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