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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, Secretary
CHILDREN’S BUREAU
G R A C E A B B O T T . Chief
CHILD LABOR AND THE WELFARE
OF CHILDREN IN AN ANTHRACITE
COAL-MINING DISTRICT
«
Bureau Publication No. 106
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1922
SLs.l
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A P P R O PR IA T IO N S
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O FF IC E ,
W A S H IN G T O N ,
D. C.
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CONTENTS.
\
Page.
Letter of transmittal____ _ ______________ u._______\________ ^_______________ - ’-¿Ê
VI1
District selected for study— Shenandoah____ \____ _________________________1
The children included in the study..:_____________________ '________________ ____
5
9-35
The children at work______________ ____________________________ _____ ______
Legal regulations o f child labor in the area_______L_
____ ___ __ _
9
11
Number of children employed_____________________ »__^ _____ :_______ ;___
Ages of children at work______ ____________________ j__*__ _______________
11
Employment o f the children and the nativity of the fathers________
13
Occupations of the children________________________ _________________ ___
15
Changes in occupations___ ___________________________________________ ____
21
Hours of work_____________________________________________________________ *
22
Irregularity of w o rk ______________ _______ ______________________ ____ '___ 25
Reasons for going to work____________________________ ¿c _______________ 26-31
31
Relation to dependency— ___ ________ _________________________________
The wages o f the working children_____ !____ ;____________ Ll___________
35
The education o f the children_________ _____________________________________ 39
Medical examinations of school children_________________ _________________
46
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* Mortality rates among children ______________ ____ _________________ _____ ___
The homes o f the children____ ________ -_______________________________ _______48-63
Congestion ____________ __________________ _________________________ ________
51
55
The pull of the mines and the problem of proper homes___________ __
Sewage and garbage disposal____________________ _________ ______________
59
The water supply___________ :________ ; _____________________ r_____ ________
63
Recreation for the children_________________________ ._________________________
65
Appendixes_________________________________ ______________ _____ ______ ;________ 67-94
Appendix I. Summaries of Pennsylvania workmen’s compensation
acts of 1915 and 1919____________________ _________ ___________ _________
69
Appendix II. Sections of leases of estates-________ ■*______ _______ _
72
7 Appendix III. Excerpt from an unpublished report o f thé chief of
Pennsylvania State bureau o f housing to the commissioner o f
health, April 9, 1919, regarding land ownership and relief o f con
gestion in Shenandoah___________ : ____________________________ ________
74
Appendix IV. Tables—
Table 1.— Nativity of child and of father, by district of resi
dence; children 13%to 16 years o f age_______________________ ___
Table 2.— Children who began regular work at specified prior
age, by age at time of inquiry and sex_____ -._____ __________ 75
Table 3.— Employment in regular work, by age and sex ; chil
dren who had passed specified ages________ ______________________
75
76
Table 4.— Children who began work o f any kind at specified prior
age, by age at time o f inquiry and sex of child________________
Table 5.— Number and per cent of children who had commenced
work o f any kind at specified ages_____ __________________________
77
Table 6 .— Employment in regular work, by age at time of in
quiry, nativity of father, and se x ; children who had passed
specified ages____ ____________________________________ 1_______ ._____
77
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IV
CONTENTS.
Appendixes— Continued.
Appendix IV. Tables— Continued.
Page.
Table 7.— Employment in regular work, by age, nativity o f father,
and sex ; children who had passed specified ages— ______________
78
Table 8 .— Employment in any kind of work, by age, nativity of
father, and sex ; children who had passed specified ages_-------78
Table 9.— Employment in any kind of work, by age, nativity of
father, and sex ; children who had passed specified ages— -------*79
Table 10.— Employment in regular work, by age of child and
earnings of father ; children 13 to 16 years-----------------------------80
Table IT.— Industry of first regular work, by nativity of father ;
boys who had commenced regular work__________________________
80
Table 12.— Industry of first regular work, by age of child at be
ginning regular work ; boys who had commenced regular work_
81
Table 13.— Regular hours per day, by s e x ; children in regular
or vacation work----------------------------— ----------:------------------81
Table 14.— Regular hours per day, by industry and sex ; children
in regular or vacation work----------------------- ----------------------------------82
Table 15.— Maximum hours per day, by age and sex ; children in
regular work who did overtime work____________________________
83
/
Table 16.— Maximum hours per day, by industry ; boys in regular
work who did overtime work______________________________ 84
Table 17.— Total hours per week, by age; children in regular
work who did overtime work______________________ ,____________ ÿ
Table 18.— Nonemployment, by industry; fathers for whom re
ports of earnings covered year period____________________ !______ I
Table 19.— Yearly earnings, by industry ; fathers for whom re
ports of earnings covered year period________________________ Sji|
Table 20.— Nonemployment, by sex ; children in regular work
during year period___________ :__________________________ ____ 86
Table 21.— Reason for going to work, by nativity o f father and
child ; children who had commenced work_____________________ „__
Table 22.— Annual earnings, by sex ; children in regular work___
Table 23.— Age of child at beginning school, by nativity of
father ; children aged 13 to 16 years_-____________________________
Table 24.— School attendance and present a ge; children who re
ported school attendance— ^_______ _____:_______________________ _
Table 25.— Reason for leaving school, by father’s nativity; chil
dren who had left school J_____ ____ ____________________ _
Table 26.— Grade completed, by age of child and nativity of
father ; children still in school_________ __________________________
Table 27.— Proportion of children leaving school prior to speci
fied ages, by age at time of inquiry, and father’s nativity ;
children 13 to 16 years of age____ I________________ _______ ___ M___
Table 28.— Age at which children left school, by age o f child at
time of inquiry and earnings o f father__________ ________________ ;
Table 29.— Proportion of children leaving school prior to speci
fied ages, by age at time o f inquiry and father’s earnings ; chil
dren 13 to 16 years of age___________________________ _ _ ___ ________
Table 30.— Cubic contents and adult and child occupants of bed
rooms ; bedrooms in blocks intensively studied in Shenandoah-
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
CHARTS.
Page.
Chart I. Block (2 ) in the eastern part of tow n; area 36,256 square feet;
population, 3 3 2 _____________________________________________________
II. Block (3) 'at the extreme southern apex of the tow n; area
28,574 square fe e t ; population, 270______________________________
III. Four crowded lots at one end of block (4) in the northeast sec
tion of the tow n ; area 18,133 square fe e t; population, 189-------
49
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
Shenandoah from North Mahanoy Mountain looking over the top of a
culm b a n k __________________________________________ _— _ _ ---------------------------l^eston Place, the model town___________ .
— --------------------- — _ -------------Girard Mammoth Breaker, Raven Run___________ __ _______________________
Boys returning from a day’s work in the breakers-------- ----------------------- —
Spragging is one of the most dangerous occupations at which boys were
working_______________________________________________:-----------------------------------A crowded frame tenement house known as “ The Incubator ” ___________
The staircase shows distance between front and rear house on lot________
Shenandoah— crowded back y a rd s------------ ----------------------------------------------------A dangerous cave-in in the village of Gilberton_______________________ .__
The ground under one wing of this house caved in one night_:____________
A crowded yard in which a middle house faces a row of six privies_____
The swimming hole below Weston Ij’lace. The roofs o f Shenandoah show
in the distance________________ i________________________________ _____________
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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.
U nited S tates D epartm ent of L abor,
C h ildr en ’ s B u reau ,
Washington, February 21,1922.
S i r : There is transmitted herewith a study of Child Labor and
the Welfare o f Children in an Anthracite Coal-mining District.
The investigation upon which the report is based was begun by the
Industrial Division of the Children’s Bureau while Emma Duke
was its Director. Helen Wilson, a member of the staff of the di
vision, was responsible for the details o f the plan, supervising the
investigation, and organizing the material on which the report is
based.
In this anthracite district children suffer both from congestion
o f population and isolation; from inadequate educational and recre
ational opportunities; mortality rates are distressingly high; and
at 13 and 14 years of age many of the children have taken their
places as full-time wage earners. There is much that can be done
to promote the well-being o f children in even the most favored com
munities. This report shows clearly that in this coal-mining dis
trict there appears to be a peculiarly rewarding field for service.
Respectfully submitted.
G race A bbott,
Chief.
Hon. J am es J. D avis ,
Secretary of Labor.
V II
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CHILD LABOR AND THE WELFARE OF CHILDREN IN AN
ANTHRACITE COAL MINING DISTRICT.
DISTRICT SELECTED FOR STUDY— SHENANDOAH.
Although unlike in many ways, the mining towns throughout the
anthracite region bear the mark o f the pit, and their general prob
lems are similar. Everywhere the industry has wrought great
changes in the face o f the landscape. It is a black country domi
nated bÿ the great breakers which rise above the towns. The streams
are black with soot and there are black piles of refuse and culm, and
the men returning from work wear masks o f coal dust. Trees have
been dut down for mine timber so that only stumps and scrubby bush,
saplings, or misshaped trees are left. The earth mixed with the
slate and coal dust is for the most part bare, and the few gardens,
which demonstrate that the ground can still be cultivated, emphasize
the general desolation. Throughout the region are fissures and
cave-ins where the props in the mines have given way.
The district selected bj^ the Children’s Bureau in 1919 for a study
o f the problems o f adolescent children lies in the central field in
Schuylkill County, where the mountains cut the land into valleys
and basins, narrow and irregular in outlineT It includes the boroughs
o f Shenandoah, Gilberton, and Frackville and surrounding patches
up to the boundary line o f Mahanoy City on the east and Girard ville
on the west. The characteristics o f the anthracite region seem espe
cially prominent here. Shenandoah, the business and educational
center o f the district, is a congested town shut in by high hills. In
its setting o f culm heaps there is no touch o f color or beauty, but
from the hills above it long ranges o f mountains may be seen and in
the scrubby brush which covers the hills great masses of wild
rhododendron blossom in the spring. The air is usually filled with
the sulphurous dust which blows from the culm banks and the coal
dust which coines from the breakers and the coal cars. The noise
o f the coal as it rushes down the breakers and o f the chugging of
the mine fans and other machinery is almost incessant.
For most o f its length Gilberton Borough is a single row of houses
along the trolley. Here much of the land has been undermined. A
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CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
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SHENANDOAH.
a
small group o f houses known as the island lies between the railroad
embankment and Mahanoy Creek, which carries off the mine refuse
and the sewage from the priyies along its banks. Frackville is on a
hill overlooking this valley; it has been recently settled by the more
prosperous people who have moved out o f Shenandoah and other
near-by towns. The so-called patches are small settlements, some
times only 4 or 5 houses, sometimes as many as 125. Twenty o f these
patches were included in the study, some o f them along the car tracks
and others back in the hills. For example, there is Ravens Run, a
settlement of 36 double houses on one o f the highest hills in Schuyl
kill County. Although a railroad passes through the settlement, few
passenger trains stop, and these at such inconvenient hours that they
WESTON
PLACE
TH E M ODEL TOW N.
are little used. It is a 2^-mile walk by road to the nearest trolley.
The settlement can be and is frequently reached by a hazardous foot
path directly up the side o f the mountain. Turkey Run, with over
60 houses, has neither railroad nor trolley service. The road makes a
wide detour to reach the top o f the hill on which it is situated, so
that the people usually climb up through the colliery yard over the
network o f mine railways and along the rough paths which follow the
ridges between the fissures. In winter and at night this is a dan
gerous path, and accidents to women and children were reported.
But the main road, also, is unlighted, narrow, and deeply rutted, and
in several places has sharp curves, so that it, too, is dangerous. Over
the road or the path the men must go daily to their work in the mines,
and the children who are above the sixth 'grade must go to Shenan
doah to school. Weston Place, only about one-half mile from the
trolley, is built high up on North Mahanoy Mountain, and is the
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4
CHILD labor i n a coal - m i n i n g d istr ic t .
model mining town of the district. The patches which are located
conveniently along the railroad and trolley lines are set amidst great
heaps o f culm and refuse, while the isolated ones are surrounded by
brush, which is green in summer.
In all these communities the life revolves around the mines. In
Shenandoah at the time the study was made there were three overall,
two cigar, and two shirt factories, and one mining-cap factory.
These employed chiefly the wives and daughters o f the mine workers.
Two branch packing houses with their accompanying slaughterhouses
and fertilizer plants, bottling works, and two lumber companies
employed a larger proportion o f men. As Shenandoah is the busi
ness center o f the district, there were also retail stores, bakeries, and
banks, as well as freight houses and railroad and building operations,
which offered some opportunities for employment. In Frackville
there were a nightdress and pajama factory and an overall factory
dependent on the women and girls for a labor supply. In the patches
and in Gilberton there was no possibility o f employment except in
the mines or in a few small retail stores.
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THE CHILDREN INCLUDED IN THE STUDY.
The earlier studies made by the Children’s Bureau were especially
concerned with the problems o f infant mortality or the care o f chil
dren o f preschool age. In this study o f an anthracite mining dis
trict and a number o f others recently published attention was con
centrated on the children o f the adolescent period from 13 to 16
years o f age, inclusive. In order to locate the children o f these ages
in the Shenandoah district a preliminary canvass was made o f every
house and apartment in the area studied, and the name and age o f
every child in the family, together with other identifying data, were
noted. Because the birth records were incomplete, ages o f all chil
dren discovered could not be verified. Birth records were found,
however, for 582 of the children who had already been located and 3
overlooked in the canvass were discovered through this source.
Altogether schedules were secured for 3,136 children between 13 and
16 years o f age. O f this number 1,655 lived in Shenandoah, 424 in
Frackville, 343 in Gilberton Borough, and 714 in the surrounding
patches. *
T a b l e I .— A ge and s e x ; children 13 to 16 years of age.1
Children of specified age.
Sex.
Total.
Not
13 years. 14 years. 15 years. 16 years. reported.
Total................................................
3,136
844
716
794
779
3
Bovs...........................................................
Girls...........................................................
1,564
1,572
376
468
321
395
421
373
444
335
2
1
1Inclusive of 16 in this and subsequent tables, except where otherwise noted.
The mine workers of the United States, as a rule, have been re
cruited from recently arrived immigrants; and at every period the
nationalities which were coming to the country in the largest num
bers have tende.d to displace the older miners. During this process
o f displacement the population usually is highly complex, with a
concentration of particular nationalities in individual mining towns
as there has been in individual industrial towns. Thus Poles have
predominated in one, Lithuanians in another, Italians in a third,
Slovaks in a fourth, and so on.
The Shenandoah region illustrates this process. The United States
Immigration Commission found that before 1877 the mines in this
region as in most other parts o f the country were worked mainly by
Irish, English, and Welsh immigrants. After 1877 Lithuanians and
Poles began to replace the English-speaking miners, and 10 years
5
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CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
later the Ruthenians and Slovaks were employed in large numbers.1
The Germans were never, it seems, an important element in this
region.
In 1919, when this study was made, the displacement o f the older
immigrants from northern and western Europe by those who came
from eastern Europe had very generally but not completely taken
place. O f 3,136 children in the group studied, only 172 were foreign
born. O f these, 77 were by birth Poles, 41 Lithuanians, 13 Russian
Jews, and the remaining 41 were distributed among 12 other nation
alities. The degree o f population changes is not indicated by the
nationality o f the children, as among the recent immigrants there
is always a large percentage o f young unmarried men, o f men who
have married here and whose children are American bom , and o f
men whose families are still in Europe waiting until the money for
their passage to America shall have been accumulated. The nativity
o f the fathers o f the children is therefore a better index to the
foreign-born character o f the district.
O f the 3,130 children from whom information as to the birthplace
o f their fathers was secured, the fathers o f 1,983, or 63.4 per cent,
were foreign born. The nationality o f these foreign-born fathers
was as follow s: Lithuanian, 738, or 37.2 per cent; Polish, 627, or
31.6 per cent; Ukrainian, 107, or 5.4 per cent; Irish, 56, or 2.8 per
cent; the remaining 455 foreign-born fathers were divided among 21
other nationalities, only 1 o f which was represented by more than 50
fathers.
T able I I .— Nationality of father and nativity of child; children 18 to 16 years
•
of age.
«
V
if
r.
Children 13 to 16 years of age.
Foreign born.
Native.
Total.
Nationality of father.
Per cent
Por cent
Per cent
Number. (Rstribu- Number. distribu Number. distribu
tion.®
tion.®
tion.®
Total................................................
3,136
Foreign born......................-.......................
Lithuanian..................................... - - Polish..................................................
Irish, English, Welsh, and Scotch.......
Ukrainian............................................
Other Slavic........................................
Jewish.................................................
Italian................................................
Greek...................................................
German...............................................
All other........ .....................................
Not reported........................................
1,147
1,983
738
627
160
107
107
67
47
43
36
23
28
6
100.0
36.6
63.4
23.6
20.0
5.1
3.4
3.4
2.1
1.5
1.4
1.2
.7
.9 '
2,964
100.0
1,147
1,811
697
550
156
101
99
49
43
39
31
20
26
6
38.8
61.2
23.6
18.6
5.3
3.4
3.3
1.7
1.5
1.3
1.0
.7
.9
172
100.0
172
41
77
4
6
8
18
4
100.0
23.8
44.8
2.3
3.5
4.7
10.5
2.3
2.3
2.9
1.7
1.2
4
5
3
2
®Based on total number"reporting nativity of father.
1 Reports of the Immigration Commission (S. Doc. No. 633, 61st Cong., 2d sess.), vol.
16, p. 659.
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7
THE CHILDREN INCLUDED IN TH E STUDY.
It will be remembered that Shenandoah was the largest town in
the district, that Frackville was a newer and more prosperous settle
ment, while Gilberton stretched along the trolley and included some
o f the least desirable flooded lands. The patches were most o f them
old settlements made at about- the same time as Shenandoah. The
percentage o f foreign born in these settlements varied.2 In Shenan
doah Borough it was 76.4 per cent, in Frackville 35.6 per cent, in
Gilberton 51.9 per cent, and in the patches 54.6 per cent. In Shenan
doah the largest number o f the foreign-bom fathers were Poles,
while those who were Lithuanians ranked second and Russian Jews
were third. In all the other sections the Lithuanians led, and the
Ukrainians were relatively more important than in Shenandoah.
The majority o f the children reporting Irish fathers lived in the
patches.
In spite o f its foreign-born population, the district as'a whole
was relatively stable, as Table I I I shows:
T
able
I I I .— Length of residence in district, by nativity of fa th er; families
with children 13 to 16 years of age.
Families with children 13 to 16 years of age.
Reporting residence in district for specified number of years.
Nativity of father.
*
Total.
Total.
Less than 5 years. - 5 years, less than
10.
10 years, less than
15.
Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
Total...............
2,341
2,294
192
8.4
199
8.7
241
10.5
Native......................
Foreign born.............
Not reported.............
872
1,464
5
857
1,435
2
81
111
9.5
7.7
76
123
8.9
8.6
75
166
8.8
11.6
Families with children 13 to 16 years of age.
Reporting residence in district for specified number of years.
Nativity of father.
15 years, less
than 20.
20 years, less
than 25.
25 years and over.® Not re
ported.
Number. Per cent.« Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. i>
Total................................
338
14.7
318
13.9
986
43.0
47
Native.......................................
Foreign born.............................
Not reported.............................
87
250
1
10.2
17.4
73
245
8.5
17.1
445
540
1
51.9
37.6
15
29
? Includes 20 native families living in the present district of residence throughout life
o Not shown where base is less than 100.
2 See Appendix IV, Table 1, p. 75,
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8
CHILD LABOR 1ST A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
It will be noted that 37.6 per cent of the foreign-born fathers had
lived in the district 25 years or more. The Irish, English, and
Welsh, the old settlers o f the region, showed the longest period of
residence. Still many o f the Poles and Lithuanians can not be
called newcomers to the United States. Thus 53.8 per cent of the
Lithuanians and 45.4 per cent o f the Poles had been in the United
States 25 years or more, while only 7 per cent o f the Lithuanians and
13.7 per cent o f the Poles had been in the country less than 15 years.
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THE CHILDREN AT WORK.
LEGAL REGULATIONS OF CHILD LABOR IN THE AREA.
By the time this study was begun, the Federal child-labor tax law
was in effect.3 This act does not prohibit the employment o f child
ren but places a 10 per cent tax on the net income of any mill,
cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment em
ploying children under the age o f 14, or children between 14 and 16
years o f age more than eight hours a day or six day a week, or before
6 a. m. or after 7 p. m., and on any mine or quarry in which children
under the age o f 16 years are employed.4
Prior to 1909 Pennsylvania had prohibited the employment of
children under 16 years o f age in the mines, but the only kind o f
certificate or work permit, required was the parent’s affidavit, and
experience proved that in Pennsylvania, as in other States, a law of
this sort did not keep children under that age out o f the mines. In
1909 this law was amended so as to require documentary proof of
the child’s age, but it is reported that “ through an unfortunate error
in drafting the bill,” 5 the minimum age was reduced to 14 years
for employment inside the anthracite mines. This was amended
in 1915, so that at the time the Federal law went into effect no minor
under 16 years of age could be legally employed or permitted to
work “ in any anthracite or bituminous coal mine or in any other
mine.” While the Pennsylvania act provided for the enforcement
o f this and all other sections o f the State child-labor law by the
commissioner o f labor and industry, the inspection o f the mines, in
practice, was left to the department o f mines. The breaker boys in
the anthracite coal region were not regarded as working in the mine
within the meaning o f the Pennsylvania law ; and regular inspections
o f the breakers, with, a view to the enforcement of the child-labor
law, were not being made by either department6 at the time this
investigation was made.
Under the interpretation o f the State law, followed by the State
officials, children between 14 and 16 years o f age were permitted to
3 Revenue act of 1918, Title X I I — declared unconstitutional on M ay 15, 1922.
4 The language o f the law, “ in any mine or quarry,” had been interpreted by the Com
missioner o f Internal Revenue to mean in or about any mine or quarry.
6
Lovejoy, Owen R . : “ The coal mines o f Pennsylvania,” in Uniform Child Labor Laws
(Proceedings o f the Seventh Annual Conference on Child Labor, 1911.)
National Child
Labor Committee, p. 135, New York, 1911.
6 See discussion of this subject in “ Administration of the F irst Federal Child-Labor
Law ,” Children’ s Bureau Publication No. 78, pp. 8 3 -8 5 .
91597°— 22----- 2
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10
C H IL D
LABOR IN
A
C O A L -M I N I N G
D IS T R IC T .
work on breakers, but they could not be legally so employed unless
regularly issued work permits were on file and not then for more
than 51 hours in any one week, nr more than 9 hours in any one day,
or before 6 in the morning or after 8 in the evening.
In general the provisions o f the Pennsylvania law with reference
to the issuance o f certificates o f age were good. The law required
certificates for all children between 14 and 16 years o f age employed
in any occupation except agriculture and domestic service. They
were to be issued by the local school superintendent or some one au
thorized by him. The evidence o f age required w as: (a) Transcript
o f birth certificate, (b) baptismal certificate, (<?) passport showing
age, (d) any other documentary record o f age other than school rec
ord, ( e ) physician’s certificate o f evidence o f age.
This system, devised for the protection of young children, did not
always function in the Shenandoah district.
Some children reported that they began work with no certificate
other than a “ work paper ” bought from the “ Squire ” for 50 cents.7
One child reported he had secured employment on a baptismal cer
tificate when he was 12. Another boy said that when he first applied
for a “ working paper ” it was refused because he was under 14; but
one was finally granted him for vacation work, and he started in a
newspaper office. Here he learned to set type and liked his work.
