboy                           |      |  ||What does boy       $      |
|                                  |      |  ||earn per week?             |
+----------------------------------+------+--++---------------------------+
|Other Children                    |      |  ||How much given      $      |
|                                  |      |  ||to family?                 |
+----------------------------------+------+--++---------------------------+
|Father                            |      |  ||Why is he selling papers?  |
+----------------------------------+------+--++---------------------------+
|Mother                            |      |  ||                           |
+----------------------------------+------+--++---------------------------+
|Rents                             |      |  ||                           |
+----------------------------------+------+--++---------------------------+
|Lodgers                           |      |  ||                           |
|(outside of family)               |      |  ||                           |
+----------------------------------+------+--++---------------------------+
|Other                             |      |  ||                           |
|Sources                           |      |  ||                           |
+----------------------------------+------+--++---------------------------+
|Total                             |      |  ||                           |
+==================================+======+==++===========================+
|Remarks--Housing:                           ||      INSTRUCTIONS         |
|                                            ||                           |
|                                            || It is necessary to get    |
|                                            ||answers to all questions,  |
|                                            ||as there are a             |
+--------------------------------------------++comparatively small number |
|                                            ||of cases being             |
|                                            ||investigated.              |
|                                            || Divisions I and III are to|
|                                            ||be obtained from the       |
|                                            ||family.                    |
+--------------------------------------------++ Division II from school   |
|Cleanliness:                                ||principal or teacher.      |
|                                            || Division IV from the boy  |
|                                            ||himself, away from his     |
|                                            ||family, if possible.       |
|                                            || Only boys under 14 are to |
+--------------------------------------------++considered.                |
|Other:                                      || If parent is dead, cross  |
|                                            ||out line two, over.        |
|                                            || * Use check ([X]) to mark |
|                                            ||what answer is.            |
|                                            || If there are several      |
|                                            ||answers, check each.       |
+--------------------------------------------++---------------------------+

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




INDEX


  Addams, Jane, on Illinois child labor law, 15.

  Age limit (_see_ Laws and Ordinances), 194-196.

  Austria, investigation of 1907, 49-51.


  Begging, 38, 69, 96, 220.

  Berlin regulations, 240.

  Bootblacks, 83, 93.
    Ages, 84.
    Delinquency, 165.
    Diseases, 87, 88.
    Earnings, 84, 89, 95.
    Environment, 86, 87.
    Home conditions, 85.
    Hours, 84, 85, 94, 95.
    Padrone System, report by Immigration Commission, 86-92.
      Report by North American Civic League for Immigrants, 83, 84.

  Boston, license statistics, 33.
    Regulations of street work, 196.

  Boston Newsboys' Court, 79-81.

  Boston Newsboys' Republic, 212.

  Buffalo conditions, report on, 132, 133.


  Canada, 238.

  Chicago Child Welfare Exhibit, 14, 29.

  Chicago statistics of local studies, 28, 29.

  Chicago Vice Commission's report, 30, 67, 96, 118.

  Child Welfare Exhibit, 14.
    Chicago, 29.
    New York, 60.

  Cincinnati, license statistics, 35, 71.
    Market children, 97.
    Newsboy conditions, 54.
    Regulations of street work, 196.


  Delinquency, relation to street work, report of Dr. Charles P. Neill,
  159.
    Chicago juvenile court records, 178.
    Connection between occupation and offense, 171.
    Records of Indiana Boys' School, 179-187.

  Delivery Service, 68, 161-174.

  Detroit, regulations of street work, 193.


  Edinburgh, conditions in, 44, 125, 224.

  Effects of street work, classified, 128.
    In Buffalo, 132, 133.
    In physical deterioration, 142-145.
    Opinions of superintendents of reformatories, 131, 132.

  Employment distinguished from independent work, 2, 192.

  Enforcement of regulations, 132, 208, 211.

  Errand running, 202.
    Delinquency, 161-174.


