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diff --git a/39291.txt b/39291.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5dd0542 --- /dev/null +++ b/39291.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7372 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Boy Labour and Apprenticeship, by Reginald +Arthur Bray + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Boy Labour and Apprenticeship + + +Author: Reginald Arthur Bray + + + +Release Date: March 28, 2012 [eBook #39291] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOY LABOUR AND APPRENTICESHIP*** + + +E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by +Internet Archive (http://archive.org) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/boylabourapprent00brayuoft + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + Characters enclosed by curly braces are superscripted + (example: iii{d}) + + + + + +BOY LABOUR AND APPRENTICESHIP + + * * * * * + +SOME PRESS OPINIONS + +Times.--"The problem already felt acutely in London and in large towns has +now appeared even in the country town and village, and to those who still +doubt its extent or seriousness we commend this most instructive work." + +Morning Post.--"An important book on an important subject." + +Daily News.--"Mr. Bray's book is as full of counsel as of instruction, and +it should be in the hands of every student of one of the most serious of +social problems." + + * * * * * + + +BOY LABOUR AND APPRENTICESHIP + +by + +REGINALD A. BRAY L.C.C. + +Author of "The Town Child" + + + + + + + +Second Impression + +London +Constable & Co. Ltd. +1912 + + + + +PREFACE + + +We are beginning to realize clearly that all is not well with the youth of +this country. From all sides complaints of neglect, and the evils of +neglect, are thronging in. Boys as they leave school are casting off the +shackles of parental control, and, with no intervening period of youth, +are assuming the full independence of the adult. The old apprenticeship +system is falling into disuse, and methods of industrial training are at +once unsatisfactory and, for the majority, difficult to obtain. Boys in +increasing numbers are entering occupations where they learn nothing and +forget all they have previously learned, and in which they can see no +prospects of employment when manhood is reached. As a consequence, there +is a general drift into the army of unskilled labour, and later into the +ranks of the unemployed. All expert opinion is unanimous in voicing these +complaints. The Report of the Poor Law Commission, Majority and Minority +alike, with its volumes of special inquiries and evidence, is one long +testimony to the gravity of the evils which are the consequence of +neglected youth. + +Further, we are coming to understand that the period of adolescence forms +a critical epoch in the development of the lad. "The forces of sin and +those of virtue never struggle so hotly for possession of the youthful +soul." [1] And the boy too often is left to fight out this struggle without +assistance, and even without advice. The conditions of modern life are +increasingly hard on youth. "Never has youth," says Mr. Stanley Hall, the +greatest living authority on adolescence, "been exposed to such dangers of +both perversion and arrest as in our land and day. Increasing urban life, +with its temptations, prematurities, sedentary occupations, and passive +stimuli, just when an active objective life is most needed; early +emancipation and a lessening sense for both duty and discipline; the haste +to know and do all befitting man's estate before its time; the mad rush +for sudden wealth, and the reckless fashions set by its gilded youth----" +all in increasing degree imperil the passage to manhood. + +And, lastly, we are compelled to confess that an evil which is at once a +grave and a growing evil is one which demands immediate attention. It is +not a problem that can be laid on the shelf for that convenient season +which never arrives, when legislators have nothing else to think about. +There is urgent need for reform in the near future, unless we would see a +further degeneration of the youth of the country. + +The object of this volume is altogether practical--to show what reforms +are necessary to prevent the growth of the evil by laying the foundation +of a new and true apprenticeship system. But to achieve this object it is +necessary first to explain how the problem was dealt with in days gone by, +when life was more stable and industrial conditions less complex; and, +secondly, to understand in detail the characteristic features of the +question as it presents itself to-day. Only with the experience of the +past and the present to guide us can we face the future with any hope of +controlling its destinies. + +As "she" is mentioned nowhere else in the volume, it seems desirable to +say a word here about the girl. This book is, indeed, concerned with boys +alone, but, with a few changes in details, all that is written about +conditions, and all that is recommended in the way of reforms, is equally +applicable in her case also. + +I have endeavoured, even at the risk of being termed unduly dogmatic, to +make my proposals for reform as definite as possible. I have done so in +the cause of clearness. But if I fail to carry my readers with me all the +way, I shall be well content if only I have succeeded in starting them on +a pilgrimage in quest of the new apprenticeship system. + +REGINALD A. BRAY. + + ADDINGTON SQUARE, + CAMBERWELL, S.E. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + PREFACE v + + CHAPTER I + + THE ESSENTIALS OF APPRENTICESHIP 1 + + + CHAPTER II + + THE OLD APPRENTICESHIP 4 + + I. The Age of the Gilds 4 + II. The Statute of Apprentices 11 + III. The Industrial Revolution 20 + + + CHAPTER III + + THE AGE OF RECONSTRUCTION 26 + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE GUARDIANSHIP OF THE STATE 36 + + I. State Supervision 36 + Sec. 1. State Regulation 37 + (_a_) Prohibition of Employment 41 + (_b_) Limitation of Hours 43 + (_c_) Protection of Health 52 + Sec. 2. State Enterprise 59 + II. State Training 62 + (_a_) The Elementary School 63 + (_b_) The Continuation School 65 + III. State Provision of an Opening 70 + + + CHAPTER V + + APPRENTICESHIP OF TO-DAY 75 + + I. The Contribution of the State 76 + Sec. 1. State Regulation 76 + Sec. 2. State Enterprise 83 + Sec. 3. Summary 88 + II. The Contribution of Philanthropy 89 + III. The Contribution of the Home 92 + Sec. 1. The Boy of School Age 96 + Sec. 2. The Boy after School Days 100 + IV. The Contribution of the Workshop 103 + Sec. 1. London 104 + (_a_) The Employment of School-Children 105 + (_b_) The Entry to a Trade 113 + (_c_) The Passage to Manhood 142 + (_d_) Summary 149 + Sec. 2. Other Towns 151 + (_a_) The Employment of School-Children 151 + (_b_) The Entry to a Trade 155 + (_c_) The Passage to Manhood 160 + Sec. 3. Rural Districts 161 + V. The Break-up of Apprenticeship 165 + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE NEW APPRENTICESHIP 176 + + I. Supervision 191 + (_a_) The Raising of the School Age 192 + (_b_) The Prohibition of Child Labour 195 + (_c_) The New Half-Time System 197 + (_d_) The Parents' Point of View 202 + II. Training 207 + III. The Provision of an Opening 221 + IV. General Conclusions 231 + + + LIST OF AUTHORITIES 241 + + + INDEX 245 + + + + +BOY LABOUR AND APPRENTICESHIP + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ESSENTIALS OF APPRENTICESHIP + + +Originally the term "apprenticeship" was employed to signify not merely +the practical training in the mysteries of a trade, but also that wider +training of character and intelligence on which depends the real +efficiency of the craftsman. Apprenticeship was regarded as a preparation +for life, and not only as a preparation for the workshop. It is in this +sense that the word is used throughout the present volume. + +In a volume concerned with any branch of social reform, and consequently +likely to arouse differences of opinion, it is always desirable to start +on good terms with the reader. This can best be done by beginning with +assumptions the truth of which no one is likely to call in question. In +dealing with the problem of boy labour and apprenticeship, it is not +difficult to venture on certain statements which will receive the +unqualified approval of all. + +An apprenticeship system worthy of the name must satisfy three conditions. +First, it must provide for the adequate supervision of boys until they +reach at least the age of eighteen. Before that age a lad is not fit to be +his own master, and should remain at least to some extent under the +control of elder persons. Such supervision must have respect both to his +conduct and to his physical development. Secondly, an apprenticeship +system must offer full opportunities of training, both general and +special--the training of the citizen and the training of the worker. And, +lastly, it must lead forward to some opening in the ranks of adult labour, +for which definite preparation has been made, and in which good character +may find reasonable prospects of permanent employment. Supervision, +training, the provision of a suitable opening--these must be regarded as +the three essentials of an apprenticeship system. How they may be assured +is, no doubt, a problem which invites controversy; that they ought to be +assured will be allowed by all. + +Further, it is perhaps allowable to assume that an apprenticeship system +must not be regarded merely as a means of entering a skilled trade. We +must not think of it as an organization reserved for a comparatively small +section of the community: all must be brought within the sphere of its +influence. All boys alike need supervision; all boys alike require some +training; all boys alike should see before them, as manhood approaches, +the prospects of an opening in some form of occupation where diligence and +aptitude may receive its due reward. And all alike must one day play +their part in the complex life of the State. We want some to be skilled +workers; we want all to be intelligent and well-conducted citizens. +Apprenticeship, then, using the word in its widest sense, must be +universal. Here again, it is hoped, the reader may express his agreement. + +In what follows an attempt is made to examine the old apprenticeship +system, to criticize apprenticeship as it exists to-day, and so to lead on +to proposals which will pave the way for the coming of the new and real +apprenticeship system of to-morrow. Throughout, the industrial +organization will be judged by bringing it to the test of the principles +just laid down. An apprenticeship system must be universal; it must make +proper provision for three essentials--supervision, training, opening. +Where these are wanting, in whole or in part, the youth of the nation +must, in a more or less degree, suffer irreparable loss. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE OLD APPRENTICESHIP + + +Prior to the nineteenth century and the beginning of factory legislation +the conditions of boy labour were determined in and through the industrial +organization of the times. Of this organization, so far as the youthful +worker was concerned, the indentured apprenticeship system formed the most +characteristic feature. The history of the apprenticeship system falls +into three periods. In the first the gilds were the predominant factor; in +the second the State, by prescribing a seven years' apprenticeship, +insured the continuance of the system; in the third the industrial +revolution and the triumph of _laissez-faire_ ushered in the age of decay +and dissolution. + + +I. + +THE AGE OF THE GILDS. + +During the Early and Middle Ages the gilds constituted the central feature +of the industrial organization. The merchant gilds began to come into +existence in the second half of the eleventh century.[2] They were +societies formed for the purpose of obtaining the exclusive privilege of +carrying on trades. Later they became either identified with the municipal +body, or a specialized department of that authority. The craft gilds +appeared about a century later, and were associations of artisans engaged +in a particular industry. It is not necessary here to enter on a +discussion of the complex relations between these two kinds of gilds. The +subject is obscure, but, so far as concerns the regulation of boy labour, +the general facts are unquestioned. + +Either by obtaining a royal charter of their own or by using the authority +of the municipality, the gilds were enabled to prescribe, down to the most +minute details, the conditions under which the trades of the district were +carried on. The control was essentially of a local character, varying from +place to place; it was, moreover, a control with, for all practical +purposes, the full force of the law at its back. "The towns and even the +villages had their gilds, and it is certain that these gilds were the +agencies by which the common interests of labour were protected." [3] + +The gild organization included three classes of person--the apprentice, +the journeyman, and the master. + +_The Apprentice._--The apprentice paid the master a premium, and was +indentured to him for a period of years, usually seven. He lived in his +master's house, and received from him, in addition to board and clothing, +wages on a low and rising scale. The master engaged to teach him his +trade, and the boy promised to serve his master honestly and obediently. +The following is a typical example of a fifteenth-century indenture:[4] + +"This indenture made the xviii of September the year of the reign of King +Edward the iiiith the xxth between John Gare of Saint Mary Cray in the +county of Kent, cordwainer on that oon partie and Walter Byse, son of John +Byse sumtyme of Wimelton, in the same county, fuller on that other partie, +Witnesseth that the saide Walter hath covenanted with the saide John Gare +for the time of vii yeres, and that the saide John Gare shall find the +saide Walter mete and drink and clothing during the saide time as to the +saide Walter shall be according. Also the saide John Gare shall teche the +saide Walter his craft, as he may and can, and also the saide John Gare +shall give him the first yere of the said vii yeres iii{d} in money and +the second yere vi{d} and so after the rate of iii{d} to an yere, and the +last yere of the saide vii yeres the saide John Gare shall give unto the +said Walter x shillings of money. And the saide Walter shall will and +truly keep his occupacyon and do such things as the saide John shall bid +him do, as unto the saide Walter shall be lawful and lefull, and the saide +Walter shall be none ale goer neyther to no rebeld nor sporte during the +saide vii yeres without the licence of the saide John. In witness whereof +the parties aforesaide chaungeably have put their seales this daye and +yere abovesaide." + +_The Journeyman._--At the expiration of the identureship the apprentice +became a journeyman. The change of status, beyond bringing with it a rise +in wages, made no great difference to the youth. He usually continued to +work for his master, and not infrequently remained a lodger in his house. +To some extent the master was still responsible for the good conduct of +his journeymen. Various regulations forbade the master to entice away the +journeymen of others and the journeymen to combine against the masters. + +_The Master._--By a somewhat similar process of growth and without any +sudden break in social status, the journeyman became a master. Between +journeyman and master there were no class distinctions. Both worked at +their craft; and, in an age preceding the era of capitalistic production +on a large scale, the need of capital to start business on his own account +presented no difficulties which could not easily be overcome by any +intelligent journeyman. + +Period of apprenticeship, hours and conditions of work, wages and +premiums, were all rigidly determined by the rules of the gild. Through +its officers the gild visited the workshops, inspected the articles in +process of manufacture, satisfied themselves as to their quality, +prescribed methods of production, were empowered to confiscate tools not +sanctioned by the regulations, and settled all disputes between the three +classes of persons concerned. Masters, journeymen, and apprentices alike +benefited by an organization which was created and controlled in their +common interests; while the general public were well served in the system +of expert inspection which guaranteed the quality of the goods supplied. +The gild, in short, was "the representation of the interests, not of one +class alone, but of the three distinct and somewhat antagonistic elements +of modern society--the capitalist _entrepreneur_, the manual worker, and +the consumer at large." [5] + +From the point of view of the boy's training the system presented unique +advantages. To the age of twenty-one, and sometimes twenty-four, he was +under control. Living in the same house as his master, that control was +paternal in character, inspired by a living and individual interest in his +welfare. He received a thorough training in the trade to which he was +indentured. Finally, when apprenticeship was over, he found ready-made for +himself an opening that led upwards from the journeyman to the small +master. Under this system there was no boy his own master from an early +age, no master irresponsible for the conduct of his boys outside the +workshops, and no blind alley of boy employment that closed with boyhood +and ended in the sink of unskilled labour. + +It its best days the gilds represented something more than a privileged +trade organization. The close connection between the gilds and the +municipality guarded the interests of the public. "The city authorities +looked to the wardens of each craft to keep the men under their charge in +order; and thus for every public scandal, or underhand attempt to cheat, +someone was responsible, and the responsibility could, generally speaking, +be brought home to the right person." [6] Further, there was no sharp +barrier between trade and trade. It is true that no one could enter a +trade without being apprenticed, but the person who had served his seven +years' apprenticeship in any one trade became free to follow all trades +within the city.[7] The gild system represented therefore something very +different from the individualist methods of modern times. There was in a +real sense, at any rate in each town, a trade organization under no +inconsiderable amount of collective control. + +But the organization of the gild was suited only to the conditions of a +more or less primitive society. For a country rising rapidly to a front +place in the commercial world it was ill adapted. Increasing trade brought +wealth and a desire for wealth; and with wealth came power to those who +possessed it. The richer members of the gild gained the upper hand in the +administration of its affairs and oppressed the poorer.[8] The gild was no +longer an association of equals; and the weaker went to the wall. +Competition turned the methods of production in the direction of cheapness +rather than good quality; and the supervisory functions of the gild +disappeared. In general the whole system, rigid and inelastic, became a +heavy drag on the industrial organization. The members had paid for their +privileges in money and a long apprenticeship, and bitterly resented the +appearance of intruders not hall-marked by the gild. With shortsighted +policy, the gilds limited admissions by exacting high entrance-fees, and +strove to secure the maximum of benefits for the smallest possible number. + +No longer an association of equals, united by common interests and a +common outlook; no longer a guarantee of excellence in matters of +craftmanship; no longer the guardian of the interests of the general +public, but a narrow sect claiming exclusive privileges--the gilds, rent +by strife and envy within, and regarded with open hostility by those +outside, drifted slowly towards that inevitable end which awaits those who +seek to sacrifice the needs of all on the altar of the selfish desires of +the few. "In the sixteenth century," says Dr. Cunningham, "the gilds had +in many cases so entirely lost their original character that they had not +only ceased to serve useful purposes, but their ill-judged interference +drove workmen to leave the towns and establish themselves in villages +where the gilds had no jurisdiction." [9] They received their death-blow in +the year 1547, through the legislation directed against the property of +the semi-religious bodies. With the decay of the gilds and their final +dissolution passed the ancient system which had for centuries regulated +the conditions of boy labour. So far as the boy was concerned the system +was founded on three principles: It recognized his need for prolonged +control and supervision, and made provision for the need by securing for +him, through his master, an interest at once individual and paternal. It +recognized the need for a thorough training in the mysteries of the craft; +and it recognized the need that, at the close of this training, the lad +should find opening out for him a career for which he had been specially +prepared. And it made provision for these needs by its scheme of +inspection and control carried on by those responsible for the common +interests of the trade. In short, the gild organization, in its earlier +and flourishing days, may justly be regarded as satisfying the conditions +of a true apprenticeship system. + + +II. + +THE STATUTE OF APPRENTICES. + +If the gild system was dead, the principles for which it stood and made +provision continued to be as important as ever. Nor under the industrial +conditions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did there appear to +be any practical difficulty in the way of enforcement. The small master +remained, and with him remained the possibility of an effective +apprenticeship system. Regulated by custom or by the municipal authority, +apprenticeship lost nothing of its old vitality. Indeed, with the increase +of trade and the increasing profits derived from trade, it became more +popular than ever. None the less, signs are not wanting that people were +conscious of faults in the industrial organization. Into the statute book +of the period creep frequent allusions to intruders who had entered the +trade other than through the door of apprenticeship. There was nothing new +in these complaints; they existed even in the best days of the gilds. "We +seem at a very early time," says Mrs. Green, "to detect behind the gild +system a growing class of 'uncovenanted labour,' which the policy of the +employers constantly tended to foster, their aim being on the one hand to +limit the number of privileged serving-men, and on the other to increase +the supply of uncovenanted labour." [10] But with the decay of the +supervisory functions of the gild these complaints became more frequent. + +The condition of this "uncovenanted labour" has always been the unsolved +problem in any apprenticeship system. If uncovenanted labour is allowed to +enter a trade on the same terms as those who have served an +apprenticeship, the latter have clearly a grievance. They have paid for +their privilege in premium and long service at low wages, and not +unnaturally demand some assured recompense in return. If, on the other +hand, uncovenanted labour is rigidly excluded, there is no method of +rapidly increasing the supply of workers in times of expanding trade. From +this dilemma there is but one way of escape. All boys, irrespective of the +trades they follow, must pass through a system of apprenticeship before +they are permitted to earn the wages of a man. Two conditions are +necessary to success. First, all boys without exception must serve an +apprenticeship; secondly, having served this apprenticeship, they must not +in their employment be restricted to the trade to which they have been +indentured. + +As already shown, the gilds, at any rate in certain districts, allowed a +person who had served an apprenticeship in one trade to be free of all the +trades of the town. The gilds satisfied the second condition, and in their +earlier days, when they included the majority of the population, they +satisfied to a large extent the second condition as well. To satisfy the +first condition was clearly, as will appear later, the intention of the +Statute of Apprentices. + +But apart from the problem of uncovenanted labour, the disappearance of +the controlling influence of the gilds left many anomalies. Here +apprenticeship was regulated by custom, here by charter, and there left +undetermined. In one place a certain period of service was exacted, in +another place a different period. Finally, in the minds of the leaders of +the day there was firmly fixed the belief that, as trade was becoming the +life-blood of the nation, there was need of a general and consolidating +Act giving the force of law to what was often only a floating custom +applicable in a certain district. + +In the reign of Elizabeth these growing feelings of discontent found voice +in an Act which marks an epoch in industrial legislation. It is usually +known as the Statute of Artificers and Apprentices. After reciting the +confusion that existed in previous legislation, the preamble continues: + +"So if the substance of as many of the said Laws as are meet to be +continued shall be digested and reduced into one sole law and Statute, and +in the same an uniform Order prescribed and limited concerning the Wages +and other Orders for Apprentices, Servants and Labourers, there is good +hope that it will come to pass, that the same law (being duly executed) +should banish Idleness, advance Husbandry, and yield unto the hired +person, both in the time of Scarcity and in the time of Plenty, a +conventient Proportion of Wages." [11] + +We are here concerned with the Act only so far as it affects the +conditions of boy labour. The principal regulations are the following: + +"No person shall retain a servant in their services (_i.e._, in employment +for which apprenticeship was required) under one whole Year." [12] +Husbandmen may take apprentices "from the age of 10 until 21 at least," or +till twenty-four by agreement.[13] Householders in towns may "have and +retain the son of any Freeman not occupying Husbandry nor being a Labourer +... to serve and be bound as an Apprentice, after the Custom and Order of +the City of London, for seven years at the least so as the Term and years +of such Apprentice do not expire or determine after such Apprentice shall +be of the Age of twenty-four Years at the least." [14] "None may use any +manual occupacyon unless he hath been apprenticed to the same as +above." [15] "If a person be required by any Householder to be an +Apprentice and refuse he may be brought before a justice of the peace who +is empourred to commit him unto Ward, there to remain until he be +contented, and will be bounden to serve as an Apprentice should +serve." [16] + +The Elizabethan Poor Law gave additional powers with regard to the +compulsory apprenticing of those likely to fall into evil ways, and made +it lawful for churchwardens and overseers "to bind any such children as +aforesaid to be Apprentices, when they shall see convenient, till such Man +child shall come to the age of four-and-twenty yeares." [17] + +Taken together, these two Acts gave to public authorities large powers of +control over the growing boy. They did not, indeed, provide that everyone +should be apprenticed, but in the majority of occupations no one could be +employed unless he had served his time. Nor did they allow a person who +had been apprenticed to one trade to work at another. But they applied the +system of compulsory apprenticeship to all parts of the country, and they +made provision for the proper care, by way of apprenticeship, of neglected +children. People of the time were clearly of one mind in their desire to +supervise, through the State, the training of the youth. "Contemporary +opinion held that it was neither good for society nor trade that the young +man should enjoy any independence. 'Until a man grows unto the age of +xxiii yeares he for the moste parte, thoughe not alwayes, is wilde, +withoute Judgment, and not of sufficient experience to govern himself. Nor +(many tymes) grown unto the full or perfect knowledge of the arte or +occupation that he professed.'" [18] + +As to the general effect of the far-reaching Statute of Apprentices, it is +not possible to do better than quote Dr. Cunningham: "A proof of the +wisdom of the measure seems to lie in the fact that we have no complaints +as to these restrictions in the Act or proposals for amending the clauses, +but that, on the contrary, there was, on more than one occasion, a demand +that it should be rigorously enforced, so that the industrial system of +the country should be really reduced to order." [19] For more than two +centuries, without amendment, the Act remained in force; and while it +lasted it provided at least the possibility for the adequate training and +supervision of the youth of the country. + +These two centuries constitute the second stage in the history of boy +labour regulation. From a superficial point of view there appears no +essential difference between this period and the preceding. In the first +apprenticeship was enforced through the action of the gilds, in the second +by special legislative enactment. In either case apprenticeship was, for +all practical purposes, compulsory; but here the similarity ends. + +Under the regime of the gilds apprenticeship was enforced, but in addition +its conditions were determined by a careful system of regulation. The +gild, an association representing the three classes concerned--masters, +journeymen, apprentices--supervised the industrial organization in the +interests of all alike. In the best days of the gilds the trade, as a +whole, inspected the workshops; the trade, as a whole, watched over the +training of the youth; the trade, as a whole, so fixed the number of those +entering, that at the conclusion of the apprenticeship there was room in +the ranks of the skilled artisan for those who had learned their craft. + +During the disintegration of the gilds, this second factor gradually +disappeared. The Statute of Apprentices did indeed make apprenticeship +compulsory, but provided no efficient system of regulation. Measures were +frequently advocated and occasionally embodied in Acts for determining the +proportion of apprentices to journeymen, but never proved effective. We +see gradually emerging the struggle between the conflicting interests of +those engaged in production. A seven years' apprenticeship, enforced by +law, gave the employers a source of cheap labour, and we begin to hear +complaints that the number of apprentices was unduly multiplied and that +boys were taking the place of men. To what extent this practice prevailed +it is not easy to ascertain; but there is no question that, at any rate +among one class of apprentice--the pauper apprentice--abuses were grave +and frequent. + +The whole story of the pauper apprentice forms an ugly episode in the +industrial history of the period. The Statute Book is punctuated with +frequent allusion to his unfortunate lot, coupled with proposals for +reform, for the most part ineffective. As already mentioned, the overseers +had large powers of compulsorily apprenticing the children of the poor. A +sum was paid to the employer, the lad handed over, and no steps taken to +guard his well-being or guarantee his training. It was inevitable that +under conditions such as these abuses should occur. The employer found +himself provided with a continual supply of lads, bound to serve him until +the age of twenty-one, or sometimes twenty-four; he was not troubled by +visits of inspectors; he could use them as he pleased. The luckless +apprentices were herded together in overcrowded and insanitary dwellings; +they were overworked and underfed; they learned no trade, and were +regarded as a cheap form of unskilled labour. If they misbehaved +themselves the justices of the peace would punish them; if they ran away +the law would see to it that they were returned to their masters; if they +complained of ill-treatment there was no one to substantiate the charge. +Whole trades seemed to have flourished by exploiting the parish +apprentices; and not infrequently the overseer, himself an employer, made +a comfortable profit out of their misfortunes.[20] In his "History of the +Poor Law" Sir G. Nicholls summarizes the legislation on the subject.[21] +With the rapid increase in the number of paupers at the close of the +eighteenth century these evils multiplied, and to an increasing extent +engaged the public attention. + +If one class of apprentice was thus exploited, it is difficult to resist +the conclusion that, in a less degree, others suffered in a similar way. +Compulsory apprenticeship, without effective regulation, brought with it +the danger of compulsory servitude. The State was conscious of the danger, +and duties of supervision were laid on the justices of the peace. The +State was likewise conscious of the value of apprenticeship, and gave much +attention to the subject. A Commission of Charles I. dealt with the +problem, while an Act of James I. was concerned with the misuse of +apprenticeship charities, which led to children being brought up in +idleness, "to their utter overthrow and the great prejudice of the +commonwealth." [22] But legislation proved incapable of preventing evils +which increased rapidly as the years went by. From the standpoint of the +boy the second period, whose characteristic was compulsion without +supervision, was distinctly inferior to the first, when the gilds +regulated the affairs of the trade for the common good. But if the +apprenticeship system was weakening and abuses on the increase, an +effective training was always possible. The small master still remained, +there was still the call for the all-round craftsman, and the huge changes +in methods of production, that were destined to appear later, still lay in +the mists of the future. + + +III. + +THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. + +It was the invention of the steam-engine and the consequent introduction +of machinery that ushered in the period of the industrial revolution. In +the trades affected the consequences were immediate, profound, and +disastrous for boys, journeymen, and small masters alike. "On the whole, +machinery rendered it possible in many departments of industry to +substitute unskilled for skilled labour." [23] In branches of certain +trades boys took the place of men. "Under the new conditions (of +calico-printing) boys could be employed in what had been hitherto the work +of men; so that, in the introduction of machinery, complaints began to be +made by the journeymen as to the undue multiplication of apprentices. +There was one shop in Lancashire where fifty-five apprentices had been +working at one time and only two journeymen; it was obvious that under +such circumstances the man who had served his time had very little hope of +obtaining employment." [24] A system of compulsory apprenticeship, under +such conditions, was exploited for the benefit of the employer, and led +inevitably to the injury of the boy. The latter was bound and could not +escape, while the former could readily find an excuse for discharging an +apprentice. Further, with the growing division of labour and the +separation of boys' work from men's work, training became less easy. The +boy was kept to a single operation, and when his time was up found no +further call for his services. The position of the workmen in the trade +appeared desperate. Owing to the competition of boys and the decrease in +the demand for his skill, wages were rapidly falling, and at the same time +the price of corn was rising by leaps and bounds. The small master, unable +to compete with the cheapness of the machine-made goods, fared as badly as +the journeyman. Both appealed to Parliament for redress, "usually +demanding the prohibition of the new machines, the enforcement of a seven +years' apprenticeship, or the maintenance of the old limitation of the +number of boys to be taught by each employer." [25] + +But appeals of this kind fell on deaf ears. The spirit of the age was +against interference, and opposition to all form of regulation was rapidly +growing. The Statute of Apprentices was disliked by the large employers, +and an eager agitation began for its repeal. Though obsolescent, it was +still sufficiently alive to be troublesome. A seven years' apprenticeship, +it was argued, was unnecessarily long; weaving, for example, could be +learnt in two or three years. A Commission was appointed to consider the +question, and the large employers pointed out "that the new processes +could be learnt in a few months instead of seven years; and that the +restriction of the old master craftsman to two or three apprentices apiece +was out of the question with the new buyers of labour on a large +scale." [26] In the House of Commons "Mr. Sergeant Onslow urged the repeal +of the Act, and remarked that 'the reign of Elizabeth was not one in which +sound principles of commerce were known.' The true principles of commerce +(said another M.P.) appeared at that time to be misunderstood, and the Act +in question proved the truth of this assertion. The persons most competent +to form regulations with respect to trade were the master manufacturer, +whose interest it was to have goods of the best fabric, and no legislative +enactment could ever effect so much in producing that result as the merely +leaving things to their own courses and operations." [27] The skilled +craftsmen, on the other hand, petitioned in favour of compulsory +apprenticeship. But in the growing enthusiasm for the theory whose sole +tenet lay in the belief that the haven of prosperity lay in the mid-ocean +of uncontrolled liberty, all pleas in favour of regulation were treated +with contempt. The famous Chalmers, speaking of the Statute of +Apprentices, declared that "this law, so far as it requires +apprenticeship, ought to be repealed, because its tendency is to abolish +and to prevent competition among workmen." [28] + +In the year 1814 the Statute of Apprentices was repealed;[29] and with its +repeal the State washed its hands of all responsibility for the well-being +of the youth of the land. Henceforth things were to be left "to their own +courses and operations." It is no doubt true that there remained the +"Health and Morals of Apprentices Act," passed in 1802; this Act +prescribed certain conditions as to hours of work and sanitation. But the +Act in itself was utterly "ineffective," [30] and for all practical +purposes employers were unfettered in their use or misuse of children. + +There remained one more blow to be struck before the condition of the boy +touched the lowest level of misery reached in the whole history of this +country; and it was soon struck with that relentless vigour which marked +the actions of the reformer in those times. + +After the repeal of the Statute of Apprentices there was for the lad no +sort of legal guarantee of training, no kind of State supervision over his +conduct; he could work how and when it pleased him or his parents. But the +Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 made it necessary for him to work how and +when it pleased his employer, and took from him all possibility of +effective choice. This Act abolished the allowance system in aid of wages. +Salutary and even necessary as some reform of the kind was, in the +particular way in which it was carried out it fell with crushing force on +the unfortunate children. Hitherto parents could receive so much per child +out of the rates; from henceforth this was to be illegal. Wages indeed +rose, but rose slowly and in patches. The earnings of the child were +required to make existence even possible for the family. A foreign and +impartial student of English affairs has made this truth abundantly clear: +"Even granted that the labourer himself now needed no allowance, what had +he in place of the allowance for his family and the out-of-work relief? +Something in place of these he must have, for even labourers' families +must live.... What was the way out? The labourer must sell more labour +power; and since his own was already sold, he must put that of his family +upon the market. This was how the problem of the married man was +solved.... We have already seen that the expansion of the gang system took +place mainly after 1834; it appears that the exploitation of child-labour +and women's labour is the main characteristic of the period between the +Poor Law and the Education Acts. When Dr. Kay was examined before the +Lords' Committee on the Poor Law Amendment Act, he described the +astonishment of travellers at the number of women and children working in +the fields, and traced their increased employment to the Poor Law. In his +own words: 'The extent of employment for women and children has most +wonderfully increased since the Poor Law came into operation. It has had +that effect by rendering it necessary that the children should be so +employed in order to adjust the wages to the wants of the family....' And +a country clergyman gave expression to similar views in 1843: 'By these +allowances their children were not then obliged, as now, to work for their +subsistence. Their time was at their own disposal; and then they were +sent more regularly to the schools. But since the new Poor Law this has +been reversed.'" [31] + +Those persons who nowadays talk genially of the ease with which the new +Poor Law was enforced, would do well to remember that the ease was +purchased at the high price of the physical and moral deterioration of the +children. Chalmers had got his way, there was now free competition among +the workmen; and free competition among the workmen meant then, as it has +always meant since, the unregulated slavery of the weak. + +With the repeal of the Statute of Apprentices and the passing of the Poor +Law Amendment Act, the old apprenticeship system came to an end. No longer +capable of being controlled in the common interests of the trade and the +community, no longer capable of being enforced by statutory enactment, the +apprenticeship system in its ancient form, though it might linger among +certain industries, was destined slowly to disappear. We may regret its +disappearance, as the vanishing of a fragment of an old-world life; but +repinings are idle unless directed toward the search for some substitute +adequate to the needs of the present. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE AGE OF RECONSTRUCTION + + +The last chapter closed on the darkest scene in the long history of child +labour in this country. Of the three factors essential to a true +apprenticeship, not one was found or its need even recognized in the wild +riot of the industrial revolution. Of public or organized supervision of +the youth of the land there was not a trace. The controlling influence of +the gild system had long since disappeared; the powers of regulation that +lay in the Statute of Apprentices and the Elizabethan Poor Law had been +withdrawn; free and unrestricted traffic in the use of children was the +watchword of the age. Babies of four and five years worked alongside the +adult and for the same number of hours; there were persons of intelligence +who saw in this gain extracted from infants not the least of the triumphs +of the day. Children's lives were often a mere alternation of two kinds of +darkness--the darkness of night giving place to the darkness of the mine. +Boys and girls were hired out in troops to a taskmaster, herded in barns +regardless of the claims of health and decency, and driven in gangs into +the fields of the farmer. Whether in the mine or the factory or on the +farm, the present profits of the employer, and not the future welfare of +the race, were alone considered. Industrial training throughout the new +manufacturing districts was treated with open contempt. A person, the +masters urged, could learn the trade in a few months; while as for the +provision of an opening that would lead from the work of the youth to the +work of the adult, it was not to be imagined that a subject of this +complexity should receive attention at a time when the narrow circuit of +the prosperous factory set a limit to the horizon of men's thoughts. In +short, over the whole field of industry the desire for immediate success +dominated the larger, but more remote, interests of the future. + +What was most significant of the times was not the flood of misery that +swept over the country so much as the spirit of complacent satisfaction +with which it was regarded. That the industrial revolution was in the +cause of progress, the reform of the Poor Law essential, and the decay of +the old apprenticeship system inevitable, men of intelligence could not +fail to recognize; but they might also have recognized that the profound +transformation of the whole social and industrial structure involved could +not take place without widespread suffering and demoralization. Men of the +day did see these things, but saw them with unconcern. Progress involved +change, and change demanded its toll of pain; but it was not the duty of +the State to ease the passage or to yield to the outcry of what they +looked on as the silly sentimentalist. + +The general view of contemporary opinion finds itself reflected in the +Whig and Radical journals. In 1819 the _Edinburgh Review_ declared: "After +all, we must own that it was quite right to throw out the Bill for +prohibiting the sweeping of chimneys by boys--because humanity is a modern +invention; and there are many chimneys in old houses that cannot possibly +be swept in any other manner;" while the Radical paper, the _Gorgon_, was +also inclined to sneer at the House of Commons for "its ostentatious +display of humanity in dealing with trivialities like the slave trade, +climbing-boys, and the condition of children in factories." [32] The above +represents the orthodox opinion of the time. The age was the age of the +triumph of the individualist. His was the gospel that inspired the +economist; his were the maxims which guided the legislator; his were the +principles that were realized in the practice of the manufacturer. For one +brief moment in the history of the world's progress the individualist was +supreme; and then the world reeled back in horror from the hell of sin and +misery he had created. Even in the early days there were not wanting +voices to protest against the theory that in the balance-sheet of the +trader was to be found the final test of national righteousness. As far +back as the year 1801 Mr. Justice Grose, in sentencing an employer for +overworking and maltreating an apprentice, declared: "Should the +manufacturers insist that without these children they could not +advantageously follow their trade, and the overseers say that without +such opportunity they could not get rid of these children, he should say +to the one, that trade must not for the thirst of lucre be followed, but +at once, for the sake of society, be abandoned; and to the other, it is a +crime to put out these children, who have no friend to see justice done, +to incur deformity and promote consumption or other disease. This +obviously leads to their destruction--not to their support." [33] And in +the year 1802 was passed the "Health and Morals of Apprentices Act," an +Act important not for its results, which were insignificant, but as a +protest against the gospel of individualism, and as the first of the long +series of Factory Acts which heralded the dawn of a new age. + +This new age, which reaches down to the present time, and of which the end +is not yet, was an age of reconstruction. It represented an attempt, +unconscious for the most part, to reinstate in a changed form the +principles which underlay the old apprenticeship system. It is true that +throughout the whole period indentured apprenticeship was in process of +gradual decay, and is now become almost a negligible factor in the +industrial world; but it is no less true that from its ruins was slowly +rising an organization destined to prove a fitting and even a superior +substitute. The final stage of development lies still in the future; the +adjustments required to meet the complex needs of modern industry are +innumerable; and we are only beginning to see the outlines of a new +apprenticeship system towards which we have been drifting for nearly a +century. To tell in detail the history of these long years of slow +progress would be foreign to the purpose of this book; but certain +characteristics, which mark the process of change, are sufficiently +germane to the discussions of to-day to justify consideration. + +In the first place, the forces which repeatedly faced and beat down the +resistance of those who stood for unregulated industry were not the forces +of economic analysis; few forces that make for great changes are the +product of such unimpassioned reason. Factory and kindred legislation were +throughout the triumph of sentiment, and not the victory of logic. During +the course of the nineteenth century men became slowly more sensitive to +the fact of suffering, less tolerant of its continued existence. The +Liberal essayist was historically correct when he said contemptuously that +humanity was a modern invention. In earlier days little heed was paid to +the physical well-being of the individual journeyman or apprentice. If the +gilds forbade the carrying on of a craft by night, it was because the dim +gloom of ancient illuminants meant bad work, and not because protracted +toil made unhealthy workmen. When the State concerned itself with hours of +employment, it was to prescribe a minimum, and not to fix a maximum; to +keep a man busy, and therefore out of mischief, was deemed more important +than to allow him leisure for thought or recreation. + +In this new sentiment of humanity lay the motive power which drove +Parliament on to spasmodic acts of factory legislation. The sentiment was +at once a source of weakness and a source of strength. It was a source of +weakness because sentiment is essentially local in its sphere of +influence. It does not search out the objects on which its favours are +lavished; they must be brought by others to its very doors and repeatedly +thrust over the threshold till entrance is forced. It lacks the breadth, +the insight, and the calm of that imaginative reason which is now slowly +taking its place. In the case of suffering, for example, it troubles +itself not at all about the more remote causes of suffering or the more +remote sufferer, but surges round some particular sufferer or some +particular grievance, existing here and now.