When school started, however, the newspaper refused to keep him,
as his employment certificate was for vacation only and he was not
yet 14. He went to one o f the mining companies, however, and was
given work, though he still had no regular certificate.
The mother o f one boy reported that although the superintendent
o f her school district would not give her boy a certificate because she
refused to swear that he was 14, she was told to put him to work.
Accordingly the boy went to work in the mines, and on his fourteenth
birthday, some months later, he received the certificate.
It is only fair to state in this connection that many o f the mine
superintendents interviewed showed a sincere desire to comply with
the law in regard to the employment o f children. The actual hiring
o f the employees, however, was in the hands o f various foremen,
many o f whom were either willing to take children below the legal
age or careless as to whether the requirements o f the law had been
met. As responsibility for the enforcement o f the law with refer
ence to the employment o f children in and about the mines had
fallen between two State departments, the attention of the superin
tendents had not been called frequently, either through inspections
or prosecutions, to the practices o f these foremen.
7 This w as undoubtedly merely a charge for the parent’s affidavit o f age.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE
C H IL D R E N
11
AT W ORK.
NUMBER OF CHILDREN EMPLOYED.
The work done by the children included in this study is considered
under three headings: First, “ regular work,” that is, full-time em
ployment, the child having left school and begun his career in the
industrial world; second, “ vacation work,” which is full-time em
ployment during the vacation period; and third, “ after-school
work.”
O f the 3,136 children between 13 and 16 years o f age who were
included in this study, 1,349 had left school for regular employment.
A t the time o f the investigation, 1,332 were so employed, and 296
were employed at vacation or after-school work, or both; so that
more than half, 51.9 per cent, o f the children could be described as
working children. O f these, 1,107 were boys and 521 girls.
AGES OF CHILDREN AT WORK.
The proportion o f children employed was, as would be expected,
much larger among the older children than among the younger, as
Table IV shows. Thus 72 per cent o f the 16-year-old children, 58.9
per cent o f the 15-year-old, 31.6 per cent o f the 14-year-old, and 10.8
per cent o f the 13-year-old children had entered regular work. The
total number o f boys in the age groups studied was slightly less than
the total number o f girls; still, about twice as many boys as girls
had entered regular work. O f the children who had entered regular
employment, 896 (66.4 per cent) were boys, and 453 (33.6 per cent)
were girls. Although there was a tendency among the younger boys
to overstate their ages in order to secure employment, Table IV
shows 64 boys and 27 girls doing full-time work who said they
were 13.
T able IY .— Employment in regular icorTc, by sex and a g e; children 13 to 16
years o f age.
Children 13 to 16 years of age.
Bothsexes.
Who had com-'
menced
regular work.
Age.
Total.
Boys.
Girls.
Who had com
menced
regular work.
Who had com
menced
regular work.
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.1
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.1
Num
ber.
Per
cent.1
Total...........................
3,136
1,349
43.0
1,564
896
57.3
1,572
453
28.8
13..........................................
14..........................................
15..........................................
16..........................................
Not reported.........................
844
716
794
779
3
91
226
468
561
3
10.8
31.6
58.9
72.0
376
321
421
444
2
64
147
301
382
2
17.0
45.8
71.5
86.0
468
395
373
335
1
27
79
167
179
1
5.8
20.0
44.8
53.4
1Not shown where base is less than 50.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
12
**
CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
In many parts o f the country where the employment o f children
under 16 years greatly increased during the war period, it declined
shortly after the armistice and later increased up to the time of
the business depression o f 1920. In some States where munitions
and other war supplies were manufactured for the Allies the in
crease-began in 1915, in others not until after the United States had
entered the war.8 This increased employment o f children was due
to the fact that opportunities for young children at relatively high
wages were many, while the mounting cost o f living led many par
ents to send their children to work when under other circumstances
they would have kept them in school. The employment o f chil
dren appears to have increased diiring this period in the Shenandoah
district. O f the 844 children who were 13 years o f age when this
investigation was made (1919) 7.3 per cent had begun regular work
and 15.8 per cent had done regular or part-time work before their
thirteenth birthdays, while o f the 779 children in the district who
were 16 years o f age only 1.3 per cent were in regular work and
only 2.3 per cent had done any kind o f work before their thirteenth
birthdays. O f the children who were 14 years o f age at the time
the-study was made, 31.6 per cent were doing regular work, and
32.3 per cent had done work o f some kind before their fourteenth
birthdays, while of the children who were 16 years o f age only 9.6
per cent had done work o f some kind, and only 7.8 per cent had
done regular work before they were 14.9 O f the boys 13 years o f
age at the time the investigation was made 12.8 per cent and o f those 14 years o f age 32.1 per cent had begun work before their
thirteenth and fourteenth birthdays, respectively, while of the 16year-old boys only 1.6 per cent began when they were under 13
and only 9.7 per cent before they were 14 years o f age.
While the war resulted in a more striking increase in the employ
ment o f boys than o f girls, even in this region, where opportunities
o f employment for the girls were so few, there had been a distinct
increase in their employment. Thus, 3 per cent o f the girls 13 years
old at the time o f the investigation began full-time work before
they were 13, while of the 16-year-old girls only 0.9 per cent had
begun full-time work so young.
O f the girls 14 years o f age at the time o f the study 10.6 per cent
had commenced full-time work when under 14 years o f age, as com
pared with only 5.4 per cent of the girls 16 years of age at the time
o f the investigation who had begun full-time work when under 14
years o f age.
8 McGill, Nettie P . : Trend of child labor in the United States, 1 9 1 3 -1 9 2 0 , Monthly
Labor Review, Vol. X I I , No. 4, April, 1921, pp. 7 1 7 -7 3 0 .
9 See Apepndix IV , Tables 2 and 4, pp. 75, 76.
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THE
C H IL D R E N
13
AT W ORK.
EMPLOYMENT OF THE CHILDREN AND THE NATIVITY OF THE
FATHERS.
Inquiry as to the place o f birth o f the fathers o f the working
children showed that 1,000 (50.4 per cent) o f the children with
foreign-born fathers were doing regular work, as compared with
346 (30.2 per cent) o f children with native fathers. O f the boys
with foreign-born fathers 64.5 per cent, as compared with only 44.3
per cent o f boys with native fathers, had commenced full-time work.
This difference is even more marked in the case o f the girls, for, as
Table V shows, over twice as large a proportion o f girls with foreignborn fathers as o f girls with native fathers had commenced reg
ular work.
T a b l e Y . — Employment in regular work, by nativity of father and s e x ;
children 13 to 16 years of age.
Children 13 to 16 years of age.
Both sexes.
Nativity of father.
Boys.
Who had com
menced
regular work.
Total.
Girls.
•Who had com
menced
regular work.
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.1
Who had com
menced
regular work.
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.1
Num
ber.
Per
cent.1
Total...........................
3,136
1,349
43.0
1,564
896
57.3
1,572
453
28.8
Native...................................
Foreign bom.........................
Not reported.........................
i 147
1,983
6
346
1,000
3
30.2
50.4
558
1,005
247
648
1
44.3
64.5
589
978
5
99
342
2
16.8
35.0
1Not shown where base is less than 100.
The proportion of the younger children who became wage earners
was larger among those having foreign-bom fathers than among
those having native fathers.
In every age group the percentage o f children who went to. work
before their thirteenth birthdays was smaller among the children o f
native fathers than among children o f foreign-born fathers. Simi
larly, the per cent o f children who went to work before their four
teenth birthdays was larger among the children .of foreign-born
fathers; among those 14 years o f age at the time o f the study, 10.5
per cent o f the children o f native fathers, as compared with 25.9 per
cent o f the children o f foreign-born fathers, had already commenced
regular work.
Among the children doing after-school or vacation work, it was
also the children o f foreign-born fathers who predominated, though
relatively in not such large numbers. In this type of employment,
also, the proportion having foreign-born fathers, as compared with
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
14
CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
those haying native fathers, was larger among the younger children
than among the older. A t 16 the proportion o f children o f native
fathers doing vacation or after-school work was larger than the pro
portion having foreign-born fathers.
T
able
V I . — Employment in regular work, by nationality of fa th er; children 13
to 16 years of age.
Children 13 to 16 years
of age.
Children 13 to 16 years
of age.
Who had com
menced
regular work.
Nationality offather.
Who had com
menced
regular work.
Nationality of father.
Total.
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.1
Total......................
3,136
1,349
43.0
Native...........................
Foreign born...................
Lithuanian................
Polish........................
Irish, English, Welsh,
and Scotch.............
1,147
1,983
738
627
346
1,000
411
333
30.2
50.4
55.7
53.1
160
42
26.2
Foreignborn—Continued.
Ukrainian................
Other Slavic..-.........
Jewish.....................
All other..... ..........
Not reported.............
Not reported................
107
107
67
2 149
28
6
Num
ber.
Per
cent.1
63
47
3
»87
58.9
43.9
4.5
49.2
3
1Not shown where base is less than 60.
*Includes Italian 47, Greek 43, German 36, Assyrian and Syrian 16, Dutch 2, Rumanian 2, French 1
Magyar 1, Australian 1, not reported 28.
'
* Includes Italian 24, Greek 28, other and not reported 35.
T
able
V I I .— Employment in regular work, by nativity o f father, sex and age of
child; children 13 to 16 years o f age.
Children 13 to 16 years of age.
Both sexes.
-Age of child and nativity
of father.
Who had com
menced
regular work.
Total.
Boys.
Girls.
Who had com
menced
regular work.
Who had com
menced
regular work.
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.1
Total.
Num
Per
ber. cent.1
Num
ber.
Per
cent.1
Native fathers:
Total children................
1,147
346
30.2
558
247
44.3
- 589
99
16.8
13.............................
14.............................
15.............................
16.............................
324
259
278
286
12
51
122
161
3.7
19.7
43.9
56.3
154
120
138
146
10
40
86
111
6.5
33.3
62.3
76.0
170
139
140
140
2
11
36
50
1.2
7.9
25.7
35.7
Foreign-born fathers:
Total children................
1,983
1,000
50.4
1,005
13............................
14.............................
.15.............................
16............................
Not reported..................
519
455
516
490
3
79
175
346
397
' 3
15.2
38.5
67.1
81.0
222
201
283
297
2
Not reported........................
6
»3
1Not shown where base is less than 100.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1
.
648
64.5
978
352
36.0
54
107
215
270
2
24.3
53.2
76.0
90.9
297
254
233
193
1
25
68
131
127
1
8.4
26.8
56.2
65.9
1
2
* Includes 1 boy and 2 girls 16 years of age.
TH E CHILDREN AT WORK.
15
OCCUPATIONS OF THE CHILDREN.
The kind o f work these children did was largely determined by
the industrial character o f the district. The life o f the district
revolves around the mines and for the boys more than for their
fathers their place o f employment was the mines. The canvass made
by the Children’s Bureau showed that for the district as a whole 90.4
per cent o f the boys doing full-time work were in mining as compared
with 78 per cent of their fathers. A larger per cent o f the boys with
native fathers (16.6) than o f the boys with foreign-born fathers
(6.8 per cent) were able to find some pla£e other than the mines in
which to begin work. The fact that the breakers offered opportuni
ties for profitable employment of young boys is the explanation o f
G IR A R D M A M M O T H B R EAK ER , RAVEN RUN.
the large number o f boys employed in connection with the mining
o f anthracite coal. It also accounts for the poorer pay and the cur
rent opinion that the breakers should be reserved for the young boys
or men who had long since passed their maximum working capacity.
O f the 810 boys whose first regular work was in the mines, 723 (89
per cent) began as breaker boys, 422 were in this classification at the
time the investigation was made.
These breakers which tower above the town o f Shenandoah to the
east and the south and the west are great barn-like structures filled
with chutes, sliding belts, and great Crushing and sorting machines.
Around these machines a scaffolding was built on which the workers
stand on sit. The coal i$ raised from the mine to the top o f the
breaker and dumped down the chute into a crushing machine, which
breaks it into somewhat smaller lumps. These are carried along a
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
16
CHILD LABOR IH A COAL-M IHIHG DISTRICT.
moving belt or gravity incline on each side o f which men and boys
stand or sit picking out pieces o f slate and any coal which has slate
mixed with it. The latter is carried into another crusher, where it
is broken again and then carried down chutes to be sorted further
by slate pickers or by sorting machines. After the coal has been
broken and cleaned o f slate or other alien materials it is sorted by
being shaken through a series of screens.
The work in the breakers might be described as disagreeable but
much less hazardous than underground mining. As it is not heavy
and does not require skill young boys or the older men are employed.
“ I f you don’t die you wind up in the breakers,” one man said. An-
B O Y S R E T U R N I N G F R O M A D A Y ’ S W O R K IN T H E B R E A K E R S .
other remarked, “ fo u begin a t‘the breaker and you end at the
breaker, broken yourself.” These older men and boys worked in the
constant roar which the coal makes as it rushes down the chute, is
broken in the crushing machines, or sorted in the shakers. Black
coal dust is everywhere, covering the windows and filling the air and
the lungs o f the workers. The slate is sharp so that the slate pickers
often cut or bruise their hands; the coal is carried down the chute in
water and this means sore and swollen hands for the pickers. The
first few weeks after a boy begins work his fingers bleed almost con
tinuously and are called red tops by the other boys. Slate picking
is not itself dangerous; the slate picker is, however, sometimes
set at cleaning-up jobs, which require him to clean out shakers, the
chute, or other machinery.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE
C H IL D R E N
AT
17
WORK.
Sixty-three o f the breaker boys included in this study were jig
runners. In other words, they operated a jig machine which has a
series o f sliding pans, in which the coal is shaken up and down and
back and forth in water so that the lighter slate is gradually shaken
to the top and can be cleared from the pan so that only the coal will
remain. It is a more dangerous job than slate picking and few boys
are assigned to it as a first job. Usually the foreman promotes quick,
bright slate pickers to be jig runners. However, four boys were in
cluded in this study who had begun at this work.
There were 33 boys employed as scraper line tenders and 33 as
shaker watchers; none of the boys began at the former and only 6 at
the latter occupation. The shaker watcher tends the sets of screens
S P R A G G IN G
IS
ONE
OF
TH E M OST DANGEROUS
BOYS W E RE W O R K IN G .
O C C U P A TIO N S
AT
W H IC H
through which the coal is sorted and the scraper line tender operates
the scrapers which carry the coal from one process to another. O f
the others who were at work in the breakers, 13 were oiler^; 5 were
repair boys; 8, known as patchers, worked on the coal cars as coupler,
switchman, etc.; 28 were spraggers, a highly dangerous occupation,
requiring them to thrust heavy wooden sticks in between the iron
spokes of the wheels o f the coal cars in order to stop them; 24 other
boys were known as laborers and were assigned to do various kinds
o f unskilled work. There »were 6 who worked above ground, al
though not in the breakers, driving mules where the work o f ex-
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
18
CHILD LABOR IN A CO AL-M IN ING DISTRICT.
cavating or stripping was being done as well as 59 other boys who
were outside workers.
Whatever the hazards and dangers o f the breakers are, under
ground work is much more undesirable for young boys. In addi
tion to isolation and darkness much more intense than that which
the coal dust makes in the breakers, the underground miner some
times works in mud and water, sometimes stripped to the waist
because o f the heat, sometimes in suffocating gas and smoke.
Young boys were working daily underground at' the time this
investigation was made. O f those employed underground, 9 were
spraggers5 18 were patchers, 34 were drivers, 47 were trapper boys,
1 was a fan turner, 3 were oilers, and 18 were laborers.
T
able
V I I I .— Age at beginning underground work, by, first underground occu
pation; boys who worked underground at any time.
O f the 163 boys who had been underground workers, 92 began as
trapper boys, which means they sat or stood in darkness or semir
darkness by a door which led from one mine chamber to another and
opened and closed the door to allow the coal cars as they came to pass
through. O f the trapper boys, 17 were only 13 and 3 were only 12
years old when they began to do regular full-day duty at this work.
An automatic contrivance which makes unnecessary the employment
of either men or boys for this work is now available and has been
introduced in many mines.
The boys who turned by hand the ventilating fans frequently
worked on the dangerous robbing sections where the last remaining
coal is being cut away from pillars and walls and where, in conse
quence, the roof sometimes falls in or the section is filled with a waste
material known as slush. The men interviewed told o f the nervous
strain they experienced when they worked at robbing. Turning the
fans for these workers was the first underground work for 12 boys in
cluded in this study; o f that number 1 began when he was 12 years
old, 1 at 13, 4 at 14, and 6 at 15 years o f age. A few other boys were
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TH E CHILDREN AT W ORK.
19^
employed underground, as oilers and as laborers doing a variety of
work.
It is unnecessary to point out the dangers o f underground work.
Where electric cars are operated, where dynamiting is done, where
supports give way and cave-ins and squeezes occur, and rock and coal
fall, serious accidents and sudden death, more terrible to endure be
cause o f the victim’s isolation and consequent distance from relief o f
any kind, are incidents o f the occupation.
There are more fatalities in the anthracite than in the bituminous
coal fields o f Pennsylvania. For the three years preceding the one
in which the study was made by the Children’s Bureau fatal acci
dents in connection with the mining of anthracite coal in Pennsyl
vania were 551 in 1918, 582 in 1917, and 555 in 1916.10 The number
o f serious and minor injuries was o f course very much higher. While
most o f the accidents occur in the mines rather than on the surface
where the largest numbers o f young children are employed, the sur
face work is also hazardous. It was therefore to be expected that all
kinds o f injuries were reported by the boys—to the head, to internal
organs, to eyes, to hands, arms, legs, back, hips, shoulders.
Accidents that had occurred to boys in the breakers as well as
underground were recounted to the Children’s Bureau agents. One
boy told o f a friend who had dropped a new cap in the rollers and
how in trying to pull it out his arm was caught, crushed, and twisted.
The older brother o f another boy, a jig runner, slipped while at work
and his arm was caught in the jig and mashed. One boy told o f the
death o f another while watching the dam beneath the breaker. He
and some o f the other breaker boys had helped to extricate the muti
lated body from the wheels in which their companion was caught;
he himself had held the bag into which the recovered parts o f the
dead body were put.
As reported by the boys, 42 per cent o f these accidents kept them
from work less than 2 weeks; 1 boy was incapacitated for a year,
18 for less than a year but more than 10 weeks, while 25 accidents
were reported to have kept the boys from work 6 but less than
10 weeks. According to the reports made to the Children’s Bureau
no compensation was paid 4 4 11 boys who were incapacitated for a
period of two weeks or more as the result o f injuries received while
they were employed in the mines, although the Pennsylvania com
pensation la w 12 entitled them to receive it. O f those who received
compensation, 11 boys reported that they were paid in all less than
10 Coal-mine Fatalities in the United States, 1919. - Department o f the Interior, Bureau
o f Mines, Bulletin 196, p. 47. The number killed in the anthracite mines o f Pennsyl
vania per 1,000 persons employed was 3.75 in 1918, 3.77 in 1917, and 3.47 in 1916.
(Ibid., p. 4 1 .)
In the bituminous mines the rates were 2.82, 2 .8 5 , 2.57.
(Ibid., p. 4 0 .)
11 Four o f these did not apply for compensation.
12 In this connection see p. 31. See also Appendix I, pp. 69 to 71.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
v20
C H IU ) LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
$5; 9 that they received from $5 to $10; 23, from $10 to $25; 12
received between $25 and $50; 4, between $50 and $75; 5, between
$75 and $100; while 3 reported that they received $100 or more.
As these accidents occurred during the working life o f the boys
and the total number o f hours the boys had worked in mining could
not be learned, an accident rate could not be computed. The acci
dent rate is, however, not as important in the case o f children as in
the case o f adults. Dangerous work must be done, and the important
question in the case o f adults is whether progress is being made in
reducing the hazards. Children, on the other hand, regardless of
the progress that is being made in the prevention o f accidents, ought
not to do dangerous work at any age when they are too young to
assume responsibility for their own acts. O f the 978 boys who at
the time o f the inquiry had been employed in the mining industry
for a longer or shorter time in regular or in vacation or part-time
jobs, 178 had suffered accidents.
It would be superfluous to point out that, in view o f the hazards o f
mining, young boys should not be employed in the mines or around
the breakers. Public opinion had already prohibited underground
work in Pennsylvania and in most other States, and the Federal Gov
ernment had imposed a penalty in the form o f a tax if children under
16 were employed in or about a mine. The real problem here, as in
many other parts o f the country, was how to secure the enforcement
o f the child-labor laws that had been enacted.
In spite o f the fact that the evil effects are swifter and more dra
matic than in most other occupations in which children are employed,
less public attention has been given to the problem o f enforcement o f
child-labor laws in mining than in . industrial districts. This may
perhaps be due to the isolation o f the mines, which means that fewer
people see the children as they go down in the cage in the morning
and come up again at night or hear o f accidents and occasional deaths
among child workers in or about the mines. The fact that there is
in jnost States divided responsibility in the enforcement o f the laws
regulating the employment o f children in mining is doubtless also a
factor.
At any rate, although the intent o f the Pennsylvania law was that
children should be permitted to do factory and other work two'years
before they were allowed to enter the mines, it was in the mines that
the youngest children most readily found employment in this sec
tion. Among the boys included in this study who had been employed
in full-time work, 92.5 per cent o f those under 13 years o f age and
93.7 per cent o f those 13 years old at the time o f entering regular
employment had engaged in mining, while o f those 14 and 15 years
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
21
TH E CHILDREN AT W ORK.
o f age the percentages entering mining occupations were 89.1 and
89, respectively.13
O f the 453 girls in this district who were employed at full-time
work, 265 did factory work and 157 were in domestic or personal
service. The factories employing the largest number were the cloth
ing and the cigar factories. Nineteen were working in retail stores
and five, all girls with foreign-born fathers, were doing farm work.
O f the girls who had entered full-time employment, a larger propor
tion o f those with foreign than o f those with native fathers were
employed in domestic service and in cigar factories, and a smaller
proportion o f the former than o f the latter were machine operators
in clothing factories.
T able I X .— Industry of first regular work, girls who had commenced regular
work, Oy nativity of father.
Girls who had commenced regular work.
Nativity of father.
Industry of first regular work.
Total.
Native.
Foreign born.
Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
Number. distribu Number. distribu Number. distribu
tion.
tion.
tion.
Total................................
453
100.0
Manufacturing industries . _____
Clothing..............................
265
160
86
19
157
29
2
58.5
35.3
19.0
4.2
34.7
6.4
0.4
Other and not reported.......
Domestic service........................
All other...................................
99
63
45 •
13
5
26
10
Not re
ported.
100.0
352
100.0
2
63.6
45.5
13.1
5.1
26.3
10.1
201
114
73
14
130
19
2
57.1
32.4
20. 7
4.0
33.9
5. 4
0. G
1
1
1
CHANGES IN OCCUPATIONS.
The majority o f the children who were doing regular work had had
more than one occupation, often within the same industry. Thus,
333 o f the children had worked at two different occupations, 219 at
three, and 161 at four or more. Generally speaking, it is the children
who had worked the longest who had made the most changes, but 117
children who had been employed at two and 75 who had worked at
three or more different occupations had been at work less than a year.
One child who had been at work less than five months had made six
changes. On the other hand, 78 children had been at work two years
or longer and 278 one year or longer, with no change in occupation.
As the possibilities o f changes for the girls were very much fewer
than for the boys, it is not surprising to find that they had not
changed occupations as frequently as the boys.
18 See Apepndix IV, Table 12, p. 81.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
22
C H IL D
LABOR IN
A
C O A L -M I N I N G
D IS T R IC T .
