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T UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary CHILDREN’S BUREAU GRACE ABBOTT, Chief CHILDREN ENGAGED IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE SELLING AND DELIVERING L I B R A R Y Agricultural & Mechanical College ot Texas College Station, Texas. Bureau Publication No. 227 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1935 ' v -p For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. / u *7 C~- ' n i U 65 a https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal 4k.Reserve ^ ^ T Bank of St. Louis \ > Price 10 cents https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CONTENTS P age Letter of transmittal______________________ Introduction________________________________________________________ Summary of findings________________________________________________ Working conditions of newspaper sellers__________________________ Working conditions of newspaper carriers_________________________ Working conditions of magazine sellers and carriers________________ Newspaper sellers__________________________ Employment policies____________________________________________ Ages-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hours_________________________________________________________ Earnings_______________________________________________________ Girl newspaper sellers___________________________________________ Social aspects of street selling____________________________________ Newspaper carriers__________________________________________________ Ages-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hours_____________________ Earnings_______________________________________________________ Employment policies________________________ Magazine sellers and carriers_____________________ Employment policies____________________________________________ Ages---------------------------------------Hours and earnings__________________________ Prizes__________________________________________________________ Girl magazine sellers____.____________________ _________ _________ _ Street traders having more than one job______________________________ Cities covered in earlier studies and revisited in 1934__________________ Atlanta, Ga____________________________________________________ Omaha, Nebr___________________________________________________ Paterson, N.J___________________________________________________ Wilkes-Barre, Pa_______________________________________________ Legal regulations____________________________________________________ m https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis v 1 4 5 6 7 9 9 11 13 17 19 20 23 23 25 27 30 38 39 41 42 45 45 46 47 47 50 53 55 58 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL U n it e d S t a t e s D e p a r t m e n t o f L a b o r , C h i l d r e n ’s B u r e a u , Washington, June 16, 1984.. M a d a m : There is transmitted herewith a report on Children En gaged in Newspaper and Magazine Selling and Delivering. This study, which was made by the industrial division of the Children’s Bureau, was undertaken in cooperation with the National Recovery Administration for the purpose of supplying the Government mem bers of the Daily Newspaper and Graphic Arts Code Authorities with the information on this subject requested by the President when he signed the codes for these industries. As it brings up to date the Bureau’s earlier studies of street trades and indicates progress toward a higher age level, its publication seems desirable. The Bureau is indebted to school superintendents, principals, and other members of the school staffs in the cities visited, to State and local officials charged with the enforcement of street-trades regula tions, and to officials of social agencies interested in these problems, whose prompt cooperation made the survey possible. Newspaper and magazine circulation managers also cooperated by supplying information regarding employment policies with reference to the distribution of their publications. G r a c e A b b o t t , Chief. Hon. F r a n c e s P e r k i n s , Secretary of Labor. v https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CHILDREN ENGAGED IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE SELLING AND DELIVERING INTRODUCTION In approving the code for the daily newspaper publishing business on February 17, 1934, the President said, “ I am not satisfied with the child-labor provisions. * * * The Government members of the code authority shall give particular attention to the provisions authorizing minors to deliver and sell newspapers and shall report * * * not later than 60 days hence.” The President specifically asked that the report should include recommendations. A similar report was requested from Government members of the code author ity for the graphic-arts industry. The child-labor provisions contained in the codes may be summed up as follows: Regulation of work of minors under 16 Code for daily newspaper publishing business Sellers Carriers Minimum age________ No lim itation________ No lim itationHours allowed.............._ Outside schoo hours N ight work prohibited. 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. from N o lim itation. Oct. 1 to Mar. 31. 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. from Apr. 1 to Sept. 30. Other requirement___ A bility to perform wor z “ w ithout impairment of health.” Graphic-arts code (magazines, periodi cals, advertising newspapers, and cer tain other newspapers) Sellers Carriers 14.................................... No limitation, Outside school hours 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. from N o limitation, Oct. 1 to Mar 31. 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. from Apr. 1 to Sept. 30. Ability to perform wor k “ without impairment of health.” In order to provide a factual basis for determination of standards governing the employment of children in newspaper and periodical distribution, the Children’s Bureau of the United States Department of Labor, in cooperation with the Research and Planning Division of the National Recovery Administration, undertook in March 1934 a rapid field survey of children under 16 years of age engaged in this work in 17 representative cities in different parts of the country.1 In four of these cities 2 the subject had been studied extensively in • The cities included in the 1934 survey and the number of children interviewed in each city were: Atlanta, Ga., 233; Baltimore, M d., 297; Buffalo, N . Y ., 206; Chicago, El., 399; Des Moines, Iowa, 229; Detroit, M ich., 307; Fall River, M ass., 155; Los Angeles, Calif., 205; Louisville, K y., 238; M emphis, Tenn., 176; N ew Haven, Conn., 205; Omaha, Nebr., 297; Paterson, N . J., 115; San Francisco, Calif., 333; Washing ton, D . C., 319; Wilkes-Barre, Pa., 173; Youngstown, Ohio, 323. 1 Atlanta, Ga.; Omaha, Nebr.; Paterson, N.J.; Wilkes-Barre, Pa. See Children in Street Work and Child Workers on City Streets (U.S. Children’s Bureau Publications Nos. 183 and 188, Washington, 1928). 1 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 2 CHILDREN IN NEW SPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK earlier surveys, and therefore comparative data are now available on changes during the past decade. The Bureau’s inquiry was confined to children under 16 years of age—the group to which child-labor regulations generally apply. The study therefore does not show the great extent to which older boys (16 years of age and over) are being used in newspaper and periodical distribution. Schedules were obtained for more than 4,000 children under 16 engaged in newspaper or magazine selling or delivering. These children were interviewed in public and parochial schools, some elementary and some junior high schools or regular high schools being covered in each city. The schools were selected in consultation with school authorities and with officials enforcing street-trades regulations in order to cover neighborhoods in which children were known to be engaged in this work. From five to a dozen schools were included in the survey in each city, and in most of these schools a canvass was made of all the children under 16 engaged in newspaper or magazine work. In this way a representative sample of children engaged in these types of street work was obtained. T able 1.—Age and occupation of children engaged in street trades in 17 cities, 1934 Children engaged in street trades Newspaper sellers Age at last birthday Newspaper carriers Total Number Percent distri bution Number Percent distri bution Magazine sellers and carriers Number Percent distri bution Total__________________ 4,210 1,259 Age reported_________________ 4,194 1,256 100 1,819 100 1,119 100 178 493 1,651 1,872 49 147 528 532 4 12 42 42 19 89 596 1,115 1 5 33 61 110 257 527 225 10 23 47 20 16 3 Under 10 and 12 and 14 and 10 years___________ 11 years___________ 13 years___________ 15 years___________ Age not reported..... .............. ....... 1,830 11 1,121 2 Information was obtained from each child concerning his age at his last birthday and his hours of work (time of beginning and ending) and his actual net earnings during the week preceding the interview.8 “ Weekly hours” and “ weekly earnings” throughout this report are based upon the figures obtained for this week. In the case of news paper carriers information was sought concerning time spent in collecting, soliciting new subscriptions, attending meetings, and keeping records, as well as time spent in delivering papers. Light is thus thrown upon the questions: What is the age distribution of the * Actual earnings Include tips; losses due to failure to collect are also taken into consideration. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION- 3 children under 16 engaged in selling or delivering papers and periodi cals? What are their hours of work and their earnings? Measured by hours and earnings, how effective are children of different ages in these types of work? Because of important differences in conditions of work it is necessary to distinguish between the selling and the delivering of news papers. With regard to magazines, however, no hard and fast line can be drawn between delivering to regular customers and selling. Newspaper selling, newspaper delivering, and magazine distribution are therefore treated in separate sections of this report. 73748°—35---- 1 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis SUMMARY OF FINDINGS The survey showed median ages for the groups studied as follows: Newspaper sellers, 13.7 years; newspaper carriers, 14.3 years, maga zine distributors (those selling and delivering), 12.7 years. It is sig nificant that the median age of newspaper carriers was higher than that of sellers, in view of a prevalent belief that carrying papers is a suit able occupation for the youngest group of boys. A few children were found engaged in these types of work who were under 10 years old (178, or 4 percent). Sixteen children were under 8 years of age. Only 6 percent of the carriers under 16 years of age were less than 12 years old, and 39 percent were less than 14. Of the sellers under 16 years of age 16 percent were under 12 and 58 percent were under 14. The magazines apparently rely to a greater extent than the news papers upon the services of very young children. Ten percent of the magazine sellers included in the study were under 10 years of age, 33 percent were under 12 years, and only 20 percent were 14 and 15 years of age. The numbers found selling magazines increased with each year of age up to 12 and thereafter decreased with each year up to 16. Comparison with earlier studies made by the Children s Bureau between 1922 and 1926 shows that within the last few years there has been a striking tendency to employ older children. The proportion of newspaper sellers who were 14 and 15 years old has doubled; the proportion under 10 years has dropped from 17 to 4 percent. Equally striking changes have taken place among the carriers. (See tables 2 and 9, pp. 12, 24.) Apparently the shortage of opportunities for employment of boys of 14 and 15 and even older, brought about by the depression and, in certain occupations, by the requirements of the N.R.A. codes, made newspaper work seem more desirable to the older boys. Another effect of the depression and the surplus of avail able labor unprotected by a code minimum wage was reflected in the decrease in earnings of the children engaged in newspaper selling and delivering. While sellers’ total weekly hours have decreased, carriers’ hours have increased, a result apparently of the spread of the little mer chant” system, which requires the carrier boy to spend additional time in collecting and in soliciting subscriptions. In general, child newspaper sellers and carriers in 1934 averaged at least a year older than they did at the time of the previous Children’s Bureau surveys; working hours of sellers were shorter, but hours of carriers were longer. 4 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 5 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS Earnings of sellers were approximately one-half and earnings of car riers three-fourths of what they had been in 1922-26. The changes are shown in the following comparison: N ewspaper sellers Newspaper carriers 1922-26 1922-26 Item M edian age______ _ M edian weekly hours M edian w eekly earnings___ y«»Fir9 12.3 16. 2 $2. 76 1934 13. 7 15.6 $1.41 1934 13. 1 8 .8 $2.39 14.3 10.3 $ 1.87 WORKING CONDITIONS OF NEW SPAPER SELLERS A ges The age distribution of the sellers interviewed in 1934 was as follows : P ercent Under 12 years_____________________________ 12 and 13 years_____________________________________ 14 and 15 years____________________________________ jg 42 42 H o u rs Great variety was found in length of selling time, as is shown in the following list, giving distribution of weekly hours: P ercent Less than 5 hours________________________ _________ _ B etw een 5 and 15 h o u r s .._____________________ ______ B etw een 15 and 25 hours___________________________________ 25 hours or more___________________________________ jo 30 28 24 When 25 hours of school time are added it is seen that almost a fourth of the boys interviewed were occupied 50 hours or more a week. As is shown by the median hours and earnings, the youngest sellers not only worked the longest hours but also had the lowest earnings. N ig h t s e llin g On school days 9 percent of all the sellers interviewed sold until 10 p.m. or later. On Saturdays and Sundays 15 percent sold until 10 p.m. or later. Thirteen percent worked until 9 p.m. or later on school days and 23 percent on Saturdays. Boys selling until 8 p.m. or later constituted 25 percent of all those selling after school and 34 percent of all those selling Saturdays. Late selling was not con fined to boys over 14. Some of the latest hours found in the course of the study were reported by very young children. Late selling was not confined to cities of metropolitan size. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 6 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND . MAGAZINE WORK E a rn in g s Half the sellers interviewed earned less than $1.41 a week. Younger children, although they sold for longer hours, earned less. Median weekly earnings and weekly hours of sellers by age were as follows: E a r n in g s H o u rs 17. 8 15. 4 15. 4 Under 12 years___________________________________ $0- 82 12 and 13 years__________________________________ !• 30 14 and 15 years__________________________________ 1- 82 Only 7 percent of the newsboy sellers in the study earned $4 or more a week, and 66 percent of these were 14 or 15 years old. Very long hours did not always mean higher earnings; 14 percent of the boys who worked 30 or more hours earned less than $1 a week. G ir l n e w s p a p e r se lle r s A negligible number of girls—12 (in 6 cities) out of 1,259 children interviewed—were found selling papers. One of these was 8 years old; two were 9; two, 10; one, 11; three, 12; and three, 13. W O R K IN G C O N D IT IO N S OF N E W S P A P E R C A R R IE R S A ges The age distribution of the carriers included in the survey was as follows : P ercent Under 12 years--------------------------------------------------------------------12 and 13 years-------------------------------------------------------------------14 and 15 years-------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 33 61 In some cities more than 70 percent of the carriers interviewed were 14 years of age or over. Sixteen percent of the carriers interviewed worked on early-morning routes. In several places the newspapers would hire only boys of 16 years or over on morning routes. H o u rs Time spent in delivering papers averaged about 1 hour a day, or 7 hours a week. When time spent in collecting and soliciting is included, however, median hours were 10.3 a week. Thirty-eight percent of the boys were through delivering in less than 6 hours a week, but only 20 percent reported total hours as short as this. Delivering rarely took as much as 15 hours a week; but when time spent at other activities is included, a fourth of the boys interviewed worked 15 or more hours a week, and 10 percent worked 20 hours or more. Older boys handled longer routes and spent more time than the younger boys in collecting and soliciting; their earnings were corre spondingly higher, though earnings were low even for the older group. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 7 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS E a rn in g s Median weekly earnings and weekly hours of carriers by age were as follows: E a r n in g s Under 12 years_______________________________ $0. 79 12 and 13 years_________________________________ 14 and 15 years............ ......................... 1. 35 2. 13 H o u rs 8 2 99 10. 6 Nearly three-fourths of all carriers earned less than $3 a week. More than one-fourth earned less than $1. Of the 14- and 15-yearold carriers only a third earned $3 or more, and only a sixth earned $4 or more. WORKING CONDITIONS OF MAGAZINE SELLERS AND CARRIERS A ges The practice of using very young children in magazine distribution has increased markedly in recent years. The age distribution of the children included in the survey was as follows: P ercent Under 12 years____________________________________ Under 10 years_______________________________ 2 ____ 10 and 1 1 years_______________________________ 12 and 13 years____________________________________ 14 and 15 years______________________________________ 33 10 23 47 20 Two-thirds of all the children and about the same proportion of those under 14 were selling magazines in public places; that is, on streets, in restaurants, in stores, and so forth. In some cities magazine agents took groups of children into neighboring towns to sell on Saturdays, all day. H o u rs It took children many hours a week to sell relatively few copies. Fifty-nine percent of those selling weeklies only sold them on more than 1 day a week, and nearly a third sold them on more than 2 days a week. Selling hours were mainly after school and on Saturdays. About 60 percent reported quitting before 6 p.m., but a small group (9 percent) sold until 8 p.m. or later on school days. E a rn in g s The median number of weeklies disposed of per child was 15 in a week. Only 8 percent of the children sold as many as 50 copies, and one-third sold fewer than 10. Monthly magazines constituted a small proportion of total sales. Sixteen percent of the children re porting on the sale of monthlies sold 20 or more copies in a month; 58 percent sold fewer than 10. The number of magazines sold in- https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 8 CHILDREN IN NEW SPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK creased with the age of the child. Fifteen percent of the children 10 and 11 years old earned 40 cents or more a week, compared with 25 percent of those 12 and 13 years old and 36 percent of those 14 and 15 years old. Earnings, however, were extremely low for children of all ages. Only 96 children (out of 1,091) reported average earnings of as much as 80 cents a week from sale of both weeklies and monthlies. Of these children, 36 were 14 or 15 years old, and 79 were 12 years or older. The chief attraction in selling magazines was not the cash earnings but the prizes. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NEWSPAPER SELLERS Boys who sell papers on the streets, it is generally stated by school authorities, newspaper managers, and social agencies, are a radically different type from boys who deliver papers regularly. Whereas carriers are encouraged to be neat, well dressed, courteous, and tactful in their approach to customers, the seller, or “ newsie,” is more likely to be a “ hustler”, attracting attention by “ hollering” and fighting his way to supremacy on his corner. Selling newspapers has long been considered, together with other forms of street work, an occupation for which ages and hours of work should be regulated. It is an occupation that may expose the child to severe physical strain, to inclement weather, and to moral and physical hazards. The seller is away from his own neighbor hood, is largely free from supervision, and may easily be thrown with associates of a rough or otherwise undesirable type. Since tips are more plentiful at night, from the after-dinner and after-theater crowds, there is a constant temptation to prolong selling, disregarding the need for meals, sleep, or recreation. In spite of these conditions legal regulation of street trades is not yet universal. Only 20 States and the District of Columbia have laws regulating this work by boys. Many of our large cities, how ever, are located in these States. A considerable number of cities have ordinances, but these vary widely in their standards, and most of them are inadequate. In only two of the cities visited is a mini mum age for newsboys as high as 14 years established, either by law or by ordinance. In 5 cities the minimum age for sellers is 12 years; in 1, 11 years; and in 5, 10 years. In four cities there is no minimum age. (See Legal regulations, p. 58.) Of the 17 cities included in the present survey, 3 (Atlanta, Youngstown, and Detroit) have no legal regulations of street trades at the present time, 10 are covered by street-trades laws, 2 have local ordinances, and 2 regulate street trades under authority vested in the juvenile court by virtue of State law. EMPLOYMENT POLICIES A little more than half of the 1,259 sellers under 16 years of age for whom schedules were obtained reported that they obtained their papers directly from the main distributing rooms of the newspapers or that the papers were delivered to them on corners by the news9 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 10 CHILDREN IN NEW SPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK paper trucks; the others sold for a news dealer or for a corner owner, or obtained their papers from other newsboys. In one city (Omaha) trucks from the newspaper offices called at the schools at closing time to take the children and their papers to their corners; and, beginning at 7 p.m., the trucks made the rounds of the corners to pick up the children and take them to their homes. For some of the boys this is an excellent plan. It does not work out well, how ever, for the boys who are last to reach their homes. One 9-year-old boy reported that he stayed on his corner until 8 p.m. Saturday and did not reach his home until 10 p.m. On Sunday morning he was picked up at home at 5:15 a.m. and taken to his corner. Papers obtained from newspaper companies are sold to the boys at wholesale rates and resold at retail; this nets the boy an amount varying from }i cent to 2 cents for each daily paper and from 2 cents to 5 cents for each Sunday paper. The wholesale rate is not avail able to all boys. The circulation department of the newspaper ordinarily reserves the right to choose the boys who are to sell its papers and sometimes assigns them to corners, guaranteeing the corners against competition from anyone selling the same newspaper but not against competition by sellers of rival newspapers. In other cities the “ hustler” must establish his own corner rights. Occasionally a bonus is paid to sellers at strategic corners where the circulation department desires to build up sales or at certain other corners to insure that they are covered at times of the day when sales are infrequent; this is especially true where two papers are competing vigorously. Men are sometimes paid a bonus of as much as $1.50 a day, but boys under 16 are seldom paid more than 25 cents. The custom of buying papers outright and paying for them in advance appears to have given way to a system of buying on credit, the newsboy settling with the truck driver or street-sales supervisor at the end of the day. Unsold papers are now generally returned, whereas formerly it was common for the boys to bear the loss. Eighty percent of the boys who reported upon this matter in 1934 stated that they could return unsold papers; 16 percent, that they could not; and 3 percent, that occasionally they were “ stuck” with them or that as a disciplinary measure the drivers made the boys “ eat ’em”, that is, pay for unsold papers. There was great variety in the arrangements under which boys who did not obtain papers directly from the newspapers were work ing. In some cases the boys earned the same amount per paper as though they had obtained their supplies from the newspaper office. Some were paid at a flat rate; others were paid a percentage of their total sales. The system was not uniform within a city, and the same news dealer might have different agreements with different boys. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NEWSPAPER SELLERS 11 The system under which the boys worked seemed to be dependent on custom and the strength of their bargaining power. Tips formed an important source of income at certain strategic points; and where tips could be relied upon, boys were willing to accept a very small percentage of the usual commission on each paper or were willing even to buy their papers at the full retail price. Street sellers were seldom included in the organizations of news paper boys maintained by the newspapers. There is less supervision of sellers than of carriers. The prizes offered for new subscriptions, which are so highly valued by carriers, are not available to street sellers. In one city a carrier wrote: “ We get prizes very often, and they are generally useful in everyday life.” In this city a seller wrote: “ I wish they would give boys on the corner a chance to go to the show and to win prizes like the carrier boys.” However, in several places annual banquets or picnics or athletic contests for the sellers were customary. AGES The circulation managers who gave the ages at which they con sidered boys made the best street sellers were divided in their opinions. None expressed a preference for boys younger than 12. Some pre ferred boys 12 years of age or older; others preferred boys 14 years of age or older. Several preferred a higher age level for sellers than for carriers. In spite of the expressed preference for older boys, both the present study and earlier studies show the average age of street sellers to be lower than the average age of carriers. Many newspaper circulation managers had issued instructions to their truck drivers, branch managers, and corner men to enforce the provisions of the newspaper codes as approved in February 1934. In some instances they had even gone so far as to establish the policy of giving out papers or assigning comers only to boys 16 years of age or over. Instances were found in which instructions on this matter were issued to independent news dealers as well as to the employees of the newspaper company. The following order was given out by a Chicago paper to its truck drivers, to comer men, and to news agen cies handling home deliveries: T h e --------- Co. desires that no minor under the age of 16 years shall sell or deliver its newspapers. You are not to sell to anyone under 16 years of age when you reasonably believe that such minor intends to resell them. This order is effective at once. In Youngstown, where there is no legal regulation, the circulation managers within the last 6 months had begun to control the sale of newspapers by young boys. They had first refused to supply papers to girls under 16 or to boys under 8 years of age. In the week of the survey the age limit had been advanced to 10, and it was proposed to 73748°—35----- 3 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 12 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK eliminate boys under 12 within another 6 months. The two news papers in this city had agreed on this plan and neither would give papers to boys who had been refused by the other paper. They have also instructed sellers not to give papers to boys under 10 years of age. Violation of this regulation constituted a reason for refusal to supply papers. Circulation managers in New Haven have worked with a social agency to which complaints regarding newspaper boys are made by the public. All complaints are investigated, and visits are made to the child’s parents if necessary. In this way selling by girls and by young boys, whether they were obtaining their papers from the news paper company or elsewhere, has been eliminated. Although these comparatively recent efforts may have eliminated some young children, they had not produced marked results as yet. The average age of newspaper sellers under 16 included in the present study was more than a year higher than the average age of sellers under 16 included in the Bureau’s previous group of studies, but this average is still under 14 years. Sixteen percent of the sellers interviewed were under 12 years of age (table 2). The remaining sellers were evenly distributed between the 12- and 13-year age groups and the 14- and 15-year age groups—twofifths in each. Twelve girls were found selling papers; but since the number was small and their working conditions were the same as those of the boys, they have been included with the boys in both tables and discussion. A comparison of the age distribution of the newspaper sellers interviewed in 1934 and in the earlier study is shown in table 2. The trend toward employment of older children is clear. The percentage of children under 12 years has dropped from 44 percent to 16 percent. T able 2.— Age of newspaper sellers in 17 cities in 1934- and in 7 cities in 1922-26 Newspaper sellers Age at last birthday 17 cities, 1934 Number 7 cities, 1922-26 Percent dis tribution 1,259 Percent dis tribution Number 1,681 Age reported____________ _______ ___________________ 1,256 100 1,677 100 Under 12 years_________________________________ 196 16 741 44 Under 10 years____ ____ _____________________ 10 years____________________________________ 11 years____________________________________ 49 55 92 4 4 7 279 193 269 17 12 16 12 and 13 years..................................................... - ............ 528 42 584 35 12 years____________________________________ 13 years____________________________________ 229 299 18 24 306 278 18 17 14 years................. ...................................... ....................... IS years_____________________ ___________ —......... 324 208 26 17 215 137 13 8 3 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 4 13 NEWSPAPER SELLERS The age distribution was found to vary widely among cities. In Memphis—where the juvenile court and the newspapers have been cooperating over a period of 10 years to eliminate street selling by children—only one seller under 16 years of age was found, and he was 14. Memphis is therefore omitted from the further discussion of newspaper selling. In Buffalo, Fall River, and Des Moines very few newsboys under 16 were found. In four additional cities—Washing ton, Chicago, Detroit, and Wilkes-Barre—50 percent or more of the newsboys found were between 14 and 16 years of age. In some cities many of the boys were younger than 12 years. In Omaha close to a third of the sellers included in the study were under 12. Children under 12 were frequently “ hustlers” for comer owners or assisted their older brothers in selling. However, not all the younger boys were selling for news dealers or corner men. In one city where street selling is illegal for boys under 14 years of age, 12 of the 17 boys who obtained their papers from the main distributing rooms were under 14 years of age, and 5 of these were 12 years old. ^ HOURS The long and irregular hours, sometimes extending until late into the night, which earlier surveys have shown and which make street selling an unsuitable occupation for young children, were found also in the 1934 study. Of the 1,248 boys who reported their hours, a little more than half worked 15 hours or more a week. When these hours are added to the normal school week of 25 hours half of the boys are found to have been occupied at least 40 hours, the usual code work week for adults. Nearly two-fifths of the boys sold for 20 hours or more a week; nearly a fourth sold for 25 hours or more; 12 percent sold for 30 hours or more. A considerable number (19 per cent) sold casually, for less than 5 hours a week. The distribution of weekly working hours of the newspaper sellers was as follows: Percent Total reported_____________________________________ 100 Less than 5 hours________________________________________ 5 hours, less than 10______________________________________ 10 hours, less than 15_____________________________________ 15 hours, less than 20________ .____________________________ 20 hours, less than 25_____________________________________ 25 hours, less than 30_____________________________________ 30 hours or more_________________________________________ 19 13 17 14 14 12 12 Younger boys often worked the longest hours. Median weekly hours by age groups were: 17.8 hours for boys under 12 years; 15.4 hours for boys of 12 and 13 years; 15.4 hours for boys of 14 and 15 years. Sixteen percent of the youngest group worked 30 hours or more, while only 10 percent of the oldest group worked as long as this. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 14 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK More of the older boys than of the younger boys sold less than 5 hours a week. (Table 3.) Obviously the 11-, 12-, or 13-year-old boy who puts in—at school and selling combined—a total week that exceeds the code standard for an adult is being deprived of the rest and play time needed for his normal mental and physical development. T able 3. —Age and weekly hours of newspaper sellers in 17 cities, 1984 Newspaper sellers Age at last birthday Weekly hours Total Under 12 years 12 and 13 years 14 and 15 years N ot re Percent ported N um Percent um Percent um Percent distri Nber distri Nber distri N um distri ber ber bution bution bution bution Total. ............. Honrs reported Less than 5 hours____ . 5 hours, less than 10___ _ 10 hours, less than 15___ 15 hours, less than 20__ 20 hours, less than 25 ... 25 hours, less than 3 0 ___ 30 hours or more Hours not reported_______ 1,259 196 528 532 3 1,248 100 193 100 525 100 527 100 232 161 207 180 174 147 147 19 13 17 14 14 12 12 28 28 30 19 34 24 30 15 15 16 10 18 12 16 93 73 89 84 64' 57 65 18 14 17 16 12 11 12 111 59 87 77 75 66 52 21 11 17 15 11 3 3 3 13 10 5 Comparatively few boys were found who sold early-morning papers—a condition similar to that found in the 1922-26 studies. Only 107 (8 percent) of the boys for whom schedules were obtained reported selling before school; these were mainly in Washington, New Haven, Omaha, and Los Angeles. Six boys began selling before 5 a.m.; 14 boys started between 5 and 6 a.m.; 50, between 6 and 7 a.m.; 34, between 7 and 8 a.m.; and 3, at 8 a.m. or later. About two-thirds of the sellers usually sold on school-day afternoons or evenings; a somewhat larger proportion sold on Saturdays, but only about a quarter sold on Sundays. Night selling was still prevalent, although in some places there has occurred a notable improvement since the earlier studies. In every city visited some boys were found selling until 9 p.m. or later, either on school-day nights or on Saturdays. Some sold up to 11 or 12 p.m. and even 2 a.m. Thirteen percent of those selling after school, 23 percent of those selling on Saturdays, and 21 percent of those selling on Sundays did not quit until 9 p.m. or after (table 4). Certain cities, however, presented a very different picture. In Des Moines, Buffalo, New Haven, and Washington practically no late selling was found; nearly all the children who sold after school quit before 8 p.m. These instances show that boys are not necessary for selling night papers and that the abuses of late selling can be controlled. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 15 NEWSPAPER SELLERS On school-day nights selling to 9 p.m. and after was most prevalent iii Paterson and Detroit—and on Saturday nights in these same cities, with the addition of Atlanta. Even in these cities there has been considerable improvement within the last 10 years. T able 4.—Hour of quitting work on specified days by newspaper sellers in 17 cities, 1934 Newspaper sellers Hour of quitting work on Satur Worked after school Workedday Worked on Sunday Percent Percent Percent Number distribu Number distribu Number distribu tion tion tion T otal___ ____________ _____ ______ 1,259 1,259 1.259 Hour reported_________________________ 868 100 1,011 100 326 100 Before 7 p .m ________ ____ _____ ____ 7 p.m., before 8_____________________ 8 p.m., before 9_____ _____ _______ __ 9 p.m., before 10...................................... _ 10 p.m., before 12________________ . . . 12 p.m. and after___________________ N o work___________________________ Hour not reported___________________ __ 400 248 110 30 180 46 29 13 3 9 462 210 109 82 99 49 245 3 46 21 11 8 10 253 3 3 17 37 78 1 1 5 11 387 4 933 1 These 80 children quit selling at 10 or later; some m ay have worked until 12 p.m. or after. One of the worst situations found in the present survey occurred in Paterson, N.J., and was connected with the sale of out-of-town— chiefly New York City—papers. In Paterson sellers outnumbered carriers in the schools visited. Distributors of out-of-town papers in Paterson sell to anyone who will buy, and consequently very young boys were to be seen on the streets at night, especially near the railway station and the principal motion-picture theaters. Thirty-six of the 58 sellers interviewed sold until 10 p.m. or later at some time during the week. The hours that some of the indi vidual boys worked and the amounts that they earned on the night before the interviews were as follows: Age Earnings 11 11 12 12 12 14 15 $0. 30 . 45 .5 5 .7 5 .2 0 . 40 .7 5 Hours 9:15-11 p.m. 8:30-11 p.m. 3:30-5 p.m. and 9:307:00-10 p.m. 4:00 p.m.-midnight. 8:45-11:30 p.m. 10:00 p.m.