In December, 1897, the German Imperial Chancellor, referring to the incomplete censusreturns as to child labor, requested the governments to furnish him with information as to the total number of children under fourteen employed in labor other than factory labor, agricultural employment and domestic service, and the kinds of work done. In this circular he said: "But, above all, where the kind of occupation is unsuitable for children, where the work continues too long, where it takes place at unseasonable times and in unsuitable places, child labor gives rise to serious consideration; in such cases it is not only dangerous to the health and morality of the children, but school discipline is impaired and compulsory education becomes illusory. For children cannot possibly give the necessary attention to their lessons when they are tired out and when they have been working hard in unhealthful rooms until late at night. I need only instance employment in skittle alleys late in the evening, in the delivery of newspapers in the early morning and the employment of children in many branches of home industry. The most recent researches undertaken in different localities show that the employment of children in labor demandsearnest attention in the interests of the rising generation."[38]
Inquiries extending over almost the whole German Empire were accordingly made by the different states from January to April, 1898. It was found that 544,283 children under fourteen years were employed in labor other than factory labor, agricultural employment and domestic service. This was 6.53 per cent of the total number of children of school age (8,334,919).
With regard to the effects of such work, this German report says: "As the children who carry around small wares, sell flowers, etc., go from one inn to another, they are exposed to evil influences, and are liable to contract at an early age, bad habits of smoking, lying, drinking.... The delivery of newspapers is a particularly great strain on the children, as it occupies them both before and after school hours."
Seven divisions of these children were made according to occupation, four of them relating to street work. Under the headingHandelwere included children in many kinds of work, among them hawking fruit, milk, bread, brooms, flowers, newspapers, etc.; underAustragedienstewere included only the delivery and carrying around of bread, milk, vegetables, beer, papers, books, advertisements, circulars, bills, coals, wood, boots and shoes, washing, clothes, etc.; underGewöhnliche Laufdienstewere included only errand boys and messengers; underSonstige gewerbliche Thätigkeitwere included, among other occupations, blacking boots, leading the blind, street singers and players, etc.
The Austrian Ministry of Commerce began an investigation of actual conditions in Austrialate in 1907 in response to the agitation for a new law that would regulate child labor not only in factories, but also in home industries, in commerce, and even in agriculture. In his Report on Child Labor Legislation in Europe, Mr. C. W. A. Veditz refers to the findings of this investigation in a number of the provinces. In Bohemia, of 676 children in trade and transportation, but still attending school, 169 were engaged in peddling and huckstering; in delivering goods and going errands 1554 children were employed, being generally hired to deliver bread, milk, meats, groceries, newspapers, books, telegrams, circulars—in fact, all manner of goods.[39]In the province of Upper Austria children are paid from two to seven crowns (40.6 cents to $1.42) a month for delivering newspapers daily, while in the duchy of Salzburg the pay varies from twenty to fifty hellers (4 to 10 cents) a day for delivering bread or newspapers.
In the province of Lower Austria, "referring now to the other main occupations in which school children are employed outside of industry proper, the report [of the investigation] showsthat ... those working in trade and transportation usually help wait on customers in their parents' stores; a number, however, sell flowers, shoe laces, etc., or huckster bread, butter and eggs, or carry passengers' baggage to and from railway stations. Most of those put down as delivering goods are engaged in delivering bread, milk, newspapers and washing."[40]Children who sell flowers, bread or cigars in Vienna earn one to two crowns (20.3 to 40.6 cents) a day during the week, and on Sundays as much as three crowns (60.9) cents. "The children employed [in Lower Austria] to deliver goods and run errands are also usually employed by non-relatives and receive wages in money. Those who deliver milk, and who work one half to one hour a day, generally receive twenty hellers to one crown (4 to 20.3 cents) weekly; in exceptional cases two crowns (40.6 cents), and in some instances only food and old clothes. For delivering bread and pastry, wages are reported as thirty hellers (6 cents) a week and some meals, or fifty hellers to two crowns (10 to 40.6 cents) a week without meals; in exceptional cases, 10 per cent of the receipts.For delivering papers, which requires one to two hours a day, children receive two to ten crowns (40.6 cents to $2.03) a month. For delivering of washing, thirty hellers (6 cents) for a two-hours' trip, or sixty hellers to two crowns (12 to 40.6 cents) a week. Children who carry dinner to mill laborers, requiring one half to one hour daily, get eighty hellers to five crowns (16 cents to $1.02) a month. Messengers for stores, hotels, etc., get a tip of two to ten hellers (.4 to 2 cents) per errand, or, if employed regularly, twenty hellers to one crown (4 to 20.3 cents) a week."[41]
"The delivery of milk, pastry, newspapers, etc., in which many children are employed in Vienna and other large cities, does not cause frequent absences, but is responsible for tardy arrival at school in the morning and for the fatigue that reduces attention and prevents mental alertness."[42]
By far the majority of the children in street occupations are engaged in the sale or delivery of newspapers. The newsboy predominates to such an extent that he is taken as a matter of course. As Mrs. Florence Kelley says, "For more than one generation, it has been almost invariably assumed that there must be little newsboys." Ever since he became an institution of our city life, the public has been pleased to regard him admiringly as an energetic salesman of penetrating mind and keen sense of humor. There seems to be a tacit indorsement of the newsboy as such.
