CHILD LABOR IN CITY STREETS
BY
EDWARD N. CLOPPER, Ph.D.
SECRETARY OF NATIONAL CHILD LABOR COMMITTEE FOR MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1913
All rights reserved
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
Copyright, 1912,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1912. Reprinted January, 1913.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
PREFACE
This volume is devoted to the discussion ofa neglected form of child labor. Just whythe newsboy, bootblack and peddler shouldhave been ignored in the general movement forchild welfare is hard to understand. Perhapsit is due to "the illusion of the near." Streetworkers have always been far more conspicuousthan any other child laborers, and it seems thatthis very proximity has been their misfortune.If we could have focused our attention uponthem as we did upon children in factories, theywould have been banished from the streetslong ago. But they were too close to us. Wecould not get a comprehensive view and sawonly what we happened to want at the moment—theirpaltry little stock in trade. Now thatwe are getting a broader sense of social responsibility,we are beginning to realize how blindand inconsiderate we have been in our treatmentof them.[vi]
The first five chapters of the book reviewpresent conditions and discuss causes, the nexttwo deal with effects, and the final ones areconcerned with the remedy. The scope hasbeen made as broad as possible. All forms ofstreet work that engage any considerable numberof children have been described at length, andopinions and findings of others have been freelyquoted. I have attempted to show the badresults of the policy of laissez-faire as appliedto this problem. Simply because these littleboys and girls have been ministering to itswants, the public has given them scarcelya passing thought. It has been so convenientto have a newspaper or a shoe brush thrust atone, it has not occurred to us that, for the sakeof the children, such work would better be doneby other means. Although good examples havebeen set by European cities, we have not introducedany innovations to clear the streets ofworking children.
The free rein at present given to child laborin our city streets is productive of nothing butharmful results, and it is high time that a determinedstand was taken for the rights of childrenso exposed. A few feeble efforts at regulation[vii]have been made in some parts of this country,but this is an evil that requires prohibitionrather than regulation. There is no validreaso