[34] Sentiment, at any rate +the British type of sentiment, is not touched by abstractions; visions of +humanity in the throes of travail leave it unmoved; appeals to the +ultimate principles of justice fail to produce even a throb of sympathetic +interest; it is only the concrete--the oppressed child or the widowed +mother--that lets loose the flood. For the more profound solution of +social problems such sentiment is useless, but for the attack of specific +evils, especially where the opposition is well organized, it displays +amazing stubbornness and resource. Its strength lies in its unreason; +argument is of no avail; here are certain cases of suffering it will not +tolerate; a remedy must be found and Parliament must find it; there will +be no peace until something is done. + +It was in this way that regulation of child labour began, and indeed has +continued down to the present time. The result is patchy, and the removal +of evils partial and unsystematic. There has been, for example, no serious +attempt made to set up a minimum standard of conditions under which alone +children shall be employed; least of all has the State endeavoured to +formulate a new apprenticeship system, adapted to the needs of modern +industry. Much indeed has been done in both directions; but much more +remains for the future to carry through before we can hope to read in the +efficiency of the race the sign-mark of our success. The first +characteristic, then, of the age of reconstruction is to be found in the +predominating influence of sentiment. + +The second characteristic is seen in the triumph of the idealist over the +combined forces of the doctrinaire and the practical man. Every proposal +for regulating child labour was fought on the same lines; there were the +same arguments and the same replies. The individualist urged that State +interference was in itself an evil, that, though the consequences might be +delayed and the immediate effect even beneficial, you might rest assured +that in the long-run your sin would find you out. The wealthy citizen +declared that if boys might not climb his chimneys, his chimneys must go +unswept; the manufacturer predicted certain ruin to his trade if he were +forbidden to use children as seemed best to him; while all united in +urging that if the children were not at work they would be doing something +worse, and pointed out the obvious cruelty of depriving half-starved +parents of the scanty earnings of their half-starved offspring. + +To all these and similar objections the idealist, with his clearer vision +of the reality of things, and firm in his faith that the prosperity of a +people could never be the final outcome of allowing an obvious wrong, made +response. He sympathized with the individualist for the dreary pessimism +of a creed which could see the future alone coloured with hope if heralded +by the sobs of suffering children. The wealthy citizen he bade roughly +burn his house and build another sooner than sacrifice the lives of boys +to the needs of his chimneys. While as for the manufacturer, he told him, +as Mr. Justice Grose had told him earlier, that, if his engines needed +children as fuel, his was a trade the country was best rid of. To those +employers who pleaded the small wages of the parents he suggested the grim +and crude and obvious remedy of paying those parents more. And the +idealist, with the sentiment of the British public to back him, won the +day. + +But if sentiment gave the idealist his victory, it was the future that +brought him a full justification. His sin after many years is yet seeking +him; the wealthy citizen found other and innocent means of cleansing his +chimneys; the manufacturer placidly adapted himself to the new conditions, +and his trade flourished exceedingly; the wages of parents rose rapidly, +and what small measure of health and happiness that has come to the +children of the poor during the last century has come to them through the +defeat and the defiance of the individualist. + +A hundred years have rolled by, and yet to all new regulation the same old +objections are raised by the individualist. But his day is gone, and with +his day he also is going. A few, indeed, are left, interesting survivals +of the early Victorian age. But for the great majority of the population +regulation has no fears; they welcome and invite it. And, further, not +only are they willing to forbid unsatisfactory conditions of employment, +they are also ready to spend public money to secure a proper environment +and a suitable training for children. What they will not tolerate is the +continued existence of unnecessary suffering; and they are coming more and +more to realize that a vast mass of the suffering of to-day is +unnecessary. Principles, even though openly professed, will not look +suffering in the face and pass on.[35] Humanity is no longer a modern +invention, it has become the guiding spirit of the age. + +Thus we can face the morning of the twentieth century in a spirit of hope. +We may look for more consistent support and less strenuous opposition than +in the past. We may in consequence think out and introduce schemes of a +more far-reaching character. Empirical patching will give place to +reconstruction on a large scale. In other words, the sentiment of the +nineteenth century, wayward and uncertain in its method of action, and at +its best troubling itself about a remedy for actual suffering, will be +superseded by the imaginative reason of the twentieth, which looks rather +to prevention than to cure. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE GUARDIANSHIP OF THE STATE + + +The age of reconstruction is not complete, and for the moment we are left +with the products of sentiment as revealed in the tangled and piecemeal +legislation respecting boy labour. Before making new proposals, it is +desirable to survey the existing laws on the subject, in order to discover +to what extent the State acts as the guardian of the child by making +provision for the three essential factors of a true apprenticeship +system--supervision, training, opening. The present chapter will be +concerned with a description of the statutory machinery; in the next the +value of the machinery will be tested by examining its results in actual +experience. + + +I. + +STATE SUPERVISION. + +Supervision is the first essential of an apprenticeship system. A boy must +remain under adequate control, as regards his conduct and physical +development, until the age of eighteen is reached; before then he is too +young to be allowed safely to become his own master. What part does the +State, as guardian, play in this work of supervision? This volume is +concerned with the answer to the question only so far as that answer has a +direct bearing on the general problem of boy labour. A statement, for +example, of the criminal law, of the law relating to public health, or of +the poor law, lies outside its scope. + +The guardianship of the State, in respect of supervision, is of two kinds. +On the one hand the State appears as the guardian of the boy by +restricting his employment, or by forbidding it under certain specified +unfavourable conditions--State regulation; on the other hand--as, for +example, in its system of education--it assumes a more active role, and +itself provides for the boy some of the discipline and training he +requires--State enterprise. + +Sec. 1. STATE REGULATION. + +The State, by regulation, may protect the boy in three ways-- + +1. _Prohibition._--The State may protect the boy by forbidding his +employment below a certain age or in certain classes of industry. + +2. _Limitation of Hours._--The State may protect the boy by fixing a limit +to the number of hours during which he may be employed. + +3. _Health and Safety._--The State may protect the boy by enforcing +certain regulations as regards sanitation in the workshop or the proper +guarding of machinery, or may require a medical certificate to show that +the boy is physically fit for the occupation in which he is engaged. + +We shall best understand the measure of protection afforded the boy by the +State by classifying the statutory regulations under these three headings +rather than by taking the individual Acts and analyzing them separately. +The principal Acts concerned are the following: + +The Factory and Workshop Act, 1901. + +Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act, 1872. + +Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887. + +Mines (Prohibition of Child Labour Underground) Act, 1900. + +The Shop Hours Act, 1892. + +The Employment of Children Act, 1903. + +The Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1894. + +Children Act, 1908. + +And the various Acts relating to compulsory attendance at school-- + +Elementary Education Act, 1876. + +Elementary Education Act, 1880. + +Elementary Education (School Attendance) Act, 1893. + +And the Act amending this last Act, 1899. + +To make what follows clearer, and to avoid repetition, it is desirable to +add a few remarks about two of these Acts. + +The Factory and Workshop Act is concerned with the conditions of +employment in premises "wherein labour is exercised by way of trade or for +purposes of gain in or incidental to any of the following +purposes--namely: + + "(i.) The making of an article or part of any article; or + + "(ii.) The altering, repairing, ornamenting, or finishing of any + article; or + + "(iii.) The adapting for sale of an article." [36] + +Premises in which such operations are carried on are divided into these +four classes: + +1. _Textile factories_, where mechanical power is used in connection with +the manufacture of cotton, wool, hair, silk, flax, hemp, jute, or other +like material; + +2. _Non-textile factories_, where mechanical power is used in connection +with the manufacture of articles other than those included in (1), and, in +addition, certain industries, such as "print works," or lucifer-match +works, whether mechanical power is or is not employed;[37] + +3. _Workshops_ where articles are manufactured without the aid of +mechanical power; and-- + +4. _Domestic workshops or factories_, where a private house or room is, by +reason of the work carried on there, a factory or a workshop, where +mechanical power is not used, and in which the only persons employed are +members of the same family dwelling there.[37] + +The Act also has a limited reference to laundries, docks, buildings in +course of construction and repair, and railways.[39] + +Certain definitions are important in the interpretation of the +regulations. The expression "child" means a person under the age of +fourteen, who is not exempt from attendance at school.[40] The expression +"young person" means a person who has ceased to be a child, and is under +the age of eighteen.[41] These expressions will be used with this +significance in the remainder of this chapter, unless the contrary is +stated. + +The authority for the enforcement of the Factory and Workshop Act is in +general the Home Office, acting through its inspectors. In certain cases, +which will be mentioned later, the duty of enforcement is imposed on one +or other of the locally elected bodies. + +The regulations comprised in the Employment of Children Act are in part of +general application, in part dependent on by-laws made by the local +authority, and approved by the Home Secretary. The local authority, for +the enforcement of the Act and for the making of by-laws, is, in the case +of London, exclusive of the City, for which the Common Council is the +authority, the London County Council; in the case of a municipal borough +with a population according to the census of 1901 of over 10,000, the +Borough Council; in the case of any other urban district with a population +of over 20,000, the District Council; in the case of the remainder of +England and Wales, the County Council.[42] + +These are the chief Acts through which are regulated the conditions of boy +labour. Each in a more or less degree is concerned with prohibition, +limitation of hours, and health regulations. It now remains to examine the +extent of the protection provided. + +_(a) Prohibition of Employment._ + +There is no law forbidding children below a certain age to work for wages. +In default of local by-laws, it is still legal to employ children of any +age, however young, in a large number of occupations. Prohibition takes +the form of forbidding the employment of children in certain trades +regarded as specially dangerous to health or demoralizing to character. + +1. It is illegal to employ children or young persons "in the part of a +factory or workshop in which there is carried on the process of silvering +mirrors by the mercurial process or the process of making white lead." [43] +And the Secretary of State has power to extend this prohibition to other +dangerous trades.[44] + +2. It is illegal to employ underground in any mine boys under the age of +thirteen,[45] and no boy under the age of twelve may be employed +above-ground in connection with any mine.[46] + +3. A child may not be employed "in the part of a factory or workshop in +which there is carried on any grinding in the metal trade, or the dipping +of lucifer-matches." [47] + +4. A child under the age of eleven may not be employed in +street-trading--_i.e._, in "the hawking of newspapers, matches, flowers, +and other articles, playing, singing, or performing for profit, +shoe-blacking, or any like occupation carried on in streets or public +places." [48] + +5. In theatres and shows, children under seven may not be employed at all, +and children under eleven can only be employed on a licence granted by a +magistrate.[49] + +Omitting ways of earning money, as by begging, which cannot properly be +regarded as forms of employment, and ancient Acts, such as the Chimney +Sweepers Act of 1840, which prohibited the apprenticing of children under +the age of sixteen to the trade of the sweep, or the Agricultural Gangs +Act, 1867, which forbade the employment of children under eight in an +agricultural gang--Acts which have now little practical importance--the +regulations outlined above comprise the whole of the regulations which +prohibit throughout the country the employment of boys in certain forms of +occupation. For any extension of prohibition we must look to the by-laws +which may, but need not, be made by local authorities under the provisions +of the Employment of Children Act. + +Under this Act the local authority may make by-laws prescribing for all +children below the age which employment is illegal, and may prohibit +absolutely, or may permit, subject to conditions, the employment of +children under the age of fourteen in any specified occupation.[50] The +by-laws may likewise prohibit or allow, under conditions, "street trading" +by persons under the age of sixteen.[51] But in either case the by-laws, +before becoming operative, must be confirmed, after an inquiry is held, by +the Home Secretary.[52] + +As an example of prohibition through by-laws made under this Act, the case +of London outside the City may be cited. The by-laws of the London County +Council forbid the employment of all children under the age of eleven, the +employment of children under the age of fourteen as "lather boys" in +barbers' shops, and the employment of boys under the age of sixteen in +"street trading," unless they wear on the arm a badge provided by the +Council. + +_(b) Limitation of Hours._ + +There is no law limiting for all children or for all young persons the +number of hours which may be worked. It is still legal in the majority of +occupations to employ young persons, and in default of by-laws +school-children on days when the schools are closed, for a number of +hours restricted only by the length of the day. As with prohibition, so +the matter stands with the limitation of hours. Glaring evils, just +because they glared, have from time to time been dealt with by +legislation; other evils no less serious have been ignored merely because +they have not chanced to attract attention. The result of this piecemeal +legislation and enactment by by-laws is a chaos of intricate regulations, +applicable to persons of different age and different sex, varying from +trade to trade and from place to place. I am, fortunately, concerned here +only with the male sex, and shall begin with the boy young person, and +then proceed to the boy child. + +_The Young Person._--Far the most important, because the most detailed and +the most comprehensive, of the Acts dealing with the limitation of hours +is the Factory and Workshops Act. Under this Act the hours of employment +are restricted by specifying the hours during which alone employment may +be carried on. No employment is allowed on Sundays except in the case of +Jewish factories closed on Saturday, or of certain industries specially +sanctioned for the purpose by the Home Secretary. + +In textile factories,[53] the period of employment for young persons is +from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., or from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with two hours for meals, +and on Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., with half an hour for +meals.[54] In non-textile factories and workshops the chief difference +lies in the fact that the interval for meals is half an hour shorter, +while on Saturdays employment is permitted between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., with +half an hour for meals.[55] In domestic factories and workshops the hours +of employment are from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., with four and a half hours for +meals, and on Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., with two and a half hours +for meals.[56] + +Overtime is in general prohibited.[57] Employment inside and outside a +factory or workshop in the business of the factory or workshop is +prohibited, except during the recognized period, on any day on which the +young person is employed inside the factory or workshop both before and +after the dinner-hour.[58] Thus the maximum number of hours in a week, +including meal-times, during which a young person may be employed is, in +textile factories, 65-1/2; in non-textile factories and workshops, 68; in +domestic factories and workshops, 85; or, excluding meal-times, the hours +in the three classes are 55, 60, and 60 respectively. + +The Act applies only to those employed in factories and workshops. It has +limited application to certain other trades, but the application is +unimportant in connection with boy labour. To the regulations quoted there +are numerous exceptions, and the Home Secretary has large discretionary +powers.[59] + +A young person may not be employed "in or about a shop" for a longer +period than seventy-four hours, including meal-times, in any one week. +Further, an employer may not knowingly employ a young person who has +already on the same day been employed in a factory or workshop, if such +employment makes the total number of hours worked more than the full time +a young person is permitted to work in a factory or workshop.[60] + +By-laws may be made limiting the hours of employment of young persons +under the age of sixteen engaged in "street trading." [61] The by-laws of +the London County Council forbid the employment of such persons "before 7 +a.m. or after 9 p.m., or for more than eight hours in any day, when +employed under the immediate direction and supervision of an adult person +having charge of a street stall or barrow; before 7 a.m. or after 8 p.m. +when employed in any other form of street trading." + +With the exception of the regulations outlined above, there is no limit to +the number of hours during which young persons may legally be employed. + +_Children._--The most important Acts regulating the hours of employment +for children are the Acts which enforce attendance at school. They limit +hours, not by fixing a maximum number of hours during which children may +be employed, but by pursuing the far more effective plan of seeing that +the children are in school, and therefore not in the workshop, during part +of the day. + +Taken together, these Acts provide that children shall be at school, and +consequently not at work, at all times when the schools are opened until +the age of twelve is reached. There is one exception to this regulation: +children may, under a special by-law of the local education authority, be +employed in agriculture at the age of eleven, provided that they attend +school 250 times a year up to the age of thirteen. This exception is of +small importance, as "the number of children who are exempt under this +special by-law seems to be very small, not exceeding apparently 400 in the +whole country." [62] + +Between the ages of twelve and fourteen attendance is compulsory, subject +to a complex scheme of partial or total exemptions, depending on the +by-laws of the local education authority. It rests, for instance, with +each local education authority to decide "whether, as regards children +between twelve and fourteen, they will grant full-time or half-time +exemption, or both, and upon what conditions of attendance or attainments, +always subject, of course, to the fact that the by-laws must be approved +by the Board of Education, and must not clash with any Act regulating the +employment of children." [63] For all practical purposes, it is possible +for the local education authority, if they think fit, to insist on such a +standard of attainment to be reached before exemption is allowed that, +with a few exceptions, relatively insignificant, children are compelled to +attend school until the age of fourteen. It is important to remember that +these Acts limit the employment of children only during times when the +schools are opened. As a general rule, the hours of attendance are +between 9 and 12 in the morning, and between 2 and 4.30 in the afternoon; +while the schools are open on five days a week during some forty-four +weeks in the year. During holidays, and on Saturdays and Sundays, so far +as these Acts are concerned, there is no limit to the numbers of hours a +child may work. + +A further limit is put on the hours children may work by the Employment of +Children Act, 1903. A child under fourteen may not be employed between 9 +p.m. and 6 a.m. This provision is subject to variation by local +by-laws.[64] Local by-laws may prescribe for children under fourteen: +(_a_) The hours between which employment is illegal; (_b_) the number of +daily and weekly hours beyond which employment is illegal; and (_c_) may +permit, subject to conditions, the employment of children in any specified +occupation.[65] + +Under this Act the by-laws of the London County Council provide that a +child liable to attend school shall not be employed on days when the +school is open for more than three and a half hours a day, nor-- + + (_a_) Between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.; + + (_b_) Before 6.30 a.m. or after 9 p.m.; + +and on days when the school is not open-- + + (_a_) Before 6.30 a.m. or after 9 p.m.; + + (_b_) For more than eight hours in any one day. + +On Sundays a child shall not be employed except between the hours of 7 +a.m. and 1 p.m. for a period not exceeding three hours. A child liable to +attend school shall not be employed for more than twenty hours in any week +when the school is open on more than two days, or for more than thirty +hours in any week when the school is open on two days only or less. + +Additional limitations are imposed on the number of hours during which +children may be employed by the Factory and Workshop Act. A child between +"twelve and thirteen, who has reached the standard for total or partial +exemption under the Elementary Education Acts, and consequently may be +employed, must still, if employed in a factory or workshop, attend school +in accordance with the requirements of the Factory Act. So must a child of +thirteen who has not obtained a certificate entitling him to be employed +as a young person." [66] The famous half-time system is not, as sometimes +supposed, a special privilege allowed to workshops and factories. It is +permissible in all forms of occupation in a practically unrestricted +shape. In factories and workshops the conditions are subject to definite +regulations. It is, however, only in factories and workshops, and, indeed, +only in certain trades among these, that the half-time system has much +practical importance. The general regulations, subject, however, to +certain variations, are as follows:[67] Employment must be either in +morning and afternoon sets, or on alternate days The morning set begins +at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m., and ends-- + + (_a_) At one o'clock in the afternoon; or + + (_b_) If the dinner-hour begins before one o'clock, at the beginning + of dinner-time; or + + (_c_) If the dinner-time does not begin before 2 p.m. at noon. + +The afternoon set begins either-- + + (_a_) At 1 p.m. + + (_b_) At any later hour at which the dinner-time terminates; or + + (_c_) If the dinner-hour does not begin before 2 p.m., and the morning + set ends at noon, at noon-- + +and ends at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. + +On Saturdays the period of employment is the same as for young persons--6 +a.m. to 11.30 a.m.--but a child shall not be employed on two successive +Saturdays, nor on Saturday in any week if on any other days in the same +week his period of employment has exceeded five and a half hours. + +A child must not be employed in two successive periods of seven days in +the morning set, nor in two successive periods of seven days in an +afternoon set. + +On the alternate day system, the period of employment is the same as for a +young person--_i.e._, from 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., with two +hours for meals; and on Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., with half an +hour for meals. Under this system a child may not be employed on two +successive days, nor on the same day in two successive weeks. + +Under all the systems a child may not be employed continuously for more +than four and a half hours without an interval of half an hour for +meals.[68] Nor must a child be employed on any one day on the business of +the factory or workshops both inside and outside the factory or +workshop.[69] + +This system of regulation refers to textile factories, but these include +the vast majority of half-timers. The regulations with regard to +non-textile factories and workshops are less rigorous; and in the case of +domestic workshops and factories there is additional relaxation of the +rules. + +The parent or guardian of the half-timer is responsible for the child's +attendance at school. As an additional precaution against truancy, the +employer may not employ the child unless each Monday the child has +obtained from the school a certificate of attendance during the past +week.[70] + +If we take into account the hours worked in the factory and the hours +spent in school, we shall find that the half-timer's week of strenuous +effort is a long and a weary one. "Taking one week with another, the +employment of the half-timer is for twenty-eight and a quarter hours a +week in a textile factory, and thirty in a non-textile factory or +workshop; and as he is in school for thirteen or fourteen hours, his total +week in school and factory is from forty to forty-four hours." [71] + +In view of proposals made later, I have thought desirable to insert in +detail the half-time regulations, in order to show how, in the actual +carrying out of industrial operations, a half-time system can be put into +effect. + +_(c) Protection of Health._ + +There is no law prescribing in all cases the conditions as to buildings, +sanitary arrangements, and safety, under which alone children and young +persons may be employed. There is no law requiring in all cases a medical +certificate from children and young persons to show that they are +physically suited for the employment in which they are engaged. + +It is no doubt true that the buildings in which juveniles are employed +come, in respect of sanitation, drainage, and water-supply, under the +general Public Health Acts. It is no doubt a fact that local building +by-laws occasionally insist on means of escape in case of fire in premises +where more than a certain number of persons are employed. It is likewise +part of the law of the land that, if a lad in the course of his work meets +with a fatal accident, twelve just men and a coroner must sit on the dead +body and investigate the cause. + +But, apart from such regulations, which are not confined to the employment +of juveniles, or, indeed, to employment generally, it is only in special +forms of occupation that there are required additional precautions +designed to protect the health and safety of the workers. Elaborate rules +prescribe the conditions which must be observed in the management of a +railway or a mine. The Shop Hours Act requires that seats should be +provided for shop assistants. Such Acts have in practice only a limited +application in the case of children and young persons, who do not to any +large extent come into the classes affected. + +Here, as in regard to the regulation of hours, the chief Act of importance +is the Factory and Workshop Act. This Act makes careful provision, so far +as premises are concerned, for the health of the workers, juveniles and +adults alike. Whether the provisions are in practice always enforced is a +matter open to some doubt. + +In the case of factories,[72] the outside walls, ceilings, passages, and +staircases must be painted every seven years, and washed every fourteen +months; and in general the premises must be kept clean and free from +effluvia, and the floors properly drained. Ventilation must be adequate, +and all gases, dust, and other impurities generated in the course of work +rendered, so far as is practicable, innocuous to health. In certain cases +the inspector may insist on the provision of ventilating fans. +Overcrowding is prevented by requiring a minimum space in each room of 250 +cubic feet for each person, or during overtime of 400 cubic feet. A +reasonable temperature must be maintained in each room in which any person +is employed. There must be sufficient and suitable supply of sanitary +conveniences. In textile factories a limit is set on the amount of +atmospheric humidity. In certain dangerous or poisonous trades additional +precautions are required. The Secretary of State has large powers of +imposing additional regulations on the one hand, and of granting +exemptions on the other. The authority for enforcing the regulations in +factories is the inspector acting through the Home Office. + +The regulations applicable to workshops do not differ very materially from +those imposed on factories, but the enforcing authority is different. The +authority in the case of workshops is the district or the borough +council--_i.e._, the public health authority. The medical officer of +health and the inspector of nuisances have for this purpose the power of +factory inspectors. A breach of the law on the subject is declared to be a +nuisance, and may be dealt with summarily under the Public Health Acts. +The district or borough council are compelled to keep a register of the +workshops within their area; and the medical officer of health is required +to report annually to the council on the administration of the Factory +Acts in the workshops and workplaces in the district. A copy of this +report must be sent to the Secretary of State, who remains the supreme +authority, and in certain cases of default may authorize a factory +inspector to take the necessary steps for enforcing these provisions, and +recover the expenses from the defaulting council. + +An attempt is also made to regulate the sanitary conditions under which +out-workers are employed. Where provisions are made by the Secretary of +State, the employers concerned are made responsible for the condition of +the places in which his out-workers carry on work. The employer must keep +lists of out-workers. The district council, in cases where the place is +injurious to the health of the out-workers, may take steps to have the +evil remedied or the employment stopped. + +The Act requires machinery to be properly fenced, and special precautions +to be taken in cleaning machinery in motion. Children may not clean any +part of machinery in motion, or any place under such machinery other than +a overhead gearing. Children and young persons may not be allowed to work +between the fixed and traversing parts of a self-acting machine while the +machine is in motion. + +When there occurs in a factory or workshop any accident which either (_a_) +causes loss of life to a person employed in the factory or workshop, or +(_b_) causes to a person employed in the factory or workshop such bodily +injury as to prevent him on any one of the three working days after the +occurrence of the accident from being employed for five hours on his +ordinary work, written notice shall forthwith be sent to the inspector for +the district. + +In the case of new factories erected since January 1, 1892, and of new +workshops erected since January 1, 1896, in which more than forty persons +are employed, a certificate must be obtained from the local authority for +building by-laws, stating that reasonable provision for escape has been +made in case of fire. With regard to older factories and workshops, the +local authority must satisfy itself that reasonable means of escape are +provided. From these regulations it will be seen that precautions guarding +the health of boys are taken in the case of factories and workshops. There +are rules, there is an enforcing and inspecting authority, and there is +required a report in all cases of serious accident. But, with one +exception, no steps are taken to test the adequacy of the precautions by a +periodic medical examination of children and young persons, or to prevent +the employment of certain individuals who are physically unfit for the +work. + +The exception is important, and observes attention, because it indicates a +possible line of reform. "In a factory a young person under the age of +sixteen, or a child, must not be employed ... unless the occupier of the +factory has obtained a certificate, in the prescribed form, of the fitness +of the young person or child for employment in that factory. When a child +becomes a young person, a fresh certificate of fitness must be +obtained." [73] A certifying surgeon is appointed for each district. "He +must certify that the person named in the certificate is of the age +therein specified, and has been personally examined by him, and is not +incapacitated by disease or bodily infirmity for working daily for the +time allowed by law in the factory." [74] "The certificate may be qualified +by conditions as to the work on which a child or young person is fit to be +employed," and the employer must observe such conditions.[75] The surgeon +has power to examine any process in which the child or young person is +employed.[76] A factory inspector who is of opinion that any young person +or child is unsuited on the ground of health for the employment on which +he is engaged may order his dismissal, unless the certifying surgeon, +after examination, shall again certify him as fit.[77] + +This provision only applies to young persons under the age of sixteen, and +to children. It does not, moreover, apply to workshops. In the case of +workshops, the employer may obtain, if he thinks fit, a certificate from +the certifying surgeon.[78] The Secretary of State has, however, power to +extend the regulation to certain classes of workshops, if he considers the +extension desirable.[79] + +In these cases, and these cases alone, is it necessary to call in the +doctor to certify the physical fitness of the boy for the employment in +which he is engaged. But under the Employment of Children Act, 1903, taken +in conjunction with the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, +it is possible to extend considerably the system of medical tests. Under +the first of these Acts, which applies to children under the age of +fourteen-- + +"Sect. 3 (4). A child shall not be employed to lift, carry, or move +anything so heavy as to be likely to cause injury to the child. + +"(5) A child shall not be employed in any occupation likely to be +injurious to his life, limb, health, or education, regard being had to his +physical condition. + +"(6) If the local authority send a certificate to the employer saying that +certain employment will injure the child, the certificate shall be +admissible as evidence in any subsequent proceedings against the employer +in respect of the employment of the child." + +If the child has left school--and under certain conditions a child can +leave school at the age of twelve--it is not easy to see how the local +authority can enforce these provisions. But with children attending +school, whole or part time, circumstances are different. Medical +inspection of school-children is now compulsory, and it is within the +power of the education authority to inspect any such children.[80] They +are therefore at liberty to examine any children known to be at work, and +any certificate of "unfitness" sent to an employer would probably be +effective. + +Further, under the Employment of Children Act, Sects. 1 and 2, a local +authority may make by-laws permitting, subject to conditions, the +employment of children under the age of fourteen in any specified +occupation; and in the case of "street trading" the age is extended to +sixteen. It would be possible therefore, subject to the approval of the +Secretary of State, to make by-laws requiring a medical certificate of +fitness in certain forms of occupation in which children under the age of +fourteen are engaged. + +Sec. 2. STATE ENTERPRISE. + +In the preceding sections the State has played a passive part in the +supervision of the boy. It has contented itself with giving orders to +others, and with taking some more or less inadequate steps to see that its +commands are obeyed, but has directly done nothing itself. We are now to +see the State assuming duties of its own, and appearing as the active +guardian of the child. Individual or voluntary effort having failed, it +has been driven, at first reluctantly, but later with increasing +readiness, to fill the gap. + +The State has now made itself directly responsible for providing schools +for the children of the nation. The schools play an important part in the +supervision of character. Attendance at school may be either compulsory or +voluntary. The law of compulsory attendance has already been stated.[81] +As a rule children must attend school till they reach the age of twelve, +and under local by-laws can in general be retained till they reach the age +of fourteen. In certain cases, important from the point of view of +discipline, the period of compulsory attendance can be prolonged. Children +under fourteen found begging, or wandering without home, or under the care +of a criminal or drunken guardian, or in general living in surroundings +likely to lead to crime, may be brought before a magistrate and sent to an +industrial school.[82] Here they are boarded and lodged, and may be kept +there up to the age of sixteen, after which time the managers of the +school have duties of supervision for a further period of two years, with +power of recall if desirable. Children who are truants or are convicted of +criminal offences can be treated in the same way. + +For the majority of boys State guardianship is confined to the years of +compulsory attendance. But a considerable number continue their education +in various ways, and so remain under some sort of supervision. Children +may remain at the elementary school till the close of the school year in +which they attain the age of fifteen. The education authority has power to +provide and aid secondary and trade schools, and to make these +institutions accessible by means of scholarships; and secondary schools, +if in receipt of grants from the Board of Education, must in general +reserve a quarter of the places for pupils whose parents cannot afford to +pay fees. The education authority has power to provide evening +continuation classes for those who desire to avail themselves of the +opportunities thus afforded. Those who choose to attend these places of +higher education continue in some degree under the supervision of the +State. + +But the supervision of the State through its schools is not confined to +the supervision of conduct. The education authority now exercises +important duties in connection with the health of the children in the +elementary schools. It is now obligatory on every education authority to +inspect medically all children on their admission to school, and at such +other times as may be prescribed by the Board of Education.[83] In their +original memorandum to education authorities the Board of Education +required these inspections--on admission to school, and at the ages of +seven and ten.[84] These regulations have not at present been enforced, +but the London County Council has now adopted a scheme which practically +embodies them. The local education authority is empowered, with the +consent of the Board of Education, to make arrangement for attending to +the health of the children.[85] Medical inspection is compulsory, medical +treatment optional. Further, the local education authority may draw on the +rates to feed school-children, whether their parents are destitute or not, +provided it is satisfied that the children, for lack of food, are unable +to profit by the instruction given.[86] + +Finally, the local education authority may receive into its day industrial +schools children at the request of their parents, who must pay towards the +expense such sum as may be fixed by the Secretary of State.[87] + +It will be seen that, acting through the local education authorities, the +State has now assumed large duties in connection with the supervision of +children. To submit to the discipline of the schools the vast majority of +the children of the county; to examine medically all children in these +schools; to feed the necessitous children, and to treat medically the +ailing children in the elementary schools; to remove and provide for until +the age of sixteen unfortunate children exposed to an unfavourable +environment--these are powers which constitute no small measure of State +enterprise. + + +II. + +STATE TRAINING. + +Training that shall fit a boy for a trade is of two kinds, general and +special. The first must develop those mental qualities of alertness, +intelligence, and adaptability required in all forms of occupation; the +second must give definite instruction in the principles and practice of +some particular industry or branch of industries. For the first provision +is made in the elementary school system, with its powers of compelling +attendance. For the second we must look to the various types of +continuation school. Here, under existing conditions, the State can only +offer facilities; it cannot enforce attendance.[88] + +Since the passing of the Education Act, 1902 and 1903, progress has been +marked in both directions. The old "voluntary" schools, whose rolls +contained the names of half the scholars in the country, and whose limited +funds constituted an impassable barrier to all advance, are now maintained +out of the rates; and the gap between non-provided and council schools is +closing up. The breaking up of the small School Boards and the +establishment of larger authorities controlling all forms of education +have made for efficiency, while the merging of educational matters in the +general municipal work is insuring that practical criticism of his schemes +which the educationalist always resents but always requires. + +_(a) The Elementary School._ + +It is obvious that, with the variety of children every school contains and +their tender age, no definite trade training can be given in the +elementary school. On the other hand, we have advanced far beyond the old +educational ideal of providing a common and uniform type of instruction in +the common school. Types of school are being multiplied to meet the needs +of different kinds of pupils. Provision has long since been supplied for +the mentally and physically defective, and serious attempts are now being +made to break up and classify that huge group which includes the so-called +normal child. In addition to the varying types of elementary school which +are in process of being adapted to the differing needs of the locality, +and the different classes of child, we have, under the elementary school +system, what is known as the "higher elementary school." Originally a +school specializing in science and of little value, it is tending to +become, under the more recent regulations of the Board of Education, a +school where a definite bias, either in the direction of commerce or +industry, is given to the curriculum. It is true that the number of +schools called "higher elementary" shows little signs of increase.