T able X .— Duration of first regular occupation, by age at commencing regular
xvork; children who had begun regular work.1
Duration of first regular
occupation.
Per cent distribution:
First regular occupa
tion commenced at
specified age.*
Under
14
14
years. years.
Duration of first regular
occupation.
Under
14
14
years. years.
15
years.
Total.....................
100.0
100.0
100.0
Less than 6 months........
Less than 1 month...
1 month, less than 3..
3 months, less than 6.
33.3
6.7
9.4
17.2
33.6
7.4
11.6
14.6
44.3
12.4
18.6
13.3
Per cent distribution:
First regular occupa
tion commenced at
specified age.*
6 months, less than 9......
9 months, less than 12__
12 months, less than 18...
Not terminated at 18
months.......■................
10.2
6.5
15.9
11.7
9.6
16.0
34.3
29.1
15
years.
11.3
7.5
i »37.0
J
1 Percentages were calculated from figures showing the duration of first occupation. In the calculations
allowance was made for a small number of cases in which the children were still following their first occupa
tions at the time the schedules were taken.
1 Percentages for 16 years not shown because base was less than 100.
»Not terminated at 12 months.
Table X presents sopie interesting facts with reference to the
variation in the length o f time the child spent at his first regular
occupation, according to the age at which he began work. In this
region approximately 83 per cent o f the children under 14 worked
less than six months at what might be called their first regular oc
cupation as compared with 44 per cent o f the children who began
at 15 years o f age. Apparently the older group o f children tended
to change quite promptly from the occupation which they first en
tered either because they knew their minds better or because a much
wider range of occupation was open to them.
HOURS OF WORK.
The mines in this district were, generally speaking, on an eighthour basis, so that the regular working day for 97.3 per cent o f the
boys employed in mining was 8 hours, and. for 2.2 per cent it was
less than 8 hours. In other occupations the boys worked longer
hours—30.8 per cent from 9 to 10 hours and 12.8 per cent from 10
to 11 hours.
Among the girls the nominal daily and weekly hours were longer
than with the boys.14 In the cigar factories 84.8 per cent o f the
girls worked regularly from 9 to 10 hours a day and 11.6 per cent
from 10 to 11 hours a day. In the clothing factories 75.9 per cent
worked from 9 to 10 hours a day and 15 per cent from 10 to 11 hours.
Most o f the girls in domestic service, particularly those doing house
work, did not report their hours, but nine of the girls in this kind
o f work were employed 12 or more hours a day.
The.hours per week were 51 or more for 69.5 per cent o f the girls,
while only 3.6 per cent of the boys worked as many hours a week.
14 See Appendix JV , Table 14, p, 82.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
23
T H E CHILDREN AT W ORK.
T
able
X I .— Regular hours per week, 6 y s e x ; children in regular or vacation
work.
Children in regular or vacation work.
Reportingspecified regular hours per week.
Sex.
Less than
36.
Total.
36,less
than 48.
48,less
than 51.
51,less
than 60.
60 and
over.
Total.
Hours
not re
ported.
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
Total....... 1,561
1,387
14
1.0
48
3.5 1,039 74.9
232 16.7
54
3.9
174
Boys................... 1,059 1,029
Girls....................
502
358
6
8
a6
2.2
28
20
2.7
5.6
25 2.4
207 57.8
12 1.2
42 11.7
30
144
958 93.1
81 22.6
While the girls worked longer hours regularly than did the boys,
the burden o f overtime work fell more heavily on the boys. Thus
55.1 per cent o f the boys and 6.9 per cent o f the girls15 reported over
time work, either from time to time throughout the year or at some
particular season. O f the 445 boys who reported the frequency of
their overtime, 214 said they worked overtime six days a week, 18,
five days a week, 32, four days a week, and 65, three days a week. Not
only was overtinie work frequently required of the boys, but the
duration o f overtime was long—241 boys averaged two or more but
less than four hours in overtime at a stretch, while 161 averaged less
than two hours.
In the mining industry it was the boys who worked above ground
who were most frequently called upon to do overtime work, although
32.3 o f those who worked in the mines had done such work during the
year preceding the time the schedules were taken. The jig runners—
who had, it will be remembered, one of the most hazardous occupa
tions in which boys worked—were most frequently asked to work
overtime.
With the youngest group o f children overtime was, unfortunately,
most frequent. Thus o f all the regular workers who were 13 years
o f age 51.7 per cent did overtime as compared with 36.5 per cent o f
those 14, 37.1 per cent o f those 15, and 40.8 per cent of those 16 years
o f age. The amount o f overtime worked at a stretch was, however,
less for thé youngest than for the older groups.
16 Tljese percentages are based on the boys and girls doing regular work or full-time
work during the vacation season.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
24
CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
T able X I I .— Overtime work, by industry o f employment at time of interview,
and s e x ; children!in regular work.
Children in regular work.
Reporting on overtime work.
Industry of employment, at
time of interview, and sex.
Doing overtime
work.
Total.
Doing no overtime
work.
Total.
Not re
ported.
Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
Total........................... " ...
1,332
1,307
517
39.6
790
60.4
25
Boys...................................
Mining industry........................
Above ground.....................
Underground......................
Other industries........................
891
824
694
130
67
886
822
692
130
64
488
476
434
42
12
55.1
57.9
62.7
32.3
398
346
258
88
52
44.9
42.1
37.3
67.7
5
2
2
Girls.......... : .......................
Manufacturingindustries..........
Clothing..............................
Cigar...................................
All other and not reported..
Domestic s e r v i c e ...........
All other...................................
Not reported.............................
441
249
124
102
23
151
40
1
421
243
120
100
23
140
38
29
22
6.9
9.1
5.8
12.0
392
221
113
88
20
135
36
93.1
90.9
94.2
88.0
20
6
4
2
96.4
11
7
12
3
5
2
3.6
1
Occasionally the, boys worked incredibly long hours. Thus during
the influenza epidemic a 16-year-old boy reported that he worked on
one occasion from 5 a. m. Saturday morning until 1.30 p. m. Sun
day. He also reported working three shifts—24 hours—at a stretch
on several occasions during the winter. Another boy 15 years old
reported that during the period o f one month he had worked 24
hours at a stretch three times a week, sleeping a shift o f 8 hours
between periods o f work. While working these long shifts he
did his regular work—spragging—the first 8 hours and scooped
coal for the boiler men for the following 16 hours.
The installation o f new machinery was the explanation o f the
employment o f another 15-year-old boy from 7 a. m. to 6 a. m. the
following day, with only one hour off at midnight and one-half
hour off at the end o f the first 8-hour shift. Another boy 14 years
old reported that on one day he worked 24 hours at a stretch and
frequently worked from 8 a. m. to 9 p. m. with one-half hour each
for dinner and supper. One 13-year-old slate picker reported work. mg several times from 7 a. m. to 11 p. m. Another boy 16 years
old, a driver underground, reported doing overtime work at the
time the study was made to the extent o f a double shift every
other day, making, during the week, three workdays o f 16 hours
and three of 8 hours, a weekly total o f 72 hours.
O f the 426 boys reporting the maximum number o f hours worked
at a stretch including overtime, 62.4 per cent had worked 12 or
more hours while 36.8 per cent had worked 14 or more, 11.5 per
cent 18 or more, and 21 boys (4.9 per cent) had worked 22 or more
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
T H E C H ILD R E N A T W O R K .
25
hours at a stretch.16 None o f the youngest group o f children had
worked “ the clock around,” no 13-year-old child had worked as
long as 18 hours, and no 14-year-old child as long as 20 hours—more
than that can not be said.
It seems unnecessary to point out that most o f this overtime work
was illegal. As the employment o f children under 16 in under
ground work and o f children under 14 in factories, workshops, etc.,
went on in spite o f the Pennsylvania child-labor law, so many of
the children under 16 years o f age worked more than 9 hours a
day or 51 hours a week in spite o f the fact that the State law pro
hibited it.
Alternating with periods when overtime work is required are
frequent periods o f enforced idleness in all mining communities.
IRREGULARITY OF WORK.
Shutdowns and periods when work was short occurred during the
time this study was made although there was a public clamor for
increased production o f coal. O f the boys regularly employed, 73.8
per cent reported one or more periods o f idleness because o f shut
downs as compared with 39 per cent who lost time because o f sickness
due to accidents or ill health, while 19.1 per cent were absent from
work at some time during the year because o f other causes. O f the
boys who lost time because o f industrial causes, 50 per cent lost a
month or more and 5.2 per cent four or more months. O f the boys
who were out on account o f ill health, only 2 pier cent were out four
months or more.
It will be remembered that a relatively smaller per cent o f the
girls than o f the boys.in this district were employed. O f those who
did regular work the time lost during the working years was
much longer than among the boys. While only 26.7 per cent o f the
girls reported loss of time because o f industrial causes, 59.3 per cent
o f those who did lost a month or more and 14.9 per cent four or
more months. Altogether 27.2 per cent of the girls were absent on
account o f sickness; 27.6 per cent of these lost a month or more and
5.1 per cent were out four months or longer. O f the 42.9 per cent
o f the girls who were absent for other causes, 40.4 per cent were away
from work four months or more.
Perhaps it was for the reason that the girls earned much less
than the boys, because of the value o f their work in the home as
well as because some prejudice against their employment outside the
home still existed, that they were sent to work-in smaller numbers
and were kept at home on slighter pretexts and for longer periods
than were the boys.
18 See Appendix IV, Table 15, p. 83.
91597°— 22-------3
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
26
C H IL D LABOR IN A C O A L -M IN IN G DISTRICT.
REASONS FOR GOING TO WORK.
An answer to the question why these children had left school to
go to work was sought from both the children and their parents,
although it was recognized that the final cause is not usually dis
covered in this way. The replies are of value because they indicate
what seemed to the family, at least, a valid explanation for the with
drawal o f the children from school.
O f the 1,621 working children from whom information on this
point was secured, the reasons assigned by 95.6 per cent fell under six
general heads,17 as follows: “ Family need” was given by 55 per
cent o f the children; “ wanted to work,” an altogether indefinite
reply, by 14.7 per cent; the desire to have spending money accounted
for 13.4 per cent; dissatisfaction with school, for 11.6 per cent; “ old
enough to go to work ” was the reason o f 0.7 per cent, and the desire
to learn a trade and get started in business was the reason given by
0.2 per cent o f the children.
The reason which was given by 892 children, that their earnings
were necessary for the family support, needs special consideration.
T able X I I I . — Reason for going to work, by s e x ; children who had commenced
work.
Children who had commenced work.
Reporting specified reasons for going to work.
Sex.
Wanted spend Old enough to
work.
ing money.
Family need.
Total.
Total.
Num
ber.
Total........................................
Boys.............. ....................................
Girls.............. ...................................
1,652
1,115
537
1,621
1,098
523
892
585
307
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
55.0
53.3
58.7
217
141
76
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
13.4
11
0.7
12.8
14.5
10
1
.9
.2
Children who had commenced work.
Reporting specified reasons for going to work.
Sex.
Wanted to work
(no other reason
given).
Num
ber.
Total...........................
BoVs............................. .......
Girls.....................................
239
167
72
Per
cent.
14.7
15.2
13.8
Dissatisfied
with school.
Num
ber.
188
151
37
Per
cent.
11.6
13.8
7.1
Wanted to learn
a trade and get
into business.
Num
ber.
4
2
2
Per
cent.
All other
reasons.
Num
ber.
Reason
not re
ported.
Per
cent.
0.2
70
4.3
31
-.2
.4
42
28
3.8
5.4
17
14
17When more than one reason was given, the reason assigned as the major one was
used in the classification.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
27
T H E CH ILD R E N A T W O R K .
Table X I I I shows that family need was more frequently given
for sending the girls to work than it was for the boys. It also
figured more prominently as the cause for children entering full
time employment than for children wno worked out o f school hours
only. Poverty was more frequently the explanation o f the employ
ment o f the younger children. Thus, according to Table X IV , 58
per cent o f the children who started to work under 13 years o f age
and 51.1 per cent o f those who began at 15 gave family need as the
cause.
T able X I V .— Reason for going to work, by age at commencing; children who
had commenced, work. .
Children who had commenced work.
Reporting specified reasons for going to work.
Age at commeneing work.
Wanted spend Old enough to
work.
ing money.
Family need.
Total.
Total.
Num
ber.
T T n r io r
13
13............................................................................................
14...................... ; ...............................
16
Per
Num
cent.1 ber.
Per
Num
cent.1 ber.
Per
cent.1
11
0.7
1
6
3
1
.3
.9
1.1
1,652
1,621
892
55.0
217
13.4
234
395
639
283
36
15
226
388
678
280
35
14
131
218
376
143
15
9
58.0
56.2
55.5
51.1
32
48
76
47
10
4
14.2
12.4
11.2
16.8
Children who had commenced work.
Reporting specified reasons for going to work.
Age at commencing work. Wanted to work
(no other reason
given).
Num
ber.
Under 13 ...................................................
13 .
14 .....................................................................
15 .....................................................................
16
Dissatisfied,
with school.
Per
Num
cent.1 ber.
Wanted to learn
a trade and get
into business.
Per
Num
cent.1 ber.
/
All other
reasons.
Per
Num
cent.1 ber.
Reason
not re
ported.
Per
cent.1
239
14.7
188
11.6
4
0.2
70
4.3
31
36
63
95
42
3
15.9
16.2
14.0
15.0
16
44
94
28
5
1
7.1
11.3
13.9
10.0
1
.4
1
2
.1
.7
10
14
30
15
1
4 .4
3 .6
4.4
5 .4
8
7
11
3
1
1
1Not shown where base is less than 100.
To determine whether in fact the children’s earnings were really
necessary for the support o f the families would require detailed facts
as to the cost o f living in the locality, what the family income was,
the number who were dependent upon it, whether sickness or other
misfortune had created a temporary emergency, and whether there
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
28
CH ILD LABOR IlST A COAL-MUSTmG DISTRICT.
was organized and adequate public or private relief for cases o f ex
treme need. And, finally, some standard as to the degree o f sacrifice
that should be made to keep the children in school would also have
to be agreed upon. In this investigation no attempt was made to fix
such a standard or to determine whether in the case o f the individual
child some plan to meet the family’s real or imagined need could not
have been worked out other than the one adopted o f sending the child
to work. Certain general facts were secured which bear on this
question.
At the time this study -was made the miners were working under a
contract which their union had made with the coal operators in May,
1916, increased by two awards made by the Fuel Administration to
meet in a measure the great increase in the cost o f living which had
come after the United States entered the war.
The maximum daily wage o f the majority o f the fathers employed
in mining was between $4 and $5, but 24.6 per cent o f those for whom
reports were secured received less than $4 per day, and 23.2 per cent
were paid at a rate higher than $5 per day. The rate for the under
ground workers was as a rule higher than for the surface workers.
Thus, the rate for 50.8 per cent o f the fathers included in this study
who worked above ground was less than $4 per day, while only 5.5
per cent o f the underground workers were paid so little. More than
a fifth (20.8 per cent) of the underground workers received $6 or
more, while only 3 per cent of those who worked above ground re
ceived as much.
It is not possible on the basis o f the daily wage, however, to calcu
late the yearly earnings o f the father. In the anthracite field periods
o f idleness, usually caused by fluctuations o f the market, sometimes
by inability to get cars, alternate with overtime work as the demand
increases, so that day wages or piece rates give little indication of the
monthly or yearly income. Because o f the unprecedented demand
for coal there was less idleness on account o f shutdowns during the
years just previous to the time when this study was made than there
was before, the war. Most o f the miners worked on an eight-hour
basis, but approximately half reported either regular or occasional
overtime.
O f the 1,986 men from whom information was secured, 1,507 were
employed in or about the mines, 1,086 underground. While there
was considerable loss o f time among these men on account o f sick
ness and accidents and some unnecessary absenteeism, shutdowns or
slack work caused much more lost time. Thus among those employed
in the mines as underground workers the percentage who reported
time lost on account of industrial conditions was 65.7 as compared
with 48.1 for the surface workers.
uy l
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
T H E CH ILD R E N A T W O R K .
29
The number of days o f lay-off and the amount o f overtime varied
at different collieries and for different occupations in the same col
liery. Although the men knew their maximum and minimum earn
ings and the general duration o f periods o f idleness, most o f them
could not state exactly what they had received during a year. No
pay-roll study was made, but detailed figures were secured from the
men and their wives for the different periods o f the year, and from
these figures yearly earnings were estimated. It is believed the in
formation secured is sufficiently accurate for the purposes for which
it has been used.
Altogether 95.6 per cent o f the mine workers estimated that they
received less than $1,85018 during the year just preceding the investi
gation,19 63 per cent received less than $1,250 and 16.6 per cent less
than $850.20
In the lower wage groups there was more unemployment; 91.8
per cent o f those who earned less than $850, 83.9 per cent o f those
who earned more than $850 and less than $1,250, 55.7 per cent of
those who were in the group earning more than $1,250 and less than
$1,850, and 27.9 per cent of the highest wage-earning group— $1,850
or7over—reported unemployment.
O f the 483 children whose fathers earned less than $850 a year
238— almost one-half—had left school for full-time employment,
while o f the 183 children whose fathers earned $1,850 or more a year
only 11.5 per cent were so employed.21
When the father’s earnings were low, it was the boys who were
usually called on first to contribute to the family income. In these
anthracite towns 65 per cent o f the boys whose fathers reported
that they earned less than $850 were employed at regular work,
as compared with only 12 per cent o f the boys whose fathers earned
$1,850 and over. Among the girls 31.7 per cent o f those whose
fathers reported their yearly earnings to be less than $850 had
entered regular work, while in the highest wage group the per
centage o f girls at work was practically the same as the percentage
o f boys. As Table X V shows 57.5 per cent of the working children
whose fathers reported an income of less than $850 per year gave
family need as the reason for going to work, so that almost as large
a number whose fathers were in the same wage group went to work
for some other reason than family necessity. At the other extreme
is Three o f the fathers who reported that they worked aboveground and earned $1,850
or more per annum were superintendents, eight were foremen, two were blacksmiths,
and one an engineer.
19 June 1, 1918, to M ay 31, 1919.
20 See Appendix IV , Tables 18 and 19, pp. 85, 86.
31 The figures here shown for earnings represent the earnings for the year June 1, 1 9 1 8 M ay 31, 1919, a period later than that at which many o f the children may have started
to work.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
30
CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
21.2 per cent o f the working children whose fathers reported an
income o f $1,850 or more gave family need as the reason for going
to work. O f 1,652 working children the fathers o f 289 were either
dead or had deserted their families, and of this number 223 gave
family need as the reason why they went to work.22
T a b l e X V . — Reasdn for going to work, by earnings of fa th er; children who
had commenced work.
Children who had commenced work.
Reporting specified reasons for going to work.
Earnings of father.
Family need.
Total.
Wanted spend Old enough to
ing money.
work.
Total.
Num
ber.
Fer
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
T o ta l.....................................
1,652
1,621
892
55.0
217
13.4
11
0.7
Less than $850....................................
$850, less than $1,250..........................
$1,250, less than $1,850........................
273
565
336
52
289
137
268
557
326
52
285
133
154
299
134
11
223
71
57.5
53.7
41.1
'21.2
78.2
53.4
31
75
55
16
26
14
11.6
13.5
16.9
30.8
9.1
10.5
2
5
3
.7
.9
.9
1
.8
Father dead or deserted.....................
Earnings not reported........................
Children who had commenced work.
Reporting specified reasons for going to work.
Earnings of father.
Wanted to work
(no other reason
given).
Dissatisfied,
with school.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Total...........................
239
14.7
188
Less than $850......................
$850, less than $1,250.............
$1,250, less than $1,850..........
$1,850, and over............ '.___
Father dead or deserted.......
Earnings not reported..........
36
80
65
13
20
25
13.4
14.4
19.9
25.0
7.0
18.8
31
69
54
6
12
16
Wanted to learn
a trade and get
into business.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
11.6
4
11.6
12.4
16.6
11.5
4.2
12.0
1
1
1
1
Num
Per
ber. ■ cent.
All other
reasons.
Reason
not re
ported.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
0.2
70
4.3
31
.4
.2
.3
1.9
13
28
14
5
4
6
4.9
5.0
4.3
9.6
1.4
■4.5
5
8
10
4
4
. A hundred years ago it would have been a matter o f general satis
faction that the children of the men killed or who had died from
natural causes, or children whose fathers did not make a living
wage, were able to find employment and so keep the family from
being charges upon public or private charity. But our system o f
social accounting has undergone great changes in that time. It is
now generally agreed that the old theory was not only unjust to the
individual child but that it was, from the standpoint of the welfare
o f the State, in the long run a very costly way to care for widows
22
In some of these cases, the children entered employment prior to the death or
desertion of the fathers.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
T H E C H ILD R E N A T W O R K .1'
31
and orphans. Recent legislative expressions o f the new theory as
to the proper distribution o f this burden in Pennsylvania are found
in its mothers’ pensions and workmen’s compensation acts.
Relation to dependency.
It was not until 1915 that the State o f Pennsylvania attacked the
problem o f making the cost of the large number o f fatal and nonfatal accidents which occur in industry, in part at least, a regular
charge upon the industry. Prior to that time the employer’s lia
bility, with its doctrine o f immunity from responsibility on the
part o f the employer i f there had been contributory negligence
on the part o f the injured employee or o f a fellow servant, had made
the matter o f compensation altogether uncertain.
The Pennsylvania law which became effective January 1,1916, has
been strengthened by subsequent amendments. A t the time this
study was made it was not compulsory on all employers and per
mitted direct settlements between employer and employee.23 Thé
referee system, now regarded as a special protection to the em
ployees, had not been developed24 so successfully as subsequently.
The amounts o f compensation fixed by the law were extremely low
in view o f the then current cost of living and wage rates. Thus at
the time the study was made the basic weekly wage o f which the
widow of a man killed in an industrial accident was to receive 40
per cent for 300 weeks or o f which the workman who suffered a
complete or partial disability received 50 per cent for a fixed period
was not more than $20 nor less than $10 a week.
It is not the purpose o f this study to discuss the defects or merits
o f the compensation law, but it is necessary to point out that the
frequency of accidents, and the resulting loss o f time coupled with
these rates o f payment, affected the economic status o f the families
and in consequence all the family problems connected with child care.
The annual report o f the State department o f mines gives for each
year the number o f wives made widows and the number o f children
made orphans, by districts. The nonfatal accidents leaving the wage
earner to be cared for in the family sometimes create more difficult
economic problems. The Pennsylvania law contemplated a waiting
period in nonfatal accidents o f 14 days for which no payment was to
be made and then for a specified period o f weeks 50 per cent of an
amount usually considerably less than the then current rate o f wages.
In the coufse o f the inquiry fathers reported injuries for which this
payment had not been received, either because witnesses were lack
ing or because they believed, rightly or wrongly, that the company
23 See Appendix I for summaries o f laws o f 1915 and 1919, United States Bureau of
Labor Statistics, Bulletins Nos. 18 5 , 272.
24 Monthly Labor Review, Vol. X I I , No. 2, pp. 161, 162.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
32
C H ILD LABOR IN A C O A L -M IN IN G DISTRICT.
discriminated against a man in future employment if an appeal was
made from the company’s decision as to the amount due him.
The father was mot the only wage earner exposed to these accidents.
Thus in 214 o f the families included in the study, one or more mem
bers other than the father had suffered death or was disabled by
an accident in the mining industry so recently and o f such a nature
that the family earnings within the year preceding the investigation
were affected. In 50 instances this occurred in a family where the
father or chief wage earner had also' been killed or disabled. In the
57 families in which the chief wage earner had been killed,25 1 other
wage earner had also been killed and 11 others had been disabled
during the year. In the 235 families in which the chief wage earner
had been disabled, either totally or partially, for all or part o f the
year, 3 other wage earners had been killed and 35 had been disabled
during all or part o f a year.