Ordinarily there are five classes of newsboys to be found in all large cities—(1) the corner boys, (2) those who sell for corner boys on salary, (3) others who sell for them on commission, (4) those who sell for themselves, and (5) those with delivery routes. The bulk of the business is handled by the first three of theseclasses, which are always associated together and found on the busy corners of the downtown sections of all our cities. The choice localities for the sale of newspapers, namely, the corners in the downtown sections where thousands of pedestrians are daily passing, come under the control of individuals by virtue of long tenure or by purchase, and their title to these corners is not disputed largely on account of the support they receive from the circulation managers of the newspapers. In former years the proprietorship of the corner was settled by a fight, but now it undergoes change of ownership by the formal transfer of location, fixtures and goodwill in accordance with the most approved legal practice.
In Chicago a system of routes has been established by the newspapers which send wagons out with the different editions published each day to supply the men who control the delivery and sale of newspapers in the various districts. These route men employ boys to deliver for them to regular customers and also to sell on street corners on a commission basis. In Boston, ex-newsboys known as "Canada Points" are employed by the publishers at a fixed salaryto distribute the editions by wholesale among the twenty odd places in the city from which the street sellers are supplied.
The following individual cases will serve to illustrate the various forms this business takes. One nineteen-year-old boy paid $65 for his corner in Cincinnati about five years ago; he now earns from $4 to $5 a day clear and would not sell the location for many times its cost. He works there from 11A.M.to 6.30P.M.on week days, starting an hour earlier on Saturdays, while on Sundays he delivers the morning newspapers over a route to regular customers. Two boys of about twelve years of age work for him, to one of whom he pays 25 cents a day and to the other 30 cents a day; their duties are to hawk the different editions and to dispose of as many copies as possible by hopping the street cars and offering the papers to pedestrians from 3.45 to 6.30P.M.daily on week days. If they do not hustle and make a large number of sales, they lose their job.
A corner in another part of the city is "owned" by a thirteen-year-old boy who earns about80 cents a day clear for himself in eight hours, and on Saturdays in nine hours. He has two boys working for him on commission, to whom he pays one cent for every four papers sold; they average about 15 cents a day apiece for three hours' work. When questioned, these commission boys admitted that they could make more money if working for themselves, but in that case would have to work until all the copies they had bought were sold, while on the commission plan they did not have to shoulder so much responsibility.
Regulations made by the circulation managers of newspapers concerning the return of unsold copies greatly affect the newsboys' business. Naturally these regulations are made with an eye to extending the circulation. Corner boys are allowed to return only one copy out of every ten bought, being reimbursed by the office for its cost. Consequently they urge their newsboy employees and commission workers to put forth every effort to dispose of the supply purchased. The independent sellers are never permitted to return any unsold copies, except in the case of certain energetic boys who can be relied upon to work hard in any event. Theseare known as "hustlers," and owing to their having won the confidence of the circulation manager they are granted the special privilege of returning at cost all copies they have been unable to sell.
In Boston, beginners are often on a commission basis; "in this way they secure the advice and protection of the more experienced while serving their apprenticeship. Thesestrikers, as they are called, keep one cent for every four collected; few of them earn more than 25 cents a day, while many of them earn less than 10."[43]
An eleven-year-old Jewish boy who has been a newsboy for several years now controls a comparatively quiet corner in Cincinnati, where he nets from 40 to 50 cents a day, working about three hours. This boy's father and mother are both living.
Submission to older persons is natural among children, and an interesting instance of tyranny over small boys by adults was found in the case of a newspaper employee who works inside the plant and employs several young boys to sell newspapers on the streets for him. These boystogether earn about $1.30 when working about seven hours, but only half of this amount goes into their pockets, the other half being paid to their "employer." In New York City certain busy sections having points of strategic value are under the control of men who employ small boys to do the real work for a mere pittance, usually the price of admission to a moving-picture show. However, under certain circumstances, these little fellows often display a sturdy spirit of independence. An amusing instance is innocently recorded by an old wartime report of a newsboys' home: "It had been decided to give the boys a free dinner on Sundays, on condition that they attend the Sunday School; but last Sunday they desired the Matron to say that they were able and willing to pay for the dinner."[44]
Independent newsboys must not stand in the territory controlled by another; they must select some uncontrolled spot, or else run about hither and yon, selling where they can. Under the unwritten law of this business a boy who chances to sell in another's territory must givethe corner boy the money and receive a newspaper in exchange; this results the same as if the corner boy himself had made the sale. The earnings of these independent boys range from 15 to 65 cents daily out of school hours, while on Saturdays they make from $1 to $1.50 working from 11A.M.to 6.30P.M.
An eleven-year-old lad who has been a newsboy for three years, selling on his own account, disposes of most of his copies in saloons located in the middle of a busy square, earning from 50 cents to $1.25 a day even when attending school. His mother and father are both living. Another example of this class is a sixteen-year-old boy who devotes all his time to the trade, his net income averaging about $7.50 per week. His attitude toward regular work is both interesting and significant; he hopes to get a better job, but says that although he has hunted for one, so little is offered for what he can do ($2 to $3 per week) that it would hardly suffice for spending money. Discussing this difference between factory wages and street-trading profits, an English report says: "Working from 11A.M.to 7 or 8P.M., with intervals for gambling, newsboys over 14 years old can make from10s.to 14s.a week if they have an ordinary share of alertness. In a factory or foundry, working from 6A.M.to 6P.M., a boy earns about 13s.a week. The comparison needs no comment. The excitement of their career tends to make them more and more reluctant to work steadily.... Many newsboys protest that they want more permanent work, but they rarely keep it when it is found for them."[45]The life of the streets lacks the discipline involved in steady work and fixed earnings.