[89] +This is due to the rigid and inflexible rules of the Board of Education, +which seem expressly designed to kill, and not to encourage, the +experiment. But while the name is being dropped, the thing is being +preserved and multiplied. London, for example, has recently adopted a +scheme for the development of sixty of these types of school, to be called +"central schools." The curriculum of each school is determined after +taking into account the industrial needs of the neighbourhood in which it +is placed. The education given is general in character, but the selection +of subjects has special reference to some profession or group of trades. +Broadly speaking, there are two general types of school, the commercial +and the industrial. The industrial type is already subdivided into the +woodwork and the engineering type, and further subdivisions will gradually +be formed. In these schools no attempt will be made to teach a trade, but +such subjects are included in the curriculum as will be found useful in +the trade. In the woodwork type, for example, in addition to a +considerable amount of time devoted to practical instruction in woodwork, +special attention is given to the kinds of arithmetic and drawing required +by the intelligent carpenter. An elaborate scheme for picking out between +the ages of eleven and twelve the children suitable for these different +kinds of school has been drawn up. A four years' course of instruction is +provided for. In order to induce the poorer parents to allow their +children to remain beyond the age of compulsory attendance, the education +committee offers bursaries, thereby exercising that negative form of +compulsion technically known as a bribe. Other education authorities are +establishing schools with similar aims. The experiments are recent, and +mark an important and new development. Two advantages are anticipated. +First, the variety in the types of school and the careful selection of +scholars will promote intelligence by providing that particular kind of +educational nutriment best adapted for encouraging the growth of a +particular order of mind. Secondly, by guiding the interests of boys in +the direction of various occupations, it is hoped that on leaving school +these interests will lead the boys to enter those occupations for which to +some extent they have been prepared, and in which they are most likely to +succeed. The elementary schools, as a body, will thus become a kind of +sorting-house for the different trades, and be freed from that charge, to +some extent justified, of catering only for the lower ranks of the +clerical profession. + +_(b) The Continuation School._ + +It is becoming year by year more generally recognized that a system of +education which comes to an end somewhere about the age of fourteen is +incomplete and profoundly unsatisfactory. Without attendance at a +continuation school of some kind, a boy rapidly loses much of the effect +of his previous education, and at the same time is deprived of all +opportunity of enjoying the advantages of a more specialized training. To +meet this need a complex system of continuation school has grown up. It +lacks, however, the element of compulsion, except that negative form +already alluded to--the bribe of a scholarship. Looking at the machinery +as a whole, it may be admitted that the State does afford considerable +opportunity to those anxious to continue their general education, or to +obtain some specific form of technical instruction. Whether sufficient use +is made of this opportunity is a question that must be answered in the +following chapter. But taking the machinery as a whole, and as it exists +under the best education authorities, the machinery does touch to some +extent the principal trades and professions.[90] + +1. Provision is gradually being made for those likely to succeed in the +higher branches of industry and commerce. The number of secondary schools +is being increased, their quality improved, and their types varied. +Technical institutes providing day and evening classes of an advanced +character are being rapidly multiplied. University instruction, aided out +of public funds, is becoming more plentiful and efficient, and, whether +during the day or in the evening, is year by year offering larger +opportunities to students. Progress is especially marked in the faculties +of economics and technology. Scholarship systems, more or less +incomplete, make access to these institutions possible for the poorer +classes of the community. The trend of development seems to suggest that a +system of organization, calculated to provide training for the highest +positions in the industrial and commercial world, is developing along the +following lines: + +Between the ages of eleven and twelve the brightest children will be +transferred from the elementary to the secondary school. The secondary +school will provide a course of instruction extending to the age of +eighteen. Broadly speaking, there will be three types of secondary school, +the first giving a general and literary education, the second specializing +in commerce, and the third in some branch of science and technology. At +the age of eighteen the suitable students will be removed to the +University, where they will receive a three or four years' course of +instruction suitable to the profession they are intending to enter. It is +probable that at the age of fourteen there will be an additional, though +smaller, transfer of children from the elementary schools, in order that +provision may be made for those who have slipped through the meshes of the +scholarship net at the first casting. Scholarships with liberal +maintenance grants will make readily accessible to all who are fit the +advantages of a prolonged education. Evening classes, leading even to a +degree, will remain for those who, for one reason or another, have failed +to obtain in their earlier years the advanced instruction they now +require. + +An organization of this kind is not at present found anywhere in its +complete form, but it is sufficiently complete in certain directions to be +considered here, where we are concerned with attainments, and not reserved +for a later chapter, where we shall be examining new paths of progress. + +2. For those likely later to fill the position of foreman, or to become +the best kind of artisan, the day trade school is provided. The boys enter +the trade school on leaving the elementary school about the age of +fourteen or fifteen, and go through a two and sometimes a three years' +course of instruction. These schools continue the education of the boy, +with special reference to the trade concerned, and at the same time devote +a large amount of time to supplying an all-round training in the various +skilled operations the trade requires. They are essentially practical in +character, and this practical character is often assured by a committee of +employers, who visit the school and criticize the methods of instruction. + +3. For those already apprenticed to, or engaged in, the trade two forms of +instruction are provided. The most satisfactory are the classes attended +during the day. Attendance at such times can only be secured by inducing +the employers to allow their lads time off during working hours. In some +cases the element of compulsion is introduced by the employers, who make +attendance at such classes a condition of employment. The other form of +instruction is provided during the evening at a technical institute. In +either case the instruction is of a practical nature, and designed to +supplement the training of the workshop. + +4. For those who have entered, or desire to enter, the lower walks of +commerce, or the civil or municipal service, there is the evening school +of a commercial type, usually held in the building of an elementary +school. + +5. Of the boys who, engaged in unskilled work during the day, are anxious +to continue their general education or to improve their position, the +evening school again supplies the need. Some practical work is done in the +woodwork or metal centres, but the limited equipment of the elementary +school stands in the way of any advanced technical instruction. If we omit +the commercial classes, already mentioned, attendance at an evening school +often means little more than attendance once a week at a class where +instruction is given in a single subject, and not infrequently the +recreative element is predominant. Recently, and with considerable +success, the "course" system has been introduced. Here the students, +instead of being present at a single class once a week, attend on several +evenings during the week, and go through a course of instruction in +several subjects connected together and leading up to some definite goal. + +If to these various types of continuation school we add the large number +of lectures on numerous subjects, we shall see that the State through its +schools supplies a considerable amount of technical instruction. It would +be false to say that the boys receive all the training that they need, but +it would not be beyond the mark to assert that in the case of many +education authorities they are afforded all, and not infrequently more +than all, the opportunities for which they ask. It is the demand, and not +the supply, that is deficient. + + +III. + +STATE PROVISION OF AN OPENING. + +Until the year 1910 the provision of openings in suitable occupations was +not considered among the duties of the State. It is true that here and +there, usually in co-operation with voluntary associations, an education +committee made some attempt to place out in trades the boys about to leave +school. But any expenditure in this direction was illegal, and under no +circumstances was it possible to do anything for those who had already +left school. But in the year 1910 the State, without premeditation, has +found itself committed to the duty of finding openings for children and +juveniles. The revolution was upon us before we had seen the signs of its +approach. + +This assumption of a new duty was the unforeseen result of the +establishment of Labour Exchanges. The Act of 1909 thought nothing, said +nothing, about juveniles. It was passed as a measure intended to deal with +the problem of adult unemployment. Now, there is no problem of +unemployment in connection with boys and youths; the demand of employers +for this kind of labour appears insatiable. Nevertheless, no sooner were +Labour Exchanges opened, than the question of juveniles came to the +front. Employers asked for juveniles, and the managers of the local Labour +Exchange, eager to meet the wishes of the employer, searched for and found +juveniles. Enthusiastic about his work, and prompted by the laudable +desire to show large returns of vacancies filled, it did not occur to him +that the problem of the juvenile and the problem of the adult had little +in common. He was not permitted to remain long in this condition of +primitive ignorance. Questions were asked in the House, letters were +written to the papers, deputations waited on the President of the Board of +Trade, all complaining that the Labour Exchange was becoming an engine for +the exploitation of boy labour. In the case of adults, no bargain as to +conditions was struck with the employer; the man had to make his own +terms. But the boy could not make his own terms, and public opinion had +for some years been uneasy about the increasing employment of boys in +occupations restricted to boys, and leading to no permanent situation when +the years of manhood were reached. Returns showed that it was largely into +situations of this character that lads were being thrust by the Labour +Exchange. The Board of Trade rapidly realized the evil, and set itself to +work to repair the unforeseen mistake. It wisely decided to grapple +seriously with the problem, and did not, as it might well have done, +restrict the Labour Exchange to adults. + +It determined to appoint Advisory Committees to deal with juveniles. In +London the following machinery is in process of being established: There +is a Central Advisory Committee, consisting of six members nominated by +the Board of Trade, six by the London County Council, and six by the +committee of employers and trade unionists, who advise the Board of Trade +on questions of adult employment. The duty of this Central Committee is to +advise the Board of Trade as to the appointment of the local Advisory +Committees, which will be formed to control the juvenile department in +connection with each of the London Labour Exchanges. It will also be the +duty of the Central Advisory Committee to advise generally on questions +affecting the employment of juveniles. Though the duties of this committee +are nominally advisory, its work will in practice become administrative in +character. Here then is an organization which in course of time will +probably have to deal with the problem of finding suitable occupations for +the child and juvenile population of London. Similar bodies are being +formed in other towns. As will appear later, this is one of the most +important social questions of the day. How these committees will do their +work only the future can show. But if the Board of Trade act liberally in +matters of expenditure, there is no cause for despondency, and we may well +hope that, by the purest of accidents, we are on the threshold of a new +era in the history of industrial organization. Chance is not always blind, +and some of its wild castings hit the mark. + +Such, in broad outline, have been the achievements of the State during the +age of reconstruction, so far as concerns the problem of boy labour and +apprenticeship. Guided by sentiment, partial and limited in the sphere of +its operations, the State has yet drifted far from the moorings of +_laissez-faire_, and is destined to drift farther as the years go by. + +How far the intricate machinery, slowly pieced together during the last +three-quarters of a century, is successful when judged by results, what +are its more serious defects, and what should be the lines of future +advance, before the establishment of a real apprenticeship system, it will +be the object of the following chapters to explain. But one truth should +now be abundantly clear: of the three essential factors of that system, +not one has been altogether neglected by the State, and in certain +departments its guardianship has been widely extended. In the department +of supervision it has, through its schools, created an organization to +watch over and to control the conduct of all its children; it has recently +recognized through the same agency its duty to provide for them at least +the elements of physical well-being; and through numerous Acts it has +endeavoured to insure for the boy worker a minimum standard--low, indeed, +but still real--of proper conditions of employment. In the department of +training it has covered the land with a network of educational +institutions, which offer to all the possibilities of nearly every kind of +instruction. While, as regards the provision of an opening, it has +realized the urgency of the problem, and has taken the first steps to +supply the deficiency. These are all, in spite of many shortcomings, solid +achievements, hopeful in the present, and more hopeful for the promise +they bring of a larger measure of State guardianship in the years that are +to come. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +APPRENTICESHIP OF TO-DAY + + +A true apprenticeship system, as already explained, must satisfy three +conditions: It must guarantee the adequate supervision of the youth of the +country as regards physical and moral development until the age of +eighteen at least is reached; it must supply means of effective training, +both general and specialized; and, finally, it must provide to those about +to cross the threshold of manhood an opening in some form of occupation +for which definite preparation has been given. The efficiency of the +industrial organization of to-day must be judged by the extent to which +these three conditions are satisfied. + +To what extent does the apprenticeship of to-day satisfy the conditions of +a true apprenticeship system? To answer this question we must look far +beyond the narrow limits of indentured apprenticeship as it still exists. +It touches only a fringe, and a vanishing fringe, of the problem. Life for +the youth has grown more complex since the passing of the old organization +of the gilds; its success or failure is the outcome of the interplay of +numerous forces. Four factors contribute, in a more or less degree, to the +result. There is the contribution of the State--the last chapter was +concerned with the description of the machinery which has slowly been set +up during the age of reconstruction--we have yet to test its influence in +the actual working; there is the contribution of philanthropic enterprise, +as represented in the religious bodies, the clubs, the apprenticeship +associations, and skilled employment committees; there is the contribution +of the home, with its discipline and training; and, finally, there is the +contribution of the workshop, using this term to include all forms of +occupation, with the methods of entry and the organization for securing a +supply of labour. Only when we have taken into account the effects of +these four factors can we pass judgment on the apprenticeship of to-day. + + +I. + +THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE STATE. + +In estimating the contribution of the State towards apprenticeship of +to-day, it will be convenient, as in the last chapter, to trace the effect +of this influence in two sections, the one devoted to a survey of the +results of State regulation, and the other to an examination of the +achievements of State enterprise. + +Sec. 1. STATE REGULATION. + +In its scheme of regulation the State has aimed, broadly speaking, at +securing three results. It has endeavoured to prevent boys from being +overworked or wrongly worked; it has sought to guard them from being +engaged in demoralizing forms of employment; and it has striven to secure +satisfactory conditions within the walls of the workshop. + +The third task presents the fewest difficulties. Medical science is +sufficiently advanced to prescribe the conditions as to ventilation, +heating, sanitation, and cubic contents essential to the health of the +boys. The sad catalogue of accidents is sufficiently long to show where +danger, through inadequately guarded machinery, is probable. To enforce +the necessary regulations is comparatively easy. There must be a suitable +number of inspectors, and these inspectors must be specially trained for +their work. Neither condition is at present fulfilled. The staff of +inspectors is much too small, and the inspectors themselves frequently +lack the requisite technical qualifications. + +In the work of guarding boys from being engaged in occupations +demoralizing to character, the State has only recently taken the first +steps. The Employment of Children Act prohibits street trading under +certain conditions. As will appear later in this chapter, there are a +large number of occupations where regulation is much required. Indeed, it +is a comparatively new idea that the nature of the employment of the boy +may have a profound influence on the well-being of the man. + +In the department of regulation the most elaborate machinery has grown up +around the attempts of the State to prevent boys from being overworked or +wrongly worked. The difficulties in the way of success have been two. +There has been the difficulty in getting the necessary law passed. In this +respect it is enough to mention that the "half-time" system, in spite of +practically universal condemnation, is still permitted, to show the almost +insurmountable obstacles presented by vested interests. There is next the +difficulty of enforcing the law. It is often urged that it is idle to +place on the statute-book laws which can easily be evaded. Too much weight +must not, however, be given to this argument. There is a moral effect in +the passing of every law. The fact that the State has condemned certain +modes of action is an important factor in the formation of public opinion. +Many people realize for the first time that the evils which are the result +of conduct hitherto regarded as harmless, because not regarded at all, are +sufficiently serious to call for State interference. The law may not have +its full effect; it will without doubt have some effect. + +The question of enforcement is, however, of vital importance, and it is +well to consider the limits of the power of enforcement. + +The best method of restricting the hours of employment is to see that the +boy is somewhere else during part of the working day. The half-time +system, which insured that the boy should spend half his time in school, +was established, not primarily with a view to his education, but to +prevent him from being overworked. It has, moreover, from its point of +view, been completely successful, and has in practice been enforced +without difficulty. The various laws relating to compulsory attendance at +school have exercised an influence more potent in the work of limiting +the hours of employment than all the other elaborate regulations on the +subject. If we see to it that a boy is in school, he cannot at the same +time be found in the factory. The machinery for enforcing attendance now +runs without difficulty, and its action is uniform and comprehensive. + +The next method of restricting employment is the method of prohibition. +Here, again, enforcement presents no serious difficulty. If we forbid +children under a certain age to work for wages or to take part in certain +forms of occupation, it is enough to find them so engaged at any one +moment to secure a conviction. + +The third method, which seeks to prevent boys from being overworked by +setting a limit on the number of hours during which they may be employed, +is almost impossible to carry out. The Shop Hours Act is frequently +infringed, and only the most rigid system of inspection can get evidence +of cases of infringement. Yet even here detection is comparatively easy. A +watch can be kept on the number of hours during which a shop is open, and +if this exceed the legal limit we have a fair presumption that the shop +assistants are over-employed. But in the case of children we cannot draw +this conclusion. We are supposing their hours are more limited than in the +case of the adults, and the mere fact that the shop is open during a +longer period affords no proof that the child is there all the day on all +days of the week. To enforce regulations of this kind we must set a watch +on the individual child, and on a large scale this is impracticable. + +In judging of the results of State regulation, as described in the +preceding chapter, we may assume that the regulations are enforced--or at +any rate are enforceable--where employment is prohibited, or where +attendance at school is required, but that regulations which entail the +counting of hours have little effect in preventing overwork except by the +indirect method of forming public opinion. Further, when we are seeking a +path of reform, we must take the road of prohibition or alternative +attendance at school. + +Leaving general considerations, and coming to details, it may be said +that, so far as children under the age of fourteen are concerned, the +system of State regulation, though a little cumbersome, covers a +considerable part of the field, provided always that local education +authorities make full use of the powers conferred by the Education Acts, +the School Attendance Acts, the Children Act, and the Employment of +Children Act, and provided also that the Board of Education and the Home +Office render full and cordial support. Unfortunately, these provisos are +very far from being fulfilled. More than 58 per cent. of the population, +for example, live in districts where the attendance by-laws allow of +conditional exemption at the age of twelve. + +It is true that in nearly half the cases a fairly high standard of +attainment is required from the children, but with the remainder no higher +standard is required than that reached by the normal child at the age of +twelve.[91] Or, again, in connection with the Employment of Children Act, +out of seventy-four county boroughs, fifty have made by-laws in reference +to street trading, but large towns, like Leeds, Nottingham, or Salford, +have made none. Out of 191 smaller boroughs and urban districts, only +forty-one have made by-laws; and out of the sixty-two administrative +counties, other than London and Middlesex, only one.[92] It may fairly be +assumed that, where no by-laws relating to street trading exist, little is +done to enforce the other provisions of the Act. + +As regards young persons, if we exclude the Acts relating to mines, which +affect a comparatively small number of lads, the Shop Hours Act, with its +mild provisions of seats for assistants and a maximum week of seventy-four +hours, the only Act which can be said to exert a large measure of +supervision is the Factory and Workshop Act. Assuming that the system of +regulation there found is adequate, and adequately enforced--both +assumptions far from being fulfilled in practice--there remain the young +persons who do not come within its provisions. The number of these is very +large. In the next chapter figures are given relating to the occupations +of London children on leaving school and between the ages of fifteen and +twenty. A study of these tables will show that not more than at most a +third of the young persons are brought within the scope of the Factory +and Workshop Act. A large proportion of the lads engaged in the building +trades, and practically the whole of those employed in shops, in +transport, in commerce, and in general labour, are excluded. In their case +there is no State supervision to regulate the conditions of their work. + +Coming to concrete examples, the van-boy may in all kinds of weather spend +a dozen hours a day lolling on the tail of a cart, idle for much of his +time, and for the remainder holding the horses outside a public-house, or +lifting weights too heavy for his strength. The errand-boy, none too well +clad or shod, may, delivering parcels and messages, trudge through the +cold and rain over long leagues of streets during long stretches of the +week. The office-boy may be cooped up in a dark and ill-ventilated office +during most of the hours of daylight. The shop-boy may stand ten, twelve, +or on Saturdays fifteen hours of the twenty-four in the street or in the +shop, with one eye on the goods and the other on a penny novelette. And +there is no public authority to say whether the conditions of his +employment are satisfactory, no power to have him medically inspected, no +possible guarantee to insure that when he passes the threshold of early +manhood the vigour and the brightness of youth shall not have given way to +the feeble health and the torpor of old age. Unquestionably, we owe much +to sentiment for the evils it has denounced and remedied, but we owe also +to the regime of sentiment the fact that some two-thirds of the young +persons in the country are engaged in occupations carried on without +regulation and unvisited by any inspector of the State. + +Sec. 2. STATE ENTERPRISE. + +The most signal example of State enterprise in the realm of boy labour is +to be found in that huge organization of schools, elementary and +continuation, which now cover the country, and whose efficiency is rapidly +increasing. The organization has already been described; it remains to +summarize briefly its principal effects. First, the boys attend school +with astonishing regularity. An average percentage of attendances during +the year of ninety-five, and even more, is become common. Truancy is rare, +and growing rarer. The truant schools are being gradually emptied, and +several have been closed. This result is no doubt in part due to the +increased fine for non-attendance, and the pressure thus placed on the +parent. But excellent attendance implies much more than the elimination of +the truant; it means that, after making allowance for absences due to +illness and other sufficient causes, the boy attends school with perfect +regularity and punctuality at all times when the schools are opened. Now, +this ideal is in the case of the vast majority of boys attained. The +result must be attributed to the influence of the teachers over the boy. +Prosecution of the parent may cure gross irregularity, but perfect +attendance can only be secured by enlisting the co-operation of the boy. +The first effect of the school, then, is seen in the almost unqualified +regularity and punctuality of the attendance. If we reflect on the home +conditions of many of the boys, we shall be compelled to pay a high +tribute of praise to the work of the teacher. The second achievement lies +in the admirable order maintained within the walls of the school. Ready +obedience is the rule, and not the exception. This is in general not the +result of a system of harsh discipline--corporal punishment is decreasing +at once in severity and in frequency--it is due to the personal influence +of the teacher. In the third place, a spirit of industry and active +attention pervades the work of the school. In discussing with the +authorities of secondary schools the career of the children who have won +scholarships from the elementary schools, I have more than once been told +that the chief characteristic of these scholars lies in their patient and +strenuous diligence. In this respect they serve as an admirable example to +the fee-paying pupils. It is true that the scholars are picked children, +but ability and diligence are, as experience shows, by no means +inseparable companions. Here, again, we see the effect of the school. +Finally, the schools are institutions which make for character in the best +sense of the word. The moral training is gradually freeing itself from the +"do and don't" of the home, and is beginning to reach the higher level of +morality where the command is "to be this, not that." A standard of school +honour is being sought for, and sometimes attained. To take a single +example. In what is perhaps the poorest school in all London, set in the +most squalid and vice-haunted region, it has been made a matter of honour +with the boys who are receiving school dinners to come to the headmaster +as soon as the home circumstances temporarily improve and say: "I don't +want a dinner this morning, because father has got a day's work." + +Habits of regularity, obedience, and industry, and the cultivation of a +sense of honour--these are the chief results of State supervision carried +out by means of the schools. Two questions require an answer: Do these +qualities, found within the precincts of the school, overflow and affect +the conduct of the boys outside the school? Do they last when school-days +are over, and the boys gone out to work? With regard to the first, there +is good reason to believe that they do overflow. The school training does +influence the conduct of the boys outside. No one who has watched a +zealous headmaster replace an ancient and inefficient teacher of the old +type can fail to have observed a striking change in the behaviour of the +boys as seen in the street and in the home. With regard to the second +question, we must reply that undoubtedly in many cases the qualities +gradually disappear. When we come, as we shall do shortly, to the survey +of the conditions of boy labour, we shall not be surprised at this +unfortunate truth. It would be difficult to imagine any form of training +that would be permanent when all discipline is relaxed or entirely +discontinued at the most critical period of the development of the boy. + +The elementary school is now made responsible for the supervision of the +health of the children. Medical inspection of all children is now +compulsory, while medical treatment is made legal. The education authority +may also draw on the rates to provide meals for necessitous children. It +is too soon to estimate the effect of these new powers, but if they are +used with wise generosity they should exercise a profound influence on the +health of the rising generation. + +But however beneficent may be the influence of the elementary school, it +comes to an end abruptly at the age of fourteen, and often a year or two +earlier. Up to the age of leaving school, the boy is carefully guarded by +the State, and then, with no transitional stage, he becomes a man, and, so +far as the State is concerned, all control is withdrawn. Two or three per +cent., with the help of scholarships, may pass annually to the secondary +school, where State supervision is continued. Not more than 30 per cent. +of those who leave the elementary school attend an evening school,[93] and +even if they do there is no medical inspection in such places, and little +effective discipline is possible for boys attending evening school on two +or three nights a week. The remaining two-thirds disappear from the sight +of the State, which henceforth renounces all responsibility for their +supervision. + +We have next to regard the schools as training-grounds for the workmen of +the future. We ought not to look to the elementary schools to provide any +definite preparation for a trade. Unfortunately, through no fault of +their own, and because of the industrial development of the day, the +schools are turning out in thousands lads completely equipped for a +certain class of occupation. We have already seen that the most signal +triumph of the schools is to be found in the habits of regularity, +intelligence, and obedience, which they impress on the boys. Now, these +qualities are essential to success in all walks of life; but for one form +of employment alone are they all that is required. This form of employment +includes those occupations in which boys and boys only are engaged, and +where the boys are discharged as soon as they become men. The +messenger-boy, the shop-boy, the van-boy, and even the boy who attends to +some machine which monotonously performs a single operation--the boy who +comes into one of these classes need take with him nothing but the three +recommendations of regularity, obedience, and intelligence. We shall trace +later the disastrous effects of these forms of employment. It is not +without significance that the rapid increase in the number of boys so +engaged has synchronized with the rapid improvement in the system of +elementary education. It is something of a tragedy that the most signal +triumph of the schools should be, perhaps, the cause of their most signal +failure. + +Definite training must be looked for in the continuation school. It is +unnecessary to add much to what has been said in the last chapter; the +State offers opportunity, but with its existing powers can do little more. +Speaking generally, for the child of comparatively well-to-do parents, +for the clever child, for the child of unusual energy and physical vigour, +these opportunities can be enjoyed; but for the remainder--and that the +great majority--they are useless, because beyond the reach of ordinary +endeavour. + +Of State enterprise in the provision of an opening it is too early to +speak; the juvenile branch of the Labour Exchange is only creeping into +existence. In the next chapter an attempt will be made to explain how best +can be realized the possibilities which lie latent in these institutions. + +Sec. 3. SUMMARY. + +We are now in a position to summarize the achievements and the defects of +the contribution of the State towards the creation of a true +apprenticeship system. Its machinery of regulation has removed the worst +abuses of child labour, and in certain departments of industry protects, +with some degree of success, the health of the young persons engaged. Its +enterprise in the field of education is providing supervision over the +health and conduct of the boy till he reaches the age of fourteen, while +for the young person it offers opportunities of longer supervision and +technical training. + +If much has been done, much more remains undone. Regulation still leaves +rampant many of the evils of child labour. Some two-thirds of the boys as +they leave school enter occupations where regulation hardly exists. State +enterprise for all practical purposes exerts no supervision over lads +between the ages of fourteen and eighteen--the most important epoch of +their lives. Technical training, and even the continuance of general +education, are possible only for a favoured few, and for the present there +is no State provision of an opening. + +These are grave defects, and apprenticeship of to-day stands condemned +unless it can be shown that one or other of the remaining factors supply +what the State has failed to give. + + +II. + +THE CONTRIBUTION OF PHILANTHROPY. + +The second of the general forces, as distinguished from the individual and +special influences of the home and the workshop, which may make some +contribution towards the apprenticeship of to-day must be sought among the +varied religious and philanthropic associations. While we could not expect +from these bodies any assistance in the work of technical training, we +might hope to find in their midst conditions which make for the better +supervision and control of the lads who have left school. + +Beginning with the more distinctly religious associations, we find among +them practical unanimity of opinion. One and all confess sadly that they +are unable to keep in touch with the boys after they have gone out to +work. For the tens of thousands of schoolboys who attend Sunday-school +there are only hundreds of lads on the roll of Bible-classes. The sudden +change from the status of schoolboy to the status of wage-earner, which +for the majority severed all connection with the education authority, has +even more decisively brought to an end the supervision of church and +chapel. + +The miscellaneous associations represented by clubs, lads' brigades, boy +scouts, and the like, have all been called into existence for the express +purpose of exerting some measure of control over that transition period of +life which separates the boy from the man. How many lads between the ages +of fourteen and eighteen come within the sphere of influence it is not +possible to say with any exactness. The Twentieth Century League estimated +in 1903 that in London about 27,780 boys were connected with institutions +of this character, and we shall see later that there are in London about +120,000 boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. + +It would be no less difficult to weigh the value of the work done. +Existing as they do on a voluntary basis, and free from all element of +compulsion, such supervision as they exert must take the form of tactful +guidance. Their success or failure depends less on the machinery and more +on the personal qualities of the manager. The wide and admirable influence +of the best clubs is the triumph, not of the system, but of the +exceptional individual. Exceptional individuals are, it must be +remembered, exceptional, and an organization which depends on their +presence is necessarily limited in the extent of its operations. We cannot +therefore look to these associations to meet adequately the call for +supervision. + +Of recent years numerous associations have been formed with the object of +providing suitable openings for boys. There are two sides to their work. +On the one hand, situations are found, terms made with employers as to +wages and training, and steps taken to see that these terms are carried +out. On the other hand, periodic visits are paid to the boy in his home, +advice given as to attendance at evening schools, and friendly relations +established between boy and visitor. In general, these bodies are +concerned with placing out lads in skilled trades, though here and there +some attempts have been made to attack the better parts of the unskilled +labour market. Work of this character entails the expenditure of much time +and money, and requires for the negotiation with employers considerable +technical qualifications. Experience has shown that a staff of volunteers +cannot alone perform the necessary duties, and paid officers have been +appointed. The cost necessarily limits the expansion of the organization. +Out of the 30,000 boys who annually leave the elementary schools of +London, it is probable that not more than 2 per cent. come under the +influence of these associations. On the other hand, if the sphere of their +operations is limited, within that sphere it has achieved very +considerable success. They have been pioneers in a new movement, have +fully justified their existence, and must now look to the State to +continue on a larger scale, but on the same general lines, the work that +they have begun. Unlike most volunteers, these employment committees +welcome this transfer, and are now readily placing their services at the +disposal of the Board of Trade through its juvenile Labour Exchange. + +This brief survey of the contribution of philanthropic enterprise to the +apprenticeship of to-day reveals one obvious conclusion: the associations +only touch a fringe of the problem, and in no way exert any comprehensive +measure of control over the lads between the ages of fourteen and +eighteen. Their number, their variety, and their enthusiasm, indicate the +urgent need of supervision rather than supervision successfully achieved. +We cannot look to them to supplement in any large degree the defects in +the scheme of State guardianship, or the more grave defects which will +appear when the conditions of home and workshop have been passed in +review. + + +III. + +THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE HOME. + +What contribution does the home make to the solution of the apprenticeship +question? We cannot, indeed, expect to find within the walls of the home +provision made for the general education of the boy, or the specialized +training of the youth; but it is not unnatural to look to the parent to +exercise supervision over his children till manhood is reached, and +likewise to offer to the boy leaving school advice and material assistance +in the selection of a trade. We are still inclined to regard the family as +the one relic of the patriarchal system that has retained a vigorous +vitality through all the ages; we are still apt to see in the home a +small world, edged off from the large world outside, self-centred, +self-ruled, and enjoying all the advantages of a benevolent despotism. + +To what extent is this general assumption justified by the results of +actual experience? The question is of profound importance, and has not +received the attention it deserves from those who have written on boy +labour. If we can take it for granted that in the normal home we have the +means of controlling the boy and the growing lad up till the age of +eighteen, we have a solid foundation on which to rest the new +apprenticeship. Abnormal homes may need attention; but if the problem of +supervision is solved for the majority, if there is an authority to which +the boy submits himself as a matter of course, to add training and to +organize openings are tasks which should present no serious difficulty. + +Can we look to the home to provide this fundamental basis of a true +apprenticeship system? To answer this question we must study the homes +themselves. A few years ago I devoted a large amount of time to the +collection of material touching the character of family life in towns. The +results were published in an essay entitled "The Boy and the Family." [94] +I may perhaps be allowed to summarize the conclusions there established. + +Home varies from home; each may be said to have its own individuality, but +each has much in common. To give definiteness to the problem, I +endeavoured to class the homes under three types. In the main, type +number one referred to the inhabitants of one and two room tenements; type +number two embraced the families possessing three rooms; while the third +type included those persons fortunate enough to rent more than three +rooms. The size of the home proved a rough, though the best attainable, +method of classifying the characteristics of the inmates. + +Supervision has been interpreted to mean two things--supervision of health +and supervision of conduct. + +So far as the supervision of health is concerned, it is probable that very +few of the parents belonging to the three types possess the necessary +knowledge to carry out this duty. Among all classes of the community +ignorance on matters affecting the hygiene of the home is almost +universal. But even if knowledge were present, the resources at the +disposal of large numbers would prove inadequate to make that knowledge +effective. With type number one overcrowding is the rule; with type number +two it is common; and only in the third type do we reach conditions of +housing favourable to health. + +The experience derived from medical inspection of school-children and the +administration of the Provision of Meals Act has revealed the deplorable +condition of large numbers of children when left to the unaided care of +their parents. The returns of necessitous children fed, which are +published weekly in the minutes of the London County Council, showed that +during the winter of 1909-10 at the time of most acute distress, about 9 +per cent. of the children in the schools were receiving meals. A careful +inquiry, the most elaborate of its kind, made into the home circumstances +of the necessitous children in certain schools showed that the number of +children actually fed was probably below, and certainly not above, the +number who required meals. The same inquiry, with its lurid pictures of +squalor and distress, proved how small was the prospect of health for many +of those children, even though they were fed at school. It may be regarded +as a conclusive demonstration of the call for more searching regulation on +the part of the State.[95] It is probable, however, that the need for food +is far larger than that represented by the number of children actually +fed. Several inquiries, such as those carried out by Mr. Charles Booth in +London, and Mr. Rowntree in York, indicate that the effective income of +nearly a third of the population is too small to supply in adequate +quantity even the bare necessities of existence. + +Medical inspection is now revealing the number of children suffering from +definite ailments, and urgently requiring medical treatment, which they +have hitherto been unable, in a large proportion of cases, to obtain. It +would appear that some 10 per cent. suffer from defective vision, about 1 +per cent. from discharging ears, about the same number from ringworm, +while at least a third are suffering in health from the result of +decaying teeth.