Pennsylvania passed a mothers’ assistance act in 1913,26 which
was radically amended in 1915 and in 1919.27 According to the 1913
statute, “ indigent, widowed, or abandoned mothers” were to be
given “ partial support.” In 1915 assistance was limited to women
with children under 16 years o f age “ whose husbands are dead or
permanently confined in institutions for the insane, when such
women are * * * poor and dependent on their own efforts.” 28
One-half the cost o f the assistance to mothers is borne by the State
and one-half by the county. The combined maximum amount which
could be paid a mother under the 1915 act was $12 per month i f she
had one child, $20 a month if she had two children, $26 for three,
and $5 per month for each additional child. In 1919 the amounts
were raised to $20 for the first child and $10 per month for each
additional child.
The law was administered by county boards o f trustees, five or
seven women in each county, appointed by the governor.
A State supervisor on the staff o f the State board o f education
served in an advisory capacity.29
Only mothers o f “ proved character and ability ” could receive a
pension. The interpretation o f the statute, the State supervisor
points vout, necessarily differed in the urban counties and in the
mining districts. For example, in the cities the policy was not to
give aid or to withdraw aid i f the mother kept a man lodger, while
the report o f the State supervisor pointed out :
25
In 90 fam ilies the father had been killed but in some of these he had since been
replaced as chief wage earner by a stepfather or foster father.
28 Law s 1913, No. 80.
27 Laws 1915,. No. 439 ; Laws 1919, No. 354.
28 Laws 1915, No. 439, sec. 1.
28 The State supervisor is now under the department of public welfare.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
T H E C H ILD R E N A T W O R K .
33
When this question is considered in relation to fam ilies who live in mining
and rural counties, certain economic and social problems arise which contrast
sharply with those o f city families. In the city it is almost always possible
for a mother to find part-time work to supplement the assistance granted her.
Racial lines are not closely drawn and the foreign-born mother has an oppor
tunity to learn English. I f her work or her home is outside the group to
which she belongs, cheap and easy transportation makes companionship and
social life possible.
In the mining districts it is not uncommon to find mothers who speak no
English and have never left the village during the whole of their life in Amer
ica. In such villages, where the children are accustomed to look after them
selves from babyhood and the home life is very simple, most of the household
activities center around the breadwinner and cease at his death. Assistance
fully adequate to the needs o f the family places the mother in a position of
comparative leisure, in contrast to the other mothers of the community. I f it
is desirable that she supplement the assistance by work, only two activities
may lie open to h e r ; cleaning the “ company store ”— a much coveted task that
pays about $10 a month— or keeping men lodgers. Sometimes the Company has
given house and rent and a winter’s coal free to the widow of a miner, but has
insisted that she board and lodge some of the unmarried men of the village.
I f it seems wisest for the mother to supplement the assistance by her own
earnings and no suitable occupation is available, there is a third difficulty
involved in moving the fam ily into another community where work is plentiful.
Such a change to the mother is really like moving into a foreign country, and
means the breaking of every tie she has formed in America.
“ In a few such instances, the practical difficulties involved in in
sisting on the application o f the ruling about men lodgers have thus
far been insurmountable.” 30
The maximum payments permitted under the statute were low in
view o f the high cost of living at the tame o f this study and yet
inadequate appropriations reduced the amounts actually received
far below the legal maximum.
The trustees o f Schuylkill County, in which the Shenandoah dis
trict is situated, reported31 that 60 o f 196 grants made in that county
•in 1916 were to widows of men whose deaths were caused by in
dustrial accidents. The trustees expressed confidence that the com
pensation law which had just been enacted would make it unneces
sary in the future to support or aid this group o f widows from the
mothers’ assistance fund. Experience proved, however, that the
need for assistance did not entirely end with the passage o f this law.
From October, 1916, to December 1,1919,13 grants were made in this
district to families o f fathers killed in industrial accidents; the
average sum granted was $6 per month, with no special regard to the
apportionment according to the number o f children.32
For 56 families carried on the pay roll o f the fund in this district
in'October, 1919, the average allotment for each family was about
80 Report of the mothers’ assistance fund, 1916, p. 12.
81 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State Board o f Education, Report o f the Mothers’
Assistance Fund; 1916, pp. 51 and 5 2 , Harrisburg, Pa., 1918,
82 Information furnished by the State supervisor of the mothers’ assistance fund.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
34
C H I U ) LABOR IN A C O A L -M IN IN G DISTRICT.
$14.30 a month; the average for each child was $4 a month.33 The
obvious insufficiency o f these amounts at once suggests the question
o f whether they were supplemented by some other form o f public or
private relief.
The county poor relief given in Schuylkill County was usually a
grocery order every three months equivalent to $1.50 or $3, depend
ing upon the size of the family. The overseer in charge o f the Shen
andoah district reported that it was his habit, i f a family was large'
and the expense o f maintaining it even for a short time would be
considerable, to insist on the family’s going to the county poor farm.
Also, if the need, although small, promised to be continuous and
there was no way o f supplementing the county funds, outdoor relief
was not given and the family was sent to the poor farm.34
Certain churches did some occasional relief work and the h<3me
service section o f the Red Cross did emergency relief work during
the influenza epidemics, but there was no organized private relief
agency to supplement the inadequate public relief in this area.
No attempt was made in the course of this investigation to locate
the poorer families that under the county poor-relief system were
broken up and scattered but gome who had just escaped this penalty
were encountered in the canvass.
One mother was left with four young children in 1915, when an explosion in
the ixpne killed her husband. She secured work as a janitress in a school and
received $17.50 a month for nine months in the y ear; she usually earned from
$60 to $70 during a year doing cleaning, washing, and similar work. The oldest
child, a girl of 12, was doing housework, for which she was receiving $2.25 a
week. The fam ily received $10 a month from the mothers’ assistance fund,
which brought the total yearly income for a family of five up to $456.
Another woman was left with six children, all under 12 years of age, when
her husband was killed in the mines by a falling stone. Two months after his
death she gave birth to twins, both of whom subsequently died.
Over a
period of 15 weeks the family received an equivalent of $19 in relief from the
county. The mother secured work cleaning for the railroad company and each
of the boys as he became 12 years o f age was sent to. work. The mother felt
that it was only through the help of these young boys that she had been able
to keep the family together.
A fall of coal killed another man, and his wife was left with four children to
support. The family received $12 a week compensation, of which, at the time of
the investigation, $1.50 a week was being spent on doctor’s bills by the widow,
who was suffering from Bright’s disease.
O f the accidents which were not fatal, those resulting in blindness
were perhaps the most serious. These blind men, reduced to begging,
33 Information furnished by the State supervisor of the mothers’ assistance fund.
34 T his overseer reported that his method o f investigating applicants for relief was to
visit the fam ily and their neighbors. H e considered the neighbors the best source of
information, especially if they were not on good terms w ith the fam ily.
Having made
a first investigation in this way, he usually relied upon the grocer w ith whom the food
order was placed to keep him informed as to subsequent changes in the fam ily fortunes.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
T H E CH ILD R E N A T W O R K .
35
can usually be seen on pay day waiting for alms from their fellow
employees who are still able to work.
One man lost his sight in an explosion. H e received no compensation but did
get $5.25 a week for 6 months from a private benefit society o f which he was a
member. A t the time the investigation was made he was getting from $3 to $6
a week begging. H is wife did washing, earning about $6 a week. The oldest
child, a girl of 12, did housework after school and on Saturdays for $1 a week,
and she helped her father by leading him to his station near the mine and often
stood with him for hours at a time waiting for alms.
Another man, after suffering two accidents from falls o f coal, for which he
received no compensation, finally lost the sight of both eyes in an explosion.
Ail his savings were spent for treatment and operations that he hoped would
restore his sight. The compensation in this case, the man reported, amounted
to $16.50 every 2 weeks for a period o f 250 weeks. The compensation, he said,
would be paid up at the end o f the year in which the investigation was made.
The man’s children would then be 8, 6, and 3 years o f . age, respectively. The
only source of income was a small grocery store the earnings of which were
entirely inadequate to meet the family expenses.
What the children could bring in was carefully calculated in such
families. In mining, the wages o f the boys were sufficiently high to
make their employment seem o f very great importance.
THE WAGES OF THE WORKING CHILDREN.
The boys as well as the men were members o f the Miners’ U nion88
so that their wages, like those o f their fathers, were fixed by the 1916
agreement and the two awards subsequently made by the Fuel A d
ministration. All o f the boys were paid on a time basis. The maxi
mum rate per day was less than $2 for only 16.8 per cent o f them,
while 20 per cent had received as high as $3 or more a day. Although
there were a few underground boys whose maximum pay had never
reached $1 a day, 18.9 per cent o f them had received as much as $4
to $5 per day. As Table X V I shows, the percentage in the higher
wage group was larger among the boys employed inside the mines
than among the boys who worked above ground.
35
Of those included in the study, 420 had joined the union and all but 21 had kept
up their dues.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
36
CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-MINING DISTRICT.
T able X V I.— Maximum pay per day, ~by occupation and industry; boys in
regular work.
Boys in regular work.
Reporting specified maximum pay per day.
«
Occupation and industry.
Less than $1.
Total.
$1, less than
$1.50.
$1.50, less than
$2.
Total.
To'tal..........................
Mining industry....................
Aboveground.................
Breaker boy..............
Jig runner.................
Others______ ____________
Underground............... .
Other industries....................
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
891
860
11
1.3
60
7.0
87
10.1
824
694
422
63
209
130
67
802
675
408
61
206
127
58
8
4
4
1.0
.6
50
42
36
6.2
6.2
8.8
9.6
10.2
10.5
4
3
3.1
6
8
10
2.9
6.3
77
69
43
8
18
8
10
1.0
6.3
Boys in regular work.
Reporting specified maximum pay per day.
Occupation and industry.
$2, less than
$2.50.
$2.50, less than
$3.
Number.
Per
cent.
Total...........................
225
26.2
310
Mining industry...................
Aboveground................
Breaker boy.............
Jig runner................
Others......................
Underground..................
Other industries...................
210
191
162
9
20
19
15
26.2
28.3
39.7
297
260
147
39
74
37
13
9.7
15.0
Number.
Per
cent.
$3, less than
$4.
$4, less than
$5.
Not re
ported.
Number.
Per
cent.
36.0
138
16.0
29
3.4
31
37 0
38.5
36.0
132
105
15
5
85
27
6
16.5
15.6
3.7
28
4
1
3.5
.6
.2
22
19
14
4L3
21.3
3
24
1.5
18.9
3
3
35.9
29.1
Number.
1
Per
cent.
9
It will be remembered that most o f the boys began as breaker boys
and the wages reflect this fact. Thus one-fifth of the breaker boys
received as a maximum less than $2 per day, three-fifths less than
$2.50, and only 4 per cent had ever been paid as much as $3 a day.35“
The boys who tended the jig machines and who were also employed
above ground in the breakers were better paid—two-thirds had re
ceived $2.50 or more per day, but less than one-tenth had received
as much as $3.
According to Table X Y I , the small group o f boys (67 in all) who
were in work other than mining were paid at about the same rate
as the breaker boys.
In all mining districts it is hard for the daughters o f the miners
to get work. With little competition for their services the wages
o f the girls are usually low. The maximum pay which 52.7 per
460 During the year covered by the study.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
37
TH E CHILDREN AT WORK,
cent o f the girls in the cigar industry and 45.5 per cent o f the girls
in the clothing industry had received during this period o f generally
high wages was less than $1 per day, and in the Shenandoah district
only a fraction over 1 per cent had reached the $3 mark.
O f the
girls employed in domestic service 92.4 per cent received less than
$1 ar day, as Table X V I I shows:
T able X V I I .— Maximum pay per day, by industry; girls in regular work.
Girls in regular work.
Reporting specified maxirhum pay per day.
Industry.
Less than $1.
Total.
$1, less than
$1.50.
$1.50, less than
$2.
Total.
Total...........................
Manufacturing industries.__
Clothing..........................
Cigar...............................
Other, and not reported..
Domestic service...................
All other................................
Not reported......................................
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
441
337
219
65.0
61
18.1
32
9.5
249
124
102
23
151
' 40
1
169
77
74
18
132
36
79
35
39
5
122
18
46.7
45.5
52.7
44
21
22
1
7
10
26.0
27.3
29.7
25
12
8
5
2
5
14.8
15.6
10.8
92.4
5.3
1.5
Girls in regular work.
Reporting specified maximum pay per day.
Industry.
$2, less than
$2.50.
$2.50, less than
$3.
Number.
Per
cent.
Number.
Total...................... i . .
15
4.5
5
Manufacturing industries___
Clothing........ .................
Cigar..............................
Other, and not reported..
Domestic service...................
All other...............................
Not reported.........................
14
6
4
4
8.3
7.8
5.4
4
2
1
Per
cent.
2
1
$3, less than
$4.
$5. less than
$
Number.
Per
cent.
Number.
Per
cent.
1.5
3
0.9
2
0.6
2.4
2.6
3
1
1
1
1.8
1.3
1.4
1
1
.8
Not re
ported.1
104
80
47
28
5
19
4
■i
1Includes also “ Inapplicable, worked on own account.”
The amount o f the day’s wage earned by these children varies some
what with their age. Among the girls this variation is more clearly
marked. O f the 13-year-old girls at regular work reporting maxi
mum day’s pay over four-fifths earned less than $1 a day. Among the
14-year-old !girls the proportion earning less than $1 is reduced to
three-fourths; among the 15-year-old girls it is slightly less than twothirds (65 per cent), while among those 16 years old it becomes 57.7
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
38
CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
per cent. Among the 13-year-old boys over a fifth were in the group
whose maximum earnings were from $1.50 to less than $2, while
among the 14-year-old boys the proportion in this group was only
10.7 per cent, among the 15-year-old boys 10.1 pfer cent, and among
the 16-year-old boys 8.1 per cent. The proportion o f boys who earned
$2.50 or more a day is small among the younger boys and becomes
larger with each higher age group.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN.
A report on schools in the bituminous coal regions o f the Appa
lachian Mountains36 recently made by the Bureau o f Education was
confined to the best districts in the bituminous field o f western Penn
sylvania. It showed that 19 per cent o f the children who entered
school continued to the eighth grade, that the amount o f retardation
was greatest in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades,37 that o f 180
elementary teachers in one mining district in western Pennsylvania
only 15 per cent had attended school more than four years after com
pletion o f the eighth grade,38 and that about one-fourth o f the teach
ers were teaching their first term and about one-half were occupying
for the first time the position they held at the time the study* was
made.39 The course o f study in that district was found to be bookish
and not related to the life o f the mining town ; play as a part o f the
school work received no attention except in a few towns.40 The kin
dergarten, although especially needed, was not found anywhere in
the Appalachian region outside o f Jefferson County, Ala., and Ells
worth, Pa.41
There was no State organization to insure anything better in the
anthracite district. Here, too, the educational opportunities were
finally determined by the local community, and, unlike the bitumi
nous district to which reference has been made, the Shenandoah dis*trict could not be described as one o f the best in the anthracite region.
Its schools were all under either borough or township administration.
In five o f the patches there were ho schools o f any kind ; six had only
six grades ; two patches, about 20 minutes’ walk apart, had the third
and fourth grade in one patch and the first, second, fifth, and sixth
grades in the other. To continue school after the sixth grade re
quired a long walk and a change o f schools for many o f these patches,
so that a larger percentage o f children undoubtedly quit at thè sixth
grade than would have left if the local school had had eight grades.
In Turkey Run, to which reference has already been made and which
was reached by a long, circuitous road or by a hazardous footpath
86 Bulletin, 1920, No. 21.
87 Ibid., p. 9.
88 Ibid., p. 10.
38 Ibid., p. 11.
40 Ibid., p. 11.
" Ibid., p. 12.
39
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
40
C H IL D
LABOR IN
A
C O A L -M I N I N G
D IS T R IC T .
whicn wound among the fissures, practically none o f the children
went to school after they completed the sixth grade. The town o f
Shenandoah had a four-year and Gilberton a three-year high-school
course.
Unfortunately the teaching in me first six grades was often defi
cient. In one o f the patches there was only one teacher for six
grades; one school was entirely ungraded; three had two teachers for
a school with six grades.
For the most part the school buildings o f the district were like
the houses, small wooden buildings—often unpainted, in bad repair,
and sometimes inadequately heated. Cave-ins had occurred near
several o f the buildings. None o f them had playgrounds. Shenan
doah’s new and modem high-school building had a gymnasium, but
no playground.
W ith the passage o f the vocational education act o f 1913 the State
began the practice o f subsidizing vocational education through a sys
tem o f reimbursement o f the local district or union o f districts for a
part o f their outlay. The Shenandoah High School offered training
in commercial subjects, including stenography and typewriting and
some domestic science; Mahanoy Township High School, which was
attended by some o f the children in the Shenandoah district, offered
some manual training, woodwork, wood turning, cabinetmaking, etc.,
as well as domestic science and a more complete business course than
the one offered in the Shenandoah High School.
Very few children included in the study ever attended any o f these
classes, however, as so large a percentage o f the children left school
before they reached high school. Altogether 331 had attended voca
tional classes; of that number 215 had attended only classes' in
cooking and sewing. Instruction in cooking usually amounted to
little more than copying recipes in a note book, as the schools had no
laboratories or kitchens where practical experience in cooking could
be gained.
Forty-nine children had attended business classes—15 for less
.tiian a school year, 25 for one school year, 5 for two school years, and
1 for three.42 Sixty-five children had attended manual training
classes—the majority for a year or more.
A continuation-school law enacted in Pennsylvania required chil
dren between 14 and 16 years of age who were at work to attend
school eight hours a week. Continuation-school classes had been or
ganized in accordance with this law in Shenandoah, Frackville,,and
Gilberton, as well as in the neighboring town o f West Mahanoy.
Gilberton had discontinued its classes in 1917, and the others were
given up in 1918. O f the 1,220 children who began regular work
43 For three the period of attendance was not reported.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
T H E EDUCATION OF T H E C H IL D R E N .
41
before they were 16 years o f age and who were required by law to
attend the continuation school, only 146 had ever attended. Eightythree o f these had attended for from six months to two years or m ore;
up to the time o f the investigation 44 had attended during a period of
less than three months. The equipment and money available for these
schools was meager; the employers made a practice o f deducting the
time spent at the school from the wages o f the children, so there was
general dissatisfaction. The classes were in consequence abandoned
before a real test had been made o f the educational value o f the plan.
A majority o f the children in this district— T5.4 per cent o f those
with native-born fathers and 59.1 per cent o f those with foreign-bom
fathers—began school at 6 years o f age.43 Most o f the others began
at 5 and 7, but 146 waited until they were 8. In spite o f the fact
that the compulsory-education law required attendance at 8 there
were 63 children, two o f whom had native fathers, who had not
started school until they were 9 years o f age or over. Eight chil
dren—two who were 13, three who were 14, and three who were 16
years of age—had never been to school at all. The education of
many o f these children, 1,742 o f the total o f 3,136 children from 13
to 16 years o f age, had been completed at the time the study was
made. O f the 640 children who were 16 years o f age, 561 were em
ployed, while 79 were apparently neither at school nor at work. O f
1,510 children between 14 and 16 years o f age, and therefore subject
to the compulsory-education law—which requires children o f these
ages to be either at school or q,t work—921 had left school; 694 of
these were employed, while 227 were apparently neither in school
nor at work. O f the 844 children 13 years o f age, 178 had left school,
o f whom 91 were employed—illegally— at full-time work. A total
o f 393 children were thus, in spite o f the compulsory-education law,
neither at school nor at work.
It was the children o f foreign-born fathers who had left school
in largest numbers. Information secured as to the nativity o f the
fathers indicated that the fathers o f 57.7 per cent o f the children
included in the study were not American born; 74.2 per cent o f those
who had left school had foreign-born fathers. This was perhaps
to be expected. A larger per cent o f these immigrant fathers be
longed to the lower wage groups; many had themselves had meager
or no education44 and testimony is general that these parents, when
unaided by schools and compulsory-attendance officers, find it much
more difficult to keep their children in school, during the restless
period o f adolescence.
With children o f native and o f foreign-born fathers, the earnings
reported by the fathers seem to have been a factor in determining
43 See Appendix IV , Table 23, p. 88.
44 O f the foreign-born fathers 37.4 per cent were illiterate.
91597°— 22------ 4
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42
CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
whether they continued in school. Thus 66.7 per cent o f the chil
dren whose fathers were dead or who had deserted their families
had left school and 62.2 per cent o f those whose fathers reported that
their yearly earnings were less than $850, as compared with 20.9 per
cent o f those whose fathers reported their annual incomes as $1,850
or more, who were not in school.
T a b l e X V I I I .— School attendance,
by earnings of fa th er; children 13 to 16
years of age.
Children 13 to 16 years of age.
Who reported school attendance.
Earnings of father.
Still in school.
Total.
Not attending
school.
Total.
Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
Never
attended
school.
Total................................
3,136
3,128
1,386
44.3
1,742
55.7
8
No earnings or under $850.........
$850, less than $1,250..................
483
1,019
759
183
451
241
481
1,015
759
182
450
241
182
411
37.8
40.5
79.1
33.3
34.9
62.2
59.5
45.3
20.9
66.7
65.1
2
144
150
84
299
604
344
38
300
157
$1,850 and over. ........................
Father dead or deserted............
Earnings not reported...............
1
1
The reasons the children gave for leaving school were classified
under approximately the same headings as were the explanations
given for their going to work. There were some interesting d if
ferences in what were such closely related questions, even when the
generally inconclusive character o f such testimony is kept in mind.
Thus only 36.4 per cent o f the children gave family need as the
reason for leaving school as compared with 55 per cent who as
signed this as the cause o f their going to work; 30.7 per cent said
they had left because they were dissatisfied with school, while only
11.6 per cent o f the working children assigned this as the reason
for their going to work.45
The grade reached by the children who had left school and by
those who remained in school reflects the denial o f opportunity from
which these groups o f children suffered. In the course o f the in
vestigation, 30 children were found who could neither read nor
write, 3 who could read but were unable to write, and 1 who could
write a little but could not read at all.. Eight o f these illiterates
children were 13 years old, 13 were 14, 8 were 15, and 5 were 16
years o f age.
O f the entire 1,742 children who had gone to work and who
were, it will be remembered, from 13 to 16 years o f age, inclusive,
58.6 per cent had gone beyond the fifth grade in school; o f these
45 See Appendix IV , Tables 21 and 25, pp. 87, 89.
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43
TH E EDUCATION OF TH E CHILDREN.
working children 27.1 per cent had completed the sixth grade and
14.1 per cent the seventh, while 17.4 per cent had completed the
eighth or a higher grade. O f the 1,386 children who were still in
school 75.8 per cent had passed the fifth grade, and 37.9 per cent
had completed the eighth or a higher grade.
T
able
X I X .— Grade completed, by nativity of fa th er; children who had left
school and children still in school, 13 to 16 years of age.
Children 13 to 16 years of age.
Reporting specified grade completed.
Nativity of father.
Second and
under.
Total.
Third.
Fourth.
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
CHILDREN WHO HAD LEFT SCHOOL.
Total........................................
1,742
1,714
25
1.5
102
6.0
260
15.2
Native...............................................
Foreign born......................................
Not reported....................................