As an example of the route boy there is a fourteen-year-old lad in Cincinnati who has a list of fifty customers to whom he delivers newspapers regularly, earning in this way 25 cents daily, delivering after school hours. He declares that he finds it much easier to work on a route than to sell on the corners or at random.
The morning papers employ a man as circulation manager for the residence districts who controls all the corners in those sections. Whena corner becomes vacant, he assigns a youth to it. These older boys are not to sell their corners nor to dispose of them in any way, nor are they allowed to have any one working for them; they must "hop" all the street cars passing their corners and are expected to put forth every effort to accomplish a great number of sales. They get their supply of copies at the branch office at 5A.M., hurrying then to their corners, where they remain until nearly noon, averaging in this time from $2 to $3 per day clear. Nearly all of the afternoon papers sold in the residence districts are delivered by route boys; after having gone over their routes, some of these boys go to the busier localities and sell the sporting extra during the baseball season until about seven o'clock.
Strong emphasis was laid upon the evils of street trading by the New York Child Welfare Exhibit of 1911, the Committee on Work and Wages declaring that "The ordinary newsboy is surrounded by influences that are extremely bad, because (1) of the desultory nature of his work; (2) of the character of street life; and(3) of the lack of discipline or restraint in this work. The occupation is characterized by 'rush hours,' during which the boy will work himself into exhaustion trying to keep pace with his trade, and long hours in which there is little or nothing to do, during which the boy has unlimited opportunities to make such use of the street freedom as he sees fit. During these light hours newsboys congregate in the streets and commit many acts of vandalism. They learn all forms of petty theft and usually are accomplished in most of the vices of the street. In building up their routes, the boys often include places of the most degrading and detrimental character. On the economic side, the loss is due to failure of the occupation to furnish any training for industrial careers."[46]
The irregularity of newsboys' meals and the questionable character of their food form one of the worst features of street work and are a real menace to health. Many newsboys are in the habit of eating hurriedly at lunch counters at intervals during the day and night, while some snatch free lunches in saloons. In NewYork City their diet has been found to consist chiefly of "such hostile ingredients as frankfürters, mince pies, doughnuts, ham sandwiches, cakes and 'sinkers'."[47]The use of stimulants is common, and the demand for them is to be expected because of the nervous strain of the work. Liquor is not consumed to any appreciable extent by street-trading children, but coffee is a favorite beverage. In the largest cities, where "night gangs" are found, from four to six bowls of coffee are usually taken every evening. Tobacco is used in great quantities and in all its forms; many boys even appease their hunger for the time by smoking cigarettes, and the smallest "newsies" are addicted to the habit. Evidence that this is not a recent development among street workers is found in a report made nearly a quarter of a century ago, which, with reference to newsboys, says "many of them soon spend their gains in pool rooms, low places of amusement and for the poisonous cigarette."[48]
An English report on the street traders ofManchester says: "Drunkenness is rare among these boys ... they are in many ways attractive; but the closer our acquaintance grows with them the more overwhelming does this propensity to gambling appear. Indeed, it may reasonably be said that the whole career of the street trader is one long game of chance.... They tend to become more and more unwilling to work hard; they are the creatures of accident and lose the power of foresight; they never form habits of thrift; and their word can be taken only by those who have learnt how to interpret it."[49]
There are tricks in newspaper selling as well as in other trades, and children are not slow to learn them. A careful observer cannot fail to note that certain newsboys seem always to be without change. Their patrons are generally in a hurry and willingly sacrifice the change from a nickel, even priding themselves on their unselfishness in thus helping to relieve the supposed poverty of the newsboys. As a matter of fact, such an act does real harm, for it arousesthe cupidity of boys and leads them to believe that honesty is not the best policy. The temptation for newsboys to develop into "short change artists" is an ever present one, for the bustle of the street creates a most favorable condition for the practice of such frauds. Yet in spite of the many temptations which assail them, numbers of newsboys are scrupulously exact in the matter of making change, even under the most trying circumstances. Another common form of deceit, used to play upon the sympathy of passers-by, is practiced after nightfall by boys of all ages in offering a solitary newspaper for sale and crying in plaintive tone, "Please, mister, buy my last paper?" A kind-hearted person readily falls a victim to this ruse, and as soon as he has passed by, the newsboy draws another copy from his hidden supply and repeats his importuning. Commenting on these features of street trading, Dr. Charles P. Neill, United States Commissioner of Labor, has said: "Unless the child is cast in the mold of heroic virtue, the newsboy trade is a training in either knavery or mendicancy. Nowhere else are the wits so sharpened to look for the unfair advantage, nowhere else is the unfortunate lesson soearly learned that dishonesty and trickery are more profitable than honesty, and that sympathy coins more pennies than does industry."[50]
Work at unseasonable hours is most disastrous in its effects upon growing children, and the newspaper trade is one that engages the labor of boys in our larger cities at all hours of the night. This fact is not generally known. A prominent social worker recently said: "I was astounded to find the other day that my newspaper comes to me in Chicago every morning because two little boys, one twelve and the other thirteen, get it at half-past two at night. These little boys, who go to school, carry papers around so that we get them in the morning at four o'clock all the year around. They are working for a man with whom we contract for our newspapers. I was quite shocked in St. Louis twice this fall (1908) to find a girl five or six years of age selling newspapers near the railroad station in the worst part of town afterdark. We hear a great deal of sentimental talk about newsboys' societies doing so much for newsboys, but they do not seem to care anything for work of this kind."[51]In passing it may be remarked that in the city of Toledo there is an active association organized for the benefit of newsboys, which openly encourages street work by boys of from eight to seventeen years. The manager insists that such work affords the means of alleviating the poverty in the families of these boys, but upon inquiry it was found that he had never heard of the provision for the financial relief of such cases of child labor, which is made by the Ohio law, and which had been, at the time, most successfully administered for three years by the Board of Education of his own city.
