Part 5

With regard to these 13,740 between the ages of fourteen and sixteen whom the school census of June, 1912, found to be at work, the study undertook to answer two questions: first, are the occupations in which the boys and girls are employed of such a nature that they will train for a competence in later life? Second, is the immediate wage received of sufficient importance to counterbalance the tremendous loss of power in those who face mature life unprepared? As a continuation of this investigation the Compulsory Education Bureau has followed up since September of last year and will continue to do so, every child who leaves school to go to work. The kind of job taken, the exact nature of the work done, and the wage received will be learned. About 1,700 labor certificates are issued in Philadelphia every month.

At the outset it was discovered that the problem is not one of the immigrant child chiefly. The percentage of American parentage was 50.2; of foreign parentage, 48.1; of Negro parentage, 1.7 Nor is it a problem of boys chiefly, for 6,849, or 49.85 per cent of the total, were girls.

THE SURVEY has already told how the Vocational Guidance Survey of New York followed a group of boys and girls from the day they received their labor certificates through all the different jobs which they held during the next four or five months. The study emphasized the hit-or-miss jumping from one line of work to another which untrained youths are sure to resort to, acquiring no training and achieving no advance. The Philadelphia study furnishes a cross section of the positions held by this much larger group at a given moment. Forty-three per cent of both boys and girls were in the factory, where, says the report,

“the positions are largely mechanical and require but short time in learning, little responsibility, and great specialization of processes. These positions offer an initial wage which is alluringly high, but hold out little incentive for growth and but slightly advanced wages for the experienced operative.”

Twenty-nine per cent were in the store and the office, “where a few may advance to higher places, but it is evident that a majority must hold low-grade positions which require little preparation or skill.”

A comparison of the employments of both sexes showed that there is no kind of work which both boys and girls will not do. While boys predominate in the store, the office, in messenger service, street trades and skilled trades, girls have the largest number in the factory, in service and in house work. Yet twenty-five girls were exposed to the dangers of street trades and 118 boys were taken out of school to do house work in their own homes without pay. The diagram on the next page shows the percentages and numbers of the total engaged in the various lines of work, and the relative proportion of boys and girls in each.

When it came to tabulating wages the surprising discovery was made that with respect to 35.3 per cent of the total either no wage was received or the amount of it was entirely unknown to the family. Twenty-two per cent received between $2 and $4 a week, and 37 per cent between $4 and $6. Smaller wage divisions are shown here:

MALE FEMALE _Wages_ _Number_ _Per cent_ _Number_ _Per cent_ Unknown or zero 1,961 28.4 2,893 42.2 Under $2 19 .3 22 .3 $2 to $2.50 59 .8 75 1.0 $2.50 to $3 72 1.0 113 1.6 $3 to $3.50 728 10.5 581 8.4 $3.50 to $4 806 11.6 624 9.1 $4 to $4.50 1,338 19.4 1,130 16.1 $4.50 to $5 610 8.8 525 7.6 $5 to $6 874 12.6 600 8.7 $6 and over 424 6.1 286 4.1 ————— ———— ————— ———— Total 6,891 100.0 6,849 100.0

Split up by sexes these figures show that 42.2 per cent of the girls were found in the group whose wages were unknown or zero, while only 28.4 per cent of the boys were in that group. For both boys and girls the largest number of those whose wages is known is found in the group which receive $4.00 to $4.50. The detailed comparison is here given:

_Wages_ _Number_ _Per Cent_ Unknown or zero 4,854 35.3 Under $2 42 .3 $2 to $2.50 134 .9 $2.50 to $3.00 185 1.3 $3 to $3.50 1,308 9.5 $3.50 to $4 1,430 10.4 $4 to $4.50 2,468 17.8 $4.50 to $5 1,135 8.2 $5 to $6 1,474 10.7 $6 and over 710 5.1 —————— ————— Total 13,740 100.0

The average wage for all boys who receive between $2 and $6 is $4.26; that for girls $4.19, the large number of girls who receive a comparatively high wage in factories bringing their average up.

