Child Labor in City Streets

by Edward Nicholas Clopper

Canada

The province of Manitoba, Canada, forbids children under twelve years from trading in the streets at any time; licenses are issued to boys twelve to sixteen years old, who are not allowed to sell after 9 P.M. Some boys have been denied licenses because of their poor school record, others because of lack of proof as to age, others on account of not being physically qualified, and still others because there was no need for their earning money in this way. The licensed boys are kept under supervision; their attendance at school is watched; and if they persist in selling after 9 P.M. or disobey instructions, their licenses are revoked.[170]

Germany

The Industrial Code of Germany prohibits children under fourteen years from offering goods for sale on public roads, streets or places, and peddling them from house to house. In localities in which such sale or peddling is customary, the local police authorities may permit it for certain periods of time not exceeding a total of four weeks in any calendar year. "Under this provision there was considerable street trading, especially in the larger cities. In Berlin, for instance, during the weeks preceding Christmas, numerous children under fourteen were thus employed. Protests against the practice were made by the Consumers' League and similar organizations, and resulted in the passage of a police regulation, for its restriction; and in 1909 a further step was taken by providing that no exceptions of this sort be thereafter permitted, so that now the employment of children under fourteen years of age in street trading is absolutely forbidden in Berlin."[171]

The Industrial Code forbids children under twelve years to deliver goods or perform other errands except for their own parents. Children over twelve years may so engage for not more than three hours daily between 8 A.M. and 8 P.M., but not before morning school nor during the noon recess nor until one hour after school has closed in the afternoon; on Sundays and holidays such children may do this work only for two hours between 8 A.M. and 1 P.M., but not during the principal church service or the half hour preceding it. Such children must first obtain the Arbeitskarte from the local police authority, which is issued upon request of the child's legal representative. Employers must notify the police authority in advance of the employment of such children.

France

The labor of children in France is regulated by the law of November 2, 1892, as amended by the act of March 30, 1900. This law applies to factories, workshops, mines and quarries, exempting home industries, agricultural work and purely mercantile establishments.[172] The work of children in city streets is not even mentioned. New legislation has recently been proposed to regulate the employment of minors under 18 years of age and of women in the sale of merchandise from stands and tables on sidewalks outside of bazaars and large stores. According to its provisions, the work of such persons would be prohibited for more than two hours at a time and for more than six hours a day, while seats and heating facilities would have to be supplied the same as for employees inside the large establishments.[173]

In Paris, newspapers are sold almost exclusively at kiosks on street corners, presided over by middle-aged women.

CONCLUSION

Many years ago Macaulay declared, "Intense labor, beginning too early in life, continued too long every day, stunting the growth of the mind, leaving no time for healthful exercise, no time for intellectual culture, must impair all those high qualities that have made our country great. Your overworked boys will become a feeble and ignoble race of men, the parents of a more feeble progeny; nor will it be long before the deterioration of the laborer will injuriously affect those very interests to which his physical and moral interests have been sacrificed. If ever we are forced to yield the foremost place among commercial nations, we shall yield it to some people preëminently vigorous in body and in mind." To-day these words seem to us a veritable prophecy—but we must not forget that they apply to America no less than to England. If our civilization is to continue and to improve with time, every child must have a proper opportunity to grow under conditions as nearly normal as possible; we must secure to the children their birthright—the right to play and to dream, the right to healthful sleep, the right to education and training, the right to grow into manhood and into womanhood with cleanness and strength both of body and of mind, the right of a chance to become useful citizens of the future. Eternal vigilance is the price of protection for childhood, and while "Women and children first" is a rigid law of the sea, "Children first" is the fundamental law both of Nature and civilization.