-midnight. None of these boys could return unsold papers—a fact that may account for their selling until such late hours. The 12-year-old boy who sold until 2 a.m. said he got “ stuck” with four papers, which he was then trying to dispose of. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 16 CHILDREN IN NEW SPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK Detroit also stands out as a city wliere a large amount of late-atnight selling occurs. Sixty-one percent of the 80 boys selling on Saturdays who were interviewed were staying out until 9 p.m. or later, and almost a third were staying out until 10 p.m. or later, among them a boy 8 years old. On school-day nights 59 percent of the sellers quit at 9 p.m. or later, and 35 percent quit at 10 p.m. or later. Even on Sunday nights more than half the children who sold stayed out after 9 p.m. In Chicago, at one of the schools for truant and delinquent chil dren, a number of late sellers were found. One boy—still a truant from time to time—sold regularly until after midnight on school days and on Sundays outside one of the large hotels; he seldom reached home before 1 a.m. He received his papers from a newspaper truck driver. Another 14-year-old boy in the same school sold from 7 p.m. to midnight on school days, and on Sundays from 3 p.m. to midnight. He received his papers and made settlements weekly with a corner manager employed by a newspaper company. This boy often fell asleep in school. He looked extremely pale and complained of loss of appetite. (Neither of these boys sold on Saturdays.) Two boys of 13 and 14, very much undersized for their ages, who worked together with an older lad, sold on school days from 7 p.m. to midnight and on Saturdays up to 2 a.m. Occasionally they were allowed to sleep for a while in a garage, and sometimes they stayed out all night. Selling in restaurants, they were sometimes treated to supper by regular customers with whom they were acquainted. Each claimed that he made $1.20 a night, including tips. In Chicago, where formerly night selling was a serious social problem but where the principal papers are making an effort to comply with code hours, the majority of child sellers are off the streets by 7 p.m. both on school days and on Saturdays and Sundays. Several boys reported that they had been instructed to quit by 7 p.m. and not to work more than 3 hours a day. Yet on school days 23 percent of the sellers quit at 8 p.m. or later, and on Saturdays, 31 percent. A few of the late-edition sellers still stay out until very late. In Chicago at the time of the study 17 boys (of 108 who sold after school) were staying out until 9 p.m. or later on school days. On Saturdays 24 were staying out after this hour, the latest quitting between 2 and 4 a.m. On Sundays 10 boys (of 85 who sold on Sundays) quit after 9 p.m.—the last one after 2 a.m. Everywhere selling on Saturday nights constituted a more serious problem than selling on school-day nights, both because of the larger number of boys involved and because of the late hours. In 1 city 18 boys (31 percent of all the boys reported as selling on Saturday) did not leave the streets until 10 p.m. or later, and 9 did not leave https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 17 NEWSPAPER SELLERS until midnight or later. Fourteen of these 18 boys obtained their papers from newspaper companies. Long hours also are a feature of Saturday selling. A 13-year-old boy reported that he sold from 9 a.m. Saturday until 4 a.m. Sunday, with 2 hours off for meals. During the 17 hours he usually sold 80 papers. Another boy, 13 years of age, worked from 6 a.m. until 11.30 p.m. Saturdays, with 2 hours off for meals. TTis earnings for the 1 day were $5. A 12-year-old boy was on the street from 8 a.m. Saturday until 2 a.m. Sunday, with 1 hour off for meals. This child sold papers on school days from 4 p.m. until midnight and on Sundays from 9 p.m. until midnight. His earnings for the week before the survey were $2.75. Many of these children who sold practically all day and all night on Saturdays worked on school days also. Their total weekly selling hours in some cases equaled what is considered a full working week for an adult. In one city three boys, aged respectively 13, 14, and 15 years, had sold for hours ranging from 40K to 49 in the week preceding the survey. When these were added to the 25 hours that make up a normal school week, the shortest weekly hours of this group were 65. Starting immediately after school these three boys sold regularly until 8 or 9 p.m., and on Saturdays from about 11 a.m. until 11 p.m.; the 14-year-old boy sold until midnight. These boys also sold for 6 or 7 hours on Sundays. Their earnings were, respectively, $2.75, $8, and $3.83. EARNINGS Median weekly earnings for the 1,208 sellers reporting this infor mation were $1.41. Seventeen percent of the newsboys under 16 earned less than 50 cents a week; 36 percent earned less than $1, and two-thirds earned less than $2 weekly (table 5). Median weekly earnings and median weekly hours for different age groups were as follows: Earnings All a g e s ___ ___ Under 12 y e a r s __ ______ 12 and 13 years______ 14 and 15 years _____ - - ____ 82 1 30 Hours 15. 17 15 15. 6 8 4 4 Thus, contrary to a prevailing impression and in spite of the fact that the younger children worked longer hours, it was the younger children who earned the smaller amounts. Of the 39 children under 10 years of age from whom information was obtained, 21 earned less than 50 cents a week. Of the boys under 12 years of age 34 percent earned less than 50 cents a week, whereas only 11 percent of those 14 and 15 years of age earned so little. Only 7 percent of all the boys earned $4 or more; 66 percent of this group were 14 or 15 years of age, and only 3 percent were under 12 (tables 5 and 6). https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 18 CHILDREN IN NEW SPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK T able 5.— Percent distribution of weekly earnings of newspaper sellers of specified ages in 17 cities, 1934 Newspaper sellers Age at last birthday W eekly earnings Total T a b l e 6 . — Age Under 12 12 and. 13 years years 14 and 15 years 100 100 100 100 17 19 16 14 18 8 7 34 25 17 11 8 3 2 18 22 16 14 17 6 5 11 15 16 14 22 12 11 and weekly earnings of newspaper sellers in 17 cities, 1934 Newspaper sellers Age at last birthday W eekly earnings Total Total................... Less than 50 cents___ $50 cents, less than $1. $1, less than $1.50____ $1.50, less than $2-----$2, less than $3______ $3, less than $4„*-----$4 or more__________ N ot reported________ 1,259 209 232 199 164 215 100 89 51 Total re ported N um ber 14 and 15 years 12 and 13 years Under 12 years Per cent N um ber Per cent N um ber N ot re ported Per cent 1,256 196 16 528 42 532 42 3 208 232 199 162 215 100 89 51 63 45 32 20 15 5 3 13 30 19 16 12 7 5 3 89 111 82 71 87 31 27 30 43 48 41 44 40 31 30 56 76 85 71 113 64 59 8 27 33 43 . 44 53 64 66 1 2 . _ .. The total weekly hours of all the boys covered by the study who earned between $1 and $1.50—the group in which the median earnings fall—varied widely, as is shown in the following list giving distribution of working hours: Percent distribution Total reported____ ________________________________ Less than 5 hours___ 5 hours, less than 10_. 10 hours, less than 15. 15 hours, less than 20. 20 hours, less than 25. 25 hours, less than 30. 30 hours or more____ https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 100 13 15 20 20 14 11 8 19 NEWSPAPER SELLERS A similar wide variation in working time was found for boys whose earnings were more than $1.50 (table 7). T able 7.— Weekly earnings and weekly hours of newspaper sellers in 17 cities, 1934 Newspaper sellers W eekly horns Less 5 hours, 10 hours, 15 hours, 20 hours, 25 hours, 30 hours than 5 less than less than less than less than less than hours 10 15 20 25 30 Weekly earnings Total________ 1,259 1,248 232 Less than SO cen ts.. SO cents, less than $1 $3, less than $1.50__ $1.50, less than $2__ $2, less than $3_____ $3, less than $4_____ $4 or more_________ N ot reported______ 209 232 199 164 215 161 180 174 147 147 208 230 196 164 213 99 100 88 50 Longer hours did not always mean higher earnings. Boys who worked 30 or more hours a week had no guarantee that they would earn an amount commensurate with their efforts. Fourteen percent of them earned less than $1 a week, and only 29 percent as much as $3 a week (table 8). T able 8. Percent distribution of weekly earnings of newspaper sellers working specified weekly hours in 17 cities, 1934 Newspaper sellers W eekly hours Weekly earnings Total T otal____ ______ Less than 50 cen ts.____ . . . 50 cents, less than $ 1 ... $1, less than $1.50____ _____ $1.50, less than $2______ $2, less than $3___________ $3, less than $4___________ $4 or more____ ______ Less 5 hours, 10 hours, 15 hours, 20 hours, 25 hours, than 5 less than less than less than less than less than 30 hours or more hours 10 15 20 25 30 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 17 19 16 14 18 8 7 51 31 11 3 3 1 24 29 19 10 14 1 2 11 21 19 15 20 4 8 7 16 22 16 21 10 8 3 17 17 21 21 14 8 5 4 16 20 21 20 13 6 8 11 15 31 13 16 . 1 Less than 1 percent. GIRL NEWSPAPER SELLERS The number of girls found selling papers was negligible—12 out of 1,259 sellers interviewed. These 12 were in 6 different cities. Their ages were as follows: One was 8, two were 9, two were 10, one was 11, three were 12, and three were 13 years old. 73748°—35----- i https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 20 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK Three of the girls were sisters. The 2 younger girls, 8 and 9 years of age, helped their 13-year-old sister on Saturdays and their older brother during the week. The eldest of these 3 girls had worked from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the Saturday preceding the survey, with a half hour off for supper, and had earned 80 cents from the sale of papers and 40 cents in tips. This girl obtained her papers from the main distributing room of the newspaper plant. A 9-year-old girl helped a boy seller from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on school days, from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, and from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. She was paid at a flat rate of 10 or 15 cents a day. A 10year-old girl earned 60 cents by selling from 3:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Sat urdays. On Sunday morning she began selling again at 6:30 a.m. and worked until 1 p.m. Eight of the girls obtained their papers from sources other than the newspaper companies, 2 secured them from the main distributing rooms, and 2 had papers delivered to them by newspaper companies. SOCIAL ASPECTS OF STREET SELLING Although the present study was undertaken primarily to collect information on ages, earnings, and hours, the field agents’ interviews with social agencies, school principals, schqol-attendance officers, and others tended to confirm the conclusions already well established by other surveys, that newspaper selling is an unsuitable and unwhole some occupation for young children. Several circulation managers concurred in this opinion. One circulation manager remarked that many parents who exercise close supervision over their children will not permit them to sell newspapers. Another said that he did not supply papers to boys under 12 and preferred to give them to boys 14 years of age or over, because a small child soon learned that it was more profitable to beg than to sell and consequently his papers remained unsold. While statistical evidence of the effects of street work on school progress is inconclusive, yet both during the 1934 study and during previous studies many individual instances in which fatigue, resulting from long hours and loss of sleep at night, had had a detrimental effect on school progress were brought to the attention of Bureau agents. Sellers were found who regularly fell asleep during school hours, and teachers, knowing the hours they worked, said they did not have the heart to waken them. It is inevitable that long hours of standing or walking on hard pavements, sometimes carrying heavy bundles; the overstimulating life of down-town streets, particularly at night; too early or too late hours; irregular and unwholesome meals; and exposure to inclement weather often result in injury to the health and the physique of young children. Physical examinations of groups of newspaper boys have https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NEWSPAPER SELLERS 21 shown that cardiac diseases, orthopedic defects, and throat ailments occurred with much greater frequency among boys who sold papers than among boys who did not.1 The accident hazard to which newsboys are exposed is great and is one of the factors which lead some newspaper companies to place the newsboy in the status of independent contractor rather than employee, thus avoiding liability. Claims that newspaper selling is a potent factor in character build ing must be considered in the light of the actual surroundings of the boys and in the light of statistics relating to juvenile delinquency, even though it is impossible to isolate all the elements which may have caused the delinquency. Many surveys of newsboys have pointed out the comparatively high rates of delinquency found among children who sell newspapers, as shown by court records. In the five cities covered by the earlier Children’s Bureau surveys, in which the juvenile-court records were examined, from 6 to 13 percent of the newsboys in the study had been in court, the great majority of them being taken there for the first time after they had begun work on the streets. Other studies have found evidence of a direct connection between street work and delinquency in the fact that large proportions of boys committed to industrial schools and reformatories have sold papers. A preliminary report on a group of boys committed to the Preston School of Industry, Waterman, Calif., a school for repetitive juvenile delinquents, showed that 62 percent had been engaged in selling or delivering newspapers, magazines, or circulars. All but 14 of the 61 boys included in that study who had engaged in this type of work started with it as their first job. The average age for starting to sell newspapers was 11 years 4 months. The number that had been sellers slightly exceeded the number that had been carriers. The sellers in the group showed an average school retardation of more than three grades. The newspaper carriers were retarded slightly more than one grade.2 In a follow-up study of 1,000 delinquent boys who had come before the Boston juvenile court in the period 1917-22 and had been referred to the clinic associated with it—the most recent intensive analysis of juvenile delinquents—it was found that two-thirds of those who had been employed before coming before the court had been in street 1 Hexter, Maurice B.: The Newsboys of Cincinnati, p. 157 (Helen S. Trounstine Foundation Studies, vol. 1, no. 4, Jan. 15, 1919); Street Traders of Buffalo, N .Y ., 1925, pp. 36-37 (Foundation Forum, August 1926, no. 52); The Health of a Thousand Newsboys in N ew York City, a study made in cooperation with the Board of Education by the Heart Committee of the N ew York Tubercuolosis and Health Association (Inc.), p. 18. (Mimeographed. No date.) 8 Thomas, R uth Esther: Work Records of a Group of Sellers and Carriers of Newspapers and Magazines in the Preston School of Industry, Waterman, Calif. M ay 6,1934. (Unpublished.) https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 22 CHILDREN IN NEW SPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK trades, as newsboys, bootblacks, errand boys, or messengers. report comments: The So it will be seen that our group of juvenile delinquents were to a large extent engaged in street trades. The dangers of such occupations during the years of puberty and adolescence do not require extended comment here. Antisocial attitudes, petty forms of misconduct leading gradually into more serious ones— gambling, sex practices, the acquisition of antisocial cultural traditions—these are only a few of the possibilities of the uncontrolled street life of boys eager to express themselves and impress their fellows. If the lure of the streets and the standards and conduct which it naturally stimulates are not counteracted by organized recreational facilities, petty violations of the social code may gradually lead to more serious forms of misconduct and eventually to contacts with police and courts. The process is illustrated in many a case history.3 Evidence was obtained, in the course of the present study, that progress has been made in eliminating some of the most unwholesome influences which surround the work of the newsboy, particularly the conditions in the newspaper-distributing rooms. The 1934 study showed that many newspapers had tried to eliminate the practice of loitering and gambling in the distributing rooms or the adjoining alleys and the practice of sleeping in the distributing rooms or garages, formerly common after late selling, particularly on Saturday nights. In the older studies there was much evidence that some of the men employed to sell papers to newsboys at wholesale were of such a type as to exert a demoralizing influence on the boys. It was reported in the 1934 survey that in many places there had been great improve ment in this regard, but few definite facts could be obtained in so short a time as was available. School authorities and others familiar with the problem felt that supervisors for the street sellers are not so carefully selected as those for the carriers. 8 Qlueck, Sheldon, and Eleanor T. Glueck: One Thousand Juvenile Delinquents, pp. 89,90. Survey of Crime and Criminal Justice in Boston Conducted by the Harvard Law School, vol. 1. Harvard Uni versity Press, Cambridge, Mass,, 1934, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NEWSPAPER CARRIERS The 1934 survey included 1,830 newspaper carriers under 16 years of age in the 17 cities visited. Some of these worked for the publisher on a salary basis; others were in the status of “little merchants ”, selected and supervised by the newspapers, obtaining their papers at wholesale rates; still others built up and owned their own routes; 276 worked as helpers to other carriers. In general, regulation applying to newspaper carriers is less stringent than that applying to sellers. The New York State street-trades law applies to carriers as well as sellers, and consequently in Buffalo a minimum age of 12 is found for newspaper carriers, badges are required for boys 12 to 17 years old, work is prohibited before 6 a.m. and after 7 p.m., and girls are entirely barred. However, no other city visited has so high a standard as this; often the m in im um a g e for carriers is as low as 10 years, or badges are not required, or the nightwork provisions do not apply and consequently there is no limitation on early-morning deliveries. AGES Although the N.R.A. code did not contain provisions applying to carriers, nevertheless in some of the places visited newspapers reported having adopted the policy of taking on no carriers under 16 years of age, and in others, none under 14 years of age. In some places these policies antedate the N.R.A.; in others they have been introduced recently. Some managers expressed a preference for boys of the ages 12 to 14 years; but none expressed an interest in employing boys younger than 12, and a number thought that older boys (16 years and upward) give better service. A considerable number of papers stated that it was their policy to give morning routes to boys at least 16 years of age. A morning paper in Atlanta for the past 13 years has been operating with men carriers only and has found this a much better business method than employing young boys; it has meant fewer problems of discipline, fewer complaints, and fewer losses. The men carriers work full time at delivering papers, soliciting subscriptions, and making collections; they work on a commission basis, assuming the respon sibility for collections. A man’s usual route includes about 450 customers, fbur or five times the number that a boy employed on a part-time basis can handle. 