  France, regulations, 241.


  Germany, inquiry of 1898, 45-48.
    Regulations, 239.

  Girls as newspaper sellers, 31, 65, 200.

  Great Britain, Departmental Committee of 1910, 76, 138, 147, 197, 223,
  237.
    Employment of Children Act, 1903, 221.
    Interdepartmental Committee of 1901, 43, 73, 145, 203, 217.
    Interdepartmental Committee of 1902 on Ireland, 150, 294, 220.
    Interdepartmental Committee of 1904 on Physical Deterioration, 125,
    142.
    Parliamentary return of 1899, 39-42, 215.


  Hartford, regulations of street work, 196.

  Housing problem's relation to street trading, 20.


  Illinois, effort to regulate street trading, 14, 198.

  Immigration Commission, report on Padrone System, 36, 86-92.

  Ireland, report of Interdepartmental Committee of 1902, 150, 204, 220.


  Kelley, Florence, on street trading, 52, 70, 127, 207.


  Laws, table of state, 194.

  Licenses for street work required, 197, 209.

  License statistics, of Boston, 33.
    Of Cincinnati, 35, 71.
    Of New York, 16, 34.

  Liverpool, conditions, 230.
    Regulations, 232.

  London County Council bylaws, 233-236, 264.

  Lovejoy, Owen R., on messenger service, 123.


  Manchester regulations, 236.

  Market children, 21, 96.
    Ages, 97.
    Earnings, 96.
    Home conditions, 99, 100.
    Hours, 99.
    Nationalities, 97, 98.
    Orphanage, 100.
    Retardation, 98, 99.

  Merchandise, distinction between newspapers and, 189.

  Messenger boys, 101.
    Ages, 106-117.
    Character of work, 101-104.
    Chicago Vice Commission's report, 118-121.
    Delinquency, 104, 165, 169.
    Diseases, 111, 112, 113.
    Earnings, 106, 112, 113, 114.
    Environment, 102, 103.
    Hours, 108, 113, 115, 119.
    Investigation in Ohio Valley, 106-117.
    Lack of prospects, 104, 126.
    Poverty as excuse for work, 122.
    Use of men instead of boys, 105, 123-125.


  Nationality of street workers, 33, 97.

  Nearing, Scott, conditions in Philadelphia, 69, 135.

  Neill, Charles P., on newsboys' work, 64.
    On messenger service, 117.
    Report on Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment, 159.

  Newark, regulations of street work, 196.

  New York, report of newsboy investigation, 16, 34, 148.
    Child Welfare Exhibit, 60.
    Regulations of street work, 195.

  Newsboys, ages, 54-60.
    Associations, 66.
    Character of work, 56-58.
    Classified, 52.
    Delinquency, 165.
    Diseases, 136.
    Earnings compared with factory wages, 58.
    Environment, 60, 135.
    Home conditions, 70-72.
    Hours, 65-70.
    Irregularity of meals, 61.
    Orphanage, 71, 168.
    Retardation, 147-156.
    Substitutes, 75-79.
    Tricks of the trade, 63-64.

  Newsboys' Court of Boston, 79-81.

  Newsboys' Republic of Boston, 212.

  New South Wales, license statistics, 45.
    Regulations, 45, 238.

  Newspapers, as merchandise, 189.
    Attitude toward regulation, 28, 199.

  Night work, of messengers, 101, 169.
    Of newsboys, 65-70.


  Ordinances, table of city, 196.


  Padrone System, report, of Immigration Commission, 36, 86-92.
    North American Civic League for Immigrants, 83, 84.

  Peddlers, findings of Chicago Vice Commission, 96.
    Cincinnati statistics, 97.
    Delinquency, 165.
    Immigration Commission's report, 36.

  Philadelphia conditions, 69.

  Playgrounds, 22.

  Poverty as an excuse for street work, 70-73, 136-138.

  Prohibition, of night work, 208.
    Of street work by children, 224, 227.