The Chicago newspapers have their Sunday editions distributed on Saturday night, consequently the newsboys are up all night so as to assure prompt service to patrons. In the absence of public opinion in the matter, this abuse flourishes unrestricted, and the children's health is sacrificed to meet the demand for news. Agentsof the Chicago Vice Commission reported having seen boys from ten to fifteen years of age selling morning papers at midnight Saturday in the evil districts of the city.[52]
The early rising of newsboys to deliver the morning week-day editions also contributes to the breaking down of their health. The old adage is a mockery in their case. There is abundant testimony relative to the evil effects of such untimely work. "Children who go to school and sell papers get up so early in the morning that they are so stupid during the day they cannot do anything. That was clearly demonstrated to me during my experience in teaching school."[53]
Another teacher said: "I have had instances in school where children have gone to sleep over their tasks because they got up at two or three o'clock in the morning to put out city lights and to sell papers. In those instances we wanted the parents to take the children away from their work. Where they would not do it,we prosecuted them for contributing to the delinquency of their children."[54]
The delivery of newspapers by young boys in the strictly residence sections of cities appears to be unobjectionable, yet even this simple work should be under restriction as to hours, because otherwise the boys would continue to rise at unseemly hours of the night in order to reach the branch offices in time to get the newspapers fresh from the press. In fact, every phase of street work should be under control. Dr. Harold E. Jones, medical inspector of schools to the Essex County Council, has testified that among the most injurious forms of labor performed by boys is the early morning delivery of newspapers and milk.[55]In his Report on Child Labor Legislation in Europe, Mr. C. W. A. Veditz states, "Delivering milk before school in the morning must be condemned, because it fatigues the children so that they become, to say the least, intellectually less receptive."[56]
In his article on "The Newsboy at Night inPhiladelphia,"[57]Mr. Scott Nearing gives a graphic account of conditions in the City of Brotherly Love. Although this description was written some years ago, local social workers find that the same conditions still obtain, as there is neither law nor ordinance to bring about a change. In this city the closing of the theaters at eleven o'clock marks the beginning of Saturday night's work. The last editions of the evening newspapers are offered at this time, often as a cloak for begging. After the theater, the restaurant patrons are available as customers until midnight. Then the morning papers begin to come from the press, and the newsboys abandon their begging and gambling and rush to the offices for their supplies. A load of forty pounds is often carried by the smallest newsboys, hurrying along the streets in the early morning hours. The cream of the business is done at this time, for most of the purchasers are more or less intoxicated and therefore inclined to be generous with tips and indifferent as to change; sometimes a newsboy takes in as much money on Saturday night and Sunday morning as during the entire remainderof the week. In relating his experiences, Mr. Nearing says, "On one night we saw fifteen boys in a group just as the policeman was chasing them out of Chinatown at half-past three Sunday morning; the youngest boy was clearly not over ten and the oldest was barely sixteen." At this hour the officers of the law interfere and quell the revels of the district. The open gratings in sidewalks through which warm air comes from basements, are then sought, and here the boys pass the time dozing until dawn, when they go abroad again to cry the Sunday papers.
One of the reasons why the public is so indulgent toward the street worker is that it takes for granted that the child is making a manly effort to support a widowed mother and several starving little brothers and sisters. Mrs. Florence Kelley calls this "perverted reasoning" and scores the public which "unhesitatingly places the burden of the decrepit adult's maintenance upon the slender shoulders of the child."[58]Poverty has been made an excuse for child labor from time immemorial by those who profit by the system. Newspapers are notan exception to the rule; the newsboys extend their circulation and incidentally give them free advertising in the streets—hence they see nothing but good in the newsboys' work and fight lustily to defend what they claim to be the mainstay of the widows. That this popular impression and appealing argument are false and without justification has been shown by students of the problem everywhere. The following table gives the family condition of Cincinnati newsboys:—
Through a special inquiry it was found that in only 363 cases out of this total were the earnings of the children really needed. These 1752 children, ten to thirteen years of age, were licensed from July to December, 1909; their distribution as to age was as follows:—
Upon investigation of the home conditions of several hundred newsboys in New York City it was declared that "in the majority of cases parents are not dependent on the boys' earnings. The poverty plea—that boys must sell papers to help widowed mothers or disabled fathers—is, for the most part, gross exaggeration."[59]
Concerning a study of Chicago newsboys, Myron E. Adams says, "A careful investigation of the records of the Charity Organization Society shows that of the 1000 newsboys investigated, the names of but sixteen families are found, and of these ... only four received direct help, such as coal, clothing or food."[60]
Mr. Scott Nearing says: "In many cases the boys want to go on the streets in order to have the pocket money which this life affords, and the ignorant or indifferent parents make no objections, but take the street life as a matter of course. Sometimes, though not nearly as often as is generally supposed, there is real need for the selling."[61]
The British interdepartmental committee appointed in 1901 to inquire into the employment of school children, denounced the tolerance of street trading on the ground of necessity: "We think that in framing regulations with regard to child labour and school attendance ... the poverty of the child or its parents ought not to be made a test of the right to labour.... We do not think it is needed; we think that all children should have liberty to work as much and in such ways as is good for them and no more."[62]
