Full text of Children in Street Work, Bureau Publication No. 183
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https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis iliile 1. S I S T E R M I N D S H I S P I L E O F P A P E R S W H I L E H E S E L L S O N A B U S Y C O R N E R . 2. O N E O F M A N Y L I T T L E B O Y S S E L L I N G P A P E R S IN T H E P U B L I C S Q U A R E , W I L K E S - B A R R E . 3. “ N O M O N E Y I N IT, T H E R E ’S T O O M A N Y O F U S , ” S A I D T H E B O O T B L A C K S O F W I L K E S - B A R R E . 4. A N 8 - Y E A R - O L D “ S T R E E T M E R C H A N T ” IN C O L U M B U S . 5. C O U N T I N G P A P E R S G I V E N O U T T O S M A L L B O Y H E L P E R https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR JAMES J. DAVIS, Secretary CHILDREN’S BUREAU GRACE ABBOTT, Chief CHILDREN IN STREET WORK By NETTIE P. McGILL BUREAU PUBLICATION No. 183 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON 1928 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis SINGLE COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAT BE OBTAINED UPON APPLICATION TO THE CHILDREN’ S BUREAU. ADDITIONAL COPIES M AT BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERIN TENDENT OF DOCUMENTS, U. S. GOVERN MENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D .C. AT 50 CENTS PER COPY https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CONTENTS Letter of transmittal____________________________ Part I.— Introduction__________________________________ ______g________________ The street worker and the public______ _________________________________ Surveys of juvenile street traders________________________________________ The Children’s Bureau study____________________________________________ Summary of Children’s Bureau surveys__________ Newspaper sellers____ ___________ _______ _ _ _ ________________________ A ge--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IZ_I Hours of work_______________________________________ Duration of work_______________________________________________ Environment____________________________________________________ Newspaper selling in relation to health_______________________ Newspaper selling in relation to education___________________ Newspaper selling in relation to behavior____________________ The question of family need___________________________________ Earnings________________________________________________________ Disposition of earnings____________________________ W h y do boys sell p a p e r s ? _______________ Newspaper carriers_____________________________ A ge---------------------------------------------------------------Duration of work_______________________________________________ Hours of work__________________________________________________ Environment________________ _______ I_____________ _____________ Carriers in school__________ Vocational aspect of newspaper carrying_____________________ Delinquency among carriers___________________________________ Families of carriers_____________________________________________ Earnings_________________________________________________________ Disposition of earnings__________ Peddlers______________________________________________________________ Bootblacks___________________________________________________________ Magazine carriers and sellers_______________________________________ Miscellaneous street workers__ _____________________________________ Girls in street work__________________________________________________ Laws regulating street work_____________________________________________ State legislation___________________________________________ Specific street-trades laws______________________________________ Child-labor laws of general application________________ Other child-labor regulations______________________________ . . . Juvenile-court laws_______________ _ __________________________ Municipal ordinances________________________________________________ Administration of street-trades laws_______________________________ The permit and badge system_________________________________ Street inspections__________________ .________________________,___ Penalties______________ _______________________■__________________ Sum m ary_____________ Conclusions________________________________________________________________ Newspaper sellers____________________________________________________ Newspaper carriers_____________________________4____________________ Peddlers_______________________________________________ _ ______________ Bootblacks______________________ Miscellaneous street w orkers..________ Part I I.— Street workers in four selected cities______________________________ Atlanta, G a ____ ______________________________ ______ ___________ 1_________ Introduction__________________________________________________________ Legal regulation of street work_______ +____________________________ Newspaper sellers_______________________ Race and nationality of fathers________________________________ Age of newsboys________________________________________________ hi https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Page ix 1 1 3 5 8 8 8 10 14 16 19 21 25 28 31 32 33 34 34 35 35 36 37 38 39 39 39 40 40 42 44 45 46 47 47 47 49 50 50 51 52 53 56 58 60 61 6i 66 66 67 67 69 69 69 70 71 71 71 It CONTENTS -Part I I .—S treet workers in four selected cities— Continued. -Atlanta, G a.—"Continued. -Newspaper sellers— Continued. W ork experience------------------ -----------------------------«Conditions of work and environment--------------Regularity of work-------- - . --------------- 2 ----------------Hours of work---------------------------- -----------------------Earnings______________ ____________ - - _________f-*Need for earnings-------------------------- ------------------Reasons for undertaking street work------ -------Disposition of earnings— — -------------------Newsboys in school-------------------------------------------Delinquency among newsboys--------------- ----------Newspaper carriers— --------------------------------------------Race and nationality of fathers-----------------------Age of carriers--------------------------------------------------- Work experience-------------------------------- — — - - Conditions of employment------------------------Regularity of work-----------------------------------------Hours of work— ------------------ ----------- ------------ -Earnings_____ _______ - - - - — - ------------------ - Need for earnings— - - ---------- - — ---------------Reasons for undertaking street work--------------Disposition of earnings_ _ - .--------------------Carriers in school----------- ----------- :----------------------Delinquency among carriers— ---------------- -----Peddlers________________________ — ------------------- -------Race and nationality of fathers----------------------Age of peddlers------------------------ ------------------ - - Work experience.----------------------------------- --------Conditions of work------------------------------------------Earnings___________________________________- — Need for earnings— - — — ----------- — -------Reasons for undertaking street work-------------Disposition of earnings----------------- -------- — Peddlers in school------------------------------------- — Delinquency among peddlers--------------------------Magazine sellers and carriers---------------------------------Race and nationality of fa th ers.-------------------Age of workers-------------------------------------------------Work experience---------------------------- , - - - - - - — Conditions of work---------- - — -----------------Earnings______________ _______________- - - - — Need for earnings_ ' - - - - ------------------ ---------- fir Reasons for undertaking street work------------Disposition of earnings-----------------------------------School attendance and progress---------------------Delinquency-----------------------------------------------------Miscellaneous street workers----- ----------------------------Occupations and work experience----------- - - - Race and nationality of fathers----- ---------------Conditions of work-------------------------- — Need for earnings— ------------ --------- --------------Reasons for undertaking street work------------Disposition of earnings------------------------------- School attendance and progress---------------- — Delinquency--------------------------------------------- — - Columbus, Ohio--------------------------------------------------------------Introduction_________________________________ ______ Legal regulation of street work------------------------- - Newspaper sellers-------- - - rr -r hr'~2---------------------Race and nationality of fathers--------------------Age of newsboys------------------------------------ -------W ork experience-------------------------------- -----------Conditions of work and environment----------Regularity of work------------ - . ----------------- .-------Hours of work---------------------- ----------------- https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Page 72 74 76 76 80 82 86 87 88 90 92 92 92 92 93 95 95 97 98 100 100 102 104 104 104 104 104 104 110 111 112 113 114 115 115 115 115 115 115 116 116 117 117 117 117 118 118 118 119 120 121 122 122 122 123 123 123 124 124 125 125 127 131 131 CONTENTS Part I I .— Street workers in four selected cities— Continued. Columbus, Ohio— Continued. Newspaper sellers— Continued. Earnings___________________ _______ _ i .__________________________ Need for earnings_________________________ Reasons for undertaking street work____________________ ___ I Disposition of earnings______ 1________________ _________________ N ewsboys in school___________________ : __________ ________ _ Delinquency among newsboys____________ ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ l _________ Newspaper carriers___________________ .______________________________ Race and nationality of fathers. _ ______________ _________ ___ Age of carriers___ __________________________ ______ ____t_________ Work experience_________________________________ Conditions of employment________________ i .i________ ________ Regularity of work_____ __iiipi:_______________________________ Hours of work_ _____ _____________________. _ _ _________________ Earnings_______________________ Need for earnings_____________________ _________________________ Reasons for undertaking street work____________________________ Disposition of earnings_________________________________________ Carriers in school_________________________ ________________ _____ Delinquency among carriers_____ 1 _ _______ _ ______________ Peddlers and miscellaneous street workers________ ________________ Occupations and work experience_______________________ Race and nationality of fathers and age of workers. ________ Conditions of work________________ ____________________________ Earnings_______________ ________ ______ _ _ j _ ______ _______________ Need for earnings___ ___________________________________ Reasons for undertaking street work_____________ i __________ Disposition of earnings_______________________________ School attendance, deportment,and progress_________________ Delinquency__________ _____________________ :_ ________ __________ Market children___________ _______________________ ;_________________ Occupations and work experience____________ ________________ Race and nationality of fathers and age of workers___ ______ Conditions of work____ :__________ ___________________ ;________ Need for earnings_____________________ ___________ ,___ __________ Reasons for undertaking streetwork___________________________ Disposition of earnings_________________________________________ School attendance, deportment, and progress_____________ - _ Delinquency________________________ ____________________________ Magazine carriers and sellers and bill distributors________________ Occupations and work experience____________ :_______ ;________ Race and nationality of fathers and age of workers_________ Conditions of work__________________________ Earnings__________________________ ; _ _ ___ _______ ______ __________ Need for earnings_______________________________________________ Reasons for undertaking street work___ _________ ____________ Disposition of earnings______________ ___ _____L__Li__L_______ School attendance, deportment,and progress_________________ Delinquency_____________________ _____; _ âM_______ j ___ _ _ _ _ Omaha, Nebr_________________________________ ____________ _______________ Introduction_________ Legal regulation of street work_________ _ _ _ _ :____________ ,__________ Newspaper sellers____________________ ____________ ____ ____________ Race and nationality of newsboys and their fathers_________ Age of newsboys____________ _ _ ___________ _^u___' _______ ______ Work experience________ ______________ ,_j_*_________________ _ Conditions of work and environment________________ ________ Regularity of work___________________________________________ Hours of work______________ _ _ • _ __ ____ Earnings_____ ___________ _________________ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____ Need for earnings___________________________ fcM____ ._________ Reasons for undertaking streetwork__________________________ Disposition of earnings_______________ ______ ___________________ Newsboys in school__ ________________ _ _ ^ _ ____ ___ ,_i_________ Delinquency among newsboys__________ https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis y Page 134 136 140 142 144 147 148 149 149 14 160 152 152 154 156 158 159 160 162 162 162 163 163 164 164 165 165 166 166 166 166 167 167 167 168 168 169 169 169 169 170 170 170 170 172 172 172 172 173 173 173 174 174 175 175 177 182 182 187 187 193 194 197 199 VI CONTENTS Part I I.— Street workers in four selected cities— Continued. Omaha, Nebr.— Continued. Newspaper carriers__________________________________________________ Race and nationality of fathers_______________________________ Age of carriers_________________------------------------- _«----------------------Work experience________________________________________________ Conditions of employment______________________________ ______ Regularity of work_____________________________________________ Hours of work------------------------Earnings_______________________________„ v - - — ---------------------— Need for earnings_______________________________________________ Reasons for undertaking street work--------------------------------- — Disposition of earnings_____________________ Carriers in school_________________________________ Delinquency among carriers_______________________ Magazine sellers and carriers________________________________________ Race and nationality of fathers and age of workers-------------Work experience________________________________________________ Conditions of work____ ______ Earnings_________________________________________________________ Need for earnings_______________________________________________ Reasons for undertaking street work__________________________ Disposition of earnings__________ "l*-------------- ------------------------ School attendance and progress--------------------Truancy and delinquency_______ j..-------------------------------------- — Peddlers and miscellaneous street workers_________________________ Children working for premiums____ •__________________ Other peddlers and miscellaneous street workers------------- -— Wilkes-Barre, Pa______ ________________________ _________________ Introduction_____________ Legal regulation of street work-------------------Newspaper sellers, bootblacks, and miscellaneous street workers. Race and nationality of fathers_______________________________ Age of workers____________________________________ __________ — Work experience__________________ Conditions of work________________ _ ______ _____--------- 231 Regularity of work_____________________________________________ Hours of work___________________________ i ------------- -----------------Earnings_________________________________________________________ Need for earnings_____________________ Reasons for undertaking street work--------------------------------------Disposition of earnings________________________________ Street workers in school________________________________________ Delinquency among street workers___________________________ Newspaper carriers_____ ____________________________________ Race and nationality of fathers_______________________________ Age of carriers______________ Work experience_____________________________ Conditions of employment--------------- .------ --------------------------------Regularity of work_____________________________________________ Hours of work___________________________________________________ Earnings_________ . _____________________________ ____________ . . . Need for earnings_____________________________________ Reasons for undertaking street w o r k . . . . . ------------------Disposition of earnings______________________ Carriers in school_______________________________________________ Delinquency among carriers___________________________________ Part I I I .— Street work in Newark and Paterson, N . J ------------------------------Introduction__________________________________________________ Newark, N . J-------------------------------------Legal regulation of street work_____________________________________ Newspaper sellers_______________ — ; ---------- --------------------------- ---------Race and n a t io n a l^ of fathers_______________;------------------------Economic condition of fam ilies...______________________________ Age of newsboys_________________________________________ Duration of street work________________________________________ Conditions of work------ -------------------- https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Pas® 201 201 201 202 203 205 205 208 209 211 212 215 216 216 216 216 216 217 217 218 219 219 219 219 219 220 226 226 228 229 229 230 230 235 235 240 243 245 247 249 253 257 257 257 258 259 260 261 263 264 266 267 269 271 273 273 274 274 275 275 275 277 277 278 CONTENTS Part I I I .— Street work in Newark and Paterson, N . J.— Continued. Newark, N . J.— Continued. Newspaper sellers— Continued. Regularity of work________________________________________ Hours of work________________________________ ____________ Earnings__________________________________ _________________ Newsboys in school________________________________ _______ Newspaper carriers_________ ________________________ ___________ Race and nationality of fathers__________________________ Economic condition of families___________________________ Age of carriers___________________________________ »________ Duration of street work___________________ j______________ Conditions of employment_______________________________ Regularity of work-,____________ __________________________ Hours of work______________________________ ______________ Earnings__________________________ _ _______________________ Carriers in school_____________________ ___________________ Bootblacks_______________________________________ ______________ Race and nationality of fathers___ ______________________ Economic condition of families___________________________ Age of bootblacks____________ ______ ______________________ Duration of street work________________________________ Conditions of work_______________________ . _______________ Regularity of work_____________ __________________ ________ Hours of work-.___________________________________________ Earnings_______________________________ ___________________ Bootblacks in school______________ ____________ | , ___.T;_ Peddlers_______________________________ _________________________ Race and nationality of fathers__________________________ Economic condition of families___________________________ Duration of street work___________________________________ Conditions of work_________ ______________________________ Regularity of work______________________ ___________ - ____ Hours of work____________________- ____________ ___________ Earnings____ ________________________ ___________ 2__________ Peddlers in school_________________________________________ Miscellaneous street workers____________________ _____________ Paterson, N . J______________________________________________________ _ Legal regulation of street work__________________ ________ ____ Newspaper sellers__________________________________ _ ___________ Race and nationality of fathers_________________ _________ Economic condition of families__ ___________ ____________ Age of newsboys____________________________________j§_____ Duration of street work___________________________________ Conditions of work_____________ .1____________ .___ . _______ Regularity of work________________________________________ Hours of work____________________. . . . _____________________ Earnings__________________________ ¡¿fe____ „ _______________ Newsboys in school_________________________________ ______ Newspaper carriers_______________________________ __________ Race and nationality of fa th ers._____________________ Economic condition of families___________________________ Age of carriers__________________________ ________________ _ Duration of street work__________________________________ Conditions of work________________________________________ Regularity of work___________________________ ____________ Hours of work_______________________________________ ______ Earnings_______________________ _________ _________________ Carriers in school__________________________________________ Peddlers_____________________________ ____________________________ Race and nationality of fathers____________________ ______ Economic condition of families___________________________ Age of peddlers_____________________ _______________________ Duration of street work___________________________________ Conditions of work________________________________________ Regularity of work_____ ________ _________________________ Hours of work. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis VII Pag© 279 279 285 287 288 289 289 290 290 290 290 290 292 292 293 293 294 294 294 295 295 295 299 301 301 301 302 302 302 303 303 309 309 311 312 312 312 312 313 314 314 314 315 315 319 319 321 321 321 321 322 322 322 322 324 324 325 325 325 326 326 326 326 326 V III CONTENTS Part I I I .— Street work in Newark and Paterson N . J.— Continued. Paterson N . J.— Continued. Peddlers— Continued. Earnings________________________________ ‘1J_________ _ LL'i_______ Peddlers in school_______________________ _ _____ ________________ Miscellaneous street workers_________________________ ______ !---------Part IV .— Street workers in Washington, D . C., and Troy, N. Y _________ Newspaper sellers in Washington, D . C ______________________________ ___ Introduction________________ _____i _______ _______ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _______ Legal regulation of newspaper selling. _ ________ — ----------------------Race and nationality of newsboys and their fa th ers.