A comparison between the table given in the report of the Toledo Board of Education for 1911 showing the total number of retarded children in the elementary schools, and a similar table compiled from the figures for the street-trading children in four Toledo schools given on pages [154] and [155], is most significant. The retardation among the total number of pupils enrolled is to be found on page [154].[110]
The corresponding figures for the 287 street-trading children in the four schools are to be found on page [155].
It is especially noteworthy that the percentage of retardation among the street workers is very much greater than among the total number of pupils, in every grade except the eighth, while for all the grades it is 17.8 per cent greater. This becomes all the more significant when it is remembered that the figures for the total enrollment include the street workers; hence the excess of retardation among the latter makes the showing of the former worse than if they were excluded, and consequently the comparison on page [155] does not appear to be as unfavorable to the street workers as it is in reality.
On consideration of the figures in the tables on pages [154] and [155], the conclusion is inevitable that street work greatly promotes the retardation of school children. There are, of course, other factors which contribute to bring about this condition of backwardness, such as poverty, malnutrition and mental deficiency, but there can be no doubt that the evil effects of street work are in large measure responsible for the poor showing made in the schools by the children who follow such occupations.
The many quotations in this chapter from authoritative sources with reference to the harmful effects of street work upon children constitute a most severe indictment. Students of labor conditions, specialists and official committees bitterly denounce the practice of permitting children to trade in city streets, and cite the consequences of such neglect. Material, physical and moral deterioration are strikingly apparent in most children who have followed street careers and been exposed to their bad environment for any length of time. We have provided splendid facilities for the correction of our delinquent children through the medium of juvenile courts, state reformatories and the probation system, but surely it would be wise to provide at the same time an ounce of prevention in addition to this pound of cure. Social workers have returned a true bill against street work by children. What will the verdict of the people be?
[CHAPTER VII]
RELATION OF STREET WORK TO DELINQUENCY
The most convincing proof so far adduced to show that delinquency is a common result of street work is set forth in the volume on "Juvenile Delinquency and its Relation to Employment,"[111] being part of the Report on the Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United States, prepared under the direction of Dr. Charles P. Neill, United States Commissioner of Labor, in response to an act of Congress in 1907 authorizing the study. The object of this official inquiry into the subject of juvenile delinquency was to discover what connection exists between delinquency and occupation or non-occupation, giving due consideration to other factors such as the character of the child's family, its home and environment. This study is based upon the records of the juvenile courts of Indianapolis, Baltimore, New York, Boston, Newark, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, showing cases of delinquency of children sixteen years of age or younger coming before these courts during the year 1907-1908. The total number of delinquents included in the study is 4839, of whom 2767 had at some time been employed and 2072 had never been employed. The entire number of offenses recorded for all the delinquents was 8797, the working children being responsible for 5471 offenses, or 62.2 per cent, while the non-working children were responsible for 3326 offenses, of 37.8 per cent. This shows that most juvenile offenses are committed by working children. The ages of the children committing the offenses recorded, ranged from six to sixteen years, and the report adds, "When it is remembered that a majority, and presumably a large majority, of all the children between these ages are not working, this preponderance of offenses among the workers assumes impressive proportions."[112]
With reference to the character of the offenses it was found that the working children inclined to the more serious kinds. Recidivists were found to be far more numerous among the workers than among the non-workers. Summing up the results of the discussion to this point the report says: "It is found that the working children contribute to the ranks of delinquency a slightly larger number and a much larger proportion than do the non-workers, that this excess appears in offenses of every kind, whether trivial or serious, and among recidivists even more markedly than among first offenders."[113]
With reference to the connection between recidivism and street work the report says: "The proportion of recidivism is also large among those who are working while attending school, and the numbers here are very much larger than one would wish to see. Some part of the recidivism here is undoubtedly due to the kind of occupations which a child can carry on while attending school. Selling newspapers and blacking shoes, acting as errand or delivery boy, peddling and working about amusement resorts account for over two-thirds of these boys (478 of the 664 are in one or another of these pursuits). These are all occupations in which the chances of going wrong are numerous, involving as they usually do night work, irregular hours, dubious or actively harmful associations and frequent temptations to dishonesty. In addition, something may perhaps be attributed to the overstrain due to the attempt to combine school and work. When a child of 13, a bootblack, is 'often on the street to 12 P.M.,' or when a boy one year older works six hours daily outside of school time, 'often at night,' as a telegraph messenger, it is evident that his school work is not the only thing which is likely to suffer from the excessive strain upon the immature strength, and from the character of his occupation."[114]
While reflecting on the excess of working children among the delinquents, one may be inclined to attribute this to bad home influences; but the report shows that only one-fifth of the workers as opposed to nearly one-third of the non-workers come from distinctly bad homes, while from fair and good homes the proportion is approximately 76 per cent to 65 per cent. Consequently, the working child goes wrong more frequently than the non-working child in spite of his more favorable home surroundings.[115]