23 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 24 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK The newspaper agencies that handle home deliveries for six of the important dailies in Chicago employ no carriers under 16 on morning deliveries, which constitute the principal part of the business. Boys 14 to 16 are engaged only on afternoon routes, and no boys younger than 14 are hired. A circulation manager in another city, during the course of his newspaper experience, had changed his mind about the advantages of employing young boys. He found that although youngsters might be more appealing and therefore made good canvassers, they did not hold their routes so well as older boys. He found it was possible to engage boys while they were in high school who would hold their routes while attending college. At the time of the study his hiring-age minimum was 15 years, and he expressed himself as in favor of a 16-year minimum under the N.R.A. To some extent the depression has had the effect of increasing the average age of carriers, because boys unable to find other work have kept their routes beyond the customary age. Nearly everywhere large numbers of high-school boys were found doing this type of work, and some who had graduated from high school and gone on to college were still carrying papers. It has been felt generally that the work of a newspaper carrier does not expose the child to the harmful environmental influence of news paper selling; yet carriers have been found both in this study and in earlier studies to be a little older than sellers, although many very young boys do carry papers on routes. There has been the same tendency toward using older boys for this purpose as for selling. The median age of the carriers studied in the Children’s Bureau surveys of 1922-26 was 13.1 years; in 1934 it was 14.3 years. T able 9.— Age of newspaper carriers in 17 cities in 19S4- and in 7 cities in 1922—26 Newspaper carriers 7 cities, 1922-26 17 cities, 1934 Age at last birthday Number Percent dis tribution Percent dis tribution Number 3,479 1,830 Age reported............................................................................. - 1,819 100 3,473 100 Under 12 years........... .....................................................- 108 6 1,050 30 Under 10 years................................ - ...........- ........... 10 years............ ............................................................ 11 years_______________________ ____________ 19 26 63 1 1 3 327 279 444 9 8 13 596 33 1,318 ' 38 12 years........ ...............................................................13 y e a rs........................................................................ 188 408 10 22 624 694 18 20 14 years......................... ................................. ..................... 15 years____________________. . . ------------------- ------ 591 524 32 29 682 423 20 12 12 and 13 years_____________________________ — 11 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 6 NEWSPAPER CARRIERS 25 This study does not reflect the great extent to which carriers 16 years of age and over are now employed, since only children under 16 were included. Of the carriers interviewed 61 percent were 14 and 15 years of age; one-third were between 12 and 14; and only 6 percent were under 12. Not only was the general trend in 1934 toward the older carrier, but there was a most decided decrease in the proportion of very young children. The proportion of the boys who were under 12 was five times as great at the time of the earlier studies as in 1934 (30 percent in 1922— 26 as compared with 6 percent in 1934), and the percentage under 14 was more than one and a half times as great (68 percent in 1922— 26 as compared with 39 percent in 1934). (See table 9.) In 1934 there were considerable variations among cities in the age distribution of the boys. In Buffalo, Wilkes-Barre, Omaha, and Fall Elver more than 70 percent of the carriers interviewed were 14 or 15. In Baltimore, Youngstown, Detroit, and San Francisco half the carriers or more were under 14. HOURS Of the carriers interviewed in this study only 16 percent reported week-day morning delivery hours; these were mainly in Memphis and Des Moines. Almost three-fourths of those delivering on week-day mornings started work before 6 a.m. and 43 percent started before 5 a.m. A few started between 3 and 4 o’clock. Whenever the boys under 14 were found engaged in this type of work, few of them were able to get preferential treatment in the matter of hours. In one city visited 69 carriers under 16 reported work on morning routes; 44 of these started work before 4 a.m. and the remainder before 5 a.m. Of these boys who started delivering some time between 3 and 5 a.m., 14 were 13 years of age and 10 were 12 years old. One youngster who started to deliver at 3:30 every week-day morning and at 5 a.m. on Sundays was only 11 years old. He carried 70 papers, 7 times a week, earning $3 a week. In addition to the time spent delivering, which took 2 hours on week days and 1 hour on Sundays, he spent about 4 hours making collections and 3 hours getting new subscribers and several hours keeping his records and accounts. Twice a week he had to listen to a sales talk. The total weekly working hours of this child of 11 were 22 a week, which in addition to school means 47 hours. The time that the boys included in the Children’s Bureau survey spent in the actual delivery of papers averaged a little more than 1 hour per day. Half the boys spent more than 7 hours a week deliv ering, half spent 7 hours or less. But in addition a number of hours were spent each week in collecting and soliciting. Of 1,830 boys, 1,208 reported extra time in collecting, and 1,108 reported extra time https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 26 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK in soliciting new subscribers. Half tbe boys worked more than 10.3 hours a week in all these activities. Table 10 compares the hours spent in delivering with the total weekly hours worked. T able 10.— Weekly hours spent in delivering newspapers and total weekly hours of newspaper carriers in 17 cities, 1934 Newspaper carriers spending weekly hours in- W eekly hours Delivering newspapers Percent distribution Number Total....... 1,830 Hours reported. 1,826 Less than 8 hours___ 6 hours, less than 9 ... 9 hours, less than 12.. 12 hours, less than 15. 15 hours, less than 20. 20 hours or more____ 687 608 281 137 72 41 Hours not reported— ,__ 4 All activities1 Number Percent distribution 1,830 100 1,796 100 38 33 15 8 4 2 362 394 328 278 247 187 20 22 18 15 14 10 34 i Includes soliciting, collecting, and so forth, as well as delivering. Although 38 percent of the carriers were through delivering in less than 6 hours a week, only 20 percent reported total hours of work as less than 6 a week. Seventy-one percent completed their deliveries in less than 9 hours a week, but this represented total working time for only 42 percent of the boys. Delivering took very few of the boys (6 percent) as much as 15 hours a week; but when the time spent in soliciting, collecting, and keeping records was included, it was found that 24 percent of the boys spent 15 hours or more a week, and 10 percent spent 20 hours or more a week. There is a distinct relationship between the age of the carrier and the total weekly hours of work. The older boys not only handle the longer routes but spend more time in soliciting and collecting. Frequently a 14- or 15-year-old boy employs a younger one to help him throw papers; the helper often accompanies him on his collec tion tours but rarely assumes the responsibility himself. Of the boys under 12 years old, 34 percent worked less than 6 hours a week, compared with 23 percent of those 12 and 13, and 17 percent of those 14 and 15. Those working 15 or more hours a week comprised 18 percent of the youngest age group, 24 percent of the 12- and 13-year group, and 25 percent of the 14- and 15-year group (table 11). https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 27 NEWSPAPER CARRIERS T able 11.— Age and total weekly hours of newspaper carriers in 17 cities, 1984 Newspaper carriers Age at last birthday Total Under 12 years 12 and 13 years 14 and 15 years Total weekly hours1 N um ber Per cent dis tribu tion N um ber Per cent dis tribu tion N um ber Per cent dis tribu tion Per N ot re cent ported dis tribu tion N um ber Total_________ ______ 1,830 Hours reported..................... 1,796 100 103 100 5S5 100 1,097 100 11 Less than 6 hours______ 6 hours, less than 9_____ 9 hours, less than 12____ 12 hours, less than 15___ 15 hours or more. 362 394 328 278 434 20 22 18 15 24 35 23 16 10 19 34 22 16 10 18 134 128 104 78 141 23 22 18 13 24 191 241 206 189 270 17 22 19 17 25 2 2 2 1 4 Hours not reported 34 108 596 5 1,115 11 11 18 1 Includes hours spent in soliciting, collecting, and so forth, as well as delivering. EARNINGS For the week preceding the interview the median earnings for all the newspaper carriers included in the study were $1.87. The dis tribution of weekly earnings was as follows: Percent Total reported____________________________________ _ 100 Less than 50 cents. ______________________________________ 50 cents, less than $1_____________________________________ $ 1 , less than $2 __________________________________________ $2, less than $3___ ______________________________________ $3, less than $4__________________________________________ $4, less than $5_______________________________________ __ $5 or more________________ ________________ _____________ 11 16 26 21 13 7 6 As has been explained, “ earnings” means not the hypothetical amount which a route is supposed to yield, but the amount actually collected, less the payments to the publishing company for the whole sale cost of the papers. Eleven percent of the carriers earned less than 50 cents during the week, 27 percent earned less than $1, 53 percent earned less than $2, and 74 percent earned less than $3. Of those earning $3 or more during the week, 13 percent earned between $3 and $4, 7 percent between $4 and $5, and 6 percent $5 and more. Ten boys had received no pay, either because they had merely helped other car riers or because they had failed to collect enough to cover their paper bills. 73748°—35----- 1 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 28 C H IL D R E N I N N E W S P A P E R A N D M A G A Z IN E W O R K 'There is a distinct relationship between the age of the carrier and his earnings; the older boys earn more than the younger ones, and earnings increase with each year of age. Fifty-eight percent of those under 12 years of age, and 50 percent of those 12 years of age, earned less than $1 a week, compared with 33 percent of those 13 years of age, 22 percent of those 14 years of age, and 15 percent of those 15 years of age. The proportion earning $4 a week or more increased from 2 percent of those under 12 years old to 19 percent of those 15 years of age (table 12). However, 44 percent of the boys 14 and 15 years old reported earnings of less than $2 a week, showing that even among the older group the higher earnings were not the rule. Median weekly earnings and median weekly hours both showed increases with age as follows: Earnings Hours All ages___________________________ $1» 87 Under 12 years------------------------------------------------*79 12 and 13 years________________________________ 1* 85 14 and 15 years------------------------------------------------ 2. 13 10.3 2 9. 9 10.6 8. A comparison with the earlier Children’s Bureau studies shows an increase in hours and a decrease in earnings, the median figures of the surveys of 1922-26 being 8.8 for weekly hours and $2.39 for weekly earnings. This increase in hours is due apparently to the greater prevalence of the little-merchant system, which requires the carrier boy to spend additional time in collecting and soliciting subscriptions and keeping records. T able 12.— Age and weekly earnings of newspaper carriers in 17 cities, 1934 Newspaper carriers 1,772 Less than $1.-------------------$1, less than $2—............... . $2, less than $3........... - .......... $3, less than $4...................... $4, less than $5-----------------$5 omnore.......... - .................... 482 458 370 228 130 104 Earnings not reported -- - - - - —— https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 10 48 & ■ a 3 Z © a 3 A Z 188 CD eQ a ■3 Z 408 Ut © ,0 a 3 z 591 15 years Ut © JS a 3 Z Percent dis tribution S-4 Q > 14 years Percent dis tribution 13 years 108 Total.................................... - 1,830 Earnings rep orted ..------ --------- 12 years Percent dis tribution Z Under 12 years Percent dis tribution S m © a 3 , Percent dis tribution Weekly earnings Percent dis tribution Age at last birthday Total 100 103 100 183 100 387 100 576 100 513 60 27 10 4 1 1 58 92 26 46 10 22 4 12 7 1 1 4 50 127 25 109 12 72 7 34 4 27 2 18 33 124 28 146 19 133 9 97 7 40 5 36 22 77 25 127 23 130 17 80 7 54 6 45 15 25 25 18 11 9 5 6 15 15 2 9 2 3 ! fc 41 524 100. 27 26 21 13 7 6 T© 3 O Pi M O 10 2 3 3 1 1 1 29 N E W S P A P E R C A R R IE R S Although in general the older boys worked longer hours and earned more money than the younger ones, there is not so much relationship between hours and earnings as this statement might lead one to expect. There is a wide variation in the hours worked by the boys of all ages who earned between $1 and $2 a week—the category in which occurs the median wage for all ages combined, $1.87. The distribution of total weekly hours of carriers earning $1 to $2 a week was as follows: Percent Total rep orted ..______________ ______________ ______ 100 Less than 6 hours__ }_______________ _________ .___________ ¡¡J hours, less than 9______________________________________ 9 hours, less than 12^_________________________________17 12 hours, less than 15________ ____________________________ 15 hours, less than 20_____________________________________ 20 hours or more_________________________________________ 6 17 29 16 12 10 While a majority (63 percent) of the boys whose hours of work were less than 6 a week earned less than $1 a week, many who worked long hours also earned this small amount. Ten percent of the boys in the group working 20 hours or more weekly earned less than $1 (table 13). If the group of boys whose weekly earnings were highest ($5 or more) is considered, a wide range of hours is also found; 32 percent worked between 6 and 12 hours, 47 percent between 12 and 20 hours, and 21 percent 20 hours or more (table 14). T able 13.— Percent distribution of weekly earnings of newspaper carriers workinj specified total weekly hours in 17 cities 1934 , Total weekly hours W eekly earnings Total Total. Less than $ 1 ... $1, less than $2. $2, less than $3. $3, less than $4. $4, less than $5. $5 or more____ https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Less than 6 hours 6 hours, less than 12 12 hours, less than 20 100 100 100 100 100 27 26 63 25 30 22 13 6 6 13 24 24 17 12 9 io 24 22 18 14 12 21 22 12 13 7 3 6 20 hours or more 30 C H IL D R E N I N N E W S P A P E R A N D M A G A Z IN E W O R K T able 14.— Weekly earnings and total weekly hours of newspaper carriers in 17 cities, 1984 Newspaper carriers Total w eekly hours Weekly earnings Less than 6 hours Total Total report N um ed ber 6 hours, less than 12 Per cent N um ber 12 hours, less than 20 20 hours or more N ot re* ported Per cent N um ber Per cent N um ber Per cent Total................ 1,830 1,796 362 20 722 40 525 29 187 10 34 Less than $1.............. $1, less than $2____ $2, less than $3____ $3, less than $4____ 482 458 370 228 130 104 10 48 474 451 360 225 128 102 10 46 218 75 43 12 46 17 12 5 171 207 151 93 41 33 4 22 36 46 42 41 32 32 67 126 126 88 61 48 1 8 14 28 35 39 48 47 18 43 40 32 26 21 2 5 4 10 11 14 20 21 8 • 7 10 3 2 2 3 ii 2 In a few places flat salaries were paid by some newspapers for deliv ering only, the amounts varying with the distance covered in delivering papers, the difficulties of delivery, and the number of papers delivered during the week. In Wilkes-Barre the salary ranged from $4.50 to $10 a month ($1.04 to $2.31 a week). In Chicago on morning routes the pay was usually from $10 to $15 a month ($2.31 to $3.46 a week), on evening routes from $5 to $8 a month ($1.15 to $1.85 a week). In Washington the pay varied from $5.50 to $10 a month ($1.27 to $2.31 a week). EMPLOYMENT POLICIES With few exceptions newspapers in the cities visited in 1934 used the little-merchant system for delivering papers to homes. Under this system authorized carriers are selected and supervised by the newspaper company. The little merchant buys his papers from the company at a wholesale rate. Occasionally bonuses are paid for scattered routes to bring up the carrier’s earnings or to cover losses from bad debts. The carrier is usually bonded to the extent of a 1 or 2 weeks’ paper bill, or he may be required to pay for his week’s papers in advance. In most cases he is required to settle weekly at the main office or at a branch office, although boys in outlying sections sometimes make less frequent settlements. The carrier is responsible for making collections from customers weekly, biweekly, or monthly. As his paper bill falls due weekly, he may be in debt to the company a considerable part of the time. Usu ally he is trusted for the account, but occasionally his parents are required to put up money for the bill. When subscribers do not pay,, the carrier loses on each the wholesale cost of the paper plus his earnings for the time spent in delivering and handling the account.. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis N E W S P A P E R C A R R IE R S 31 The cash loss on a bad debt may vary from 9 to 17% cents per customer per week, depending upon the wholesale rate. At the tune of the earlier Children’s Bureau studies this system was found in only a few places: In Columbus, where all the carriers worked under it, and in Omaha and Atlanta, where it applied to a little more than half the carriers. The prevailing method was to employ boy carriers at a flat salary to make deliveries only. A different crew, usually adults, was employed to make collections and sometimes to solicit new subscriptions. Today the flat-salary system is being eliminated. The extreme form that the little-merchant system may take is illustrated by the contract that carriers of a metropolitan daily news paper were required to sign recently. Under this contract the carrier agrees to deliver copies to as many subscribers as are designated by the news paper, the territory and route being subject to change at any time. The price at which the carrier is to buy the daily and Sunday papers from the newspaper company is stip ulated, but the “ prices are subject to change by the newspaper on its posting a notice of such change at its office, and the carrier agrees to pay at the new price.” The carrier agrees to pay for his past week’s papers on Saturday, and furthermore he agrees to pay the newspaper company any amount that the subscriber has agreed to pay, under any sales plan, such as a combina tion sale of the newspaper and insurance, whether or not the subscriber has paid the excess to the carrier. Even though subscribers may not pay, the carrier “ shall have no authority to cancel a subscription.” “ The carrier agrees to deliver free on said route among such persons living within that locality as are designated by the [newspaper] any advertising matter given him by the [newspaper].” The carrier agrees not to handle any other publication during the life of the contract and not to handle any other paper published in the same city within 30 days after termination of the contract. The contract is to run for 5 years but may be termi nated by the carrier on 15 days’ notice, or by the news paper on 24 hours’ notice. The carrier is required to deposit-a bond, the amount being left blank on the printed form, and may be called upon later to deposit additional amounts. These https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 32 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK amounts may be retained by the newspaper as liquidated damages in the event of a breach of the contract by the carrier or to cover any claims against the carrier. On termination of his services the deposit need not be refunded until 30 days afterward. Interest at the rate of 4 percent is allowed but is retained by the news paper “ for the same purposes as the deposit.” The contract, which is phrased in formal legal language, requires the signature of the carriers, parents. A comparison with conditions found in the earlier surveys shows that in introducing the so-called “ little-merchant” system the newspapers have radically altered the character of the carrier’s job. The little-merchant system often entails a task out of all propor tion to the pay and to the maturity of a grade-school boy. Instead of being paid a flat salary for a single function, that of delivering papers every day to a list of regular customers, the carrier must assume new responsibilities and new risks; he is expected to collect bills, prevent “ stop orders”, and get new subscriptions. The result has been to lengthen hours, to make earnings irregular, and to impose upon the boy the risk of bad debts and the difficulties incidental to collections. Furthermore, the newspaper company sometimes claims exemption from the workmen’s compensation law on the ground that little merchants are independent contractors, and in some cases this claim has been allowed. Such an interpretation leaves a large group of boys in a dangerous occupation without the benefit of workmen’s compensation. Carriers run considerable risk of injury, largely on account of the wide use of bicycles in their work. A study of indus trial accidents occurring to minors in California during 1932 showed that of 608 accidents reported 70 occurred to newspaper sellers or carriers—most of them to carriers. During the year four carriers, all under 16 years old, were killed riding bicycles, when the bicycle collided with a train or an automobile. One of the fatal cases re ported was declared ineligible for compensation under the law, and the same decision was made with regard to four cases in which the boy was seriously but not fatally injured.1 Collecting The carrier’s most difficult job, the one to which he devotes the greatest amount of attention because his profits are so closely depend ent upon it, is the collection of bills. i Industrial Accidents to Employed Minors in California in 1932. M onthly Labor Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (November 1934), pp. 1078-1094. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Acricultural & Mechanical College of le u * CollegeE§iatienp j#®sers 33 Carriers are instructed, not to combine collecting witb delivering because it means delay in delivery, but to make one or more extra trips over their routes. Where routes are long and scattered this entails a considerable amount of extra time. Customers often tell boys to call again for the money and expect calls to be made at hours which suit their convenience rather than the boys’. Many complaints were made by boys in the course of the interviews on the subject of collections and losses from bad debts. “ You pay the bill and get the balance if there is any ”, said one boy. A boy 13 years old had not made a cent during the last month, as he had been behind in his collections every week; in fact, he still owed $3.50 on his paper bill. He delivered 27 papers daily and 20 on Sunday, which required 8% hours a week. He had spent 6 hours in collecting bills and 3 hours in soliciting subscriptions, making a total of 17% hours of work during the week. Another boy’s story illustrates the difficulties of making collections in a neigh borhood of boarding houses, where most of the customers are transients. This boy spent 1 % hours every school-day evening collecting, and also 3 hours on Saturday morning, and an hour on Sunday—a total of 11)4 hours a week. His delivery time was 14 hours a week, and record keeping took 5 hours, so that he worked 30% hours a week. His earnings, on a route which should have yielded $2.50 a week, never had exceeded $1.50, and for the week preceding the agent’s visit they were $ 1 . In the city where this boy worked, although 75 percent of the carriers completed deliveries in less than 9 hours a week, only 32 percent completed all their work in this time. Thirty-seven boys (out of 105) worked 15 or more hours a week at their various activities connected with carrying papers. A 13-year-old boy delivering 30 daily papers and 50 Sunday papers had earned no profit for several weeks, and in fact his father had had to pay a $9.50 paper bill in order to hold the route. His weekly hours were 1 1 in delivering papers and 16% in collecting, soliciting, and keeping records. A 14-year-old boy, delivering 40 morning, 50 afternoon, and 80 Sunday papers— spending 20 hours a week on the combined activities connected with the route— netted 30 cents during the week. A boy is allowed to use some discretion in deciding when to drop accounts, but his decision to do so ordinarily must be approved by his district manager. Circulation managers said that boys were usually advised not to carry a delinquent subscriber more than 2 or 3 weeks. A number of the circulation managers interviewed stated definitely that supervisors or field men were available to assist boys who had difficulties in making collections. In these cities boys reported fewer losses. On the other hand, several managers stated frankly that they thought it a mistake for boys to receive much assistance from their elders; it prevented the boy from getting the mavlmnm 0ut https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 34 C H IL D R E N I N N E W S P A P E R A N D M A G A Z IN E W O R K of his training in business. Some boys, they said, were “ just naturally poor” at collecting and had to be dropped on this account. All the circulation managers interviewed felt that losses from bad debts were insignificant, yet in the boys’ minds the problem seemed to bulk large. In a carriers’ manual one paper offers boys advice on how to make collections successfully, as follows: The time for collecting is on Friday night after you have finished your route and on Saturday forenoon. Always make it a point to collect from the same family at the same time each week * * * First of all a carrier must impress upon the slow-paying subscriber that he must pay the office regardless of whether the subscriber pays or not. The inspirational bulletins published for distribution among carriers sometimes contain items like the following: During the past few months it has been necessary to replace several boys on account of poor collections. There are no excuses for these boys, for collecting requires only constant plugging while some of the other requirements of our boys need special ability. * * * ALL BILLS MUST BE PAID BY THE 10TH DAY OF EACH MONTH OR SOME NEW FACES WILL BE SEEN ON “B ” ROUTES N EX T MONTH * * *. Fines The carriers’ earnings are often subject to considerable deductions. Many complaints were heard from some of the boys about the system of fines still in use by some papers. The following fines were said to be collected in one city: 25 cents for nondelivery of a paper on Sunday. 15 cents for nondelivery of a paper on a week day. 25 cents for a wet paper. 10-15 cents for tardiness at a district meeting. 25 cents for absence from a meeting. Fines are irritating and apparently fail to achieve the desired effect. In this same city one paper, which abolished fines in favor of a system of recording complaints and occasional discharge of a careless boy, found that complaints were cut in half in 2 months. Only three carriers were discharged. Equipment Further inroads are made into earnings of carriers by required purchase of equipment. In some places boys were required to buy bags, punches, rubber bands for Sunday papers, route books, and cards from the company. Small fees are sometimes charged for “ stuffing” (putting supplements into folded papers). Circulation practices Boys are now subject to a great deal more pressure to build up their routes than was found in the earlier studies, although in one or two places complaints were made even then against the enforced carrying of extra papers for which the boy had to pay. Today the carrier boy is often considered the paper’s chief agent in building up circulation. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis N E W S P A P E R C A R R IE R S 35 Since the advertising rates depend upon circulation, there is always a certain amount of pressure to maintain and increase circulation, which is transmitted to the carriers and newsboys who come directly in contact with the public. During the depression this pressure has been particu larly acute in certain localities, although mergers between papers may have operated, here and there, to lessen some of the competition. The solicitation of new subscriptions, as well as the collection of bills, is said to give a boy that valuable business training for which news paper work is often praised. At the same time some of the most undesirable phases of the work are connected with these activities. Pressure to increase sales leads' to late hours. Evening deliveries are generally over before 7 p.m., but the time after supper is con sidered the best time to approach new customers. In many places boys are expected to call on prospective subscribers one or two evenings a week. Often weekly branch or district meetings are held in the evening, at which there is a rally and “ pep” talk, after which the boys go out in crews to canvass certain streets or neighborhoods. In one city, meetings were held twice a week and lasted about half an hour. In other places they were held weekly or at less frequent or irregular intervals. Many complaints are made by parents, teachers, principals, and social agencies about this practice. One source of complaint was the lateness of the hour at which boys returned. More than a fifth of the boys who reported either collecting or solicit ing in the evening finished between 7 and 8 p.m.; almost one-fourth finished between 8 and 9 p.m.; 8 percent finished at 9 o'clock or after, mostly before 10 p.m. The principal of a school said that he had required his son to give up his paper route because the district manager would not excuse boys from evening canvassing. Again the house organs published for the carriers give evidence of this pressure to build up routes: No orders calls for an operation called canning. Be an aggressive carrier, start your serves today. * * * Work your heads off to be at the banquet table on April 14, Joe, Don, and Charlie. You can do it. * * * Bonuses for new subscribers and prizes of all descriptions, including trips to the World's Fair, to Washington, college scholarships, second hand automobiles, as well as many smaller articles, are constantly held out to the carriers as incentives to enlarging their routes. In one city evidence was found that boys were coached in—or encouraged to invent hard-luck stories in order to increase the effectiveness of their appeals for subscriptions. Although avoiding deliberate mis representation, many circulation managers seek to utilize and exploit a child's natural appeal to the older person’s sympathy. One purposes of staging contests in which the prize is a trip to the World's Fair, for instance, is to give the boy an irresistible talking point. “ She (your https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 36 C H IL D R E N I N N E W S P A P E R A N D M A G A Z IN E W O R K customer) has some interest in you and will oftentimes be glad to continue her subscription to enable you to make your profits”, says one inspirational bulletin. And again, “ It is much easier for the carrier to tell the nonsubscriber about the prizes he hopes to win than it would be for him to tell about holding his job.” If customers want to stop the paper, the carriers of one chain paper are instructed to— Explain to Mrs. Jones that you are in a contest (carriers are always in a contest, therefore you are stating a fact) and that it is very important to you if she will just continue taking the paper for 2 more weeks. Tell her how much you will appreciate it if she will do this. Some people will stop the paper because they feel hard up at that particular moment, but at the end of the 2 -weeks period they will have had a pay day and they will not feel so poor. Are ruses of this sort a desirable part of a boy’s “ business training”? Or instructions like this one: “ There are a very few apartment houses where the manager will not allow you to solicit. These few may be worked by starting on the top floor and working down. Solicit the manager last.” Sometimes the paper offers subscribers coupons or cheap insurance as an inducement to take the paper. This means one more job for the carrier. Boys complained that they had to collect weekly insurance premiums from certain subscribers but received no extra pay for this. The loss of an insurance receipt is penalized by a fine. The general attitude of the circulation departments is thus summed up, in the words of one of their members: “ The carrier who thinks more of getting the job done than of the hours he must work reaps the greatest reward for the hours he puts on the job.” The amount of follow-up work which a carrier is exhorted to put into gaining or retaining an order that will net him 6 cents a week certainly could not be expected of an adult. In some cases carriers suffered financial losses because of the policies of the circulation departments. One paper did not permit its carriers to decrease the number of papers charged to them until the end of the week, although they could increase the number any day. This meant that a subscriber could stop taking the paper at any time during the week and the boy had to meet the balance of the week’s payment. Some of the carriers of this paper complained that their district managers would not permit them to decrease the number of papers even at the end of the week unless they had attempted to offset the “ stop” with a “ start.” Another source of loss to the carriers is the practice of requiring boys to carry and pay for extra papers. This practice was found in both the present study and the earlier ones. Circulation departments explain this regulation as necessary for replacement of stolen, wet, or tom papers. One circulation manager said that boys would rather carry extras in the hope of getting “ starts” than admit the loss of https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NEWSPAPER CARRIERS 37 subscribers. There was considerable discrepancy between this ex planation and the statements of the boys. “ We want no more than three extras at the most” was typical of their remarks. One boy said he could not get his extras cut, and so he continued carrying to bad pays.” Another way of disposing of extras was to pass them along to helpers as part of their pay. The boys were “ out of pocket” the weekly wholesale rate of the papers unless they made sales to offset the loss. The complaints of the carriers concerning the number of extras given them would indicate that this practice was for the purpose of increasing circulation. Supervision The degree of supervision of carriers varies from city to city. In some places there is an elaborate carriers’ organization which checks up on the boys’ school records and the activities connected with route work. In the city in which this system exists in its most highly developed form it may be briefly described as follows: When a boy applies for a route or a corner his parents are inter viewed and his school record is obtained, together with a statement as to whether or not the school recommends the boy for newspaper work. There is provision for training the boy in doing the work and in understanding the system under which he is working. Every 6 weeks during the school session the boy is graded “ satisfactory” or unsatisfactory” by the school on the following citizenship traits: Attendance, punctuality, conduct, effort, and courtesy. At the same time his average numerical academic grade is given. The academic record is used in the award system, under which a boy receives at the end of the year a cash award ranging from $1 to $20 for average or above-average school work. Unless ‘‘effort ” is rated unsatisfactory there is no follow-up of below-average school work. More emphasis is placed on the citizenship ratings. If a boy receives three unsatis factory ratings, he is put on probation with a warning (which is put into effect) that an unsatisfactory rating the following month will result in the loss of his route. The boy’s parents and his school are likewise given this information. Absence and tardiness reports of newspaper boys are mailed by the school to the educational division of the newspaper. A visit is made to ascertain why he was absent and whether he engaged in newspaper work that day. Truancy is cause for dismissal from newspaper work. The boy who leaves school before completing high school also loses his route or corner. Complete service and production records for each boy are kept by the educational division. These records, together with the school ratings, are used to recommend high-school graduates for positions in the reg ular newspaper organization. Unless technical training is required, positions in all departments of the newspaper are filled from the newspaper-boy group. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis MAGAZINE SELLERS AND CARRIERS As part of this study, information was obtained from 1,121 children under 16 years of age who were engaged in selling and delivering magazines in the 17 cities visited. The practice of using very young children in magazine distribution has increased markedly in recent years. The magazine sellers were much younger than either the newspaper sellers or the carriers, their average age being 12.7 years as compared with 13.7 years for sellers and 14.3 years for carriers. One-third of the children working for the periodical publishers includ ed in this study were under 12, and only a fifth were as old as 14. At the time of the earlier Children’s Bureau studies very few chil dren engaged in this type of work were found and the work was 'characterized as “ unexacting in every way” ; children sold for an hour or two immediately after school, mainly in the neighborhood of their homes. Today the situation has changed. Much larger num bers of children have been drawn in, selling hours have increased, visits to business places and restaurants are more common, and cash earnings have decreased. In a number of places school authorities and social agencies called attention to various abuses and undesirable features connected with this work. In one city very young children were found selling at night in downtown restaurants and beer gar dens; complaints were made concerning the recruiting of children on their way to and from school without consulting the parents, and of irregular and sometimes unfair terms of compensation. In the case of very young children, selling and begging were hardly to be differ entiated; one led easily to the other. Such large numbers of children were employed in certain places that it became obviously impossible for most of them to earn any appreciable amount. Children stayed out long hours and covered considerable distances and yet had very little to show for it except to “ wear out shoe leather”, as one boy’s mother put it. The provisions in street-trades laws or ordinances that regulate newspaper selling commonly apply also to magazine selling and dis tributing. In 2 of the cities visited a minimum age of 14 is set for selling magazines; in 5 cities the minimum age is 12 years; in 1, 11 years, and in 5, 10 years. In 5 cities permits or badges are required. In 4 cities no legal minimum age is set. (See Legal regulations, p. 58.) Some street-trades laws apply only to children selling. Actually it is impossible to distinguish between the selling and delivering of magazines. It is true that many children have.regular customers, but these are under no obligation to take the magazines every week or 38 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis MAGAZINE SELLERS AND CARRIERS 39 every month. At any time a child may decide to try to sell a few extra copies. In this he is encouraged by the agent, who leaves him a few extras each time, and he is constantly offered prizes for in creased sales. Many of the children who reported that they sold only t° regular customers disposed of their magazines in a few hours or minutes, but 59 percent of the children selling only weekly magazines engaged in this at least 2 days each week, and one-third sold on 3 or more days. The median number of magazines sold or delivered was 15. Therefore, the amount of time spent is not accounted for by the large number of customers per child, but rather by the child’s con tinual search for customers. Information gathered as to the places where sales are made dis proves one common statement regarding conditions of work; It is often said that children distributing magazines merely deliver them to houses in neighborhoods close to their own homes. Nearly twothirds of the magazine distributors included in this study (736 of 1,119 reporting) sold at least some of their magazines on streets and in other public places, such as stores, restaurants, gasoline stations, barber shops, and office buildings. One hundred and forty-one of these children sold only on streets or in other public places. Thirtyfour percent (383) distributed magazines only from house to house or m apartment buildings. In two Middle Western cities magazine agents had established the practice of taking a carload of children who had distinguished them selves in selling, to neighboring small towns on Saturdays to sell for an entire day. The children left at 8:30 a.m. and were returned home at 6 p.m. The agent furnished milk for the noon lunch. Boys were paid 25 cents for selling 10 or more magazines. EMPLOYMENT POLICIES Some of the national periodical-publishing companies have in structed their chief agents, at least in certain cities, to visit the child’s home and get the parent’s consent before making arrangements with children for selling. Evidence gathered from children in this study, however, indicates that this instruction is far from universally followed and that it is violated extensively and in places widely sep arated from one another. It is a common practice for agents to station themselves near a school and to approach children on their way to and from school with selling offers. In one city where 33 children gave definite information as to how they had started selling magazines, it developed that two-thirds had been approached by strangers when they were away from home. Eighteen had been stopped on the street by a man who offered them a chance to make money and win prizes. Three more had been attracted by the crowds in front of a movie and had made arrange ments there with a man who offered them a free show https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 40 C H IL D R E N IN N E W S P A P E R A N D M A G A Z IN E W O R K The following stories explain how some boys got their jobs: An 11-year-old boy in Youngstown, Ohio, wrote, “ As I was going downtown I was passing the * * * theater. I stopped and looked at the pictures. I saw a man there letting children go to the show. I went in and asked how the children happened to go in. He said to me ‘These children sell * * * magazines.’ I said as follows: ‘May I sell magazines? I want to make some money.’ He said ‘Very well, sonny’, and he took my name and address and next Wednesday he brought me five magazines. I sold 4 and made 6 cents. I was so happy to make a little sum of money so from then on I always sell maga zines.” A 13-year-old boy, this time in Louisville, Ky., wrote: “ How I come to have my job. I walking on the sidewalk when a car came up to side. He said Hey sonny would you like sill some magazines. I said yes. He said look here. You can wine baseball, gloves, bats, caps, masks, and swet shirts. He gave me the books, and [I] started going to the houses. No! everybody said we like---------books. He man came the next day. I ask some boys w[h]ere to g e t--------- . He would not tell me. My Father told [me]. A man come and give me 10 magazines, I work up to 15 books a week. I fell down to 9 books. I went to Slloon [saloon] and I sold all of them. I order 20 magazines. I went there again I sold them too. For 5 weeks [I sold] them all and they gave me swet shirt, and to knives. That is how I begin to sell magazines and wins things.” With a negligible number of exceptions, agents of the companies take the magazines to the children’s homes and come back for collec tion of unsold copies and financial settlement. In all the cities visited unsold copies may always be returned. The policy of the companies is to pay a uniform commission on each copy sold. On 5-cent weekly magazines th is is generally !}{ cents, and on the monthly magazines, which are generally higher in price, the commission ranges from 3 cents to 6 cents. Prizes are, however, frankly considered the chief incentive A fixed number of coupons is given according to the number of copies sold; and these are exchangeable for prizes, which are fully described, with prices in terms of coupons, in prize books. Many children, however, had only a vague idea concerning the terms of their remun eration, and a very few were able to check upon the agent’s settlements with them. Cases were reported in which the commission paid the child varied from the established rate; in which young children sold on a no-cash basis, for prizes only; in which children received no compensation if they sold less than a required number of copies. Some of these cases were recounted by children interviewed in the course of this study; others were reported by social agencies and school principals. A 12 -year-old boy was selling weeklies on a 2-cent commission basis. By agree ment the boy turned in the full amount of his sales, and the agent was to with hold the commission until a certain sum had accumulated. The man left town owing the boy $4 , and at the time of interview the boy was selling again, this time on a po-cash bpsis, for prizes only* https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis M A G A Z IN E S E L L E R S A N D 41 C A R R IE R S One boy reported that he had just begun to sell weeklies and did not know how many copies he would take or on what commission. During the preceding month he had received 13 cents and 7 lead pencils from his sale of monthlies. An 8-year-old boy put in 21 hours, covering 6 days, and had no cash earnings. He had spent 2 weeks making the 24 sales required for earning a bag of marbles. He was about to begin working for money. The Children’s Aid Society of Buffalo reported cases in which school premises were used to make arrangements for employing 9- and 10year-old children to distribute magazines. Each child was told he would receive a jackknife for each 4 copies sold, but there was to be no remuneration for fewer than 4 copies. It is not surprising, in view of the casual selling arrangements and the extreme youth of many of the children engaged, that the turn-over among magazine sellers is very high. In every school where the field agents distributed questionnaires, a comparatively large number of children did not meet the conditions for filling them out because they “ used to sell magazines”, had not sold them for several weeks, or expected to begin next week. This situation was not paralleled among either newspaper carriers or sellers. AGES Children selling magazines are, as a group, younger than either newspaper carriers or sellers. Ten percent of the magazine distribu tors included in this study were under 10 years old, 33 percent were under 12 years, and 80 percent were under 14. The corresponding proportions for newspaper sellers were: 4 percent under 10 years, 16 percent under 12, and 58 percent under 14. The age level among newspaper carriers was distinctly higher, 61 percent being 14 and 15 years of age, compared with 42 percent of the newspaper sellers and only 20 percent of the magazine distributors. (See table 1 , p. 2.) The age distribution of the magazine sellers and carriers was as follows: Total reported________________________ ________ Percent jqq Under 8 years_________________________ __________ __ j years_____ i ____________________________ _ __ g g 9 years..______________________________________ _ 10 years________________________________________ _ jq 1 1 years.____________________________________ _ jo 12 years-------------------------------------------------------------------- ____ 24 13 years____________ _______________________ _ __ 2g 14 years. ________________________________________ _ jg 15 years_____________________________ ____________ y 8 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 42 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK The Graphic Arts Code, which covers periodical publishing, sets a minimum age of 14 years for selling magazines and specifies no minimum age for “ delivering.” It has already been shown that it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between the two. Never theless it is pertinent to inquire what the children under 14 were doing. Sixty-nine percent (615 children) of the interviewed children under 14 sold at least part of their magazines in public places; 13 percent (118 children) sold in public places only. In one of the cities surveyed 50 children (88 percent of those included in the study who reported selling) were under 14 years of age, and 45 of the 50 were, selling in public places (offices, stores, restaurants, streets) in spite of the fact that this city is covered by a State-wide child-labor law prohibiting boys under 14 and girls under 18 from selling on the street. In another city, where street trades are totally unregulated, 85 percent of the magazine distributors for whom information was obtained were under 14 years of age. In a third city, also unregulated, 84 percent were under 14. In this city there were complaints against late night selling by young children. Just before the agent’s visit 4 children in 1 family, the youngest 6 years old, had been picked up by a police officer because they were found selling in a beer garden late at night. These children sometimes sold as many as 47 magazines a night. The oldest boy, aged 14, planned the routes and supervised the younger ones. They systematically visited all the eating places along several of the busy down-town thoroughfares. In a city where, through the combined efforts of newspapers, schools, and the juvenile court, very bad conditions among newspaper sellers had been remedied, 85 percent of the magazine children were still found to be under 14, and 62 percent were under 12—the highest pro portion in any of the places visited. HOURS AND EARNINGS Hours of selling magazines seldom conflicted with school hours. The few children who sold before school usually completed their sales before 9 a.m., and 898 of the 1,077 who were interviewed started selling at 3 o’clock or later on school afternoons. Four hundred and fortyfive of these children reported selling until 6 o’clock or later. Ninetytwo children sold until 8 p.m. or later, and 4 as late as 10 o’clock on school days. Cash earnings for most of the children included in the study were extremely low because of the small number of magazines sold. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Ma g a z i n e s e l l e r s a n d c a r r i e r s 43 Nine hundred and forty children reported on the number of weeklies sold the previous week. Only 76 (8 percent) of them sold as many as 50 magazines. Twenty-two children (2 percent) sold 100 or more, one child being far ahead of the others with more than 300 magazines! One-third (306) sold fewer than 10 weekly magazines, and another third (319) sold 10 to 20 weeklies. Seven hundred and ninety-three children reported selling monthlies during the month preceding the survey. Of these only 124 (16 per cent) were able to sell as many as 20 monthly magazines. Two hundred and four (26 percent) sold 10 to 20 magazines; and 465 (59 percent), fewer than 10. Of the magazine distributors reporting weekly earnings from the sale of weekly and monthly magazines, 21 percent earned less than 10 cents a week, and nearly one-half (46 percent) earned less than 20 cents a week (table 15). As in the case of newspaper sellers and carriers, earnings increased with age. Thus the proportion earning less than 20 cents a week was considerably lower among the 14- and 15year-old children than among those under 14. Only 15 percent of the children 10 and 11 years old earned as much as 40 cents a week compared with 25 percent of those 12 and 13 years old and 36 percent of those 14 and 15 years old. Ninety-six children reported average earnings of 80 cents or more; of these 79 were 12 years or older and 17 were under 12 years (table 16). T able 15. Percent distribution of weekly earnings of magazine carriers and sellers of each age period in 17 cities, 193A Magazine carriers and sellers Weekly earnings > Age at last birthday Total Under 10 10 and 11 12 and 13 14 and 15 years years years years Total. Less than 20 cents. 20 cents, less than 40. 40 cents, less than 60.T 60 cents, less than 80. 80 cents or more. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 100 100 100 100 100 46 30 73 16 49 35 44 31 11 36 28 13 10 44 C H IL D R E N I N N E W S P A P E R A N D M A G A Z IN E W O R K T able 16 — Age and weekly earnings of magazine carriers and sellers in 17 cities, 1934 Magazine carriers and sellers Age at last birthday W eekly earnings1 Total Total_______________ 20 cents, less than 4 0 . ------- 1,121 328 96 6 24 14 and 15 N ot re 12 and 13 Under 10 10 and 11 years years years years ported Total report ed N um Per N um Per N um Per N um Per ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent 1,119 606 326 107 54 96 6 24 110 76 17 3 3 5 3 3 10 257 23 527 47 225 20 15 5 3 6 5 124 89 18 8 12 1 5 25 27 17 15 13 227 157 57 28 43 1 14 45 48 53 52 45 79 63 29 15 36 1 2 16 19 27 28 38 2 2 i The monthly Aaming? of children selling monthly magazines were divided by 4H weeks and added to the amount earned by the sale of weekly magazines to secure total weekly earnings. There is a wide range in the earnings and the hours of work. If a child has regular customers only, he may dispose of his magazines in a few hours. On the other hand, most of the selling is done casually and irregularly, and for a number of children it involves long hours and very small returns. The amount of earnings of these children is on the whole incommensurate with the number of hours spent, partly because a good deal of the time is spent in loitering, partly because the number of children selling is too great for the demand. A boy hit upon one of the bad features of magazine selling when he said he took his bag of magazines and went out “ to sell and mess around. ” An 1 1 -year-old boy worked 100 hours and sold 25 magazines at a profit of 3 cents a magazine, or % of a cent an hour. A 10-year-old boy worked Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the week preceding the survey from 2:30 to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an hour off for lunch. During his 14 y2 hours he sold 15 weekly magazines, getting 1 Y%cents each, and he was paid 22 cents, the company taking the fd cent. A boy of 11 years was highly successful as a salesman; he had sold 29 magazines on his first day. He usually sold 55 weeklies every week and 35 monthlies every month. He worked 1% hours before school and again in the afternoon, and all day Saturday. When asked if he found time to play, his answer was: “ Well, seems as if I’d lost my taste for play. ” A 12-year-old boy sold from 4 to 6 o’clock every school afternoon and 1 hour on Saturday. His average weekly earnings were 15 cents, and he got a prize about once a month. A 10 -year-old boy sold every school afternoon and all day Saturday, more than 20 hours, and his average weekly earnings were 9 cents. Among the highest average weekly earnings reported were those of a 14-year-old boy who sold from house to house only. He sold https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis M A G A Z IN E S E L L E R S A N D 45 C A R R IE R S before and after school 1 day a week, with 2 additional days for monthly magazines; his earnings averaged $2.12 a week. For the children who sold weeklies only it is possible to obtain information as to both hours and earnings. One-fourth (78) of the 315 children for whom this information is fully available made less than 10 cents a week, spending from % to 21% hours on the work. Only 12 made as much as a dollar a week, with hours varying between 3 and 20%. The 78 who earned less than a dime and the 12 who earned as much as a dollar reported about the same range of hours. The following list shows for the children selling weeklies only a strik ingly similar range of hours in each earnings group and indicates a lack of relationship between earnings and hours: Num ber of Rangeof Tours 3L Weekly earning» Less than 10 cents__________________________ 10 cents, less than 2 0 ________________________ 20 cents, less than 30___ ;____________________ 30 cents, less than 40________________________ 40 cents, less than 50________________________ 50 cents, less than $1____________________ ____ $1 or more------------------ 7g 92 4g 39 10 fa.21% %-24% J4-17J4 %-25% 23 36 1 -1 7 14 12 3 - 20 % PRIZES Agents of publishing companies and the children agreed that prizes, rather than the small earnings, form the chief attraction in selling! Prizes are awarded through coupons given on sale of each magazine, for definite increases in the number of magazines sold per week or month, and as special rewards in contests. Competition is keen. The eagerness of these children accounts in part for the long hours spent carrying magazines, in search of occasional customers. One boy wrote: “ In a wheel (bicycle) contest I was so far ahead that it took 3 weeks to catch me while I was sick. ” A publishing-company representative who had had many years’ experience with two large companies felt that the 10- to 12-year-old group was the most valuable to the company, because interest in selling and winning prizes is keenest at these ages. However, the information obtained during this survey does not bear out this policy of preferring the younger child, since the child 14 or over was usually found to be a more successful and effective salesman. GIRL MAGAZINE SELLERS Eight girls in five cities sold magazines. One was 9 years old, two were 10, two were 11, and three were 13 years old. Average weekly earnings varied between 10 cents and $3. A 9-year-old girl worked three afternoons from 4 to 8 o’clock and sold 150 weeklies at a profit of $3. She sold from house to house and in restaurants. A 10-yearold girl sold 6 hours on the streets QP Saturday and earned 10 copts. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis STREET TRADERS HAVING MORE THAN ONE JOB Two hundred and sixty-four children interviewed worked at more than one of the three types of jobs included in the survey. Thirteen combined all three, selling papers, carrying papers, and selling or delivering magazines. For 193 of these 264 children information concerning the principal job has been included in the section of the report covering that job. The information given by 71 children was not so included because they were unable to designate the “ principal job” or were unable to distinguish the hours or the earnings on the several jobs. Information on hours and earnings for the total group having more than one job is shown in table 17. Children with more than one job were found with greatest frequency in Chicago (68 children), Detroit (41), Baltimore (39), Los Angeles (31), Washington (20), and San Francisco (15). The median earnings for the week of children having more than one job were $2.29, and the median hours were 17. As is to be ex pected, earnings were higher and hours longer than for children with single jobs. T able 17.— Total weekly hours and weekly earnings of children having more than 1 job in street trades in 17 cities, 1934 Children having more than 1 job W eekly earnings W eekly hours Total T otal---------------- -------- 30 hours’or more— ------------- 46 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 264 64 47 53 41 26 33 Less than $1 41 23 4 4 5 3 2 $1, less $1.50,less $2, less $3, less $4, less than than $2 than $3 than $4 than $5 $1.50 36 37 63 47 16 6 9 1 1 3 11 6 7 6 6 1 11 16 13 12 7 4 2 11 9 11 5 9 17 $5 or more 23 1 1 1 10 CITIES COVERED IN EARLIER STUDIES AND REVISITED IN 1934 Four of the cities visited in this survey were included in the earlier and more intensive street-trades studies1 by the Bureau. For these cities—Atlanta, Ga.; Omaha, Nebr.; Paterson, N .J.; and WilkesBarre, Pa.—material is available which makes possible comparison of conditions at the present time with those approximately 10 years ago. It will be recalled that only children under 16 were included in either the earlier studies or the present one, so that any change in the number of street workers over 16 is not reflected in these findings. ATLANTA Legal regulation At the time of the 1923 survey Atlanta had a street-trades ordinance providing that no boy under 12 and no girl under 16 should sell news papers or periodicals upon the streets or in public places, that sellers must obtain badges, and that no child under 14 should sell at night— 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. (The ordinance did not apply to newspaper carriers.) Enforcement of the ordinance had been delegated by the mayor to the juvenile court. The juvenile court, however, admitted that enforcement was not effective. One newspaper was issuing its own work permits, alleging that the power to do so had been granted by the mayor. Representatives of the other papers admitted that the ordinance was not observed, and some of them were unfamiliar with its provisions. Frequent violations of the ordinance provisions in regard to both ages and hours were disclosed in the survey. This ordinance was repealed in 1927, and at the present time street selling constitutes a case for court action only if a very young child is involved and insufficient guardianship can be charged. Newspaper sellers In general, the situation in regard to the age of newspaper sellers and late night selling on Saturday nights has improved. Also, condi tions in newspaper distributing rooms, which at the time of the earlier study were notoriously bad, have changed for the better. A very great increase, however, has taken place in magazine selling by children. In 1923, 76 percent of the newspaper sellers were under 14 years of age, compared to 57 percent in 1934. The proportion 10 and 11 years of age, which was 26 percent in 1923, was 8 percent in 1934. The i Children in Street Work and Child Workers on C ity Streets (U .S. Children’s Bureau Publications N os. 183 and 188, Washington, 1928). 47 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 48 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK proportion under 10 years of age, however, remained fairly constant— 11 percent in 1923 and 10 percent in 1934. In both studies few boys reported selling in the morning before school. Late night selling on school days was.more prevalent in 1934 than a decade earlier; nearly half the children reporting in 1934, compared to 14 percent of those reporting in 1923, sold until 8 p.m. or later. With regard to Saturday night, however, which in Atlanta as else where is the big selling night, there was a marked reduction. In the earlier study 61 percent of the children who sold on Saturday, but in the later study only 31 percent, sold until 10 p.m. or later; the proportion working until midnight or later had decreased from 29 percent to 16 percent. Yet Atlanta still stood out in 1934 as a city with a big Saturday-night problem with regard to newsboys. Weekly hours of newspaper sellers in Atlanta appeared to be much shorter in 1934 than in 1923, the median having decreased from 22.8 hours to 13.3 hours. This is connected with the reduction in late selling on Saturday nights and indicates that children are selling more irregularly than they were in former years. Earnings diminished proportionately more than hours. In 1923 almost all the boys (89 percent) made at least $1 a week, while median earnings were between $4 and $5. In 1934 half the boys earned less than $1 a week; and only 5 boys (out of 62 reporting) earned as much as $4. In 1934 newspapers were making greater efforts to prevent boys from congregating and loitering around the distributing rooms and sleeping there at night. Improvement in conditions was noted by school-attendance officers and by the chief probation officer of the juvenile court. Newspaper carriers In 1923, 64 percent of the carriers were under 14 years of age, and in 1934 only 37 percent were under 14. The circulation managers said that the turnover had been smaller in recent years because the older boys were glad to keep paper routes in the absence of other jobs. In 1923 carriers did not report that they were urged to build up their routes, although small cash awards and occasional prizes were given for obtaining new subscriptions. There is a great contrast between this situation and the pressure for new subscriptions found in 1934. The two afternoon papers depended almost entirely on their boy carriers to build up circulation. Activity was stimulated not only by a cash award for each subscription but by a succession of prize offers—trips to the World’s Fair, to Washington, and to other places; a second-hand automobile; college scholarships; and many small things that boys want, such as bats, balls, and flashlights. Carriers were seldom free from pressure to solicit, a situation that was https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CITIES OF EARLIER STUDIES REVISITED IN 1934 49 deplored by teachers and social workers. In a recent contest carriers had worked day and night, neglecting school work, play, and health. In 1923, 59 percent of the carriers under 16 in Atlanta made their own collections—an unusually high percentage at that time. In 1934, all the carriers made their own collections. One paper paid a straight 20 percent commission on collections, but carriers for the others assumed full responsibility for collections and were paid 40 percent of the subscriber’s bill. In 1923 it was found that carriers in Atlanta spent more time on their routes than was customary in other cities, undoubtedly a result of the little-merchant system. One-fourth of the boys spent at least 2 hours a day on their routes, and 38 percent worked 3 hours or more on Saturdays. The hours, long in 1923, were still longer in 1934. The median total hours a week for carriers in 1923 were 11.2; and in 1934, 14.3. This increase is probably accounted for by an increase in the amount of collecting and soliciting done by carriers. For delivering papers the median hours for the week were only 8, but 73 percent of the carriers who reported collecting spent 3 hours or more during the week at this, 46 percent spent 4 hours or more, and 21 percent spent 6 hours or more. Fifty-nine percent spent 2 hours or more during the week soliciting new subscriptions, and 20 percent spent 4 hours or more, with the result that the median for all the activities combined was raised to 14.3 hours. Few boys in Atlanta—11—reported making early-morning deliv eries. One paper, in fact, had been using men as carriers for a con siderable period of years and was well satisfied with the arrangement because it meant fewer bad debts, fewer complaints, and no dis ciplinary problems. Of the 11 boys who reported making early-morning deliveries (5 of them working as helpers to other carriers), all but 1 started thenwork before 6 a.m.; 2 boys started earlier than 4 a.m.; 3 between 4 and 5 a.m.; 5 between 5 and 6 a.m. One 11-year-old boy reported leaving home at 2 in the morning, returning at 5. Magazine sellers and carriers Representatives of social agencies and of schools said that magazine selling by children had increased markedly in recent years. At the time of the earlier Children’s Bureau survey only 78 children of 881 interviewed sold magazines. In the present survey magazine sellers were found in about the same proportion as newspaper sellers. Furthermore, in 1923, children doing magazine work were referred to as the “ aristocrats of the street workers”, because they came from the more prosperous homes. In 1934 they were found in equal pro portions in very different types 6f neighborhoods ranging from middle class to extremely poor. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 50 C H IL D R E N I N N E W S P A P E R A N D M A G A Z IN E W O R K Magazine sellers and carriers were younger than either newspaper carriers or sellers; their average age was 11.1 years in 1923 and 12.1 in 1934. In the earlier survey 30 percent were under 10 years of age, and in the present survey 14 percent. In both studies it was reported that the chief inducement to sell magazines lay in the prizes that were offered. Cash weekly earnings had been just about cut in half; the median in 1923 was 41 cents, in 1934 it was 20 cents. OMAHA A striking improvement was found in the working conditions of newspaper sellers in 1934 as compared with 1923 in Omaha. Abuses that were flagrant at the time of the earlier study and that had shown little improvement in June 1926, had been to a large extent eliminated by April 1934. This was traceable to better cooperation between the school-attendance department, the newspapers, and the juvenile court. Carriers in Omaha were found in both studies to be working under high pressure. Omaha was one of the cities in which boys were for the most part making their own collections, even in 1923, and where evening circulation drives were being pushed. Carriers’ hours were very long on this account both in 1923 and in 1934. Legal regulation The only legal basis for regulating street trades in Omaha is still, as in 1923 and 1926, a State-wide dependency law whereby any child under 10 who is found peddling or selling any article upon the street, or who accompanies or is used in the aid of a person so doing, may be deemed dependent and neglected and may be declared a ward of the court. The juvenile court has attempted in recent years to regulate street selling by requiring that sellers under 16 must be off the streets by 7 p.m., except that on Fridays and Saturdays boys 14 to 16 years of age may sell the late editions until midnight. This requirement was in force prior to the newspaper code. Newspaper sellers In 1923 a circulation war was in progress. Every comer had its quota of newspaper sellers, many of them under 12 years of age. Professional “ hustlers” were employed; and, according to the younger newspaper boys, one paper gave these hobo newsies room and board in addition to a cash bonus and a commission on sales. Some of the distributing rooms from which the boys obtained the first editions were in basements. One of them was without ventila tion. Here, at almost any time of the day or night, men and boys could be found. On Saturdays the bbys frequently slept in the rooms waiting for early-morning editions. Gambling, encouraged by the “ hobo newsies” who were more skilled at the game, was prevalent. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis C IT IE S O F E A R L IE R S T U D IE S R E V IS IT E D IN 1934 51 The boys claimed that the hoboes also encouraged stealing and disposed of the goods thus obtained. Later editions of the paper were brought to the boys on their corners by truck drivers. There was a great deal of complaint by the boys about being required by the truck drivers of one company to “ eat” papers; that is, to take more papers than they could sell without being permitted to return any that were not sold. Truck drivers were also accused of cruelty to the boys. In 1934 conditions were altogether different. The “hobo newsies” had disappeared. The type of men employed as truck drivers and sellers had improved. Distributing rooms were on the street floors, well ventilated and well lighted. Many of the objectionable features associated with street life, such as loitering, gambling, and sleeping in distributing rooms, had been eliminated. Boys were called for at school-closing time by company trucks and taken to their corners, together with their papers. At 7 p.m. the truck started making the rounds of the corners, picking up the children and taking them to their homes. These trucks are closed and provided with benches inside. Unsold papers are now returnable. In 1923 it was found that progress had been made in eliminating some of the youngest sellers; the proportion of sellers under 10 years of age was smaller in Omaha than in most of the other cities included in the 1923 survey. This progress has continued; the 12 percent under 10 in 1923 has been reduced to 3 percent. There was a slight increase in the proportion aged 10 and 11 years, and a still more marked increase in those aged 12 and 13 years, but a slight decrease in those aged 14 and 15 years. A distinct change has taken place in the hours of Saturday selling. Selling appears to be heavier during the early hours of the evening and less spread out over the day and night than was formerly the case. In 1923, 23 percent of those selling quit some time before 6 p.m., but in 1934 only 16 percent did so. While formerly nearly a third (31 percent) stayed out until 10 p.m. or later (and 25 percent until midnight or later), in 1934 only 7 percent worked as late as 10 o’clock, even on Saturday nights. The proportion quitting between 6 and 8 p.m. had increased from 43 to 56 percent, and the proportion quitting between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. had increased strikingly (from 3 to 22 percent). In spite of the elimination of much of the late selling on Saturday nights, the boys’ total hours spent in selling were somewhat longer in 1934 than in 1923—a tendency contrary to that found elsewhere. In 1923 half the boys interviewed worked more than 22 hours a week, and in 1934 half worked more than 27 hours a week. At the same time earnings decreased, mainly because the practice of paying bonuses to comer boys had been discontinued. These https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 52 C H IL D R E N I N N E W S P A P E R A N D M A G A Z IN E W O R K bonuses in some cases had amounted to $3 and $4 a week. median earnings were $3.52 and in 1934, $1.28. In 1923 • Newspaper carriers There has been a change in the age level of the carriers in the last 11 years, carriers being older in 1934 than in 1923. This change was more decided for carriers than for sellers. Seventy-six percent of the carriers under 16 who were interviewed in 1934 were 14 or 15 years of age, compared with 41 percent in 1923. Although the hours worked by carriers have increased somewhat (the median being 11 hours in 1923 and 12.9 in 1934) their earnings were decidedly lower at the time of the later survey. In 1923 half the carriers earned at least $4.08, whereas in 1934 the median was only $2.76. This drop occurred in spite of the fact that the com plaints, so frequent at the time of the earlier study against enforced taking of “ extras” for which the carrier must pay, were not en countered in 1934. There were, at the time of the second study, many complaints con cerning “ bad pays.” One boy, who had succeeded in collecting only $1 the week prior to the survey on a route which should have yielded $2.50, had worked a total of 30^ hours during the week: 14 hours delivering; 11 ){ hours collecting; 5 hours attending meetings and keeping records. The proportion of carriers working under the little-merchant system, although high in Omaha, in 1923, was still higher in 1934. Fifty-three percent of all carriers interviewed in 1923 reported “ work ing for themselves” ; in 1934 about three-fourths reported that they were responsible for bad debts—an equally good indication of the carriers’ status. Magazine sellers and carriers The number of children selling magazines in Omaha in 1923 was larger than in most of the other cities studied at that time. In 1934 children not only sold within the city, but those whose sales records were highest were taken into near-by towns on Saturday for all-day selling. These expeditions had been organized within the last few years. Whereas in 1923, 84 percent of the children peddled their magazines only in residential areas, 73 percent at the time of the 1934 survey sold at least part of their magazines in public places. There is a marked variation in the age distribution of the children handling magazines, showing a shift to the older children in the later year. In 1934, 15 percent were 14 and 15 years of age, compared with 2 percent in 1923; but there was also a slightly larger proportion under 10 in the later study (26 percent compared with 22 percent). In spite of the larger number of older boys and girls selling maga zines in 1934, and in spite of the fact that children tended to go https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis C IT IE S OF E A R L IE R S T U D IE S R E V IS IT E D I N 1 9 3 4 53 further afield with their “ books”, into business districts, there oc curred a pronounced drop in weekly cash earnings. The median in 1934 was only half the median in 1923—17 cents per week, compared with 33 cents per week. PATERSON Legal regulation In 1925 newspaper selling in Paterson was regulated by a city ordinance, which fixed the minimum age at 10 years, required permits renewed annually for children 10 to 16 years, and prohibited selling by children under 16 years after 9 p.m. or before 4 a.m. (except that on Saturdays they might sell until 10 p.m., and on Sundays selling was prohibited after 1 p.m.). The duty of issuing the permits was lodged with the school-attendance department, which, in addition, made surveys on Saturdays of the down-town streets. The police depart ment also had the general duty of enforcing the ordinance. A check with the records at that time, however, showed that only 18 percent of the newsboys included in the survey had permits. At the time of the 1934 survey enforcement of the ordinance had been replaced by use of the provision of the State law allowing a child between 10 and 16 years of age wishing to assist in the support of himself or his family to engage in fight work such as selling news papers, blacking boots, or running errands, upon obtaining a permit from the school-atteu dance authorities. The night-work prohibition under this law is much more stringent than that in effect in 1925, work being prohibited between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. On account of the limited staff adequate enforcement is not possible; this is shown by the fact that only 50 certificates were outstanding for all street workers, whereas the small sample of newspaper and magazine sellers in the Children’s Bureau survey exceeded that number. Newspaper sellers Newspaper sellers in Paterson at the time of the earlier study were very young. Children of 5 and 6 years were seen getting their papers from a distributing room. In the 1934 study the proportion of boys over 12 years was found to have increased greatly. In 1925, 15 per cent of the sellers were under 10 years of age, as compared with 4 percent in 1934; 41 percent in the earlier study were under 12 years, as compared with 23 percent in 1934. The proportion who were 14 and 15 years old increased from 27. percent to 39 percent. In 1925 the median age of sellers in Paterson was 12.5 years. It had gone up by almost a year in 1934, when it was 13.4 years. In neither of the Children’s Bureau studies were many boys found engaged in early-morning selling. The evening editions of the local papers present no special problem because the sale of these is mostly discontinued before 7 o’clock to make way for the early-morning editions of the New York papers. The big profits are to be made on https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 54 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK Saturday nights, because tips are more readily given then and because a relatively high commission is earned by selling the early-morning editions of the New York Sunday papers—from 2.5 cents to 2.8 cents a copy. At the time of the 1925 study all but 8 of the 108 sellers under 16 interviewed sold on Saturday nights. In 1934, however, it de veloped that 40 percent of those interviewed did not sell on Saturdays. A comparison with the earlier survey shows that there is a tendency in 1934 for those who sell at night to stay out later. In 1925 only 3 percent of the boys stayed out later than 10 p.m. on school days, and a little over one-fourth stayed out until 10 p.m. or later on Saturdays. Of the 41 boys who reported selling on school days in 1934, 21 quit selling at 10 p.m. or later. Of the 34 boys who reported selling on Saturdays, 20 sold until 11 o’clock or later, the last quitting between 2 and 4 a.m. In spite of the fact that Saturday-night selling was not so common among the boys interviewed in 1934, 9 boys out of the 34 who did sell on Saturdays sold until midnight or later, com pared with 5 boys out of 100 in 1925. Earnings of newsboys under 16 had decreased very markedly in 1934 as compared with 1925. The median was $1.43 in the 1931 study; in 1925 it had been $3.17. This drop is in part explicable by the fact that boys were selling more casually and irregularly at the time of the later study, and that fewer were selling on Saturday nights. Newspaper carriers Just as among the sellers, a decided rise since 1925 had taken place in the age of carriers in Paterson. Whereas 7 percent of the 177 carriers reporting age in 1925 were under 10 years, none of the 43 carriers interviewed in 1934 was younger than 10, and only 4 were under 12. In 1925 the largest age group consisted of boys 12 and 13 years old; by 1934 it had shifted to 14 and 15 years. Although the age level had risen, a smaller proportion of carriers with early-morning routes was found in 1934 than in 1925. Apparently these morning routes are now to a large extent cared for by boys 16 years and over. At the time of the earlier study nearly all the boys worked for news dealers at a flat salary. Of the carriers interviewed in 1934 more than half worked as helpers to other carriers—no doubt older boys. The custom of distribution through boys hired at salaries by news dealers, which was characteristic of Paterson in 1925, still prevailed. Some carriers, at both dates, built up and owned their own routes, buying their papers outright and making their own collections. Few carriers worked directly under the supervision of the newspapers. In 1925 median earnings of carriers for a typical week were $2.85 and close to a fifth earned $4 or more, although few earned more than $5. Of the 39 boys reporting earnings in 1934, only 10 made as much as $3 during the week before the study, and half made less than $2 a https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CITIES OF EARLIER STUDIES REVISITED IN 1934 55 week. Little change had occurred in hours, the majority of children interviewed in both studies working less than 12 hours a week. The drop in earnings is perhaps accounted for by the fact that many of the boys under 16 now work as helpers rather than as regular carriers. Magazine sellers and carriers Only three children were found*who had peddled magazines in Paterson at the time of the earlier study. In 1934 also this type of selling was relatively unimportant. In 5 schools, in which 58 news paper sellers and 43 carriers were interviewed, only 14 children were engaged in m jgazine distribution. Legal regulation WILKES-BARRE There has been no change in legal regulations governing street work in Wilkes-Barre in the interval between the 1922 and the 1934 study. Wilkes-Barre is covered by a State-wide street-trades law which provides for a minimum age of 12 for boys selling or delivering papers or magazines, and 21 for girls and which prohibits street work for boys under 16 between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. No badges or licenses are required. This law is enforced by the school-attendance depart ment, the city police, and the State department of labor, an unsatis factory state of divided responsibility. Whereas at the time of the earlier study, and even as late as January 1927, when a check-up was made by the Bureau, the regu lations were largely disregarded, a great improvement was noted in April 1934. Within the last year girl sellers have been taken off the street, through the efforts of the vocational-guidance department of the schools. There is no longer any night selling of out-of-town papers by children. These papers must now be purchased from news stands. The newspapers were endeavoring to live up to the State streettrades law by refusing to supply papers to boys under 12 years Younger boys, however, might obtain papers from other boys. It used to be possible for children between 14 and 16 wishing to leave school to obtain all-day selling permits, but such permits have not been issued since the N.R.A. came into effect. Newspaper sellers The severe depression affecting the principal local industry, coal mining, has reduced the profits from newspaper selling and has helped to keep down the number of newsboys. Scarcity in jobs available to children has caused older boys to keep their routes and comers past the usual age, instead of turning them over to younger brothers and sisters, or others. As a result of these various factors the swarm of young street traders, noticeable in 1922 and even more prominent in 1927, have all but https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 56 CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK vanished from Wilkes-Barre’s public square and down-town streets. The shouting of wares, which on Saturday nights was kept up until late hours by even very young children, has faded into an occasional single voice of an older boy or man. A tour of the city streets in the vicinity of the square, once swarming with tiny youngsters until 8 o’clock and well populated for, several hours later with boys from 10 years up, convinced the agents that a great change had taken place. Not a single boy who seemed under 16 was seen in the square or on any of the side streets—not even around motion-picture thea ters—after 8 o’clock. Very few were seen even at 7 o’clock, the streets having been fairly well cleared of all street traders, except adults, as soon as the local papers were sold out, which usually occurred between 6 and 7 o’clock. The 1922 report on newsboys in Wilkes-Barre found one-fifth under 10 years of age and more than one-half under 12; only 14 percent were 14 and 15 years old. Although the 1934 survey did not cover the elementary schools so thoroughly as did the earlier study, it included three high schools and junior high schools and two large parochial schools. Sixty-eight percent of the sellers were 14 and 15 years of age. The youngest child found selling was 11 years old. Whereas in 1922 more than half the Saturday sellers interviewed stayed out till 8 p.m. or later (one-third quitting between 8 and 10 A p.m. and 11 percent between 10 p.m. and midnight), in 1934 practi cally all the children who were interviewed and who sold on Saturdays reported quitting by 8 p.m., thus confirming the agents’ general observations. Three boys 14 years of age reported selling till after midnight. In 1922, 12 percent of those selling at night on school days stayed out till 8 p.m. or later; in 1934, only 2 boys out of 36 did this. A few boys were found who sold morning papers, beginning before 5 a.m., as had been the case in 1922. The total number of hours for which children sold had been reduced; the median was 12.7 hours per week in &22 and 10.4 hours in 1934. Earnings had not changed as much as the change in hours and the elimination of Saturday-night late selling might lead one to expect. Median earnings in 1922 were $1.66 per week, and in 1934, $1.37. The same proportion of boys (31 percent) in both studies made less than $1 a week. Only 7 boys of those reporting in 1934 made as much as $3 per week. Sellers of the evening dailies continued to come to the main dis tributing rooms for their papers and to buy them outright on a cash basis, as they did in 1922. Wilkes-Barre was one of the few cities covered in 1934 in which most of the boys reported that they could not return papers. J h e one local Sunday paper allowed returns up to 5 percent of the number pf copies taken out, After the boys left https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CITIES OF EARLIER STUDIES REVISITED IN 1934 the distribution rooms they were entirely free street-sales supervisors were not employed. from 57 supervision, as Newspaper carriers In 1922 the majority of the regular carriers were employed by the papers at a flat monthly salary—$8 for morning routes «nd $3.50 to $6.50 for evening routes. About one-fifth worked on their own account, purchasing their papers outright, like the sellers. In 1934 about two-thirds of the carriers were still employed on a salaried basis; the remainder, comprising practically all the carriers of one paper and about a fourth of the carriers of another, worked on the little-merchant system, which had been recently introduced. A remarkable change in the age distribution of carriers had occurred. In 1922, 13 percent were under 10 years, and 33 percent were under 12. In 1934 no carriers under 10 were found in the group of 86 interviewed, and only 2 were younger than 12. The proportion aged 14 and 15 years was 27 percent in the earlier study and 78 percent in the later. The younger boys work mainly as helpers, although some worked for news dealers on salaries. The median weekly hours of carriers had remained about the same, less than 8 per week—considerably lower than the median of all car riers in the 1934 study combined, which was 10.3 hours. Average weekly earnings showed a very slight increase from $1.41 to $1.60, which is significant in view of the decided change in age level. Boys of 14 and 15 in 1934 were earning little more than boys of 11 and 12 years had earned in the earlier years. Out of 80 boys reporting earnings in 1934, 25 earned less than $1 a week, 28 made between $2 and $o, and only 3 boys earned between $3 and $4; none earned more. Of the 87 carriers interviewed in the 1934 study 16 reported morn ing deliveries; all but 1 started before 6 a.m. The proportion deliver ing morning papers was much larger than this in 1922, indicating that in Wilkes-Barre, as in the other cities, the tendency is now to assign early-morning routes to carriers 16 years of age or older. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis LEGAL REGULATIONS APPLYING TO SELLERS AND CARRIERS OF NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES g (The 17 cities included in the Children’s Bureau survey, 1934] Occupations to which regula tions apply Girls Hours during which night work is prohibited Boys Children for whom permit is required for work outside school hours New England and Middle Atlantic Fall River, Mass.: State street-trades law ------------------ Paterson, N.J.: State child-labor and education law . Buffalo, N .Y .: State street-trades law, applying to cities of 20,000 or more. Wilkes-Barre, Pa.: State street-trades law--------------------- 18 ». 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. (boys under 14). 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. (boys between 14 and 16). Boys between 12 and 16. Selling newspapers or periodi cals. N o mini N o minimum age.. mum age.; 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. (children un der 14). N o permit or badge required. Selling newspapers or doing other light outdoor work. 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. (children un der 16). Children between 10 and 16. Selling or distributing news papers or periodicals. 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. (boys under 17). Boys between 12 and 17. Selling or distributing news papers, magazines, or other publications. 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. (boys under 16). N o permit or badge required. Southern Baltimore, Md.: State street-trades law, applying to cities of 20,000 or more. Washington, D.C.: Act of Congress, applying to District of Columbia (street-trades law). https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis .do. Selling or distributing news papers, magazines, or periodi cals in any street or public place. 16. 12 (10 for distribut ing newspapers on regular afternoon route). Selling or distributing news papers, magazines, or periodi cals. 18. 12 (10 for distribut- 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. (boys under ing on fixed route). 16). No prohibition for boys 10 or over distributing on fixed route. Boys between 12 and 16 (10 to 12 for distributing news papers on regular route be tween 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.). Boys between 12 and 16. No badge required for boys 10 or over distributing on fixed route. N E W S P A P E R A N D M A G A Z IN E W O R K N ew Haven, Conn.: C ity charter..'... Selling newspapers, magazines, or periodicals. C H IL D R E N I N Minimum age C ity and type of regulation Atlanta, Ga.: No provision. Louisville, Ky.: State street-trades law, applying to cities of 1st, 2d, and 3d classes. None for selling or distribut None for selling or distributing ing newspapers. 8 p.m. to newspapers. Boys between 6 a.m. for selling or distribut 14 and 16 selling or distribut ing magazines or periodicals ing magazines or periodicals. (boys under 16). 10 for selling *. 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. (boys under 14). No permit or badge required. 11 7:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. (8:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. during school vaca tion). Boys between 11 and 16 selling (boys under 11 upon suffi cient showing made to issuing officer by judge of superior, municipal or juvenile court). N o badge issued for distrib uting. M emphis, Tenn.: in practice children under 16 are not permitted to sell on the streets. Under the juvenile-court law, which gives the court jurisdiction over dependent children up to 17 years of age, it is specifically provided that a child under 14 found selling any article may be declared dependent and subject to the control of the court. North Central Youngstown, Ohio: N o provision. Chicago, ill.: City ordinance______________ Detroit, Mich.: N o provision.* Des Moines, Iowa: State street-trades law, applying to ____do__________________ cities of 10,000 or more. LEGAL REGULATIONS 14. The minimum age of 18 applies to all cities in Massachusetts of 50,000 or more; 16 elsewhere in the State. B y informal police ruling girls are not permitted to sell on the streets. Although the city ordinance does not fix a minimum age for boys, any child under 10 found selling any article m ay be declared dependent under the juvenile-court law. Detroit has a city ordinance which requires a “ new sboy” to obtain a permit but which sets up no standard as to age or hours. Ct CD https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis LEGAL REGULATIONS APPLYING TO SELLERS AND CARRIERS OF NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES— Continued Minimum age Occupations to which regulations apply Girls Hours during which night work is prohibited Children for whom permit is required for work outside school hours 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. (State-wide law applying to any minor under 18 “ vending or selling goods or engaging in any business.”) N o permit or badge required. Boys Omaba, Nebr.: Under juvenile-court ruling boys under 10 and all girls are prevented from sell ing and boys under 16 are not allowed to sell after 7 p.m., except on Friday and Saturday nights, when boys be tween 14 and 16 may work until mid night. The juvenile-court law specifi cally provides that a child under 10 found selling on the street may be de clared a dependent child and subject to the control of the court. Pacific San Francisco, Calif.: State street-trades law, applying to cities of 23,000 or more. Selling or distributing news papers, magazines, or periodi cals. Los Angeles, Calif.: State street-trades law, applying to ____ do________________________ cities of 23,000 or more. 18 18 10 ......... O https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 10. . .. Do. CHILDREN IN NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE WORK City and type of regulation cs> o