EDITORIAL GRIST
THE BATTLE LINES OF CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION
ANNA ROCHESTER
National Child Labor Committee
A majority of the twenty-nine state Legislatures which have been considering child labor laws this winter are still in session, so that many of the most important bills are still pending.
The campaign that is being waged against the most outspoken opposition is on in Pennsylvania, one of the two strongholds of glass manufacturers who employ boys under sixteen at night. With the single exception of West Virginia, where a bill based on the uniform child labor law was defeated this winter, night work for youths under sixteen is no longer allowed in the important glass-producing states. The uniform law was introduced in the present Pennsylvania Legislature by Representative Walnut and referred to the Committee on Labor and Industry. The committee reported it to the House with several amendments. The House rejected all but two of these. Now the uniform law, with the street-trading age limit reduced from twelve years to ten, and the age limit for breaker boys reduced from sixteen to fourteen, has reached its third reading in the House. If its friends can still protect it from the mutilations desired by the glass interests, the telegraph companies, the textile manufacturers and other opponents, Pennsylvania will be in a fair way to protect the 29,170 children employed in manufactories in that state.
The uniform law is also pending in Massachusetts, where it met no opposition in the hearing before the Committee on Social Welfare. Massachusetts has now a ten-hour day and the uniform law would bring her into line with Ohio, New York, Illinois, Mississippi and twelve other states that have the eight-hour day for all under sixteen.
But Massachusetts would lead the country in one respect if another bill that is likewise before the Committee on Social Welfare should pass. This provides for a five-hour day and compulsory school attendance for all workers under sixteen. If this is put into effect it will set a new standard for the Uniform Child Labor Law, which has been drafted by the National Child Labor Committee and endorsed by the American Bar Association. It is based on the best provisions of the best statutes now in force in the several states. Yet the National Child Labor Committee, fearing that two five-hour shifts for certain minors might tend to fasten on industry the ten-hour day for adults, would suggest that Massachusetts go one step further and fix a four-hour day for all under sixteen.
Connecticut, Ohio and Michigan will also advance beyond the standard of the uniform law if bills now pending are enacted. Michigan, it is true, is not trying to reduce the working day below nine hours, but merely to extend it to include canneries and four other occupations hitherto exempt. But Michigan and Ohio propose to raise the general age limit for employment from fourteen to fifteen, while Connecticut is considering sixteen years. Ohio intends also to increase the compulsory school attendance age from fourteen to fifteen for boys and sixteen for girls, and to require that boys of fifteen may not go to work unless they have completed the sixth instead of the fifth grade, the requirement of the present Ohio law and of the uniform law.[[3]]
[3]. The Ohio law has passed both Houses.