___ ________ Age of newsboys______________________ ___________ _ _ _ _ _ L----------Duration of work_______________Liilit_______ ________ __:____________ Conditions of work_____________ _______________ :_____ ! ____ _ i _______ Regularity of work___________________________ ^ _ _ _ --------------------------Hours of work________ __________________________________ i — .1 — ___ M eals______ h________________________ ______ _______ _'------------- _' ___----Earnings______________________________ __________»---------------- __^__L__ Newsboys in school__________ ____________ __________________________ Attendance_______________________ __ _______ — til'___:_ ________ Truancy_________________ _____________— ______ Scholarship_______________ _ — _ 2_ _ _ i _ _ _ _ -------------------------------Progress________ _________________ ____________ — ----------Families of newsboys_________________________________ _ — ------------Need for earnings___________________________________________________ Attitude of parents toward newspaper selling-____________________ Delinquency among newsboys__________;_ _ -----__ _ _ . i L: ------------------Newspaper carriers in Troy, N . Y ______________________________________ Page 328 328 329 331 331 331 331 332 333 333 334 336 336 339 339 342 342 342 343 343 344 346 349 360 351 ILLUSTRATIONS Newspaper sellers. Frontispiece. Facing page Newspaper sellers and bootblacks_____________________ !________ I------------------16 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 of L a b o r , C h il d r e n ’s B u r e a u , epartment Washington, January 2, 1928. There is transmitted herewith a report on Children in Street Work, which was made under the general supervision of Ellen Nathalie Matthews, director of the industrial division of the Children’s Bureau. Nettie P. McGill, associate director of that division, directed the field work in four cities, and she has also written the report. The special study of conditions in and around distribution rooms was made by Richard Cadbury, jr. There is included a report of a survey of street workers in Troy, N. Y., made by the New York Child Labor Com mittee. Although conditions differed from city to city, the evidence as to certain conclusions is definite and cumulative. The bureau is indebted to school officials in each of the cities included in the study for permission to interview the children in the schools and to copy school records, and to local civic and social agencies and representatives of the newspaper companies for helpful cooperation. Respectfully submitted. G r a c e A b b o t t , Chief. Hon. J a m e s J. D a v i s , Secretary of Labor, Sir : IX https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K 1 PART I.— INTRODUCTION THE STREET WORKER AND THE PUBLIC Less than 25 years ago New York passed the first State law regu lating the work of children in the so-called street trades.2 It was hailed as a “ great step forward,” 3 though it merely fixed a minimum age of 10 years for boys selling papers (the minimum age for girls was placed at 16), whereas a minimum age of 14 for work in factories had been in force in New York since 1892.4 In the progress of child-labor reform street work has been one of the iast types of child labor to receiye consideration. There are several reasons for this. The child who goes to work in factory or store generally leaves school in order to do so, and one of the earliest and strongest arguments against such work for children was that it cut short their education; the street worker, at least since child labor began to be regulated, has commonly been a school child, and as his work does not remove him bodily from the schoolroom the assumption is that his education proceeds as usual. Even when child-labor legislation embraces “ all gainful o c c u p a t io n s ,a s it tends more and more to do, it is usually so worded that it is con strued to apply only to those whose labor is hired by others, and so through a technicality the little “ street merchant,” though in many cases as much an employee as any other class of worker, with just as little control over the conditions of his work, must be made the subject of special legislation before he can be given the protection afforded other working children. Finally, what may be termed the romantic conception of street work and the street worker has operated to his disadvantage. The tendency to regard the newsboy or the bootblack as a destitute orphan or as the only support of a widowed mother and to idealize street work, especially newspaper selling, as one of the roads to success, has sometimes misled even the most sincere 1In connection with this study a legal analysis was made of State laws and local ordinances regulating the street work of children in the United States, a tabular summary of which has been issued as a separate bulletin. (U. S. Children’s Bureau Chart No. 15.) , 2 N. Y., Laws of 1903, ch. 151. Prior to this, in 1892 (Mass., Acts of 1892, ch. 331), the Massachusetts Legislature had enacted a general permissive licensing law allowing the mayor and aldermen or selectmen of a city to make regulations relative to the sale by minors of newspapers and other goods and to require minors to obtain licenses under such conditions as they might see fit to impose. Even before 1892 a Massa chusetts law (1889) had prohibited the selling of newspapers or other articles of merchandise on streetrailway cars by minors under 10 (Mass., Acts of 1889, ch. 229). Certain other early legislation also wa3 directed to some extent to the regulation of juvenile street work. As early as 1874 (N. Y ., Laws of 1874, ch. 116), a New York law provided a minimum age of 16 for any “ mendicant or wandering business, peddling, etc., and a law enacted in Massachusetts in 1887 (Mass., Acts of 1887, ch. 422) prohibited the employment by parent or other person of a minor under 15 without^a license, “ where one is required by law, ” the reference being to the requirement of a license for hawking or peddling goods. Another old type of law (for instance, N. Y ., Laws of 1887, ch. 692), one still on the statute books of a number of States, prohibited the distribution or sale by minors, or by minors under 16 or under 18, of pamphlets, newspapers, or magazines devoted to the dissemination or principally made up of criminal news, police reports, pictures and stories of deeds of crime, bloodshed, etc. A city ordinance, the first attempting to regulate juvenile street work, was passed in Detroit in 1877; it merely required newsboys and bootblacks to obtain permits from the mayor. a Fox, Hugh F.: Some Aspects of Child Labor in the United States, p. 12. 1903. * N. Y., Laws of 1892, ch, 673, 1 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 2 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K friends of children. It is recorded, for instance, that as late as 1903 when the New York street-trades bill was under consideration a representative of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children appeared before the legislature at Albany and protested against a proposed 12-year minimum age.5 The conception of the newsboy as an orphan and an object of charity has historical justification. In 1854 the author of a book called “ The Newsboy” thus apologized for her choice of subject: “ I saw that the race [of newsboys] would soon be so modified by the genialities of some benevolent souls that the newsboy of our time would pass away and be only a tradition * * * and soon the newsboy * * * sleeping by the wayside, in areas, under steps, about the parks, in old crates and hogsheads, in the markets, and everywhere that a shelter could be found, would be forgotten.” 6 Newsboys were then commonly waifs and strays. A visitor to the National Capital in 1863, pitying the wretched appearance of the boys selling papers in the streets, brought about the establishment of a newsboys’ home, “ such as exist in some of the principal cities of the North. ” 7 The vagrant character of the newsboy of the time is well indicated in the annual report of this home for the year 1863 in which is chronicled its virtual desertion by the older boys, who had left Washington to follow the Army with the sutlers. More than half a century later society has learned to care more adequately for its orphaned and destitute children, but this concep tion of the newsboy persists, and the idealization of newspaper selling as an important factor in the success of business men and men of affairs is perennial. A possible further reason why street work as a form of child labor has received comparatively tardy recognition is that the average citizen sees the child engaged in his work and unconsciously assumes therefore that he knows all about it. The problem of street work and the street worker, like all social problems, involves many and various factors, however, not apparent to the casual observer. » Kelley, Florence: Some Ethical Gains through Legislation, p. 12. The Citizen’s Library of Economics, Politics, and Sociology, edited by Richard T. Ely. Macmillan Co., New York, London, 1905. « Smith, Elizabeth Oakes: The Newsboy, p. 10. J. C. Derby, New York; Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston, 1854. ? Report of the News-boys’ Home Association, from Its Commencement in April, 1863, to October, 1864, p. 3. Washington, 1864. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis SURVEYS OF JUVENILE STREET TRADERS There are no complete and accurate statistics of children engaged in street occupations in the United States. Even the number of children working on the streets in any particular city is unknown, unless a special study has been made. The United States Census reports the number of newsboys and bootblacks both for the United States and for States and cities, but not the number of all kinds of street workers, and a comparison of the figures for newsboys and bootblacks with figures obtained in special surveys shows that the census returns are an understatement of the numbers engaged in street occupations. For example, in the cities in which the Chil dren’s Bureau made the most intensive studies, the number of news paper sellers between 10 and 16 included in the study, probably a close approximation (see p. 6) to the number of this age group working steadily at any one time in the particular city, was 127 in Atlanta, 219 in Columbus, and 283 in Omaha, and the number of newsboys and bootblacks of these ages in Wilkes-Barre was 196; whereas the corresponding figures given in the census of 1920 were only 67, 184, 115, and 14,9 a difference that can not be accounted for by the fact that the Children’s Bureau studies were made about three years after the census was taken. Judging from this difference, the 20,513 10 newsboys between 10 and 16 years of age reported in the 1920 census for the United States, would more nearly approxi mate the actual figure if multiplied by 2. Even so, it would not include children under 10, who, again judging by the Children’s Bureau studies, constitute one-tenth to one-fifth, according to the city, of all the newsboys at work. (Table 2, p. 9.) Authentic information, then, is to be had only as the result of special surveys. The following is a list of the more important of these made since 1910, arranged chronologically: The Newsboys of Saint Louis; a study by the School of Social Econom y of Washington University, St. Louis, M o., 1910. 15 pp. “ The newsboys of Milwaukee,” by Alexander Fleisher. Fifteenth Biennial Report of the [Wis.] Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, pp. 6 1 -9 6 .. D em ocrat Printing Co., Madison, 1911. “ A survey of working children in Kansas City with special stress on thé street trades and messenger service,” by Eva M . Marquis. Sixth Annual Report of the Board of Public Welfare of Kansas City, M o., April 21, 1914, to April 20, 1915, pp. 108-160. “ Newsboys and other street traders,” by Lettie L. Johnston. Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics and Information of Maryland, 1915, pp. 101-129. Baltimore, 1915. Chicago Children in the Street Trades, by Elsa Wertheim. The Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago, 1917. 11 pp. Newsboy Service; a study in educational and vocational guidance (with an introduction by George Elliott Howard), by Anna Y . Reed. World Book C o., Yonkers-on-Hudson, N . Y ., 1917. 175 pp. The Newsboys of Cincinnati, by Maurice B. Hexter. Studies from the Helen S. Trounstine Foundation, vol. 1, No. 4, January 15, 1919. Cincinnati, 1919. 65 pp. « Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, pp. 604, 617,651, 688. Washington, 1923. 1» Ibid., p. 486. 3 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 4 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK . T h e Newsboys of Dallas; a study by the Civic Federation of Dallas. Dallas. M ay, 1921. 32 pp. ’ “ Juvenile street work in Iowa,” by Sara A . Brown. American Child, vol. 4 N o. 2 (August, 1922), pp. 130-149. ’ “ Connecticut study of street trades,” by H . M . Diamond. American Child, vol. 4, N o. 2 (August, 1922), pp. 97 -103. Toledo School Children in Street Trades. Toledo Consumers’ League and the Ohio Council on Women and Children in Industry, Toledo, 1922. 32 pp. ‘ Newsboys in Birmingham (A la .),” by Esther Lee Rider. American Child, vol. 3, N o. 4 (February, 1922), pp. 31 5-324. “ Newsboys in Springfield,” prepared by Louise Austin, Dorothy Bateman, Frances Hemenway, Avalita Howe, and Laura Sargent under direction of Amy Hewes, August, 1923. National Vocational Guidance Association Bulletin, Vol II, N o. 2 (November, 1923), pp. 2 7 -3 6 . Cl6V6land School Children W ho Sell on the Streets; a study made by Marion M . Willoughby of the National Child Labor Committee for the Ohio Consumers’ League. Cleveland, 1924. 38 pp. “ Street traders of Buffalo, N . Y .; a study made by The Juvenile Protective Department, Children s Aid and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children of Ene County, N . Y . ” Foundation Forum, N o. 52 (August, 1926). 39 pp Tulsa Children Engaged in Street Trades; a study made by Tulsa Branch of American Association of University W om en. Tulsa, 1928. 34 pp. Junk Dealing and Juvenile Delinquency; an investigation made for the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago, by Harry H . Grigg and George E. H aynes; text by Albert E. Webster. 60 pp. ’ The Health of a Thousand Newsboys in New York C ity; a study made in cooperation with the Board of Education by the heart committee of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association. Mimeographed. 41 pp. The larger number of these surveys have dealt only with the news paper seller; only a few have included newspaper carriers on routes; and fewer still have included peddlers, bootblacks, or other street workers. In some of the reports, unfortunately, the data on the differ ent types of workers have been combined, so that it is impossible to draw sound conclusions in regard to any one group. (For examples of studies in which the combination of different groups of street workers has rendered important conclusions of doubtful value, see pp. 19, 22.) With one exception a survey of newsboys and magazine carriers and sellers in Seattle, in which street work is considered from the point of view of its possibilities in vocational training for school boys 11 the investigators have approached street work as a childlabor problem.12 11 Newsboy Service, by Anna Y . Reed. w iUeniion may be made here ofthe investigations of street work made by the interdepartmental comft^ ish ft?use of,.Co? lrS?nus m i?01 to inquire into the extent and conditions of o n l t , « 2 r 1a&&£a& $ & resu t®?f which are given m Report of Interdepartmental Committee 2P .the Employment of School Children, 1901; and also of the testimony on street work given before the SoniSl r ™ “ ! 66 f t ft® Employment of Children Act of 1903 and published in ReportoftheDepartSeotal Committee on the Employment of Children Act (1903), 1910. Although conditions differ from * t d .States, these reports contain much interesting information for the student of juvenile pmvvv YvQiJv in American cities. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis THE CHILDREN'S BUREAU STUDY The Children’s Bureau study consisted of a survey of the extent and conditions of street work among children under 16 years of age in selected cities, an inquiry into methods of enforcing various types of regulation, and an analysis of the legal provisions affecting the employment of children in street work.13 For the survey of the extent and conditions of juvenile street work, four cities were originally selected— Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta, Ga.; and Omaha, Nebr. These cities were chosen, first, because they represented communities having different types of street-trades regulation (see pp. 70, 123, 174, 228); second, because local cooperation was assured; and, third, because they were in different parts of the country and different industrially and in the make-up of their populations. Wilkes-Barre is a small, industrial city with mining its dominant industry and with a large foreign-bom population; Columbus is the State capital and is not primarily an industrial community, but it has diversified industries and an un usually large proportion of its population are native whites of native white parentage; Omaha has diversified industries and a large foreign-bom population; Atlanta is primarily a commercial city with chiefly native inhabitants, a large proportion of whom are negroes. Through the cooperation of the public and the parochial school authorities in each of these cities a fist was obtained of all the children under 16 years of age in each school14 who reported to their teachers jj| that they were doing any kind of street work. The legal distinction between street traders and other street workers was ignored. With the exception of messengers and delivery and errand children, whose work now quite generally comes under the regular provisions of the child-labor laws, all child street workers were included whether they had employers or not. Every child reported as doing street work was interviewed at school by a Children’s Bureau agent and was included in the study if he was working at the time of the interview and had engaged in any street work during a period of one month within the year preceding the interview.15 The minimum requirement of one day during a month applied particularly to magazine sellers and car riers and to peddlers of various types who had regular jobs which required work at a certain definite time of the month. Return visits were made to the various schools to see those who were absent when the other children had been interviewed, but a few who were fisted as street workers were lost to the study through their continued absence from school. No doubt a few also were absent from school at the time of the teachers’ inquiries and so did not appear on the fists. The number of street workers included in the study in any city does not represent, therefore, a census of the number who were engaged in street occupations at any one time. Aside from the exclusion of children who had worked less than a month during the 18 See pp. 47-60 of this report and also Laws and Ordinances Regulating Street Work. In Columbus one parochial school did not furnish the information. w A few children under 16 years of age seen on the streets who were not attending school were included In the surveys. 5 M https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 6 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K year, the interviewing in each city extended over ,a period of about two months, and by the time the last interviews were held some children who may have been working when the interviewing was begun had stopped and others who had not been working when the teacher made inquiry had begun to work. These groups would tend to offset each other in the Count, however, so that although the num ber included in the study may not be precisely that which would have been found had it been practicable to make an enumeration on any one day, it is no doubt a close approximation, barring the casual and irregular workers whose whole experience in street work would probably not amount to more than a few weeks. Information regarding their work was obtained from the children themselves during the interview at school and in informal conversa tions on the streets, in newspaper-distributing rooms, in newsboys’ clubs, etc. This was supplemented by school records of the date of birth, school attendance, scholarship, and deportment of the street workers, and by juvenile-court and family-agency records. The latter were examined in each city for the street workers and their families. The records of mental or intelligence tests given in the schools were copied, wherever they were available, as it was hoped that they might be used as a check on conclusions regarding the effect of street work on success in school; but except for one or two groups, such tests had been given to too few boys to be of value for this pur pose. An attempt was made also to use the results of school physical examinations, but even in the cities where these were made by phy sicians and were fairly adequate for the purpose (at least in regard to a few items, like height and weight) and were given annually so that records of fairly recent examinations were available, the records were incomplete in so many cases that the material was discarded as unre liable. If it had been practicable to make physical examinations especially for the study interesting information on the physical condition of the street workers might have resulted and interesting comparisons with unselected groups might have been possible, though as a basis for conclusions as to the physical effects of street work a series of examinations is essential. (For a discussion of studies relating to the health of newsboys, see pp. 19, 20.) A supplementary inquiry was made in regard to home conditions, especially as these related to the question of the need of the street worker’s earnings at home and the parents’ attitude toward the work of their children, based on interviews with parents in a selected num ber of families.16 The distribution methods of the local newspapers were investigated, and newspaper agents, business managers, circu lation managers, and other employees of the newspapers were inter viewed in each of the cities. Opinions in regard to the problems involved in the selling and carrying of papers by school boys were sought from representatives of the newspapers; school officials and 16 The method of selecting street workers for home visits was as follows: After the number of home visits that could be made was decided upon, occupational groups (for example, newspaper carriers) were selected for visiting in the same proportion (by rough count) to the number of visits as to the total number of street workers. Within each occupational group street workers of different parentage, different ages, and differ ent periods of employment were selected in approximately the same proportion to the street workers in the particular occupational group selected for visit as to the total number of street workers in the occupa tional group. For example, if 200 home visits were decided upon and it was found that half the street traders included in the study were newspaper carriers, 100 visits were made to families of carriers. If onefourth the total number of carriers were of foreign parentage, 25 of the visits were to carriers of foreign par entage. If it was found that 15 per cent of the carriers were under 10,15 carriers under 10 were selected for home visits, and if it was found that two-thirds of the carriers under 10 had worked less than six months,. 