the company, but the boys purchase their own uniforms, paying for them on the instalment plan, the company claiming that the boys take much better care of them when the transaction is made on a value received basis.

The American District Telegraph boys number 60 in this city. Their ages range from fourteen to nineteen years, the majority of them being fifteen and sixteen years old. The average number of hours the boys work during the day is seven, and they are paid according to the piece plan. The night force numbers six; they are all over sixteen years of age and work seven hours. American, German, Irish, Roumanian, Russian, Canadian, Jew and several other nationalities are represented. All are white boys and all have homes of some description. It is an interesting fact that in the company's experience the employees who came from boys' homes all were troublesome and had to be dismissed, while those who came from the House of Refuge and others recommended by the juvenile court were found to be good and reliable. These boys have caps and badges but no uniforms; they pay for their caps and the sense of real ownership tends to make the boys take better care of them. The American District Telegraph boys are paid every two weeks, the largest amount of earnings on record for this period being $19 and the average being $10, or $20 per month. Frequently from eight to ten high school boys are employed on Saturdays and Sundays in place of regular boys, who thus get a holiday.

When either company is charged with the delivery of a message or a package to a house whose character is known or believed to be questionable, one of the older boys is detailed to carry it, but it often happens that a call for a messenger is received from a hotel or a drug store, and the company supplying the boy is ignorant of the destination of the message or package to be delivered until the boy returns to the office and reports. In many such cases the messenger is sent to a house of ill fame. The law forbids a boy to enter such a place, and he is ordered to deliver his message at the door and then leave, but nevertheless such a situation is full of peril for him.

Other temptations assail the messenger boy in his work, and are frequently yielded to. The old practice of raising the amount of charges on the envelope of a telegram is notorious, and is still an ever-present problem to the companies. When a boy has been detected in this petty crime and is questioned about it, he too often

adds to the one misdeed the other and equally grievous one of lying. Then he is dismissed and the odds against his recovery of good standing and self-respect are heavy indeed.

The postmaster of Cincinnati employs forty boys as special delivery messengers. They are not under the rules of the civil service, and their only duty is to deliver letters bearing the special delivery stamp. They are from fifteen to twenty years of age, most of them being seventeen years old. Nearly all are Americans and Germans; eight are colored. One requirement for appointment is that the applicant must have a home, consequently the domestic conditions surrounding these boys are, as a rule, good. Each boy is paid eight cents for the delivery of every letter, and his average monthly earnings amount to $24. At the city post office there are thirteen boys on the day force and their hours are continuous from seven in the morning to three in the afternoon. They either bring their lunches with them or are allowed a few minutes, usually ten, in which to get something to eat at a nearby restaurant. The night force also numbers thirteen, and the hours are from three in the afternoon to eleven at night; the same arrangement as to food applies to this force. The other fourteen boys are employed at the substations, their hours being from seven in the morning to six in the evening, with two hours off for lunch, and several intermissions occurring at intervals amount in all to one hour, making the actual working time eight hours. Three of these boys are taking correspondence courses.

Investigation into the cases of forty-one delivery boys revealed the following conditions:

These boys are engaged in going about the city on foot, on street cars and wagons, delivering goods for department stores, millinery establishments, jewelry stores, grocers, florists' shops, tailor shops and shoe stores. Many deliver newspapers and periodicals to regular subscribers, and receive regular pay from the men who control routes. Their earnings range from sixty cents to $5.00 per week, those who attend school working on an average two and one-half hours daily and making $1.90 per week; those who do not attend school work on an average ten hours daily and earn $3.95 per week. The earnings of those who attend school amount, in proportion to the time devoted to the work, to nearly twice as much as the earnings of those who are out of school. Some are paid at the rate of 10 cents per trip or per bundle delivered, others by the day, but the majority of the regular employees receive their wages at the end of the week. One jeweler employs a boy of fifteen years ten hours a day, pays him $5 a week and fines him whenever he is late in delivering parcels. Those employed on delivery wagons work from ten to twelve hours daily and on Saturday until nine or ten o'clock at night. The handling of heavy packages is a real hardship for some of these boys; take, for instance, a thirteen-year-old lad who carries large bundles of paper for a wholesale paper house from one building to another after school hours, work which can hardly be termed "healthful exercise"! Several twelve-year-old boys receive $2.50 each for working four hours daily after school and on Saturday, carrying heavy bundles of clothing from tailor shops to finishers, deprived of almost every joy of childhood and forced within the narrow confines of premature labor by their ignorant and greedy parents.