The average increase, between fourteen and fifteen years of age, of the workers noted is thirty-seven cents. It is much less in some of the industries. “Does such a slight return and such a meager raise,” asks the report, “pay for all the loss of mature power, as well as for that efficiency which might be gained by longer continuing in the proper kind of training?”

The following conclusions are drawn by the association as a result of its study:

“1. That the problem of the working child is not an immigrant problem, since over 50 per cent of those reported as at work are of the second generation of American birth.

“2. That this is not the problem of the boy alone, since over 49 per cent of the workers are girls.

“3. That the vast majority of children who leave school at fourteen to enter industry go into those kinds of employment which offer a large initial wage for simple mechanical processes, but which hold out little or no opportunity for improvement and no competence at maturity.

“4. That wages received are so low as to force a parasitic life.

“5. That but slight advancement is offered the fifteen-year-old over the fourteen-year-old child worker.”

ILLITERACY AND THE RURAL SCHOOL

Hardly are we given time to grasp the Census Bureau’s new facts about illiteracy in the United States before the Bureau of Education gives us its own interpretation of some of them. Illiteracy, as viewed by the Census Bureau, means inability to write on the part of those ten years old and over. As a nation the number of illiterates among us decreased from 10.7 per cent of the population in 1900 to 7.7 per cent in 1910. In spite of this decrease a bulletin by A. C. Monahan of the Bureau of Education refers to the “relatively high rate of illiteracy” in the country and says that this rate is due not to immigration but to the lack of educational opportunities in rural districts. The percentage of rural illiteracy is twice that of urban, although approximately three-fourths of the immigrants are in the cities. Still more significant is a comparison between children born in this country of foreign parents with those born of native parents. Illiteracy among the latter is more than three times as great as that among the former, “largely,” says Mr. Monahan, “on account of the lack of opportunities for education in rural America.”

The decrease in national illiteracy during the decade 1900–1910 was not only relative but absolute, despite the growth of the population. In 1900 the figure was 6,180,069. In 1910 it was 5,516,163. But while illiteracy among the total population was decreasing, that among the foreign born whites remained almost stationary. In 1900 the percentage was 12.9, in 1910 12.7. Among the whites born in this country the decrease during the decade was from 4.6 to 3 per cent. Illiteracy among the Negroes showed a decrease of almost one-third. In 1900 44.5 of the whole Negro population could not write; in 1910 the percentage was 30.4.

The distribution of illiteracy between the sexes was very even. Among males it amounted 7.6 of the total, among females to 7.8. There was less of it among white females, however, than among white males, the percentage for the former being 4.9, for the latter 5. White girls and women born outside of this country show more illiteracy than men and boys of the same class, but those born in the United States show less than native males, as follows:

_Whites_ _Male_ _Female_ Foreign born 11.8 13.9 Native 3.1 2.9

The New England and the Middle Atlantic groups of states changed places in the illiteracy column between 1900 and 1910. At the former period New England was fifth and the Middle Atlantic states, comprising New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, fourth, but by 1910 New England had displaced the latter group. In both years the West North Central, comprising Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, showed the least illiteracy of any of the geographical divisions, while the East South Central, comprising Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, had the worst record,

The section known as the West almost caught up with the North during the decade, the respective percentages being 4.4 and 4.3.

Mr. Monahan’s bulletin goes briefly into the whole rural school problem. The author found 226,000 one-teacher schoolhouses in the United States, of which 5,000 are log buildings still in active use. Although more than 60 per cent of the children in the United States are enrolled in country schools, the rural aggregate attendance is only 51 per cent.

With the help of recent appropriations made by Congress the Bureau of Education has undertaken to make a careful study of the needs of the rural schools, and the bulletin just issued is one of the first definite results of the work.

WOMEN IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

How women have advanced from the educational ranks to the highest administrative positions in the public schools is revealed in figures just compiled by the United States Bureau of Education. Four states, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming, have women at the head of their state school systems, and there are now 495 women county superintendents in the United States, nearly double the number of ten years ago.

In some states women appear to have almost a monopoly of the higher positions in the public-school system. In Wyoming, besides a woman state superintendent and deputy superintendent, all but one of the fourteen counties are directed educationally by women. In Montana, where there are thirty counties, only one man is reported as holding the position of county superintendent.