10 of the 15 selected carriers under 10 were selected from the group who had worked less than six months. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 7 teachers, social workers, juvenile-court judges, clergymen, and others were interviewed in regard to various aspects of the local problem of juvenile street work. Such interviews were often disappointing, as many persons in close contact with the street-working boy had given the subject no thought. An agent of the Children’s Bureau visited the newspaper-distribution rooms at times when the boys came for their papers and returned to make settlements, and the workers were observed at work on the street throughout the day and during the night as long as any were seen at work. In short, every practicable source of information as to the work, its effect upon the child, and its relation to his home environment was investigated. Mingling with the workers and sharing their experiences as one of themselves, but with identity concealed, a method of investigation considered by the director of a study of the newsboy in Cincinnati, essential to obtaining some of the most important kinds of informa tion,17 no doubt would have yielded valuable additional information on certain phases of the newsboy’s environment, but this method was not used. The identity of the bureau agent who made the investi gation of conditions in and around the newspaper-distributing rooms was known to all concerned. The study in the four cities was made during the winter and spring of 1922-23, but each city was revisited in 1926 or in 1927 in order to ascertain whether or not the situation had changed. In none had important changes taken place. The statistics presented in the report are those gathered in the original surveys. Reports of surveys made at a slightly later date in Newark and Paterson, N. J., Washington, D. C., and Troy, N. Y. appear in this publication. The method and scope of the first three surveys are somewhat different from those of the earlier studies of the bureau. In Newark and Paterson the study of juvenile street workers was only part of a study of occupations of public-school children— and that, in turn, part of a series of studies of child welfare in New Jersey— made by the Children’s Bureau in 1925;18 it was much less detailed than the earlier studies, but it included all street workers who had worked at least one month during either the summer vaca tion preceding the interview or the school term in which the inquiry was made. As the earlier studies had included only those who were working when interviewed, the New Jersey study provides a larger statistical base and also information as to conditions of work in vacation, an aspect untouched in the other surveys. The study in Washington was made by the Children’s Bureau in 1926, in coopera tion with the department of attendance and work permits of the Washington public schools, and covered only newspaper sellers. The parent or parents of each boy were interviewed— not only the boy himself and the parents of a selected number, as in most of the other surveys. The survey in Troy was made in 1923 by the New York Child Labor Committee. It was identical in method with the earlier street-work studies made by the Children’s Bureau, but only the facts as to newspaper carriers are presented in this report. 17 The Newsboys of Cincinnati, p. 117. 18 Child Welfare in New Jersey: Part 1, State supervision and personnel administration; Part 2, State provision for dependent children; Part 4, Local provision for dependent and delinquent children in rela tion to the State program. U. S. Children’s Bureau Publications Nos. 174, 175, and 180. Washington, 1927. 75034°— 28-------2 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis SUMMARY OF CHILDREN’ S BUREAU SURVEYS M ost street workers work in connection with, the sale and dis tribution of newspapers. By far the larger number of the boys included in the Children’s Bureau surveys, as Table 1 shows, were newspaper carriers or sellers; but peddlers, magazine sellers and car riers, and bootblacks were fairly numerous in some of the cities, and in each place a few children were found in various other kinds of street work. Because carriers and sellers, though both concerned with newspapers and both often grouped together in street-work surveys, worked under dissimilar conditions and in general repre sented different social and economic backgrounds, they are discussed in separate sections of this summary. The facts in regard to each group are shown in the same tables, however, so that the contrast between them can be the more readily seen. The summary facts for the different cities presented in this section are fairly comparable. All street workers shown in the tables worked during the school term. In all cities except Newark and Paterson the children included were working at the date of interview, and the surveys occurred during the school term. In Newark and Paterson facts were obtained for children working during the school term, but not all were working at the date of interview. T a b l e 1.— Occupations of boys engaged in street work during school term in specified cities Boys from 6 to 15 years of age Occupation Newspaper boy, other than seller and Newark Omaha Atlanta Colum bus Pater son 2 WilkesBarre Troy 881 1,434 1,882 1,255 413 282 570 356 144 986 273 679 467 740 320 178 108 225 41 315 167 2 222 7 80 20 29 8 13 1 42 3 42 27 3 53 4 14 243 387 34 4 8 17 29 61 5 104 11 11 3 7 60 48 3 3 2 1 3 1 8 3 1 75 7 7 i Boys working for premiums are not included. 1 1 2 Boys 7 to 15 years of age. NEWSPAPER SELLERS AGE The age at which children enter most occupations is gradually rising, but the newsboy is as young as ever. In each of the cities of the survey children of 6 and 7 sold papers (in one city, two boys of 5). From 11 to 21 per cent of the newspaper sellers were under 10 years of age; in three of the seven cities more than one-sixth were under this age. (Table 2.) This proportion was only 12 per cent in St. Louis even in 1910.19 In two cities (Wilkes-Barre and Newark) the » The Newsboys of St. Louis, p. 5. 8 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 9 INTRODUCTION majority of the newsboys were under 12. The age distribution is about the same as that found in other recent studies. In Seattle in 1917, Toledo in 1921, Cleveland in 1924, and Tulsa in 1926, from 10 to 20 per cent of the newspaper sellers under 16 were under 10 years old, and from 35 to 50 per cent were under 12.20 Fewer news boys were 14 or 15 years old than might be expected from the fact that these are years when the desire for remunerative employment is strong and many parents encourage their adolescent boys to earn at least some of their spending money. For the most part they come from families in which it is expected that the boys will leave school for work as soon as they can fulfill the requirements for a work per mit, and in industrial cities like Wilkes-Barre and Newark, with a large foreign-born population, were found the smallest proportion of newsboys between 14 and 16. T a b l e 2.— Age at date of interview; newspaper sellers and carriers working during school term in specified cities Boys from 6 to 15 years of age A tla n ta C o lu m bus N ew a rk O m aha P ater son 1 T roy W ash in g to n 1 W ilkesB arre N um ber P er cent dis tribu tion P er cent dis tribu tio n N um ber N um ber P er cen t dis tribu tion P er cen t dis tribu tion N um ber P er cent dis tribu tion I N um ber P er cen t dis tribu tion N um ber P er cent dis tribu tion | N um ber P er cent dis tribu tion [ N um ber A g e at d a te o f in terview NEWSPAPER SELLERS T o t a l . . ................ .. T o ta l rep orted ..................... 144 273 467 320 108 202 143 100.0 272 100.0 467|l00.0 320 100.0 108 100.0 1.4 4.2 5.6 14.0 11.9 21.7 17.5 15.4 8.4 U n der 8 years________ 8 y e a r s ........................ 9 years________________ 10 y e a r s .. ..................... 11 years_______ _______ 12 years______________ 13 years______________ 14 years______________ 15 years........................... 2 6 8 20 17 31 25 22 12 N o t r e p o rte d ........................ 1 1 356 986 13 12 28 25 45 43 51 36 19 4 .8 4.4 10.3 9.2 16.5 15.8 18.8 13.2 7.0 15 24 58 52 88 83 75 44 28 3.2 5.1 12.4 11.1 18.8 17.8 16.1 9.4 6.0 3 7 27 31 50 66 49 49 38 .9 2.2 8.4 9.7 15.6 20.6 15.3 15.3 11.9 2 2 12 16 12 21 14 15 14 167 202 100.0 165 100.0 7 0 1*> 23 si 33 38 31 91 1.9 1.9 11.1 14 8 11.1 19.4 13.0 13.9 13.0 3.5 3 0 5 9 11 4 15 3 iö ! 3 18 8 15 3 10.4 7 11 17 99 26 18 5 3 .0 ? NEWSPAPER CARRIERS T o t a l_______________ T o ta l r e p o r t e d . . ______ U n d er 8 years............... 8 years_______________ 9 years_______________ 10 yea rs____________ 11 y e a r s .......................... 12 y e a r s ....................... 13 years....................... 14 y e a r s .................... 15 y e a r s ........................ 679 740 178 225 315 356 100.0 983 100.0 677 100.0 740 100.0 177 100.0 225 100.0 10 12 22 20 44 48 73 68 59 2.8 3.4 6.2 5.6 12.4 13.5 20.5 19.1 16.6 N o t r e p o r t e d .................. 10 26 66 75 142 191 185 186 102 1.0 24 3.6 7 .9 11 1. 5 2.6 13 1.9 6.7 30 4.4 27 3. 6 7.6 67 9.9 54 7.3 14.4 95 14.0 80 10.8 19.4 127 18.8 138 18.6 18.8 151 22.3 121 16.4 18.9 123 18.2 171 23.1 10.4 47 6.9 131 17.7 3 1 Boys 7 to 15 years of age. 2 3 1 9 13 20 ?5 48 29 99 1.7 5 1 7.3 11.3 14 1 27 1 16.4 16.4 4 4 6 ?1 9Q 41 46 41 33 1.8 1 8 ¿7 9 3 12 9 18 2 20 4 18 2 14! 7 315 100.0 19 3 8 34 22 7.0 i * Includes 2 boys 5 years of age. It is rather generally believed, even by the newsboys themselves and by some of the circulation managers, that small boys make the 20 Newsboy Service, p. 20; Toledo School Children in Street Trades, p. 7; Cleveland School Children Who Sell on the Streets, p, 10; Tulsa Children Engaged in Street Trades, p. 12, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 10 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK most sales. But in every city included in the Children’s Bureau survey the earnings were found to increase with the age of the seller; the median weekly earnings were everywhere larger for newsboys of 12 years or over than for those under 12, and were larger for boys of 14 or 15 than for those of 12 or 13, except in Wilkes-Barre, Atlanta, and Washington, where they were the same for these two age groups. In most of the places 14 or 15 year old newsboys made two or three times as much as newsboys of 10 or 11. Generally speaking, the younger boys did not work as long hours as the older ones. Possibly the more youthful newsboy with his greater appeal to the sympathies of the public could earn more money than an older one if he worked just as long, but he seldom spends as much time on the street and so does not make as much money for himself and the paper that he sells. In cities where the newspapers assign the boys on the streets the older ones are given the best stands. However, though circula tion managers sometimes complain of the unreliability of the boy under 12, they have no objection to using him to “ fill in.” Faced with the necessity of getting into circulation as soon as possible the most perishable of all products— worthless a few hours after it leaves the press— men in the distribution rooms will give papers to children so small that they have to stand on tiptoe to reach the coun ter. It is too much to expect that the newspapers will voluntarily debar the little boy from the streets, though he is not worth so much to them as his older brother. All seven cities in the surveys of newspaper sellers had ordinances, or, in the case of Omaha and Wilkes-Barre, were in States having a state-wide law, restricting the age at which children might sell papers, the minimum being at least 10 years in all except Columbus, where children might sell on the streets at the age of 8. In Atlanta and in Wilkes-Barre the minimum was 12. An examination of Table 2 indicates the extent to which the regulations were disregarded. At best the effort to enforce them was feeble. In none_of the cities did the agency responsible for enforcement have a sufficiently large staff to do the work, and in most the law or ordinance itself was weak in one or more important provisions.21 H O U R S OF W O R K Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6 give the principal facts found in the surveys in regard to newsboys’ hours.22 The hours of work for newspaper sellers were regulated by the street-trades ordinances in Atlanta, Newark, and Paterson, and by the street-trades laws in WilkesBarre and in the District of Columbia; in Omaha and in Columbus the only hour regulations were curfew ordinances.23 Very little attention was paid to most of these provisions; in Atlanta, for example, 65 of the 109 newsboys under 14, to whom the hour regulations applied, were regularly violating the provision as to evening hours of selling. 21 See DP. 48, 51 of this report and also Laws and Ordinances Regulating Street Work. 22 The tabulations on hours and earnings have been based on the number of boys holding a single job, as many of the boys who had two or more street jobs were unable to state their hours and earnings for each F ot details, see pp. 70,228,274,312,331, and Laws and Ordinances Regulating Street Work. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 11 INTRODUCTION T a b l e 3 .— Hour of ending afternoon work on a typical school day; newspaper sellers and carriers holding a single job during school term in specified cities Boys from 6 to 15 years of age Atlanta Hour of ending afternoon work on a typical school day Colum Newark bus «g »© •4 n i "SS U<D 1N§ •O $ ! rÛ 8 | Ut Ut Ut u ©+* P4 i fc M<D+* Omaha Pater son1 ■ Troy 3 g 3-2 Ut f | . Ut 44irâ © © Pü © i | X i IO'X! rg °.'S i M M »-/m © 4-3 5 & & P4 £ p-i •Wash ing ton2 U s .o §P © X Ut'Ü -U» © & WilkesBarre S-4 © § 1 rO ©¿g I ut C ©-M 3 Ph & t s . fl-g ©g l_ 4 ©4J ß* NEWSPAPER SELLERS 138 214 467 253 108 202 145 Afternoon street work on typical school day_--___ 118 163 438 194 100 188 109 Total_______ _____ Total reported______ 117 100.0 162 100.0 435 100.0 193 100.0 100 100.0 Before 6 p. m....... 6 p. m., before 8 .. 8 p. m., before 10. 10 p. m. and after. 9 7.7 36 22.2 168 38.6 21 10.9 82 70.1 108 66.7 231 53.1 166 86.0 23 19.7 3 18 11.1 32 7.4 4 2.1 3 2.6 4 0.9 2 1.0 Not reported.............. 1 1 No afternoon street work on typical school d ay... No street work on school day ........................... . 1 19 188 100.0 109 1 0 0 . 0 31 31.0 54 54.0 12 1? 0 3 3.0 27 117 22 22 14.4 62.2 11.7 11.7 20 18.3 76 69.7 12 11.0 1 0. 9 3 1 23 3 31 1 28 26 28 7 T ota l...................... 34? 906 679 703 178 212 245 Afternoon street work on school days___________ 290 866 650 662 169 186 147 14 36 NEWSPAPER CARRIERS Total reported.......... 285 100.0 865 100.0 650 100.0 658 100.0 169 100.0 184 100.0 147 100.0 Before 6 p. m___ 257 90.2 833 96.3 514 79.1 605 91.9 150 88.8 139 75.5 6 p. m., before 8.. 28 9.8 31 3.6 131 20.2 52 7.9 19 11.2 45 24.5 8 p. m. and after. 1 0.1 1 0.2 5 0.8 122 83.0 25 17.0 Not reported_______ No afternoon street work on typical school day... No street work on school day................... ............. 5 1 38 1 32 16 37 5 14 8 13 4 4 4 2 57 26 41 1 Boys 7 to 15 years of age. 2 Includes 2 boys 5 years of age. 3 Includes 8 p .m . and after. * Includes 3 boys about whom It was not reported whether they worked in the morning or in the afternoon. Schoolboys usually sell evening papers, which come from the press about the time school is dismissed. As a rule they continue to sell untill about 6.30 or 7, when the demand drops off. In the smaller cities on nights other than Saturday the demand for newspapers is slight after 8 p. m., though in both Wilkes-Barre and Paterson, the smallest cities included in the surveys, a few boys stayed out until after 8 or even after 10. Whether or not they sell after 8 depends in the larger cities on local conditions. In Newark it was said that news stands took care of the night trade and boys were needed only for the peak. In Columbus and Omaha, where the newsboy was really an employee of the paper— his place of work, the number of papers he must sell, and the hour of stopping being dictated by the circulation manager— he was given credit for the day's papers and https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 12 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K was obliged to return to the office for a settlement around 7 or 7.30. In these cities therefore few boys sold as late as 8 p. m., though some if “ stuck” with papers went back to the streets after the evening settlement and tried to dispose of them. In Atlanta, where the newsboys worked under a similar arrangement, settlement was allowed as late as 8 p. m., and 22 per cent sold until at least this hour. In Atlanta, also, as in Washington, the only other city included in the survey in which a number of boys sold on school nights after 8 o ’clock, newsboys sold the so-called “ bulldog” edition of the morning papers, which came out about 9 p. m. In each of the cities, except Columbus, at least a few newsboys were on the streets on school nights until 10 or later. It is on Saturday nights, however, that late selling is a problem. That is the “ big night” for newsboys because of the opportunity to sell the Sunday papers, which are issued Saturday evening in time to reach the Saturday-night theater and restaurant crowds, and which yield a larger profit than daily papers. In every one of the cities surveyed, except Newark and Columbus, a large proportion of the newsboys worked on Saturday nights until at least 10 p. mu, and in Atlanta, Omaha, and Washington many worked until midnight or later. Generally speaking, the newsboys keeping these late hours were as young as those who sold papers only a short time after school or on Saturday afternoons. Often the Saturday-night work followed many hours of selling papers on the downtown streets. Released from school and with papers appearing almost every hour, many boys make an all-day affair of selling papers on Saturdays. They leave home before noon and in some cases do not return until 2 or 3 o ’clock in the morning or not at all, spending the night, in newspaper-distribution rooms in order to be out on the streets with papers early Sunday morning. T a b l e 4.— Hour of ending work on a typical Saturday night; newspaper sellers holding a single job during school term in specified cities Boys from 6 to 15 years of age Total__ _________ __________ 138 214 467 253 108 202 145 123 184 375 221 100 191 126 121 100.0 183 100.0 374 100.0 220 100.0 100 100.0 191 100.0 126 100.0 Total reported_______________ Before 6 p .m . ______ 6 p. m., before 8__________ 8 p. m., before 10_________ 10 p. m.. before 12......... . _ Not reported_________________ No street work on Saturday______ 1 Boys 7 to 15 years of age, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Per cent dis tribution Number. Per cent dis tribution Number Per cent dis tribution Pater Washing Wilkesson 1 ton 2 Barre Number Per cent dis tribution Omaha Number Per cent dis tribution Number Per cent dis tribution Per cent dis tribution | Number Colum Newark bus |Number Atlanta Hour of ending work on a Saturday night 9 7.4 53 29.0 202 54.0 26 21.5 97 53.0 133 35.6 12 9.9 21 11.4 36 9.6 39 32.2 3 12 6.6 3 35 28.9 •3 51 23.2 94 42.7 6 2.7 15 6.8 54 24.5 2 1 i i 15 30 02 32 2 Includes 2 boys 5 years of age, 35 26 11 23 5 8 35.0 26.0 11.0 23.0 5.0 22 72 17 50 30 11 11.5 37.7 8.9 26.2 15.7 21 16.7 41 32.5 42 33.3 14 X h l 8 63 19 * Includes 10 p. in, and after. 13 INTRODUCTION Relatively few boys sold morning papers on school days— 6 in Atlanta, 8 in Paterson, 19 in Wilkes-Barre, 51 in Columbus, 1 in Washington, 54 in Omaha, and 8 in Newark. Many of these sold for two hours or more before beginning the day’s work at school. The newspaper sellers work very long hours as well as at unde sirable times. For those working on school days— and one-half to more than three-fourths in the different cities worked six or seven days a week— the median number of hours of selling on a school day was between three and five in four cities and between two and three in three cities. The median number of hours selling a week was between 16 and 24 in four cities and between 8 and 16 in three cities. The median number of hours per week for newspaper sellers in all cities combined was approximately 16. Slightly more than half of the sellers were working (including their 25 hours of school work) 41 hours a week or more. T a b l e 5.— Number of hours of street work on a typical school day; newspaper sellers and carriers holding a single job during school term in specified cities Boys from 6 to 15 years of age Number of hours of street work on a t y p i c a l school day Atlanta Colum Newark bus Sh f .2 ‘■3 g <D CD +3«S Ut rO 8g oí i I Ut <D£ 9 fc Ph % 1 ! CD43 PH £ Ut Omaha Pater son 1 Troy Wash ington 2 WilkesBarre H § Ut 'S O 1 CD "SS CD <3 g "g rû ö <D 2a-g rO rQ Dg Xi S æ 0 ,0 l i a *-<■£ 1 i t-( I h fcj D+3 D*Lj 0 C A & Ph ¡z¡ Ph Ph** A ß i ¡z¡ ‘• 3 É l §"3 g Ut «2 ■S g ■4-3Tí fl "fl s i ëS PM NEWSPAPER SELLERS T ota l--................... 138 Street work on school 119 214 467 253 108 202 145 186 449 225 101 188 109 188 1Ó0.0 108 100.0 Total reported........... 118 100.0 185 100.0 438 100.0 224 100.0 101 100.0 Less than 1 hour.. 1 hour, less than 2. 2 hours, less than 3 3 hours, less than 5 5 hours and over.. No street work on school 4 3.7 35 32.4 4 19 14 11.9 46 24.9 162 37.0 50 22.3 51 50.5 57 30.3 33 30.6 95 21.7 139 62.1 13 3.0 12 5.4 27 26.7 1 1.0 91 48.4 20 10.6 27 25.0 9 8.3 94 50.8 14 7.6 3 3.0 19 18.8 _____ 1.1 9.6 7 3.8 28 6.4 24 13.0 140 32.0 70 59.3 26 22.0 1.8 8.5 2 18 1.7 5.1 2 6 — 1 1 1 11 1 19 28 18 28 7 342 906 679 703 178 212 328 898 66S 69S 174 186 14 36 NEWSPAPER CARRIERS Street work on school _______ 245 204 Total reported______ 323 100.0 895 100.0 666 100.0 695 100.0 174 100.0 184 100.0 204 100.0 28 16.1 56 30.4 73 42.0 108 58.7 73 42.0 20 10.9 138 67.6 61 29.9 .5 2.5 Less than 1 hour.- 51 15.8 280 31.3 202 30.3 187 26.9 1 horn:, less than 2. 192 59.4 508 56.8 346 52.1 427 61.4 2 hours and over.. 80 248 107 12.0 118 17.7 81 11.7 5 No street work on school 14 i Boys 7 to 15 years of age. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 2 h 4 2 4 26 ! Includes 2 boys 5 years of age. 41 14 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K T able 6 . — Number of hours of street work during a typical week; newspaper sellers and carriers holding a single job during school term in specified cities Boys from 6 to 15 years of age Atlanta Number of hours of street work during a typical week & ës a <3+3 Pm £ Colum Newark bus Omaha U & 2 .2 § s 0 ,0 cB u a 3 & & 'l l ë s u r& , a 0 & S£ Ph & 0 ,0 Pater son 1 Troy Wash Wilkesington 2 Barre Ñ B < NEWSPAPER SELLERS Total................... . 214 138 467 108 253 Total reported__________ 135 100.0 211 100.0 437 100.0 250 Less than 8 hours____ 8 hours, less than 16-16 hours, less than 24. 