447
1,292
3
444
1,267
3
4
21
.9
1.7
13
89
2.9
7.0
24
235
5.4
18.5
1,386
1,374
9
.7
39
2 .8
*01
7.4
698
685
3
697
674
3
1
8
.1
1 .2
101
1.4
4.3
21
3.0
11.9
1
CHILDREN STILL IN SCHOOL.
Total.....................................
Native.....................................
Foreign born......... ...................
Not reported...........................
29
8Ó
Children 13 to 16 years of age.
Reporting specified grade completed.
Nativity offather.
Fifth.
Num
ber.
CHILDREN WHO HAD
SCHOOL.
Sixth.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Seventh.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Eighth and
over.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Grade
not re
ported.
Per
cent.
LEFT
Total...........................
321
18.7
465
27.1
242
14.1
299
_17.4
28
Native..................................
Foreign born........................
Not reported........................
52
269
11.7
115
349
25.9
27.5
100
22.5
136
162
30.6
1 2 .8
3
25
2 1 .2
142
1 1 .2
1
1
CHILDREN STILL IN SCHOOL.
Total..........................
184
13.4
244
" 17. 8
276
2 0 .1
521
37.9
12
Native..................................
Foreign bom........................
Not reported........................
66
118
9.5
17.5
106
136
2
15.2
143
133
20.5
19.7
350
170
50.2
25.2
1
11
2 0 .2
1
A larger percentage o f the children whose fathers were native
born were in the more advanced grades than o f the children with
foreign-born fathers. O f the children with native fathers who were
still in school 23.9 per cent of those 13 years o f age, 55.4 per cent of
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44
CHILD LABOR IN A CO AL-M IN ING DISTRICT.
those 14, T8.3 per cent of those 15, and 86.5 per cent o f those 16 years
o f age had completed the eighth or a higher grade. O f the children
with foreign-born fathers a smaller number and a much smaller per
cent of the 15- and 16-year-old children had remained in school. O f
those who were 13 years o f age the percentage with foreign-born
fathers who had completed the sixth grade was practically the same
as those with native-born fathers, but below the sixth grade the per
centages were larger and above the sixth grade smaller when the
children had foreign-born fathers. Thus o f the children who were 14
years o f age and were still in school 55.4 per cent of those with
native-born fathers had completed the eighth or a higher grade as
compared with 25.7 per cent o f those with foreign-born fathers.46
There was a smaller percentage o f children in the higher grades
among those whose fathers belonged to the lower wage groups or
were dead or had deserted them than among the others, as Table X X
shows.
T able X X .— Grade completed, by father’s earnings; children who had
left school.
Children who had left school.
Reporting specified grade completed.
Earnings of father.
Second and
under.
Total.
Third.
Fourth.
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Total.........................................
1,742
1,714
25
1.5
102
6.0
260
15.2
No earnings or less than $850.............
$850, less than $1,250..........................
$1,250, less than $1,850........................
299
604
344
38
300
157
294
599
339
38
292
152
8
6
5
2.7
1.0
1.5
19
34
15
6.5
5.7
4.4
18.0
14.2
12.1
4
2
1.4
1.3
25
9
8.6
5.9
53
85
41
5
52
24
Father dead or deserting....................
Earnings not reported........................
17.8
15.8
Children who had left school.
Reporting specified grade completed.
Earnings of father.
•
Sixth.
Fifth.
Seventh.
V
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Eighth and
over.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Grade
not re
ported.
Per
cent.
Total...........................
321
18.7
465
27.1
242
14.1
299
17.4
28
No earnings or less than $850.
$850, less than $1,250.............
$1,250, less than $1,850..........
58
118
45
10
65
25
19.7
19.7
13.3
82
187
80
5
60
51
27.9
31.2
23.6
34
82
69
7
32
18
11.6
13.7
20.4
40
87
84
11
54
23
13.6
14.5
24.8
5
5
5
18.5
15.1
3
5
Father dead or deserting___
Earnings not reported..........
22.3
16.4
M See Appendix IV . Table 26, p. 90.
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20.5
33.6
11.0
11.8
THE EDUCATION OP TH E CHILDREN.
45
Thus, o f the children whose fathers belonged in the higher wage
groups, the percentages in the seventh grade or above were larger
than among the children whose fathers belonged in the'lower wage
groups.
Retardation among children who work Defore or after school or
all day Saturday and Sunday and continue to go to school is to be
expected. In the Shenandoah district the fathers o f such children,
it will be remembered, belonged more frequently to the lower than
to the higher wage groups. The hours o f many o f these part-time
children were so irregular that it was impossible to estimate how
many hours they usually worked a week. O f 27 boys reporting
weekly hours, 1 reported he never worked more than 4 hours a
week, 6 reported working between 8 and 16 hours a week, 10 re
ported 20 to 24 hours, and 10 gave 30 hours or more as the regular
hours worked during a week. Four boys and 21 girls had worked
as many as 51 hours a week while attending school.
Attention has already been called to the fact that a considerable
number o f children o f compulsory-school age were at work. It is
o f special importance to know whether the school attendance was
improving in the district. So far as the particular four years for
which information was secured in the course o f this study, the per
cent leaving school before they were 12, 13, 14, and 15 years o f age
was found to have increased.47 For example, o f the 16-year-old
children, 3.1 per cent had left school before their thirteenth birthday.
O f those 15 years old, 4.7 per cent; o f those 14 years o f age, 6.7
per cent; and o f those 13 years o f age, 11.1 per cent had left school
before their thirteenth birthdays. It will be remembered that this
period was abnormal, for the reasons given in the discussion o f the
causes that led children to go to work in larger numbers. There is
no information at hand to show whether the educational loss these
children suffered as a result o f premature employment was made
up by a return to school when the period o f industrial depression
began in 1920.
47 See Appendix IV , Table 27, p. 91.
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MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.
Medical examinations o f the school children were made in Shenan
doah, Frackville, and Gilberton from 1915 to 1918, and discontinued
thereafter by vote o f the school directors taken in accordance with
the State law. The superintendents o f the schools reported that dur
ing the years they were made the examinations were usually confined
to the eyes, ears, nose, teeth, and throat and that usually from three
to five minutes were spent in the examination o f each child. There
was no follow-up system so that the importance o f having defects
corrected was not explained to the parents nor was there any place
where free treatment could be secured for those who were unable
to pay. However, even under these circumstances evidence o f the
value of the examinations was collected in the course o f the" in
vestigation.
Some children reported they Pad been examined twice, some several
times, and some not at all. O f the 3,136 children included in the
study 2,695 reported examinations o f the eyes, 2,475 o f the ears,
2,701 o f the throat, and 1,737 o f the chest. The extent to which de
fects that were discovered had been corrected was difficult to deter
mine, as mothers could not always remember whether a defect had or
had not been reported to them by their children. Altogether in
1,382 instances the parents did remember that a defect had been
reported and 45.7 per cent o f these had arranged for treatment or
attention for the child with a view to correcting the defect; tonsils
had been removed in 29 per cent o f the cases in which removal was
said to have been recommended, adenoids in 40.2 per cent, and o f
the children who were reported to have defective teeth 59.3 per
cent were cared for; less attention, however, was paid to defects of
sight and hearing which might have been corrected.
Treatment was more frequently given if the father belonged to
one o f the higher wage earning groups; thus in 39 per cent o f the
cases the defect was attended to when the father’s reported earnings
were less than $850, 49 per cent when more than $1,250 and less than
$1,850, and when the father’s earnings were $1,850 or more, 61.5 per
cent o f the defects were attended to. As the earnings o f the foreignborn fathers were relatively lower than o f the native bom , this may
explain the smaller percentage o f the foreign bom who took care
that their children received the attention they needed.
46
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!
♦
MORTALITY RATES AMONG CHILDREN.
The infant mortality for the entire birth-registration area o f the
United States was 94 in 1917 ; for that year the rate for Shenandoah
was 187— one o f the highest in the country.48
The average annual death rate from diarrhea and enteritis among
children under 2 years o f age was also distressingly high— 365.8 per
100,000, as compared with 104.8 for Pennsylvania as a whole and 71.4
per cent for the entire registration area o f the country. The rates
for diphtheria and croup were more than four times and for scarlet
fever twelve times as high for Shenandoah as for the United States
registration area.49
At the time this study was made there was a State tuberculosis dis
pensary, but there were no other free clinics. There was no visiting
nurse association. A nurse was, however, at work on a plan for a
child-welfare league, and the summer following the investigation a
child-health center was established by the State department o f health,
which did educational work in child care and employed a physician
who gave prenatal advice to the mothers. Thus, a beginning o f a
much needed public-health service for Shenandoah has since been
made.
T a b l e X X I . — Average annual mortality rates from specified causes of death per
100,000 population, in specified areas, 1910 to 1917, inclusive.
Average annual death rates from specified cause per 100,000 population.
Area.
Shenandoah, Pa........................
Philadelphia, Pa.......................
Pittsburgh, Pa..........................
New York.N .Y.......................
United States registration area..
Diarrhea
and
enteritis
(under 2
years).
365.8
104.1
126.5
80.5
133.2
104.8
71.4
Diph
theria
and
croup.
81.7
24.0
27.4
25.6
37.0
24.3
17.6
Scarlet
fever.
77.8
6.7
14.9
9.7
18.7
7.6
6.4
Bron
chitis.
Pneu
monia
(all
forms).
Other
respira
tory.
223.0
165.9
285.0
201.2
192.8
159.4
136.6
40.1
19.0
23.5
11.2
10.8
18.6
13.5
61.1
24.4
33.3
20.3
11.5
20.9
18.2
Tubercu-M
losis f
of the'
lungs.
77.4
173.7
110.7
175.9
144.2
113.3
130.0
48 Birth Statistics, U . S. Bureau of the Census, 1917, pp. 23 and 30.
48The rates are all for an eight-year period, from 1910 to 1917,
47“
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THE HOMES OF THE CHILDREN.
In the course o f the general investigation considerable informa
tion about housing conditions was secured but the question o f whether
the children were growing up protected by at least minimum stand
ards o f privacy, light, air, and general sanitary arrangements in
and around their homes was considered so important that an in
tensive study o f certain typical sections was made. In Shenandoah,
a block on the western edge o f the settlement, one on the eastern
edge, another in the extreme southern apex on rocky ground sloping
A C R O W D E D F R A M E T E N E M E N T H O U S E K N O W N AS “ T H E I N C U B A T O R . ”
to the railroad tracks, another in the northeast nearer the center
o f the town, two rows o f houses in the extreme northwest, and a
three-story tenement 78 feet long and 29 feet wide, which is locally
known as- the incubator, were selected for intensive study. These
sections did not contain the worst houses in the town but were
representative o f the general housing difficulties under which the
people o f the town lived.
Housing standards are generally lower in mining towns than in
industrial cities and towns; frontier conditions are tolerated long
48
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THE HOMES OE THE CHHiDHEH.
COVERED FIRST STORY OR OVER
■
COVERED BEL0WFIR5T. STORY
__ ^ PAS SAGE WAY UNDER HOUSE
1 1 S TEPS
H YD RA N T
FIGURES INDICATE NUMBER OF STORIES
B.BASEMENT A .A TTIC P PR IVY
O UTER EDGE OF SIDEWALK
.CENTER O F S TR E ET
R A ILR O A D
C H A R T I.— B L O C K (2) IN T H E E A S T E R N P A R T O F T O W N ; A R E A 36,256 F E E T ;
P O P U L A T I O N , 332.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
49
50
CHILD LABOR IN’ A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
after camps have become towns and cities in the size of their popu
lation. This is in part because certain difficulties in connection with
water supply and sewerage are accepted by everyone as insuperable
and in part because there is usually not that diversity of occupation,
COVERED FIRST STORY OR OVER
COVERED BELOWFIRST STORY
PASSAGEWAY UNDER HOUSE
S TEP S E l DRAIN
FIGURES INDICATE NUMBER OF STORIES
B. BASEMENT P PR IVY
~ — OUTER EDGE OF SIDEWALK
---------C EN TER OF S T R E E T
C H A R T II.— B L O C K (3 ) A T T H E E X T R E M E S O U T H E R N A P E X O F T H E T O W N ; A R E A
28,574 S Q U A R E F E E T ; P O P U L A T I O N , 270.
o f land ownership, and o f general business interests which makes for
the development o f typical American community life.
In this district the land on which the settlements, with the excep
tion o f Frackville, were built was owned either by the mining cor
porations or by two large estates. In Shenandoah, Gilberton and
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T H E HOMES OF THE CHILDREN.
51
the patches 348 o f the families included in the investigation were
tenants o f these companies and 58, of the estates; while 46 others
who owned their homes paid ground rent to the mining companies.
In addition to the 58 who rented houses from the two estates, 287
who owned their homes rented ground from them. Nine families
rented houses belonging to the first estate and 137 paid this estate
ground rent for houses they themselves owned. Forty-nine rented
homes from the second estate and 150 rented ground for the houses
which they had built or purchased from that estate.
■ ¡ C O V E R E D FIRST STORY OR OVER
1 1 S TEP S
M
COVERED BELOW FIRST STO RY
P PR IVY
FIGURES INDICATE NUMBER OF STORIES
EB ASEM EN T A.A TTIC
— *►PASSAGEWAY UNDE R HOUSE
C H A R T III — F O U R C R O W D E D L O T S A T O N E E N D O F B L O C K (4) IN T H E N O R T H E A S T
S E C T I O N O F T H E T O W N ; A R E A 18.133 S Q U A R E F E E T ; P O P U L A T I O N . 189.
CONGESTION.
The town of Shenandoah is so hemmed in by mine properties on
every side that expansion to meet the needs o f its growing population
has been impossible. As a result, when more people came, in response
to the demand for more and more mine workers, rear houses were
built until the alleys were turned into narrow streets; then houses
were added between those in the front and the rear until by 1920
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
52
CHILD LABOR I F A COAL-M IHING DISTRICT.
there were 24,726. persons living on an area a little more than onehalf o f a square mile.50
The houses were generally small, one-, two-, and some three-story
dwellings. Eighty per cent had from four to seven rooms, 4.7 per
cent had less than four rooms, while 14.7 per cent had eight or more.51
T H E STAIRCASE S H O W S
D ISTAN C E B ETW EEN
FRONT AND
REAR H O U S E O N LO T.
In the general housing canvass that was made in Shenandoah,
13,592 persons were found living with more than one person per
room, 3,045 with two or more per room, and 379 with three or more
per room. Some examples o f extreme congestion were encountered.
In 84 instances 7 people were occupying two rooms, in fifty instances
10 people were occupying three rooms, and in forty instances 10
people were occupying two rooms.
60 T his is a density in round numbers of
York was 1 9 ,000 and in Chicago 14,000 in
51 Among fam ilies who owned their own
cent had fewer than four rooms, while 26.6
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
4 3,000 per square mile. The density in New
1920.
homes, the houses were larger; only 1,3 per
per cent had eight or more.
THE
HOMES
OF
THE
C H IL D R E N .
53
In the patches52 and in Gilberton and Frackville room congestion
was generally not so serious, still in one settlement (Raven Run)
only 13.4 per cent had one room per person, while 27.2 had two or
more persons per room.
In the anthracite fields, as in other mining and industrial dis
tricts, there are large numbers o f single men who must find a place to
live either with families or in nonfamily groups. Many o f the
miners’ wives felt compelled by economic necessity to supplement
their husbands’ earnings by taking lodgers. According to the super
visor o f the assistance to mothers’ law widowed mothers were some
times given a house and a winter’s coal free by the mine management
on condition that they lodged some o f the single men53 who were
employed in the mine.
The presence o f lodgers very seriously complicates all the problems
o f congested living, particularly for the age group which is under
special consideration. In this district in about 15 per cent (447) of
the families the children 13 to 16 years o f age were exposed to the
disadvantages which come with keeping lodgers. In one instance
there were nine lodgers in a family in which there were six children
under 17 years o f age; five families with eight children and two with
nine children under 17 years also had lodgers. O f necessity this
meant congested sleeping quarters. According to Table X X I I in
the areas selected for intensive study o f housing conditions 68 per
cent o f the people were sleeping with three or more persons in a
room, and 36 per cent with four or more. O f the people living in one
o f the blocks in Shenandoah 77.8 per cent and o f those living in the
two blocks canvassed in Gilberton 75 per cent were sleeping three
or more persons in a room. In the tenement locally known as the
incubator 53.5 per cent o f the people slept with four or more persons
in their sleeping rooms.
82 rpjje generai canvass secured complete figures as to the number of rooms and the
number of persons in 13 patches of various sizes and in different parts o f the district,
in two blocks of Gilberton, and in the greater part o f Frackville.
See p. 33.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
54
CHILD LABOR IN' A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
T able X X I I .— dum ber of occupants of bedrooms, by block or other area, persons
living in blocks or other areas intensively studied.
Persons living in blocks or other areas intensively studied.
Sleeping in bedrooms with specified number of occupants.
Block or other area.
Total
persons.
2 or more persons.
3 or more persons.
4 or more persons.
Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
All selected blocks in
Shenandoah.................
Block 1................... .
Block 2...................... ............
Block 3.............
Block 4.....................
Block 5.................
“ Incubator” ..................
Gilberton.....................
1,435
1,354
94.4
976
68.0
517
36.0
330
332
270
189
243
-71
314
316
264
164
228
68
95.2
95.2
97.8
86.8
93.8
95.8
242
202
210
98
174
50
73.3
60.8
77.8
51.9
71.6
70.4
107
115
96
68
93
38
32.4
34.6
35.6
36.0
38. 3
53.5
225
207
92.0
169
75.1
103
45.8
The fact that the rooms in which so many persons slept were usu
ally small added to the discomforts and the dangers. In the blocks
S H E N A N D O A H — C R O W D E D BACK YA RD S.
in Shenandoah which were included in the intensive housing study,
269 persons were sleeping with four or more and 145 persons with
five or more persons in a room in rooms the floor area o f which was
less than 150 square feet.
The cubic air space was also entirely inadequate.54 A commonly
accepted standard which is regarded as reasonably possible o f attain64Veiller, Lawrence, A Model Housing Law, revised edition, p. 229, par. 110, Russell
Sage Foundation, New York, 1920.
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TH E HOMES OF THE CHILDREN.
55
ment at the present time requires a minimum o f 600 cubic ieet o f air
space for each adult and 400 cubic feet for each child.55 In the area
studied56 in Shenandoah 73 per cent o f the adults and 75 per cent
o f the children had less than this minimum amount o f air space, while
over 200 persons were sleeping with less than half the cubic air space
that is generally held to be necessary by students o f the subject.
While there were not many windowless rooms in the district, they
were not unknown. Thus 52 families with children 13 to 16 years
o f age reported rooms with no windows, in three instances a family
reported two and in one instance four such rooms in one dwelling.
In a basement in a rear house visited by an agent o f the Children’s
Bureau a mother and three children liad two rooms. The bedroom
in which they all slept was entirely dark. In another basement six
persons lived in two rooms, the mother and two children slept in
the kitchen and three other children slept in an inside room.
The standard previously referred to fixes 12 square feet as the mini
mum window space and provides that in no case shall the window
area be less than one-seventh o f the floor area. O f the 534 bedrooms
in the blocks studied, 208 had less.than 12 square feet o f window
area and in 331 the window area was less than one-seventh o f the
floor area. In the 61 rooms, 11 per cent o f all the bedrooms included
in the intensive study, in which the window area was less than onehalf o f the accepted standard, 175 people slept. These conditions,
bad enough in themselves, were rendered worse by the crowding of
houses on the lots, by their general disrepair, and by the almost entire
lack o f proper sanitary arrangements.
THE PULL OF THE MINES AND THE PROBLEM OF PROPER
HOMES.
^The general explanation given o f the disrepair o f the houses o f this
district is the pull o f the mines. In a large part o f the town o f
Shenandoah the old workings have been filled in with slush, but in
many places no such precautions have been taken and the ground has
given way and fissures and cave-ins have resulted. ^
One family reported having had to move because o f a cave-in di
rectly under the house in which they were living. The ground under
the kitchen and dining room disappeared, taking with it the coal
and other things stored beneath. The kitchen floor broke under the
weight o f the furniture and the stove was rescued just as it was slip
ping in.
Another family stated that the pull o f the mines had made large
cracks between the baseboard and the plastered walls, so that the
6BAccording to this standard a child over 12 is allotted the same amount of air
space as an adult. In the present study those under 17 are classed as children.
60 See Appendix IV , Table 30, p. 94.
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CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
mother was afraid to clean the walls lest they also fall. The plaster
in rooms on the second floor o f this home had fallen five years before
and had never been replaced.
A D A N G E R O U S C A V E - I N IN T H E V I L L A G E O F G l L B E R T O N .
The father o f one o f the children had bought a house for $l,8/00
and put into it $1,000 in repairs—all his savings—five years before
this inquiry was made. Subsequently a break occurred at the rear
o f the house; the house sank so that the basement, which the family
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had been renting, was vacated because it was completely below
ground. This house was still sinking at the time o f the inquiry and
the father expected that within two years it would have to be torn
down.
Another man had paid $2,850 on a $3,850 house, which presently
started to sink. In the hope o f saving it he had spent an additional
T H E G R O U N D U N D E R O N E W I N G O F T H I S H O U S E C A V E D .IN O N E N I G H T .
$1,500 to build a cellar. He spoke bitterly o f the conditions, saying
that even when the estates or mining companies served notice on their
tenants to move because the ground was undermined there was no
place to which they could go. As there is no more ground for lease
in Shenandoah, the people felt, he said, that there was nothing for
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them to do but wait for their houses to cave in. “ Then,” he said,
u after it’s gone under you can go in and get what lumber is left.”
From almost every part o f the area came reports o f damage o f
one sort or another due to this cause. One family whose roof
allowed rain to leak into every room reported this to be the result
o f a cave-in which occurred at 11 o’clock at night in the middle
o f the winter preceding the study. At that time half the house
sank 2 or 3 feet. The hole made underneath the house was so deep
that although partly filled in it was at least 12 feet deep at the
time it was inspected by the Children’s Bureau agents. Over it a
narrow bridge had been built so that the family might reach the
toilet. The mining company which owned the house had not, up
to the time o f the investigation, either repaired the roof or filled
in the hole. The home o f another o f the children for whom a
schedule was secured was perched on the edge o f a breach which
had opened after it was built. Six years before the kitchen had fallen
into the breach and at the time o f the study one side o f the house
seemed dangerously near the edge.
The two estates and the mining companies who were the land
lords o f the district protected themselves by their leases from,
liability for any damage to property or to life and limb resulting
from the caving o f land due to mining operations, even though
these mining operations were “ negligently, unskillfully, and im
properly ” carried on and “ without leaving any support whatever
for the surface.” 57
In some cases there was a difference o f opinion as to whether the
condition o f a house was due to the pull o f the mines or to cheap
and faulty construction. As the owners were released from the re
sponsibility for making good the former, it was currently believed
that they relied on that explanation too frequently.
Many o f the houses rented from the mining companies had fallen
into a state o f extreme disrepair because the companies had either
refused or neglected to attend to them. In one such rented by the
family o f a child included in the study the beams had given way
under the kitchen floor, leaving it unstable and the walls warped.
The cellar and the parlor were flooded when it rained and damp
all the time. The chimneys were bad. The roof leaked. The plank
walks in the yard were rotted and broken. The company had made
no repairs in this house for two years.