The increase in the number of women county superintendents is most conspicuous in the West, but is not confined to that section. New York reports forty-two women “district superintendents,” as against twelve “school commissioners” in 1900.

MOTHERHOOD AND TEACHING

Motherhood and teaching collided in New York three weeks ago when the Board of Education refused to grant a year’s leave of absence without pay to Katherine C. Edgell, a high school teacher, who wanted to bear and rear a child. The board recorded its opposition by a vote of thirty-two to five. By a vote of twenty-eight to nine it shut off discussion because “too much had been published about this affair already.”

Mrs. Edgell is still on the payroll of the schools, although she has not been in attendance since February first. Inasmuch as it is the custom of the board to punish unexcused absence by dismissal for neglect of duty, it seems to have no alternative but to proceed to that extremity against Mrs. Edgell. This is just what was done recently in the case of Lily R. Weeks, who was absent some time on account of the birth of a child, though the board did not know the nature of her illness. Mrs. Weeks appealed her case to the state commissioner of education, before whom it is now pending.

This demand of Mrs. Edgell that she be allowed to continue in her profession though a mother is, of course, only a symptom of the world-wide movement of women into the gainful occupations of life. It reveals how acute has grown the feeling on this subject among some of the women teachers of New York. Heretofore any married woman teacher who wanted leave of absence to bear a child carefully concealed the nature of her illness from the Board of Education. At length, one woman stood out and asked that, as a matter of right, her position be kept open for her while she brought a new life into the world. Instantly scores of her colleagues came to her defense. Women lawyers passed resolutions in sympathy with her and physicians publicly approved her stand.

The case of Mrs. Edgell is not the first time that the New York Board of Education has expressed its opinion with regard to married women teachers. Until 1904 a by-law of the board provided that the marriage of a woman teacher should automatically cause her instant dismissal without further action. But the Court of Appeals decided in 1903 that a teacher could not be dismissed for marrying and the by-law was changed. Since then the board has apparently not been altogether friendly toward the married women in its employ. During the discussion that has attended the Edgell case it has been repeatedly asserted by principals and teachers that there are hundreds of women in the schools who have kept their marriages secret because of the well-known policy of the board to make it almost impossible for married women to secure promotion or increase in salary.

A physician who is a member of the school board and a member of the board of superintendents are authorities for the sweeping statement, that if this ruling is adhered to the board of education is quite likely to be responsible for 300 cases of deliberate abortion among the public school teachers of New York every year.

When the board, by its vote of twenty-eight to nine, shut off discussion because “too much has been published about this affair already,” it did what was destined to provoke hotter and longer discussion than ever. But underlying that there is a very general feeling that this subject presents many phases which should be given profound consideration, not a snap verdict. Would the distraction of a baby interfere with class room work, or the absence of the mother and teacher handicap her own children; or would having children of her own add something to a woman’s educative powers? What effect would the widespread continuance of married women in the schools have on men’s salaries? What is there in the practice and experience of other cities to help New York in deciding so big a question as the interaction of motherhood and teaching?

What protection should be thrown around the prospective mother is a question that is only beginning to be raised among professional and salaried classes. Up to the present nearly all women in these groups have resigned their positions, if not at marriage then at childbirth. No general policy of dealing with them seems to have been adopted either by public or private employers.

With women in the wage-earning class the case is different. In at least twenty countries or parts of countries in Europe legal protection is thrown around the working woman who bears a child. In Berne, Switzerland, all women “employed for purposes of gain” are prohibited from working for from four to eight weeks after confinement. In Ticino, Italy, no woman can work for six months after confinement. The conception underlying this legislation is not that mothers are not efficient workers, but that earning a livelihood must be made easier for those who want also to fulfill the other functions of womanhood. In England the period of prohibition is four weeks after, and in Germany six weeks. In Servia no woman can work for six weeks before nor six weeks after. In several of these places the position must be kept open for the woman while she is bearing her child.