24 hours and over___ Not reported___________ 21 15 37 62 39 60 42 70 15.6 11.1 27.4 45.9 18.5 106 24.3 38 28.4 197 45.1 35 19.9 82 18.8 70 33.2 52 11.9 107 3 3 30 3 Total...... ...............- 342 906 679 703 15.2 14.0 28.0 42. 100.0 202:100.0 1100.0 16.3 37.5 35.« 12.4 24.8 30.7 32.2 29.3 35.0 10.6 20.0 15.7 NEWSPAPER CARRIERS Total reported_________ 205 178 336 100.0 896 100.0 671 100.0 698 100.0 100.0 100.0 85 25.3 377 42.1 373 55.6 200 28.7 Less than 8 hours___ 8 hours, less than 16. - 207 61.6 448 50. C 250 37.3 400 57.3 16 hours, less than 24- 39 11.6 65 7.3 41 6.1 96 13. 6 0.7 7 1.0 2 0.3 24 hours and over___ 5 1.5 38.1 43.2 13.6 5.1 69.8 27. Not reported________ 6 Boys 7 to 15 years of age. 10 8 2.0 0.5 : 100. 0 12.7 0.4 5 2 Includes 2 boys 5 years of age. On this point the findings of the Children’s Bureau surveys show somewhat longer hours than those shown in other street-work studies. In Springfield newsboys were found to be working on an average between two and three hours a day, and in Buffalo they averaged 13 hours a week; in Tulsa, the median hours of work a day were three, and 20 per cent of the boys worked 24 hours or longer a week; in Toledo, 13 per cent of the newsboys worked more than 24 hours a week.24 D U R A T IO N OF W O R K Many a boy tries his hand at selling papers and if he finds that he is unsuccessful or that the work is distasteful gives it up in a few days or a few weeks; other boys sell now and then when the spirit moves them to seek adventure or when some special event— election day, the baseball season— tempts them to join the crowds on the streets and “ make big money.” But professional newsboys, such as those included in the Children’s Bureau study, sell for months and in many cities for years. Information in regard to the length of time that the boys had held the newspaper-selling job in which they were engaged when interviewed was obtained in five cities, and in each a very large proportion had sold papers without interruption for at least one year (Table 7), the smallest proportion being 38 per cent in Columbus, where the work was more exacting than in some places 24 Newsboys in Springfield, p. 31; Tulsa Children Engaged in Street Trades, p. 31; Toledo School Chil dren in Street Trades, p. 10. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis i 15 INTRODUCTION because the newsboys were given more supervision. More than onesixth of the boys in each city had had their jobs at least three years, some as much as five or six years or even longer. Many of the boys had had other periods of selling, so that altogether their street-work experience had embraced a large part of their lives. The few other surveys of newsboys in which information was obtained on how long boys engage in the work show that these facts are as true for other places as for those studied by the Children’s Bureau. In Birmingham 25 it was found that 70 per cent of the news paper sellers in the study had worked a year or longer. In Tulsa 26 38 per cent had worked steadily at least a year when the inquiry was made. T a b l e 7.— Previous duration of job held at date of interview; newspaper sellers and carriers working during school term in specified cities Boys from 6 to 15 years of age Atlanta Columbus Ofnaba Troy Previous duration of job held at date of interview U £ « jj ios,q IL'*’ *-4 £ a a & 'S ö -W.2 § ! U w T& 'S a ^ o 0) Çj ¡3 <d-S P4 Sh © rQ a 3 ¡3 'S a •w.2 §3 © 13 m Washing ton 1 WilkesBarre -o U £ a 3 ¡3 a ■** ° a S ß ^ ©*£l3 P4 £> 'S ö -m.2 g-g a 3 ¡3 CD £ Ah © NEWSPAPER SELLERS Total____________________ 144 273 320 202 144 100.0 271 100.0 318 100.0 199 100.0 167 165 100.0 Less than 1 year____________ 83 57.6 168 62.0 165 51.9 95 47.7 66 40.0 Less than 6 months_____ 63 43.8 131 48.3 113 35.5 L :._. 71 35.7 54 32.7 4 months, less than 6. 31 22 10 21.5 15.3 6.9 53 53 25 19.6 19. 6 9.2 55 45 13 17.3 14.2 4.1 22 34 15 11.1 17.1 7.5 23 25 6 13. 9 15. 2 3.6 1 year, less than 2 ._________ 3 years and over.......... ........... 20 13.9 37 13.7 52 16.4 24 12.1 12 7.3 23 14 24 16.0 9. 7 16.7 41 17 45 15.1 6.3 16.6 54 39 60 17.0 12.3 18.9 45 23 36 22.6 11.6 18.1 32 32 35 19.4 19.4 21.2 Not reported__________ 2 2 3 2 NEWSPAPER CARRIERS Total___________________ 356 986 740 212 315 354 100.0 984 100.0 738 100.0 212 100.0 308 250 70.6 605 61.5 518 70.2 101 47.6 154 50.0 Less than 6 months. I ___ 200 56.5 424 43.1 356 48.2 62 29.2 ....... 113 36.7 Less than 2 months.. 2 months, less than 4. 4 months, less than 6. 21. 2 23.4 11.9 121 162 141 12.3 16.5 14.3 174 115 67 23.6 15.6 9.1 21 27 14 9. 9 12. 7 6.6 41 43 29 13. 3 14.0 9.4 181 18.4 162 22.0 39 18.4 41 13.3 155 101 123 15.8 10.3 12.5 87 56 77 11.8 2111 7.6 10.4 52.4 70 48 36 22. 7 15.6 11. 7 Total reported_________________ Less than 1 year.___ ____ _ 75 83 42 6 months, less than 1 year. 50 14.1 1 year, less than 2__________ 2 years, less than 3__________ 8 years and over____________ 42 22 40 11.9 6.2 11.3 2 1 Includes 2 boys 5 years of age. Newsboys in Birmingham, p. 317. * Unpublished figure. 26 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 2 2 2 7 Includes 1 year and more, 100.0 16 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK E N V IR O N M E N T A serious charge brought against newspaper selling is that it introduces the newsboy to an unsuitable environment and to dan gerous associations. Few writers on the subject of street work have failed to emphasize this aspect,27 and several studies of street workers have presented concrete evidence in support of the charge. Among the more recent studies, those made in the last 10 or 12 years, are four that give special consideration to this phase of the problem of newspaper selling— those in Seattle, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Buffalo. As an indication of the nature of the evils that were actually found to exist in each city the following paragraphs are quoted: The delinquency of newsboys is an inevitable consequence of the associations into which their work throws them. The great majority of the supply men em ployed to wholesale the paper to the newsboys have criminal records of considera ble length, while the character of their crimes makes them unfit for contact with young children. Evidence has been presented that thugs employed by papers have attacked newsboys employed on other papers. Gambling is very common among boys waiting for their papers. Petty graft is exacted from little newsboys employed by older men owning corner stands. W orst of all, affidavits have been made proving that negro and other supply men have practiced on newsboys vile and perverted sex offenses. (The Newsboys of Cincinnati, pp, 115-116.) Into each of [the] distributing rooms came nightly, during the time of the inquiry, from 40 to 80 men and boys. They began to arrive at about 6 p. m .; and while they waited for the 9.45 edition they gambled, fought, drank, boasted, and swore the time away. On receiving the night edition it was the custom of the men and boys who gathered here to go out peddling their papers, and to return between midnight and 3 in the morning to “ check in ” for their stock and go home, or more fre quently, to sleep in these rooms on the iron tables, or the floor, until the issuance of the morning edition. Among these alley lodgers and frequenters, our investigator found runaways from all parts of the country; from New York, from Ohio, from Oklahoma, from Montana, from California. Seven youths had “ bum m ed” to Chicago from the W est. A homesick Italian boy who had run away from Buffalo and wept inter mittently for several days was sent home by the juvenile court. There were also many Illinois boys who had run away from Pontiac, St. Charles, the parental school, and other correctional institutions. Abandoned space (this space has not been closed) under the sidewalk and the opportunities for eluding capture offered by adjoining low buildings made this “ port of missing b o y s” a natural refuge for those who wished to escape the inquiries of their relatives, the truant officers, or the police. In both the alleys indecent stories prevailed, especially in relation to sex perversions. Numbers of unproven and apparently unprovable instances of criminal practices came to the knowledge of the investigator. In the fourth month of the inquiry, evidence was secured in two instances against men accused of an attack upon one of the newsboys; and these men were convicted in the criminal court and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary. A doctor at the emergency hospital stated that within a few weeks nine boys had come to him to be treated for venereal disease contracted from one pervert among the alley employees. In January of this year our investigator rescued from the alley an 11-year-old boy with both feet frozen. This boy, who had remained out side the distributing rooms sleeping in a delivery wagon in the coldest weather of last winter, was also the victim of a pervert act of a subnormal boy of 16 years both boys being runaways lodging in the news alleys. The younger boy was taken to the county hospital, where it was found that his toes had to be am putated. The larger boy was sent to the State colony for feeble-minded. Two of ^ e. frequenters of the alleys, men in charge of news stands, openly boasted of their success in acting as panderers for streetwalkers, in connection with their v See especially Child Labor in City Streets, by Edward N. Clopper, pp. 60-65, 159-188. MacMillan Co., New York, 1915. ' ............* https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 1. “ H O L L E R S O ’S I C O U L D H E A R Y O U A T T H E T O P O F T H E T I M E S B U I L D I N G , ” A D V IS E S O N E C IR C U LA T IO N M AN . 2. B O Y S F R O M 10 Y E A R S U P S E L L O N T H E D O W N - T O W N C O R N E R S I N O M A H A . 3. T H E 9 - Y E A R - O L D N E W S B O Y ( R I G H T ) S A I D H E H A D N O T B E E N IN T O W N L O N G E N O U G H T O E N T E R S C H O O L . 4. S E L L IN G P A P E R S A L L D A Y O N S A T U R D A Y S . A N D V A C A T I O N D A Y S IS C O M M O N , 5, W A I T I N G T O S E L L T O T H E T H E A T E R C R O W D 16 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 17 sale of newspapers. Debauching questions were asked of all young, newly arriving boys about their sisters. Indecent songs were sung. There was much thieving among the men and boys both inside and outside the alleys. While they were sleeping the boys were robbed of their money and clothes by other newsboys. A lad of 16 years was choked and robbed of a dollar by another older youth of 22 years. This older boy was later sentenced to a year in the bridewell for robbing a drunken man of $150, whom he inveigled into a Harrison Street hotel. Young boys offered bargains in articles stolen inside the department stores. They would go into the stores in groups, and while one of their number made a trifling purchase, the rest would elbow goods off the counter to the floor, and get away with it to the alley. Gambling was a regular practice in the alleys, shooting craps— the stakes were small sums of money generally, and on one occasion, age and school cer tificates— and playing seven-up. The boys often lost so much in gambling that they were obliged to stint themselves in food the next day. Many of the boys drank heavily. This was undoubtedly caused in the case of those who lived in the alleys by an insufficient, irregular, and improperly balanced diet. These boys and young men habitually ate in restaurants where coffee and rolls are their staple. A considerable number depended upon the free-lunch counters in saloons for one or two meals a day. They would pay 5 cents for a glass of beer, and then eat as much lunch as they could before they were chased out. (Under the present city law, no free lunch can be served by saloons.) A restaurant near one of the alleys had been repeatedly invaded toward midnight by a mob of newsboys, who, after ordering and eating a meal, attacked the cash ier, and wrecked furniture when payment was demanded. The filthiness of most of the boys in the alleys was extreme. M any of them were verminous. One subnormal boy was so infested with vermin that the other boys chased him away when he came near them. Few of the boys were above begging for money, clothes, or whatever they needed. (Chicago Children in the Street Trades, pp. 6, 7.) While the investigators themselves saw no definite violations of this nature [that is, the use of newsboys by adult sex perverts for immoral purposes], instances have been specifically reported of lads being outraged in the delivery rooms, and from the actions and language of the boys who were found around the newspaper offices when investigators called, it is apparent that this danger still exists. (The Street Traders of Buffalo, N . Y ., p. 32.) The survey of newsboys in Seattle contains the following descrip tion of conditions connected with newspaper selling given the investi gators by a 14-year-old newsboy: His methods of securing money or meals from drunks, the various forms of vice learned from the older “ bu m s” around newspaper offices, their levying of tribute on the little foreign boys, their theft from the pockets of the younger boys, who often slept on the tables or on the newspapers while waiting for the morning editions, instruction in the art of stealing and the sale of stolen goods, were all made Very realistic. * * * In reply to m y question, “ Wh o are these bums?” he answered, “ Just bums. They don’t come from nowhere and they ain’t goin’ nowhere. They just are there and always been there. They’re a bad lot— awfully bad lot— they fight and pick pockets and gamble and they do everything they can to make little boys bad.” (Newsboy Service, p. 113.) While the newsboy is at work on the street his surroundings appear to present no special hazards; most newsboys sell on the main business streets of their cities, and only an occasional one stands with his papers in the doorway of a disreputable hotel or enters a saloon— or its latter-day substitute—in search of customers. As the foregoing citations suggest, the newspaper-distribution rooms and the type of man whom the newsboy comes in contact with there are the greatest potential dangers in the newsboy’s environment. The Children’s Bureau survey included an investigation into conditions in and around distribution rooms in four cities— Atlanta, Columbus, Omaha, and Wilkes-Barre. Although subject to the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 18 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K limitation referred to on page 7, this investigation revealed condi tions that in unwholesomeness and possibility of danger to the boy approached some of the worst that have been found. In some of the distribution rooms in Atlanta and in Omaha it was customary for boys to spend the night— usually Saturday night— sleeping on the counters, on boxes, or on the floor, sometimes with a few papers under them and covered in cold weather with burlap bags or with newspapers, or more often, indulging in practical jokes, fighting, gambling, and stealing from one another. In both these cities com petition between newspapers had resulted in an increase of “ tramp newsies,” older boys and men who would not work and often sold papers only long enough to earn a few dollars for food, sleeping in the distribution rooms or, in Omaha, in lodging houses provided by the newspaper management. The newsboys and their parents said that these men kept the younger boys who stayed in the dis tribution rooms up all night, gambling and playing cards, cheating them and taking away their money, and that they urged the news boys to steal and bought the stolen goods from them. They hung about the distribution rooms, day and night, with the younger newsboys, boasting of the tricks they had resorted to in selling their papers, relating adventures of a questionable nature, and indulging in indecent conversation. In Omaha one of the older local news boys accused the “ tramp newsies” of using the younger newsboys for immoral purposes, and the director of a boys’ club in Atlanta said that cases of that kind in which the newspaper truck drivers and newsboys were involved had come to his attention. One newsboy accused a circulation assistant with whom he dealt of being “ almost always drunk.” Other boys said that the “ tramp newsies” or the newspaper truck drivers abused and ill treated them, slapping and A. cursing them, twisting their arms, and taking their money. A truck driver in Omaha had been arrested for ill treating a newsboy. In Wilkes-Barre and Columbus conditions were better. In Co lumbus newsboys did not sleep in the distribution rooms nor loaf about them. The <employees seemed to be respectable men, in some cases university students working part time. Nevertheless, an occasional boy would tell of being beaten by a circulation assistant in fights over newspapers, and a number of boys reported that the adult negroes selling papers on the streets would quarrel with them over “ corner rights” and “ beat them up.” In Wilkes-Barre a few boys spent Saturday nights at a newsdealer’s, but a night spent there by a representative of the Children’s Bureau failed to uncover anything worse than profanity and boyish “ rough house.” In and around the distribution rooms of both Columbus and WilkesBarre “ craps” and “ pitching pennies” were common forms of diversion. This situation could probably not be attributed to the boys’ environment as newsboys, except that the combination of loose change in their pockets, time on their hands while they waited for their papers, and the company of others of like tastes and habits provided the opportunity. Although the management of many of the newspapers sought to keep their newsboys satisfied by giving them passes to motion-picture theaters, treats of various kinds, such as picnics, and in one or two . instances even “ meal tickets,” none provided recreational facilities W in the waiting rooms and alleys. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 19 In each of the cities in the survey a so-called newsboys’ club was maintained by the Young M en’s Christian Association or (in Newark) by a church organization. These were the usual clubs for the “ under privileged” boy; the membership was not limited to newsboys, nor did it include all the newsboys in any city. The program waschiefly athletic. In none of the cities was there a newsboys’ club like those in Milwaukee, Boston, Toledo, and a few other cities, operated on the self-government principle, which are reported to be effective aids in enforcing street-trades regulations. (See p. 64.) N E W S P A P E R SELLIN G IN R E L A T IO N T O H E A L T H In regard to the physical effects of street work, as in the whole field of occupations that children enter, research has almost nothing to offer. For reasons that have been explained (see p. 6) the Children’s Bureau obtained no data relating to the health or the physical condition of the children included in the surveys. Few of the studies of juvenile street work have included physical examinations. In connection with the study of newsboys in Cin cinnati a group of Jewish newsboys and of Jewish boys from similar homes who did not sell papers (306 in all) were examined by a phy sician, who found that the newsboys showed an incidence of 14 per cent of cardiac disease, almost three times that among the other boys, that the newsboys had a disproportionate share of orthopedic defects (11 per cent compared with 5 per cent) and of throat trouble (38 per cent compared with 17 per cent).28 In Buffalo 228 street workers (including newspaper sellers and bootblacks) who had had a special physical examination were compared with more than 12,000 school boys examined in the same year;29 the greatest difference found to the disadvantage of the street workers was in the proportion with cardiac disease, which was 6 per cent compared with 4 per cent in the control group. * . i Probably the most thorough study from the medical side is that of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association,30 but the results are presented in such a way as to make impossible definite conclusions in regard to the physical effects of newspaper selling;31 among other things the physical examinations showed that among newsboys (including carriers) heart disease was no more common than among other groups of children, but that 17 per cent of the boys examined had flat foot compared with 6 per cent of a group of New York City public-school children in 1920. Reference should be made also to a British report which is some times quoted by those who believe that street work has unfortunate physical effects. In this report presented before the departmental The Newsboys of Cincinnati, p. 157. 29 Street Traders of Buffalo, N. Y., pp. 36-37. so The Health of a Thousand Newsboys in New York City. . , ,,, 31 The facts are not presented separately for boys with licenses. These constituted three-fourths of the boys examined and represent presumably a somewhat selected group as to health, as a newsboy license is not granted in New York unless the applicant’s school principal certifies that he is physically fit for the work and pf normal development for his age. Boys who only carried papers and did no selling constituted 45 per cent of the boys examined, and route carriers generally work under much more favorable conditions than newspaper sellers. The findings are not presented separately for newspaper sellers and newspaper carriers. The majority of the boys examined had not begun to sell or carry papers until they were 13 or 14 years of age, a much higher age at beginning work than is usual for newsboys, as is shown m the Children s Bureau and other studies. Only 4 of the 1,078 New York City newsboys were under 12 years of age, the legal minimum for street work in New York. Half the boys examined had sold or carried papeis less than six months, probably too short a time for the effects of the work to become evident, especially as no com parison could be made between the findings of the physical examination and the boy’s physical condition when he began the work. 29 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 20 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK committee on the employment of children act of 1903 a school medical inspector gives the results of a study of newsboys working outside school hours, showing that 60 per cent of the newsboys employed 20 hours or less per week were fatigued, that 70 per cent of those working 20 to 30 hours and 91 per cent of those working more than 30 hours showed fatigue.32 For these different groups the per centages exhibiting nerve strain or having nervous complaints were 16, 35, and 37, respectively, and the evidence of flat foot and the evidences of heart strain increased with the number of hours worked. Unfortunately, the study included only 87 newsboys. The findings resulting from these studies are interesting, but until they are corroborated by other and more extensive data they can not be regarded as offering conclusive evidence that newspaper selling does or does not affect health unfavorably. Although it has not been demonstrated that the long hours of standing on hard city pavements cause orthopedic defects, such as flat foot, in newspaper sellers, or that the overstimulating environ ment or the intense competition predisposes them to nervous affec tions, common observation, confirmed by expert opinion, leads to the conclusion that under certain conditions newspaper selling has serious disadvantages on the physical side. Take the matter of hours. Too early hours in the morning or too late horns at night deprive the newsboy of sleep. In the Children’s Bureau surveys, as in others, teachers complained that newsboys went to sleep in school or were too sleepy to give heed to what went on in the classroom. One boy told how on returning from school in the afternoon he was so sleepy as a result of his early hours selling morning papers that he would often call out “ Papers, mister?” though he was not selling papers. Too long hours, even if not at undesirable times, tax the boys energies. The British Interdepartmental Committee on Employment of School Children, after exhaustive inquiries into the subject, agreed that probably 20 hours of work a week was the maximum that could be expected of school children in most employ ments without injurious results.33 The Children’s Bureau surveys showed that large proportions of newspaper sellers work well over 20 hours a week. In this connection it is well to remember the close relation between fatigue and malnutrition. Consider the matter of food. The Children’s Bureau surveys showed, as have others, that many newsboys have irregular meals and even more have meals at improper hours. The peak of news paper sales comes at the hours most newsboys’ families are having their suppers. A hot evening meal, the principal one of the day, was out of the question, therefore, for large numbers of the boys. Even those who sold papers only until 6.30 or 7 usually went home to leftovers from the family supper, not always kept hot. Many had no supper until 8 p. m. or later or got a “ hot dog” sandwich, a cup of coffee, or some stale cakes in the intervals of their work. Some boys ate a cheap meal at down-town restaurants. On Saturdays, when many sold all day, they often had nothing to eat but an un substantial bite snatched here or there until they reached home late London °1910f ^ Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children Act, 1903, pp. 360, 361, 647. 