  Regulation, by municipality or state, 205.
    Degree of, 193, 206.
    In future, 207.
    Unsatisfactory, 228.

  Retardation in school of street workers, 98, 147-156.

  Rochester, method of enforcement, 211.


  St. Louis statistics, 146, 151.

  School, as social center, 21.
    Retardation of street workers, 98, 147-156.

  Scotland, conditions, 44, 225.

  Spargo, John, on effects of street work, 135.

  Statistics, of U.S. Census, 24, 25.
    Austria, 49-51.
    Boston, 33.
    Chicago, 28, 29.
    Cincinnati, 35, 71.
    Germany, 45-48.
    Great Britain, 40-44, 143-145.
    New York, 16, 34, 148.

  Street as a social agent, 17.

  Street employments, distinction between, 5.

  Street occupations, of minor importance, 38.
    Classified, 4.
    Contrasted with regular work, 73, 139.

  Street trading defined, 3.
    Neglected in legislation, 7, 12, 192.

  Street trading problem related to other problems, 20.


  Toledo, retardation of street workers, 152-156.


  Vagrants, Chicago report on, 32.

  Vice Commission of Chicago, report, 30, 67, 96, 118.


  Wisconsin, law, 257.




  The following pages contain advertisements of a few of the Macmillan
     books on kindred subjects.






                   NOTABLE WORKS BY MISS JANE ADDAMS




A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil

                                _Cloth, 12mo, $1.00 net; by mail, $1.10_

It is almost unnecessary to call attention to the importance of a new
book by Jane Addams. As a servant of the public good Miss Addams, both
through her work at Hull-House and through her writings, has made for
herself a name all over the world. She does not view things from a
standpoint of destructive criticism, but rather from that of
constructive, her aim being always to better the conditions in the
particular field which she is considering. In "A New Conscience and an
Ancient Evil," she considers sanely and frankly questions which
civilized society has always had confronting it and in all probability
always will. Something of her attitude of mind and of her purpose in
writing this book as well as a glimpse of the character of the volume
may be seen from the following paragraph taken from her preface:

"'A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil' was written, not from the
point of view of the expert, but because of my own need for a
counter-knowledge to a bewildering mass of information which came to
me through the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago. The reports
which its twenty field officers daily brought to its main office
adjoining Hull-House became to me a revelation of the dangers incident
to city conditions and of the allurements which are designedly placed
around many young girls in order to draw them into an evil life."

       *       *       *       *       *

"Miss Addams's volume is painful reading, but we heartily wish that it
might be read and pondered by every man and woman who to-day, in smug
complacency, treat with indifference and contempt the great struggle
for social purity."--_The Nation._

"As an educational weapon, incalculably valuable. A torch with which
every thinking citizen should be armed for a crusade against the
dark-covered evil at which it is aimed."--_The Continent._




The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets

                                _12mo, cloth, $1.25 net; by mail, $1.35_

A protest against the practice of every large city of turning over to
commercialism practically all the provisions for public recreation,
leaving it possible for private greed to starve or demoralize the
nature of youth.

       *       *       *       *       *

"Few persons in this country are better qualified to speak with
authority on any subject connected with the betterment of the poor
than is Jane Addams."--_New York Herald._

"The book should be in the hands of every preacher and laborer for
humanity. I wish that parents might make it a text-book."--Rev.
MADISON C. PETER in _The New Orleans Daily News_.

"It is brimming full of the mother sentiment of love and yearning, and
also shows such sanity, such breadth and tolerance of mind, and such
philosophic penetration into the inner meanings of outward phenomena
as to make it a book which no one who cares seriously about its
subject can afford to miss."--_New York Times._




Newer Ideals of Peace

                                             _12mo, cloth, leather back,
                                              $1.25 net; by mail, $1.35_

"A clean and consistent setting forth of the utility of labor as
against the waste of war, and an exposition of the alteration of
standards that must ensue when labor and the spirit of militarism are
relegated to their right places in the minds of men.... Back of it
lies illimitable sympathy, immeasurable pity, a spirit as free as that
of St. Francis, a sense of social order and fitness that Marcus
Aurelius might have found similar to his own."--_Chicago Tribune._

The editor of _Collier's_ writes: "To us it seems the most
comprehensive talk yet given about how to help humanity in America
to-day."