Another argument in favor of street trading advanced by those who are interested in maintaining present conditions, is that it affords a splendid training for a business career because of the competition that rages among the boys. This is doubtless true, as far as it goes, but the great difficulty is that street trading leads nowhere. It is a blind alley that sooner or later leaves its followers helpless against the solid wall of skilled labor's competition. An occupation that fits a boy fornothingand is devoid ofprospects, is a curse rather than ablessing in this day of specialization. In spite of the division of labor so elaborately realized to-day, a boy or girl who enters any of the regular industries has at least a fighting chance for acquiring a trade. If the child is honest, capable and diligent he will be promoted to a better position in time if misfortune does not overtake him. The trapper boy in a coal mine is in a fair way to become a miner. The lad who works in a machine shop has the opportunity to make a machinist of himself. The girl who begins as a wrapper in a dry goods shop may become a saleswoman, and then possibly a buyer for her department. Yet in most states children may not enter upon such work until they have reached the age of fourteen years, while some states prohibit boys under sixteen years from being employed in mines or in connection with dangerous machinery either in machine shops or elsewhere. Bitter experience has taught us that these restrictions are right and just, and we now have no hesitancy in barring young children from such employment, regardless of the training it affords. Why, then, do we exempt many forms of street work from the operation of the law? Why do we allow little children towork at any age, both night and day, as newsboys, bootblacks and peddlers in the essentially dangerous environment of the street? Such employment offers but a gloomy future—the useless life of the casual worker. There is no better position to which it leads, no chance for the discovery and development of ability, no reward for good service. It seems incredible that we have been so engrossed with throwing safeguards about the children in regular industries that we have altogether neglected the street worker, for the arguments against child labor in factories, mills, mines and retail shops apply with even greater force to the work of children in our city streets.
There is no reason why newsboys should not be replaced as the medium for the sale and delivery of newspapers by old men, cripples, the tuberculous and those otherwise incapacitated for regular work. In London, theWestminster Gazette, thePall Mall Gazette, theEvening Standardand theGlobe(all penny papers) are sold in the streets by old men; theWestminster Gazettepays them a wage of 1s.for selling eighteen copies and after having disposedof this number they are given a commission of 8d.a quire of twenty-six copies, a few men selling from six to eight quires a day. This newspaper has followed this method for many years, and its general manager declares that it is the most satisfactory system that they have been able to evolve. Boys have no sense of responsibility, while old men cling to their posts very faithfully. He admitted that theWestminster Gazetteemployed some boys as carriers and that the whole subject lay somewhat heavily on his conscience because, "practically speaking, these boys have no future ... a few of them may become cyclists carrying the newspapers ... in a few years their usefulness as cyclists has gone ... then they simply drift away, we don't know where, but we do know that they drift to places like Salvation Army Shelters, etc. How they earn their living is always one of the mysteries of London.... But they have learned nothing from us, nothing that gives them any usefulness for any other occupation.... The great majority become casual labourers dependent entirely on casual work.... It is a life in which very little is gained, although one would supposethat the open air would be of great benefit. But one must remember the insufficient food that these street traders have, and the bad conditions of living and the irregular hours. Many of these boys, of course, are up all hours of the night.... It is quite as bad for a boy in the long run to be engaged as a carrier distributor as for him to sell newspapers in the street. There is no possible argument for the system except that one's competitors do it, and that so long as they do it we must do the same.... We get practically all our men from Salvation Army and Church Army Shelters. There is an abundant supply.... The ordinary man whom we employ is over fifty years of age and runs up to about seventy years.... I think if the police would give us every facility for introducing kiosks it would be a great improvement upon the present system. If boys were prohibited from selling newspapers altogether on the streets, it would automatically send the public to the kiosk; ... the public get into the habit of getting the newspapers from the boys."[63]
It should be remembered in connection with the above statements that theWestminster Gazetteis a penny paper, and its manager was of opinion that the half-penny papers could not afford to employ men because they depended largely for their circulation upon the persistence of newsboys in thrusting copies upon the attention of people in the streets; he believed that the use of old men would curtail their circulation because men are not so active as boys. On the other hand, news agents protested against the competition of street traders and maintained that they alone were fully able to meet the demands of the public. The departmental committee of 1910 reported: "There can, we think, be little doubt that an active child is an effective agent in promoting the circulation of half-penny papers, and that if the employment of children were forbidden, newspapers would have to rely upon facilities of a more staid and less mobile character. But we see no reason to think that purchasers of newspapers need be put to any inconvenience, since the news agents would be in a position considerably to extend their business, and it might reasonably be expected that the system of employing oldmen as salesmen would also be developed. It appears to us economically unjustifiable to use children to their own detriment for work which can be done by other means."[64]
Referring to the great possibilities for good involved in confining the sale and delivery of newspapers to adults who need outdoor work and are unable to provide for themselves in other ways, the Secretary of the New York Child Labor Committee says: "Where such cities as Paris and Berlin do entirely without newsboys—corner stands taking their places—it would seem that the least that can be done in American cities is to adopt some adequate system of regulation. In this connection, the opportunity presented in newspaper selling to give work to the aged and handicapped—who otherwise would have to be supported by private charity—should not be overlooked."[65]
In an effort to control to some extent the tendency of newsboys to become delinquent and toimbue them with a sense of personal responsibility, an interesting experiment in juvenile suffrage and jurisprudence has been undertaken in Boston.