1901ReP°rt °* Inter(iePartmental Committee on the Employment of School Children, p. 11. London, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis fk INTRODUCTION 21 at night. Boys selling morning papers sometimes breakfasted at 5 or earlier, sold until 8 or 8.30, and then rushed to school; others, obliged to be out too early for the family meal, ate no breakfast or sold two or three hours before having anything to eat. Other disadvantages from the point of view of physical welfare have been attributed to newspaper selling. It may be that for healthy, well-clad boys the dangers of exposure to very cold or inclement weather are at a minimum, though anyone who has waited even 15 minutes for a street car in a soaking rain or a cold wind will realize that several hours of standing on a comer under such condi tions is not a comfortable experience. Certainly the younger news boys standing outside hotels and at the entrances to restaurants on snowy or bitter cold winter nights often look as if they were suffering. Danger from traffic also may be no greater than for boys who do not sell papers, though many newsboys’ parents feared it. In Columbus it was customary for boys to “ hop cars” in order to sell their papers, but as this practice was not permitted in any of the other cities surveyed it seems probable that it is largely a thing of the past. Unlike newspaper carriers, newsboys seldom carry very heavy bundles of papers; ordinarily the boy seems to take only a few papers under his arm at a time, leaving the rest of his stock spread out in a pile or piles on the sidewalk or in a doorway or some other convenient nook. N E W S P A P E R SELLIN G IN R E LA TIO N T O E D U C A T IO N It may be assumed that the schoolboy’s main job is school, and that anything that puts a stumblingblock in the way of his satis factory adjustment to school life or of normal school progress is undesirable for the boy and expensive to the community. Are newspaper sellers less regular than other boys in school attendance, a fundamental requirement for success in school? In the cities in the survey in which comparable figures for the whole school population or for the male enrollment could be obtained newsboys had about as good attendance records as others, and in the cities for which the comparative figures could not be obtained the newsboys had about as good attendance records as in the other cities, the average percentage of attendance for newsboys being more than 90 for each city. This is what might be expected. Most newsboys are subject to the compulsory school attendance laws, like other school boys, and if the school-attendance department is efficient they are kept in school Other studies of newspaper sellers show the same thing. In Seattle they had as good attendance as other boys, if not better, and in Tulsa, the only other survey giving statistics on this point, their average percentage of attendance was 93.34 A satisfactory avérage of attendance might conceal, however, an inordinate amount of truancy. In Cincinnati the proportion of newsboys among truants was almost twice as large as their proportion among the general school population warranted; in Cleveland the percentage of street sellers who were truant was 14, whereas the proportion of all Cleveland school children who were truant was estimated by the local attendance department as 2 per cent; in Springfield 18 per cent of the newsboys were truants during the school MNewsboy Service, p. 50; Tulsa figures unpublished. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 22 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK year covered in the study compared with 5 per cent of the general enrollment 7 to 15 years of age.35 But these figures include girls and children of all ages, and neither girls nor younger boys are truant to the same degree as boys of 12 to 15, who make up the bulk of the newsboys, so that they can not be regarded as offering conclusive evidence. The Children’s Bureau obtained truancy records for newspaper sellers in Omaha, Wilkes-Barre, and Washington, where the percent ages who had been truant were respectively 7, 7, and, in Washing ton, 20 for white and 23 for negro children. No figures for boys of the same ages in the general school population are available for these or other cities; truancy rates in the cities for which they are com piled usually include girls, whose truancy is much less than that of boys, and boys of all ages, whereas the proportion of older boys, who are more truant than younger ones, is larger among the news boys than in the whole school enrollment. In the Children’s Bureau surveys the truancy rate for newspaper sellers was several times that of carriers in the same city, a fact that is brought out also in the Toledo and Cleveland surveys.36 The greater amount of truancy among newspaper sellers, compared with carriers, may not be due to their occupation or conditions connected with the occupation. The newspaper sellers, more than the carriers and more than the school enrollment in their cities, came from immigrant homes and from the homes of newer immigrants, and their truancy may cer tainly be considered, to some extent at least, as one of the problems common to the unadjusted second generation.37 However, many of the conditions surrounding newsboys in their work tend to increase a boy’s discontent with the routine of School and to handicap further those whose environment other than that of their occupation con tains elements that make for maladjustment. In regard to success in school, a rough measure is furnished by the amount of retardation.38 Other studies 39 of newspaper sellers have shown that they are very much overage for their grades, sug gesting that their progress in school is slower than that of the average boy.40 In two, Atlanta and Omaha, of the four cities in the Chil dren’s Bureau survey in which comparable figures for the general school enrollment could be obtained, the newspaper sellers had made 35 The Newsboys of Cincinnati, p. 151; Cleveland School Children Who Sell on the Streets, p. 23; News boys in Springfield, p. 34. 36 Toledo School Children in Street Trades, p. 19; Cleveland School Children Who Sell on the Streets, p. 23. 37 Statistics of truancy in Philadelphia, a city for which an unusually detailed analysis of truancy rates is published, showed that in 1924, 45 per cent of the school children but 54 per cent of the truants were of foreign parentage. (See Report of the Bureau of Compulsory Education [Philadelphia] for the year ending June 30, 1924, p. 24.) ! 38 The age basis on which the retardation of these children was calculated is that adopted by the U. S. Bureau of Education. Children of 6 or 7 years are expected to enter the first grade, children of 7 or 8 the second grade, etc. Normally a child is expected to complete one grade each year; children, therefore, were considered retarded if they had not entered the second grade by the time they reached the age of 8 years, the third grade at 9 years, the fourth grade at 10 years, etc. 39 See Toledo School Children in Street Trades, p. 16; The Newsboys of Dallas, p. 5; Cleveland School Children Who Sell on the Streets, p. 22; The Newsboys of Cincinnati, p. 155; Newsboy Service, p. 29; Newsboys in Springfield, p. 22; Street Traders of Buffalo, N. Y., p. 24; Tulsa Children engaged in Street Trades, p. 17. A comparison of the proportions of newsboys who were retarded in the different cities is of no value as the methods of computing the retardation differ. 40 Meek, Charles S.: “ A study of the progress of newsboys in school.” The Elementary School Journal, Vol. X X IV , No. 6 (February, 1924), pp. 430-433. This article is of special interest because, unlike other surveys of newspaper sellers, it concludes that selling papers does not contribute to retardation or inferior work in school. Unfortunately, the study, which included an analysis of age-grade statistics and the re sults of standard achievement tests for 1,300 newsboys in the public schools of Toledo, makes no distinc tion between sellers and carriers. According to other surveys, as well as those of the Children’s^Bureau, these groups differ markedly in overageness for grade and to some extent in schoolroom proficiency, so that the conclusions based on both groups can not be regarded as absolutely sound in regard to either of the two. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 23 much slower progress in school than the total male enrollment of the same ages, whereas in two cities, Paterson and Wilkes-Barre, the percentage of newspaper sellers who were retarded was about the same as that of all schoolboys of their ages. In Columbus and in Newark the retardation rate for newspaper sellers was very little higher than that for the whole school enrollment, including girls, whose rate of retardation is usually lower than that of boys. In Washington comparative figures for either the whole school enroll ment or for boys were not available. Judging from the six cities for which the information is fairly complete it appears that the rela tive success of newsboys differs with the city and may be as good as that of other boys. The fact that the newspaper sellers in Atlanta and in Omaha progressed in school so much more slowly than the average schoolboy in their cities is not accounted for by the large proportion among the sellers of children of foreign-bom parents or of negroes, both of which groups might be supposed to be at a dis advantage in school because of home conditions, for the proportion of native white newspaper sellers who were retarded in school was at least as great in each place as that of the other groups. In each of these cities the conditions surrounding newspaper sellers and the conditions of work were worse than in the other cities in the survey, but whether newspaper sellers were more retarded because of the conditions, or whether the conditions being what they were, boys from better-regulated homes and homes likely to foster success in school were not permitted to sell papers, is a question that can not be answered. In six of the seven cities— Paterson being omitted because the numbers were too small— a comparison was made between the daily hours spent in selling papers and the amount of retardation. The hours reported were those the boy was working at the time of the interview and not necessarily over a period long enough to have affected school progress; nevertheless it is probable that they were characteristic of the boy’s whole street-work experience. In each place the newsboys working longer hours were more retarded; but those working the longer hours in each place were on the whole somewhat older than the others, and the older a boy is the more likely he is to be retarded. In Atlanta only, the difference in retarda tion between those working long hours and those giving a more moderate amount of time to newspaper selling was sufficiently great to suggest a real cause and effect relationship. Although the great majority of the boys in each city had been selling papers long enough to have had at least one of their school promotions affected by their selling (supposing their school work to have been immediately responsive to the influence of their occupa tion), it is among those who had been selling several years that the greatest amount of retardation might be expected. Information on the length of time the boys had been selling papers was obtained for only five of the seven cities in the survey. In two of these (Omaha and Columbus) the boys who had been selling two years or more were less retarded than those who had been selling less than a year. In these two cities, it may be noted, the conditions of work were more exacting than elsewhere and the boys had more supervision, so that those who “ stuck it ou t” for several years may well have 75034°—28----- 3 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 24 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK been a relatively superior group. In two cities (Washington and Wilkes-Barre) the amount of retardation increased so little with the length of time worked that the difference is accounted for by the fact that the boys working longer were on the whole older than the others. In the fifth city (Atlanta) newsboys who had sold papers several years were considerably more retarded (too much so for the differ-' ence to be accounted for the difference in age) than those whose newspaper-selling experience had been of shorter duration. The facts obtained in the survey do not prove that newsboys as a class do not make as rapid progress in school as boys who do not sell papers, nor do they prove that newspaper selling always inter feres with school progress. However, it is only reasonable to Sup pose, whatever may be the facts regarding newsboys as a whole, that the school life of the group working under the least favorable conditions is less successful than it would be under more favorable ones. Even if the boy working long hours and in such an atmosphere as characterized some of the distributing rooms is not so physically or nervously overtaxed by his work as to fail to keep up with his grade, it is natural that the colorful life of the street will capture his interest and take hold of his imagination to the exclusion of everything that is less stimulating. The professional newsboy’s work sets up a rival claim to his school work; and the fact that it brings in money, however small the amount may be, gives it an importance both in the boy’s eyes and in the eyes of his poor and often ignorant parents that sanctions a divided interest. The news boy may not be seriously retarded in school, but what his progress might have been if the interest in his newspaper selling had not claimed much of his time and thought no one can say. A broader view of education than that represented by the school-j room may be at least touched upon here. The claim is often made that selling papers furnishes valuable business training. Under cer tain conditions, especially where credit is extended by the newspaper company and his work is supervised— as in Omaha and Columbus and to some extent in Atlanta— the newsboy has an opportunity to learn certain basic business principles and transactions.41 Of how much value is this taste of business life to the newsboy? A young man without education, unless he is very exceptional, has little hope of establishing a business of his own or even of finding an opening in business. Most newsboys are of a social and economic class that is rather unlikely to enter commercial and business pursuits. Un like the carrier, the newspaper seller is not often a high-school boy— only 4 to 6 per cent of those in the Children’s Bureau surveys, depend ing on the city, were in high school, though 14 to 27 per cent were of high-school age. Moreover, if this business training, which is likely to be of direct use only in rare instances, is bought at the cost of any other value in the boy’s life, it assuredly is not worth while. Its advantages, for example, would seem to be more than offset by the very dubious type of business ethics taught by some circulation men, newspaper truck drivers, and “ hangers-on” about newspaperdistributing rooms. 125^-mr a discussion oi tbe vocational training offered by newspaper selling see Newsboy Service, pp. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 25 INTRODUCTION N E W S P A P E R SELLIN G IN R E L A T IO N T O B E H A V IO R Such conditions as those described on pages 16—18 as existing in and around the distributing rooms of some newspapers and the type of man and older boy with whom the young newsboy’s work often throws him suggest some of the dangers that newspaper selling has for the immature and impressionable. Apart from the possibility of familiarizing him with antisocial and often evil practices learned from adults, the newsboy’s work, bringing together all kinds of boys in the down-town sections of a city, makes it easier for him than for the non working boy to pick up unsuitable companions and to engage in unwholesome activities. With money in his pocket and hours at his disposal— for his business furnishes an excuse to be away from home long hours at a time, even after dark, often at mealtime— he can make the most of such contacts as he has. Stimulated by par ticipation in the activities of the streets and pleasantly conscious of being “ on his own,” he has unusual chances of getting into mischief with the “ gang” or even into serious trouble. N ot the least among the ill effects that may be attributed to news paper selling is the virtual separation of the boy from his family. Newsboys who go down town to get their papers immediately after school and remain until after the evening meal is over and sell papers practically all day Saturday (and these are the conditions under which large numbers of newsboys were found to work) spend almost none of their waking hours at home. Under such circumstances it is inevitable that family ties should be weakened, especially when it is the history of the boy’s life from an early age. Family influence grows less, and it may be only a question of time before the boy M is beyond parental control. When the newsboys’ parents are of foreign birth, as they often are (Table 8), this danger is increased. T a b l e 8 . — Race and nativity of father; newspaper sellers and carriers working during school term in specified cities Boys from 6 to IS years of age Atlanta Colum Newark bus Race and nativity of father Ú 2-2 © rÛ §"3 a o,Q s Z © 'If a §OrO 3 3 £ Omaha Pater son 1 $•4 « o .2 S © 2 ©-l 3©’■g§ rÛ fl "rj pQ ©rQ a a a 5 h 5-4*Ul 3 ©£ ©+3 £ PM fc w z © 2 o 0 ’S 8| P* Troy Wash Wilkesington 2 Barre ’S g -1 ’ S g © •P'rt 5 © S 3g rO SS © a a 3 3 ©+3 Z Pn z U & £3 G 5 -4 ^ 2 © fO 3*S g a 5©©-4eQ "C z IPh NEWSPAPER SELLERS T o ta l................... . 144 100.0 273 100.0 467 100.0 320 100.0 108 100.0 202 100.0 167 100.0 136 94.4 229 83.9 393 84.2 306 95. 6 107 99.1 109 54.0 166 99,4 White— ...................... Native________ ____ Foreign born_______ Not reported_______ Negro...._______________ 98 68.1 142 52.0 80 17.1 81 25.3 38 26.4 70; 25.6 310 66.4 221 69,1 17 6.2 3 0,6 4 1,3 8 5.6 44 16.1 74 15.8 14 4. 4 18 16. 7 88 81. 5 i 0,9 20 7 ‘ 7.2 56 2 0 9 93 46,0 i 1 0 ,6 NEWSPAPER CARRIERS Total____________ * 356 100.0 986 100.0 679 100.0 740 100.0 178 100.0 225 100.0 White_________ 318 89.3 946 95.9 653 96.2 731 98.8 177 99.4 224 99 6 --- || Native. ___________ "296 83.1 812 82.4 259 38.1 412 55.7 48 27.0 157 69.8 Foreign born_______ 21 5.9 113 11. 5 384 56.6 303 40.9 129 72.5 63 28.0 Not reported_______ 1 0.3 21 2.1 10 1.5 16 2.2 4 1.8 Negro................................ 38 10.7 40 1 Boys 7 to 15 years of age. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 4.1 26 3.8 9 2 1.2 1 0.6 1 0.4 Includes 2 boys 5 years of age. 315 100,0 314 99.7 "Î56 49.5 139 44.1 19 ßr fi 1 0.3 26 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK It is true that some newsboys would “ live on the streets’ ’ even if they did not sell papers, finding in the streets, as some one has aptly said, their home, their school, and their playground. But the fact that they are earning money gives newsboys an independence of parental control that otherwise they would not have. It should be said in this connection that, although in many of the newsboys’ homes that were visited in the course of the survey there was little to interest or satisfy a young boy, only in a small minority was over crowding a serious problem. Even if the home is inadequate, how ever, a community can not accept undesirable activities on the street as the only alternative to an unfit home. The dangers in street work were recognized by many parents. Disapproval of street selling was almost universal among the carriers’ parents; even among those who through poverty, ignorance of con ditions, indifference, or lack of control of their children permitted their boys to sell papers many expressed disapproval. Although the majority were on the whole in favor of the work, almost invariably the only reason for favoring it was that it enabled the boy to make some money. In Atlanta 24 per cent of the newsboys’ parents inter viewed voiced objections to newspaper selling, in Wilkes-Barre 21 per cent, in Columbus 18 per cent, in Omaha 17 per cent, and in Washington 13 per cent— proportions that are several times larger than that of newspaper carriers’ parents who said they did not like to have their boys carry papers (see p. 38). (In Buffalo, also, 16 per cent of the parents interviewed objected to their boys selling papers.