§ 5. #Child-labor legislation.# The limitation of hours was first applied to children working in English factories early in the nineteenth century and thence has extended throughout the world, tardily following the spread of the factory system. The first American law of the kind was in Massachusetts, in 1842, limiting to 10 hours the labor of children under twelve years of age in manufacturing establishments. All the earlier state laws established low minimums of age and high maximums of hours, and were poorly enforced for lack of adequate administrative machinery, this in turn being the result of lack of active public interest. In all these respects many states gradually improved their child-labor laws in the latter part of the last century, and much more rapidly since 1903. Now the maximum working day for children in about one half of the states is 8 hours, in one quarter is 9 hours, and in one quarter is 10 hours (and in a few southern states, 11 hours). Night work by children is very generally forbidden (in about forty states). During the same time the minimum age has been pretty generally raised to fourteen years for factory work, with higher ages (sixteen, eighteen, or even twenty-one) in some states for certain occupations dangerous to health or morals. In addition to these general limitations, special provision is made for individual examinations to determine whether the child is mentally and physically fit to work and has met the requirements of the compulsory education laws of the state. The most important child-labor legislation in recent years was the enactment of the long debated national child-labor law (passed in August, 1916). This prohibits the interstate shipment of goods produced in factories wherein any child has, within thirty days, been employed under unfavorable conditions as to hours and time of work as specified in the act. The passage of this act was the culmination of years of efforts in and out of Congress. Child-labor legislation viewed as a merely negative policy is not of great moment. Its real significance is to be judged only in connection with the broader social policy of protecting and developing all of the children of the nation to be healthy, intelligent, moral, and efficient citizens. Children growing into blighted and ignorant manhood and womanhood are threats to society.