[96] + +Everywhere we have abundant evidence to show that, from want of +supervision, or of the effective means of supervision in the home, large +numbers of children are growing up ill-clad, ill-nourished, and suffering +from definite diseases, all alike leading to inefficient manhood. + +The second department of supervision is concerned with the supervision of +character. Can we rest satisfied that the parents exercise over the +growing lads that salutary control all growing lads require? The question +is of profound importance, if, as all agree, character is the condition of +success when the first steps are taken in the industrial world. It is +necessary to distinguish between the boy attending school and the boy +exempt from compulsory attendance. In what follows I shall draw largely on +my essay in "Studies of Boy Life." The conclusions are derived from the +experience of many years' residence in a poor part of London, and have +been tested by a careful inquiry among ministers of religion, +school-teachers, rent-collectors, and others with special knowledge of the +subject. + +Sec. 1. THE BOY OF SCHOOL AGE. + +If the parents are to control the boys, the boys must come much under the +personal influence of the parents; in other words, rulers and ruled must +meet frequently. Now, in all three types of family the father exercises +little direct control over the children. If of good character, he is +either out at work or out looking for work during five days of the week, +and sees the children only in the evening. On Saturday afternoons and on +Sundays he is at home; but a week-end visitor cannot be the dominant +factor in domestic affairs. If control is exercised, it must be exercised +by the mother. To trace her influence, it is necessary to picture the kind +of life led by each type. I quote from my essay: + +"So far as the first type is considered, it is not easy to say when the +children and parents meet.... The general order of events is something as +follows: If it is one of the days on which he elects to work, the father +rises about five o'clock, finds his own breakfast, and then quits the +house. Some two or three hours later the school-children get out of bed, +wash their faces, take a slice of bread and dripping, and go out. +Sometimes the mother rises at that time and gets the breakfast, but in +most cases remains in bed. At nine the boys go to school. At noon school +is over, and the boys, after amusing themselves in the playground or +street for an hour, go home to get some food. The mother meanwhile has +risen, dressed the smaller children, performed the irreducible minimum of +domestic work, and then left the house to gossip with a neighbour, or earn +a few pence by charing. On rare occasions she may cook the children some +dinner, but as a rule they get what food they can find, and eat it in the +streets. Sometimes they receive a halfpenny to buy their own meal at a +fried-fish shop. The boys then return to school, escape at half-past four, +possibly go home to tea, and then once more turn for amusement to the +streets. There they remain until it is dark, and often in summer till dawn +begins to break, when at length they seek their dwelling and go to bed. In +many cases the boys do not find their way back to their own houses, but +take up their quarters for the night in the house of some friend. +Sometimes they do not sleep in a house at all. In one case of which I have +heard three boys spent a fortnight in a wash-house on the top of some +blocks. There they lived an independent existence, getting their food and +attending school regularly all the while. Later on, being discovered by a +policeman, they were sent to their respective families.... Week follows +week with little variation to mark the march of time. As brief a fragment +of the boy's life as is possible is spent within the common dwelling, +which offers him no occupation, and is entirely devoid of interest or +attraction. The mother does not demand his presence indoors, while he +himself has no wish to be there. The street, and not the house, ought +probably to be regarded as the home or meeting-place of the family." [97] + +Supervision under circumstances of this kind must be an almost negligible +factor in the life of the home. Let us now come to the second type. I +quote again: + +"In the second type, as already mentioned, the family usually occupies +three rooms. At first sight the conditions found in the former type seem +to prevail here also. Indeed, as a matter of fact, the boys spend hardly +more time at home than those just considered. Out of school hours they are +either in the street or employed in some form of paid work.... School, +street, meals, and bed alternate with one another here in much the same +way as they did in the first type. But while the facts remain for the most +part unchanged, their setting and colouring are very different. Another +atmosphere seems to pervade the whole life; some sense of order and +regularity begins to manifest itself; meals are at fixed hours; and the +boys are expected home and sent to bed at more or less definite times. +They return to their own tenements, and do not spend the night with some +of their neighbours. As will appear later, home interests begin to +develop; and if the boys spend their leisure in the streets, this is due +more to their own choice than to the wish of their parents.... The mother +does not display the utter indifference to the state of the dwelling or +the habits of the children conspicuous in the first type. Some sort of +ideal of home she seems to possess, but to obtain this ideal is beyond her +power. She has the look of one who feels that things are wrong, and yet +can see no remedy. She notes, for example, the evil influence the street +exerts on the characters of her boys, but does not know how to preserve +them from its overwhelming attractions." [98] + +"The chief difference, then, between the first and second type lies not so +much in a different kind of life as in a certain change of atmosphere that +pervades and transforms the common existence. In the third type this +change of atmosphere becomes more conspicuous. A great part of the boy's +time is, indeed, still spent outside the dwelling-place, but the life at +home begins to assume larger proportions. There is more order and quiet in +the house--a condition which reacts favourably on the boys. They are no +longer seen hanging about the streets, loafing at the corners, or shouting +noisily in the gutters. Though much out of doors, they go farther afield, +and visit parks or museums; while, if they stay near home, they will +usually be discovered in the school playground. In the evening many of +them are indoors, and have various occupations, of which, perhaps, reading +is the chief." [99] + +In type number one, then, there is, for all practical purposes, a complete +absence of supervision. In the second type there is a desire for +supervision, but the narrowness of the house accommodation thrusts the +boys into the streets. In the third type alone are the conditions +favourable to supervision. + +Sec. 2. THE BOY AFTER SCHOOL DAYS. + +If the boy while at school is under little parental control, it is not to +be expected that this control will be tightened when school days are over. +With the first type of family there was no supervision before, and there +is no more afterwards. The boy is self-supporting, and troubles little +about the home, and the home troubles little about him. There is a partial +exception in the case of the coster. Here the boy may become one of the +regular working members of the establishment, and remains with his father; +but the discipline is of a rude and ready sort. + +With the second type of family the boy's earnings are of great importance +to the family, and the mother does her best to keep him at home. Any +exercise of discipline is avoided, lest the lad should take his earnings +and go elsewhere. He is rather in the position of a favoured lodger, whose +presence is valuable to the home, and who must be treated well for fear he +should give notice. + +In the third type of family, the boy, with growing years, passes out of +the control of the mother, and is resentful of any restraint exerted by a +woman. What supervision he enjoys comes from the father. The two do not +meet often; father and son are seldom employed together, and the long +distance that frequently separates home and work places the boy beyond the +reach of parental control during the greater portion of the week. + +Such in broad outline, rendered jagged, no doubt, by numerous exceptions, +is the quantity and the quality of the supervision exercised by the town +parent over the town boy. Even with the highest type no high standard is +reached, while with the lower we cannot contemplate the picture with any +degree of satisfaction. Speaking generally, the city-bred youth is +growing up in a state of unrestrained liberty; and what makes the problem +more serious is the fact that all evidence goes to show that this +disquieting phenomenon is not an accident, but the direct product of the +social and industrial conditions of the times. Towns are growing larger, +and with the growth of towns the whole conditions of family life are being +transformed. The old patriarchal system is gone; the father is no longer +an autocratic ruler in his small world. The family, so to say, has become +democratized; we have in it an association of equals in authority. Now, +the most ardent advocates of the extension of the suffrage have always +limited their demands to an appeal for adult suffrage; they have never +clamoured for children to be given a vote. Yet this, for all effective +purposes, is what happens in the home in the case of the boy as soon as he +has left school. The status of wage-earner has brought with it the status +of manhood, and his earnings have conferred on him immunity from control +and the right to be consulted in the politics of the home. Another fact, +not sufficiently recognized, tends to break down the patriarchal system. +With the steady improvement in the State schools, the boy is usually +better educated than the father; the father knows this, and the boy knows +it too. + +It is idle, therefore, to look for any large amount of parental control +over the boy who has left school. We must face realities, however +unpleasant these realities may happen to be; and one of the realities of +the time is the independence of the lad. What is equally significant is +the suddenness with which this independence comes. Until the age of +fourteen he has remained under a carefully designed system of State +supervision, exerted by the school authorities; while in a large number of +cases the discipline of the home has been an important factor in his +existence. At the age of fourteen, as a general rule, the control of +school and home end together. The lad goes to bed a boy; he wakes as a +man. There should therefore be little cause for surprise if the habits of +the school and home are rapidly sloughed off in the new life of +irresponsible freedom. + +Whether, therefore, we look to the State, to philanthropic enterprise, or +to the home, we find no satisfactory guarantee for the supervision of the +youth of the country. We have yet to search for this supervision in the +workshop; but if it is absent there, we shall be faced with the +disquieting phenomenon of the boy at the age of fourteen enjoying the full +and complete independence of the adult. + + +IV. + +THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE WORKSHOP. + +Having examined three out of the four factors which contribute to the +apprenticeship of to-day, and found them all inadequate, we must now turn +to the workshop in the hope that we shall discover there conditions more +favourable to the well-being of the youth of the country. If, however, +this last factor prove defective, the apprenticeship of to-day will stand +condemned, and the case for drastic reform will become unanswerable. It +will therefore be desirable to devote considerable space to this, the +central feature of the problem of boy labour. + +In what follows it is proposed first to make a detailed study of +conditions in London, and then to present a general picture of the state +of boy labour in other parts of the country. London has been selected for +a detailed study because in a peculiar degree it represents the extreme +type of urbanization. There is also the advantage that in the case of +London the material required for the examination has to a large extent +been collected. The investigations of Mr. Charles Booth, the publications +and inquiries on the subject carried out by the London County Council, Mr. +Cyril Jackson's report on boy labour presented to the Poor Law Commission, +and numerous other writings, have provided for the study of London a mass +of information which, though not in all respects exhaustive, is more +complete than can be found elsewhere. + +Sec. 1. LONDON. + +A study of the problem of boy labour in London involves the study of three +questions. First we have to consider the case of the children who, while +still attending school, are employed for wages. Next we must devote +special attention to the boys as they leave school and distribute +themselves among the different occupations. Finally, we must watch the +later career of those lads, and in particular endeavour to ascertain in +what way and with what results is made the difficult passage from the +status of the youth to the status of the man. + +_(a) The Employment of School-Children._ + +In London the half-time system is not permitted. The standard of +attainment for total exemption has been made sufficiently high to prevent +the great majority of boys from leaving school till the age of fourteen is +reached. It is, however, a fact that improved methods of instruction and +more rapid promotion from class to class are tending to lower the age at +which it is possible to obtain a Labour Certificate. How far this +opportunity is used it is not easy to say; but in certain schools, +situated in the poorer districts, it is alleged that there is a growing +tendency for the brighter children to claim exemption in this way. The +regularity of attendance is admirable, the average attendance in boys' +schools exceeding 90 per cent. We may therefore assume that, if the boys +work for wages, they must work at times when the schools are not opened. + +To what extent are boys employed while still liable to attend school? In +1899 a return was obtained throughout the elementary schools of England +and Wales of the number of children so employed. In London, in the case of +boys, the figures were 21,755.[100] The tables also give the ages of the +children, but boys and girls are not separated. If, however, we assume +that the number of children of each sex at each age is proportionate to +the total number of children of each sex at all ages, we find that 78 per +cent. of the boys were eleven and upwards, and 22 per cent. under eleven. +The number of boys of eleven and upwards would be about 17,000. There are +in the elementary schools about 70,000 boys eleven years of age and +upwards, so that about 24 per cent. of these boys are employed. In other +words, nearly a quarter of the boys in the elementary schools above the +age of eleven were employed at the time of the return. The actual number +of boys who are employed during the course of their school career would be +considerably larger, as they would not all be employed at the same moment. +The return is more than ten years old, but, with the exception of the +children under eleven, it is improbable that there has been much change. +Similar figures may be deduced from the Report of the Interdepartmental +Committee on the Employment of School-Children, 1901.[101] + +With regard to the number of hours worked, Miss Adler's evidence is +selected, and typical schools show that 56 per cent. were employed for +more than twenty hours a week, while 14 per cent. were employed +thirty-five hours or upwards.[102] In individual cases the figures were +much higher. "Thus a boy of eleven years of age, for four shillings a +week, was employed for forty-three and three-quarter hours in carrying +parcels from a chemist's shop, and, except on Sundays, was practically +every moment of his life at school or at work from seven in the morning +till nine o'clock at night. Another boy, aged thirteen, worked fifty-two +hours a week, being employed by a moulding company, and attending a +theatre for five evenings a week and for half a day on Wednesday for a +_matinee_--for the last, however, playing truant from school." [103] The +following graphic account taken from a school composition, and obtained +under circumstances which guarantee its essential accuracy, shows the +amount of work which may be compressed into a single day. It refers to +Saturday: + +"I first got up from bed about half-past six, and put my clothes on and +had a wash. Then I went to work at B.'s, and swept out his shop, and then +I did the window out. But after I done the window I had my breakfast and +went in the shop again. I started taking out orders that came in. While I +was taking the orders out, Mr. B. went to the Borough market for some +potatoes, cabbages, and some onions; but when he came home I had to unload +his van. After I unloaded his van, he went for some coal, which he sells +at one and sixpence a hundredweight, but he got two tons of coal in. Then +we had dinner about one o'clock. When we had our dinner, I had a rest till +about four o'clock, when I had tea. When I had my tea I had to go and chop +some wood, when it was time to shut up the shop. I had my supper and went +home, and went to bed, and the time was about twelve o'clock." [104] It +will be seen that, with the exception of a break in the middle of the day, +the boy was on duty for nearly three-quarters of the twenty-four hours, +and for part of the time was engaged in heavy manual labour. + +What effect does employment have on the physical condition of children +under the age of fourteen? "That excessive employment is injurious alike +to the education and to the health of the children is hardly in question. +It was testified to by witness after witness, many of them in no way +likely to be influenced by merely theoretical objections to child +labour." [105] On the other hand, most of the witnesses that appeared +before the Interdepartmental Committee were of opinion that "moderate +work" was in many cases not only not injurious, but "positively +beneficial." [106] It is not easy to understand what is meant by the last +statement. If some form of employment is beneficial, then the 76 per cent. +who are not so employed suffer, and steps should be taken to encourage +them to work. It is doubtful whether the witnesses would have accepted +this conclusion, from which, on their own assumptions, there is really no +escape. The difficulty lay in drawing the line. "Most of the witnesses +seemed to suggest that twenty hours might be fixed as the maximum weekly +limit; but, on the other hand, we found some cases where less than twenty +hours a week, if concentrated in one or two days, or if done at night, +must be injurious." [107] + +But the evidence of most value on the subject is to be found in a Report +of the Medical Officer of the London County Council.[108] About 400 boys +employed outside school hours were examined. The following table, with +defects in percentages, was obtained as the result:[109] + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | Actual |Fatigue| |Severe| |Severe| + |Hours worked | Number |Signs. |Anaemia.|Nerve |Deformities.|Heart | + | Weekly. |of Boys.| | |Signs.| |Signs.| + |------------------|--------|-------|-------|------|------------|------| + |All schoolboys of | | | | | | | + | district workers| | | | | | | + | and non-workers | 3,700 | -- | 25 | 24 | 8 | 8 | + |Working 20 hours | | | | | | | + | or less | 163 | 50 | 34 | 28 | 15 | 11 | + |Working 20 to 30 | | | | | | | + | hours | 86 | 81 | 47 | 44 | 21 | 15 | + |Working over 30 | | | | | | | + | hours | 95 | 83 | 45 | 50 | 22 | 21 | + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +It will be seen that the defects rise rapidly with increase in the hours +of work; while, even in the case of those working less than twenty hours, +there is a serious deviation from the average. The fact that 50 per cent. +of those working less than twenty hours should exhibit signs of fatigue, +even where no permanent physical evil results, must seriously affect the +value of the school instruction. In every case the workers compare +unfavourably with the average for the whole of the workers and +non-workers. We cannot view with satisfaction the truth that, even in +those employed with moderation, deformities and severe heart signs should +be nearly 50 per cent. above the average. The medical officer adds other +conclusions no less disquieting. "Working eight hours on Saturday is as +inimical as thirty hours during the week, and working through the +dinner-hour appears particularly productive of anaemia," [110] "Retardation +in school work was noted in 209 out of these 330 boys, 86 being one +standard, 83 two standards, 37 three standards, and 3 four standards +behind that corresponding to their age." [111] As his final conclusion the +medical officer states: "We must set up as an ideal the suppression of +child labour below twelve years of age, and during school life regulate it +to twenty hours weekly, and a maximum of five hours on any one day." [112] +The figures, however, would seem to go far in justifying the more drastic +remedy of complete prohibition. + +It is, however, fair to mention that the Report of the Interdepartmental +Committee, and also the Report of the Medical Officer, refer to a state of +affairs prior to the passing of the Employment of Children Act. Under this +Act, as explained in the last chapter,[113] employment of children under +the age of eleven is forbidden, while the by-laws of the Council place +restrictions on the number of hours children may work, and the times of +day during which such work may be carried on. It is too soon to judge of +the extent to which these restrictions can be enforced. During the first +year of effective operation in London there were, in respect of boys under +the age of sixteen, 13,461 cases of infringement. Prohibition under a +certain age or during certain times of the day is comparatively easy to +enforce; but limitation of hours, as experience of the Shop Act shows, is +extremely difficult to enforce, and peculiarly difficult where, as with +school-children, persons are not employed regularly, but work irregularly +at times when the schools are not open. To get evidence sufficient to +justify convictions is almost impossible, except in a few outrageous +cases. + +What, if any, effect does the employment of school-children have on the +general question of the preparation for a trade? Into this general +question the Interdepartmental Committee did not enter. They did indeed +regard certain forms of occupation as injurious, while they pronounced as +beneficial employment in moderation. But this statement has apparently +reference only to matters of health, and not to the relation of employment +during school days to employment afterwards. The question is of great +importance, as habits, in respect of work for wages, formed by the boy +cling persistently to the youth. It is necessary, therefore, to pay some +attention to the characteristics of the work which schoolboys undertake. +In London 90 per cent. of the work would be included in the three +following classes: (1) Shops--errand-running and delivery of parcels, +milk, newspapers, and watching the goods spread on the counters outside +the shops; (2) domestic--knife and boot cleaning, and occasionally +baby-minding; and (3) street employment--hawking of newspapers, matches, +and flowers, organ-grinding, and the like. Now, none of these forms of +occupation provide any trade-training, or offer an opening with +satisfactory prospects, to the boy as he leaves school. On the other hand, +this class of work has distinctly injurious effects. First, it is +employment of a casual character. Affected as it is, on the one hand, by +attendance at school, and on the other by Saturdays and holidays, it is +essentially irregular as regards hours. Secondly, it is easy to obtain, +and consequently lightly undertaken and lightly dropped. Where another +situation can be obtained at will, there is no demand on the worker to +display the qualities that make for permanence of employment. Thirdly, it +is work in which youths as well as boys are engaged; in other words, it +does provide an opening to the boy as he leaves school--an opening which +he is likely to accept, because it is the most obvious, but at the same +time an opening in one of those forms of occupation entrance into which we +should, as will appear later, do our utmost to discourage. It is +singularly unfortunate that a boy's first association with any kind of +paid employment should be of this nature. And, finally, it is at least +open to grave doubt whether that sense of independence of home which comes +with the consciousness of earning wages should begin at as early an age +as twelve or thirteen. + +It would not be easy to imagine a more unsatisfactory form of preparation +for a trade than that provided by the kind of work carried out by +wage-earning children. If we add to this demoralizing influence the +injurious effect on health and education, the case for total prohibition +of boy labour during school-days becomes very strong. + +_(b) The Entry to a Trade._ + +The great majority of boys remain at the elementary school till they +attain the age of fourteen; it is no less true that the vast majority +cease attendance as soon as that age is reached. The period of the next +four years--that is, from fourteen to eighteen--forms the most critical +time of their career. It is during these four years that the boy must, if +ever, have taken the first steps towards learning a trade. During this +interval his physical strength must mature, his character take on itself a +more or less permanent set, and the question whether his education shall +represent something more than a faint shadow of early impressions be +finally determined. In short, it is during these four years that the +future citizen is made or marred. + +The previous survey, whether of the factors which contribute to the +apprenticeship of to-day, or of the evils which are found among +wage-earning school-children, does not guarantee a favourable start in the +world of whole-time employment. Each year about 30,000 boys leave school +at the age of fourteen to take up some form of work. These figures do not +agree with the Census returns, because the latter include all London boys +in all classes of society, whether at school or at work. Here we are +concerned only with the boys of fourteen who leave the elementary school +with the intention of earning their own living. Between the ages of +fourteen and eighteen there will therefore be 120,000 boys. It is the +careers of these 120,000 boys that we must now try to follow. + +What are the first occupations selected by these 120,000 boys? During the +last few years the London County Council has endeavoured to find an answer +to this question. Each head-master of an elementary school is required +annually to fill up a form in respect of each boy who has left the school +during the preceding twelve months. The information asked for is +"occupation of parent," "occupation of boy," "whether skilled or +unskilled," or "whether a place of higher education is attended." Returns +have been received and summarized for the years 1906-07 and 1907-08. The +first return was incomplete, but the second included the vast majority of +those who left. Below is given the summary for the two years: + + +----------------------------------------------------------+ + | | Skilled.| Unskilled.| Higher | + | | | |Education.| + |-------------------------|---------|-----------|----------| + | Number | 8,662 | 15,910 | 1,524 | + | Percentage | 33.2 | 61.0 | 5.8 | + | Percentage, 1906-07 | 28.5 | 67.9 | 3.6 | + +----------------------------------------------------------+ + +It will be seen that, including those who went to some higher form of +education, little more than a third of the boys left school to enter a +skilled trade.[114] + +TABLE I. + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | Number. | Percentage. | + | Class of Occupation. |------------------|------------------| + | | Parent. | Boy. | Parent. | Boy. | + |--------------------------------|---------|--------|---------|--------| + |Trades and industries | 615 | 347 | 40.87 | 18.74 | + |Domestic offices or services | 23 | 46 | 1.52 | 2.48 | + |Transport (including messengers,| | | | | + | errand-boys, van-boys, etc.) | 191 | 829 | 12.69 | 44.76 | + |Shopkeepers, shop-assistants, | | | | | + | and dealers | 137 | 133 | 9.10 | 7.18 | + |Commercial occupations | 61 | 141 | 4.05 | 7.61 | + |General labour | 436 | 215 | 28.98 | 11.61 | + |Professional occupations and | | | | | + | their subordinate services | 11 | 5 | 0.73 | 0.27 | + |General or local government | 26 | 6 | 1.73 | 0.32 | + |Defence of the country | 5 | 1 | 0.33 | 0.06 | + |Higher education | -- | 27 | -- | 1.45 | + |Unemployed | -- | 102 | -- | 5.52 | + |--------------------------------|---------|--------|---------|--------| + | Total | 1,505 | 1,852 | 100.00 | 100.00 | + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +It is unfortunate that no full analysis has been made of these returns. +The value of the information which would have thus been obtained was not +supposed to justify the labour and expenditure involved in such an +analysis. I have, however, roughly analyzed nearly 4,000 cases, and +endeavoured to classify the occupations, in accordance with the table +founded on the Census return which will be given later.[115] I selected +for this purpose typical districts in London. Table I. includes returns +from all the schools in the electoral areas of Bermondsey, North +Camberwell, and Walworth; it represents a typical miscellaneous +working-class district. Table II. includes the electoral areas of Dulwich +and Lewisham; it may be regarded as typical of suburban villadom so far as +its inhabitants send their children to the elementary schools. Table III. +includes the electoral areas of Whitechapel and St. George's-in-the-East, +districts distinguished by the presence of a large number of small trades +and sweated industries. Table IV. includes the collective results of the +three preceding tables, and may be taken as fairly typical of London as a +whole. It was necessary to exclude the returns of a few schools as +incomplete, indefinite, or obviously inaccurate. Parent stands for +occupation of parent, boy for occupation of boy. The two do not quite +correspond, as in a certain number of instances the occupation of the +parent was unknown. I have included the telegraph-boys under "Transport," +as for my purpose this classification was the more suitable. + +TABLE II. + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | Number. | Percentage. | + | Class of Occupation. |------------------|------------------| + | | Parent. | Boy. | Parent. | Boy. | + |--------------------------------|---------|--------|---------|--------| + |Trades and industries | 347 | 151 | 35.57 | 14.86 | + |Domestic offices or services | 14 | 27 | 1.45 | 2.64 | + |Transport (including messengers,| | | | | + | errand-boys, van-boys, etc.) | 70 | 350 | 7.24 | 34.31 | + |Shopkeepers, shop-assistants, | | | | | + | and dealers | 100 | 126 | 10.34 | 12.35 | + |Commercial occupations | 180 | 157 | 18.61 | 15.38 | + |General labour | 144 | 54 | 14.89 | 5.29 | + |Professional occupations and | | | | | + | their subordinate services | 47 | 2 | 4.86 | 0.19 | + |General or local government | 66 | 9 | 6.83 | 0.88 | + |Defence of the country | 2 | 5 | 0.21 | 0.48 | + |Higher education | -- | 76 | -- | 7.45 | + |Unemployed | -- | 63 | -- | 6.17 | + |--------------------------------|---------|--------|---------|--------| + | Total | 967 | 1,020 | 100.00 | 100.00 | + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +TABLE III. + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | Number. | Percentage. | + | Class of Occupation. |------------------|------------------| + | | Parent. | Boy. | Parent. | Boy. | + |--------------------------------|---------|--------|---------|--------| + |Trades and industries | 349 | 305 | 51.09 | 41.84 | + |Domestic offices or services | 25 | 18 | 3.66 | 2.47 | + |Transport (including messengers,| | | | | + | errand-boys, van-boys, etc.) | 72 | 189 | 10.54 | 25.93 | + |Shopkeepers, shop-assistants, | | | | | + | and dealers | 91 | 48 | 13.33 | 6.58 | + |Commercial occupations | 11 | 39 | 1.61 | 5.35 | + |General labour | 116 | 63 | 16.99 | 8.64 | + |Professional occupations | | | | | + | and their subordinate services| 10 | 3 | 1.46 | 0.41 | + |General or local government | 8 | -- | 1.17 | -- | + |Defence of the country | 1 | -- | 0.15 | -- | + |Higher education | -- | 7 | -- | 0.96 | + |Unemployed | -- | 57 | -- | 7.82 | + |--------------------------------|---------|--------|---------|--------| + | Total | 683 | 729 | 100.00 | 100.00 | + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +TABLE IV. + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | Number. | Percentage. | + | Class of Occupation. |------------------|------------------| + | | Parent. | Boy. | Parent. | Boy. | + |--------------------------------|---------|--------|---------|--------| + |Trades and industries | 1,308 | 803 | 41.46 | 22.31 | + |Domestic offices or services | 62 | 91 | 1.97 | 2.53 | + |Transport (including messengers,| | | | | + | errand-boys, van-boys, etc.) | 333 | 1,368 | 10.55 | 38.00 | + |Shopkeepers, shop-assistants, | | | | | + | and dealers | 328 | 307 | 10.39 | 8.52 | + |Commercial occupations | 252 | 337 | 7.98 | 9.36 | + |General labour | 696 | 332 | 22.06 | 9.22 | + |Professional occupations and | | | | | + | their subordinate services | 68 | 10 | 2.16 | 0.28 | + |General or local government | 100 | 15 | 3.17 | 0.41 | + |Defence of the country | 8 | 6 | 0.26 | 0.16 | + |Higher education | -- | 110 | -- | 3.05 | + |Unemployed | -- | 222 | -- | 6.16 | + |--------------------------------|---------|--------|---------|--------| + |Total | 3,155 | 3,601 | 100.00 | 100.00 | + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +In the interpretation of these tables certain facts must be borne in mind. +None of the parents are returned as unemployed; this is because the trade +of the parent was asked for, and no account was taken as to whether he was +or was not employed. Secondly, the occupations are somewhat vaguely +described; this in particular is true of the term "labourer." More exact +information would no doubt have removed the parent from the class "general +labour," and placed him in the class "transport," and occasionally in the +classes "domestic servant" or "shop-assistant." Thirdly, the +messenger-boys are included partly under "transport" and partly under +"shop-assistants," the boy being termed sometimes an errand-boy and +sometimes a shop-boy. The term "office-boy," which appears frequently in +the returns, is vague. I have classed the office-boy as an errand-boy +unless the school return places him in the column "skilled employment," +when I have included him under the heading "commercial occupation." + +Making allowance for a certain inevitable inaccuracy which belongs to +returns of this kind, we have a general picture, accurate in all +essentials, of the distribution of boys among the various forms of +occupation immediately after leaving the elementary school. The columns +which refer to the trade of the parents, and indicate therefore the +distribution of the parents among the various forms of occupation, are of +considerable value. If we take Table IV., which may be regarded as typical +of London as a whole, and compare the last two columns, we shall at once +notice the striking difference that marks the distribution of boys and of +adults among the several kinds of employment. In "trades and industries," +41 per cent. of parents are engaged, and only 22 per cent. of boys; 38 per +cent. of the boys are engaged in "transport," and only 10 per cent. of +parents. This fact carries with it a conclusion of great importance--son +and father can seldom work together. If, for example, 10 per cent. of the +parents are included under "transport," and 38 per cent. of the boys, it +is clear that little more than a quarter of such boys can be employed in +company with their parents. The actual facts, as revealed by an +examination of the individual returns, are much stronger, and demonstrate +the extreme rareness of father and son following the same occupation. In +the case of "trades and industries" the trade of father and son is not +infrequently the same; this is in particular true of "tailoring" trades of +the East End, included in Table III., where the proportion of adults to +boys are as fifty-one to forty-two. In suburban villadom, pictured in +Table III., the clerk is often father to the clerk, while the son of a +shopkeeper occasionally assists his parents in the shop. The coster habit +likewise runs in families. But with these exceptions father and son do not +work together. In consequence, in his first situation the boy is cut +adrift from the home and its control, such as it is. He has not his father +by his side to note and guide his conduct; and if he enters a skilled +trade, he lacks the personal interest of the parent to guarantee his +satisfactory training. We have already seen that the school supervision is +at an end; in consequence, the only disciplinary influence left is the +influence of the employer. The character of the employment and the nature +of the supervision of the master become, therefore, of supreme importance +to the well-being of the boy. It is consequently necessary to examine in +some detail the distinguishing features of the various kinds of +occupation. They are usually roughly classed as skilled or unskilled, +according as they do or do not lead to a form of employment which requires +specialized skill or specialized intelligence. + +THE UNSKILLED TRADES.--Practically the whole of the unskilled trades are +included under the terms "domestic service," "transport," "shop," and +"general labour," and the great majority of the boys who select these +occupations may be said to select an unskilled trade. In Table I., a +typical working-class district, it will be seen that 66 per cent. of the +boys who leave the elementary schools come within this class. In Table +II., a suburban area, the figures are 55 per cent.; but a considerable +proportion of those included under "shops" appear to be employed in the +shops of their parents, and to be learning the business. In Table III., +representing the small East End trades, the figures are 44 per cent.; but, +judged by wages and conditions of employment, the majority of the 42 per +cent. included under trades should be transferred to the class of +unskilled work. For all the districts, as a whole typical of London, Table +IV. shows the figures to be 58.27 per cent. The figures quoted above +ignore the boys returned as unemployed and unknown, the number of these +for all London being 6 per cent. They are boys waiting for something to +turn up; what will turn up it is impossible to predict. But it is safe to +say that a considerable portion will drift into unskilled work. + +The unskilled trades fall into three classes. The first and smallest is +included under "domestic service." Under this head are found boys in +barbers' shops, page-boys, club-boys, boot and knife boys. Employment in a +barber's shop is notoriously unhealthy;[116] a barber's shop is also +supposed to be not infrequently the resort of the betting fraternity. The +fortunes of the page and club boy await the zeal of an investigator; the +knife and boot boy soon passes to some other occupation. Of the three +classes, domestic service is the least important and the soonest left by +the boy. + +The second class, included under "transport" and "shopkeepers," is far the +largest and the most important. In all London some 47 per cent. of the +boys are found here; or, if we add a half of the 6 per cent. returned as +unemployed, we may say that half the boys who leave the elementary schools +belong to this class. It is necessary to take "transport" and +"shopkeepers" together, because it is impossible to tell whether a +"shop-boy" is merely an errand-boy, or a boy on the road to become a +properly trained shop-assistant. It is probable, however, that only a +small number could be regarded as future shop-assistants. + +Ignoring these exceptions, we have to follow the fortunes of 50 per cent. +of the boys leaving school--in other words, of 15,000 persons. Their forms +of employment have much in common. In the first place, they are what is +known as "blind-alley" occupations--they lead nowhere. Boys only are +engaged, and when the boys become men they are cast adrift. Sometimes they +are absorbed in the adult service, but more usually, if they have not +already left, are given notice, and must at the age of eighteen seek out +some new way of earning a living. The report of Mr. Cyril Jackson makes +this fact abundantly clear.[117] "The industrial biographies received," he +says, "show clearly that there is generally a time of transition when boys +have to seek new occupations, for which they have little aptitude." [118] +Or again: "There appears to be no doubt that the restlessness of many of +the boys doing more or less unskilled work obscures from some employers +the fact that they are using a greater number of boys than can ever be +employed in connection with their trade as men. The employers who have +filled up forms often state that they 'never discharge a boy who is +willing to stay,' or 'that boys are only discharged for misconduct,' when +it is evident from the figures appearing in the same form that there must +be a considerable proportion of the boys passing out of the trade each +year.... That many employers, on the other hand, do in fact discharge a +considerable proportion of their boys because they have no room for them +as men--or, to express the same thing in the form in which it presents +itself to the masters, because they cannot afford to offer men's wages--is +shown in the short accounts of the trades in the Appendix." [119] It is +needless to labour the point further, as everyone familiar with the +conditions of boy work give evidence to the same effect. + +The second characteristic of these trades is that they are mainly +concerned with fetching or carrying something--messages, letters, parcels. +It is characteristic of that stage of civilization at which we have +arrived that we want to save ourselves trouble, or to save ourselves time. +Boys are the instruments we use. "Here we are, all of us," says a modern +writer, "demanding an endless number of tiny jobs to be done on our +behalf. Every year multiplies these demands, increasing the pace at which +the jobs can be done, and the number of them that can be crowded into the +time. We learn to expect more and more conveniences at our elbow by which +communication can be made, business transacted, messages despatched, +parcels transferred, news brought up to date, transit hastened, things of +all kinds put under our hand. We touch buttons, press knobs, ring bells, +whisper down telephones, keep wires throbbing with our desires, bustle and +hustle the world along. And all this in the end means _boys_. Boys are +what we set moving. Boys are the material in which we deal. Boys are our +tools. Every wire has a boy at the end of it." [120] + +This tendency to demand the services of boys has spread through all +classes of society. To take a single example of quite recent growth: It is +becoming less and less common for the housewife to bring the results of +her marketing home herself; a boy delivers the goods instead. Go into any +shop, even in the poorest part of the town, and make a few purchases; the +shopman will probably offer to send them home for you. There is something +flattering and pleasant in the offer; it is one of the new products of +competition to multiply conveniences instead of cutting prices. The demand +for boys is rapidly increasing; and while the demand is increasing, the +supply of boys has diminished. The raising of the school age, the improved +attendance, and the decrease of truancy, have all removed from the labour +market an immense number of boys. "The Census figures show that there has +been a steady diminution of boys employed under fifteen during the last +quarter of a century." [121] The Labour Exchanges testify to the same +effect, the managers frequently saying: "There is an unsatisfied demand +for juvenile labour of an unskilled type." [122] This growing demand has +two effects. First, as it becomes increasingly easier for boys to obtain +situations, there is less and less inducement for them to show such +industry and good conduct as are necessary to retain their places. +Dismissal has no terrors; it means, if they please, a few days' holiday, +or, if they prefer it, a new employer can be at once discovered. It +becomes therefore difficult for an employer to exercise over the boys the +discipline they need; if he attempt to do so, he will soon find himself +without boys. Lads change situations for the mere sake of change, to see +what happens. "I have known," says Mr. J. G. Cloete, "boys who, within +three years of leaving school, have been employed in as many as seventeen +different occupations." [123] The second consequence of the increased +demand for boys in these kinds of occupations is a rise in wages. The +earnings of these boys are considerably higher than those obtained by a +boy who enters a skilled trade. "The casual and low-skilled employments +give higher wages in the early years in order to attract the boys." [124] +With boys choosing, as they do, their own occupations, high wages at the +outset are more attractive than low wages with the prospect of learning a +trade. + +The third characteristic these occupations have in common lies in certain +general conditions of employment. Hours are long; at the same time, the +boy is often idle for long periods, waiting for messages to come in and +parcels to go out. Shop-boys and telegraph-boys are kept hanging about +with nothing to do. The office-boy in a small office is often the whole +staff, and is left alone for hours when his master is out, and "spends his +time either in vacancy, in mischievous expeditions along the corridor, or +in reading trash of a bloodthirsty nature." [125] The boy has often heavy +goods to carry long distances, and overtaxes his strength. Either there +is too much idleness or too much work; these are the alternatives. In +neither case is there the possibility of much supervision. + +The fourth characteristic has not received the attention it deserves. +These forms of occupation, though unskilled in the sense that the boy +receives no training in his present place of business, nevertheless demand +qualities of a high standard. The boy must be regular, obedient, and, +above all, intelligent. A dull boy as a messenger is liable to make stupid +and irritating mistakes. The stories of district messengers carrying +letters unaided over the Continent show that the boys possess no ordinary +intelligence. Now, we have already seen that these are the qualities which +are in a peculiar degree the product of the elementary schools. The +schools turn out innumerable boys of this kind. It is not, perhaps, a mere +coincidence that the increasing use of boys in occupations which call for +alertness of mind has gone on side by side with improvements in the +educational system. The State has spent much money on these boys. A boy +who starts to attend school at the age of three and leaves at fourteen has +had spent on him a sum of money which, if invested year by year at 4 per +cent., and left to accumulate till the time for leaving school comes, +would amount to nearly L100. Each year in the 30,000 boys who leave school +L3,000,000 of State-created value is turned adrift. The State has +therefore a right to demand that this capital sum of L100 invested in the +boy shall not be squandered by the employer. He ought to give back at the +age of eighteen at least as valuable an article as he received four years +earlier. + +This consideration leads to the last characteristic distinguishing these +occupations. They lead to nothing, and when the boy reaches the end, he +is, in the majority of cases, distinctly inferior in every way to what he +was three or four years before. Evidence in favour of this assertion is +overwhelming. "At the present time, at the age of eighteen, after a four +years' course of employment, whose chief characteristics are the long +hours, the lack of supervision, and the total absence of any educational +influence, the lad is a distinctly less valuable article in the labour +market than he was when he left school four years previously. His only +asset is represented by greater physical strength, accompanied probably by +a marked decrease in general health and vigour. He has lost the +intelligence and aptitude of the boy, and remains a clumsy and +unintelligent man, fitted for nothing but unskilled labour, and likely to +become sooner or later one of the unemployed." [126] "There seems little +doubt that the boy labour is used up for industrial purposes, and that +they are left less capable members of the community, with little prospect +of good work when they become adults." [127] "The most hopeless position is +that of the errand-boy at a small shop in a poor neighbourhood; his +prospects are absolutely nil." [128] "The chart prepared from the forms +filled in by boys who entered life as errand-boys shows that the small +proportion who find steady and skilled employment afterwards have ceased +to be errand-boys very early; the vast majority become workers in +low-skill trades, or general and casual labourers." [129] "Mr. Courtney +Terell, who has been making inquiries from the Passmore Edwards +Settlement, writes: 'I feel confident ... that the messenger work produced +a definite effect on the boys, as will the continual performance of any +one of a definite function which admits of no improvement, and that this +has unfitted them for other work.'" [130] "The injury done to these boys is +not that they are compelled as men to devote themselves to low-skilled +labour, but that from the more or less specialized nature of the work +which has employed this boyhood, they are unfitted to become good +low-skilled labourers." [131] + +It is impossible to resist the mass of evidence of this kind which might +easily be increased indefinitely. The boy gains nothing from this form of +employment and loses much. He loses the results of his training in the +elementary school; the habits of obedience, regularity, and industry are +dead; the bright intelligence is dulled, and with the coming of dulness +goes the power of learning. He loses his prospects; his future is the +future of the unskilled labourer--the unskilled labourer, robbed of that +grit and alertness which alone secure for unskilled labour the adequate +reward of permanent employment at a steady wage. His loss is the loss of +the community, which is compelled later to relieve him and his family, and +perhaps in the end find a home for him in the workhouse. And in thinking +of this deterioration, and of that hopeless future which that +deterioration involves, we must never forget that it is not a mere handful +of lads who suffer in this way, but that half the boys who leave the +elementary school start on this dreary journey, and, so starting, bid fare +to reach that dreary end. + +Reckoned in money, the State has spent a million and a half on these boys, +and but little comes back to the State or remains with the boy. If it has +gone anywhere, and it probably has, then it has gone into the pockets of +the employers who have sucked out of the boys their value, and then cast +them aside as worthless refuse, a sort of slag or waste product of their +works, for which neither they nor anyone else can find a use. In saying +this there is no desire to censure unfairly the employers. They are +undoubtedly to blame, because thoughtlessness and ignorance in persons of +their position are always blameworthy; but there is nothing deliberate in +their actions, and they are largely unconscious of the harm they are +doing. There is no active cruelty, and often much rude and ready kindness. +The boys to them are merely instruments in the machinery of their +business, for the moment the cheapest instruments that can be found, to be +used until a new and better supply takes the place of those who are used +up. They are ignorant of the consequences of their conduct, and, as their +evidence shows, generally imagine that the boys who leave find suitable +jobs. It is only of late years that numerous investigators and managers of +boys' clubs have revealed the grave results of this thoughtlessness. +Employers who generally enjoy a good reputation as employers are often the +worst offenders. Indeed, the most flagrant example of this exploitation of +boy labour is to be found in the Imperial Government and the Municipal +Service. Mr. Cyril Jackson has in his report devoted much space to the +telegraph-boys in the service of the Post Office. "The boys come from very +good homes, and are often the pick of the family. They are examined +medically, and bring characters." [132] A mere fraction are absorbed in the +adult service. "It appears as if the Post Office is one of the least +promising occupations into which a boy can enter. The better boys go into +it, and it is very depressing to see from our returns how very few of the +very large number discharged at sixteen or seventeen get into as good +employment as their good social standing and general standard of education +should have guaranteed for them." [133] "Everyone of experience seems to +agree that these telegraph-messengers who are discharged exemplify in a +very striking way the evils of a parasitic trade." [134] Yet these things +had been going on for years in a service like that of the Post Office, +which is subject to much criticism by its employees, and yet no attention +had been called to the evil. Unfortunately, boys have no votes, and do not +form trade unions. Other Government departments and the Municipal Service +seem no less ignorant and no less worthy of blame. A short time back the +Education Committee called the attention of the London County Council to +the misuse of its boy labour, and now the Council allows its boys, weekly, +six hours "off" during working hours, and provides classes which they are +compelled to attend. At the same time it has nominated one of its officers +to look after the interests of these boys, and to guide them into useful +occupations. + +If the public service is thus guilty, we must not be surprised that +private employers are not conscious of wrongdoing in their use of boys. +The evil is now revealed; there can be no further excuse for ignorance. +How to deal adequately with the problem must be left to the consideration +of the next chapter. + +The third division of the unskilled occupations comes under the head +"General Labour." Some 9 per cent. of the boys as they leave school fall +into this class. This is a nondescript class not clearly defined in the +returns. Probably a considerable proportion should be brought into the +preceding class, but there are evidently a large number who could not be +disposed of in this way. Boys employed in warehouses, in gardens and +parks, boys in small places assisting the master in the lighter forms of +labour, boys accompanying their fathers and joining in his work--these +come into this division. The returns are not sufficiently explicit to +yield materials for a critical examination; but one or two conclusions can +be derived from their examination. It will be seen that 22 per cent. of +the parents, as compared with 9 per cent. of boys, are recorded as being +general labourers. There is here no excess of boys; there should not be +the same difficulty in boys finding openings in the adult service as in +those occupations where boys can claim a practical monopoly. Boys have +always taken some part in labouring work, and so passed to the better +class of unskilled labour. Boys in warehouses, for example, frequently +find there permanent situations. Further, the proportion of parents to +sons would indicate the possibility of the two being employed together, +and the boy thus remaining under the supervision of his father. An +examination of individual returns justifies this conclusion. On the other +hand, it is to be remembered that the hours of employment are frequently +very long, and the work arduous and ill suited to the strength of a +growing lad, and in no way regulated by legislation. Taken as a whole, it +is probable that the boys who enter this kind of occupation, though +without opportunity of continuing their education, are not in as forlorn a +condition as those in the previous class. But the whole question is +obscure, and it is difficult, without fuller information, to test the +nature of their training. + +THE SKILLED OCCUPATIONS.