^2) Objections were almost always on moral grounds, using the word in its wider sense. They had little appreciation of the possibility or the value of constructive use of leisure time. “ He learns to shoot dice and smoke,” they said, or “ He learns bad habits,” “ hears bad language,” “ gets in with boys that steal,” “ gets into trouble,” “ gets in with tough boys,” “ gets so I can’t manage him,” or “ They get spoiled and spend their money shooting craps and playing cards,” or “ It makes them little bummies,” or “ I ’m afraid he’ll become a tramp.” The newsboys’ own estimate of the moral influence of their work was not inquired into in the Children’s Bureau study. In the survey of newsboys in Seattle, in which the advantages of newspaper selling are done full justice, it was found that “ most of the older boys and the ex-newsboys thought that the sum total of the influence was harmful and mentioned, in so stating, the concrete elements of vulgar and obscene language, smoking, gambling, and the tempta tions to participate in various forms of immorality. The majority, had they any choice in the matter, would not allow younger brothers to sell. ” 43 These considerations sum up briefly the possible ill effects of news paper selling on the behavior and conduct of boys who sell. It may well be asked to what extent the ill effects are actually found. Obvi ously many of the worst influences might not make themselves felt for many years, and it is often impossible to trace the causes, even of particular acts of wrongdoing, much less of a general deterioration. In many of the boy’s activities, undesirable though they may be, he « Street Traders of Buffalo, N. Y., p. 31. « Newsboy Service, p. 111, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 27 INTRODUCTION does not run afoul of the law, and the results, at least while he is still a boy, are not known beyond the family circle or the neighborhood. Moreover, how a child will be affected by. exposure to dangerous influences can not be foretold any more than we can say without test whether or not a given child will succumb to smallpox on ex posure. Some children, we know, come out apparently uncon taminated by all sorts of what are usually regarded as demoralizing experiences. We are committed to vaccination against the hazard of smallpox. Should not the same policy of providing protection against social ills be followed? One of the few measures, though a very rough and inadequate one, of the extent to which boys fail to adjust themselves socially is found in juvenile-court records, and in the Children’s Bureau surveys, as in many previous ones, this test was applied. In the five cities in which the records of the juvenile court were examined for newsboys included in the study 6 to 13 per ce n t44 had been in court (Table 9), the great majority for the first time after they had begun to work on the streets. It goes without saying that if the proportion of delinquent newsboys could be compared with the proportion of non working boys or of boys in other occupations in each city and of similar economic and social background, its value as an indication of a cause and effect relation between selling papers and delinquency would be greatly increased. Comparable information of this kind, however, is not available. Nor can comparisons profitably be made with delin quency rates for the general child population of the individual cities, where such rates exist, for these are for a single year, usually are not computed for the different age groups, include girls, and cover all economic and social classes.45 T a b l e 9.—1Juvenile-court records, newspaper sellers and carriers working during school term in specified cities Boys from 6 to 15 years of age; per cent having juvenile-court records City Boys from 6 to 15 years of age; per cent having juvenile-court records City Newspaper Newspaper sellers carriers Atlanta__________ ______ Columbus............... .......... Omaha_________________ 8 32 6 2 3 2 Newspaper Newspaper carriers sellers 13 7 a 1 No carriers were included in the Washington study. 44 No significance is to be attached to the variations according to city, for the rates are influenced b y the local policy in regard to the number and types of cases brought before the juvenile court, the policy in regard to recording unofficial cases, and the care with which records are kept. 48 In a number of studies of newspaper sellers the delinquency rate for newsboys has been compared with that of other boys of the same ages in the city (The Newsboys of Cincinnati, p. 138; Newsboys in Springfield. p. 33) and even with that of the total schoolboy population (Street Traders of Buffalo, N. Y., p. 38) without taking account of the fact that boys from more prosperous families do not get into the juvenile court, eveh for similar offenses, to the same extent as boys from the type of family furnishing most of the newsboys, or of the fact that the former do not have the same temptation to wrongdoing of a serious order as boys from an inferior environment, apart from any influences in their work. Other studies have seen 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. It can not be ignored, however, that undoubtedly large proportions of the boys in the economic and social class from which the inmates of such institutions generally come do at some time in their lives sell papers, so that the relative number of newsboys in the institutions may have no significance. As Fleisher in The Newsboys of Milwaukee (pp. 85, 86) points out, the term newsboy is not usually defined in such statistics and may include boys who sold papers for such short periods or under such circumstances that the occupation could not have been a contributing cause of their delinquency. Fleisher himself, after a careful consideration of every factor, concluded as a result of his investigation in the Wisconsin Industrial School that “ newspaper selling played a decidedly minor part in the boy’s delinquency.” After a similar study in the Seattle Parental School the survey of newsboys in Seattle presents the same conclusion. (Newsboy Service, p. 101.) https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 28 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK Newspaper sellers had several times as much delinquency as car riers, as magazine sellers or carriers, or, as a rule, as peddlers, in the same city. Whether this is due even in part to the occupation it is impossible to say. Court records are usually too brief to indicate whether or not the specific offenses had anything to do with the boy’s employment, though very often boys with court records had been working under bad conditions, such as long hours or late at night. The fact that relatively fewer newspaper sellers than bootblacks in Wilkes-Barre, the only one of the cities for which figures on both these groups were obtained, had court records indicates the importance of the home environment in the boys’ delinquency, for bootblacks in Wilkes-Barre worked under much the same conditions as newsboys, but they came from less Americanized and poorer homes. Probably the most exhaustive study of delinquency in relation to occupation, that conducted by the United States Bureau of Labor in 1911 as part of its survey of woman and child wage earners, though pointing out the “ high general level of delinquency” among newsboys and dis claiming any “ intention * * * of minimizing the moral dangers of the street trades, [which] are evident enough,” has the following comment to make: The occupational influences of these three pursuits [work in amusement resorts, peddling, and newspaper selling] are notoriously bad, but a partial explanation of the number of delinquents they furnish is unquestionably in the kind of children who enter them. It is a case of action and reaction. These occupations are easily taken up by immature children, with little or no education and no pre liminary training. Such children are least likely to resist evil influences, most likely to yield to all that is bad in their environment. Then the presence of such children in the occupation tends to keep out a better class and to give it a still worse name. Careful parents will hesitate to let their children take up an em ployment in which they must have such associates, and it becomes more and more a resort for these whose parents through ignorance or indifference take.no thought of the surroundings under which the work is carried on, or those who, being already semivagrants, are attracted by the irregularity of the work— the condition which someone has described as “ irregular and shiftless industry” — and by the excite ment of the street life.46 T H E Q U E STIO N OF F A M IL Y N E E D Every effort was made in the Children’s Bureau survey to determine the importance of the poverty factor in sending boys out to earn on the streets. Whether or not the father and mother were living and living together, who was the principal support of the family, what was the occupation of the chief breadwinner, whether or not the mother worked and what was her occupation were ascertained for the family of each boy. In the visits made to a large proportion of each occu pational group of street workers (see p. 6) additional information was obtained regarding the social and economic condition of the street workers’ families, such as the earnings of the chief breadwinner and the steadiness of his employment, the total family earnings, the size of the family, whether or not the family was buying its dwelling, and to what extent overcrowding was present.47 The most pertinent of these items to the question of family need are summarized in the fol lowing paragraphs. 46 “ Juvenile delinquency and its relation to employment.” Report on Condition of Women and Child Wage Earners in the United States, Vol. VIII, pp. 92, 93. U. S. Bureau of Labor. Washington, 1911. 47 Most of the surveys of street workers have attempted only to indicate, and that in a general way, the economic status of the family by showing whether or not the parents were living. A few have gone a step farther and shown the proportion in “ normal” homes, and one or two have given figures on rentals, family incomes, or the extent to which the families had received assistance from charitable organizations, or all these items. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 29 INTRODUCTION As in other studies of newsboys,48 it was found that the great majority were in normal homes; that is, in homes in which both own parents were present and in which the own father was the chief breadwinner. The proportion was highest in Wilkes-Barre, where it was 83 per cent, and lowest in Atlanta, where it was 64 per cent. (Table 10.) The low proportion in Atlanta was not due to the inclusion of negroes; but in Washington it was, for only 51 per cent of the negro sellers in the latter city were in families in which both parents lived together and the father was the main sup port, and if negroes are excluded the proportion of Washington newsboys in normal families rises to 77 per cent. The home in which some abnormal social or economic condition existed was, however, somewhat more prevalent among newspaper sellers than among other boys. The proportion from normal homes was in general somewhat smaller than that of carriers. The only known unselected group with which comparison may be made is a group of New York City public-school children representing three schools of various social levels in-which it was found that 81 per cent were in homes in which both own parents were living together,49 a propor tion that would no doubt be a little smaller if it represented not only those whose parents were living together but in addition those whose fathers were the main support of their families; In the following table showing the home conditions of the news paper sellers and carriers Troy is omitted, as the only information obtained for the carriers was the percentage (11.6) whose own fathers were dead or absent and who had no step or foster father present. T a b l e 10.— Home conditions of newspaper sellers and carriers in specified cities Boys from 6 to 15 years of age Atlanta Columbus Omaha Home conditions and type of street work Wilkes-Barre Washington Per Per Per Per Per Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri bution bution bution bution bution NEWSPAPER SELLERS ______ Total reporting___ ____ _________ Own mother and father present in the home and father the chief breadwinner__________ Own father dead or absent1___ Other conditions....................... Not reporting................................... NEWSPAPER CARRIERS_______ Total reporting..________________ Own mother and father present in the home and father the chief breadwinner__________ Own father dead or absent1___ Other conditions....................... 273 272 ___ 100.0 320 320 100.0 167 167 100.0 202 202 100.0 71.7 14.3 13.9 227 28 65 70.9 8.7 20.3 138 14 15 82.6 8.4 9.0 131 39 32 64.9 19.3 15.8 100.0 195 39 38 1 986 982 100.0 740 740 100.0 315 315 100.0 77.5 13.5 9.0 796 90 96 81.1 9.2 9.8 575 88 77 77.7 11.9 10.4 251 38 26 79.7 12.1 8.3 144 144 100.0 90 34 20 62.5 23.6 13.9 356 356 276 48 32 Not reporting................................... 4 1And no step or foster father present. 48 Street Trading among Connecticut Grammar-School Children, by H. M . Diamond, p. 14 (Hart ford, 1921); “ Newsboys in Birmingham,” p. 320; “ Juvenile Street Work in Iowa,” p. 138; Newsboys and Other Street Traders, p. 107; The Newsboys of Milwaukee, p. 76; The Newsboys of Cincinnati, p. 123; Newsboy Service, p. 79; Cleveland School Children Who Sell on the Streets, p. 26; Newsboys in Springfield, p. 30; Street Traders of Buffalo, N. Y., p. 30; Tulsa Children Engaged in Street Trades, p. 21. 49 Slawson, J.: Marital relations of parents and juvenile delinquency. Reprinted from The Journal of Delinquency, Vol. VIII, Nos. 5-6 (September-November, 1924), p. 279. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 30 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK The proportion in fatherless homes (that is, homes in which there was no father, not even a stepfather or a foster father) was from 9 to 24 per cent, according to the city. (Table 10.) Even among the negro newsboys in Washington only 25 per cent were fatherless boys. It is clear that the great majority of newsboys do not sell papers because they are from widowed homes. However, even with the father supporting his wife and children it can not be assumed of course that the father’s wage is sufficient to provide for the needs of the family. Investigation has shown, on the contrary, that many workingmen do not earn enough to maintain their families at the level of bare subsistence unless their wives and their children also work.80 The father’s or other chief breadwinner’s earned annual income in newsboys’ families was lower than the average in three of the cities (Atlanta, Omaha, and Columbus) where the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics had made studies of the incomes of wage-earning and small-salaried men,51 but not much lower except in Omaha; in Wilkes-Barre it was lower than in any of the other cities in the survey, probably because of the abnor mal situation caused by the anthracite strike of 1922; in Washington it was higher for white fathers than in any other city, but consider ably lower for negro fathers than for white. In each city in the sur vey the year’s earned income was at least $200 or $300 less than that of chief breadwinners in carriers’ families in the same city. In Washington, where the average income was highest, it was between $1,450 and $1,850 for the fathers or other chief breadwinners of white newsboys and between $850 and $1,050 for negro chief breadwinners. These averages do not indicate that newsboys’ families as a whole were on a much lower plane economically than the families of other working men where any comparative figures can be had, though not only were the annual earnings of the heads of the households in newsboys’ families somewhat smaller but the families also were a little larger, averaging six or seven persons instead of five. Com pared with budgetary standards, either those formulated by econ omists on a basis of minimum “ comfort and decency” or those adopted by city charity organizations for the dispensing of adequate relief, the newsboys’ fathers had very small incomes. There can be no doubt that a large proportion of the newsboys included in the surveys were in families that were very poor— as is the case in most of the families from which come child laborers in any occupation— though not, apparently, to any great extent actually destitute. Only a small number of the newsboys’ families had been recipients of relief, the proportion receiving aid during the year immediately preceding the inquiry ranging from 4 per cent in Omaha to 11 per cent in Columbus.82 In other studies of newsboys similar propor tions were found— in Cincinnati 4 per cent of the families had had to apply to relief agencies; in Milwaukee, 6 per cent; in Buffalo, 10 per cent.53 One of the most recent of the studies of street workers, 6“ See Child Care and Child Welfare, Outlines for Study, prepared by the Children’s Bureau in coop eration with the Federal Board for Vocational Education (Federal Board for Vocational Education Bulletin No. 65, pp. 304-311, Washington, 1921). 51 “ Cost of living in the United States—family incomes.” Monthly Labor Review (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), Vol. IX, No. 6 (December, 1919), pp. 29-41. 82 The organization of charitable relief differs in different cities, the records are kept with varying exact ness, and in some places important relief-giving agencies had no accessible records, so that differences be tween cities in the proportion receiving relief have no significance. 53 Street Traders of Buffalo, N. Y., pp. 29-30; The Newsboys of Milwaukee, j>. 77; The Newsboys of Cincinnati, p. 129. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 31 INTRODUCTION that made in Buffalo in 1925, parallels closely the Children’s Bureau findings in regard to the economic status of the newsboys’ families. The average annual income of the head of the families included in this investigation was $1,302, the families averaging six persons, whereas the local charity organization society calculated $2,009 as the minimum necessary for a family of five. The report concludes that “ with a larger family to care for and a smaller wage to supply these necessities * * * it is apparent that there is an economic urge for boys to become street traders.” 54 In several of the cities in the Children’s Bureau survey a fairly large proportion of the newspaper sellers said that they had begun to work because of need in the family. The following list shows the percentage of newspaper sellers and carriers who reported their reason for going to work as economic need and the percentage who contributed all their earnings to the family in specified cities: Percentage report ing economic need as reason for going to work Newspaper sellers: A tla n ta .- _ _ _____________________ C o lu m b u s .___ _ _._____________ Omaha ___________ _____________ Washington ___ __ ______________ Wilkes-Barre_ __ ______________ Newspaper carriers: Atlanta ___ __ _____________ C o lu m b u s_____________ ____________ Omaha___________ ____________ T roy------------------------------ ____________ Wilkes-Barre____ __ ____________ Percentage con tributing all earn ings to family 28. 13. 19. 8. 14. 0 4 7 9 4 5. 2. 5. 1. 10. 6 9 6 5 8 10. 4. 10. 9. 11. 8 2 3 9 6 3. 1. 2. 7. 8. 1 0 6 1 9 In Buffalo and in Tulsa, other recent surveys giving similar infor mation, the percentages of boys engaged in various street trades claiming economic need were 34 and 11, respectively.55 The report of the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago on Chicago children in street trades contains the statement that “ in only 19 per cent of these cases [300 cases chosen at random] did the child’s earnings represent $ needed item in his family’s maintenance.” 56 From all the evidence at hand it would appear that although a large proportion of the newsboys feel an “ economic urge” to work a much smaller proportion, decidedly the minority, are actuated by “ economic need.” E A R N IN G S Table 11 shows the weekly earnings (including tips) of newspaper sellers in each of the cities in the survey. In four of the seven the median amount was between $3 and $5, in two between $2 and $3, and in the other between $1 and $2. Some of the boys may have been inclined to overstate the amount of their earnings in a spirit of boastfulness, but the amounts reported follow closely the trend of newsboys’ earnings as reported in recent years for other cities. For example, in Springfield the median amount earned was between $3 and $4 a week, in Tulsa between $2 and $4, in Toledo between $1 and $2, and in Buffalo the average was between $2 and $3.57 The 54 Street Traders of Buffalo, N. Y ., pp. 29, 30. 54 Street Traders of Buffalo, N. Y ., p. 22; Tulsa Children Engaged in Street Trades, p. 13. 46 Chicago Children in the Street Trades, p. 3. 47 Newsboys in Springfield, p. 32; Tulsa Children Engaged in Street Trades, p, 33; Toledo School Children in Street Trades, p. 13; Street Traders of Buffalo, N. Y ., p. 33. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 32 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK proportion earning at least $5 a week was 24 per cent in Paterson, 27 per cent in Omaha, 28 per cent in Washington, and 44 per cent in Atlanta, where the profits were unusually large. In the other cities included in the Children’s Bureau survey the proportion earning $5 or more a week was smaller. Among Toledo newspaper sellers 19 per cent and among those in Springfield 29 per cent were reported as averaging at least $5 a week. T a b l e 11.— Earnings during a typical week; newspaper sellers and carriers holding a single job during school term in specified cities Boys from 6 to 15 years of age Per cent dis tribution I Number Per cent dis tribution- Wash Wilkesington 2 Barre I Number Per cent dis tribution Troy Number Per cent dis tribution Pater son 1 Number Per cent dis tribution Omaha Number Per cent dis tribution 1 Number Per cent dis tribution Number Per cent dis tribution Earnings during a typical week Colum Newark bus Number Atlanta NEWSPAPEE SELLEES 214 138 Total reported_________ 467 253 202 108 1 6 8 18 10 15 16 10 48 9 17 29 33 24 22 16 11 29 6 4 0.9 4.6 8.7 10 2.2 14.8 50 11.2 16.8 130 29.1 12. 2 81 18.2 11. 2 70 15.7 8.2 40 9.0 5.6 27 6.1 14.8 29 6.5 5 1.1 3.1 4 14 13 31 34 49 32 23 43 1 6 18 21 9 1 342 906 679 703 178 0.8 4.5 6.1 13.6 7.6 11.4 12.1 76 36.4 1.6 5.7 5.3 12. 7 13.9 20.1 13.1 9.4 17.6 0.4 1 3 10 25 11 21 10 7 19 145 152 100.0 124 100.0 132 100.0 196 100.0 446 100.0 244 100.0 107 100.0 0.9 2.8 9.3 23.4 10.3 19.6 9.3 6. 5 17.8 4 3 7 29 27 22 15 13 30 2 2.6 5 2.0 13 4.6 21 19.1 35 17.8 25 14.5 11 9.9 3 14 8.6 19.7 1.3 50 21 4.0 10.5 16.9 28.2 20.2 8.9 11.3 NEWSPAPER CARRIERS Total reported____ _____ .$025, less th a n $0.50 212 245 337 100.0 893 100.0 672 100.0 682 100.0 175 100.0 205 100.0 9 19 97 33 43 59 41 28 69 9 5 2. 7 5.6 8.0 9.8 12.8 17. 5 12. 2 8. 3 20.5 2.7 21 37 63 185 172 140 102 68 89 16 7 1.0 23 3.4 2.4 4.1 23 3.4 24 3.5 7.1 74 11.0 59 8.7 20.7 304 45.2 66 9. <7 19.3 151 22.5 64 ' 9.4 15.7 42 6.3 91 13.3 11.4 12 1.8 106 15. 5 2 0.3 87 12.8 7.6 5 0.8 151 22.1 10.0 1.8 52 7.7 11 1.6 13 1 Boys 7 to 15 years of age. 3 Includes 2 boys 5 years of age. 7 3 4 9 21 54 43 23 5 4 9 3 21 1.7 2.3 5.1 12.0 30. 9 24.6 13.1 2.9 2.3 5.1 9 4.4 18 8.8 51 24.9 69 33.7 37 18. 0 5 2.4 4 2. 