53. CHILD LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES 1

HOW MANY CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES ARE AT WORK?

The following table shows the number and proportion of boys and girls reported as gainfully employed in 1920:

PER CENT OF CHILDREN ENGAGED IN GAINFUL

OCCUPATIONS, BY SEX: 19202

IN WHAT OCCUPATIONS ARE CHILDREN ENGAGED?

Of the child workers 10 to 15 years of age, inclusive, in the United States in 1920, 647,309, or 61 per cent, were reported to be employed in agricultural pursuits, the majority (88 per cent) of them as laborers on the home farm. An even larger proportion, 87 per cent, of the working children 10 to 13 years of age, inclusive, were at work in these occupations. There were 185,337 children, or 17.5 per cent of the total number of working children under 16, employed in manufacturing and mechanical industries- cotton, silk, and woolen mills; cigar, clothing, and furniture factories; and canneries and workshops. Over 80,000 children were engaged in some type of clerical occupation; approximately 63,000 were in trade; 54,000, the majority of whom were girls, were working at occupations classified under "domestic and personal service"; and 7191 almost all of them boys were employed in the extraction of minerals. Almost 25,000 children 10 to 13 years of age were reported as employed in trade and clerical occupations, over 12,000 in “domestic

1 From Child Labor in the United States: Ten Questions Answered, Bureau Publication No. 114, United States Department of Labor, Children's Bureau, Washington, D. C.; 1924.

2 Fourteenth Census of the United States, Population, 1920: Vol. IV, "Occupations," page 476.

and personal service," and almost 10,000 in manufacturing occupations.

The occupations of children 10 to 15 years of age employed in nonagricultural pursuits are given in the following table and in the chart on page 134.

NUMBER AND PER CENT DISTRIBUTION, BY OCCUPATION, OF CHILDREN 10 TO 15 YEARS OF AGE, INCLUSIVE, ENGAGED IN SELECTED NONAGRICULTURAL PURSUITS, FOR THE UNITED STATES: 19201

IS THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN AT WORK DECREASING?

Once in every 10 years the United States Census Bureau reports on the number of working children 10 to 15 years of age, inclusive. No complete count of employed children is made between these censuses. The most recent decennial census was taken in January, 1920, at the beginning of a period of industrial depression and at a season of the year when employment in many occupations, especially in agriculture, was at its lowest ebb. Moreover, in 1920, the em1 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920: "Children in Gainful Occupations," page 30. 2 Except telegraph messengers. 3 Includes clerks in stores.

CHART SHOWING PROPORTION OF CHILDREN 10 TO 15 YEARS OF AGE, INCLUSIVE, IN EACH PRINCIPAL DIVISION OF OCCUPATIONS: 1920

ployment of children was discouraged by a Federal child-labor law.1 Since the census of 1920 was taken this law has been declared unconstitutional, the industrial depression has been succeeded by a period of increasing employment, and were a census to be taken at the present time it would doubtless show a notably larger number of employed children than that of January, 1920.

The census of 1920 records a considerable decrease since 1910 in the number of children reported at work. Although the total child population 10 to 15 years of age, inclusive, increased 15.5 per cent during this period, the number of working children reported decreased almost half (46.7 per cent). A corresponding decrease took place in the proportion of all children of these ages who are employed in gainful occupations, from 18.4 per cent in 1910 to 8.5 per cent in 1920. As shown by the following table, the decline is most striking in connection with agricultural pursuits, in which the number of children employed decreased 54.8 per cent.

RELATIVE CHANGES IN NUMBERS OF CHILDREN AND OF ALL PERSONS 10 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER EMPLOYED, 1910 To 1920, BY OCCUPATION AND AGE 2

1 The Federal child labor tax law was effective from April 25, 1919, to May 15, 1922. • Compiled from Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920: "Children in Gainful Occupations," pages 65, 68; "Occupations, Age of Occupied Persons,' page 378; Thirteenth Census of the United States, Vol. IV, "Population," 1910, "Occupation Statistics," page 302.

IS THE DECREASE BETWEEN 1910 AND 1920 REAL OR APPARENT?

According to the United States Census Bureau, a large part of the decrease in the number of children reported in 1920 as employed is apparent rather than real. This is due primarily to a change in the census date from April 15 in 1910 to January 1 in 1920, a circumstance which largely explains the smaller number of children reported in 1920 as engaged in farm work and other seasonal occupations in which fewer children are employed in January than in the spring. Since by far the greater part (84.5 per cent) of the decline in the number of children reported at work in all occupations is due to the large decrease (54.8 per cent) in the number reported as employed in agricultural pursuits, clearly much of the total decrease reported in 1920 cannot be regarded as an actual reduction in the total numbers of children gainfully employed. In the non-agricultural occupations,1 however, much of the decline in the numbers of children reported as employed represents a real decrease, which may safely be attributed to conditions affecting directly and especially the labor of children. Chief among these are the enactment and strengthening of legal regulations, both State and Federal.

The table on page 135 shows a smaller number of employed children in 1920 than in 1910 in each of the principal occupational groups other than the agricultural1 except two - public service and clerical work, neither of which was affected by the Federal childlabor laws — although the total number of employed persons of all ages in each of these occupational groups increased.

54. ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF CHILD LABOR

It has long been recognized that the labor of children may be marketed in severe competition with the labor of men and women. Some people have designated this as the most serious effect of child labor. There are three ways in which the employment of children may result in competition with adult workers: (1) Adult workers

1 Child labor in agricultural pursuits was not covered by either of the Federal laws and has never been subject to State regulation to any appreciable extent.

2 From Gordon Watkins, An Introduction to the Study of Labor Problems, pages 137138. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York; 1922. Reprinted by special permission of the publishers.