--The skilled occupations fall into two +classes--those where manual skill is required, and those concerned with +commercial and clerical operations. The former are included under "Trades +and Industries," and the latter under "Commercial Occupations," +"Professional Occupations," and "Local Government." + +1. _Trades and Industries._--From the tables printed on pp. 115-118, it +will be seen that under this heading there are in Table I., the type of a +working-class district, 41 per cent. of parents and 19 per cent. of boys; +in Table II., the type of a suburban district, the figures are 36 and 15 +respectively; in Table III., the type of the small trader of the East End, +51 and 42; while in Table IV., the type of London as a whole, the +percentage is in the case of fathers 41, and in the case of boys 22. We +have now to consider the prospects as regards supervision, training and +opening which these trades offer to the boys who enter. + +Table III., with its percentage of 51 parents and 42 boys engaged in +trades and industries, presents a pleasing appearance, but the bulk of the +trades concerned belong to the tailoring and other industries where +sweating is rife, where the skill required is of a low order, and the +wages small and often below the level of bare subsistence. The boys learn +something, are frequently employed with their fathers, and have a more or +less permanent outlook, though within the horizon of that outlook is +seldom included the vision of a living wage. They in general do not form +part of the class which finds its way into the ranks of that miscellaneous +unskilled labour whose chief characteristic is casual employment. + +Ignoring this table, and taking the table for all London, we find again +the great disproportion of boys and parents. There are two ways in which +the boys may learn. They may become indentured apprentices, or, engaged +only by the week, though sometimes still termed apprentices, they may +enter the workshop, and take what chance is afforded them of "picking up" +the mysteries of the trade. + +_(a) Indentured Apprenticeship._--Apprenticeship is of little importance +in London; the system is rapidly becoming obsolete. Whether this is +desirable is a matter of opinion; that it is a fact cannot be gainsaid. +All evidence is unanimous in support of this conclusion. In 1906 a special +committee was appointed by the London County Council to make inquiries +into the question, and, after careful investigation, reported that "in +London the old system of indentured apprenticeship has for many years been +falling into decay. In the majority of the industries it has almost +entirely disappeared; in others it is occasionally found existing in a +haphazard and highly unsatisfactory manner; while in only a few trades can +it be said to be the commonly recognized way of entering the +profession." [135] There are in London various charities, with an income of +about L24,000 a year, which, in accordance with the terms of their trusts, +might be used for purposes of apprenticeship; "but not more than a third +of the income has been devoted to this purpose." "The fact that so small a +fraction of the income has been devoted to apprenticeship indicates that +the trustees have not found it an easy task to find candidates anxious to +be indentured to one of the skilled trades." [136] "The recurring note," +says Mr. Charles Booth, "throughout the whole of the industrial volumes of +the present inquiry is that the system of apprenticeship is either dead or +dying." [137] The numerous letters to the Press, the wealth of speeches on +the matter, the sundry public meetings presided over by all manner of +persons, from the Lord Mayor downwards, all voice the same opinion. It is +needless to labour the question; we may take it as an accepted fact that +in London indentured apprenticeship is obsolescent, and the system itself +of negligible value as a factor in the training of youths in the process +of skilled trades. + +_(b) Picking up a Trade._--Here a boy enters a workshop, and takes his +chance of learning the trade from watching and assisting the men. The +employer is under no agreement to give him instruction--least of all, to +make an all-round craftsman of him. The boy rarely acquires more than a +certain dexterity in the performance of a single operation; and, however +proficient he may become in that operation, his general intelligence and +skill suffer from a narrow and exclusive specialization. The system and +consequences are dealt with at length in the Report of the London County +Council already mentioned. The importance of the problem must be the +justification for a long quotation: + +"The high wages a lad can earn as an errand-boy ... are more attractive +than the low wages associated with an industrial training. Earning looms +larger in his imagination than the laborious and less remunerative +learning.... Even if, on leaving school, he obtains employment in a +workshop, his prospects may not be materially improved. As an errand-boy +running in and out of the workshop, if possessed of aptitude and +sharpness, he may in a haphazard fashion pick up a smattering of the +trade. If he is taken into the shop as a learner, he has little chance of +getting an all-round training. He is frequently out of work, and even when +employed seldom learns more than a single operation. The Advisory +Committee of the London County Council Shoreditch Technical Institute[138] +recently held an exhaustive inquiry on the subject, and some of the +conclusions are so germane to the present question that they merit +quotation. 'It is thus possible,' they write, 'for a boy to be at one +branch of a trade for a few months only, and when bad trade intervenes he +is thrown out of employment, and frequently finds himself at twenty years +of age without a definite knowledge of any craft whatever, and he swells +the ranks of the unemployed. We have it on the authority of foremen, +employers, apprentices, and parents, that very little opportunity exists, +even in big houses, for a boy to learn his trade thoroughly; indeed, we +have had students who have been in a workshop as apprentices for three or +four years who could not make a small drawer, and in many cases who could +not square up true or make the usual joints; and in the woodworking trade +their knowledge of drawing when they come to us is practically _nil_. It +is a rare thing to find a young workman who can attack any branch of his +trade successfully. It frequently occurs that, in consequence of extensive +subdivision of labour and excessive competition, a man or boy is set to do +one thing--_e.g._, music-stools, overmantels, chair-legs, sideboards--all +the time. It is true the man or boy becomes skilled in one direction, but +correspondingly narrow in a true appreciation of his trade. It is also a +frequent occurrence that a master who has a job on hand which is slightly +out of the usual run finds it impossible to put it in the hands of his +usual staff. Moreover, when work of delicate design and construction has +to be made from specified drawings, it is extremely difficult to obtain +men who can proceed with the work on their own responsibility. Not only do +these remarks apply to the woodcrafts generally, but they apply with equal +force to such work as upholstery (both stuffing and drapery), to +metal-work, and to carving. In connection with the latter subject, it is a +rare thing indeed for carvers to design a carcass in the rough, and then +to see whether the proposed carved portion is in harmony with the +whole--whether the said carving be too much in relief, too flat, too +expansive, or altogether out of character with the general work. It is +notorious that good polishers and furniture decorators are exceedingly +rare, and many a high-class manufacturer has his goods spoiled on account +of bad polish and decorative treatment.'" [139] It must be remembered that +this last quoted opinion is not the opinion of the amateur, but the +informed opinion of representative employers. + +The woodwork and furniture trades are not peculiar in the characteristic +of inadequate training. "We have reason to believe," continues the Report, +"that if a similar inquiry were made into other trades, the same +unsatisfactory picture would be disclosed. Either the training is +one-sided, or there is no training at all. The consequences are +sufficiently obvious. The skilled trades are, we fear, recruited in the +main by immigrants outside London. In many trades the Londoner is at a +discount. Acquainted as he is with but one or two operations of his +industry, if he loses his situation, it is only with the greatest of +difficulty that he can find another. Mr. Charles Booth states that 'with +carpenters and joiners, brick-layers, carriage builders, engineers, +smiths, and saddlers, the percentages of heads of families born out of +London range from 51 to 59,' An inquiry made of the Technical Board of the +London County Council on the Building Trades in 1858 showed that '41 +typical firms in various branches of the building trades having 12,000 +employes had only 80 apprentices and 143 learners, instead of 1,600, which +would have been the normal proportion.' The same Report mentions that +'among the foremen and operatives who have come before us, not one stated +that he was born or trained in London.' In these trades the better +positions go inevitably to the country-bred man, with his all-round +training. In the docks alone does the Londoner hold his own. An inquiry +there showed that among the dock-labourers proper more than 72 per cent. +were born in London--a result not calculated to excite any very solid +satisfaction. These facts should arouse serious apprehension concerning +the future of the London-bred citizen. We cannot view with equanimity his +relegation to lower positions, while the better places are given to +better-trained immigrants. We are not prepared to admit that the Londoner +is, on the average, inherently inferior either in intelligence or manual +dexterity to his country-born neighbour." [140] + +These quotations indicate clearly the general aspects of the situation. +They show the small prospects boys enjoy who enter a skilled trade in +London. Parents are not blind to the condition of affairs, and it is not +unnatural on their part to allow the boys to go out as errand-boys, where +at least the immediate earnings are larger and the hope of advancement not +much more discouraging. + +2. _Clerical and Commercial Occupations._--Including under this head +commercial and professional occupations, and general or local government, +we find in Table I., the type of a working-class district, 6-1/2 per cent. +of parents and 8 per cent. of boys; in Table II., the type of the suburbs, +30 per cent. of parents, and 16-1/2 per cent. of boys; in Table III., +typical of the East End, 4 per cent. of parents, and 6 per cent. of boys; +in Table IV., typical of London as a whole, 13 per cent. of parents, and +10 per cent. of boys. In the school returns no boy was placed under these +headings unless he appeared in the column "Skilled Work." In judging of +these results it must be borne in mind that the better positions fall to +those who have had at least a secondary education. Nevertheless, clever +boys, who attend evening schools, have some prospects of advancement. One +feature in the returns was the large number of boys who were apparently +employed with their fathers. In many instances boys obtain their positions +as the result of examination. This is true of several banks, assurance +companies, railway companies, and is becoming the general practice in the +Civil and Municipal Service. Many of these examinations are within the +standard of attainment reached by the cleverer boys in the elementary +schools. The boys at their place of employment are taught sufficient to +enable them to do the work allotted them. This is often of a specialized +character; and without further education they cannot expect to escape from +the lowest ranks of clerks. If well conducted, they can probably obtain a +permanent position when manhood is reached, or, at any rate, are not +discharged because they have become men. Change in the methods of +business, or failure of the concern, may entail dismissal; and after +dismissal a new position is not easily obtained. But the lower ranks of +the clerical profession are ill paid, and the need to present a good +appearance makes serious inroads on the meagre stipend. Unless the boy +continues his education and means to rise, his outlook is not very +encouraging. He has, however, the advantage of supervision, of relatively +short hours, and enjoys the possibilities of attendance at evening +schools. In spite of what is often said to the contrary, taking things as +they are, he has the best prospects of those included in the returns. The +fact that so large a proportion of boys coming from the suburbs is found +in this class would seem to indicate that the more thoughtful parents +share this opinion. + +_(c) The Passage to Manhood._ + +The tables quoted on pp. 115-118, and founded on school returns, refer +only to the first occupations of boys as they leave school. It is +unfortunate that no figures exist which trace year by year the later +careers of the boys. All persons, however, who have any intimate knowledge +of the subject agree that the boys repeatedly move in an almost aimless +fashion from one situation to another. + +The census returns indicate in a general way the distribution, among the +trades and occupations, of persons of various ages. They do not, however, +give us a yearly survey; and after the age fourteen to fifteen we are +compelled to rest content with figures which cover periods of five years. +The following table is taken from a table printed in a Report to the +Education Committee of the London County Council, made by a special +committee appointed to deal with the apprenticeship question; it is +founded on the 1901 census return:[141] + +OCCUPATIONS OF BOYS AND MEN. + +PERCENTAGES. + + +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ + |Class of Occupation. | Age | Age | Age | Age | + | | 14-15. | 15-20. | 20-45. | 45-65. | + |-----------------------------|--------|---------|---------|---------| + |Trades and industries | 14.74 | 31.54 | 35.76 | 38.85 | + |Domestic offices or services | 1.75 | 3.29 | 3.55 | 3.35 | + |Transport (including | | | | | + | messengers, errand-boys, | | | | | + | van-boys, etc.) | 27.65 | 19.49 | 16.04 | 14.19 | + |Shopkeepers, shop-assistants,| | | | | + | and dealers | 6.03 | 12.52 | 14.51 | 9.23 | + |Commercial occupations | 4.61 | 11.50 | 9.55 | 12.40 | + |General labour | 1.46 | 5.53 | 8.46 | 7.02 | + |Professional occupations and | | | | | + | their subordinate services | 0.73 | 2.00 | 4.55 | 5.08 | + |General or local government | | | | | + | of the country (including | | | | | + | telegraph-boys) | 3.01 | 2.53 | 3.70 | 2.24 | + |Defence of the country | 0.15 | 1.77 | 1.40 | 0.62 | + |Without specified occupation | | | | | + | or unoccupied (including | | | | | + | boys at school) | 39.87 | 9.83 | 2.48 | 7.02 | + |-----------------------------|--------|---------|---------|---------| + |Total number analyzed | 41,889 | 208,921 | 869,466 | 313,949 | + +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +In comparing this table with the tables founded on the school returns, it +must be borne in mind that this table is not confined to persons who have +passed through the elementary schools, but refers to all the inhabitants +of London. + +The most striking feature in the table is the marked difference in the +distribution of occupations at the age of fourteen to fifteen, and at +other ages. The third column, which includes persons between the ages of +twenty and forty-five, covers the period of a man's greatest vigour, and +may be regarded as the normal or stable distribution. Comparing the first +and the third column, it becomes obvious that the first year, at least, +after leaving school is a year of uncertainty and aimless wandering. The +boys have not definitely chosen any particular occupation as their life's +work. How long is spent in this state of unprofitable drifting the census +returns do not show as the following years are not separated. But the fact +that the distribution in the second column differs materially from the +normal distribution of the third column would seem to indicate that this +period stretches some distance into the years that lie between the ages of +fifteen and twenty. + +In default of this general information, we must fall back on special +investigations; and here the facts are drawn from too narrow a circle of +inquiry to be regarded as altogether typical. In his report to the Poor +Law Commission, Mr. Cyril Jackson gives an instructive table[142] (see p. +145). It is founded on biographies of boys obtained from boys' clubs, +schoolmasters, and managers of schools. + +I have omitted the ages that follow, as the number of boys concerned was +too few to justify any conclusions. The rapid diminution in the number of +boys when the age of eighteen is reached impairs the value of the last +two columns. In general, the districts from which the boys are drawn are +poor; but the fact that the boys come into relation with various +organizations, and were no doubt assisted by them, should lead us to +believe that the picture presented errs, if anything, by being too +favourable. The steady increase in the trades, and the equally steady +decrease in the number of van-boys, Post Office boys, errand and shop boys +during the first three years is instructive. Trades, skilled and +low-skilled, reckoned in percentages, have risen from 39.4 to 50.9, while +the messenger class has fallen from 40.1 to 23.8. The changes in the +earlier years are the most significant, and little stability of occupation +is reached before the age of eighteen. The age of fourteen evidently +represents the year of greatest indecision and maximum drift. + +PERCENTAGE OF BOYS IN VARIOUS GROUPS OF OCCUPATIONS AT EACH AGE. + + +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Occupations. |Age 14.|Age 15.|Age 16.|Age 17.|Age 18.|Age 19.| + |-----------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------| + |Skilled trades | 11.2 | 14.0 | 16.8 | 17.8 | 18.0 | 16.3 | + |Clerks | 14.6 | 15.0 | 16.4 | 15.2 | 15.4 | 14.3 | + |Low-skilled | 28.2 | 32.8 | 34.1 | 33.9 | 32.5 | 34.1 | + |Carmen | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 4.5 | 5.1 | + |Van-boys | 8.2 | 6.6 | 5.2 | 4.9 | 2.8 | 1.2 | + |Post Office | 1.4 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.2 | + |Errand and shop | | | | | | | + | boys | 30.5 | 22.0 | 18.4 | 15.0 | 12.6 | 10.3 | + |General and | | | | | | | + | casual labour | 5.3 | 7.0 | 6.7 | 6.9 | 6.4 | 8.7 | + |Army | -- | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 3.6 | 4.0 | + |At sea | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 2.8 | 3.5 | + |Emigrants | -- | -- | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.2 | + |-----------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------| + |Total No. of boys| 485 | 500 | 474 | 448 | 356 | 252 | + |Unemployed | 1 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 22 | 22 | + +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ + +In other parts of his report Mr. Jackson has endeavoured to follow the +history of boys who have begun life as errand-boys or as van-boys. "From +the forms returned," he writes, "it seems clear that the theory that boys +can become errand-boys for a year or two, and then enter skilled trades, +cannot be maintained. Very few boys can pick up skill after a year or two +of merely errand-boy work." [143] Or again: "The chart prepared from the +forms filled in by boys who entered life as errand-boys shows the small +proportion who find any steady and skilled employment afterwards, and +those have ceased to be errand-boys very early. The vast majority become +workers in low-skilled trades or general and casual labourers." [144] Of +all the "blind-alley" occupations, that of the van-boy appears the most +deplorable. "The life of the van-boy is a rough and somewhat lazy one. +They have long hours, spells of idleness, and considerable opportunities +of pilfering and drinking." [145] "The chart shows that it is a very low +grade of occupation, and that very few boys who begin as van-boys get into +skilled trades--a far lower percentage, in fact, than errand-boys." [146] + +The second point to be noted in the table founded on the census returns is +the large number--nearly 40 per cent.--of boys of the age of fourteen +returned as without specified occupation or unoccupied (including boys at +school). There are in the elementary schools about 5,000 boys between the +age of fourteen and fifteen, and probably about the same number in +secondary schools. Converted into percentages, this 40 per cent. would be +broken up into 24 per cent. at school and 16 per cent. without specified +occupation. The last figure is high, and justifies the conclusion, not +only that the boys of fourteen wander from occupation to occupation, but +that they also are frequently doing nothing. The habit of shifting from +situation to situation necessarily involves considerable periods of +unemployment. Thus early in their career the boys become accustomed to the +evils of casual labour. + +We can arrive at the same conclusion by approaching the problem from a +somewhat different point of view. If in some trades we discover an excess +of boys, and in others an excess of men, it is clear that there must be +shocks and shiftings in the passage from youth to manhood. In London the +number of lads between the ages of fourteen and twenty is 17.5 per cent. +of the number of males between the ages of fourteen and sixty-five. If, +therefore, we find the proportion of lads to total males engaged in any +trade, reckoned in percentages, differs much from 17.5, either lads must +at some time pass out of the trade or men come in. On the other hand, in a +trade where this percentage is approximately 17.5 boys who enter have, at +any rate, the chance of finding employment as men. In this sense we may +regard the distribution of lads and men in a trade as normal when this +percentage lies between 15 and 20; less than normal when it drops below +15; more than normal when it rises above 20. The following table may be +taken as an example of trades in which considerable numbers of persons are +engaged: + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | Number in | Number in | | + | Trade. |1,000 of Males|1,000 of Males|Percentage.| + | | Aged 14-20. | Aged 14-65. | | + |---------------------------|--------------|--------------|-----------| + |LESS THAN NORMAL: | | | | + | Building trades | 13.2 | 144.2 | 9.1 | + | Skin, leather, etc. | 2.6 | 8.5 | 14.1 | + | Food, tobacco, drink, | | | | + | and lodging | 19.9 | 135.2 | 14.8 | + | General labour | 15.0 | 111.1 | 13.5 | + | General or local | | | | + | government | 6.5 | 45.8 | 14.3 | + | Professional | 4.8 | 62.2 | 7.8 | + |NORMAL: | | | | + | Domestic services | 7.8 | 51.7 | 15.1 | + | Commercial occupations | 25.9 | 131.1 | 19.8 | + | Metals, machines, etc. | 14.4 | 92.7 | 15.5 | + | Precious metals | 6.6 | 36.5 | 18.2 | + | Furniture, etc. | 9.3 | 59.5 | 15.7 | + | Textile fabrics | 4.1 | 23.5 | 17.3 | + |MORE THAN NORMAL: | | | | + | National Government | | | | + | (messengers, etc.) | 3.9 | 13.5 | 29.2 | + | Clerks, office-boys, etc.| 23.1 | 83.0 | 27.8 | + | Transport, errand-boys, | | | | + | etc. | 52.3 | 236.3 | 22.1 | + | Printers | 7.1 | 34.1 | 20.7 | + +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +If we could have taken the period fourteen to eighteen instead of fourteen +to twenty, these tables would have been even more striking than they are. +But, even as they are, they are sufficient to enforce the lesson that +between the occupation of the boy and the occupation of the man there is a +gulf fixed. The one does not lead naturally to the other. When the boy +becomes a man he does not find provided for him a natural opening; with +more or less pains, he is driven to force a way in trades for which he has +received no definite preparation, and in which diligence and good +character do not afford any guarantee of success. + +_(d) Summary._ + +Before proceeding to examine the conditions of boy labour in other parts +of the country, it will be desirable to summarize the results for London, +and so to determine how far the essentials of a true apprenticeship system +are found in that city. + +_Supervision._--The boy should be under adequate supervision until he +reaches the age of at least eighteen. In London, so far as the majority +are concerned, all State supervision ends at fourteen. When the boy goes +out to work what measure of supervision was previously found in the home +comes to an end; it is beyond the power of parents to exert any real +control over the boy. He is his own master, finds his employment for +himself, and leaves it when he thinks fit. Philanthropic enterprise +touches a fringe, and a fringe only, of the boys; their growing sense of +independence resents restraint. The story of the workshop points the same +moral. Personal relations between boy and employer are seldom possible; +and where the demand for the services of boys is unlimited and +unsatisfied, attempts to enforce discipline fail, because, sooner than +submit, the boy seeks another situation. + +_Training._--For the unskilled labourer of the future London provides no +training. The schools do, indeed, turn out in the boys ready made and +completely finished articles for boy-work and "blind-alley" occupations, +and three or four years of such employment destroy the most-marked results +of elementary education. The skilled workman of the future finds in the +workshop small chance of gaining that all-round training which will make +of him a man, and not a machine. Technical education for the minority is +successful, but without power to compel attendance and limit the hours of +boy-labour it is only the few who can avail themselves of the +opportunities offered. + +_Opening._--Boys' work is separated from man's work, and there is no broad +highway leading from the one to the other. The lad of eighteen is +compelled to make a new beginning just when new beginnings are most +difficult. His power of learning is gone from him, and in the unskilled +labour market alone does he see any prospect of earning immediate wages. +The State Labour Exchange is an infant which has yet to justify its +creation. + +In London the provision of supervision, of training, of an opening, is +alike defective, and beyond the age of fourteen for the majority of boys +can hardly be said to exist at all; and, what is most serious, we are face +to face with a state of affairs where there is no sign of improvement, and +where all tendencies indicate for the future an accelerated rate of +progressive failure. In short, London cannot claim even the beginnings of +a real apprenticeship system. + +Sec. 2. OTHER TOWNS. + +Among the cities London does not stand alone in its conditions of boy +labour. It may indeed be regarded as the most extreme example of +urbanization, but it is nothing more; it is a normal type, not an +exception or monstrous exaggeration. As the capital of the Empire and the +seat of government, it has its own characteristics, but so likewise has +every other town. But dominating all these local variations and giving +uniformity to the conditions of boy labour in our cities, remain the +common features of the industrial development of to-day. This, at any +rate, is the unanimous testimony of all those investigators--and they have +been many--who have studied the problem. + +I shall not, therefore, make any attempt to apply to other towns the +detailed method of investigation I have endeavoured to employ in the case +of London. It will be enough to show that the general conditions are the +same. What differences exist are differences of degree, and not +differences of kind. + +_(a) The Employment of School-Children._ + +The investigations of the Interdepartmental Committee has proved beyond +doubt that throughout the country it is common for children, while still +attending school, to work long hours for wages. One or two quotations +will be sufficient to justify this statement. The Report declares "that, +as the door has been closed to their employment in factories and workshops +and during school-hours, there has been a tendency, which many witnesses +believe to be an increasing one, towards their employment in other +occupations before morning school, between school-hours, in the evening, +and on Saturdays and Sundays. Provided they make eight or ten attendances +every week, they may be employed (with a few exceptions, and these little +enforced) in the streets, in the fields, in shops, or at home, for the +longest possible hours, and on the hardest and most irksome work, without +any limit or regulation." [147] Evidence abounded to show that such +possibilities of overwork were frequently realized. Examples have already +been quoted in the case of London, and it is unnecessary here to go over +the same ground again. + +That legislation, as at present enforced, has done little to cure the evil +of overwork may be seen from the reports of school medical officers. Some +of these are quoted in the Annual Report for 1909 of the Chief Medical +Officer of the Board of Education. The school medical officers were not +asked to report specially on the problem, but their inspection of +school-children revealed the magnitude of the evil. + +"Several school medical officers report on the question of child labour +during 1909. Dr. Thresh (school medical officer, Essex) places on record +the serious extent to which children are employed out of school-hours in +the Grays and Tilbury districts, and gives many individual examples. Dr. +Forbes (school medical officer, Brighton) gives some interesting +particulars from a statement prepared by the Inspector under the +Employment of and Cruelty to Children Acts. In this area the head-teachers +furnish regularly lists of children known by them to be employed out of +school-hours. Among these children it was found that 39, 25, and 22 per +cent. were illegally employed during 1907, 1908, and 1909 respectively. +Dr. Clarke (school medical officer, Walthamstow) found that 19 per cent. +of the boys examined were employed out of school-hours, of whom 19 per +cent. worked an average of eleven hours per week; 32 per cent. worked ten +hours and over on Saturdays; 20 per cent. worked twenty hours or over +during school-days. A full analysis of all children known to be employed +out of school-hours at Yeovil is made by Dr. Page (school medical +officer), who found that 22 per cent. of all children eight years of age +and upwards were so employed, and of these 40 per cent. worked for twenty +hours and upwards per week. Dr. Hope (school medical officer of Liverpool) +produces evidence to show how usefully medical inspection may be linked up +with the arrangements made to put into force by-laws relating to the +employment of children. Thus, all cases where there was reason to suppose +that the by-laws were being infringed were reported to the Sanitary +Department. These children cases numbered 308 during the year, and a table +is given showing in what manner they were dealt with. At Leamington, 119 +boys and 30 girls were reported by Dr. Burnet as employed in a +wage-earning capacity either before or after school-hours, and 90 boys and +11 girls both before and after school-hours. Of these, 63 children were of +subnormal nutrition, 22 were suffering from anaemia, 2 from phthisis, 8 +from heart disease, and 25 had enlarged tonsils. Several of these children +were quite unfit for such employment, and the subject is deserving of a +thorough investigation with a view to adopting protective measures where +necessary. At Southport, 131 leaving boys (32.7 per cent.) were found to +be doing unskilled or casual work, and in Oldham 179 of the children +inspected were similarly engaged." [148] + +As in London, so in other parts of the country, school-children work for +long hours, and no adequate means exist at present to prevent the evil. As +in London, so in other parts of the country, signs of serious physical +weakness are the common accompaniments of this employment, and the health +of the rising generation is injured. As in London, so in other parts of +the country, the forms of employment in which children are engaged are +uneducational, and tend to lead children, when school-days are over, into +the "blind-alley" occupations. + +Besides these children, there are about 38,000 "half-timers." [149] It is +needless here to dilate on the evils of the half-time system, which allows +children who have reached the age of twelve to spend half the day in the +factory and workshop. It is condemned by all qualified to pass on it an +impartial judgment. Its continuance reflects little credit on the humanity +of those employers and those trade unions who have repeatedly opposed its +abolition. + +_(b) The Entry to a Trade._ + +The survey of conditions of juvenile employment in London made clear +certain facts. There was the growing demand for boys in what has been +called "blind-alley" occupations, and the demoralizing effect of such +work. There was the difficulty of obtaining adequate training for those +who had entered a skilled trade. There was a general lack of supervision +in the workshop. And, finally, there was no easy passage from youth to +manhood. It is impossible to read the Report of the Poor Law Commission +and the volumes of evidence, or to study the various investigations into +the conditions of sundry towns, without being convinced that London is in +no way peculiar. The chief difficulty in approaching the problem lies in +the selection of the all too numerous witnesses. + +The Report of the Poor Law Commission probably provides the best summary +of the mass of evidence on the subject. Both Reports--Majority and +Minority--alike realize the gravity of the problem, not for London alone, +but for the whole of the country. "The problem," says the Majority Report, +"owes its rise in the main to the enormous growth of cities as +distributive centres, giving innumerable openings for errand-boys, +milk-boys, office and shop boys, bookstall-boys, van, lorry, and trace +boys, street-sellers, etc. In nearly all these occupations the training +received leads to nothing; and the occupations themselves are, in most +cases, destructive to healthy development, owing to long hours, long +periods of standing, walking, or mere waiting, and, morally, are wholly +demoralizing." [150] Or, again: "The almost universal experience is that in +large towns boys, owing to carelessness or selfishness on the part of the +parents, or their own want of knowledge and thought--for the parents very +often have little voice in the matter--plunge haphazard, immediately on +leaving school, into occupations in which there is no future, where they +earn wages sufficiently high to make them independent of parental control +and disinclined for the lower wages of apprenticeship, and whence, if they +remain, they are extruded when they grow to manhood." [151] Or, to go to +the Minority Report: "There are the rivet-boys in shipyards and boiler +shops, the 'oil-cans' in the nut and bolt department, the 'boy-minders' of +automatic machines, the 'drawers-off' of sawmills, and the 'layers-on' of +printing works, and scores of other varieties of boys whose occupations +presently come to an end." [152] Or, again: "In towns like Glasgow, +Liverpool, Bristol, Newcastle, the proportions of van-boys, etc., are as +large as in London." [153] Employers do not always conceal the fact: "In +the words of a frank employer, they (the boys) are not taught; they are +made to work continuously at their own little temporary trades." [154] If +we desire actual figures of those engaged in one class of the +"blind-alley" occupations--messengers--Mr. Jackson tells us that "under +fourteen years of age there are no less than 32,536 (23.5 per cent. of +those occupied under that age), while there are 41,659 aged fourteen, and +54,592 from fifteen to nineteen years of age inclusive, of which it is +probable that the bulk are under seventeen years of age." [155] Writing of +Norwich, the same writer says: "There seems little doubt that the boy +labour is used up for industrial purposes, and that they are left less +capable members of the community, with little prospect of good work when +they become adults." [156] + +Apart from the Report of the Poor Law Commission, individual writers of +wide and varied experience outside London have voiced the same view. "It +has never been so easy," writes Dr. Sadler, "as it is in England to-day, +for a boy of thirteen or fourteen to find some kind of virtually unskilled +work, involving long hours of deteriorating routine, in which there is +little mental or moral discipline, but for which are offered wages that +for the time seem high, and flatter his sense of being independent of +school discipline and of home restraint." [157] And the same writer +continues: "Certain forms of industry, which make large use of boys and +girls who have recently left the elementary schools, are in part (except +where the employers make special efforts to meet their responsibility) +parasitic in character, and get more than they ought, and more than their +promoters realize that they are getting, of the physical and moral capital +of the rising generation." [158] + +The Rev. Spencer J. Gibb, who has devoted special attention to the +problem, writes: "The characteristic evils of boy work invade office work +in a peculiarly subtle and dangerous form. In every city small offices are +to be found in which the whole of the business, such as it is, is carried +on by the master himself, who has frequently to be absent from his +one-roomed office. The office-boy, who constitutes the entire staff, is +meanwhile left in charge. He has probably nothing to do, and spends his +time either in vacancy, in mischievous expeditions along the corridor, or +in reading trash of a bloodthirsty nature." [159] Under such conditions +supervision and control are negligible factors in the training of the +workshop. It seems unnecessary to multiply examples; all persons of +experience lament the increasing employment of boys in "blind-alley" +occupations, and deplore the general lack of supervision. + +The question of the skilled trades has received less attention, and there +is much need of such a careful inquiry in various towns as had been made +by Mr. Tawney in the case of Glasgow. Writing of the woodwork trades in +that town, he says: "There is no regular training system; a boy learns +incidentally, and is only shifted from one machine to another when the +shop needs it.... One of its employes was the best producer of wooden +rings in his town, but could not make a wage at turning a table-leg," and +adds that, "with the exception of a few old men who were trained under the +apprenticeship system, the foremen are the only men with all-round +skill." [160] While of the engineering trades he says: "On entering the +works the lad who is going to be a fitter goes straight to the fitting +shop and learns nothing else; a lad who is going to be a turner goes to +the machine shop and does not learn fitting." [161] Specialization is +pushed even farther, and lads are kept to a single machine. Drilling, +milling, slotting, punching, band-sawing, or screwing machines can be used +after a few days' training, and this is all the experience a boy gets. +And, speaking generally of Glasgow firms, Mr. Tawney says: "Boys are kept, +as a rule, in their own departments. They are not taught; they are made to +work." These facts were obtained as the result of a careful inquiry among +100 firms in Glasgow. + +Glasgow, then, repeats the story of London; and there is good reason to +believe that other towns, if submitted to a similar examination, would +demonstrate the fact of the inadequacy of the workshop training of to-day. +Apprenticeship, according to numerous witnesses, is everywhere decaying, +and there is nothing except the technical school rising to take its place; +and under existing conditions the technical school can touch only a fringe +of the problem. + +_(c) The Passage to Manhood._ + +The evidence of the last few pages, relating to the increase in the number +of "blind-alley" occupations and to the inadequate training of the +workshop, would show that, as in London, so likewise in other towns, there +is no easy passage from the work of the youth to the work of the man. +There is a break in the continuity of the service somewhere about the age +of eighteen. New openings have then to be searched for, and new beginnings +made, when the habits of learning have disappeared, even if the +opportunities for it presented themselves. + +It would seem superfluous to repeat for other towns the statistical +evidence in support of this statement which was given in the case of +London. "Blind-alley" occupations and troubled passage to manhood +necessarily go together. Mr. Tawney's researches in Glasgow indicate +clearly the difficulties of this transition period. A single quotation +must suffice: "A district secretary of the Amalgamated Society of +Engineers says of a world-famous firm which employs several thousand men +making a particular kind of domestic machine: 'It is a reception home for +young bakers and grocers. Boys go to it from other occupations to do one +small part of the machine.... When they leave they are not competent +engineers, and find it difficult to get work elsewhere.'" [162] Detailed +figures for the country as a whole in respect of certain trades may be +found in Mr. Jackson's Report on Boy Labour. All evidence, from +wheresoever collected, goes to show the existence of the break between the +work of the boy and the work of the man. + + * * * * * + +It is trusted that sufficient evidence has been produced to prove +conclusively that the conditions of boy labour in London do not differ +essentially from the conditions of boy labour in other towns. The evidence +could have been multiplied indefinitely and, what is most striking, among +the mass of witnesses forthcoming there is none found to venture a +contrary opinion. We may take it, then, as a well-established fact that in +other towns besides London, supervision, training, and the provision of an +opening are alike gravely and progressively defective. In other words, +among the urban districts of the country no true apprenticeship system +exists or is in course of creation. + +Sec. 3. RURAL DISTRICTS. + +No comprehensive inquiry has been made into the conditions of boy labour +in rural districts and small towns. A few studies of individual villages +exist--as, for example, "Life in an English Village," by Miss Maude +Davies--but these are not sufficiently numerous to justify any general +conclusions. The return on Children Working for Wages, made to the House +of Commons in 1899, gives certain statistics. From the returns on pages 21 +and 23 we see that for England and Wales some 5.2 per cent. of children +above Standard I. were working for wages. The percentage for boys alone +would be 8.5 per cent., or for boys eleven years and upwards about 17 per +cent., compared with 24 per cent. for London alone. These figures would +seem to show that, while common, work among school-children over the +country as a whole does not quite reach the London level. So far as can be +gathered from the returns, it is in towns that the employment of +school-children is most frequent, though in rural districts it is frequent +enough to constitute a grave evil. + +The same return gives the occupation of children as they leave school. On +page 163 is the summary. + +The table is incomplete: "In London the proportion of children is no less +than 94 per cent.; in the group of large urban districts, 72 per cent.; +while in the rest of England and Wales, including the rural districts and +small towns, the percentage sinks to 47." [163] Without a careful analysis, +such as only local knowledge could supply, it would be dangerous to give +much weight to the return. It does, however, appear from the summary that +"blind-alley" occupations bear a close relation to urbanization, and that +the two increase together. Or looking at the question from another point +of view, a boy in rural districts enjoys greater opportunities of +continuity of employment in the passage from youth to manhood than he does +in the towns. + +OCCUPATIONS OF BOYS ON LEAVING SCHOOL IN (1) LONDON, (2) LARGE URBAN AND +MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS, AND (3) RURAL AND SMALL URBAN DISTRICTS OF +ENGLAND AND WALES.