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]—
| Working Children | Total 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]—
| Piecework, chiefly Boys | Time-work, chiefly Boys | Domestic Employment, girls only, with One or Two Exceptions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selling newspapers | 15,182 | In shops or running errands for shopkeepers | 76,173 | Minding babies | 11,585 |
| Hawking goods | 2,435 | Agricultural occupations | 6,115 | Other housework, including laundry work, etc. | 9,254 |
| Sports, taking dinners, knocking-up, etc. | 8,627 | Boot and knife cleaning, etc. (house boys) | 10,636 | Needlework and like occupations | 4,019 |
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]