During the year 1909, about three hundred newsboys were taken before the juvenile court of that city charged with violation of the local license rules. As the docket of this court was crowded, these newsboy cases were necessarily delayed, and as a result of this situation the boys conceived the idea of establishing a newsboys' court which should have jurisdiction in all cases of failure to observe the rules governing their trade. The following year a petition was presented to the Boston School Committee which was favorably acted upon by that body, and accordingly on the regular election day of that year the newsboys cast their ballots to select three juvenile judges of the court. These three boys, together with two adults appointed by the School Committee, compose the court. Election of these boy judges is held annually, and all licensed newsboys who attend the public schools are qualified electors. The court is empowered to investigate and report its findings with recommendations to the School Committee in all cases of infractionof the newsboy rules. Under the Massachusetts law the School Committee is authorized to regulate street trading by children under fourteen years of age, hence the newsboys are subject to purely local supervision. The supervisor of licensed minors, also an appointee of the School Committee, can, in his discretion, take complaints in his department before the newsboys' court instead of the juvenile court. The newsboy judges are paid fifty cents for their attendance at each official session of the court. The charges made before the Trial Board, as the Boston newsboys' court is called, range from selling without a badge or after eight o'clock in the evening or on street cars, to bad conduct, irregular school attendance, gambling or smoking. The disposition of these cases varies from reprimands and warnings to probation or suspension of license for a definite period, or complete revocation of license.[66]
Although the work of selling newspapers has been, to some extent, subdivided and systematized by circulation managers, it has so many features highly objectionable for children that a radical departure from present methods of handling this business should be taken. We know that the work of the newsboy lacks the oversight and discipline of adults, that it exposes the children to the varied physical dangers lurking in the streets, that the early and late hours cause fatigue, that the opportunities for bad companionship are frequent, that irregularity of meals and use of stimulants tend to weaken their constitutions, that it offers no chance for promotion and leads nowhere. We know further that the presence of the newsboy in our streets cannot be justified on the ground of poverty. It has been demonstrated in other countries that children are not essential to the sale and delivery of newspapers; in fact, it has been shown that selling at stands and the use of men instead of children in the streets are both feasible and satisfactory. Why cannot such practices be introduced into the United States? There can be but little doubt as to the advisability of this step, but the innovation will certainly not be made voluntarily by the newspapers. The law must force the issue by prohibiting street work by children.
The itinerant bootblack is gradually disappearing from our cities, but he is still found in Boston, Buffalo, New York City and a few other places. He is being supplanted by the worker at stands, which are conducted almost invariably by Greeks. As a result of this change the bootblacking business will soon cease to be a street occupation; it is discussed here because of the abuses it involves and because it is unregulated in many states, owing to its omission from the list of employments covered by child labor laws.
The New York-New Jersey Committee of the North American Civic League for Immigrants reports that: "The condition of Greek boys and young men in such occupations as pushcart peddling, shoe-shining parlors and theflower trade is one of servitude and peonage. It has been found that many boys apparently from fourteen to eighteen years of age arrive here alone, stating that they are eighteen years old, but in reality less than this, and that they are going to relatives. They have been found working in the shoe-shining parlors seven days a week from 7A.M.to 9P.M.and living with the 'boss' in groups varying from five to twenty-five under unsanitary conditions, overcrowding and irregularity of meals wholly undesirable for young boys. They are isolated from learning English or from American contact, and receive for their work from $7 to $15 a month and board and lodging. The majority of the flower peddlers have been unable to obtain permits, with the result that the boys who work for them are arrested for violating the law. Boys who have been in the country from three months to a year state they have been arrested several times—their first experience in this country—and are already hardened so that they think nothing of paying fines."[67]
The bootblack business is the chief industry to which the Greek padrone system is applied. The United States Immigration Commission found[68]that boys employed as bootblacks live in extremely unwholesome quarters. Wherever the room is large enough, several beds are gathered together with three and sometimes four boys sleeping in each bed. In some places the boys merely roll themselves up in blankets and sleep on the floor. The bootblacking stands are opened for business about 6 o'clock in the morning, consequently the boys are obliged to rise about an hour earlier, and wherever their sleeping quarters are located at considerable distance from the stands, they have to get up as early as 4.30. Arrived at the stands, they remain working until 9.30 or 10 at night in cities, and on Saturday and Sunday nights the closing hour is usually later. The boys eat their lunch in the rear of the establishment, this meal consisting generally of bread and olives or cheese. Supper is eaten after the boys reach "home," and after having eaten it they retire without removing their clothes. Even after their excessively long work day, twoof the boys are required to wash the dirty rags used for polishing the shoes daily so they can be used the next day.
These boys are compelled to work every day in the year without vacation. The Immigration Commission found that they are under constant espionage, as at every stand the padrone places relatives who both work for him and act as spies on the other boys. Their employer instructs them to make false statements to questions asked by outsiders relative to their ages or conditions of work; many padrones also censor the letters written by the boys to their parents or others and examine all incoming mail, so as to forestall any efforts made by outsiders to induce the boys to leave for other places.