0 1 11 0.5 5.4 7 231 100.0 11.3 8 3.5 45 19.5 75 32.5 50 21.6 * 15 6.5 12 5.2 14 3 Includes $4 and over. Includes $3 and over. * D IS P O S IT IO N OF E AR N IN G S At least part of their money was contributed toward family support by more than half the boys in Atlanta, Wilkes-Barre, and Omaha, but by only a little more than a third in Washington and Columbus. What proportion of the earnings was thus contributed was not learned, and facts as to the extent to which any contribution was made are based on the boys’ unsupported statements,58 but other 88 In the families visited (representing a fairly large percentage of the total number of boys) only rarely did a parent deny the b o y ’s report as to the disposition of his earnings. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 33 studies in which comparable facts were obtained tend to confirm the figures. For example, 66 per cent of the Springfield newsboys gave the larger part of their earnings to their families, and 53 per cent of those included in the study in Birmingham, 38 per cent of those in Dallas, and 73 per cent of those in Buffalo helped their families to some extent.69 The proportion turning over part of their earnings to their parents does not necessarily reflect the extent to which their families actually needed the money, for in most places the majority were the children of the foreign born, among whom more than among native-American parents it is the tradition to expect help from the children even though the family may be fairly prosperous. It suggests, however, the “ economic urge” behind the newsboys’ work. More than half the boys (the largest proportion being 64 per cent in Atlanta) helped at home indirectly by buying at least part of their own clothing or paying for other personal necessities, except in Wilkes-Barre, where this proportion was only 20 per cent, probably because in Wilkes-Barre a larger proportion turned the whole of their earnings in to the family. About three-fourths of the boys in each city had at least part of what they earned for spending money, though only a few (2 per cent in Wilkes-Barre, 3 per cent in Atlanta and Omaha, and 7 per cent in Columbus) had all for that purpose. Other surveys in which information on this point was obtained show the same thing; 8 per cent of the newsboys in Springfield and 7 per cent of those in Tulsa used their earnings principally for spending money, and 7 per cent in Birmingham used all they earned for personal luxuries— an indication perhaps not only that the boys were essen tially accurate in their replies but also that the money earned selling papers is not in general wasted to such an extent as has sometimes been assumed.60 The newsboys in Washington were an exception; 22 per cent spent all that they earned selling papers on their own pleasures and amusements— a difference that may be accounted for by the greater prosperity of the Washington white families (see p. 30) or possibly by the fact that the parents, not the boys themselves, gave the information. (But see footnote 58, p. 32.) The proportion who had bank accounts or other savings as a result of their work was a little more than half in each city except Wilkes-Barre, where it was a little less than half. It may be assumed that at least in these families the need was not acute. W H Y D O B O Y S SELL P A P E R S ? Actual want or economic necessity was not given as the chief reason for selling papers by the majority of the boys included in the study, as has been pointed out. Less than half the boys in all places except Atlanta (where the proportion was 55 per cent), and as little as two-fifths in Washington and Omaha had been motivated chiefly by financial considerations, including even the desire to earn spend ing money. Even including those who said they had begun to work because of their parents’ request (and judging from the attitude of the parents as revealed in the interviews with them the desire to 59 Newsboys in Springfield, p. 32; Newsboys in Birmingham, p. 318; The Newsboys of Dallas, p. 9; Street Traders of Buffalo, N. Y ., p. 53. 60 Newsboys in Springfield, p. 33; Tulsa Children Engaged in Street Trades, p. 23; Newsboys in Bir mingham, p. 318. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 34 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK have the boys earn money was at the back of the majority of these requests), the proportion whose reason for going into street work was chiefly financial was only about half in each place except Atlanta, where it was 65 per cent. The rest of the newsboys included in the surveys took up news paper selling because “ all the boys do it,” or because “ there’s nothing else to do,” or because “ selling newspapers is fun,” or for some simi lar reason. Such remarks as “ He called me crazy, till I went.” “ It’s good a-goin’ sellin’, they says,” “ It’s no fun playing around,” given again and again in dozens of variations as the chief reason for selling papers indicate how strong is the lure of the streets and how potent a factor in newspaper selling is imitation. In a report on Baltimore newsboys, made more than 10 years ago, the statement is made that almost one-third of the boys selling papers were doing so to satisfy a desire for play.61 The situation seems to be just the same to-day. The Children’s Bureau surveys show that a large proportion (probably larger even than a third) of the newsboys would not have been on the streets if they and their parents had been aware of more desirable activities. Although no special survey of recreational facilities was made in connection with the study, it was quite generally reported by local social workers, school authorities, and others in all the cities that, as in most Ameri can communities, playground and other recreational provision was inadequate. The frequent statement that newspaper selling gives the boy business training, keeps him from idling his time on the streets, teaches him responsibility, and the like, indicates a problem which most parents have in common and which can be met adequately only by community provision for extension of the school program to include supervised recreation and work of the sort that not only will protect against destructive tendencies but will have great training value. Proper use of leisure time— real pleasure in participation in sports, in recreational reading, in music and art, in mechanical and manual work— is not learned in the exciting street life which the newsboy leads. In the best public and private schools opportunities for development of these interests are afforded by extension of what was formerly regarded as the school day. The shortening of the school day by two or three hours to take care of the increasing number of school children has created problems which city parents— especially those living in apartments and tenement houses— however resourceful and alert they may be to their children’s needs, are not equipped to meet. NEWSPAPER CARRIERS AG E Newspaper carriers were a little older than the newsboys. (Table 2, p. 9.) Although the carrier’s work may require less initiative than that of the seller, the boy with a route in many cases has responsi bilities requiring a certain degree of maturity (see pp. 94, 151, 203). A large proportion of the carriers included in the Children’s Bureau surveys were boys under 12, and a few were under 10, proportions similar to those found in other street-work surveys that have included 61 Newsboys and Other Street Traders, pp. 105, 107. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 35 carriers, such as those in Toledo, Cleveland, Seattle, and Tulsa.62 Very often, though by no means always, the carrier under 12 was only a helper to an older boy. Many carriers were high-school boys. The proportion included in the study who were in high school was several times that of newspaper sellers— from 14 to 22 per cent in the various cities, except in Newark, where the remuneration was unusually small, while at the same time the city was large enough to afford boys of high-school age other opportunities for work. In Newark only 5 per cent of the carriers were in high school. . The work of the carrier is so patently work for an employer in by far the greater number of cases— in some places he is paid a salary or wage, in others he works on a commission basis but under super vision— that it would appear to be subject to the provisions of the regular child labor laws when they cover “ all gainful employment.” The fact that the work is popularly associated with that of the news paper seller, who as an independent “ merchant” is excluded from the protection of the child-labor laws, may account for its not being so regulated. However, many street-work regulations do not include newspaper carriers in their provisions (see pp. 48, 51). None of the ordinances applicable to newspaper selling and, in several instances, to peddling, in effect in the cities studied, applied to carriers. Both the State laws, that of New York and that of Pennsylvania, covered carriers, setting the minimum age at 12 as for newspaper sellers, but so little attempt was made to enforce these regulations in the cities included in the survey that the persons most concerned were in gen eral apparently unaware of their existence. Of the 225 carriers in Troy 71 per cent did not have badges, as is required under the law; in Wilkes-Barre 33 per cent of the carriers were under the minimum age. DURATION OF WORK The carriers continued their newspaper work just about as long as the newsboys, judging from the length of time they had had the routes they were working on when interviewed. (Table 7, p. 15.) The proportion who worked only a few months (less than two, for example) varied considerably according to the place but was as large as one-fourth in Omaha, where the conditions of work were described as unsatisfactory. About one-third to one-half the carriers had worked at least a year. Many carriers kept their routes for years and then handed them down to their younger brothers. The only other study in which information on the length of time carriers held their jobs is the one made in Tulsa, where the median was seven months.63 HOURS OF W ORK The carrier’s hours of work, except for some carriers of morning papers, were unobjectionable. Boys with routes for evening papers usually finished before 6 o ’clock, and few worked later than 6 or 6.30> so that their work did not keep them on the streets after dark, except for a short time in the winter, nor interfere with their family life. (Table 3, p. 11.) Those with morning-paper routes were not so for tunate. The paper must be delivered to the last subscriber on a 62 Toledo School Children in Street Trades, p. 7; Cleveland School Children Who Sell on the Streets, p. 10; Newsboy Service, p. 21; Tulsa Children Engaged in Street Trades, p. 32. 63 Unpublished figure. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 36 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK route before he leaves home for work in the morning, and this often necessitates the carrier’s rising at an unreasonably early hour. Some boys reported that they started on their routes as early as 3.30 or 4 a. m. The number was not large— in Atlanta 36 daily morning carriers included in the study began their work before 6, in Colum bus 41, in Newark 4, in Omaha 29, in Paterson 25, in Troy 4, and in Wilkes-Barre 46— depending to some extent on whether or not the local morning paper was a “ home” paper and whether the pay, generally larger than for afternoon routes, was sufficiently high to attract older high-school boys and young men. Although the morn ing carriers included a somewhat larger proportion of the older boys than carriers as a whole, some boys under 12 and even a few under 10 had morning routes, and in certain cases it undoubtedly resulted in the growing boys getting too little sleep. On Sundays almost all the carriers worked in the morning, for many of the evening papers had Sunday editions, and the hours were very early. A route usually takes about an hour to serve, so that the majority of carriers worked less than two hours a day on school days, many less than one hour. (Table 5, p. 13.) The hours of work on Satur days were longer, chiefly because the carrier made collections on that day or had to report at the central office, some boys reporting that they worked almost all day Saturdays on business connected with their routes. On Sundays the hours were longest of all, as the Sun day papers are heavier and take longer to deliver. The great ma jority of the carriers in each city worked less than 12 hours a week. (Table 6, p. 14.) In some places, however, the proportion working 12 hours or longer was large, notably so in Omaha, where boys made their own collections, frequently had to serve “ extras” (that is, others than those on their list of subscribers), and were expected to put in a good deal of time soliciting new customers. In Toledo and Tulsa, the only other surveys of carriers giving the carriers’ weekly hours, 93 per cent and 79 per cent, respectively, worked 12 hours or less ,a week.64 Many carriers delivered 100 papers or more. Some boys carried these loads, which weigh 50 pounds or more, in canvas bags slung over their shoulders, but many used little handcarts. E N V IR O N M E N T The carrier who distributes papers in his own neighborhood or in a neighborhood similar to his own, as most carriers do, is generally free from injurious contacts and associates. In Wilkes-Barre some of the carriers had to go to the down-town office for their papers, as the newspaper sellers did; but branch offices were operated in the larger cities, as in Columbus and Omaha, or carriers got their papers from dealers, each of whom employed only a few boys, as in Paterson or Newark, or from street corners where they were delivered by street cars or trucks, as in Atlanta and to some extent in all the cities. Thus the danger of bringing together boys of all kinds of training, background, and habits who otherwise would not be likely to meet was largely avoided in the case of carriers. In one of the cities substations had been established especially for the benefit of carriers whose parents objected to their coming in contact with boys selling 61 Toledo School Children in Street Trades, p. 10; Tulsa figure unpublished. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 37 in the down-town streets. Boys meeting at substations, as a rule, were ones who would be likely to know one another through school and neighborhood contacts. The substations were not all above reproach. One substation manager, for example, was accused of drinking and ill treating the boys under his charge. In Omaha, where intense rivalry between two of the papers resulted in great pressure on the carriers to enlarge their routes, the boys complained of injustices, such as having to pay for more papers than they had customers and being required to spend several nights a week soliciting subscribers. But, on the whole, the carrier’s working environment lacked the unwholesome features of newspaper selling. C A R R IE R S IN SC H O O L Delivering papers in general appeared to be neither unduly fatigu ing nor inordinately stimulating. Performed each day at a regular time, paid for by a fixed sum, making no appeal to the spirit of adventure, the Work puts no temptations to stay out of school in the boy’s way, nor does it bring him in contact with influences, such as many of the newsboys encounter, that tend to make him impatient of schoolroom discipline. It might be expected, therefore, that, except for those beginning work very early in the morning, the car-* rier’s record in school would be as good as the average. The school attendance of the carriers in the four cities (Atlanta, Columbus, Omaha, and Wilkes-Barre) in which school records were obtained was slightly superior to that of newspaper sellers or even to that of the schoolboy population as a whole in places for which a comparative figure could be furnished. The amount of truancy ^vas slight. In the two cities in which truancy records were acces sible, Wilkes-Barre and Omaha, only 2 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively, of the carriers had been truant during the year preceding the study, compared with 7 per cent of the newspaper sellers in each place. About the same relative difference in the truancy rates for newspaper carriers and sellers was found in Toledo and in Cleveland, the only studies besides those of the Children’s Bureau giving information on truancy for both groups of workers.65 Carriers also had made better progress in school than newspaper sellers, as has been found in most other street-trades studies including carriers.66 The proportion who were overage for their grades was smaller than the rate for all public-school boys of their ages in each city for which the comparative figure could be obtained; in Columbus and Newark it was lower even than the rate for the entire publicschool enrollment, including girls. In the four cities in which it was possible to compare retardation rates for groups of boys who had worked different periods the rate decreased noticeably the longer the boys worked, in spite of the fact that the percentage of retarda tion, as a rule, is higher the older the pupils are. Either the responsi bility of a route developed qualities that made for success in school or boys without such qualities did not continue to have a route over a period of several years. 65 Toledo School Children in the Street Trades, p. 19; Cleveland School Children Who Sell on the Streets, j>. 23. ■k^6 Toledo School Children in Street Trades, p. 16; Newsboy Service, pp. 28,29; Tulsa Children Engaged fn Street Trades, p. 27. In Cleveland the carriers who had worked at least one year were somewhat more retarded than sellers, but the retardation rate in this study is based on only 75 carriers and 203 sellers. (Cleveland School Children Who Sell on the Streets, p. 22.) https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 38 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK The results of mental tests given in the schools which were obtained for groups of carriers in Wilkes-Barre and Atlanta indicated that they were not mentally a superior group of boys, so that their unusually satisfactory progress in school must be attributed to other factors. V O C A T IO N A L A SP E C T O F N E W S P A P E R C A R R Y IN G Newspaper carrying has the same value for character training that the performance of any regular duty has. The newsboy may sell or not, as he chooses or at the behest of his parents, though in cities where his work is supervised he will lose his corner if he is irregular. The carrier must serve his route, regardless of the weather or his inclinations* he must notify the office in advance or provide a substitute if he can not work; he must keep his list of customers up to date, make a report regularly, give notice of customers discon tinuing the paper, and build up his route; in some cases he must do his own collecting, keep simple accounts, and if he is unsuccessful in collecting lose the money. He is usually given credit by the week and is often under bond to cover the amount. Whether the carrier merely delivers papers fqr a wage or whether he has further responsibili ties he must be dependable, prompt, and courteous, and if he makes collections he must also be accurate and honest. From the more narrowly vocational point of view, carrying a route with no responsi bility for collecting probably has little value as training, unlike the work of the carrier who gets his papers on credit, does his collecting, and is required to solicit new customers.67 In three of the six cities in which a study was made of the business arrangements between the newspapers or the dealers and the carriers the majority of the carriers worked on the latter basis; in the three others they were usually hired on a wage. As to whether or not news- ^ paper carrying leads definitely to other and better work there was no consciousness on the part of either boys or their parents that it did. It was regarded as a schoolboy’s job. In Columbus the newspaper managers maintained that there was a definite line of promotion for their route boys; some of the best were put in charge of substations, a part-time job, from which they might be promoted to the position of district manager or circulation manager. Parents for the most part were emphatic in their approval of the work, generally because they believed that it provided training in good-habit formation rather than because they expected the work to lead to anything else. This reason stood out in their expressions of approval rather than the financial one, which was the most promi nent reason for the approval of the parent in the case of newspaper selling. From 5 to 17 per cent of the carriers’ parents interviewed in the different cities objected to the work, the principal reasons given being that the boys lost money because the customers did not pay, the hours were too early, the papers weighed too much, or the work took all the boys’ playtime. For the most part parents not only did not object to the work but even gave active cooperation. Many mothers and fathers helped the boys to keep books and to make up their accounts, and some helped on the route when the weather was bad or the papers were especially heavy. Many parents emphasized the fact that earning his own money taught the boy thrift. The proportion who saved at 67See Newsboy Service, pp. 116-141, for a detailed discussion of vocational elements in newspaper carrying. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 39 least part of their earnings varied from 52 per cent in Wilkes-Barre (where “ hard times” resulting from the coal strike of 1922 and also the fact that the proportion whose mothers were widowed was rather high had apparently made it necessary for boys to help their families) to 75 per cent in Atlanta. D E LIN Q U E N C Y A M O N G C A R R IE R S The carrier’s work does not put temptations in his way nor even offer him an opportunity, by giving him an excuse to be away from home for long hours at a stretch, to come into conflict with the law. The proportion of carriers in the different cities who had juvenilecourt records (Table 9, p. 27) was very small— smaller than for any other group of street workers in their respective cities, except maga zine carriers and sellers in Omaha, and only one-third to one-fourth as large as the proportion of newspaper sellers who had been delin quent. Several carriers in Columbus had been brought to court for stealing newspapers, but except for these cases no connection between the boy’s work as carrier and his delinquency was apparent. FA M ILIES OF C A R R IE R S Newspaper carriers came from better-regulated families and families on a higher social and economic level than those of news boys. Much more generally than sellers, carriers were from native white families (Table 8, p. 25), and those with foreign-born fathers were usually of immigrant stocks that had been thoroughly assimilated into the life of the community. In each city, also, the proportion of carriers in normal homes was a little larger than that of sellers and the proportion who were in “ widowed” homes— that is, homes in which the father had died or had deserted and had not been replaced as a breadwinner by a stepfather or a foster father— was smaller, except in Omaha and Wilkes-Barre. In a considerable proportion of the carriers’ families the fathers’ or other chief breadwinners’ earn ings for the year were higher than the average for wage earners and small-salaried men in their respective cities, as these had been determined by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. (See p. 30.) In no city, however, were the average earnings very high, between $1,450 and $1,850 being the median in Atlanta and Omaha, where they were highest. Few carriers claimed that they were working because of need in their families. (See text list, p. 31.) E A R N IN G S Carriers who were paid a regular wage usually received only a small amount; between $1 and $2 a week was a common payment. Where they made their own collections the rewards were greater, in spite of losses on customers, which in Omaha were reported to be as much as 20 or 30 per cent of the amount of the collections. In three cities the median amount earned by carriers was between $1 and $2 a week, in two cities between $2 and $3, in one city between $3 and $4, and in one between $4 and $5. Other studies of carriers than those of the Children’s Bureau have shown that the earnings averaged around $2 or $3 a week.68 The unusually large earnings reported 68 Toledo School Children in Street Trades, p. 12; Tulsa Children Engaged in Street Trades, p. 33; Cleveland School Children Who Sell on the Streets, p. 16. 