Examples of such protection nearer at home are not lacking. Both Massachusetts and New York have laws declaring that specified periods of absence shall be allowed to women in industrial establishments at time of confinement.

A notable exception to the rule that no such policy has been adopted toward salaried or professional women is to be had in France. There boards of education are not permitted to refuse leave of absence to teachers who want to bear children. Three years ago the government made imperative the granting of at least two months’ vacation, together with full treatment, to teachers expecting confinement. And in the following year this protection was extended to the female staff of the department of posts, telegraphs and telephones.

INDUSTRY

NATION WIDE MOVEMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL SAFETY

FERDINAND C. SCHWEDTMAN

CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON ACCIDENT PREVENTION AND WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS

There was a time when most employers and employes thought that they were the only factors to be considered in the adjustment of industrial conditions. Enlightened employers and employes long ago learned that in the final analysis the public is the arbiter as to whether conditions are just or unjust, right or wrong.

The National Association of Manufacturers, in its work for compensation and prevention of industrial accidents, started out with the theory that the first essential requirement to the furtherance of equitable conditions is a knowledge of the facts—all the facts, for half knowledge leads to wrong conclusions. To meet this requirement we made a thorough study of foreign compensation systems. The next requirement, it was felt, was prompt action in line with sound conclusions.

Voluntary systems of prevention and relief have been established by numerous American employers which compare favorably with European conditions, but on the whole the United States is far behind other civilized nations in these matters. Employers are not more nor less to blame for this condition than employes, legislators or the public. We each and all need education; we need to get in tune with the times.

For many years much time and attention at the board meetings of the National Association of Manufacturers have been given to the consideration of accident prevention and relief plans. In common with other humane agencies, the association has felt that the economic loss due to accidents, enormous as it is, is as nothing compared with humane considerations. It has taken the stand further that prevention is even more important than compensation.

Three years ago the conclusion was reached that the time had passed when attention to these problems in the abstract was to any extent effective, and that results could be secured only by practical campaign methods. Macaulay’s truism, “The only knowledge that a man has is the knowledge he can use,” has been the basis for the efforts which the committee, formed at that time and entrusted with this work, has carried on during these three years.

The spirit in which the committee’s recommendations have been received and acted upon by members of the association reminds me of Emerson’s statement: “Every good and commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm.” We have found enthusiastic support everywhere. Our misgivings at the outset that the campaign would result in the loss of the more conservative members of the association proved to be groundless.

Our interrogation blanks, mailed to 20,000 American manufacturers early in the committee’s work, brought forth the largest reply in the association’s history. Ninety-nine per cent of the members answering expressed themselves emphatically in favor of an extended progressive campaign for accident prevention and compensation for injured workers. At the last three annual conventions of the association, the greatest attendance was during the reading of the report of the Committee on Accident Prevention and Workmen’s Compensation. Many meetings in various parts of the country dealing especially with the committee’s work have been so well attended that no doubt exists today in the mind of a single official as to the need for keeping the committee’s work well at the head of the association’s activities. The wonderful increase in membership of the association during the last three years is another proof that the members desire to maintain an aggressive and constructive part in settling the social and industrial problems with which the United States of America and other industrial nations are confronted.

Progressive employers know that social legislation is not only desirable from a humanitarian viewpoint, but necessary from an economic standpoint. Thinking business men realize that sound social legislation is both a human duty and the best safeguard against militant Socialism. Sound social legislation will bring us the efficient, organized, co-ordinated industrial peace of the bee-hive. Militant Socialism will bring us the industrial peace of the grave.

The three years’ campaign of the National Association of Manufacturers has been along the following lines:

1. A strenuous campaign has been carried on in all the states for laws providing automatic compensation for injured workers or their dependents and support has been given to all reasonable bills, as the association realized that a perfect and uniform workmen’s compensation system for the whole United States can be secured only step by step.

2. Members have been urged to support state compensation laws wherever these are optional, regardless of the fact that this means in many cases an increase of 300 to 1,000 per cent in insurance rates.

3. Special efforts have been made to have manufacturers organise their own relief association, preferably in co-operation with their workers, for the reason that such systems have most effectively reduced accident rates as well as industrial unrest.