Child Labor in City StreetsClopper, Edward Nicholas
History
Child Labor in City Streets
Clopper, Edward Nicholas
Child labor
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]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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