"It is given to but few people to have the rare combination of power
of insight and of interpretation possessed by Miss Addams. The present
book shows the same fresh virile thought, and the happy expression
which has characterized her work.... There is nothing of namby-pamby
sentimentalism in Miss Addams's idea of the peace movement. The volume
is most inspiring and deserves wide recognition."--_Annals of the
American Academy._

"No brief summary can do justice to Miss Addams's grasp of the facts,
her insight into their meaning, her incisive estimate of the strength
and weakness alike of practical politicians and spasmodic reformers,
her sensible suggestions as to woman's place in our municipal
housekeeping, her buoyant yet practical optimism."--_Examiner._




Democracy and Social Ethics

                                    _Half leather, ix + 281 pages, 12mo,
                                              $1.25 net; by mail, $1.35_

"The result of actual experience in hand-to-hand contact with social
problems.... No more truthful description, for example, of the 'boss'
as he thrives to-day in our great cities has ever been written than is
contained in Miss Addams's chapter on 'Political Reform.' ... The same
thing may be said of the book in regard to the presentation of social
and economic facts."--_Review of Reviews._

"The book is startling, stimulating, and intelligent."--_Philadelphia
Ledger._




Twenty Years at Hull-House

                                                 _Ill., dec. cloth, 8vo,
                                              $2.50 net; by mail, $2.68_

Jane Addams's work at Hull-House is known throughout the civilized
world. In the present volume she tells of her endeavors and of their
success--of the beginning of Hull-House, of its growth and its present
influence. For every one at all interested in the improvement of our
cities, in the moral education of those who are forced to spend much
of their time on the streets or in cheap places of amusement--"Twenty
Years at Hull-House" is a volume of more than ordinary interest and
value.

       *       *       *       *       *

"The personality of Jane Addams is one of the finest achievements of
that idea of democracy, service, and freedom for which America means
to stand before the world."--_N. Y. Times._

"The story of the beginnings of this remarkable undertaking
(Hull-House), the problems that were faced and conquered in the early
days, the unsuspected resources that were developed among the crowded
city population of foreign birth, and the efforts continuously made
for the betterment of labor legislation in the State of Illinois, are
all set forth with simplicity and directness. On the whole it is a
wonderful record of accomplishment, full of suggestion to social
reformers the world over."--_Review of Reviews._

"Who reads this book lightly misses a great opportunity."--_Bellman._

"The story is one of singular interest and has a strange affinity with
the stories of other great moral and spiritual leaders of
humanity."--_Bookman._




On City Government
_The American City_

      By DELOS F. WILCOX, Ph.D.

    "In the 'American City' Dr. Wilcox ... has written a book that every
    thoughtful citizen should read. The problems of the street, the
    tenement, public utilities, civic education, the three deadly vices,
    municipal revenue and municipal debt, with all their related and
    subsidiary problems, are clearly and fully considered."--_Pittsburgh
    Gazette._

                              _6 + 423 pages, 12mo, cloth, leather back,
                                           $1.25 net. Citizens' Library_




Great American Cities
_Their Problems and Their Government_

      By DELOS F. WILCOX, Chief of the Bureau of Franchises, of the
      Public Service Commission for the first District, New York

    A detailed account of present conditions in the half-dozen largest
    cities of the country, including Chicago.

