FROM SCHOOL TO JOB IN PHILADELPHIA
A twentieth century verification of the scriptural truth that “to him who hath shall be given” is put forward by the Public Education Association of Philadelphia, which recently completed a study of the children in that city who leave school at fourteen or fifteen to go to work.
There are in the Philadelphia public high schools, says a pamphlet issued by James S. Hiatt, secretary of the association, 13,039 boys and girls. At the same time there is a like number, 13,740, who have been allowed to drop out of school at fourteen and to fight their industrial battle alone. For the former group, who are really more able to take care of themselves, the city pays $1,532,000 a year for further training in citizenship and preparation for life. For the latter group it pays nothing.
“Is this a square deal?” asks the association. “Is it economy on the part of the city to permit these child workers to go out untrained into industry, to give their lives before they are mature and then to become a burden upon the community?”
With regard to these 13,740 between the ages of fourteen and sixteen whom the school census of June, 1912, found to be at work, the study undertook to answer two questions: first, are the occupations in which the boys and girls are employed of such a nature that they will train for a competence in later life? Second, is the immediate wage received of sufficient importance to counterbalance the tremendous loss of power in those who face mature life unprepared? As a continuation of this investigation the Compulsory Education Bureau has followed up since September of last year and will continue to do so, every child who leaves school to go to work. The kind of job taken, the exact nature of the work done, and the wage received will be learned. About 1,700 labor certificates are issued in Philadelphia every month.
At the outset it was discovered that the problem is not one of the immigrant child chiefly. The percentage of American parentage was 50.2; of foreign parentage, 48.1; of Negro parentage, 1.7 Nor is it a problem of boys chiefly, for 6,849, or 49.85 per cent of the total, were girls.
The Survey has already told how the Vocational Guidance Survey of New York followed a group of boys and girls from the day they received their labor certificates through all the different jobs which they held during the next four or five months. The study emphasized the hit-or-miss jumping from one line of work to another which untrained youths are sure to resort to, acquiring no training and achieving no advance. The Philadelphia study furnishes a cross section of the positions held by this much larger group at a given moment. Forty-three per cent of both boys and girls were in the factory, where, says the report,
“the positions are largely mechanical and require but short time in learning, little responsibility, and great specialization of processes. These positions offer an initial wage which is alluringly high, but hold out little incentive for growth and but slightly advanced wages for the experienced operative.”
Twenty-nine per cent were in the store and the office, “where a few may advance to higher places, but it is evident that a majority must hold low-grade positions which require little preparation or skill.”
A comparison of the employments of both sexes showed that there is no kind of work which both boys and girls will not do. While boys predominate in the store, the office, in messenger service, street trades and skilled trades, girls have the largest number in the factory, in service and in house work. Yet twenty-five girls were exposed to the dangers of street trades and 118 boys were taken out of school to do house work in their own homes without pay. The diagram on the next page shows the percentages and numbers of the total engaged in the various lines of work, and the relative proportion of boys and girls in each.
When it came to tabulating wages the surprising discovery was made that with respect to 35.3 per cent of the total either no wage was received or the amount of it was entirely unknown to the family. Twenty-two per cent received between $2 and $4 a week, and 37 per cent between $4 and $6. Smaller wage divisions are shown here:
| Male | Female | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wages | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent |
| Unknown or zero | 1,961 | 28.4 | 2,893 | 42.2 |
| Under $2 | 19 | .3 | 22 | .3 |
| $2 to $2.50 | 59 | .8 | 75 | 1.0 |
| $2.50 to $3 | 72 | 1.0 | 113 | 1.6 |
| $3 to $3.50 | 728 | 10.5 | 581 | 8.4 |
| $3.50 to $4 | 806 | 11.6 | 624 | 9.1 |
| $4 to $4.50 | 1,338 | 19.4 | 1,130 | 16.1 |
| $4.50 to $5 | 610 | 8.8 | 525 | 7.6 |
| $5 to $6 | 874 | 12.6 | 600 | 8.7 |
| $6 and over | 424 | 6.1 | 286 | 4.1 |
| Total | 6,891 | 100.0 | 6,849 | 100.0 |
Split up by sexes these figures show that 42.2 per cent of the girls were found in the group whose wages were unknown or zero, while only 28.4 per cent of the boys were in that group. For both boys and girls the largest number of those whose wages is known is found in the group which receive $4.00 to $4.50. The detailed comparison is here given:
| Wages | Number | Per Cent |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown or zero | 4,854 | 35.3 |
| Under $2 | 42 | .3 |
| $2 to $2.50 | 134 | .9 |
| $2.50 to $3.00 | 185 | 1.3 |
| $3 to $3.50 | 1,308 | 9.5 |
| $3.50 to $4 | 1,430 | 10.4 |
| $4 to $4.50 | 2,468 | 17.8 |
| $4.50 to $5 | 1,135 | 8.2 |
| $5 to $6 | 1,474 | 10.7 |
| $6 and over | 710 | 5.1 |
| Total | 13,740 | 100.0 |
The average wage for all boys who receive between $2 and $6 is $4.26; that for girls $4.19, the large number of girls who receive a comparatively high wage in factories bringing their average up.
The average increase, between fourteen and fifteen years of age, of the workers noted is thirty-seven cents. It is much less in some of the industries. “Does such a slight return and such a meager raise,” asks the report, “pay for all the loss of mature power, as well as for that efficiency which might be gained by longer continuing in the proper kind of training?”
WHERE THE YOUNGSTERS WORK IN PHILADELPHIA
The figures and percentages refer to parts of the whole 13,740 boys and girls found in the lines of work named. The drawings show roughly the ratio of boys to girls in each line. “Housework” means housework in own home.
The following conclusions are drawn by the association as a result of its study:
“1. That the problem of the working child is not an immigrant problem, since over 50 per cent of those reported as at work are of the second generation of American birth.
“2. That this is not the problem of the boy alone, since over 49 per cent of the workers are girls.
“3. That the vast majority of children who leave school at fourteen to enter industry go into those kinds of employment which offer a large initial wage for simple mechanical processes, but which hold out little or no opportunity for improvement and no competence at maturity.
“4. That wages received are so low as to force a parasitic life.
“5. That but slight advancement is offered the fifteen-year-old over the fourteen-year-old child worker.”