Cincinnati's public school system includes a school for truants, to which are sent boys charged with truancy, incorrigibility or "non-adjustability." About forty thousand children are enrolled in the public schools of the city, while the enrolment in the school for truants is thirty-three. The school was opened for the first time in September, 1907; it contains a gymnasium, baths, a woodworking room and recitation rooms. A dormitory accommodating ten boys has just been added to the other features of this school. In this institution efforts are made on humanitarian principles to bring these boys to a proper realization of the possibilities involved in their behavior and to inspire in them some degree of ambition

toward worthy citizenship. Under the old system, many of these boys would have been lodged in jail; now they are given another chance in a better environment to learn their duty to society.

The law in Ohio provides that no child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in any gainful occupation; that children between fourteen and sixteen years of age, before securing employment, shall obtain from school superintendents certificates to the effect that they have successfully completed seven specified studies of the primary course, after having presented documentary evidence of age, or if unable to read and write English they may not be employed unless they attend day or night school during employment; and that no boy under sixteen or girl under eighteen shall be employed in any gainful occupation more than eight hours a day before six o'clock in the morning or after seven o'clock in the evening. The eight-hour provision will take effect July 1, 1908.

All this is good, but it is not enough. Some method must be found to apply this law practicably to the street trades of the large cities. Complete protection must be afforded every child under fourteen years of age. Even so, we cannot grant that society has fulfilled its entire obligation. Children fourteen and fifteen years of age are too young and undeveloped to take up such burdens of life, and may the day soon come when the minimum age limit for employment in gainful occupations shall be raised from fourteen. to sixteen and the state make all necessary provision for the care of the few children who would otherwise be forced into premature toil because of their unfortunate circumstances,

Reports from State and Local Child

Labor Committees

REPORT FROM CITIZENS' CHILD LABOR COMMITTEE OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

The agitation to secure the enactment of a child labor law for the District of Columbia has as yet produced no tangible results. A bill for the regulation of child labor was introduced at the last session of Congress, and was under consideration at the time of the last annual meeting of the National Child Labor Committee. This bill was finally talked to death by its opponents, and the session closed with the District of Columbia still retaining its unenviable distinction of being one of the few jurisdictions in the United States without any law for the regulation of child labor.

Early in the present session of Congress the bill advocated at the last session was again introduced into both Houses. No action has as yet been taken by the House of Representatives. In the Senate, Mr. Dolliver, chairman of the committee on education and labor, has made a favorable report on the measure, and it is at present the unfinished business on the Senate calendar. Consideration of the bill has already been twice postponed in order to enable Senator Beveridge to introduce an amendment providing for the national regulation of child labor. This complication of a local problem with a national issue was responsible for much of the delay which resulted in the failure of the local measure at the last session. The local committee's hope that each measure might be considered independently will apparently not be realized.1

During the past twelve months, three well attended public meetings on the subject of child labor have been held; the first under the auspices of the Twentieth Century Club; the second under the auspices of the Federation of Women's Clubs and the third under the auspices of the local patriotic societies of women. In addition, several meetings of smaller organizations have been held, in all of which an active interest was shown. Newspaper editorials and discussions of local conditions have appeared frequently and have been sucessful in directing attention to the needs of the capital city in this connection.

HENRY J. HARRIS,
Secretary.

REPORT OF THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE OF ILLINOIS

The main practical work of the Consumers' League of Illinois for the year 1907 has consisted in its co-operation with the state in enforcing the child labor law. After the law was enacted, regular investigations were 1The District of Columbia Child Labor Bill finally passed both Houses and was approved May 28, 1908.