                                         _Half leather, 12mo, $1.25 net_




On Industrial Legislation
_Some Ethical Gains through Legislation_

      By MRS. FLORENCE KELLEY

    The book has grown out of the author's experience as Chief Inspector
    of Factories in Illinois from 1893 to 1897, as Secretary of the
    National Consumers' League from 1899 till now, and chiefly as a
    resident at Hull-House, and later at the Nurses' Settlement, New
    York.

                                  _Cloth, leather back, 341 pages, 12mo,
                                           $1.25 net. Citizens' Library_




On Charitable Effort
_How to Help_

      By MARY CONYNGTON, of the Department of Commerce and Labor,
      Washington

    Not only is the professional charity worker often in need of advice
    as to the best methods of investigation, administration, etc., but
    the non-professional worker, with his zeal unrestrained by special
    training, is even more emphatically in need of such guidance as this
    sound and competent book gives.

                                   _New edition, cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net_




The Development of Thrift

      By MARY W. BROWN, Secretary of the Henry Watson Children's Aid
      Society, Baltimore

    "An excellent little Manual, a study of various agencies, their
    scope and their educating influences for thrift. It abounds in
    suggestions of value."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._

                                                _Cloth, 12mo, $1.00 net_




Friendly Visiting among the Poor

      By MARY E. RICHMOND, General Secretary of the Charity Organization
      Society of Baltimore

    "A small book full of inspiration, yet intensely
    practical."--CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON.

                                                _Cloth, 16mo, $1.00 net_




The Care of Destitute, Neglected, and Delinquent Children

      By HOMER FOLKS, Ex-Commissioner of Public Charities, New York City

    CONTENTS.--Conditions prevalent at the opening of the Nineteenth
    Century; Public Care of Destitute Children, 1801-1875; Private
    Charities for Destitute Children, 1801-1875; Removal of Children
    from Almshouse; The State School and Placing Out System; The County
    Children's Home System; The System of Public Support in Private
    Institutions; The Boarding Out and Placing Out System; Laws and
    Societies for the Rescue of Neglected Children; Private Charities
    for Destitute and Neglected Children, 1875-1900; Delinquent
    Children; Present Tendencies.

                                                _Cloth, 12mo, $1.00 net_




Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy

      By JOSEPH LEE, Vice-President of the Massachusetts Civic League

    CONTENTS.--Essence and Limitations of the Subject; Before 1860;
    Savings and Loans; The Home; Health and Building Laws, Model
    Tenements; The Setting of the Home; Vacation Schools; Playgrounds
    for Small Children; Baths and Gymnasiums; Playgrounds for Big Boys;
    Model Playgrounds; Outings; Boys' Clubs; Industrial Training; For
    Grown People; Conclusion.

                                                _Cloth, 12mo, $1.00 net_

       *       *       *       *       *

                         THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
                Publishers  64-66 Fifth Avenue  New York




  Transcriber's Notes:

  The following changes have been made to the text:

  - In the table introduced as "Street traders and street employees may be
    classified by occupation as follows:--" Newspaper sellers was written
    as one word once.

  - In the table detailing the occupation of children in Germany,
    introduced as "Seven divisions of these children were made
    according to occupation ..." the word Austragedienste was wrongly
    hyphenated.

  - In the TABLE E. HOURS AND EARNINGS OF STREET WORKERS a header
    "OCCUPATIONS" was missing (compared to TABLE D before), and was added.

  - In Footnote [172] the title of Mr. Ferrette's work was misspelled as
    "Manuel de Legislation Industrielle", and was changed to "Manuel de
    legislation industrielle" in accordance with its original title.

  - In the Index entry "Great Britain ... Interdepartmental Committee of
    1902 on Ireland ..." the reference to page 294 was changed to page 204.

  The following changes have been made to the formatting and layout:

  - Tables D to G in Chapter VII, and some tables in Annex C were changed
    in layout to enable readability in plain text.

  - In "Reverse Side of Milwaukee Newsboy Investigation Card": Original
    uses check mark, rendered here as [X].





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Child Labor in City Streets, by
Edward Nicholas Clopper

*** 