[164] + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | |Large Urban and| Rural and | + | Occupation. | London. | Manufacturing | Small Urban | + | | | Districts. | Districts. | + |----------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------| + | | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | + |Agriculture | 101 | -- | 730 | 2 | 17,950 | 26 | + |Building | 787 | 3 | 1,973 | 4 | 3,744 | 5 | + |Woodworking | 905 | 4 | 591 | 1 | 661 | 1 | + |Metal, engineering, | | | | | | | + | and shipbuilding | 949 | 4 | 4,090 | 8 | 3,119 | 4 | + |Mining and quarrying | -- | -- | 1,584 | 3 | 6,510 | 9 | + |Textile | 49 | -- | 6,046 | 13 | 5,522 | 8 | + |Clothing | 665 | 3 | 1,634 | 3 | 1,612 | 2 | + |Printing and allied | | | | | | | + | trades | 1,121 | 4 | 868 | 2 | 680 | 1 | + |Clerical | 2,060 | 8 | 5,666 | 12 | 2,727 | 4 | + |In shops | 3,584 | 14 | 6,084 | 13 | 7,045 | 10 | + |Errand, cart, boat, | | | | | | | + | etc., boy | 10,283 | 40 | 10,496 | 22 | 9,917 | 14 | + |Newsboy and street | | | | | | | + | vendor | 964 | 4 | 1,472 | 3 | 1,223 | 2 | + |Teaching | 120 | -- | 430 | 1 | 557 | 1 | + |Domestic service | 301 | 1 | 173 | -- | 1,090 | 2 | + |Miscellaneous and | | | | | | | + | indefinite | 2,256 | 9 | 4,159 | 9 | 4,817 | 7 | + |----------------------+--------|------|--------|------|--------|------| + | Total occupied | 24,145 | 94 | 45,996 | 96 | 67,174 | 96 | + |No reported occupation| 1,623 | 6 | 2,097 | 4 | 2,765 | 4 | + |----------------------|--------|------|--------|------|--------|------| + | Grand total | 25,768 | 100 | 48,093 | 100 | 69,939 | 100 | + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +There is good reason to believe that the prospects of an all-round +training are more favourable in a village than in a town. The fact, +already mentioned, that immigrants from rural districts obtain the better +positions in London trades, especially in the building trades, would seem +to justify this conclusion. There is also the general consideration that +rural districts are always nearly a century behind the industrial +development of the towns, and represent therefore an older condition of +affairs. Workshops are smaller, the gulf between man and employer less +impassable, and the old paternal relation between boy and master more +possible of attainment. We may therefore assume, without much risk of +error, that training is better in rural districts than in towns. + +On the other hand, while it is true that in industrial progress the +villages lag behind the towns, they still follow them, though at an +interval. Machine-made goods, especially in the woodwork trades, are in +villages replacing the hand-made goods, and the demand for manual +dexterity is to this extent decreasing. It would also seem to be true that +the old indentured apprenticeship is falling into disuse. In the Wiltshire +village of Corsley, for example, while apprenticeship occupied a prominent +position in the past, in the story of to-day it passes almost without +mention. In Miss Davies's[165] study of the occupations of the inhabitants +of that village, only one apprentice is mentioned. It is also a fact that +those who are concerned with the administration of local charities for +apprenticeship are finding increasing difficulty in discovering masters +who are willing to take boys as indentured apprentices, even for a +premium, and boys who are desirous of being indentured. + +We may, perhaps, therefore assume that, while the conditions of boy labour +are more favourable in rural districts than they are in towns, the old +machinery of training is falling into disuse, and no adequate substitute +is taking its place. + + +V. + +THE BREAK-UP OF APPRENTICESHIP. + +The survey of the elements that make up the apprenticeship of to-day is +now complete. Each of the factors which contribute to the result--the +State, Philanthropy, the Home, the Workshop--has been examined, and their +influence appraised. It is therefore possible to pass judgment on the +system, and, by realizing the present situation in all its relations, to +understand clearly the nature and the extent of the problems which call +for solution in the immediate future. + +The period of apprenticeship has been shown to divide itself naturally +into two parts. There are the years during which the boy is at school, +ending somewhere about the age of fourteen. For the right use of these +years we have seen that the State is beginning to accept full +responsibility. Whether we have been concerned with the conduct, the +physical welfare, or the training of the child, we have found collective +enterprise assuming new duties, and carrying them out with a growing +enthusiasm. Nor can we have remained blind to the large measure of success +achieved. If defects here and there mar the result, they are clearly the +defects that belong to all experiments in the early stages, and are +obviously not the ineradicable faults of a worn-out system. In short, so +far as regards the earlier years of the apprenticeship of to-day, there is +no cause for despondency. Progress is the distinguishing characteristic of +this first period; the boy is the centre of influences increasing in +number, and deliberately planned to promote his well-being. One +disquieting phenomenon that calls for attention is the large mass of +school-children working long hours. Health is undermined, the effect of +education impaired; while the occupations, essentially of the +"blind-alley" type, encourage an unfortunate taste for this form of +employment. Further, the various local authorities, especially in rural +districts, have been very lax in using the powers conferred by the +Employment of Children Act. + +The second stage of apprenticeship covers the years between the ages of +fourteen and eighteen. In our survey of this period we have been unable to +find much cause for satisfaction. The State no longer recognizes its +responsibility for the well-being of all its youth; it is content to offer +opportunities of training to those who are able and willing to avail +themselves of these advantages, and these last form only a small minority +of the whole. The success of evening schools, technical institutes, and +other places of higher education, so far as concerns those who come within +that sphere of influence, only adds to our regret that that sphere of +influence is so narrowly restricted. The majority, at least two-thirds, of +the boys pass out of the control of the State, and for the completion of +their apprenticeship we must look in other directions. Our search in these +other directions has met with little reward; we have found everywhere +failure, and, what is worse, failure that is rapidly progressive. Nowhere +on a large scale can we discover provision made for the supervision and +training of juveniles; from all sides we receive a tumult of complaint +that things have gone astray. Philanthropic enterprise, whether +represented by the religious bodies or lads' clubs, laments the lack of +control over the boys, and frankly confesses its inability to deal +satisfactorily with more than a small minority. The testimony of the home +is the same; parents complain of the growing independence of their +children, and to a large extent have ceased to attempt to exert any +restraint over the conduct of their sons. Under the stress of modern +industrial conditions and accentuated urbanization, the old patriarchal +system of the family has broken down; the home represents an association +of equals, in which, perhaps, the young can claim a predominant influence. + +When we pass to the workshop, in the hope of reaching law and order and +constructive thought, it is only to be confronted with the most signal +example of an organization which defies every principle of a true +apprenticeship system. That the boy of to-day is the workman of to-morrow +is a thought that suggests itself to only a few of the most enlightened +employers. To the many he is merely a cheap instrument of production to be +used up, and then scrapped as waste machinery. He is kept at "his own +little temporary task"; and, to make things worse, he is in so much demand +that discipline cannot keep him very steadily even to this, or his +services will be withdrawn. With the separation of man's work from boy's +work there is no easy passage from youth to manhood. With the minute +subdivision of operations, there is small chance of a lad in a skilled +trade becoming a master of his craft. + +Apart from the small amount of medical inspection required by the Factory +and Workshop Act, no attempt is made to insure that the growing lad is +physically fit for the work in which he is engaged. His health is the +concern of no one till its breakdown brings him under the Poor Law or +thrusts him into the ranks of the unemployable. Undisciplined, with health +and training neglected, the lad of eighteen tends to find himself more and +more left without prospects, and a person for whom no one in particular +has any particular use. In short, our survey of the problem of the +apprenticeship of to-day shows conclusively that we have, in the true +sense of the word, no apprenticeship system. The old apprenticeship system +has broken up, and there is nothing come to take its place. + +It would be incredible if serious consequences did not accompany this +complete break-up of the apprenticeship system; and it needs but little +search to discover evils of far-reaching significance. There is first the +evil of an uncontrolled youth. A child at the age of fourteen is not +fitted to enjoy the independence of an adult. This statement is a truism, +but there is tragedy in the fact that society of to-day confers, as we +have seen, this irresponsible freedom, in a more or less unqualified form, +on the majority of boys when they leave the elementary schools. In the +hooligan of the streets or in the youthful criminal we have the most +striking example of the fruits of an undisciplined boy. The report of the +Commissioners of Prisons for the year ending March 31, 1908, makes this +clear. Writing of the Borstal Association, they say: "In this admirable +report" (the report, that is, of the Borstal Association), "which should +be studied by all who are interested in the causes of crime, after +specifying many circumstances which induce the criminal habit, they refer +in particular to the absence of any system of control or organization for +the employment of the young, as one of the principal causes of +wrong-doing. 'When a boy leaves school the hands of organization and +compulsion are lifted from his shoulders. If he is the son of very poor +parents, his father has no influence, nor, indeed, a spare hour, to find +work for him; he must find it for himself; generally he does find a job, +and if it does not land him into a dead alley at eighteen he is fortunate, +or he drifts, and the tidy scholar becomes a ragged and defiant corner +loafer. Over 80 per cent. of our charges admit that they were not at work +when they got into trouble,'" [166] The Poor Law Commission calls attention +to the evil effects of certain forms of employment which the boys choose +because of the freedom they give."'Street-selling, for example,' says the +Chief Constable of Sheffield, 'makes the boys thieves.' 'News-boys and +street-sellers,' says Mr. Cyril Jackson, 'are practically all gamblers.' +'Of 1,454 youths between fourteen and twenty-one charged in Glasgow during +1906 with theft and other offences inferring dishonesty, 1,208, or 83.7 +per cent., came from the class of messengers, street-traders, etc.,' says +Mr. Tawney." [167] And it would be easy to multiply indefinitely examples +of this kind. It must not, of course, be assumed that all boys become +hooligans or criminals, but all do suffer from the want of control and the +need of a more disciplined life. Hooliganism is merely an extreme type of +a disease which in a milder form fastens upon the boys who are allowed +unrestrained liberty. The disease is the disease of restlessness--the +restlessness of the town, the dislike of regularity, the joy in change for +change's sake, and the habit of roving from place to place. + +This disease, with the lack of proper technical training, leads on to +unemployment when the age of manhood is reached. Unemployment is not the +fate of the old only; it is becoming common among the young. "The +percentage of men under thirty years of age qualified for assistance +under the Unemployed Workmen Act, 1905, was:[168] + + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + | |Up to March 31, 1906.|Twelve Months ending| + | | | March 31, 1907. | + |-----------------|---------------------|--------------------| + | London | 23.9 | 27.4 | + | Whole of England| 27.3 | 30.2" | + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + +"It has become clear," says a manager of boys' clubs with a very wide +experience, "to all students of the labour problem that a wrong choice of +their first work--or, rather, no choice at all, but a drift into it--is +responsible for the presence of considerable numbers of young men amongst +the unemployed." [169] The Reports of the Poor Law Commission, Majority and +Minority alike, repeatedly voice the same opinion. "The great prominence +given to boy labour, not only in our evidence, but in the various reports +of our special investigators, leads us to the opinion that this is perhaps +the most serious of the phenomena which we have encountered in our study +of unemployment. The difficulty of getting boys absorbed, through gradual +and systematic training, in the skilled trades is great enough; but when +to this are added the temptations, outside the organized industries, to +enter at an early age into occupations which are not themselves skilled +and give no opportunity for acquiring skill, it seems clear that we are +faced by a far greater problem than that of finding employment for adults +who have fallen behind in the race for efficiency--namely, that the growth +of large cities has brought with it an enormous increase in occupations +that are making directly for unemployment in the future." [170] The +Minority Report is equally emphatic. "There is no subject," it says, "as +to which we have received so much and such conclusive evidence as upon the +extent to which thousands of boys, from lack of any sort of training for +industrial occupations, grow up, almost inevitably, so as to become +chronically unemployed or under-employed, and presently to recruit the +ranks of the unemployable. In Glasgow nearly 20 per cent. of the labourers +in distress are under twenty-five, and one-half of them are under +thirty-five." [171] Or again: "It has been demonstrated beyond dispute that +one of the features of the manner in which we have chosen to let the +nation's industry be organized is that an increasing number of boys are +employed in occupations which are either uneducative (in the sense of +producing no increase of efficiency and intelligence) or unpromising (in +the sense of leading to no permanent occupation during adult life); +secondly, that there is a constant tendency for certain industrial +functions to be transferred from men to boys, especially when changes in +the processes of manufacture or in the organization of industry are taking +place rapidly. The resulting difficulty is the double one of the +over-employment of boys and the under-employment of men." [172] + +It is hoped that the present chapter may have made clear the various steps +in this unfortunate process of industrial development. First, we have the +qualities which are the result of the school training--qualities of +regularity, obedience, and intelligence--qualities required, indeed, in +all forms of work, but supplying a complete technical outfit alone for the +"blind-alley" occupations. The boys leave school, having had expended on +them in each case a capital sum of public money of about one hundred +pounds. They are valuable assets, and employers have discovered the fact, +and adjusted their methods of production or distribution to make full use +of this new and valuable supply. High wages attract the boy, who makes his +own choice, and earning is regarded as more attractive than the laborious +and less remunerative learning. + +This leads on to the second stage, the "blind-alley" occupation or the +skilled trade where there is no real training. Four years of this kind of +work dissipate the effects of elementary education. Too often weakened +physically by long hours of employment, demoralized by the life of freedom +and the fatal facility in obtaining a second job when fancy has made him +throw up the first, robbed by disuse of the power to learn even if the +inclination were present, he is, at the age of eighteen, a distinctly less +valuable asset in the labour market than he was four years before. The +hundred pounds investment of public money intended for life has been +squandered in youth; the employer has possessed himself of it; and when +the boy asks the wages of a man, he is informed that his services are no +longer wanted, and told to transfer them elsewhere. + +Then comes the final stage of degeneration--unemployment or +under-employment. The habit, acquired through four years of constant +practice, of throwing up a job on the smallest pretext, remains with the +lad of eighteen, but the facility of finding another is no longer his. The +intensity of the demand for men varies almost inversely with the intensity +of the demand for boys; the two are competitors in the same labour market, +and of the two the boy is the cheaper and the more efficient instrument of +production. Further, habits of boyhood have too often bred a liking for +casual employment, with its frequent holidays. Here, also, the employers +are willing to oblige him; they find it convenient to have at their beck +and call a reserve of labour which can be drawn upon when business is +brisk, and discharged in times of slackness. Finally, if he desires +regular employment, it is none too easy to discover a suitable opening. +The sphere of his usefulness is small; he has for sale a certain amount of +animal strength, none too well developed, but has little else to offer. He +can push and he can pull indifferently well, but in the world of industry +there is not, as is supposed sometimes, an unlimited demand for pulling +and pushing. And all the time he is faced with the fact that recruits to +the army of pushing and pulling are coming from all sides. Men skilled in +the performance of a single operation, and robbed of their well-paid +employment by a new invention; men from decaying trades and incapable +through lack of training of adapting themselves to fresh conditions; men a +little past the vigour of manhood; men discharged for misconduct; men who +have lost their work through the bankruptcy of a company or the death of a +master--all alike, when everything fails them, turn in desperation to +pulling and pushing; and meanwhile machines of novel design decrease year +by year the demand for pulling and pushing. + +All these effects, with innumerable variations, are the result of a wrong +start, and of the neglect during the years that lie between the ages of +fourteen and eighteen. Want of supervision, want of technical training, +want of an opening for which special preparation has been given--these are +the three great and characteristic evils of the present industrial +situation. Taken together, they are a negation of all apprenticeship in +the true sense of the word. During the course of the last few years we +have at least learned to know the cause of our suffering, and to know the +cause is at least the first step in the path of prevention. And, further, +we have begun to see rising from the ruins of the old stabilities of life +and the ancient order of industrial organization an edifice--small, +indeed, at the moment, but bearing the mark of constructive thought, +because reared by the growing power of collective enterprise; and, knowing +this, we can turn in a spirit of hope to the task of creating a new +apprenticeship system. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NEW APPRENTICESHIP + + +In the present chapter we must endeavour to find some remedy for the evils +disclosed in the preceding pages. The old apprenticeship system has broken +up, and there is nothing come to take its place. In consequence, the youth +of the country is to a large and growing extent passing through the years +of adolescence without supervision, without technical training, without +prospects of an opening when manhood is reached. These are defects in the +industrial organization so obvious that they are now attracting general +attention, so grave that there is need of immediate and comprehensive +measures of reform. + +In what direction is the remedy to be looked for? From what quarter may we +expect the new apprenticeship to come? The survey of the conditions of boy +labour, contained in an earlier portion of this volume, has disclosed two +forces at work in the training of the youth of the country. The one force +is destructive in its action; the other constructive. Reform obviously +lies in the repression of the former and in the encouragement of the +latter; there is no other alternative. + +The force of destruction has been found throughout associated with the +characteristic phenomena of the industrial revolution. The accentuated +spirit of competition, the increasing use of capital and machinery, with +the consequential development of large undertakings, and the rapid changes +in methods of production to meet new demands or to make use of new +inventions, have all alike been hostile to the well-being of the boy. The +system, created by what may be called the natural growth of modern +business organization, has been a system which has, in one form or +another, continually attempted to exploit child labour. Under this system +children, in days gone by, were driven to the mine and to the factory, or +herded in gangs in the fields and barns of the farm, and even at the +present time are allowed to perform tasks far beyond their strength. Under +this system we have watched the slow and continuous decay of indentured +apprenticeship, the steady decrease of facilities for obtaining an +all-round training in the workshop, and the ever-broadening gulf +separating youth from manhood in the sphere of industry. As a result of +this system we have seen the hand of control lifted from the shoulder of +youth, and have noted lads, under the wayward guidance of an irresponsible +freedom, drifting into the path of crime and disorder. We are driven to +believe that it is the young who swell the armies of unemployment, and +have realized with sudden dismay that, young though they are, they are yet +too old to break the set habits of an unfortunate past. And we are +beginning to perceive clearly that these phenomena, of ill omen, are not a +mere accident, but an integral part of the industrial organization; and +to understand that, in spite of numerous superficial changes, the system, +born of the revolution of a hundred years ago, has not altered in +essentials, and now, as then, threatens with destruction the youth of the +land. + +That system has never enjoyed full freedom of development, but the limits +set on its power for evil have not come from within; they have come from +without, and been imposed on the employers by the legislative action of +the State. It is the State which has throughout the period supplied the +second or regulative and constructive force in the training of the youth +of the country. It has forbidden the employment of boys in some +occupations, and in others limited the hours of employment. Acting without +any clearly defined plan, but striking at the evils, which gusts of +popular opinion denounced and refused to tolerate, it has yet made +impossible the worst abuses of child labour. It has, however, long since +passed beyond the realm of mere veto, and has these many years entered the +sphere of constructive reform. The scheme of compulsory education, the +provision of opportunities for technical instruction, and the powers, +recently conferred on local education authorities, to attend to the +physical condition of school-children, are all signal examples of the +beneficent influence of the second force. + +We are left, then, with these two forces--the force of destruction and the +force of construction; and the fate of the youth turns on the issue of the +struggle between the two. They are not, indeed, the only forces concerned +in the problem of boy labour, but, compared with their influence, all +others sink into insignificance. The State and the industrial system both +possess the characteristic of universality, and no other organization can +make the same claim. Philanthropic and religious associations have always +been found to protest against the abuses of child labour, but their +protest only became generally effective when the State gave to it the +force of law. Philanthropic and religious associations have been pioneers +in the field of education, but the advantages were offered to all only +when the State stepped in and assumed the responsibility. Individual +employers have always been found to offer to their lads humane conditions +of work and full opportunities of training, but these remained the +privileges of a few, and it was only through State interference that the +many obtained their share. As pointing the way to reform, these other +agencies have been, and are, of priceless value to the community, but as +themselves the instrument they have invariably proved a failure. We are +left, then, with two forces which alone need to be taken into account--the +industrial organization and the State. For the creation of the new +apprenticeship system either the industrial organization must reform +itself, or the State must reform the industrial organization: there is no +third alternative. + +Let us begin with the first alternative, and ask ourselves whether there +is any reasonable hope of reform from within the industrial organization. +The experience of the past is uniformly hostile to any such expectation. +In the history of the last hundred years there is no single exception to +the rule that all general improvements in the conditions of boy labour +have come from without, and not been carried out from within. The +experience of the present repeats in an even more emphatic way the +experience of the past. It is impossible to point to one single example of +an industrial reform now in course of development, and affecting on a +large and beneficent scale the prospects or the training of the boy. It +would be easy to cite a hundred instances of the contrary process. The +whole of the last chapter is nothing but a detailed summary of the +progressive defects of the industrial system, and its attempts to exploit +in its own interests the value of boy labour. We saw how, by the +multiplication of "blind-alley" occupations, the industrial system +contrived to lay hold on and use up most of the products of an improved +elementary education initiated by the State. Past and present experience +are in accord; we cannot look for reform from within. + +It is necessary to guard against a possible misinterpretation. There is no +thought here of blaming the employer. The fight lies not between boy and +employer, but between the force of the State and the force of competition, +using the last word to denote the most marked characteristic of the +industrial revolution. The employer is in general as much a victim of the +process as the boy. He cannot be justly blamed for what he cannot be +fairly expected to prevent. The exigencies of competition drive him to +select the cheapest methods of production at the moment. If these methods +involve the exploitation of the boy, it is unfortunate for the boy, but +the employer has no other alternative. To produce as cheaply as his +neighbours is the one condition of success; more remote considerations +cannot enter into a business undertaking. Those well-intentioned persons, +with a smattering of ill-digested science and a system of economics far +removed from all practical realities, who talk amiably of the interests of +employers and their boys, as future workmen, being identical, confuse the +good of the present generation with the good of the generation that comes +after. It is undoubtedly a fact that any system which injures the workers +will in the long-run injure the trade of the country, but this is true +only in the long-run, and the run is often very long. Now, survival in +business is determined in the immediate future. The heavy charges on fixed +capital, the interest on outstanding loans, the weekly wages bill, and the +long tale of daily outgoings, make it impossible for the employer to +follow proper methods of training in the hope that the new generation of +workers will, by their added efficiency, recoup him for his expenditure. +To last till that time he must live through the interval, must obtain that +contract to-day, this order to-morrow, and must get it at a profit--in +other words, he must choose the cheapest method of production here and +now; there and next year will be too late. It will be no inducement to him +to reflect that his methods would in the long-run prove the best, if he +knows that he cannot stay the course. Competition is of to-day; it takes +no account of the happenings of to-morrow. Those who in the struggle +cannot survive this year will not live to reap the harvest of future +years. Agreement among employers on such questions has been found +impossible; the temptation to win by evasion an illicit success proves too +strong for the majority. Those who pursue the better methods disappear; +those who pursue the worse survive to propagate their kind. There is valid +in the world of business a law somewhat analogous to Gresham's law in +matters of currency; the bad pushes out and replaces the good. There is a +real struggle between the interests of one generation and the next. The +employer must concern himself with the things of his own day; it is for +the State, whose life is ageless, to guard the welfare of those who are to +come. By insisting on the methods that are good in the long-run, by +forbidding those which are good only in the immediate present, it places +all employers on the same level, and enables the best of them to do what +was before impossible. It does not thereby interfere with competition; it +merely changes the direction of competition by guiding it into less +injurious channels. But the secret of success, as demonstrated by the +experience of more than a century, must be sought in the enactment of +general regulations, which will apply to all employers, and not be looked +for in what is sometimes termed the spirit of growing enlightenment. +Unless it can be shown that the immediate interest of the employer is one +with the proposed reform, nothing really effective can be done by moral +suasion; while, if the two are in accord, moral suasion is superfluous. +It can hardly be supposed that the contemplative outsider should know the +business of the employers better than they do themselves. The mere fact of +calling to our aid the power of moral suasion should be enough to show +that enlightened self-interest will not suffice; we do not appeal to a +man's conscience when we can appeal to his pocket. If, then, reform and +the immediate interest are not in accord, consent on the part of one +employer means risk of failure in a world where salvation depends on very +small margins of profit. + +It is, therefore, for the most part labour lost to devote time to the +consideration of reforms which do not rest on the basis of legal +obligation, and we might at once turn to considerations of State control +and State enterprise if it were not for the fact that in the minds of many +there still remains a hope of the coming of salvation from another +direction. They advocate the revival of the old indentured apprenticeship +system, and believe that they have only to explain the situation +adequately to the employer for him to realize that his interests lie in +its revival. This belief assumes, as already mentioned, that the outsider +knows the business of the employer better than he does himself--a +tolerably large assumption. We might drop the matter with this criticism, +but a re-examination of the old apprenticeship system, in the light of the +industrial revolution and of the proposals for its revival, will help us +on our journey towards the goal of the new apprenticeship. Such +examination will show, first, the conditions which a true apprenticeship +must fulfil; and, secondly, that those who hark back upon the past for +their ideals of reform are conscious that the past must change its dress +before it can hope to commend itself to the critical taste of the present. + +Now, in its best form, as was shown in the second chapter of this book, +the old apprenticeship system was a success. It did afford means of +adequate supervision over the youth of the country; it did supply them +with technical training; and it did provide an opening in an occupation +for which special preparation had been made. But a closer examination of +the problem showed that success depended on the satisfaction of three +conditions: First, it was essential for the apprentice to live with his +master, or at any rate that the relations between the two should be of a +paternal character; the second essential was the universality of the small +workshop, with the facilities it gave for an all-round training; and, +thirdly, an essential part of the system was the existence of the gild, +which represented masters and men alike, and in the interests of all +inspected and controlled the methods of the workshop. With the dissolution +of the gilds we saw the first weakening of the apprenticeship system. +There was now no authority guarding the interests of the trade as a whole; +compulsory apprenticeship was often used as a means of supplying the +employer with cheap and enforced labour, for whose future he had no +responsibility. With the advent of the industrial revolution we watched +the steady disappearance of the small workshop. Training became difficult, +and often impossible. With both masters and men formal apprenticeship lost +favour, and the system entered on its second stage of decay. With the +multiplication of "blind-alley" occupations, with the growing cleavage +between man's work and boy's work, and with division of labour pushed to +its utmost extreme, came, as has been proved, the break-up of the +apprenticeship system. + +Now, there is nothing in the signs of the times to herald the approach of +a new industrial revolution and a return to the old order of the Middle +Ages. Machines and machine methods have come to stay, and must stay if the +varied needs of the huge populations of to-day are to be satisfied. The +more serious advocates of the revival of indentured apprenticeship admit +this fact, and fully realize that modifications of the system are +necessary. They suggest that committees of volunteers should assume +certain of the functions of the gild; they should exercise a kindly +supervision over the boy in his home, and take steps to insure that the +conditions of the indenture are observed by the employer. Secondly, they +propose that the one-sided training of the workshop should be supplemented +by technical classes provided by the education authority and supervised by +an advisory committee of representatives of the trade. Finally, they urge +that these proposals, so far from being visionary, have actually been +realized in practice with complete success. Why may not we look for a +general extension of these methods? + +The answer is tolerably obvious. The experiments have undoubtedly been +successful. They have shown the steadying influence exerted over the boy +by an indenture; they have shown the advantages that come from friendly +visiting at the home or the workshop; they have shown the value of +technical classes and trade schools supervised by representatives of the +trade. But what they have not shown is that the experiment, while resting +on a purely voluntary basis, admits of indefinite expansion. Indeed, the +fact that the co-operation of the education authority is invoked, in order +to provide technical instruction that shall supplement the training of the +workshop, is sufficient evidence that we cannot dispense altogether with +the assistance of the State. But much more remains to be said against the +possibility of indefinite extension. Take the case of indentures. It is +true that some employers can be found willing to receive indentured +apprentices, and some boys willing to be indentured. But this does not +affect the general rule that the conditions of the modern workshop do not +allow of the use of apprentices, whose training is enforceable at law, or +discount what is a matter of common observation--that neither employers +nor boys like to bind themselves together for a period of years. +Indentures may be an excellent plan for curbing the independence of the +boy, but it does not, unfortunately, follow that the boys who most want +curbing will be the boys who will accept this fretting restraint. What +happens in practice is that a select number of boys willing to submit to +control are brought into relations with a select number of employers +willing to be troubled with boys. This is good as far as it goes, but it +goes no way in the direction of providing supervision for the boys who +most need it. Or take again the question of supplementing in the technical +institute the training of the workshop. Experience here and in other +countries shows conclusively that technical instruction, to be really +effective, must be given during the daytime, when the lad is fresh, and +not during the evening, when he is wearied out by the day's work. But, +ignoring the necessarily limited number of cases in which boys are able to +forgo earning altogether, instruction during the day is possible only +where employers allow their apprentices time off during the day to attend +classes. It is true that some few employers have given this permission, +but their number is strictly limited. In the hope of extending the +principle, the London County Council recently carried out an elaborate +inquiry among employers, but with very small results. "If we compare," +says the report, "the magnitude of the elaborate inquiry carried out by +the principals of polytechnics and technical institutes, by the skilled +employment committees, and by the Council itself, with the extent of the +success attained, we are bound to admit that the results are of the most +meagre dimensions. There appears no prospect of inducing employers on any +large scale to co-operate with us in the establishment of a satisfactory +system of 'part-time' classes." [173] Extension on a large scale and on a +voluntary basis is impossible. + +But, neglecting the question of possibilities, is the revival of an +indentured apprenticeship, as a method of learning certain trades, in +itself a thing to be desired? There remains one difficulty that has never +satisfactorily been surmounted. If indentured apprenticeship is the door +leading to a skilled trade, there will be a movement in the trade to close +all other doors. Those who have paid a premium, or at any rate served +their time for low wages, cannot be expected to allow without complaint +vacancies in the trade to be filled by men who have not passed through a +similar period of servitude. If the door is closed, there is no way of +recruiting the trade in times of expanding business. But, in general, +prohibition has not proved practical, and other ways of entry are +discovered, and as these ways are easier, it is only natural that people +should tend to choose the easier path. Indentured apprenticeship has never +escaped from this dilemma; either the trade is closed to strangers when +there is no means of expansion, or the trade is open when there is no +inducement to be apprenticed. The change in modern industry, with its +tendency to break down the barriers between trade and trade, only +accentuates the acuteness of the dilemma. + +Finally, assuming indentured apprenticeship to be both practical and +desirable, would it provide a solution for the problem of boy labour? It +is obvious that it would only touch a fringe of the question. We have +already seen that some two-thirds of the children, as they leave the +elementary school, enter a form of occupation which leads only to +unskilled labour, and even for that provides no adequate training. An +apprenticeship system would not affect these two-thirds. A boy cannot be +apprenticed as an errand-boy, or in one of those workshops where +practically only boys are engaged. Not only is this class the most +important in respect of numbers; it is also the class most urgently in +need of control. It is here that degeneration and demoralization are most +marked, while it is here that indentured apprenticeship offers not even a +shadow of a remedy. A system which ignores the majority, even if it +provided for the favoured few, cannot be regarded as affording a possible +solution of the problem of boy labour. + +We cannot, therefore, look to the revival of apprenticeship, even when +supplemented by technical training, to carry us far on the road of reform. +It would, however, be a mistake to under-rate the lessons of the +experiments. They have shown the value of indentures as a means of +controlling the boy; they have shown the value of sympathetic supervision; +and they have shown the value of the technical school in widening the +inadequate training of the workshop. The defects of the experiment lay in +the necessary limitations of the case. Remove the limitations, and you +remove the defects. We want universal indentures, universal supervision, +universal training. To guard against the dangers of creating a privileged +class through the establishment of an apprenticeship system we must see to +it that all alike serve a period of apprenticeship. Obviously, we cannot +apprentice all boys to employers; we must, therefore, apprentice all boys +to the State. There is nothing new in this proposal. Already, through the +law of compulsory attendance at school, all boys are so apprenticed +between the ages of five and fourteen. What is necessary is an extension +of the period of an already existing apprenticeship system. + +In the search of a means of preventing an evil, the most difficult task is +always to exclude the inadequate and the irrelevant. When all paths of +advance, with one exception, have been blocked, there is no longer any +choice or risk of losing one's way. We have now seen that all ways, except +the way of collective control and collective enterprise, fail to reach the +desired goal, and, having exhausted all other alternatives, must fall back +upon the State. Some do this willingly, some reluctantly, but all, with a +few exceptions that may be disregarded, appeal to the State when they are +convinced that help can be looked for from no other source. We are now in +that position, and must frankly face the situation. + +Failing assistance in any other direction, we must call on the State to +organize a new apprenticeship system. Such a system must make due +provision for supervision, training, and an opening. It remains to be +considered how these three essentials can be secured. + + +I + +SUPERVISION. + +A boy must be under some sort of supervision until he reaches at least the +age of eighteen. Such supervision must have respect to his physical +well-being as well as to his conduct. Neither the home, nor philanthropy, +nor the workshop can be looked for to provide this supervision. They have +all failed, and that failure is progressive. The State remains as our only +hope. The State has not failed; it has made impossible the worst abuses of +child labour, and through its educational system has been an influence for +good in the moral and physical development of the children. Its success +has been great, and that success has been progressive. Where it has +failed, it has failed because its supervision has been withdrawn too soon. +The remedy is obvious: we must extend the sphere of State supervision. +Three reforms are urgently necessary: (1) The raising of the age of +compulsory attendance to fifteen; (2) the complete prohibition of the +employment of school-children for wages; and (3) the compulsory attendance +of lads between the ages of fifteen and eighteen at some place of +education for at least half the working day. With regard to these +proposals, it may be said that all three are supported by the Minority +Report of the Poor Law Commission and by the labour organizations which +have in general expressed their approval of that Report. (1) and (3) are +the recommendations of the Report of the Education Committee of the London +County Council, adopted unanimously by that body in February, 1909; while +(1) and (3) also received a qualified approval from the Majority Report of +the Poor Law Commission, and from the Report of the Consultative Committee +of the Board of Education on Continuation Schools. They have, therefore, +behind them a strong backing of expert opinion. + +_(a) The Raising of the School Age._ + +More than ten years have elapsed since Parliament last raised the age of +compulsory attendance. There is almost universal agreement that the time +has come for adding another year. The discipline of the school is +successful while it lasts, but fails in permanent effect because it is +withdrawn too soon. In the last chapter we saw from the study of the +census tables that for at least the first year after school the boys have +settled down to no very fixed employment. Many of the skilled trades do +not take learners and apprentices before the age of fifteen. "It is +clear," say the Education Committee of the London County Council, "that +the year after leaving school--the year, that is, between the ages of +fourteen and fifteen--is for the children concerned a year of uncertainty. +Nearly half are returned as without specified occupation. No doubt a large +proportion of the number are attending some place of education, but it is +no less true that a considerable number are not classified, because for +the time being they are doing nothing. They have thrown up one situation +and are looking out for another. In this respect we must remember that it +is a common practice--at any rate, so far as the poorer section of the +community is concerned--for the children, and not their parents, to select +for themselves the form of occupation and find for themselves situations. +The children are too young to choose wisely, and, as a natural +consequence, shift from place to place until they discover something that +suits their taste or ability. It would be difficult to imagine a more +unsatisfactory method of training. Till the age of fourteen they are +carefully looked after in school; at the age of fourteen they are set free +from all forms of discipline, and become practically their own masters. We +must not, therefore, be surprised that under such conditions the effect of +the school training is transient, and the large amount of money spent on +their education to a great extent wasted." [174] And, summing up the whole +case for the raising of the school age, the Education Committee say: "The +advantages of keeping children at school until the age of fifteen are many +and obvious. They receive an extra year's instruction at a time when they +are most apt to learn; they are kept for another year under discipline +just at the period when it is easiest to influence permanently the +development of character. With the extension they escape the year of +aimless drifting from occupation to occupation, and, when called on to +choose a profession, they will have a year's extra experience to help +them in the choice. We may hope that under these new conditions the +tendency to follow the line of greatest initial wages will decrease, and +be replaced by a tendency to consider as of paramount importance prospects +of training and hope of future advancement." [175] + +In raising the school age we should take the opportunity of getting rid of +certain anomalies which now exist. While for the vast majority of children +in London and many other places attendance is compulsory up to the age of +fourteen, exemption is possible at the age of twelve and thirteen for a +small minority. In certain parts of the country large numbers of children +are allowed to leave before the age of fourteen. It is unfortunate that it +is the cleverest children who are entitled to this earlier exemption. We +are here