In another company house the roof leaked badly. No plastering
was left on walls or ceilings and the family had tacked bagging
and oilcloth over the walls and papered over this. Another family
reported that there were 18 inches o f water in the cellar, while the
roof, with holes so large u you can stick your hand through,” leaked
57 See typical lease, Appendix II, p. 72.
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"badly. The residents said that numerous complaints had been made
to the company without avail. In another dilapidated house in
which, as the mother reported, “ the whole house leaks and hardly
a crumb o f plaster is left on the walls,” the company had promised
for three years to make repairs but had made none.
Complaints were less frequent among families who did not live
in the company houses, but among these, too, bad conditions were
described. One family reported that the landlord would make no
repairs although four rooms on the third floor could not be used, the
plaster had fallen, the windows did not open, the floor was uneven
and broken, the stairs leading to the third floor had fallen, and
large cracks in the walls o f the second floor were stuffed with rags.
Another family reported the whole roof to be “ rotten,” the ceiling
“ leaking with every rain ” and remaining wet for several days; in
this house the kitchen walls and floor had sagged apart, the wall
under the chimney was broken and the floor, which was sinking, had
to be supported by blocks.
These examples were reported to be typical. They indicate, if not
indifference to the necessity for decent, healthful home conditions
for parents and children, at least an acceptance o f a standard of
living that is sure to bring its chain o f social disasters. The neglect
has, doubtless, been due in part to the real difficulty o f keeping the
houses repaired because o f the pull o f the mines. The very fact
that the landlord was also so frequently the employer, might well
be said to have created a special obligation to protect the children
o f their employees from the demoralizing effect o f living in houses
such as those just described.
SEWAGE AND GARBAGE DISPOSAL.
Under the congested conditions which have been described sewage
and garbage disposal were of primary importance. For about twothirds o f the residential part o f Shenandoah sewers were provided ;
for the rest o f this city and the other parts o f the district studied
there were no sewers. The Shenancjoah sewers were not installed as
part o f a comprehensive plan, so that for the district they covered
they were inadequate. They emptied into Shenandoah Creek, which
separated the homes o f the workers from the collieries on the east and
south. In addition to the sewage from the town, this stream was
relied upon to carry off the culm and the sewage and other refuse
from the mines. It was shallow and the current not swift, so that
the openings of the sewers were clogged and sometimes completely
closed and the sewage was forced back into the houses in consequence.
The settling o f the land made the sewage system in Shenandoah
difficult to keep in proper condition. For example, Line Street at
the time the sewers were laid was higher than the street to the
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south o f it, but at the time this study was in progress it was con
siderably lower. The sewer on Line Street carried not only domestic
sewage but a large amount o f mine waste. A fter the settling o f the
street it was blocked. A cesspool for one o f the patches which was
located on the side o f the mountain at the northern edge o f the
borough drained down the side o f the mountains into an open sewer
which flowed under the principal street in that part o f Shenandoah
and then continued along side streets until .it emptied into Kohinoor
Creek. A t the point where it was supposed to flow under the prin
cipal street it was blocked for some months before and during the
time this study was being made. As a result the sewage was turned
back along the north side o f the street, creating a most objectionable
condition. In the course o f the investigation many complaints were
made to the agents o f the Children’s Bureau o f the overflow o f sewers
flushed by rain or blocked by refuse, and o f the odors o f the creeks
into which they emptied.
In the sections o f Shenandoah and the rest o f the district where
there were no sewers water from the kitchen sinks was generally
carried out o f the houses in drains which emptied into the yard,
whence it flowed into the ditches along the road or stood in stagnant,
ill-smelling pools.
What has already been said about the damp or wet cellars o f the
district indicates the lack o f adequate provision for surface drain
age. Among the patches near the collieries such drains as existed
were frequently blocked by slush from the mines.
In Gilberton the situation was especially bad. Most o f the
houses were built along the strip o f ground lying between the main
road and the railroad embankment. Across the embankment was a
creek into which slush and culm were dumped. Extensive excava
tions had been made under the houses and the land had been set
tling steadily for a period o f years. The railroad embankment and
the highway, with the trolley tracks on it, had been filled in from
time to time. Because o f the swelling of the stream and the subsi
dence o f the land on which the houses, stood, the level o f water in
the creek was some 10 feet above the ground on the other side o f the
embankment. The result was that the ground between the high
way and the railroad was usually flooded and water into which
sewage, garbage, and refuse o f all sorts had been dumped, stood in
the yards and seeped into the cellars. Sometimes the water reached
above the first-floor level o f the houses. In two blocks in Gilberton
there were three houses which had been abandoned on this account.
Three others, in which there had been similar conditions, had been
raised and the cellars filled with ashes and cement. O f the 39
remaining houses in the two blocks, 37 had water standing in the
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cellars. In three cases it was reported that the water reached up to
the boards o f the floor and these were rotting so that it was feared
they might give way at any time. The cellars had been closed lest
some o f the children fall in and be drowned. In some o f the houses
ducks were found swimming in the cellars.
In times o f storm the water often flooded the dwelling parts o f
the houses. In the rooms in one house marks were seen a foot above
the mopboard, to which the water had reached the previous spring.
Some families had put their furniture up on props and throughout
the neighborhood it was generally impossible to use carpets.
When the land in this neighborhood first began to settle the peo
ple had tried to jack up their houses on old railroad ties and rough
embankments in order to keep them above the water level,58 but
they had finally abandoned these efforts. A pump operated by the
coal company which made the excavations under Gilberton had
also not been adequate to afford protection.
Another very serious problem was the types o f toilets which were
commonly used in this section. In Shenandoah the connection o f
the houses with such sewer system as the city had provided was at
the option o f the owner. The result was that no connection had
been made with many houses and for others a toilet o f the pit-privy
type had been placed over an opening o f a sewer pipe. There was
no flushing arrangement and often not sufficient water in the pipe
to carry off the sewage. While this was objectionable, still water
could be poured down the shaft to clear the pipe from time to time.
It was reported that in one case a hose was used two or three times
a year for this purpose.
In Frackville and in certain o f the patches, families had waterclosets comiected with cesspools, but for the most part the dry pit
was used in the area outside Shenandoah; in Gilberton they were
placed over the creek which flowed behind the houses. Altogether,
throughout the district 1,153 o f the families included in the study
were compelled to use dry privies, 724 families had the privy placed
above a sewer in the manner described above; 457 had sanitary
toilets with flushing arrangements, 59 o f these being located in the
yards.
Frequently the outside toilets were crowded together in very small
yards or courts closed in on every side by dwellings. One mother
called attention to the fact that her front door opened upon a row of
10 outhouses, from which the odor was very offensive, although they
were cleaned once a week. Many others were not so frequently cleaned
and in the wet weather some overflowed. Some families complained
o f cesspools within 3 or 4 feet o f the kitchen door.
“ Rep° J ° f ®tate ^ reau of housin& on “ Housing and sanitary conditions in the towns
in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania,” October, 1918. Unpub. MS. p. 71.
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In the area outside Shenandoah some o f the crudest types o f out
houses, neglected and offensive, were found. Complaints came from
the patches in every part o f the district that the landlords made little
effort to keep them in proper condition.
The majority o f families included in the study had their own toilet
or outhouse. Four hundred and fifty-eight, however, reported that
two or more families used the same toilet. In one instance as many
as 10 families were reported to be using a toilet which had no flushing
connections but was merely placed over an opening in a sewer pipe.
Throughout the greater part o f Shenandoah the garbage was col
lected by the borough once a week; in one o f the patches it was col
lected also once a week by the mining corporation owning the patch,
but for over half the families included in the study no garbage col-
A C R O W D E D Y A R D IN W H I C H A M I D D L E H O U S E F A C E S A R O W O F SIX P R I V I E S .
lections were made. In areas where it was not collected all that was
not fed to chickens and other animals was generally dumped with
other refuse in the breaches caused by the mines, or was piled on
vacant land. The people living on the edge of town in Shenandoah,
where collections were very infrequent, threw their garbage, dead
animals, and other refuse across the borough boundary line on the
north o f the town or into the creek, already overflowing, or on vacant
land not suitable for building purposes. Families complained bit
terly o f the offensiveness of these “ dumps.”
In the section in Shenandoah where the garbage was collected there
was no supervision o f the type of can used, so that every sort o f re
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ceptacle— old baskets or boxes, dishpans, or pails—were pressed into
service almost always without any covering and often not large
enough to hold the garbage that accumulated in a week.59 As a re
sult ¡garbage was often found scattered about the crowded courts.
Some families living outside the borough made a practice o f sending
their children into Shenandoah regularly to collect the garbage,which they fed to their pigs and other animals. These children, some
times 6 or 7 years o f age, and known throughout the borough as the
slop girls, picked over the garbage, carried home in large pails what
they thought the pigs would eat, and left the rest scattered about on
the grounds.
.
In Shenandoah itself there was no prohibition against keeping
animals. In some crowded courtyards there were pigs, goats, and
cows. Almost every yard had chicken coops. In one yard, 12 by
25 feet, an agent o f the Children’s Bureau counted 11 toilets, and
25 hens, besides dogs and cats. Added to all the odors which came
from these sources, the people o f Shenandoah endured the stench
which came from slaughterhouses and fertilizer plants connected
with the packing houses, and from a brewery.
THE WATER SUPPLY.
In the borough o f Shenandoah about two-thirds o f the people
were supplied with the water brought by the borough from reser
voirs in the mountains to the north and northeast. This spring
water was piped- down to the reservoirs, a distance o f 6 miles. The
distributing reservoirs were kept small so that there might be a con
stant flow o f fresh water ; it was guarded from pollution and tested
frequently. This water was considered good. The water distrib
uted to the rest o f Shenandoah60 by a company established long
before the borough water department was created was also good.
The difficulty in Shenandoah was not with the quality o f the
water but with the amount and its availability. For two-fifths
(40.2 per cent) o f the families interviewed, the only hydrant was
outside the house. In many such cases a number o f families used
a single hydrant which stood in the middle o f the small court or
yard. In one instance 20 families were reported to be dependent
upon the same hydrant, in another 9 families, in another 6, in an
other 8, and in another 10 families carried all their water from the
same hydrant. In the winter this hydrant often froze and then all
the families dependent on it had to go some distance for water.
One woman reported that all the water for her family had to be
carried 125 feet over an uneven road, while another reported she
69 Only 27 out o f 2,341 fam ilies reported that their garbage w as collected oftener than
once a week.
60 Out of the 1,228 fam ilies from whom information was secured only the two who
had wells did not get their water either from the borough or from this company.
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C H IL D LABOR IN A C O A L -M lN lH G DISTRICT.
had to go 150 feet down a rocky slope for all she used. It was
therefore easy to agree with another who remarked, “ It’s hard to
get at keeping clean when you’re tired out from carrying the water.”
A ll these difficulties were greatly increased during the summer
when the borough was put on water rations and water could be
used only during certain hours. During the winter, unless it was
exceptionally mild, the water was turned off every night at 10 o’clock
to prevent freezing.
In the patches difficulties similar to these were the rule. Turkey
Run, a part o f Shenandoah Borough, although supplied by the
borough water department still had a seribus problem. In summer
throughout the patch, water could be obtained usually only from 5
to 6 a. m. and occasionally from 7 to 8 p. m. The western half o f
the patch sometimes received none at all for weeks at a stretch, and
water had to be carried up the rocky mountain path from Gilberton,
over one-fourth o f a mile away. In winter the water was even more
scarce in the patch than in summer and the inhabitants were some
times thankful i f they had snow which they could melt for the
family washing.
Many explanations were offered for this shortage o f water—the
water line could not be kept in repair because o f the constant occur*
rence o f cave-ins; the pipes froze readily because they were laid on
or near the surface o f the ground; and the water was required, dur
ing the working day, almost entirely by the near-by colliery breakers
and washeries. Complaints were said to have been made to the
Shenandoah authorities but without avail, and the people o f Turkey
Run, unable to afford a private system, had nothing to do but accept
a situation which left them in discomfort and added enormously
to the difficulties o f keeping their houses in sanitary condition.
Most o f the patches were supplied with water by one of three com
panies. These companies all piped the water from reservoirs and
it was tested from time to time. Only in two very small patches
was the water carried from springs. In Raven Run, though com
pany water was piped into the patch, it was said not to be good,
and water for drinking purposes was carried from a spring 100 yards
away from some o f the houses and one-fourth o f a mile from others.
On account o f the distance some o f the people drank the cistern
water in winter. From the patches, as in Shenandoah, came frequent
complaints o f pipes which froze and burst. From Frackville, where
all but a very few families were supplied by artesian wells, there
were no complaints.
In Gilberton and the patches as in Shenandoah the distance to the
hydrant was often great and the number o f families using it many.
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RECREATION FOR THE CHILDREN.
Few places offer so little opportunity for education through play
as did the town o f Shenandoah. The houses set flush with the side
walks were crowded on the lots so that there was hardly a yard in
the city. There had once been a playground on the northern edge o f
the town at the foot o f the mountain. But the tennis courts were
not kept up, the wading pool for the little children was dry, and
the drains became stopped up. There was opposition to the play
ground on the part o f some o f the neighbors because it was popular
with the children and the noise they made was disturbing. It was
not properly supervised or cared for and at the time this study was
made it was in a sadly neglected state. The town had no parks. The
new high school had an auditorium, where lectures and entertain
ments were sometimes held, and a gymnasium, but no ground or
athletic field o f any kind. Most o f the children left school before
they reached the high school and no playgrounds had been provided
for these children.
Pastors o f a few o f the churches reported that they had from time
to time made an effort to bring some o f the children together in
semireligious, semisocial clubs. But none of these had been suc
cessful. Only a very few children 13 to 16 years old in Shenandoah
had belonged to these clubs, and a few more in Frackville and in
the patches.
But, as everywhere, the children o f Shenandoah managed to play
whether the places where they played were either suitable or safe.
The smaller boys seemed to choose the railroad tracks; a football
team practiced regularly in the city street; a basket for basket ball
was attached to a telegraph pole in a street where trolley cars and
vehicles interrupted the game. One small boy, a member o f a base
ball team, said the only place the team had to practice was the street;
they could play there “ till the cop comes.” The little children went
wading in the black stream which flowed along two sides o f the
borough and received the sewage and refuse o f the mines. The
older boys found that Hooky Dam, which closes two breaches in the
side o f the mountain and catches the water which drains down the
mountain, could be used as a swimming hole. Children played on
the dumps o f refuse and garbage and climbed to the tops o f the moun65
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tains o f culm. Everywhere the larger boys loitered on street corners
and gangs o f smaller boys swarmed the streets. The girls, equally
unprovided with proper recreation, were kept busy doing housework
or caring for the younger children, so that fewer of them loitered
about the streets.
In contrast with Shenandoah, a company-owned patch on the north
and one on the south had a playground—one well equipped— for the
T H E SW IM M IN G
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ROOFS O F S H E N A N D O A H
smaller children aiid the young people; a third had a small club
house for men and boys. But these were available for very few chil
dren. Only 51 o f the 714 children who lived in the patches had ever
been to a playground.
Gilberton had provided benches at intervals, facing the car tracks
on Main Street. A tree had been planted near each bench, but these
trees had not prospered. There was no grass anywhere, only cinders
and the stagnant water of Lake Stoddard. Altogether Gilberton
showed the most serious lack of parks and playgrounds.
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APPENDIX I.
SUMMARIES OF PENNSYLVANIA WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION
ACTS OF 1915 AND 1919.1
1915 A C T .
D ate o f enactment.— June 2, 1915; in effect January 1, 1916,
, Injuries compensated.— Personal injury by accident in the course of employ
ment, causing disability for more than 14 days or death in 300 weeks, not in
tentionally self-inflicted or due to the intentional act of a third person for
reasons not connected with the employment.
Industries covered.— All, unless employer makes election to the contrary.
(Agricultural and domestic employees are excluded by a separate act.)
Persons compensated.— Private employment: All persons rendering service
to another for a valuable consideration, casual employees and those working on
material given out to be made up, repaired, etc., on premises not under the con
trol of the employer excepted. Public employment: A ll employees.
Burden of payment.— A ll on employer.
Compensation for death.— (a) One hundred dollars funeral expenses.
( 6 ) Forty per cent o f weekly wages to widow or dependent widower, 5 per
cent additional for each child, total not to exceed 60 per cen t; if no parent, 25
per cent if 1 or 2 children, 10 per cent additional for each child in excess of 2 ,
total not to exceed 60 per cen t; if no consort or child under 16, but dependent
parent, brothers, or sisters, 15 to 25 per cent o f wages.
(c) Payments cease on death, remarriage o f widow or widower, cessation of
dependence of widower, or child, brother, or sister attaining the age of 16, not
to continue beyond 300 weeks, unless for children under 16, when 15 per cent
will be paid for 1 and 10 per cent additional for each additional child, total not
to exceed 50 per cent. Basic wages are not less than $10 nor more than $20
weekly.
Compensation for disability.— (a) Reasonable medical, surgical, and hospital
expenses for first 14 days after disability begins, cost not to exceed $25, unless
major surgical operation is necessary, when $75 is the maximum.
( 6 ) For total disability, 50 per cent of weekly wages for 500 weeks, $5 mini
mum, $10 maximum, total not to exceed $4,000; if wages less than $5, full wages
will be paid.
, (c) For partial disability, 50 per cent o f weekly wage loss, $10 maximum, for
not over 300 w eeks; fixed periods for specified injuries, $5 minimum, $10 m axi
mum, full wages if less than $ 5 .
Payments may be commuted to a lump sum.
Revision of benefits.— Agreements and awa'rds may be reviewed by the
board at any time for proper cause.
1 United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin No. 185, Compensation Legislation
o f 1914 and 1915, p. 26, W ashington, 1915 ; United States Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Bulletin No. 272, Workmen’s Compensation Legislation o f the United States and Canada,
p. 54, Washington, 1921.
69
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
70
C H IL D
LABOR IN
A
C O A L -M I N I N G
D IS T R IC T .
Insurance.— Employers must insure in the State fund, a stock or mutual
Company, or give proof of financial ability.
Security of paym ents— Agreements or claims may be filed with a prothonotary, who enters them as a judgment, and if approved by the board they
become a lien on the property o f the employer. A separate act provides for
direct payments from insurance companies to the beneficiaries, in case of the
employer’s failure to make payment of benefits.
Settlement of disputes.— Disputes are settled by a workmen’s compensation
board, with appeal to courts.
1919 ACT.
Date of enactment.— June 2, 1915; in effect January 1, 1916; amended, acts
Nos. 57, 359, 395, acts of 1917; acts Nos. 277, 306, 310, 441, 455, acts of 1919.
Injuries compensated.— Personal injury by accident in the .course o f em
ployment, causing disability for more than 10 days or death in 300 weeks,
not intentionally self-inflicted or due to the intentional act of a third person
for reasons not connected with the employment.
Industries covered.— All, unless employer makes election to the contrary.
A supplemental act (No. .359, acts of 1917) requires all contracts with the
State or any municipality to contain a provision that the contractor shall
accept the provisions of the compensation law. (Agricultural and domestic
employees are excluded by a separate act.)
Persons compensated.— Private employment: A ll persons rendering service
to another for a valuable consideration, casual employees whose work is not
in the regular course o f the employer’s business, and outworkers excepted.
Public employment: A ll employees.
Burden o f payment.—-All on employer.
Compensation for death.— (a ) $100 funeral expenses.
(b) Forty per cent o f weekly wages to widow or dependent widower, 10
per cent additional for each child, total not to exceed 60 per cen t; i f no parent,
30 per cent if one or two children, 10 per cent additional for each child in
excess o f two, total not to exceed 60 per cent; if no consort or child under
16, but dependent parent, brothers, or sisters, 15 to 25 per cent o f wages.
(c ) Payments cease on death, remarriage of widow or widower, cessation
of dependence of widower, or when a child, brother, or sister attains the
age of 1 6 ; not to continue beyond 300 weeks, unless for children under 16,
when 15 per cent of wages will be paid for one and 10 per cent additional
for each additional child, total not to exceed 50 per cent. Basic wages are not
less than $10 nor more than $20 weekly.
Upon remarriage a widow is to receive the then value o f the compensation
for one-third o f the unpaid period.
Compensation for disability— {a) Reasonable medical and surgical expenses
for first 30 days after disability begins, cost not to exceed $100; in addition,
hospital treatment for 30 days at prevailing costs.
(&) For total disability, 60 per cent of weekly wages for 500 weeks, $6 mini
mum, $12 maximum, total not to exceed $5,000, i f wages less than $6 full wages
will be paid.
(c) For partial disability, 60 per cent o f weekly wage loss, $12 maximum,
for not over 300 weeks; fixed periods for specified injuries, in lieu of other pay
ments, $6 minimum, $12 maximum, full wages if less than $ 6 .
Payments may be commuted to a lump sum.
Revision of benefits.— Agreements and awards may be reviewed by the board
at any time for proper cause.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
A P P E N D IX I .
71
Insurance.— Employers must insure in the State fund, a stock or mutual com
pany, or give proof o f financial ability.
Security of payments.— Agreements or claims may be
tary, who enters them as a judgment, and if approved
come a lien on the property of the employer. A separate
payments from insurance companies to the beneficiaries
ployer’s failure to make payments of benefits.
filed with a pröthonoby the board they be
act provides for direct
in the case o f the em
Settlement of disputes.— Disputes are settled by a workmen’s compensation
board with appeal to courts.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIX Hi
SECTIONS OF LEASES OF ESTATES.
The following is a section o f a lease made by the city o f Phila
delphia as trustee o f * * * estate:
“ X I . I t i s e x p r e s s l y a g r e e d that this lease is taken and held by the said
lessee subject to the right of the City o f Philadelphia, trustee, as aforesaid,
its successors, and assigns, and its and their tenants and lessees, under any
lease now made, or that may hereafter be made, to mine out all the coal in the
veins at, near or under the surface of the lot o f ground hereby demised, or
under the surface of any adjoining property by the said lessor, without
leaving any support whatever for the surface or o f the said mineworkings; that
the said, the City o f Philadelphia, trustee as aforesaid, its successors and
assigns, and its and their tenants and lessees shall have the perfect and absolute
right, undiminished by this lease, to dig, work, remove and mine the whole and
every part of the said coal, whether or not by so doing the surface o f the afore
mentioned lot subsides or is broken or thrown down, or the improvements thereon
impaired, or rendered unsafe for occupations, or destroyed, and without coni'
pensation to the party of the second part herein, either from the tenants or
lessees under mining leases, or from the lessor herein, or its or their successors
or assigns, for coal so mined, or for injuries to or destruction o f the surface, or
any improvement or building thereon, thereby occasioned, and without pro
vision for the support of the surface or o f the mineworkings, even though such
mining and working should be negligently, unskillfully and improperly don e;
that the said lessee hereby releases all claims for, damages o f every kind and
nature, for injury to the stJfface of the demised premises, buildings, improve
ments, and the person of the said lessee, that may be occasioned by the mining
aforesaid; and nothing herein contained shall be construed to give to the
said lessee any right to interfere with, or to restrain by any proceedings at
law or in equity the action of the City of Philadelphia, trustee as aforesaid,
its successors and assigns, and its and their tenants and lessees, in mining and
removing the coal as aforesaid.”
Following is a similar section o f the lease of another estate:
“ 16. I t is e x p r e s sl y agreed by the said lessee that this lease is taken and
held by the lessee subject to the right of the said lessors, their heirs, successors,
and assigns, and their tenants and lessees, under any lease now made, or that
hereafter may be made, to mine out all the coal in the beds or veins, at, near,
or under the surface of the lot or lots of ground hereby demised, or under the
surface of any adjoining or other property owned, leased, or operated by the les
sors, their heirs, successors, and assigns, and their tenants and lessees under
mining leases, without leaving any support whatever, either vertical or lateral for
the surface of the said lot or lots, or of the mine workings; that the lessors, their
heirs, successors, and assigns, and their tenants and lessees under mining leases,
shall have the perfect and absolute right, undiminished by this lease, to dig, work,
mine, and remove the whole and every part o f Said coal, although by so doing
the surface of the demised premises subsides or is broken or thrown down, or
destroyed, or the improvements thereon are impaired, or rendered unsafe for
occupation, or destroyed, without compensation to the lessee herein, either from
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
A P P E N D IX
II.