The majority of them cannot read or write their own language, and are unable to secure any education in this country because of their long work hours. According to the Immigration Commission their mental development is perceptibly arrested by the physical fatigue they suffer as a result of their long-sustained work without recreation. They receive no good advice, nor do they hear anything that wouldtend to elevate them morally. The Commission does not hesitate to brand these conditions as deplorable; it declares that the ravages on the constitutions of these boys laboring in shoe-shining establishments under this system are appalling. It attributes these effects to the following causes: long hours, close confinement to their work in poorly ventilated places, unsanitary living conditions, unhealthful manner of sleeping, excessive stooping required by their work, inadequate nourishment due to the "economy" of the padrones who furnish the food, the microbe-laden dust from shoes, the inhaling of injurious chemicals from the polish they use, the filthy condition of their bodies resulting from their failure to bathe and the lack of proper clothing for the winter season.
The Greek Consul General at Chicago, himself a physician, in a letter to the Immigration Inspector of that city under date of November 16, 1910, declared that as a result of his experience in examining and treating boy bootblacks he was convinced that all boys under eighteen years of age who labor for a few years in shoe-shining establishments, develop serious chronic stomachic and hepatic troubles which predisposethem to pulmonary disease; he further declared that because of the conditions under which they work the majority of them ultimately contract tuberculosis, and that in his opinion it would be more humane and infinitely better for young Greeks to be denied admission into the United States than to be permitted to land if they are intended for such employment. Similar statements are made by other Greek physicians of Chicago.
The importation of Greek boys for use as bootblacks in the United States started about 1895, when the Greeks began to secure their monopoly of the industry by taking it away from the Italians and the Negroes, confining it, however, to stands or booths. Most of the early padrones have become financially independent. Their success attracted other Greeks to this industry, and in a short time almost every American city with a population of more than 10,000 had bootblack stands operated by them. Thus the traffic in Greek boys began to flourish.
The Bureau of Immigration helped to have a number of padrones indicted and convicted for offenses against the conspiracy statute and the Immigration Act, and these prosecutionsmade the importers very careful as to their manner of procedure. They now bring the boys here through the instrumentality of relatives in Greece in such a way that the padrones are almost beyond the reach of our criminal statutes.
In some cases it has been found that on leaving Greece for this country the boys are told to report to a saloon keeper in Chicago or in some other western city, hence they do not know their final destination. The saloon keeper has his instructions from the padrones and acts as their distributing agent. Padrones who operate in places distant from ports of entry easily avoid detection in this way.
In most cases these padrones derive an income from each boy of from $100 to as high as $500 a year. The Commission explains this as follows: The wages paid by the padrones now to Greek boys in shoe-shining establishments range from $80 to $250 per year, the average wages being from $120 to $180 per year. The boys are bound by agreement to turn their tips over to their padrones: in most cases as soon as the tipping patron has departed the boy deposits his tip in the register, while in other places tipsare put into a separate box to which the padrone holds the key. In smaller cities and even in the poorest locations each boy's tips may exceed the sum of 50 cents per day, while in large cities they average higher. The Greek padrone, therefore, receives in return from tips alone nearly double the amount of wages paid. By deducting the wages and the annual boarding expenses for each boy—an expenditure seldom exceeding the sum of $40 per year—there is still a sum left to the padrone to pay him for the privilege of allowing the boy to work in his place. In other words, from the total amount of tips—money that belongs to the boy by right—the padrone is enabled to pay the boy's annual wages and still have a respectable sum left, all this independently of the legitimate profits of his business.
Relatives of the padrones in Greece often pay the steamship passage of boys with the understanding that they are to go to the United States and serve the padrone for one year to reimburse him for the passage money advanced. A mortgage is placed on the property of the boys' father as security, purporting that the father is to receive in cash an amount equal to thewages commonly paid to Greek bootblacks for one year in the United States, but as a matter of fact a steamship ticket and $12 or $15 in money are all that is given. The cash is to serve as "show money" to help secure admission to this country past the immigration officers at the ports of entry. Advertising is systematically carried on throughout all the provinces of Greece with a view to exciting the interest of the parents so that they will send their boys to the United States, and no efforts are spared in letting it become known that there is a great demand here for boy labor at the bootblack stands. The padrones themselves even go to Greece every two or three years, and while there manage to become godfathers to the children of many families; this relationship gives them great influence, and through it they are able to secure many boys for their service.
Concerning the prevention of these abuses, the report says: "In the investigations conducted by the Bureau of Immigration many conferences were held with United States attorneys in various jurisdictions with the view of instituting proceedings against padrones, if possible, under the peonage statutes. Theattorneys generally agreed that under the evidence submitted to them those laboring in shoe-shining establishments are peons, but as the elements of indebtedness and physical compulsion to work out the indebtedness are missing, peonage laws cannot apply.