looking at the problem of apprenticeship from the standpoint of +supervision, and in the case of supervision age and not mental attainment +must be the determining principle. The bright precocious boy of twelve or +thirteen is precisely the boy who stands most in need of control. Morally +and physically he is likely to suffer from the effects of premature +freedom. The sleepy dullard, who is kept at school until fourteen, could +be freed from discipline at an earlier age, with less risk of serious +harm. In raising, then, the age of compulsory attendance to fifteen, we +must abolish the privileges of exemption and the powers of local option, +and enact that all children shall attend school full time until they reach +the age of fifteen. + +_(b) The Prohibition of Child Labour._ + +Much space has in this volume been devoted to the task of demonstrating +the extent and the evils of child labour. It has been shown that anything +except the very lightest employment is physically injurious. It has been +made clear that the work in which children are engaged is frequently +demoralizing, while it never paves the way to entering a skilled trade +when school is left. They are essentially "blind-alley" occupations. +Further, we have seen good reason to believe that the habit of earning +money and the precocious sense of independence so encouraged are not in +the best interests of order and discipline. We note the evil in its worst +form under the "half-time" system. "The half-timers," we are told, "become +clever at repartee and in the use of 'mannish' phrases, which sound clever +when they dare use them. They lose their childish habits ... some of the +boys commence to smoke and to use bad language." [176] Finally, it has been +proved that limitation of the hours of employment in the case of +school-children is in practice impossible; there is no ready way of +detecting breaches of the law. We are, therefore, driven to the conclusion +that, unless the evils are to remain--and this is not tolerable--we must +prohibit altogether the employment for wages of children liable to attend +school full time. + +Various objections are made to the proposal. We are told by many of the +witnesses who appeared before the Interdepartmental Committee on +Wage-earning Children that a little light work was good for boys; it kept +them out of mischief. Ignoring the difficulties of insuring that the work +shall be little and light, they do not seem to make out their case. In +London, as has been shown, not more than a quarter of the boys during the +course of their school time are ever engaged seriously in paid employment. +If, therefore, the work was beneficial, we should expect to find in the +after-career of the 25 per cent. evidence of the advantages they have +enjoyed, and in the case of the 75 per cent. signs of failure due to their +less fortunate training. But all experience points in the opposite +direction. It is the 25 per cent. who drift most generally into the +"blind-alley" occupations; it is from this 25 per cent. that the majority +of hooligans and youthful criminals are recruited. + +It is also argued that there are certain tasks which only children can +perform, because they occupy only a small portion of the day. Papers must +be delivered and milk left at people's houses. But in Germany much of this +work is done by old men,[177] and even in this country the "knocker-up" in +the morning is not a child, but an old man. Employers in the textile +trades declared that it is only by beginning young that children can +acquire the necessary quickness and deftness of touch. But as these trades +absorb in the adult service only a small proportion of the children +engaged, and seeing that in many instances the half-time system has been +dropped as uneconomic, there does not seem much force in this objection. +Moreover, it cannot be beyond the power of manual training in the schools +to provide a fitting and less injurious substitute. + +The arguments in favour of the continued employment of school-children are +the arguments of the old world, and the new world is becoming a little +tired of the arguments of these old-world people. The time has come to +make a stand, and insist that for all children there shall be insured the +blessings of childhood. The first step in this direction lies in making it +impossible for them to enter the ranks of the wage-earners as long as +their names remain on the roll of the elementary school. + +_(c) The New Half-Time System._ + +The proposals for raising the school age and for prohibiting child labour +during that period will do much to strengthen the system of supervision. +Another year of school discipline; another year of medical inspection and +medical treatment; protection during another year from the evil effects of +overwork and from the demoralization due to "blind-alley" occupations and +premature earning--these reforms will bring us some way on our journey +towards the new apprenticeship, but they will not bring us the whole way. +There remain the three years which lie between the ages of fifteen and +eighteen, and include the greater part of the period of adolescence--in +some respects the most important period in the development of a human +being. It is during these years that character begins to take its +permanent set; it is during these years that, with the coming of puberty, +there is most risk of ugly and dangerous outbreaks; it is during these +years that physical health demands the most careful attention; and it is +during these years that, with the exception of the failures of +civilization--the physically, the mentally, and the morally +defective--there is no real supervision or, under existing conditions, any +hope of securing it. + +To allow irresponsible freedom during these years is to court disaster; to +give it suddenly and in an unqualified degree, as it is given now when the +school career is brought to an abrupt end, is to follow a course condemned +by all educationalists. No parent, even the most thoughtless, among the +well-to-do classes would think of treating his son in this fashion. His +whole scheme of education is founded on the principle of a slow and +gradual loosening of the bonds of discipline. The close supervision of the +private school is replaced by the larger liberty of the public school, +which in turn opens into the greater but still restricted freedom of the +University. + +Freedom must come slowly. We want a bridge between the elementary school +of the boy and the full-time workshop of the man. Such a bridge would be +created by the establishment of the proposed half-time system. For half +the day--or at any rate, for half his time--the lad between the ages of +fifteen and eighteen would be compelled to attend a place of education, +and only during the remaining half be permitted to undertake employment +for wages. The advantages of this proposal are many. First, the influence +of the school would be retained for an additional three years, and under +the half-time system the freedom of the youthful wage-earner would find a +suitable limitation in the half-time control of the school. Secondly, we +should have the opportunity of another three years' medical inspection and +medical treatment. With supervision over the health of the community +continued until the age of eighteen we might fairly anticipate a rapid +improvement in the physical efficiency of the worker. In particular, we +should be able to detect, in a way now impossible, the effects of various +forms of employment on those engaged in them. Inspection under the +provisions of the Factory and Workshops Act, as has been shown, is too +limited in character to do more than pick out a few young persons +obviously unfit for the occupation they have selected; but, with the +education authority responsible for the health of juveniles, and using to +the full extent its powers to provide preventive measures or to veto in +the case of certain individuals certain forms of work, we should have gone +far to secure that no one should enter on or remain in a trade for which +he was physically unfit. Thirdly, as already shown, a half-time system is +the only really effective way of limiting the hours of juvenile +employment. If the lad is compelled to be elsewhere than in the workshop +for half his time, we have an automatic check on excessive work. Other +advantages of this system will appear when we come to deal with questions +of training and the provision of an opening. + +The half-time system should be made compulsory throughout the country; it +ought not to be left to local option to decide. The local rating authority +naturally wishes to encourage the establishment of workshops and factories +within its area, and would be unwilling to adopt Acts which might prove a +deterrent. It would be a most unsatisfactory state of affairs for +employers to evade the spirit of the law by moving into districts where +the law was not enforced. It is a little unfortunate that the Education +(Scotland) Act, 1908, which allows a limited amount of compulsion in +connection with continuation schools, is founded on the principle of local +option. The recommendations of the Consultative Committee of the Board of +Education are vitiated in a similar way. Local option can never be really +successful. It will elect to act only where there is least opposition from +employers--in other words, where action is least necessary; and it will do +nothing where boy labour is most exploited and regulation most urgently +required. In one direction alone can local option be allowed with +advantage. It may be permitted to decide on the precise kind or kinds of +half-time to be enforced within their area. Boys might attend school on +the half-day system or on the alternate day system. Or, again, they might +spend three days in the workshop and three days in the school, or under +certain circumstances devote six months of the year to the workshop and +the remaining six months to the school. It would be desirable to allow the +local authority considerable liberty in their methods of adapting the +half-time system to the special needs of the trades of the district, +provided always that a true half-time system was established. + +There is no serious difficulty in the way of compelling attendance at the +half-time school. It would be enforced just as attendance at the +elementary school is enforced, and by the same officers. Further, no +employer would be permitted to employ a boy between the ages of fifteen +and eighteen who could not show satisfactory evidence of attendance at +school. Or if, as may be the case, it is found desirable to permit boys to +be engaged only by means of the Labour Exchange, the Labour Exchange +itself would prove a most effective way of enforcing attendance. + +There is nothing new or impracticable in the principle of the proposal. +Compulsory attendance at continuation schools can be required in Scotland. +Such attendance is compulsory in parts of Germany and Switzerland.[178] It +is exacted by certain employers in this country from their apprentices. +Further, the fact that for many years the half-time system has been in use +in the case of many important industries, and tens of thousands of +children so employed, demonstrates clearly enough that there is nothing +impossible in the application of a half-time system to juveniles. It +would, no doubt, cause some inconvenience, and some employers might +dispense with the services of juveniles; but no more difficulty would +arise than has arisen when any fresh regulations have been imposed; and we +should see, as we have always done in the past, the employers who +predicted inevitable ruin before the event, as soon as the proposal became +law adapt themselves, with that placid content and admirable success which +they have always displayed after the event, to the new condition of +affairs. + +_(d) The Parents' Point of View._ + +The three proposals just made have one characteristic in common-they all +directly set a limit to the employment of children and young persons. It +is possible that some readers may regard them from another point of view, +and say that in limiting employment they seriously diminish the income of +the family. Will the poor parent, whose lot is pitiable enough as things +are, be able to stand the loss? + +In considering this, the parents' point of view, we must guard against +being caught in the noose of a vicious circle. We must not perpetuate an +evil in order to mitigate its present effects. Many, probably most, of +those parents whose income hovers about the margin of possible existence +are in this pitiful position because their own childhood has been +neglected. As children, they have been overworked, and they are now +physically unfit for regular employment; as children, they have been +allowed to go uncontrolled and untrained, and now, as men, they are paying +a heavy tax for the earnings of their boyhood. They receive little because +they are worth little; their work is precarious because the sphere of +their usefulness is small. We must not allow their children to live as +_they_ lived when children, and so pass on to the next generation the +taint of inefficiency and its consequent wages of starvation merely +because to-day wages of starvation need to be supplemented. We can never +hope to overtake and pass an evil if we always cast it in front of us. The +one clear message to the reformer of to-day is that he should look to +prevention, and not merely to cure; and the one clear hope of a nation's +future lies in insuring to every youth, as he crosses the threshold of +manhood, the fullest realization of that development whose promise was his +at birth. It might be well worth while for a country lavishly to endow +poverty for a generation in order to free itself once for all from its +fatal infection. But there is no reason to believe that we must resort to +this drastic measure because there is no reason to believe that the +proposed restrictions of child labour will in any way injure the parents. + +Take first the earnings of school-children. There is very little reason to +believe that they often make any effective contribution to the income of +the home. They are irregular, they are small, and very frequently the +boys retain them as pocket-money. Where they are large, as in the case of +children employed during the pantomime season, they often form a +convenient excuse for the parent to go idle for a time. The only large +exception to this rule is the case of the widow. Here, indeed, the +earnings do usually find their way home, materially increase the miserable +pittance allowed by the guardians, and must be regarded as a tax levied on +children in aid of the ratepayer. Humanity and a reformed Poor Law may be +trusted to remove the tax. + +Take next the raising of the school age to fifteen. The age has not been +raised for more than ten years, and when it was last raised it was raised +without friction and without complaint on the part of the parent. We +might, perhaps, have expected that the percentage of attendance would have +decreased because of the difficulty of enforcing it on the children of +poverty-stricken parents. This has not been the experience; indeed, the +last decade has been remarkable for the rapid rise in that percentage. +There is not a scrap of evidence to show that the last raising of the +school age caused even temporary suffering on a large scale. Never was a +large reform carried out with greater ease. There is no reason to believe +that, if we raised the age again, that favourable experience would not be +repeated. + +We come now to the new half-time system. The earnings of boys between +fifteen and eighteen years are considerable. To diminish them by one-half, +it is urged, would be to adopt a course which would prove intolerable to +the poor parent. Now, in the first place, though it is true that the lads +could be employed for only half the time they were before, it by no means +follows that they would only receive half the present money. We have +already seen that the demand for boys far outruns the supply. The +half-time system would halve the supply, and, though some employers might +cease to use boys, the demand would certainly not be halved. The demand +for boys would then considerably exceed the demand of to-day. The rate of +wages would, in consequence, rise. The boys would no doubt earn less, but +certainly more than half of what they now earn. In the next place, it must +be remembered that the parent rarely receives the whole of the boy's +earnings even during the first year, and each year the proportion of wages +that comes to the home grows less. At the age of seventeen it is seldom +that more than half finds its way into the family exchequer. The boy keeps +the rest, and, as we have already seen, the large amount of money he has +to spend on himself is by no means an unmixed benefit. The parent cannot +usually get from the boy much more than is required to keep him; indeed, +he is afraid to enlarge his demand lest the boy, who is economically +independent, should leave home. But under the half-time system, though he +may earn his keep, he will rarely earn enough to support himself outside +the family. In addition, the fact of being compelled to attend school will +be a healthy reminder that he is not yet a man, and so check the growing +spirit of independence. Home influence and parental authority will thus +be strengthened, and the father will be able to exact a much larger share +than before of the boy's earnings. Now, if the earnings are not diminished +by so much as half, and if at the same time the parent obtain an increased +proportion, it is by no means clear that the home affairs will suffer. +Among the poorest families, where home discipline ceases altogether when +the boy leaves school, it is quite possible that the financial position of +the parent will be improved rather than worsened. + +But we have not yet taken into account what is, perhaps, the most +important consideration. The three proposals under discussion will +undoubtedly largely diminish the amount of work performed by boys, but +will not diminish the amount of work that requires to be done. Somebody +must take up the tasks formerly allotted to boys, and, if boys fail, men +must fill their place. Now, the work was given to boys because, to give it +to men would cost more. In future, the work will be given to men, and more +money will be paid for it than before. In other words, the increased +earnings of men will more than make up for the diminished earnings of +boys, and much more than compensate for the loss, because, as we have +seen, only a portion of the boys' earnings ever reach the home. Or we may +look at the question from another point of view, and say that the +decreased use of boys will mean an increase in the demand for men, and, +consequently, an increase in the wages of men. The Minority Report of the +Poor Law Commission arrives at these three proposals by starting from the +opposite point of view, and advocates their adoption not primarily for +the good of the boys, but for the good of their parents. In the task of +decasualizing labour, they are met with the difficulty that a considerable +number of men will in the process be thrown out of employment altogether. +Work must be found for them, and the easiest and the best way to find it +is shown to be the withdrawal from the labour market of persons, like +children, who ought not either to be employed at all or to be employed for +such long hours as at present. Hence arises the suggestion of a rigid +limitation of boy labour. It is much in favour of these proposals that +they are the outcome of an elaborate analysis which in the one case begins +with the man, and in the other with the child. We may take it, then, as +clear that, from the parents' point of view, there is nothing to hinder us +in raising the school age to fifteen, prohibiting the employment of +school-children, and instituting a new half-time system. + + +II. + +TRAINING. + +The second essential in an apprenticeship system worthy the name is the +provision of adequate training. The word "training" is used in its +broadest sense to include preparation, not only for the life of the +workman, but for the life of the citizen as well. In the preceding chapter +we have seen that the scholarship schemes, connecting the elementary +school with the University, and rapidly increasing throughout the country, +are offering opportunities of training for those likely to rise high in +the professional, the commercial, and the industrial world. It is probable +that sufficient attention has not as yet been given to the supply of the +most advanced kind of technological instruction, but the fault is being +remedied, and the defect is due rather to lack of knowledge than to lack +of will; and it is the instruction, and not the facilities of access to +it, that is wanting. + +What we are concerned with in this chapter is the training of those +destined to fill the posts of foremen and managers of small undertakings, +of the skilled workmen of the future, and of those never likely to rise +above the ranks of unskilled labour. We are also concerned with those who +will occupy corresponding positions in the commercial world. It has +already been shown that the training of these persons is one-sided and +inadequate, and, in the case of the majority, can hardly be said to exist +at all. On the other hand, we have seen good reason to believe that the +technical school can be, if not a complete substitute for the workshop, at +any rate a necessary and fitting supplement. The day has gone by when it +was necessary to argue at length the uses of technical instruction. +Employers in this country, as they have long since done on the Continent +and in America, recognize the advantages. Yearly, whether by compelling +the lads in their service to attend the technical school, or forming +themselves into committees to advise as to the most desirable methods of +teaching, they are displaying a keener interest in the question, and a +fuller faith in the possibilities of practical training given outside the +walls of the workshop. + +The defect of existing arrangements has been shown to lie in their +limitation. For the majority technical instruction has been unsatisfactory +or impossible of access. We must show in the present chapter how all may +enjoy the advantages of training; but before doing so we must consider, a +little more closely than has been done before, the kind of training +required by the petty officers and the rank and file of the industrial +army. + +In much of the preceding discussion it has been assumed that what the man +wants is an all-round training. This is undoubtedly a fact, but by an +all-round training is not necessarily meant a training that will produce a +craftsman of the old school, equally capable of turning his hand +successfully to any of the operations with which his trade is concerned. +Except in rural districts, in a few of the artistic crafts, and in certain +branches of repairing work, a man of this kind is not generally required. +It seems probable that the industrial tendencies of to-day are making +decreasing demands for purely manual skill. The Report of the Poor Law +Commission contains a valuable discussion of the question, and sums up the +conclusions in the following passage: "The general trend of our answers +was that the 'skill' of modern industry is scarcely comparable with the +skill of labour in the past. One might say that, within twenty years, with +the universal employment of machinery and the excessive subdivision and +specialization of its use, the character of the productive process has +quite changed. There is a growing demand for higher intelligence on the +part of the few; a large and probably growing demand for specialized +machine-minders; and, unhappily, a relegation of those who cannot adapt +themselves to a quite inferior, if not worse paid, position. If, then, the +'skill' which we might have looked for and desired is what might be called +'craftsmanship,' we must conclude that the demand for skill is, on the +whole, declining. The all-round ability which used honourably to mark out +the mechanic is no longer in demand, so much as the work of the highly +specialized machine-minder." [179] But if there seems a less demand for +all-round skill, there appears to be an increasing demand for trained +intelligence. "In the greater industries employing adult male labour, +'machinery' does not in the least resemble the long lines of revolving +spindles one sees in a cotton mill. In the machine tools of an engineering +shop there is comparatively little of such automatism, and, even where the +machines are automatic, single men are put in charge of a number of +machines, and the setting and supervising of these is work probably +demanding a higher level of intelligence than ever before. 'I should say +the skilled men require even more skill than they did,' says Mr. Barnes, +'because of the finer work and more intricate machinery.... Side by side +with automatic machines there has come about more intricate and highly +complicated machinery.' 'The semi-skilled of to-day,' says Sir Benjamin C. +Brown, 'is in many cases as good as the skilled was a quarter of a +century ago.'" [180] Or, as another witness puts it: "The tendency of +machinery is always to cause a substitution of intelligence for dexterity, +the person who was in effect a machine by reason of his dexterity giving +place to one who could understand a direct and mechanical process." [181] +There seems also good reason to believe that the demand for intelligence +outruns the supply. + +In the workmen, usually classed as skilled, the employer requires +intelligence, but he wants something more; he wants trustworthiness, and +frequently a certain highly specialized manual dexterity. The training of +the workshop can supply the third of these qualifications; it cannot, +however, supply the other two, which are in the main the products of +education. But between the second and the third there is a certain +antagonism. Monotony in the workshop does not cultivate intelligence; it +is actively hostile to such growth. Unless there is a well-trained +intelligence to begin with, the continual performance of a single task +will reduce the man to the level of a mere machine. Now, the employer does +not want a mere machine; if he did, in these days of inventive genius, he +would soon discover something more reliable in the way of machines than +flesh and blood. He wants a machine with intelligence; he must therefore +have a man. But the intelligence must rest on a broad basis of education, +or the machine element will prove too much for it. This is the reason of +the statement, found so often in evidence on technical training given by +enlightened employers, that what is mostly required is a good general +education. + +Now we are coming to see that a general education does not imply a certain +specific syllabus of instruction; it may be the result of the most varied +kinds of instruction. We have ceased to take the narrow view that it +consists only in book-learning and aptness with the pen. We have +recognized that manual training may rightly play a large part in any +system of education, and for the full development of certain types of mind +is absolutely indispensable. Consequently, though the employer does not +need the man of all-round skill, there is no reason why the workman should +not acquire a general use of the tools employed in his trade. Whatever it +may be to the employer, the possession of a certain amount of all-round +skill is not a matter of indifference to the workman. If he can boast +skill in a single operation alone, the bridge that lifts him above the +gulf of unskilled labour is very fragile. A change in demand or a new +invention may any day render his specialized skill useless, and +precipitate him into that gulf whence is no escape. But this is not the +case with the man who has received an all-round training. Thrust out of +one branch of the trade, he can, if intelligent, comparatively easily find +an opening in another. The all-round skill, though not required in the +workshop, is necessary to the man if his position in the skilled labour +market is to be secure. In a sense, the measure of his all-round skill is +the measure of the stability of his industrial status. Further, the +possession of all-round skill is a necessary condition of the possession +of intelligence. It gives a man a clearer insight into the significance of +his trade, and robs monotony of some part of its soul-killing power. Pure +specialization is hostile to intelligence; the man who can only do one +thing cannot do that one thing well. Finally, from these skilled workmen +must be chosen the foremen and small managers, and these people must +possess the wider knowledge and a more varied skill. To a large extent at +the present time they are not recruited from the large workshop; they come +from the country district, where this all-round skill can still be +acquired. But, as we have seen, this supply is not inexhaustible, and +there are signs that the methods of the industrial revolution are invading +the village. Unless, therefore, we are prepared to see a scarcity of +trained foremen in the future, we must to-day aim at producing the skilled +workman, who is at once intelligent and possesses a general knowledge of +the tools of his trade. + +"We do not to-day," says Sir Christopher Furness, "want men who are +all-round at building marine engines; we do need men who are all-round +mechanical engineers--men who can apply the principles of their craft to +any form of machinery that may be called for. That is a class of training +which cannot be achieved by any system of apprenticeship, and is +essentially a matter which the governing authority must handle if this +country is to maintain its position in the industrial world." [182] "The +characteristics," says the Consultative Committee, "that employers most +value and most deplore the lack of would appear to be general handiness +(which is really to a large extent a mental quality), adaptability and +alertness, habits of observation--and the power to express the thing +observed--accuracy, resourcefulness, the ability to grapple with new +unfamiliar conditions, the habit of applying one's mind and one's +knowledge to what one has to do." [183] It is clear that within the narrow +sphere of the workshop an all-round training of this kind can never be +secured. + +We must look, then, to the elementary schools supplemented by the +technical institute, to insure to the workmen an all-round intelligence +and a general knowledge of the use of tools employed in his trade. For +commerce, intelligence and an all-round training are no less necessary. +"You produce a better clerk," it has been said, "if the boy takes an +industrial rather than a commercial course." There is therefore no +conflict of interest between what the employer wants and what the workman +wants. The employer wants intelligence, and cannot get it from a workman +who does not possess a general knowledge of his trade. The workman wants +an all-round knowledge of his trade because without it his position as a +skilled artisan is precarious and at the mercy of every new invention or +change in fashion. + +We have hitherto spoken as if all were skilled workmen, and as though the +unskilled labourer did not exist. Now, there are at the present time huge +armies of men that can by no stretch of imagination be regarded as skilled +at anything; but it is by no means clear that it is desirable for this +huge army to continue as such. It is generally assumed that the +performance of so-called unskilled work requires no training and makes no +demand on skill. This is a grave mistake; let anyone, without previous +experience, try a day's digging in his garden, and he will realize the +fact. But it is not merely a question of manual training and practice; the +unskilled labourer, to be efficient, needs intelligence. Skilled and +unskilled work call for, in this age of machines, more intelligence than +was wanted in the past. Almost everyone nowadays uses a machine of some +sort; and there can be no question that in such use there is a serious +lack of intelligence. The unskilled labour engaged with machinery is +almost always inadequate and unsatisfactory. The agricultural labourer, +for example, has to manage machines whose complex mechanism is far beyond +his ill-trained intelligence to comprehend. The same may be said of the +general run of machine-minders. Breakdowns, stoppages, and accidents are +the costly consequences of their defect. Of all forms of labour, the +unskilled labour of to-day is probably the most expensive to the employer. +The labourer is worth, as a rule, little more than he receives, and, not +infrequently, a good deal less. The preservation of stupidity is among the +most foolish and most expensive of modern luxuries. What the employer +wants is the intelligent unskilled labourer, and such a class must be the +product, not of the workshop, but of the schools. The training to be +provided would be very similar to that required by the skilled workman. + +From the point of view of the employer, we require more intelligence in +the unskilled labourer; from the point of view of the community and the +man himself, the need is even more urgent. We must not forget the man in +the labourer. He is not for all his time an unskilled labourer; he is the +autocrat of the home, the father of a family, and, as a voter, one of the +rulers of the Empire. These last functions belong essentially to the +highly skilled class of work. Uneducated parents are a danger to their +children, and so to the future prosperity of the nation; the illiterate +voters a peril to the safety of the State. Finally, the man himself, with +a wider outlook on the world, and with a life richer in interests, and so +with more opportunities of healthy enjoyment, would be a happier and a +better citizen. The shame of modern civilization and the abiding menace to +its security lie in the miserable horde of stupid, unintelligent, and +uninterested labourers who are good for nothing except the exercise of +mere brute strength and indulgence in mere animal pleasures, and not very +much good even for this. + +Looking, then, at the problem of the training of skilled and unskilled +workmen alike, whether from the point of view of man or master, we see +that the great essential is the possession of a large measure of +intelligence. With the continual changes in the methods of industry, men +must be capable of changing too; they must be capable of readily adapting +themselves to new conditions, and not become petrified in a rigid and +inflexible mould. Intelligence, properly developed, means adaptability. If +we could secure this, the problem of dealing with the unemployed would be +comparatively easy of solution. The inextricable tangle of to-day lies in +the hopeless task of securing employment at a living wage for men who are +not worth it. Let each man be made good for something, and it will not be +beyond the range of wise statesmanship to find that good thing for him to +do. + +How is the necessary training to be provided? The answer to this question +need not detain us long. We have already seen that elementary and +technical education can solve the problem in the case of those who have +been able to avail themselves of the opportunities offered. The only +outstanding difficulty was the difficulty of insuring ready access to all; +and this has been surmounted in the proposals of the last section. The +raising of the school age to fifteen, the prohibition of the employment of +school-children, and the new half-time system, give facilities for +education never before enjoyed. + +The boy will remain at the elementary school till the age of fifteen, and +there will be no employment outside school hours to undermine his health +and render him unfit to profit by the instruction given. We have already +noticed the transformation of the elementary school now going on, and the +multiplication of various types of school. The process will continue, and +the results following the raising of the school age will be increased in +value. The school will, in the first place, be regarded as a +sorting-house, in which the different kinds of ability are discovered and +classified. It will next be an institution where proper provision is made +to insure that each kind of ability shall have the fullest opportunity of +development. The only meaning of a general education is the discovery and +the cultivation of the special interests of the individual. + +When the boy leaves the elementary school his interests and ability will +guide him to search for employment where they will have most scope. How +this opening is to be found is a question that will be discussed in the +next section. Let us take the boy who enters a skilled trade--say a branch +of the woodwork industry--and follow his fortunes. He can be employed in +the workshop for only half the day; during the remainder he must attend +the half-time school. We have hitherto looked at this half-time school as +a means of exercising supervision over conduct and physical development; +we must now regard it as a place of technical instruction. There must, +therefore, be various types of schools corresponding to the different +groups of trades. The boy who enters a woodwork trade will attend a school +designed to meet the needs of that industry. At his place of employment he +will no doubt be kept to a narrow range of operations, and in their +performance will acquire that dexterity which only workshop experience can +give. In the half-time school he will receive the training necessary to +make of him an intelligent and all-round workman. Here his ordinary +education will be continued; instruction in drawing, in mensuration, and +in science--all specially adapted to the requirements of his trade--will +be provided; and, lastly, in the school workshop he will acquire skill in +the general use of the woodwork tools. If it is urged that it will be +difficult to find room in the curriculum for such varied training, it must +be remembered that the subjects of instruction will all have formed part +of the curriculum of the elementary school, with a bias in the direction +of the woodwork industry. The boy will remain at the school for three +years, and at the age of eighteen we shall have at least laid the +foundation of those qualities required by the employer for success in the +workshop and by the workman for success in life. + +Let us take now the case of a boy who, on leaving school, finds employment +in some occupation which does not lead to a skilled trade, and provides no +educational training. Let us suppose he becomes an errand-boy. We cannot +prevent lads of fifteen and upwards from being employed in such +occupations, however undesirable, but we can at least guard against the +more serious evils which are now the result. The boy will only be employed +for half the day; he also must attend a half-time school. At this school +he will continue his ordinary education; manual training will be provided +to make him clever with his hands, while special attention will be devoted +to his physical development. He will not, of course, be taught a definite +trade, but will learn the general use of tools. How far, then, schools +may be specialized, into different types it must be left for the future to +decide. We have hitherto never seriously considered the training of the +unskilled labourer, and much pioneer work of an experimental character +remains to be done. At the age of eighteen the lad, like his brother in +the skilled trade, will be a valuable asset in the labour market. We shall +have created what we have not got now, and what we much need--a race of +intelligent and adaptable unskilled labourers. + +There are certain other advantages which the half-time system can claim. +First, the training of the workshop and the training of the school are +carried on at the same time; instruction and practice go hand in hand. +Secondly, only those boys will in general be taught a skilled trade in the +schools who have already entered a skilled trade. This removes an +objection often felt by Trade Unionists to what they term a multiplication +through the schools of half-skilled workmen. Thirdly, we have in it a +system of universal apprenticeship. All boys will have been learners, and +worked for the same period at low wages. There will, therefore, be no +obstacle of a privileged class to make difficulties in the way of those +entering a trade who have not passed through the normal course of +preparation for it. Fitness for the work will be, as it should be, the +sole qualification. + +Looked at in a general way, the half-time schools will be called on to +play a double part. They must train the man in the interests of the +community and in the interests of the trade. From the employer's +standpoint these schools must be essentially places of practical +instruction in close touch with the workshop. Already, under existing +conditions, employers and representatives of the trade have been found +willing to form advisory committees to visit the schools, criticize the +teaching, and make suggestions for increasing its value. The principle +must be extended; only in this way shall we get the expert inspection +necessary to secure real efficiency. On the other hand, the education +authority, the representative of the community, will manage the schools, +and make them training-grounds of true citizenship. Under this double +system of control, wisely administered, we shall not lose the man in the +worker or the worker in the man; the interests of the individual and the +interests of the employer will alike be safeguarded. In a real sense, and +in fashion adapted to modern requirements, we shall have brought back the +best traditions of the old apprenticeship system in which the gild, +standing at once for the community and for the trade, watched over the +training of the youth of the nation. + + +III. + +THE PROVISION OF AN OPENING. + +The third and last essential of an apprenticeship system is the provision +of an opening. In the last chapter we have seen the aimless drift of boys +as they leave school into "blind-alley" occupations; we have watched them +rapidly slough off the effects of the school training; and we have found +them a few years later left stranded without prospects; and we have been +driven to confess that this process of waste and demoralization is not a +passing phase, but an integral part of the industrial development in its +present unregulated condition. Boys, parents, employers are alike impotent +to cure the evil; once again we are compelled to look to the State for +help. The State must guide the choice of boys as they leave school. It +must assist them during the period of adolescence to find better forms of +employment, or at any rate to retain and increase the value of the school +training, and it must bridge the gulf that now separates the work of the +lad from the work of the man. + +Already the necessary organization is in process of formation. We have +seen how the establishment of Labour Exchanges for adults has, quite +unexpectedly, led to the creation of special departments for juveniles. It +is singularly fortunate that this accident has led naturally to the Board +of Trade being regarded as the proper authority to carry out the work. It +is, however, a fact that Parliament has recently passed an Act which gives +power to education authorities to spend money for this purpose. It may do +no harm for education authorities to be able, without fear of surcharge, +to spend money in co-operating with the Board of Trade, but it would be +disastrous if they came to think themselves the responsible authority for +the undertaking. One of the chief objects of the machinery is the bridging +of the gulf between youth and manhood. We should not enter on this +difficult task with much hope of success if we perpetuated the distinction +by making the Board of Trade responsible for the work of adults, and the +education authorities responsible for the work of juveniles. Further, we +are coming to see that questions of employment are questions which must be +dealt with by a national, and not a local, body. Only a national +authority, with its knowledge of the conditions over the whole country, +could be in a position to estimate the prospects in any trade, or to +decide as to the right proportions of boys to men. Next, the unit of area +for employment bears no relation to the unit of area for educational +purposes. Towns are separated from the adjoining districts. The unit of +area for London employment, for example, is not the administrative county, +but Greater London, and in Greater London there are more than thirty +education authorities. If these are not in agreement--and when are thirty +local authorities in agreement?