73
the tenants or lessees under mining leases or from the lessors herein, or their
heirs, executors, administrators, successors, or assigns, for coal so mined or
for injuries to or destruction of the surface, or any improvement or building
thereon, or to any person or persons, thereby occasioned, even though such min
ing and working should be negligently, unskillfully, and improperly done, and
without provision for the support of the surface o f the demised premises or o f
the mine workings; that the lessee hereby releases the said lessors, and each of
them, their heirs, successors, and assigns, and their tenants and lessees under
any mining lease now made or that hereafter may be made, and each of them,
and the said Borough o f Shenandoah. Following is a copy o f the section reliev
ing the lessors from responsibility for any damage due to discharge of culm
into the stream, etc. For section relating to the caving in o f surfaces, see foot
notes, p. 380.
“ X . It is hereby further expressly agreed by said lessees that this lease is
taken and held subject to the right o f the said lessors, and each o f them, their
heirs, successors, and assigns, and their tenants and lessees, under any lease
now made, or that hereafter may be made, to deposit and discharge into the
Shenandoah Creek, and its tributaries, mine water, culm, coal dirt, slate and
refuse material generally, from any collieries, washeries and culm banks, now
or hereafter owned, leased or operated by the said lessors, or either of them,
their heirs, successors and assigns, and their tenants and lessees, or either of
them, or by any firm or corporation in which the said lessors, or either of
them, may be interested, by owning stock or capital or as lessor, lessee or
otherwise; or from any colleries, washeries and culm banks now or hereafter
located upon lands owned or leased by the lessors, or either of them, their
heirs, successors or assigns, or upon land owned or leased by any o f the
firm or corporation in which the lessors, their heirs or assigns, or either of
them, may be interested by owning stock, capital or otherwise, or be in any
way interested, along or near the said Shenandoah Creek, or any tributaries
thereof; and for the purpose aforesaid the said lessee hereby remises, releases,
quit-claims and forever discharges the said lessors, and each o f them, their
heirs, successors and assigns, and their tenants and lessees under any lease
now made, or that hereafter may be made, and each of them, of and from
all suit's, claims, demands, and damages whatsoever arising out of the use
now or heretofore o f the aforesaid and the future maintenance and operation
o f the same and o f others, and for, upon or by reason o f any such deposit
or discharge, or o f any other deposit or discharge, or o f any other deposit or
discharge generally that has been or may at any time be discharged and de
posited in said stream or on the above-described lot, or land adjacent
thereto; and of and from all suits, claims, demands and damages whatsoever,
for, upon or by reason o f any and every use of the said land, and o f the said
Shenandoah Creek and its tributaries, as aforesaid. O f and from all claims
for damages of every kind and nature, for injury to the surface o f the demised
premises, and the buildings and improvements thereon and to the person and
persons of the lessee, that may be occasioned by the mining aforesaid, or by
the disposition of the coal or o f the rock, culm, waste, washings from breaker,
or mine water from minings, colliery or washery operations, and nothing
herein contained shall be construed to give to the lessee any right to interfere
with, or to restrain by any proceedings at law or in equity the action of the
lessors, their heirs, successors and assigns, and their tenants, in mining, re
moving and preparing said coal, or in the disposition o f the coal, rock, culm,
waste, washings from breaker, or mine water from the said mining, colliery,
or washery operations.”
91597°— 22----- 6
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIX III.
EXCERPT FROM AN UNPUBLISHED REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF
PENNSYLVANIA STATE BUREAU OF HOUSING TO THE COM
MISSIONER OF HEALTH, APRIL 9, 19i9, REGARDING LAND
OWNERSHIP AND RELIEF OF CONGESTION IN SHENANDOAH.
“ The land is owned by three corporations, as fo llow s: The * * * estate to
the north of * * * Street; the * * * and * * * estate to the south
o f * * * Street and west o f * * * Street; the * * * company to the
south of * * * Street and east of * * * Street; and no land is offered for
sale or lease. The congestion is due to the fact that there is no place for the
people to build homes, unless these corporations place upon the market their
available vacant land.
“ The * * * estate owns very little land within the borough limits and
this land would not be safe to build upon; the houses on the north side of
* * * Street that are built upon land leased from them are mostly in a
bad condition, due to settlement of the ground. Farther up the side o f the
mountain to the north and outside of the borough limits and above the line
o f mine breaches they are considering offering for sale some six or seven hun
dred lots, provided that the borough extends its limits to take in these lots
and supplies them with water and street lights. The estate offers to grade
and pave streets and sidewalks, install curbs and sewers.
“ This operation would be a very desirable one and would, of course, be a
great improvement to the borough, but it would be a very expensive proposition
for the borough to pump the water up to the required level, and as the financial
condition of the borough is very poor the authorities do not desire to install the
water supply for these lots.”
“ The * * * estate appaiently does not own any ground that would either
be available or safe for building purposes and within convenient access to Shen
andoah. Their collieries, with their culm heaps, breakers, etc., take up all
their available land area, except at Turkey Run, which is not considered safe
for further building purposes. The few houses there are in bad condition, due
to settlement.
“ The * * * company possesses the only land that if opened up and placed
upon the market would relieve conditions in the borough proper. The land is
convenient and accessible to the collieries and to the town. It is situated, on the
south side of the road to * * * and on both sides of the road to * * *. It
has a gentle slope, so that the grading would not be expensive, and yet with suffi
cient slope to give good natural drainage; it could be sewered easily to Shenan
doah Creek, which is only a short distance away, and the water supply could be
taken from the present reservoir as the elevation is not much higher than the
central portion o f Shenandoah. The ground is underlaid with about two hun
dred feet o f solid rock above the coal veins and is therefore considered safe from
settlement.
“ I f this ground were opened up and placed on the market at a reasonable
price it would relieve conditions o f overcrowding and congestion, by providing a
/Convenient location that would meet the needs o f the workmen and enable them
to build neat and comfortable homes and have sufficient breathing space for
themselves and their families.”
74
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIX IV— TABLES.
T able 1.— Nativity o f child and of father, by district of residence; children
IS to 16 years of age.
Children 13 to 16 years of age living in specified district of residence.
Total.
Nativity of child and of
father.
Shenandoah.
Frackville.
Surrounding
patches.
Gilberton.
Per
Per
Per
Per
Per
Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent
ber. distri ber. distri ber. distri ber. distri ber. distri
bution.
bution.
bution.
bution.
bution.
Total...................... 3,136
Native..................... « ... 2,964
Native fathers......... . 1,147
Foreign-born fathers. 1,811
Father’snativity not
reported.................
6
Foreign born...................
172
T
able
1 0 0 .0
1,655
1 0 0 .0
424
343
1 0 0 .0
714
1 0 0 .0
94.5
36.6
57.7
1,529
387
1,138
92.4
23.4
6 8 .8
411
273
138
96.9
64.4
32.5
331
165
166
96.5
48.1
48.4
693
322
369
97.1
45.1
51.7
5.5
4
126
7.6
13
3.1
12
3.5
21
1 0 0 .0
2
2.9
2 . — Children who began regular work at specified prior age, by age at
time of inquiry and sex.
Children 13 to 16 years oi age.
Who having passed specified birthday had commenced regular work
before specified birthday.
Age at time of inquiry
and sex.
Who had
Total. commenced
regular Thirteenth. Fourteenth. Fifteenth.
work.
Sixteenth.
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
Not
re
port
ed.
TOTAL.
13........................................
14........................................
15........................................
1 6 ......................................
Not reported......................
844
91 1 0 . 8
716- 226 31.6
794 468 58.9
779 561 72.0
3
3
62
24
20
10
7.3
3.4
2 .5
1.3
145 20.3
125 15.7
61 7.8
390 '49. 1
329 42.2
526 67.5
103 32.1
92 21.9
43 9.7
264 62. 7
249 56.1
368 82.9
1
BOYS.
1 3 ....................................
1 4 ......................................
1 5 ......................................
16........................................
Not reported......................
376
321
421
444
2
64 17.0
147 45.8
301 71.5
382 8 6 . 0
48
22
16
7
1 2 .8
6.9
3.8
1 .6
2
GIRLS.
13........................................
14........................................
15........................................
16........................................
Notreported........... ...........
468
395
373
335
1
1
27 5.8
79 2 0 . 0
167 44.8
179 53.4
14
2
4
3
3.0
0.5
1 .1
0.9
42
33
18
1 0 .6
8.8
5.4
126
331 Q
80 23.9
158 47.2
1
1
75
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1
76
T
C H IL D
able
LABOE IN
A
C O A L -M I N I N G
D IS T E IC T .
3 . — Employment in regular work,
by age and s e x ; children who had
passed specified ages.
Children who had passed
specified birthday.
Children who had passed
specified birthday.
Who began regular
work before speci
fied birthday.
Birthday.
Total. 1
Who beganregular
work before speci
fied birthday.
Birthday.
"Total. 1
Number. Percent.
Number. Percent.
boys—continued.
TOTAL.
3 136
•>!292
ï ’ 576
782
Fifteenth...............
Sixteenth..............
5.9
93
238
1 564
Ï'Î 8 8
Fourteenth............
3.7
14.4
45.6
67.3
116
331
719
526
2 0 .0
867
446
Fifteenth...............
Sixteenth........ —
513
368
59.2
82.5
23
93
206
158.
1.5
8.4
29.1
47.0
GIBLS.
1,572
1,104
709
336
Thirteenth.............
Fourteenth............
Fifteenth............. .
Sixteenth...............
1 The three cases of age at time of inquiry and age at going to work not reported have been assumed for
this comparison to have passed the sixteenth birthday but not to have commenced regular work before
thesixteenth birthday, since this procedure gives the most conservative percentages.
T
able
4 — Children who began work of any kind at specified'prior age, by age
at time of inquiry and sex of child.
Children of specified age.
Who began work of any kind before specified birthday. 1
Age at time of
inquiry and
sex.
Total,
Total.
Thirteenth. Fourteenth. Fiftèenth.
Sixteenth. Seventeenth.
Not
re
port
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per ed.
ber.
cent.
ber.
cent.
cent.
ber.
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
TOTAL.
13
14
15
16
844 171 20.3
....
716 316 44.1
....
794 549 69.1
..............................................................
779 613 78.7
....
133 15.8
44 6.1
39 4.9
18 2.3
376 123 32.7
....
321 209 65.1
..............................................................
421 360 85.5
....
444 421 94.8
....
100 26.6
39 12.1
Not reported.
3
3
231 32.3
156 19.6
75
473 59.6
365 46.9
574 73.7
610 78.3
7.1
3.2
168 52.3
113 26.8
55 12.4
323 76.7
282 63.5
406 91.4
419 94.4
7.1
1.3
2.4
15.9
11.5
150 40.2
, 83 24.8
168 50.1
191 57.0
BOYS.
13
14
15
16
Not reported.
2
2
468
395
373
335
48
107
189
192
30
14
GIBLS.
13
..
14
....
15
....
16 . ...........................
Not reported.
1
1
1
10.3
27.1
50.7
57.3
1. 2
6.0
Per cent shown only for birthdays reached in the group considered.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
77
A P P E N D IX I V ,
T
able
5 .-— Number and per cent of children who had commenced w ork o f any
kind at specified ages.
Children who had passed
specified birthday.
Birthday.
Total.1
•
Children who had passed
specified birthday.
Who began work of
any kind before
specified birth
day.
Who began work of
any kind before
specified birth
day. .
Birthday.
Total. 1
Number. Per cent.
Number. Per cent.
boys—continued
TOTAL.
Fifteenth...............
Sixteenth...............
234
462
838
574
3,136
2'292
1,576
782
Fifteenth...............
7.5
53.2
73.4
Fourteenth...........
605
406
69.8
91.0
1,572
1,104
709
336
51
126
233
168
3.2
11.4
32.9
50.0
GIRLS.
Thirteenth.............
Fourteenth............
BOVS.
1,564
1,188
867
446
2 0 .2
11.7
28.3
183
336
Sixteenth.............
1 The three cases of age at time of inquiry and age at going to work not reported have been assumed for
this comparisonto have passed the sixteenth birthday hut not to have commenced work beforethe sixteenth
birthday, since this procedure gives the most conservative percentages.
T able
6
.— Employment in regular work, by age at time of inquiry, nativity of
father, and s e x ; children who had passed specified ages.
Children 13 to 16 years of age. 1
Age of child at time of in
quiry, nativity of father,
and sex of child.
Who having passed specified birthday had commenced regular
work before passing specified birthday.
Total.
Thirteenth.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Fourteenth.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Fifteenth.
Sixteenth.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
85
78
30.6
27.3
59
2 0 .6
180
189
34.9
38.6
137
28.0
60
63
43.5
42.2
36
24.7
142
39.6
47.8
83
27.9
25
14
17.9
1 0 .0
23
16.4
29.2
24.4
54
28.0
Per
cent.
Total.
Native fathers:
13..................... .............
14...................................
15...................................
16...................................
Foreign-bom fathers:
13................................
14 .
15...................................
16...................................
324
259
278
. 286
519
455
516
490
10
2
3
1
52
22
17
9
3.1
0 .8
1 .1
0.3
1 0 .0
4.8
3.3
1 .8
25
15
10
96
90
40
9.7
5.4
3.5
2 1 .1
17.4
8 .2
Boys.
Native fathers:
13
14 ..
15...
16...................................
Foreign-born fathers:
13
14
15...
16..... .............................
154
120
138
146
222
201
283
297
8
2
3
5.2
1.7
2 .2
1
0.7
40
18.0
20
1 0 .0
13
4.6
6
2 .0
21
12
6
17.5
8.7
4.1
60
64
30
2 2 .6
1 0 .1
29.9
112
Girls'.
Native fathers:
13
14
15
16 ..................................
Foreign-bom fathers:
15
16...................................
170
139
140
140
297
254
233
193
2
12
2
4
3
1 .2
4
3
4
2 .0
2 .1
0 .8
1.7
36
26
14.2
1 .6
10
4.0
2.9
1 1 .2
5.2
68
47
i Three cases of age not reported and six of nativity not reported are omitted from this table.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
78
T
able
C H IL D
LABOR IN
A
G O A L -M I N I N '6
D IS T R IC T .
7 . — Employment in regular work, by age, nativity o f father, and s e x ;
children who had passed specified ages.
Children who had passed
specified birthday.
Children who had passed
specified birthday.
Birthday, nativity
of father, and sex
of child.
Total. 1
Who began regular
workbefore speci
fied birthday.
Birthday, nativity
of father, and sex
of child.
Total.1
Number. Per cent.
Number. Per cent.
Boys—Continued.
Total.
Native fathers:
13.....................
14
is
16 .
Foreign fathers:
13.....................
14.....................
15.....................
1,147
823
564
286
16
50
165
59
1,983
1,464
1,009
493
226
369
137
100
1.4
6 .1
29.3
2 0 .6
558
404
284
146
14
39
123
36
Foreign fathers:
13....................
14.....................
15.....................
16.....................
1,005
783
582
299
15.4
36-6
27.8
Boys.
Native fathers:
13.....................
14
15 ..
16.....................
Who began regular
work before speci
fied birthday.
2.5
9. 7
43.3
24.7
7.9
19.7
43.6
27.8
79
154
254
83
Girls.
Native fathers:
13.....................
14.....................
1 5 ....:.............
16.....................
Foreign fathers:
13....................
14.....................
15:...................
16.....................
589
419
280
140
39
23
978
681
427
194
72
115
54
0.3
2
11
2 .6
13.9
16.4
2 .1
1 0 .6
21
26.9
27.8
1 Three cases of age not reported are assumed to have passed sixteenth birthday, but not to have com
menced work before sixteenth birthday.
T
able
8 . — Employment in any kind o f work, by age, nativity o f father, and s e x ;
children who had passed specified ages.
Children 13 to 16.
Age of child at time of
inquiry, nativity of
father, and sex of
Total.
child.
Who had
commenced
work of
any kind.
Who having passed specified birthday had commenced
work before specified birthday.
Thirteenth.
Fourteenth.
Fifteenth.
Sixteenth.
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
Total.
Native fathers:
39
46 14.2
324
...........
13
11
94 36.3
259
14
...........
6
57.9
161
278
15
...........
5
195 6 8 . 2
286
16
...........
Foreign fathers:
94
125 24.1
519
13
...........
33
222
48.8
14
..................455
..................
75.2
33
388 ..................
15
..................516
..................
13
84.7
415
490
16
...........
3
3
!3
6
Nativity not reported..
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1 2 .0
2 1 .2
1.7
55
23
14
18.1
7.3
6.4
2.7
132
94
42
4.2
0 .2
1
87
39.6
30.4
69
24.1
29.0
18.2
207
8 .6
202
40.1
41.2
139
28.4
8.3
4.9
110
1
1
A P P E N D IX
T
able
79
IV ,
8 . — Employment in any kind o f work, by aye, nativity of father, and s e x ;
children who had passed specified ages— Continued.
Children 13 to 16.
Who had
Age of child at time of
commenced
inquiry, nativity of
work of
father, and sex of
Total. any kind.
child.
Who having passed specified birthday had commenced
work before specified birthday.
Thirteenth.
Fourteenth.
Fifteenth.
Sixteenth.
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num. Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber.’ •cent. ber. cent. her. cent.
Boys.
Native fathers:
13.........................
14..........................
15.........................
16..........................
Foreign fathers:
13..........................
14.........................
15 .....................
16..........................
Nativity not reported.
120
138
146
222
201
283
297
41
72
115
137
26.6
60.0
83.4
93.8
35
9
82
137
245
283
36.9
2
1
6 8 .2
8 6 .6
95.3
5
22.7
7.5
4.4
3.4
45
18
9
37.5
14.1
65
30
24
9
29.3
14.9
8.5
3.0
84
32
41.8
23.0
6
6 .2
1 0 .8
2
1
79
72
57.2
49.3
42
28.7
131
154
46.3
51.9
82
27.6
1
Girls.
Native fathers:
13..........................
14....
15...............
16__
Foreign fathers:
13............... .
14......................,.
15.........................
16..........................
170
139
140
140
2.9
15.8
32.9
41.4
4
46
58
297
254
233
193
43
85
143
132
14.5
33.5
61.4
68.4
29
3
9
4
5
22
1
Nativity not reported..
1
T
2
1
2
5
2.4
1.4
5
5
7.2
3.6
3.6
31
15
2 2 .1
10.7
27
19.3
1 .2
3.9
48
29
2 .1
10
18.9
12.4
5.2
•76
48
32.6
24.9
57
29.5
9.8
10
1
1
One boy, two girls, 16 years old.
able
9 . — Employment in any kind of work, b y age, nativity o f father, and s e x ;
children who had passed specified ages.
Children who had passed
specified birthday.
Children who had passed
specified birthday.
Birthday, nativity
of father, and sex
of child.
Total. 1
Who began first
work before spec
ified birthday.
Birthday, nativity
of father, and sex
of child.
Total. 1
Number. Per cent.
Number. Per cent.
bots—Continued.
Total.
Native fathers:
Thirteenth......
Fourteenth___
Foreign fathers:
Thirteenth......
Fourteenth.. . .
Fifteenth.........
oixmmini ••••••
1,147
823
564
286
61
92
197
69
34.9
24.1
5.3
1,983
1,464
1,009
173
268
409
8.7
18.3
40.5
1 1 .2
Sixteenth........
Foreign fathers:
Thirteenth......
Fourteenth.. . .
Fifteenth.........
Sixteenth........
Native fathers:
Boys.
Native fathers:
Thirteenth.......
Fourteenth___
558
404
284
146
55
72
151
42
Who began first
work before spec
ified birthday.
9.9
17.8
53.2
28.8
Fourteenth___
Fifteenth.........
Sixteenth........
Foreign fathers:
Thirteenth......
Fourteenth.. . .
Fifteenth.........
Sixteenth........
1,005
783
582
299
128
181
285
82
12.7
23.1
49.0
27.4
589
419
280
140
6
20
46
27
4.8
16.4
19.3
978
681
427
194
45
87
124
57
29.0
29.4
1 .0
4.6
1 2 .8
•
1 Three cases of age not reported are assumed to have passed sixteenth birthday, but not to have
commenced work before sixteenth birthday.
«
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
80
T
C H IL D
able
LABOR IH
A
C O A L -M I H I H G
D IS T R IC T .
1 0 .— Employment in regular work, by age of child and earnings o f father;
-children 13 to 16 years.1
Children of specified age.
13
Earnings of father.
14
15
16
Who had
Who had
Who had
Who had
commenced
commenced
commenced
commenced
regular
regular
regular
regular
employ
employ
employ
employ
ment.
ment.
ment.
Total.
ment.
Total.
Total.
Total.
Num Per
ber. cent.
Total.........................
844
91
No earnings or less than $850
$850 to $1,249.....................
$1,250 to $ 1 ,8 4 9 ........___
$1,850 and over...................
Father dead or deserting...
Earnings not reported........
125
271
226
54
104
64
9 7.2
31 11.4
13 5.8
1 0 .8
1
22
2 1 .2
15
Num Per
ber. cent.
716
120
236
177
44
94
45
226 31.6
46 38.3
79 33.5
39 2 2 . 0
5
45
12
Num Per
ber. cent.
Num Per
ber. cent.
794
468 58.9
779
561
72.0
112
84 75.0
175 63.6
88
50.6
125
237
182
98
194
78 4
75 59.5
39
126
70
275
174
46
126
61
7
112
81.9
61J>
101
80 i
48
1 Three children were excluded from the table, whose ages were not reported, who had entered regular
employment and whose fathers earnings were as follows: One less than i860; one father dead or desertingone father with earnings not reported.
s’
T able 1 1 — Industry o f first regular work, by nativity of fa th er; boys who had
commenced regular work.
Boys who had commenced regular work.
Nativity of father.
Industry of first regular work.
Total.
Native.
Number.
Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
distri Number. distri Number. distri
bution.
bution.
bution.
T otal..............................
896
1 0 0 .0
247
Mining industry................
Other industry............... . . ......
Not reported............................
810
85
90.4
9.5
205
41
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1
Foreign born.
0 .1
1
648
1 0 0 .0
83.0
16.6
0.4
604
44
»
1 0 0 .0
93.2
6 .8
Not re
ported.
1
1
T
able,
12 .— Industry of first regular work, by age of child at beginning regular work; boys who had commenced regular work.
. ___ ___________
Boys who had commenced regular work at specified age.
16
15
14
13
Under 13.
Total.
Age not
reported. 1
Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
Number.
distri Number. distri
Number. distri Number. Number. distri Number. bution.
bution.
bution.
bution.
Industry of first regular work.
------ r-----
896
85
i
7
155
1 0 0 .0
7
14
7
89.0
81.9
7.1
13
10
5
3
1 1 .0
1
2
1
1 0 0 .0
138
127
89.1
375
93.7
193
86
421
1 0 0 .0
11
17
3
-------- -
Includes one case industry and age not reported.
T
able
1 3 . — Regular hours per day, by sex; children in regular or vacation work.
A P P E N D IX
90.4
86.4
4.0
9.5
810
774
36
85
206
93
1 0 0 .0
IY ,
Children in regular or vacation work.
