Child Labor in City StreetsClopper, Edward Nicholas
History
Child Labor in City Streets
Clopper, Edward Nicholas
Child labor
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_
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