--no system of regulation would be +effective. If, let us say, the London County Council, in order to +discourage the employment of van-boys, declined to supply them through +their Exchange, their action would be without result if the adjoining +districts did not follow suit, while it is impossible to conceive a more +chaotic organization than one which would allow employers in the City to +be canvassed for openings by thirty independent bodies. + +For these and many other reasons the Board of Trade must be regarded as +the dominant authority for the organization of the Juvenile Labour +Exchange. On the other hand, there must be close co-operation between the +Labour Exchange and the education authority. The Board of Trade has +recognized the importance of this co-operation, and is making full +provision for it in the machinery it is setting up. It is forming local +advisory committees in connection with each Labour Exchange, and is making +them practically responsible for the control of the juvenile department. +On this committee are appointed persons nominated by the Board of Trade on +the one hand, and on the other by the education authority. The committee +thus represents the two branches of the organization. These committees are +only just coming into existence, and it is too early to judge of their +success. The problem is one of immediate practical importance; it is, +therefore, desirable to consider a little in detail the principles that +should guide them in their work. For the same reason it is desirable to +ignore for the moment the proposals made in the preceding sections, to +take things as they are, and to show what can be achieved under existing +conditions. + +The work of the Juvenile Labour Exchange divides itself naturally into a +number of different parts or stages. The first stage is concerned with the +boy while still at school. Some months before he is likely to leave he +must be seen with the view of inducing him to make use of the Labour +Exchange to obtain employment. A form will be filled up showing his +position in the school, and any particular ability he may have displayed, +recording the state of his health as revealed by medical inspection, and +indicating any particular desire as to occupation expressed by himself or +his parents. The interview and the filling up of the form will be +undertaken by someone connected with the school organization--a teacher, +or probably a volunteer. The institution of care committees for each +school in connection with medical treatment, and the supply of meals to +necessitous children, has enlisted the services of a large number of +volunteers who would probably be found willing to make themselves +responsible for this part of the work. The form, when filled up, will be +sent to the Labour Exchange, where, if thought desirable, arrangements +will be made by certain members of the advisory committee, in company with +the secretary, to interview the boy and his parents. + +The next part of the work is connected with the finding of vacancies. +Either the employer will notify the Exchange of forthcoming vacancies or +vacancies be obtained by canvassing employers. In either case it will be +necessary to ascertain exactly the nature and the prospects of the +employment. For this work expert knowledge is essential, and it will +devolve almost entirely on the secretary or other paid officers of the +Exchange. Having found boys wanting employers and employers wanting boys, +it will be the duty of the advisory committee to bring the two parties +together. + +The second stage in the work begins as soon as the boy has obtained +employment. It will be desirable, if possible, to secure periodic +reports, either by interview or by letter, from the employer, who in the +majority of cases would no doubt be willing to give the information asked +for. We should then know how the boy is getting on at his work from the +employer's point of view. We must also know how he is getting on from his +own point of view. For this and other reasons it is absolutely essential +to keep in touch with the boy in his home. A tactful person, paying +periodic visits to the home and seeing the boy, would soon learn what +prospects the employment offered, what progress he was making, and would +be able to advise him as to what evening classes he should attend, and to +help him in those many ways in which a boy can be helped when first he +goes out to work. In this way a large amount of valuable though +unostentatious supervision would be kept over the boy. The persons most +capable of doing this home-visiting are volunteers. In many cases the +member of the school case committee who originally interviewed the boy +would undertake the duty of supervision; in other cases we might get the +assistance of the manager of a boys' club or other similar institution of +which the boy was a member; but in all cases the advisory committee must +make provision for supervision in the home. The reports from the home and +the reports from the employer would be filed at the Exchange. They will +enable the advisory committee to follow the career of every boy placed +out, and at the same time gradually furnish a mass of detailed information +respecting the employers of the district. + +To what kind of employers or to what classes of employment shall we send +boys? To all who ask, or to only selected number? Experience will no doubt +show that there are certain employers of such a kind that under no +circumstances ought we to trust them with boys. The number of such will be +very small, and presents no serious difficulty. We should not supply boys +until we had a guarantee that the conditions offered were improved. The +question of the class of employment requires more careful consideration. +There is a danger into which the advisory committee may easily fall. +Recognizing the evils of "blind-alley" occupations, they may be inclined +to refuse to send boys to such forms of employment, and only recommend +boys to places where there is a prospect of learning a trade. Such a +policy would be a fatal one. We should not thereby discourage +"blind-alley" occupations, employers would get their boys as they have got +them in the past, and the only result would be that we should lose all +control over the boys, be unable to move them later to better situations, +and so leave the problem not only unsolved, but, for want of knowledge, +without possibility of solution. We ought not in the Labour Exchange to +bar out any form of employment unless we are prepared to make that +employment illegal by Act of Parliament. Street-selling might fairly come +within that category, and no doubt other forms of employment will later be +brought within the same class. But to bring them within that class, +accurate information as to evil effects must be collected in order to +stiffen public opinion, and if we wash our hands from the outset of all +responsibility for such trades, we shall never have that accurate +information. The first step in the way of regulation is that accurate +knowledge which a detailed supervision of the boys placed out alone can +give. There will, however, always be a temptation for the Exchange to +confine its activities to the skilled trades, and let the others go. In +Munich, for example, we find the education authority devoting much +attention to the apprenticeship section of the work, while "unskilled +labourers appear to be left to the Labour Exchange, and they receive, +therefore, no advice in selecting their work." [184] The same tendency is +seen in this country among the various voluntary associations for +obtaining employment for boys. They have concentrated almost exclusively +on the skilled trades. The results, expressed in figures or percentages, +are pleasing, but altogether misleading. They ignore the large residuum +which drifts without advice and without supervision into the less +favourable openings, and in matters of social reform it is the large +residuums that count. It is always nice to get a nice place for a nice boy +that we know; but if we do no more, there is no reason to believe that our +action is of any advantage to the community at large. The nice places +always are filled, and not infrequently the only effect of interference is +that A., who is known, gets the job instead of the unknown B. The Labour +Exchange must resist this temptation. It should aim at inducing all +employers to obtain their supply of boy labour from the Exchange; its +influence will then be at a maximum. + +The mere establishment of a Juvenile Labour Exchange cannot create +favourable openings; it cannot in itself alter the direction of the demand +for labour. It might, therefore, be asked what is the use of an exchange +for boys who can already find employment of a sort more easily than is +good for them? First, there are the advantages of supervision and the +opportunities for friendly advice and sympathy; secondly, there is the +task of collecting accurate information which will lead up to legislative +action, and the system of regulation which is ultimately inevitable; +thirdly, while not closing the door to the "blind-alley" occupations, +there is no need for the advisory committees to press them on the parent. +They would, on the contrary, point out the evils, and suggest either that +the opening should be refused or accepted only as a temporary expedient. +The object should be to induce the parent to refuse situations which did +not afford any prospects of learning or allow time off to attend a +continuation school. The "blind-alley" occupations would disappear +to-morrow if parents stubbornly refused to permit their boys to fill them. +For the moment, moreover, the advantage is all on the side of the parent, +as the demand for boys outruns the supply. But neither individual parent +nor individual boy can take advantage of this fact; they have not the +knowledge or the opportunity to make their voices effectively heard. There +is no trade union of parents or trade union of boys, or, indeed, can be, +in the "blind-alley" occupations. Collective bargaining must be done for +them, and the advisory committee must be its instrument. They must first +create the opinion among the parents, and then give effect to it through +the Exchange. If employers found that, so long as they refused to offer +better conditions, they were either unable to get boys or only got the +least satisfactory boys, there would be a strong inducement for them to +change their ways. Finally, there is the reverse of this system of +educating the parents--the educating of the employers. There is already +growing up a feeling among employers that if they cannot give the boys +employment as men they might at least offer them opportunities of +continuing their education. At a conference held in 1910 between agencies +interested in the welfare of boys and employers of labour, under the +presidency of the Chairman of the London Chamber of Commerce, the +following resolutions were unanimously adopted: "That the London Chamber +of Commerce be asked to consider the advisability of establishing a +register of its members who would be willing to engage or apprentice boys +with a view to the co-operation of the Chamber with the various +institutions interested in the welfare of boys." "That employers of labour +be recommended, by reducing the present hours of labour or otherwise, to +give such facilities as may be possible consistently with the requirements +of their business to enable boys and youths to obtain technical +instruction." Judicious canvassing among a certain class of employers +may, therefore, lead to most beneficent results. It should also be borne +in mind that in London and other towns into which there is a large +immigration of adult labour, there is room for new openings leading on to +skilled trades. + +While much can unquestionably be done under existing conditions to improve +and supervise the conditions of boy labour by means of the Juvenile Labour +Exchange, it is certain that sooner or later there will be need of +regulation by Act of Parliament. Probably the best course would be to give +the Board of Trade power in the case of certain occupations to limit at +their discretion the employment of boys to boys engaged at the Exchange. +If in addition the proposals made in the previous sections were to become +law, we should be in a very strong position to launch the youth on the +ocean of manhood with all the prospects of a successful voyage. + + +IV. + +GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. + +At the end of a long and rather complex discussion it is desirable to +attempt some general summary of what has already been achieved and of the +proposals necessary for the creation of a true apprenticeship system. It +will make for clearness if we take a boy and follow his career through its +various stages. + +At the age of five or thereabouts he will enter the elementary school. It +is to be hoped that the reorganization of the public health services and +the more careful attention devoted to the period of infancy may send him +to the school free from those physical defects so common now, and healthy +within the limits of nature. Here he will begin his education. Improved +methods of teaching will make for increased intelligence and the growth of +numerous interests, while physical exercises, medical inspection and +treatment, added to the supply of wholesome food to the necessitous, will +promote the healthy development of his body. + +At the age of eleven comes an important epoch in his career. It is then +that, if found suitable, he will, with the help of a scholarship, be sent +to the secondary school, and thence be led along a broad road to the +University. Failing the winning of a scholarship, he will, if he display +any special aptitude, be drafted off to a central school with a commercial +or industrial bias. Failing, again, the proof of any exceptional ability, +he will remain in the ordinary school. In either case he will continue at +school till the age of fifteen, will be forbidden to work for wages +outside school hours, and will throughout be periodically examined by the +school doctor. + +With the approach to the age of fifteen begins the second important epoch +in his career. Some time before the day of leaving school arrives he will +have been interviewed by a friendly volunteer, who, with the help of the +school record and medical register, will be able to decide for what form +of employment he is best suited. In the meanwhile the Labour Exchange will +have found for him a suitable opening, or, failing this, a temporary +situation pending a more satisfactory and permanent position. If he gain a +place in a skilled trade, the half-time school, which he must attend for +the next three years, will add to the training of the workshop that +all-round training, whose result is intelligence and adaptability, +required to make of him an efficient artisan. If he is destined to fill +the ranks of unskilled labour, he will likewise attend a half-time school +carefully designed to enable him to play a useful part in the world of +life. In both cases he will remain for half-time under the supervision of +the education authority; in both cases periodic medical inspection will +watch over his physical development, and if it show him physically unfit +for the work he has undertaken, he will be found employment more suitable +to his strength; in both cases the advisory committee of the Labour +Exchange will receive reports from the home, the school, and the employer, +and these reports will enable them to discover whether the occupation and +the training are well adapted to foster his natural abilities. For three +years, while at work, he will also remain at school; for three years his +training will be guided by employers who will see to it that it turns out +the efficient workman, and by the education authority, which, acting in +the interests of the community, will see that it makes for the efficient +citizen. + +In process of time, with the gradual accumulation of experience, and with +the knowledge of the Board of Trade behind it, the advisory committee will +be able to adjust the supply of boys in course of special training to +meet the demands of special trades, and even if some unforeseen +transformation of industry upsets the calculations, there should be no +insurmountable difficulty of disposing of lads at the age of eighteen who +are at once well conducted, physically fit, and intelligent. + +We come back to the position from which we started in the +introduction--the need of securing for the youth of the country adequate +supervision up to the age of at least eighteen, appropriate training +during that period, and at its conclusion the provision of an opening in +some occupation for which special preparation has been given. We have seen +that for at any rate a large section of the people these conditions were +satisfied during the best days of the gilds, and that they were satisfied +in direct proportion to the extent to which the gilds stood for the common +interests. With the decay and disappearance of the gilds the training of +the youth became a matter of individual bargaining between parent and +employer. No authority, standing for the common good, superintended the +process. Apprenticeship might be enforced; its efficiency could not be +guaranteed. Further, the existence of apprenticeship tended to create a +privileged class who resented the intrusion of those who entered a trade +by other means. With the coming of the industrial revolution, training +itself became more difficult. The large workshop and the division of +labour were unfavourable to apprenticeship. Employers wanted to use boys, +and not to train them. Rapid progress of invention continually discounted +the value of acquired manual skill, and parents could not see at the +conclusion of the apprenticeship any prospect of a favourable opening in a +skilled trade; while the gradual break-up of the system of supervision +bred a spirit of independence among boys which rendered them disinclined +to bind themselves for a period of years. Finally, competition, with the +urgent need of surviving the struggle of to-day, made it hard for +employers to prepare for the future by providing for the training of the +future workmen. The industrial system gave no guarantee for the efficiency +of the next generation of workers. The old apprenticeship system had +broken down. + +But in the period of general disintegration there was slowly +developing--at first unconsciously, and later with more clearly directed +effort--an organization which made for constructive reform. It was called +into being as a last resort, and to save the country from the ruin which +was threatened by the exploitation of children. Competition demanded the +sacrifice of to-morrow to-day; the State, whose interests belong to all +time, was driven to forbid the sacrifice. Competition demanded that +children of tender years should labour in the mines and the factories, and +under conditions that made all health a mockery; the State insisted on a +minimum standard of health and safety for its children. The standard, low +at first, has steadily been raised. Thus has grown up the regulation of +child labour and the Acts relating to factories and workshops. Competition +cared nothing for the education of the children; it wanted to use them up +and cast them on the waste-heap. The State, recognizing the dangers of an +uneducated people, established by slow degrees a system of universal +education. So the struggle between the two has gone on, the State only +interfering as a last resort and in despair of other means to stop the +evil. Throughout its action has been generally beneficial, but the +benefits have been limited because that action has been partial and +patchy. Much of the expenditure, for example, on education has been wasted +just because the education came to an end too soon. The time had come for +a more comprehensive study of the situation that should indicate the +faults of the existing system. + +Such a study has been attempted in the present volume. The task has been +comparatively easy, because the evils are generally admitted. What has not +hitherto been recognized sufficiently is the fact that these evils are +growing, and not in course of removal. The various factors in the process +have been examined, and, ignoring the State, they are clearly inadequate, +and progressively inadequate, to the task of solving the problem. As a +last resort the State remains. If the principles underlying the training +of youth are admitted, if out of the various possible forces concerned all +with one exception have been proved defective, then we must put our hopes +in the one exception. We must enlarge the sphere of influence of the +State. How this should be done has been shown in the present chapter. + +The principles underlying the proposals have all been drawn from +experience, and are founded on the apprenticeship system, but applied with +modifications suitable to changed conditions. Under the gild system there +were three interests concerned and conjoined--the interests of the master, +the interest of journeyman and apprentice, and the interest of the +community. Since the gilds have gone these interests have become separate +and increasingly antagonistic. For the successful training of the youth of +the country the claims of these clashing interests must again be brought +together and reconciled. Ultimately and in the long-run they are +identical; it is only competition, with its dimmed and narrow vision, that +made the cleavage. It is hoped that the proposals outlined in this chapter +will point the road towards a final peace. Let us, in conclusion, bring +them to the test of the three essentials for which a true apprenticeship +system must make adequate provision. + +There must be supervision--supervision of conduct, supervision of health. +Under the new apprenticeship system the State will be the ultimate +authority for the supervision of conduct. Till the age of fifteen the boy +will remain subject to the control of the schools. Long experience has +demonstrated the beneficent influence exercised by the teachers over the +children even under present conditions, when the school career is brought +to an end at the age of thirteen or fourteen. There is, therefore, nothing +wild in the expectation that, with compulsory attendance extended to the +age of fifteen, we shall receive richer and more lasting fruits. For the +next three years, the critical period of a boy's life, with its first +experience of the workshop and the sense of independence which comes with +earning wages, the supervision of the State will only in part be +withdrawn. During these years he will be compelled to attend the half-time +school, and so continue under the control of the education authority. Nor +is this all. The advisory committee of the Labour Exchange will advise him +in the choice of employment, assist him to obtain it, and generally watch +over his career. Thus, helped on his journey and surrounded with wise and +friendly influences, he will approach the threshold of manhood with such +promise of success as good habits and an ordered life may bring. + +The State, likewise, will be responsible for the supervision of the boy's +health. Periodic medical inspection will watch and aid his physical +development. We have not yet learned to appreciate the full value of this +periodic inspection; it is, however, destined to become the most powerful +instrument of reform. The ill-nourished child, the delicate child, the +child in the early stages of phthisis, the child of negligent parents, the +child from the overcrowded or insanitary home--all these, the future +weaklings of the nation, we know them now only when the evil has too often +outrun the possibility of a cure and it is too late. Under the new +conditions we shall detect the evil in its first beginning, while there is +yet hope. Medical inspection is also the key to the situation after the +boy goes out to work, and for three years he will remain under its +control. At the present time we only dimly realize the disastrous effects +that come to a boy from the choice of an occupation ill-suited to his +strength. We forbid a few forms of work, attempt for the most part +ineffectively to limit the hours of employment in a few others, but in our +clumsy fashion legislate as a rule for the normal child, and it is the +abnormal child that suffers most. Under the new conditions there will be +no work for children under the age of fifteen, while for the three +following years medical inspection will enable us to legislate for the +individual boy, taking into account his physical characteristics. Not only +shall we be able to help a boy to avoid making a wrong choice, but we +shall be able to remove him as soon as medical inspection shows him unfit +for the work. Thus, to the age of eighteen the State has its finger on the +pulse of the youth. + +Secondly, there must be an adequate provision of training, special and +general, accessible to all. Here, again, we are building on the firm rock +of solid experience. The elementary schools have proved themselves to be +schools for the cultivation of intelligence. With a year or two added to +the school life; with the relief from that distracting influence which +comes from wage-earning while at school; with the improved methods of +teaching and a clearer differentiation of types of school to suit varying +types of mind--reforms already under way--we may fairly hope for a general +rise in the intelligence of the boys. The half-time school, with its three +years' course, will supply the more specialized training required in the +different trades and occupations, while committees of employers will +provide the expert criticism essential to success. + +Finally, there must be the provision of an opening in some form of +employment for which special preparation has been given. The Labour +Exchange, the juvenile branch worked in close co-operation with the adult +section, will supply the opening, while the technical training will give +good guarantee for the adequacy of the preparation. The Elementary School, +the Half-time School, the Education Authority, and the Advisory Committee, +all acting together, will insure a safe passage from youth to manhood. + +The new apprenticeship system is more complex than the old--it lacks +something of the picturesqueness of the Middle Ages--but it finds its +compensation in an organization at once more flexible and more +comprehensive, and therefore better suited to stand the shock of those +huge changes in methods of production and methods of living which have +been the ungainly offspring of the industrial revolution. + + + + +LIST OF AUTHORITIES + + +I + +PARLIAMENTARY AND MUNICIPAL PUBLICATIONS + +Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages), Parts I. and II., +Parliamentary Return. 1899. + +Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Employment of +School-Children. 1901. + +Report of the Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children Act, +1903. 1910. + +Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and the Relief of +Distress. 1909. + +Report by Mr. Cyril Jackson on Boy Labour. 1909. + +Report of the Commissioners of Prisons for the year ending March 31, 1908. + +Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education for the year +1909. + +Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on Higher +Elementary Schools. 1906. + +Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on +Attendance, Compulsory or Otherwise, at Continuation Schools. 2 vols., +1909. + +Report on the By-Laws made by the London County Council under the +Employment of Children Act, 1903, by Chester Jones. 1906. + +London County Council Report of the Medical Officer (Education) for the +year 1906. + +London County Council Report of the Medical Officer (Education) for the +year 1909. + +London County Council: Medical Treatment of Children attending Elementary +Schools--Report of Education Committee. 1909. + +London County Council: Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children in +Twelve Selected Schools. 1909. + +London County Council: The Apprenticeship Question. 1906. + +London County Council: Report of the Higher Education Sub-Committee on +Apprenticeship: Agenda of Education Committee, February 24, 1909, pp. +412-425. + +London County Council: Technical Education Board Report on the Building +Trades. 1899. + +London County Council: Report by Miss Durham, Inspector of Women's +Technical Classes on Juvenile Labour in Germany. 1910. + +London County Council: Report by Mr. R. Blair (Education Officer) on +Organization of Education in London. P. S. King and Son, Westminster. + +County Council of Middlesex: Report by Mr. A. J. Bird (Inspector of +Schools) on Employment Bureaux for Children of School-leaving Age. + +Urban District Council of Finchley: Annual Report of the Medical Officer +of Health, including the Report to the Education Committee for the year +1908. + +Gloucestershire Education Committee: Report of the Minor Committee to +consider Certain Proposals for the Creation of an Apprenticeship Fund and +a Labour Bureau. 1907. + + +II + +AUTHORS + +ABRAHAM AND DAVIES: Factories and Workshops. 1902. + +ABRAM, A.: Social Life in the Fifteenth Century. 1909. + +ALDEN, MARGARET: Child Life and Labour. + +ASHLEY, W. J.: Introduction to English Economic History. 1888. + +BEVERIDGE, W. H.: Unemployment. 1909. + +BLACK, CLEMENTINA: Sweated Industry. 1907. + +BLAIR, R.: Some Features of American Education. 1904. + +BOOTH, CHARLES: Life and Labour of the People, 9 vols. 1896. + +BRAY, REGINALD A.: The Apprenticeship Question, in _Economic Journal_, +September, 1909. + +BRAY, REGINALD A.: The Town Child. 1907. + +CHRISTIAN SOCIAL UNION: Report on the Employment of Boys in the London +Area. 1910. + +Continuation Schools in England and Elsewhere, edited by M. E. SADLER. +1907. + +CREASEY, CLARENCE H.: Technical Education in Evening Schools. 1905. + +CROWLEY, RALPH H.: Hygiene of School Life. 1909. + +CUNINGHAM, W.: Growth of English Industry and Commerce: Early and Middle +Ages. 1905. + +CUNINGHAM, W.: Growth of English Industry and Commerce: Modern Times, 2 +vols. 1903. + +DAVIES, MAUDE F.: Life in an English Village. 1909. + +FRERE, MARGARET: Children's Care Committees. 1909. + +GIBB, THE REV. SPENCER J.: The Problem of Boy Work. 1906. + +GIBB, THE REV. SPENCER J.: Boy Work and Unemployment. C.S.U. Pamphlet. + +GORDON, OGILVIE: Handbook of Employments. 1908. + +GREEN, J. R.: History of the English Peoples, vols. i. and iv. 1896. + +GREEN, MRS. J. R.: Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, 2 vols. 1894. + +HALL, G. STANLEY: Adolescence, 2 vols. + +HASBACH, W.: History of the English Agricultural Labourer. 1908. + +HAWKINS, C. B.: Norwich: A Social Study. 1910. + +HAYWARD, F. H.: Day and Evening Schools. 1910. + +HOGARTH, A. H.: Medical Inspection of Schools. 1909. + +HUTCHINS AND HARRISON: A History of Factory Legislation. 1907. + +JACKSON, CYRIL: Unemployment and Trade Unions. 1910. + +JEBB, EGLANTYNE: Cambridge: A Brief Study in Social Questions. 1906. + +KEELING, FREDERIC: The Labour Exchange in Relation to Boy and Girl Labour. +1910. + +KIRKMAN, GRAY B.: A History of English Philanthropy. 1905. + +KIRKMAN, GRAY B.: Philanthropy and the State. + +KNOWLES, G. W.: Junior Labour Exchanges. 1910. + +MACMILLAN, MARGARET: Labour and Childhood. 1907. + +MOSELEY: Educational Committee Report. 1904. + +NICHOLLS, SIR G.: History of the English Poor Law. 1898. + +ROGERS, J. E. T.: Six Centuries of Work and Wages. 1884. + +ROWNTREE, B. S.: Poverty: A Study of Town Life. 1901. + +RUSSELL, C. E. B.: Manchester Boys. 1905. + +RUSSELL AND RIGBY: The Making of the Criminal. 1906. + +RUSSELL AND RIGBY: Working Lads' Clubs. 1908. + +SHADWELL, ARTHUR: Industrial Efficiency. 1909. + +Studies of Boy Life in our Cities, edited by E. J. URWICK. 1904. + +TAWNEY, R. H.: The Economics of Boy Labour, in _Economic Journal_, +December, 1909. + +Trades for London: Boys. Compiled by the Apprenticeship and Skilled +Employment Committee. 1908. + +Trades for London: Girls. Compiled by the Apprenticeship and Skilled +Employment Committee. 1909. + +TUCKWELL AND SMITH: The Workers' Handbook. 1908. + +WEBB, SIDNEY AND BEATRICE: History of Trade Unionism. 1907. + +WEBB, SIDNEY AND BEATRICE: Industrial Democracy, 2 vols. 1897. + + + + +INDEX + + + Abraham and Davies, 45, 49, 53 + + Abram, A., 9 + + Adler, Miss, 106 + + Adolescence, vi, 176, 198 + + Agricultural Gangs Act, 42 + + Apprentices, statute of, 13-15; + effect, 16, 17; + pauper, 15, 17-19; + repeal, 22 + + Apprenticeship, break-up of, 165-175 + + charities, 19; + decay, 25, 135, 164, 165-175, 177; + difficulties of, 12, 188; + essentials, 43, 237; + indentured, 5, 135, 187-189; + meaning, 1; + under gilds, 4-11, 234, 237; + under industrial revolution, 26-29; + under statute, 11-19; + universal, 3, 13, 189 + + of to-day: contribution of home, 92-103; + of philanthropy, 89-92; + of State, 73-74, 76-89; + of workshop, 103-165 + + the new: Juvenile Labour Exchange, 231-231; + new half-time, 191, 197-202; + prohibition of employment, 191, 195-197; + raising school age, 191-195, 217; + summary, 231-240 + + Ashby, W. J., 4 + + Attendance at school, Acts relating to, 38, 46-48; + percentage of, 83, 106, 105 + + + Blair, R., 86 + + "Blind-alley" occupations, 87, 112, 123-130, 145, 157, 158, 163, + 169-172, 180, 227 + + Board of Education, 61, 64 + + Board of Trade, 71, 72, 223, 233 + + Booth, C., 95, 104, 136, 139 + + Borstal Association, 169 + + Boy labour: difficulties of regulation, 79, 80; + effects of regulation, 77-82, 88, 89 + + half-time, 49-52, 78, 197-202, 204, 205 + + health and safety, 52-58, 77, 197-202 + + limitation of hours, 43-52, 197-202 + + prohibition of, 41-43, 195-197, 203, 204 + + regulation under gilds, 7-11, 234, 237; + under industrial revolution, 20-25; + under statute, 13, 14 + + Boys: clubs, 90; + errand, 82, 112, 119, 129, 145; + lather, 43; + office, 119, 126, 158; + shop, 122, 126, 128, 145; + telegraph, 126, 131, 145; + van, 82, 119, 145 + + Boys: employment of, at school, 103-113, 151-155; + on leaving school, 114-119, 163; + entering manhood, 143 + + unemployed, 119; + under London County Council, 132 + + Bursaries, 65 + + + Chamber of Commerce, 230 + + Chapman, Professor, 211 + + Child, definition of, 40 + + Children Act, 38, 59, 61, 80 + + Children, employment of. _See_ Boys + + Chimney Sweepers Act, 42 + + Cloete, J. G., 126, 129 + + Coal Mines Regulation Act, 38, 42 + + Competition, 177, 235 + + Cuningham, W., 4, 6, 10, 16, 20, 22, 28 + + + Davies, Miss Maude, 161, 164 + + Distribution of trades, 115-118, 142-149, 163; + normal, 147-149 + + Durham, Miss, 196, 228 + + + _Economic Journal_, 116, 159 + + Education Acts, 1902-03, 62 + + Administrative Provisions Act, 1907, 58, 60, 61 + + Provision of Meals Act, 61 + + Employment of children. _See_ Boys + + Employment of Children Act, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 48, 57, 58, 77, 80, + 81, 111, 166 + + + Factory legislation, causes of, 30 + + Factory and Workshops Act, 38, 168; + authority for enforcement, 40, 51; + definitions, 39-41; + effects of, 77, 81, 82, 88; + half-time, 49-51; + health and safety, 52-56; + limitation of hours, 43-52; + prohibition of employment, 41, 42 + + Furness, Sir Christopher, 213 + + + Gibb, Spencer J., 124, 158 + + Gilds, 4-11, 234, 237 + + Girls, vii + + Green, Mrs. J. R., 12 + + + Half-time system, 49-51, 78, 197-203, 204-205 + + Hall, G. Stanley, vi + + Hasbach, W., 25 + + Health and Morals of Apprentices Act, 17, 18, 23, 29 + + Hutchins and Harrison, 23, 29 + + + Idealist, triumph of, 28 + + Indenture, old, 6 + + Individualist, triumph of, 32-34 + + Industrial revolution, 20-26; + effects of, 26-29, 173-175; + characteristics, 177-185 + + schools, 61 + + + Jackson, Cyril. _See_ Report on Boy Labour + + + Labour Exchange, 70, 125; + Juvenile, 71, 72, 83, 201, 221-231, 232-240 + + Lather-boy. _See_ Boys + + London, employment of school-children, 105-113; + entry to a trade, 113-142; + passage to manhood, 142-151 + + + Medical certificate, 56, 57, 58 + + inspection, 58, 60, 61, 85, 86, 94, 168, 197, 231, 232, 233, 238, + 239 + + Messenger-boy. _See_ Boys + + Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act, 38 + + Mines (Prohibition of Child Labour Underground) Act, 38, 41 + + + Necessitous children, 94, 95 + + Nicholls, Sir G., 18 + + + Occupations, clerical, 140-142; + distribution of, 115-120, 143, 142-149, 163; + skilled, 132-140; + unskilled, 112, 121-133 + + Office-boy. _See_ Boys + + Opening. _See_ Provision of + + + Poor Law, Elizabethan, 15; + Amendment Act, 23-26; + Report of Royal Commission. _See_ Reports + + Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 38, 42 + + Provision of opening, need for, 2; + Labour Exchange, 70-72, 221-231, 240; + under gilds, 8-11; + under industrial revolution, 20-26 + + + Report of Board of Education, 64 + + of Commissioners for Prisons, 169 + + of Consultative Committee on Continuation School, 47, 81, 154, 192, + 201 + + of Consultative Committee on Higher Elementary Schools, 214 + + of Departmental Committee on Employment of Children Act, 81, 125 + + of Interdepartmental Committee on Employment of Children, 51, 110, 152 + + of London County Council on Apprenticeship, 66, 115, 128, 135, 136, + 139, 140, 143, 187, 192, 194 + + of Medical Officer, Board of Education, 152, 174 + + of Medical Officer (Education) of London County Council, 96, 109, 110 + + Report of Poor Law Commission, 31, 104, 155, 156, 172, 191, 192, 206, + 209, 210, 211, 213 + + Report on Boy Labour, by Mr. Cyril Jackson, 104, 123, 124, 125, 128, + 129, 131, 144, 145, 146, 156, 157 + + on Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children, 95 + + Rogers, J. E. Thorold, 5 + + Rural Districts, 161-165 + + + Sadler, M. E., 157, 171, 195 + + Scholarships, 66-68, 86, 232 + + School: age, 46-48, 192-195; + central, 64, 65; + elementary, 46, 47, 63-65, 83-86, 218, 224, 231; + evening, 60, 67, 69, 86; + industrial, 59, 61; + part-time, 68, 132, 187, 218-221, 231; + secondary, 60, 67, 86, 232; + Sunday, 89; + technical and trade, 60, 66, 68, 208 + + Scott-Holland, Canon, 124 + + Shop-boy. _See_ Boys + + Shop Hours Act, 38, 46, 79, 81 + + Skilled Employment Committees, 91, 92, 185 + + Supervision, need for, 2; + under gilds, 8-11; + under statute, 13-15; + under industrial revolution, 20-26; + by State regulation, 37-58; + by State enterprise, 59-70; + effects of State, 76-88; + by philanthropy, 89-92; + in home, 92-103; + in workshop, 125; + in London, summary, 149, 150; + general summary, 165-168; + under new apprenticeship, 191-202, 221-231, 237, 238 + + + Tawney, R. L., 159, 160 + + Technical instruction. _See_ Schools + + Trades, distribution of, 115-120, 142-149, 163; + picking up, 136-140; + skilled, 133-142, 208-214, 218, 239; + unskilled, 112, 121-133, 155-160, 165-175, 208, 215, 216, 219, 239 + + Training, need for, 2; + under gilds, 9-12; + under statute, 13, 14; + under industrial revolution, 20-27; + in single operation, 21, 137-139; + in elementary schools, 63-65; + in continuation schools, 65-70; + in workshops, 111-113, 121-142, 165-175; + in new apprenticeships, 207-221, 233 + + + Van-boy. _See_ Boys + + + Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, 8, 21, 22 + + + Young person, 40, 44-46, 81, 83 + + +THE END + +BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] G. Stanley Hall, "Adolescence," vol. ii., p. 83. + +[2] See, for a general description of gilds, "Economic History," by W. J. +Ashby; "Growth of English History and Commerce: Early and Middle Ages." by +W. Cunningham. + +[3] J. E. Thorold Rogers, "Six Centuries of Work and Wages," p. 566. + +[4] Quoted, Cunningham, pp. 349-350. + +[5] Sidney and Beatrice Webb, "A History of Trade Unionism," p. 17. + +[6] Cunningham, p. 460. + +[7] _Ibid._, p. 345. + +[8] A. Abiam, "Social England in the Fifteenth Century," p. 118. + +[9] Cunningham, p. 509. + +[10] Mrs. J. R. Green, "Town Life in the Fifteenth Century," vol. ii., p. +102. + +[11] 5 Elizabeth, Cap. iv. + +[12] Sect. 3. + +[13] Sect. 25. + +[14] Sect. 26. + +[15] Sect. 31. + +[16] 5 Elizabeth, Cap. iv., Sect. 35. + +[17] 43 Elizabeth, Cap. ii., Sect. 5. Similar powers had been given to +Justices of the Peace in earlier Acts (see 27 Henry VIII., Cap. xxv.; Edw. +VI., Cap. iii.) + +[18] W. Cunningham, "Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern +Times," pp. 29-30. + +[19] _Ibid._, p. 33. + +[20] See 3 Chas. I., Cap. v. + +[21] Sir G. Nicholls, "History of the Poor Law," vol. ii., p. 223 _et +seq._ 1898. + +[22] James I., Cap. iii. + +[23] Cunningham, p. 615. + +[24] _Ibid._, pp. 640-641. + +[25] Sidney and Beatrice Webb, "History of Trade Unionism," p. 47. + +[26] Sidney and Beatrice Webb, "History of Trade Unionism," p. 47. + +[27] Cunningham, p. 660. + +[28] _Ibid._ + +[29] 54 George III., Cap. xcvi. + +[30] Hutchins and Harrison, "History of Factory Legislation," p. 16. + +[31] Herr W. Hasbach, "A History of the English Agricultural Labourer," +pp. 224, 225. + +[32] Quoted by Cunningham, "Growth of Industry and Commerce in Modern +Times," p. 776. + +[33] Quoted by B. L. Hutchins and A. Harrison, in "A History of Factory +Legislation," p. 15. + +[34] In the Report of the Poor Law Commission we have an interesting +example side by side of the two forces that make for reform. The Majority +Report is altogether the work of sentiment. The proposed variation in the +terminology applicable to those in receipt of relief, the loosening of the +deterrent system, the advocacy of the more generous treatment of the young +and the sick, the general neglect to consider remote causes, and the total +absence of any consistent principle, can be explained in no other way. Its +cold reception by the British Constitutional Association--that body of +people who still hold aloft the tattered banners of the individualist--is +but another proof that sentiment, and not the _a priori_ assumptions of +the old school, is the guiding spirit. In the Minority Report we see +everywhere the mark of the imaginative reason--that reason which, starting +with facts and not with theories, strives to picture the long chain of +cause and effect which leads up to the sufferer, and finally, seeing the +whole process in its true proportions, strikes at the evil where it begins +and can be prevented, and not where it ends, when only a more or less +modified failure can be looked for. + +[35] A striking instance of this is supplied by the Municipal Reform Party +on the London County Council. Opposed in principle to feeding or treating +medically children at the cost of the rates, they have yet been compelled +to do both these things. And they have been compelled to take action, not +by the pressure of public opinion--the public opinion of their own side +generally condemned them for forsaking their principles--but by the sheer +inability of members to learn, week after week, that hungry children were +unfed and sick children left without treatment. + +[36] See Part X. of the Act. Needless to say, the decision as to what +kinds of industry come within these definitions has exercised the +ingenuity of the lawyer. In one case (Law _v._ Graham), for example, Lord +Alverstone, Chief Justice, expressed the opinion that bottling beer is not +within paragraph (i.) or paragraph (ii.) above; that by a somewhat +strained construction it might be said to be within paragraph (iii.), as +being an adapting of an article for sale, but that the powers used in +washing the bottles was not "in aid of the process of bottling." + +[37] For complete list of such industries, see Sch. VI. of the Act. + +[38] See Part VI. of the Act for details and exceptions. + +[39] Sects. 103, 104, 105, 106. + +[40] Sects. 71 and 156. + +[41] Sect. 156. + +[42] Sect. 13. + +[43] Factory and Workshop Act, Sect. 77. + +[44] Sect. 99. + +[45] Mines Act, 1900, Sect. 1. + +[46] Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, Sect. 7. + +[47] Factory and Workshops Act, Sect. 77. + +[48] Employment of Children Act, Sects. 3 and 13. + +[49] Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1894, Sect. 3. + +[50] Sect. 1. + +[51] Sect. 2. + +[52] Sect. 4. + +[53] For definitions, see p. 39. + +[54] Sect. 24. + +[55] Sect. 26. + +[56] Sect. 111. + +[57] Sects. 51, 53. + +[58] Sects. 31, 46. + +[59] The best detailed account of the Act is found in "The Law Relating to +Factories and Workshops," by Abraham and Davies. + +[60] Shop Hours Act, Sect. 3. + +[61] Employment of Children Act, Sect. 2. + +[62] Report of the Consultative Committee on Continuation Schools, vol. +i., p. 22. + +[63] _Ibid._, vol. i., p. 21. + +[64] Employment of Children Act, Sect. 3 (1). + +[65] Sect. 1. + +[66] Abraham and Davies, "The Law Relating to Factories and Workshops," +fourth edition, p. 41. + +[67] Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, Sect. 25. + +[68] Sect. 25. + +[69] Sects. 31 and 46. + +[70] Sect. 69. + +[71] Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Employment of +School-Children, p. 12. + +[72] The summary of the provisions that follow is founded on "The Law +Relating to Factories and Workshops," by Abraham and Davies, chap. ii. + +[73] Factory and Workshop Act, Sect. 63, (1) and (2). + +[74] Sect. 64 (4). + +[75] Sect. 64 (5). + +[76] Sect. 64 (6). + +[77] Sect. 67. + +[78] Sect. 65. + +[79] Sect. 66. + +[80] Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, Sect. 13. + +[81] See pp. 46-48. + +[82] Children Act, 1908, Sect. 58. + +[83] Education (Administration Provisions) Act, 1907, Sect. 13. + +[84] Board of Education Circular 576, Sect. 12. + +[85] Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, Sect. 13. + +[86] Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906, Sect. 3. + +[87] Children Act, Sect. 77. + +[88] I am here speaking of England; in Scotland there are limited powers +of enforcing attendance. + +[89] Report of Board of Education, 1908-09, p. 110. + +[90] For a more detailed account of the machinery considered desirable, +see the Report of the London County Council on "The Apprenticeship +Question." + +[91] See Report of the Consultative Committee on Continuation Schools, p. +22. + +[92] Report of the Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children +Act, pp. 6, 7. + +[93] "The Organization of Education in London," by R. Blair, Education +Officer to the London County Council, p. 29. + +[94] "Studies of Boy Life in Our Cities," edited by E. J. Urwick. Dent and +Co. + +[95] "Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children in Twelve Selected +Schools." Report of the London County Council. + +[96] See "Medical Treatment of Children attending Elementary Schools," in +Report of the Medical Officer (Education) of the London County Council for +the year 1909. See also Report of the Medical Officer of the Board of +Education for 1909. + +[97] "Studies of Boy Life," pp. 22-25 _passim_. + +[98] "Studies of Boy Life," pp. 26-28 _passim_. + +[99] "Studies of Boy Life," p. 32. + +[100] Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages) Parliamentary Return, +1899, p. 32. + +[101] Report on Employment of School-Children, p. 8. + +[102] _Ibid._, p. 9. + +[103] Report on the Employment of School-Children, p. 9. + +[104] Quoted from "Studies of Boy Life," p. 24. + +[105] Report on Employment of School-Children, p. 10. + +[106] _Ibid._, p. 11. + +[107] Report on Employment of School-Children, p. 11. + +[108] Report of the Education Committee submitting the Report of the +Medical Officer (Education) for the year 1906. P. S. King and Son. + +[109] Report of Medical Officer, p. 22. + +[110] Report of the Medical Officer (Education) 1906, p. 23. + +[111] _Ibid._, p. 23. + +[112] _Ibid._, p. 24. + +[113] See p. 43. + +[114] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, Minutes of the Education +Committee of the London County Council for February 24, 1909, p. 414. + +[115] The substance of what follows appeared in an article published in +the _Economic Journal_ for September, 1909, and is reproduced by the kind +permission of the Editor. + +[116] L.C.C. Report of Medical Officer (Education), 1906, p. 23, showed +that this was the most injurious form of work in which school-children +were engaged. + +[117] Report of Mr. Cyril Jackson on Boy Labour, prepared for the Poor Law +Commission. + +[118] Report on Boy Labour, p. 7. + +[119] Report on Boy Labour, pp. 7 and 8. + +[120] Canon Scott Holland, Introduction to "The Problem of Boy Work," by +the Rev. Spencer J. Gibb. + +[121] Report on Boy Labour, p. 4. + +[122] Report of the Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children +Act, 1903, 1910, p. 14. + +[123] "Studies of Boy Life," p. 111. + +[124] Cyril Jackson, Report on Boy Labour, p. 14. + +[125] The Rev. Spencer J. Gibb, "The Problem of Boy Work," p. 33. + +[126] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, Minutes of the Education +Committee of the London County Council, February 24, 1909, p. 424. + +[127] Report on Boy Labour, p. 27. + +[128] Mr. Cloete, in "Studies of Boy Life," p. 125. + +[129] Report on Boy Labour, p. 20. + +[130] _Ibid._, p. 20. + +[131] _Ibid._, p. 26. + +[132] Report on Boy Labour, p. 17. + +[133] _Ibid._, p. 16. + +[134] _Ibid._, p. 17. + +[135] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, p. 1. London County Council +Publications. P. S. King and Son. + +[136] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, p. 2. + +[137] Charles Booth, "Life and Labour of the People," vol. ix., p. 222. + +[138] This Advisory Committee contains representatives of the chief +woodwork industries of the district. + +[139] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, p. 4. + +[140] Report on the Apprenticeship Question, p. 4. + +[141] Minutes of the Education Committee, February 24, 1909, p. 415. + +[142] Report on Boy Labour, p. 47. + +[143] Report on Boy Labour, p. 20. + +[144] _Ibid._, p. 20. + +[145] _Ibid._, p. 22. + +[146] _Ibid._, p. 23. + +[147] Report on Employment of School-Children, p. 5. + +[148] Report of Chief Medical Officer of Board of Education for 1909, pp. +80-81, _note_. + +[149] Report of Consultation Committee on Continuation Schools, p. 206. + +[150] Majority Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 325. + +[151] _Ibid._, p. 325. + +[152] Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 1166. + +[153] _Ibid._, p. 1166. + +[154] Minority Report on the Poor Law Commission, p. 1166. + +[155] Report on Boy Labour, p. 5. + +[156] _Ibid._, p. 27. + +[157] M. E. Sadler, "Continuation Schools," Preface, p. xii. + +[158] M. E. Sadler, "Continuation Schools," Preface, p. xiii. + +[159] The Rev. Spencer J. Gibb, "The Problem of Boy Work," p. 33. + +[160] _Economic Journal_, December, 1909, p. 522. + +[161] _Ibid._, p. 522. + +[162] _Economic Journal_, December, 1909, p. 532. + +[163] Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages) Act, Part (2), +Return for England and Wales, 1899, p. iv. + +[164] Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages) Act, Part (2), +Return for England and Wales, 1899., p. vii. + +[165] M. F. Davies, "Life in an English Village," chap. x. + +[166] Report of the Commissioners of Prisons for the year ending March 31, +1908, p. 14. + +[167] Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 325. + +[168] _Morning Post_, January 3, 1909, letter from Professor M. E. Sadler. + +[169] Russell and Rigby, "Working Lads' Club," p. 286. + +[170] Majority Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 326. + +[171] Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 1165. + +[172] _Ibid._, p. 1166. + +[173] Minutes of the Education Committee, February 24, 1909, p. 422. + +[174] Minutes of the Education Committee, February 24, 1909, p. 416. + +[175] Minutes of the Education Committee, February 24, 1909, p. 416. + +[176] M. E. Sadler, "Continuation Schools," p. 334. + +[177] "Berlin, though growing luxurious, is not yet as spendthrift of +young life as is London. The newspaper-boy and the street-trader are +unknown" (Report to the London County Council, by Miss Durham, p. 3). + +[178] See Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education +on Continuation Schools, chap. x. + +[179] Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 346. + +[180] Report of the Poor Law Commission, pp. 346-347. + +[181] _Ibid._, Professor Chapman, footnote, p. 346. + +[182] Report of the Poor Law Commission, p. 351. + +[183] Report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education in +Higher Elementary Schools, p. 7. + +[184] Report by Miss Durham to the London County Council on Juvenile +Labour in Germany, p. 7. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOY LABOUR AND APPRENTICESHIP*** + + +******* This file should be named 39291.txt or 39291.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/9/2/9/39291 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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