"Our immigration laws as now on the statute books provide specifically for the exclusion of boys under sixteen years of age only when not accompanied by one or both of their parents. This provision cannot apply to those boys that come in company with their parents, nor to those who have their parents in the United States, nor to such as successfully deceive immigration officers by posing as the sons of immigrants in whose charge they come. If held for special inspection at the ports of entry, these aliens can only be excluded if it appears that they are destined to an occupation unsuited to their tender years. In the absence of any such evidence, the boards of inquiry generally admit. Once landed, it becomes a hard matter to trace them and almost impossible to secure evidence in the majority of cases, for the boys understand that they will be punished by deportation. This knowledge makes thempersistent in withholding any information as to the manner of their entry into the United States."[69]
Quite recently a young Greek bootblack who was working at a stand in an Indianapolis office building confessed to a truant officer that he was twelve years old, whereupon the chief truant officer of the city went to the place, but on his arrival the boy had changed his mind and declared that he was fourteen years old, and every one connected with the stand supported the statement. Nevertheless the chief truant officer proceeded with the case and found that the boy had been in this country only about six months, his parents being still in Greece. An older brother had a position as a railroad porter but did not stay with the little fellow even on the few occasions he was in the city. The boy lived at the home of the proprietor of the stand, whose relationship to him was a combination of employer and guardian. This man operated four stands in the city, and his dozen or more other employees all lived at the same place. The chief truant officer chargedthe man with having worked the boy from 7A.M.to 9P.M.seven days in the week, which was admitted before the Juvenile Court by the defendant, who also volunteered the information that the boy worked until 11P.M.on holidays and on Saturdays. Of course the boy was being kept out of school.
In its issue of August 12, 1911, theSurveypublished a letter from a correspondent concerning a case of peonage among bootblacks in the city of Rochester, N.Y. This particular case was of a pale, thin, under-sized Greek lad who worked at a large stand in a local office building. He explained that he worked every day in the week from 7A.M.to 9P.M., including Sundays, and that on Saturdays the hours were lengthened to 11P.M., adding that he had not been absent from his stand one day in four years except at one time when he was sick in the hospital.
A letter which was written by a Greek in Syracuse, N.Y., on May 4, 1911, to the editor of the SyracusePost-Standardwas printed in the same magazine.[70]This letter recites the wrongs of the bootblacks and is reproducedbelow because of its value as one of the rare protests which come from the victims of the system:—
"Before I came to this country from Greece, I heard that this country is free, but I don't think so. It is free for the Americans, not for the shoe shiners. In this city are too many shoe shiners' stands, and the boys which work there—they work fifteen hours a day, and Sunday, and almost eighteen on Saturdays. They make only from $12 to $18 a month and board, but we don't have any good board neither, but our patrons give us bread, tea and a piece of cheese for dinner, supper, but no breakfast. We don't have any time to go to the church, not in school, and without them we won't be good citizens. They won't let us read newspapers, because they are afraid if we learn something we will quit, but we can't quit because we can't speak English, and we can't find another job. Now I don't mean the boys working in the barber shops. They make $10 to $18 a week, and they don't work as hard as we do. We wish to work as they do. We want the public and Mr. Mayor to cut the hours from fifteen to ten, not Sundays, becausewe want time for school, and weekly work, not monthly. I think I wrote enough."
The licensed peddlers of Boston are under orders not to engage little children to sell for them with or without compensation. "These peddlers have hitherto crowded the markets of this city by inviting children to help them in the business, frequently for no other compensation than the offal of their pushcarts or stands."[71]
The peddling of chewing gum is a common form of street occupation for children. In reality it is merely begging in disguise. The Chicago Vice Commission reports that its agents found boys under fourteen years of age selling gum late at night in the segregated districts of the city. At intervals of from two to three hours their investigators returned to the same neighborhood and found these little children still engaged in this very questionable form of work. One agent reported having seen two little girls of about eleven years in the company of a small boy of about eight yearsselling chewing gum in front of a saloon in the vice district between nine and ten o'clock at night.[72]
The following table gives the sex, age, nationality, standing in school, orphanage and occupation of seventeen children found by one person in a single trip through the markets of Cincinnati:—
Of these seventeen children nine were Italians, six were Americans, two were Germans. Five of the children, all of whom except one were Italian, were engaged in selling baskets to the passers-by in markets. Six of the children, all of whom except one were Italian, were selling fruit. Six of the children were selling vegetables and herbs, all of them being Americans and Germans. The occupational characteristics of these different peoples are shown by their children, the Italians predominating in the sale of fruit, the Germans in the sale of the products of their market gardens, the Americans, all of whom were boys, in the sale of the herbs they had gathered or the vegetables cultivated on their home farms.
Of these seventeen children nine were in their normal grades at school, while eight were backward and none ahead of their proper grades. This large percentage of retardation is due principally to the lack of time for preparation of school lessons on the part of these children, as much of their afternoons and evenings is taken up either with the work of selling in the markets or with the work of assisting with the garden duties at home. Of the eight backward children, four were Italians and four were Americans. One of the backward Italian girls was fourteen years of age and had left school three weeks prior to the inquiry; she was the oldest of six children; her father was dead, and she was working for her mother in their fruit store selling the fruit from early morning until midnight every day in the week except Sunday. As she was the oldest child in the family, it is of course easily seen that her retardation in school was largely due to her having been kept at work in the shop during the afternoons and evenings while she was still attending school. An American boy, who, although twelve years of age, was only in the third grade at school, was employed by his parents to sell baskets in the market, in spite of the fact that his father had a store and was fully able to support the child properly. This boy was found, as were many other such children, selling baskets in the market at eleven o'clock at night after having been there since early in the morning. A thirteen-year-old Italian boy was only in the fifth grade; he was selling baskets in one market in the morning and in another market during the afternoon and evening; both of his parents were living, andhis father had a "city job." There were six children in the family, two of whom were older and employed. The entire family of eight persons occupied two rooms.
It is noteworthy that the fathers of twelve of the children were living, only five being dead; while the mothers of fifteen were living, only two being dead. Not a single child was a full orphan. In the great majority of cases it was not necessary for these children to work so prematurely.