Reporting specified regular hours per day.
Sex.
Less than 8
hours.
Total.
8
hours, less
than 9.
9 hours, less
than 1 0 .
Total.
1,561
Girls........... ................................ ....................... .
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1,059
502
1,393
1,031
362
10
hours, less
than 1 1 .
11
hours, less
than 1 2 .
Per
cent.
12
hours and
over.
Num
ber.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
41
2.9
1,007
72.3
254
18.2
61
4.4
18
1.3
12
93.3
12.4
29
225
1 .0
2
0 .2
1
11
27
14
2 .6
3.9
962
45
2 .8
62.2
10
51
14.1
16
4.4
Not re
ported.
Per
cent.
0.9
168
0 .1
28
140
3.0
00
T able 1 4 .— R e g u la r hours per day, by in d ustry a nd sex; children i n regular o r vacation work.
Children in regular or vacation work.
Less than 8 .
horns.
Total.
8
hours, less
than 9.
9 hours, less
than 1 0 .
10
hours, less
than 1 1 .
11
hours, less
than 1 2 .
12
hours and
oyer.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Not re
ported.
LABOR IN
Total.
Boys.
1,031
953
106
953
78
27
21
6
2 .6
2 .2
7.7
962
93.3
29
2 .8
10
1 .0
2
0 .2
1
0 .1
28
927
35
97.3
44.9
5
24
0.5
30.8
10
1 2 .8
2
2 .6
1
1,3
28
4.4
U
3.0
140
Girls.
Total...................
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
502
362
14
3.9
45
12.4
225
62.2
51
14.1
16
273
137
113
23
173
55
264
133
4
1.5
76.9
75.9
84.8
36
.9
7.6
7.5
2.7
203
1
1
2
20
10
13.6
15.0
1
1
1
112
19
57
41
9
1
.8
3
7
10
15
101
95
7
8
14
20
13
3
12
3
.4
.8
1 1 .6
9
9
6
2
D IS T R IC T .
Manufacturing industries..
Clothing......................
Cigar...........................
Other and hot reported
Domestic service................
All other..................... .
Not reported....................
C O A L -M I N I N G
1,059
A
Total.......................
Mining ........ ....................
O th er....................... .
C H IL D
Reporting specified regular hours per day.
Industry.
T able 1 5 . — M a xim um hours per day, by age a nd sex; children i n re g u la r work who d id overtime work.
Children in regular work who did overtime work.
Reporting specified maximum hours per day.
Age and sex.
Less than 10
hours.
Total.
Total.
1 2 , less than
14.
8.4
133
29.5
122
426
488
44
39
75
60
135
.................. .................. - 155
.................
213
191
.................................
8.7
123
13
28.9
109
17
13
32
47
Boys...............................................
1
2
7
15
13
21
1 1 .1
6 .8
40
49
1
25
1
6
12
10
1
1
5
12-
7
18, less than
20.
2 0 , less than
22.
and
over.
22
Not re
port
ed.
1
10
1
1
6
2
29.6
25.7
13
4
5
4
27.1
36
8 .0
89
19.7
9
2 .0
3
0.7
21
4.7
66
25.6
35
3
5
8 .2
89
4
13
23
49
20.9
9
2 .1
3
0.7
21
4.9
17.0
25.7
1
6
2
4.4
6
4.4
7.9
62
5
15
23.7
24.6
12
14
1
1
8.9
7.3
1 .0
1
2
0.7
1 .0
15
20
22
4
1
Ì
rv ,
29
16, less than
18.
a p p e n d ix
38
37
517
14, less than
16.
Per
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num cent.
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber.
451
Total........................................
15
16
1 0 , less than
12.
3
oo
Go
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Table 16.
Maximum hours per day, by industry; boys in regular work who did overtime work.
00
Mi»
Boys in regular work who did overtime work.
Reporting specified maximum hours per day.
Less than 10
hours.'
Total.
10, less than 12, less than
12.
14.
14, less than
16.
16, less than
18.
20, less than
22.
18, less than
20.
22and
over.
Total.
Num Per Num . Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num
Per Num Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
ber. cent.
Total.....................
Mining industry...
Other industries................
488
426
37
8.7
123
28:9
109
25.6
35
476
417
9
35
8.4
122
1
29.3
105
4
25.2
34
12
T able 17.
2
1
8.2
8.2
89
20.9
9
88 21.1
1
9
2.1
2.2
3
0.7
3
0.7
21
21
Not re
port
ed.
4.9
62
5.0
59
3
Total hours per week, by age; children in regular work who did overtime work.
Children in regular work who did overtime work.
Reporting specified total hours per week.
Age.
Total.
Less than 48.
48 to 51 even.
Total.
More than 51, but
less than 60.
60 and over.
Not re
ported.
Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
Total............................
13
14
.................. .................. .................. ..................
....... . .
'
...................................
Not reported............................
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
521
434
45
82
168
225
42
65
14Ì
186
1
2
0.5
82
18.9
179
22.0
14
31
50
84
8
2
1.4
18
31
25
13.4
41.2
171
39.4
87
41.1
41.4
3
17
27
39
20
35.5
45.2
16
58
77
1
CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
Industry.
Table 18.— Nonemployment, by industry; fathers for whom reports of earnings covered year period.
Fathers for whom reports of earnings covered year period.
Reporting on nonemployment during year period.
Industry at time of inquiry.
Total.
Total.
With nonemploy
ment.
Without non
employment.
Not
reported.
Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
Total________________ _____________________________________________
1,986
1,916
1,386
72.3
530
27.7
1,507
420
1,086
1,502
418
1,084
1,190
307
883
79.2
73.4
81.5
312
20.8
435
44
370
44
152
44
41.1
218
58.9
1
1From this total are omitted fathers who died or deserted during the year period for whom for other reasons earnings were not reported.
111
201
70
26.6
18.5
65
APPENDIX IV.
Mining Industry.....................
Aboveground.....................................4...............................................: ..................
Underground......................................................i ............................ ................
Not reported.................................................................................................................... '. ..
Other industries..... ....................................................................................
No present occupation.......................................................................................................... .. .
00
Or
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
T able 19.— Yearly earnings, by industry fathers for whom reports of earnings covered year period.
Fathers for whom reports of earnings covered year period.
Yearly earnings reported.
No earnings or
less than $850.
Total.
$850, less than $1,050, less than $1,250, less than $1,450, less than. $1,850, less than $2,850 and over.
$2,850.
$1,850.
$1,450.
$1,250.
$1,050.
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Not
re
ported.
Total.!.............................. ..
1,986
1,802
346
19.2
361
20.0
381
21.1
310
17.2
263
14.6
119
6.6
22
1.2
184
Mining industry.............................
Above ground..........................
Under ground..........................
1,507
420
1,086
1,390
400
990
231
102
16.6
25.5
13.0
312
22.4
22.0
22.6
24.4
19.8
26.3
246
71
175
17.7
17.7
17.7
202
12
5
43
4.0
3.0
4.3
2
3
0.4
0.5
0.3
117
46
156
14.5
11.5
15.8
55
224
339
79
260
Other industries.............................
435
44
368
44
71
44
19.3
49
13.3
. 42
11.4
64
17.4
61
16.6
64
17.4
Î7
4.6
67
1
129
88
20
96
1
T able 20.— Nonemployment, by sex; children in regular work during year period.*
Children in regular work during year period.
Reporting specified amount of nonemployment.
With no nonem With nonemploy
ployment.
ment.
iex.
• Less than 2
months.
Total.
2, less than 4
months.
4, less than. 6
months.
6months and
over.
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Amount
not re
ported.
Per
cent.
Total........... '........................
878
117
13,3
761
86.7
726
459
63.2
143
19.7
69
9.5
55
7.6
35
Boys..................................................
Girls..................................................
661
217
73
•44
11.0
588
173
89.0
79.7
564
162
394
65
69.9
40.1
106
37
18.8
47
8.3
13.0
17
38
S.0
23.5
24
20.3-
‘ Including only children working throughout period of year June 1 ,1918-May 31,1919, inclusive.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
22.8
22
11
CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
Industry.
T able 21.— Reason for going to work, by nativity offather and child; children who had commenced work.
Children who had commenced work.
Reporting specified reason for going to work.
Nativity of father and child.
Total.
Family need.
Wanted spend
ing money.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
55.0
217
13.4
Wanted to
work (no
other rea
son given).
Old enough
to work.
Total.
Total....................................
Child foreign born. “. ......................
1,621
892
1,540
496
1,041
3
1,512
491
1,018
3
109
824
112
221
602
1
68
54.5
45.0
59.1
205
117
13.6
17.9
11.5
62.4
12
11.0
88
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
11
0.7
239
14.7
188
9
3
0.6
0.6
0.6
226
74
151
14.9
15.1
14.8
176
71
105
1.9
13
11.9
12
6
2
1
Per
cent.
11.6
11.6
14.5
10.3
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Rea
son
not re
ported.
All other
reasons.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
4
0.2
70
4.3
31
4
0.3
68
4.5
6.7
3.3
28
5
23
1.8
3
1
3
0.2
33
34
0.3
1
2
11.0
T
T able 22.— Annual earnings, by sex; children in regular work.
Children in regular work during year.1
Earnings during year reported.
Sex.
Total.
Less than S20C.
$200, less than $450. $450, less than $650. $650, less than $850. $850, less than $1,250
$1,250 and over.
Not
reported.
Total.
Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
878
842
661
217
639
203
112
10
102
13.3
1.6
50.2
200
110
90
23.8
281
33.4
169
20.1
76
9.0
4
0.5
36
17.2
44.3
274
7
42.9
3.4
166
3
26.0
1.5
75
11.7
0.5
4
0.6
22
1Including only those children at regular work throughout the year period June 1 ,1918-May 31,1919, inclusive.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1
14
APPENDIX IV,
Child native...................................
Father native..........................
Father foreign-born.................
1,632
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Wanted to
learn trade and
get into
business.
Dissatisfied
with school.
T able 23.— Age o f child at beginning school, by nativity of father; children aged 13 to 16 years.
00
oo
Children aged 13 to 16 years.
Reporting specified age at beginning school.
5 years or
under.
Total.
6years.
8years.
7 years.
10years.
9 years.
11or over.
Total.
Num
Per'
ber. _ cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Total..
3,128
3,075
213
6.9
2,003
65.1
650
21.1
146
4.7
, 48
Native.........
Foreign born
Not reported.
1,145
1,977
1,142
1,927
99
8.7
5.8
861
1,139
i 3
75.4
59.1
156
493
13.7
25.6
24
2.1
1
6
6
112
2
1
122
6.3
47
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
1.6
0.1
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
0.3
7
0.2
53
7
0.4
3
50
8
1
2.4
Not re
ported.
7
0.1
0.4
Per
cent.
T able 24.— School attendance and present age; children who reported school attendance.
Children of specified age who reported school attendance.
School attendance.
Total.
Number.
Total......................................
tin school.....................
school................................................
1Does not include eight children who never attended school.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
13 years.
14 years.
15 years.
16 years.
Age not
Per cent
Per cent
Per cént
Per cent
Per cent reported.
distri Number. distri Number. distri Number. distri Number. distri
bution.
bution.
bution.
bution.
bution.
13,128
100.0
. 842
1,742
1,386
55.7
44.3
178
664
100.0
21.1
78.9
713
100.0
794
100.0
776
100.0
3
338
375
47.4
52.6
583
73.4
26.6
640
136
82.5
17.5
3
211
CHILD LABOR IN' A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
Nativity of father.
T able 25.— Reasonfor leaving school, by father's nativity; children who had left school.
91597
Children who had left school.
------------------------ -— — ------------------------------------------- ------ --------------------------------- _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ft
Reporting specified reason for leaving school.
Nativity of
father.
Fainily
need.
Total.
Total.
Needed at
home, or in
father’s
business.
Old enough
to work.
Wanted to
work.
Dissatisfied
Completed
with school. grade school.
111health.
Wanted to
learn a trade.
All other
reasons.
Rea
son
not re
ported.
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num
Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
625
36.4
269
15.7
8
0.5
140
8.2
526
30.7
26
1.5
65
447
443
Foreign bom.......
1,292 1,269
Not reported..............
3
3
31.2
38.4
36
233
8.1
3.8
138
487
3
5
.7
.4
41
98
9. 3
7.7
165
360
37.2
28.4
9
17
2.0
29
36
6.6
2.8
ia4
1»
1
1.3
6
1
5
0.3
50
2.9
27
.2
21
28
1
4.7
4
23
.4
2.2
A P P E N D IX IV,
Total................ 1,742 1,715
00
CO
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
T able 2Q.— Grade completed, by aÿè o f child and nativity o f father; children still in school.
«©
Children still in school.
Reporting specified grade completed.
Second and
under.
Total.
Fourth.
• Third.
*
Seventh.
Sixth.
Fifth.
Eighth and
over.
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Total.....................................
1,386
1,374
9
0.7
39
2.8
Native fathers................................
Age of child:
13.................
.............
14......
......................
15......
16
Foreign-bom fathers......................
Ago of child:
13....... .....................................
14.............................................
15.
16
698
697
.1
10
1.4
101
21
297
184
297
184
1
1
.3
7
3
2.4
14
97
685
96
674
366
189
91
39
3
354
187
90
38
3
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
120
120
1.6
6
1
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Per
cent.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
7.4
184
13.4
244
17.8
276
20.1
521
37.9
66
9.5
106
15.2
143
20.5
350
50.2
4.7
3.3
48
16.2
5.4
2.5
70
24
9
3
136
23.6
13.0
7.5
86
29.0
71
23.9
55.4
78.3
83
45
7
23.1
24.1
.8
1.2
29
4.3
80
11.9
7
1.5
21
6
2
5.8
3.2
62
16
17.3
1
Num
ber.
3.0
8
2
Num-. Per
ber.
cent.
8.6
10
3
5
118
78
30
9
1
17.5
21.7
16.0
1
2
20.1
39
13
5
133
75
42
16
21.2
10.8
19.7
20.9
22.5
102
94
83
170
33
48
54
35
1
25.2
9.2
25.7
Grade
not re
ported.
12
1
1
11
7
2
1
1
C H IL D LABOR IN’ A C O A L -M IN IN G DISTRICT,
Nativity of father and
age of child.
91
A PP E N D IX IV.
T able 27.— Proportion o f children leaving school prior to specified ages, by age
at tim e o f inquiry, and father's n a tiv ity; children 13 to 16 years o f age.
Children who had passed specified birthday.
Nativity of father.
Total, i
Total.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Who left school
prior to speci
fied birthday.
Num
ber.
Total.
Who left school
prior to speci
fied birthday.
Num
ber.
Per
cent.
Per
cent.
0.5
1,983
22
1.1
0.6
0.8
0.4
0.3
519
455
516
493
9
3
4
1.7
0.7
31
2.7
1,983
173
0.8
1.2.
8.r
14
7
5
5
4.3
2,7
1.8
1.7
519
455
516
493
80
42
32
19
15.4
9.2
6.2;
3.9
823
103
12.5
1,464
445
30.4
259
278
286
44
38
21
17.0
13.7
7.3
455
516
493
186
170
89
40.9
32.9
18.1
Twelfth.......................
3,136
28
0.9
1,147
13 years............................ .
14 years................................
15 years................................
16 years.................................
844
716
794
s 782
11
5
5
7
1.3
0.7
0.6
0.9
324
- 259
278
286
6
2
2
1
1
Thirteenth..................
3,136
204
' 6.5
1,147
13 years.................................
14 years.................................
15 years.................................
16 years.................................
844
716
794
782
94
49
37
24
11.1
6.8
4.7
3.1
324
259
278
286
Fourteenth..................
2,292
- 549
24.0
14 years.................................
15 years.................................
16 years.................................
716
794
. 782
230
208
32.1
26.2
14.2
111
Foreign bora.
Native.
Who left school
prior to •speci
fied birthday.
Birthday and age at time of
inquiry.
\
6
Fifteenth.....................
1,576
883
56.0
564
226
40.1
1,009
654
64.8
15 years.................................
16 years.................................
794
782
491
392
61.8
50.1
278
286
127
99
45.7
34.6
516
493
364
290
70.5
58.8
Sixteenth.....................
782
599
,, '
76.6
286
169
59.1
493
427
86.6
1 Totalincludes three cases father’s nativity not reported.
2 includes three cases age not reported.
/
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
92
CHILD LABOR IN A COAL-M INING DISTRICT.
T able
28.— A ge at which children left school, by age of child at tim e of inquiry
and earnings of father.
Children.
Who left school at specified age.
Earnings offather and age of
child at time of inquiry.
Total.
Total.
None or less than $850...............
13
.................................................
14
.................. ...............................
15 . .
. .........................................
16 .........................................................
Age not reported............
less than $ 1,250 ...................
$ 850,
13
14
15
16
.................................................
................................................
.................................................
.................................................
Age not reported............
less than $ 1,850 ...............
$ 1, 250,
13 .
14
15
16
...............................................
.................................. ...............
..................................................
.................................................
Age not reported............
$ 1,850 and over......................
13
..................................................
14
..................................................
15
............................... .................
16 . .
. .........................................
Age not reported............
Father dead or deserted___
13 ........................................................
14 .
........................................
15
..... ......................................... ..
16
.................................................
Age not reported............
Father’s earnings not re
ported...................................
13 . .
. ........................................
14 . .
...............................
15
............................................
16
.................................................
Age not reported............
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Total. Under
12.
12
13
14
Not re
ported.
16
15
3,136
1,742
28
176
519
671
291
40
17
483
125
299
3
26
92
48
6
4
12
4
32
33
15
120
22
56
29
15
22
1
1
1
12
125
1,019
271
236
275
237
604
61
116
219
208
759
226
177
174
182
344
32
64
6
30
•136
2
i
7
7
4
17
31
25
15
43
11
1
6
2
2
88
1
1
112
5
2
3
3
183
54
44
46
39
38
451
104
94
126
126
300
40
57
94
108
12
5
1
241
64
45
61
70
157
2
1
1
1
1
’
8
67
96
113
120
112
36
243
91
4
195
27
67
70
31
30
109
103
32
59
10
88
142
65
13
26
63
53
15
50
16
9
1
12
2
2
12
2
2
7
2
98
48
4
16
34
48
16
32
4
52
30
5
7
23
5
2
8
12
1
8
16
13
1
22
26
46
62
1
3
3
12
45
53
21
9
8
5
14
31
28
15
21
13
1
5
2
45
9
14
13
9
1
10
20
32
6
10
1
1
1
1
4
2
1
1
7
5
1
1
2
1
1
T able 29.— Proportion o f children leaving school prior to specified ages, by age at time o f inquiry and father's earnings; children IS to 16 years o f age.
Children who had passed specified birthday.
Earnings of father.
Birthday and age at
time of inquiry.
Father dead or deWho left None orless than $850. $850, less than $1,250. $1,250, less than $1,850.
$1,850 and over.
Not reported.
sorted.
school prior
to specified
birthday.
Who left
Who left
Who left
Who left
Who left
Who left
Total.
school prior
school prior
school prior
school prior
school prior
school prior
to specified
to specified
to specified
to specified
to specified
to specified
birthday.
birthday.
birthday.
birthday.
birthday.
birthday.
Total.
Total.
Total.
Total.
Total.
Total.
Num Per
ber. cent.
Twelfth........... 3,136
28
0.9
483
3
844
716
794
782
11
1.3
.7
125
Thirteenth....... 3,136
844
716
794
782-
13 years.....................
14 years......................
15 years......................
16 years......................
13 years......................
14 years......................
15 years....... .............
16 years......................
0.6
.8
.9
126
1
1
1
204
6.5
483
29
.8
6.0
94
49
37
24
11.1
6.8
125
9
7.2
126
5
3
4.5
2.4
5
5
7
.6
4.7
3.1
120
112
120
112
.9
12 10.0
Num Per
ber. cent.
Num Per
ber. cent.
Num Per
ber. cent.
Num Per
ber. cent.
Num Per
ber. cent.
1,019
5
0.5
759
6
0.8
183
451
12
2.7
241
271
236
275
237
2
.7
1.3
226
177
174
182
3
1.3
.6
1.1
104
94
126
127
5
i
3
3
4.8
1
2
54
44
46
39
64
45
61
71
3
2.4
2 4
2
i
1,019
61
6.0
759
36
4.7
183
451
55
12.2
241
23
271
236
275
237
31
18
11.4
7.6
2.9
1.7
226
177
174
182
15
7
6.6
104
94
126
127
26
25.0
g
8. 7
6.3
64
45
61
71
13
4.0
4.6
3.3
54
44
46
39
8
4
8
6
10
11
2
549
24.0
358
100
27.9
748
198
26.5
533
92
17.3
129
i0
347
103
29.7
177
46
230
208
111
32.1
26.2
14.2
120
112
126
44
38
18
36.7
33.9
14.3
236
275
237
85
- 78
35
36.0
28.4
14.8
177
174
182
38
33
21
21.5
19.0
11.5
44
46
39
6
2
2
94
126
127
41
39
23
¿1.0
18.1
45
61
71
16
18
Fifteenth.......... 1,576
883
56.0
238
154
64.7
512
325
63.5
356
170
47.8
85
18
253
144
56.9
132
72
15 years......................
16 years......................
794
782
491
392
61.8
50.1
112
126
83
71
74.1'
56.3
275
237
187
138
68.0
58.2
174
182
96
74
55.2
40.7
46
39
14
4
126
127
73
71
57.9
55. 9
61
71
38
34
Sixteenth.........
782
599
76.6
126
107
84.9
237
197
83.1
182
124
68.1
39
11
127
103
81.1
71
57,
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
7.8
9.5
5
716
794
782
Fourteenth....... 2,29214 years................. .
15 years......................
16 years......................
0.8
26.0
12
54.5
A PP E N D IX IV,
Num Per
ber. cent.
CD
Table 30.— Cubic contents and adult and child occupants o f bedrooms; bedrooms in blocks intensively studied in Shenandoah.
Bedrooms having specified cubic content.
Cubic
Number of adults and children.
534
Total......................................................... ........
1
child.........................................................................
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
l' 400
1,600
1,800
2' 000
2,200
2,400
2,600
2,800
3,000
3,200
4,000
Total persons in blocks intensively studied in Shenandoah...................
1,435
Adults.........................................................
Children.......................................
Total
bed
rooms.
745
690
11
70
39
50
125
33
94
Under
600.
600,
under
800.
4
1
1
2
155
122
4
19
9
9
18
4
1
18
10
5
14
9
1
20
3
9
1
3
2
1
16
39
14
27
5
11
3
6
Persons sleeping in rooms having less than cubic
contents required under model housing law (73.58
Adults...................
Children (74.78 per cent of all children)........
11
6
27
8
23
4
7
3
9
2
2
1
1,600,
under
1,800.
1,800,
under
2,000.
78
24
4
3
3
2
1
2
7
1 24
6
2
2
5
1
3
2
15
5
5
4
3
1
2
1
2,000,
Not re
ported.
over.
4
540
516
1
1
1
1
1
i
.3
1
1
1
1
Persons sleeping in rooms having less than one-half
required cubic contents (15.54 per cent)................
percent).......................................................................... 1,056
o
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
102
6
1
1
11
2
2
1
1,400,
under
1,600.
1
8
37
9
23
5
1,200,
under
1,400.
1,000,
under
1,200.
40
9
4
22
800,
under
1,000.
Adults................................................................
Children (19.28 per cent of all children).............
223
90
133
CHILD LABOR IN’ A COAL-MINING DISTRICT.
required
under
model
housing
law.
@FedFRASER