75034°— 28------- 4 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 40 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK! for carriers in Omaha, Atlanta, and Columbus are accounted for by the large number who collected on commission; the proportion of carriers in these cities earning $5 or more a week was from about one-fifth to more than one-third. D IS P O S IT IO N O F E A R N IN G S The proportion of carriers who contributed at least part of their earnings toward family support varied from 25 per cent in Columbus to 55 per cent in Wilkes-Barre, about half that of sellers in Atlanta and a little more than half in Omaha, but almost as large as the proportion of sellers contributing to their families in Columbus and in Wilkes-Barre. The great majority (59 to 78 per cent) in the different cities had some of their earnings for spending money. About three-fifths of the boys bought some of their clothes or other personal necessities with the money earned from their routes, except in Wilkes-Barre, where this proportion was only 30 per cent, possibly because the money was given to the parents, who bought the boys’ clothing, but was reported by the boy as being contributed to the support of the family. PEDDLERS Each community included in the survey had at least a few children who made a practice of going about the street with something for sale.69 They accompanied pushcarts and hucksters’ wagons, went from door to door with postcards or dress snaps or cosmetics, toured offices with sandwiches, hung about the lobbies of hotels and public buildings with peanuts or candy, or stood on busy comers with a handful of flowers or a basket of apples. In some places enough children sold some one commodity so that they were noticeable on the streets, like the apple sellers in Atlanta or the pretzel peddlers in Newark, but in general the articles offered for sale were almost as numerous as the children selling them. Parents made bread, dough nuts, paper flowers, baby dresses, horse-radish, and sent their children out to peddle them, a street vendor enlisted all the boys in his neigh borhood to sell his potato chips or sandwiches, a baker hired children to peddle pretzels, or “ the Greek” got a boy to help on his produce wagon, holding the horse or carrying fruit and vegetables to cus tomers’ doors. Children responded to persuasive advertisements to sell seeds or salve or shaving soap procured through the mail. Parents who were themselves peddlers made their children help them. The work varied with almost every individual. In some cases it amounted to very little. A boy from a comfortable home, for example, would spend several hours a week selling flowers to neigh bors during the months when his garden was in bloom. In other cases it involved greater hardships than some other types of work that without question are prohibited as unsuitable for children or regulated by child-labor laws. The peddlers in the survey fell into three groups— those selling miscellaneous articles from door to door, those selling on the streets of the down-town section, and those aiding hucksters. The miscellaneous peddlers were by far the more numer ous everywhere, except in Paterson, where almost all the workers classed as peddlers were hucksters’ helpers. 68 For other street-trades studies in which a few facts in regard to peddlers are presented, see Toledo School Children in Street Trades, p. 25; and Cleveland School Children Who Sell on the Streets, pp. 8,10. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 41 INTRODUCTION The summary that follows presents briefly the main facts as to the boy peddlers in the four cities in which the Children’s Bureau found a sufficient number to justify analysis; only 8 boys in Troy, 17 in Wilkes-Barre, and 55 in Columbus were reported as having peddled long enough for inclusion in the study. (For the number of girl peddlers in each city see p. 46.) In each city a large propor tion had worked every day, or every day except Sunday, and a large proportion had peddled for at least one year. B y far the greater num ber worked at least two hours on school days; in Atlanta 55 per cent of the peddlers worked three hours or longer a day in addition to the hours spent in school. The great majority had worked at least five hours on Saturdays; 10 or 12 hours or longer was a common working day on Saturdays and in vacations, especially for hucksters. Summary oj principal facts regarding peddlers working during school term', Atlanta, Omaha, Paterson, und Newark Items Atlanta Omaha 222 12 59.9 86.9 76.3 43.0 31.1 $1.77 57.2 63.5 21.7 5.9 50.5 3.0 61 12 22.9 58.5 50.0 42.6 32.8 $1.96 52.5 75.4 16.4 6.8 33.9 3.0 Paterson Newark 60 13 96.2 60.7 93.2 38.3 243 12 63.0 63.0 78.8 33.3 $ï. 64 30.0 $1.67 23.9 25.9 41.9 But such a summary can give no idea of the undesirable and in some cases demoralizing conditions under which much of the peddling was done. In Atlanta some of the “ basket” peddlers, white boys selling apples and other fruit, peanuts, and flowers, on the down-town streets, a number of helpers on coal, ice, and wood wagons, and several hucksters’ boys worked 5 hours or longer on school days; 56 worked at least 10 hours on Saturdays, some of them 13, 14, 15, or 16 hours. In Newark and Paterson, Saturday peddlers reported similar hours, and daily hours during vacation were the same as those on Saturdays during the school term. Although some worked for their parents, many were hired helpers, including many boys under 12 and some under 10 years of age. An 11-year-old boy in Paterson worked for a fruit peddler every school day from 4 to 9 p. m. and all day Saturdays. A 10-year-old boy in Newark, employed by a huckster, worked on Saturdays from 7 a. m. to 8 p. m. and several hours on school days. A 9-year-old boy in Atlanta who worked for a huckster on Saturdays from 8 a. m. to 6 p. m. was so tired after his day’s work, his mother said, that he could not sleep. A 13-year-old hired huckster’s assistant in Paterson worked 17)^ hours on Saturdays, stopping at midnight. Almost all hucksters worked excessively long hours on Saturdays, and many of the other peddlers did. Young children started to work too early in the morning. For example, a boy of 11 helped his father peddle ice for 3)/^ hours before school, beginning at 4 a. m. and work ing also for 3 hours in the afternoon after school. A 13-year-old boy https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 42 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK went to market about 4 with his father to get the day’s produce, and worked again 4 hours after school. Two little hucksters’ helpers in Newark began their work at 2 or 3 a. m. with a trip to market. More, however, worked late than early. A number of peddlers roamed the streets until 8 or 10 or even later in the evenings. To cite only a few instances— a little boy of 10 accompanied his father, an ice-cream ped dler, until midnight every night; a 13-year-old boy was out with his father’s pushcart every evening until 10; a peanut seller of 11 in Atlanta worked until 9.30 p. m. every school day and had been kept out of school half a year to sell peanuts; a 13-vear-old candy seller in Omaha worked up to 5 ^ hours on. week days, staying out until 10 one night a week; a 10-year-old popcorn seller worked from 7 to 9 every night except Sunday, when he stopped at 8.30; in Columbus, three brothers, the oldest of whom was 13, sold candy and popcorn every week day, selling in a theater three evenings a week. The long hours, especially on Saturdays and especially when the boy was required to carry heavy containers of fruit and vegetables from wagon to door all day, constitute probably the greatest hardship for hucksters’ helpers. For miscellaneous peddlers the danger lies in the tendency to use peddling merely as a cloak for begging. Whether he goes from house to house or stands on a busy street corner the child peddler is capitalizing the appeal of childhood, just as the one-armed man who sells the housewife a package of needles that she does not want or the blind man who sells the compassionate passer-by a pencil is capitalizing his misfortune. The manner in which the little peddlers offer their wares is often indistinguishable from begging. Parents sometimes encourage the attitude. A mother boasted that her two children of 7 and 8 had once taken in $27 in two days selling candy. Two little boys selling bananas and apples supported their stepmother ^ and their father, who said that the children could make more than he could. Probably the most extreme case encountered was that of a 10-year-old boy accompanying his father, a blind peddler, who had been arrested several times for begging. In each city a greater proportion of the peddlers than of the news paper sellers were found to be the children of immigrants, and in Atlanta a greater proportion of the peddlers than of the newspaper sellers were negroes. Some of these children were from homes of great poverty, but, as the summary shows, the great majority, about the same proportions as among newspaper sellers in their respective cities, were in families in which both the child’s own parents lived together and the father was the main support; and the proportion of the latter who claimed economic need as the reason for their street work was even smaller than that in broken homes. The Columbus ordinance and the State laws in Nebraska and in Pennsylvania that applied to newspaper sellers applied also to ped dlers, but the street-trades ordinances in Atlanta, in Newark, and in Paterson did not touch them. BOOTBLACKS The itinerant bootblack with homemade blacking box slung over his shoulder is said to be disappearing from the city streets, in fact was said 15 years ago to be disappearing, owing to the increase in shoe- https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . w 43 INTRODUCTION shining parlors and indoor stands.70 In all except one of the seven cities in which the surveys covered all kinds of street workers, how ever, some boys reported that they were bootblacks. In Atlanta, in Columbus, and in Omaha fewer than 10 were working at the time of the interview who had blacked boots at least a month during the pre ceding year, and in Paterson only 48 boys reported that their principal street work for a month or more during the school year had been boot blacking. The summary that follows gives the principal facts as to the bootblacks in Wilkes-Barre and in Newark, the two places in which a considerable number were found. Summary of 'principal facts regarding bootblacks working during school term; Newark and Wilkes-Barre Items Number of bootblacks___________ _____ ___ 1 ... Average age_______________________________ Per cent working 2 hours or more on typical school day___ _________ _____ .L Per cent working 5 hours or more on typical Saturday— . _______ . . . . _______ _____ Per cent working 6 or 7 days a week_____ . . . __________ Median earnings during typical week____________________ ________ _____ Per cent of native white parentage________________ ____________ Per cent in normal homes_____ .1______________________________ Per cent claiming familv need _ _ Per cent contributing all earnines to familv___ _______ _______ . . . Per cent retarded in school____I ______________ _ _ ______ Newark 387 12.1 67.2 79.4 40.3 $2.75 4.9 84.2 50.6 WilkesBarre 75 11.6 92.6 56.7 9.7 $1.21 5.3 75.0 18.2 10.7 48.6 23.0 The average age of the bootblack in each of these cities was 12, though the proportion under 12 was 43 per cent in Newark and 47 per cent in Wilkes-Barre. Almost all were of foreign parentage, most of them Italian, though in Newark many negro boys did bootblacking. They came from somewhat poorer homes than newspaper sellers, though, like other street workers, the great majority were in families in which the father was the chief breadwinner. The work is done under much the same conditions and in much the same surroundings as newspaper selling, particularly as news paper selling in cities where no supervision is given the newsboys by the circulation managers of the newspapers. The bootblack is more his own master than newsboys in cities where newsboys are supervised; he works more irregularly and so receives less of the dis cipline that work may give. In Wilkes-Barre bootblacks worked fewer hours than newsboys, though they were generally out all day and in many cases far into the night on Saturdays; the bootblack often found his best patrons among the “ Saturday-night drunks.” In Newark 40 per cent worked 6 or 7 days a week, 37 per cent worked 3 hours or longer on school days, and 43 per cent worked at least 8 hours on Saturday ; 22 per cent worked at least 24 hours a week, which, added to the hours spent in school, made a working week of more than 48 hours. On school-day evenings 19 per cent were out until between 8 and 10 p. m. In Newark during the summer vaca tion the hours spent in street work on week days other than Satur70 Child Labor in City Streets, by Edwin N. Clopper, p. 83. Macmillan Co., New York, 1915. Most of the street-trades surveys that have been made do not include bootblacks. “ Street traders of Buffalo, N. Y .,” includes 96 boys whose only street work was shining shoes but does not present the information for bootblacks separately from that for other street workers. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 44 CHILDREN IN STREET WORE days were as long as Saturday hours when school was in session; 26 per cent of the vacation bootblacks worked at least 48 hours a week. Each of the groups reporting all these undesirable conditions of work contained children under 12 and even under 10 years of age. The bootblack was more retarded in school in each of the cities than any other group of street workers, or even than any other group of street workers of foreign or of negro parentage, in the same city. The proportion of bootblacks with juvenile-court records was almost twice that for newspaper sellers in Wilkes-Barre, the only city for which the information was obtained.71 In Pennsylvania the State street trades law covers bootblacks, but the street-work ordinance in Newark did not do so. MAGAZINE CARRIERS AND SELLERS Magazine carriers and sellers were the aristocrats of the street workers, just as was found to be the case in the Seattle survey, the only one, other than that of the Children’s Bureau, in which a special study has been [made of magazine children.72 They generally came from homes in which the parents were native whites and above the average in prosperity. The proportion in normal families was higher than among any other group of street workers and even higher than among unselected groups of children. (See p. 29.) They were some what younger than other street workers and worked only a few months.73 The work was unexacting in every way. Although an occasional child sold or carried magazines a short time before going to school or after dinner in the evening, almost all did the work immediately after school and only for an hour or so. Few worked as much as 12 hours in their busiest weeks, and some worked only one or two weeks in the month. The returns were small, the great majority of magazine sellers or carriers earning less than 50 cents a week. Few helped their families or even helped to buy their own clothes; they usually saved a little and used the rest of their earnings for spending money. It would hardly be expected that work of this character would affect unfavorably a child’s school standing or his school progress. The proportion of magazine carriers or sellers who were retarded in school was considerably lower than the average for schoolboys in their cities. The proportion with juvenile-court records was about the same as that found among newspaper carriers and much smaller than among newspaper sellers. The following summary lists the. principal facts as to the boys selling or carrying magazines in Omaha and in Atlanta, the only two cities in which the numbers were sufficiently large for statistical treatment.74 In each of the other cities a few were reported— 42 in Columbus, 34 in Newark (selling or carrying magazines during the school year), 19 in Wilkes-Barre, and fewer than 10 in the other places. 71.See Child Labor and Juvenile Delinquency in Manhattan, by Mabel Brown Ellis, p. 37 (National Child Labor Committee Pamphlet 282, March, 1918), in which it is shown that bootblacking ranked fourth among 12 groups of occupations in showing a direct connection between the boy’s occupation and his delinquency. 72 Newsboy Service. 73 For a discussion of the vocational aspect of magazine selling and carrying, especially in relation to the youth of the workers and the labor turnover, see Newsboy Service, pp. 141-147. 74 Several girls sold or carried magazines: see p. 46. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 45 INTRODUCTION Summary of principal facts regarding magazine carriers and sellers working during school term; Atlanta and Omaha Items umber of magazine sellers and carriers. Average age_____________________ Per cent working less than 1 hour on typical school day Per cent working less than 3 days a week... Per cent working less than 6 m o n th s.......... ...... Median earnings during typical week___________ Per cent with native white fathers________ Per cent in normal homes___________________] .] ] ] ] ] ] ] ' Per cent claiming family need_____________ Per cent contributing all earnings to family ........]]]]]]]! Per cent retarded in school_________ ___________ Per cent having juvenile-court records".]]]]]]]]]]] Atlanta 80 11.1 7.3 68.8 68.8 $0.41 93.8 84.0 0 0 22.0 4.0 Omaha 104 10.9 8.3 41.3 59.6 $0.33 76.2 84.6 4.8 19 11.1 2.0 MISCELLANEOUS STREET WORKERS Besides newspaper and magazine carriers and sellers, bootblacks, and peddlers, a few children in each city were engaged in other kinds of street work. Table 1 (p. 8) shows the number of boys found in each city in each of the more common occupations. The largest number were stand tenders, owing principally to the many market-stand boys in Columbus. Many of them worked for their parents, but others were hired. Like hucksters’ helpers many worked excessively long hours on Saturdays. The handbill distributors’ work is similar to that of the newspaper carrier, except that he usually works only once or twice a week, a few hours in all; he is a hired worker. The boys with newspaper jobs other than selling or carrying Supervised carriers, helped to carry bundles of newspapers to street cars, did collecting, delivered papers to customers that regular carriers had neglected to serve, or took out papers to carriers report ing that their bundles were “ short.” The only other group in which there were more than a few boys were the junk collectors. Too few reported the work in each city to justify a special investigation, but it is known that junk collect ing offers unusual temptations and opportunities to steal. Some State laws forbid the purchase of junk from minors, and many juvenile courts have declared junk collecting to be one of the most prolific sources of juvenile delinquency.75 The group of workers classified in Table 1 as “ other” includes boys who took care of parked automobiles at night, usually around theaters and restaurants, and up to a late hour; boys carrying travel ing bags in and around railroad stations, boys carrying advertising signs through the streets, boys working on merry-go-rounds at amusement parks,76 children leading blind peddlers and beggars, lamplighters (in Newark), and many others. Many of these occupa tions are obviously unsuited to children or have been shown to be so. 75 See Junk Dealing and Juvenile Delinquency, pp. 58-60. 7e For a discussion of delinquency of workers in amusement resorts, see “ Juvenile delinquency and its relation to employment ” in Report on Condition of Women and Child Wage Earners in the United States, Vol. VIII, pp. 78, 93 (U. S. Bureau of Labor, Washington, 1911); and Child Labor and Juvenile Delin quency in Manhattan, by Mabel Brown Ellis, pp. 37, 38 (National Child Labor Committee Pamphlet .282, March, 1918). https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 46 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK GIRLS IN STREET WORK That street work is believed to be especially undesirable for girls is indicated in most street-trades regulations by the fixing of a much higher minimum age for girls in street work than for boys, usually 16 or 18 years. (See p. 48.) One hundred and eighteen girls 6 to 15 years of age reported street work during the school term in six of the cities; 25 other girls reported selling for premiums. Ninety-one were peddlers or newspaper carriers. Of the girls working as news paper carriers Columbus had 18, Newark and Omaha each had 10, Paterson had 6, and Atlanta had 2. Atlanta had 15 girl peddlers, Columbus had 13, Newark had 8, Omaha had 7, and’ Paterson and Wilkes-Barre each had 1. Some of the peddlers went from door to door with articles for sale, others stood on the street with their wares or sought patrons in office buildings, hotel lobbies, and other public places. One of these girl peddlers was described by local social workers as “ a very good little beggar.” Few girls sold newspapers; the surveys showed only 1 girl selling in Omaha and 2 in Paterson. Atlanta had 4 girl junk dealers, and Newark had 1. Three girl magazine carriers were reported— 2 in Columbus and 1 in Omaha. Columbus had 5 girl standkeepers, Atlanta had 3, and Newark and Paterson each had 1. The only other survey of street workers in which girls are included, or the facts as to girls are pre sented separately, that in Toledo, showed a somewhat similar situa tion; of the 33 girl street workers all merely carried newspapers except 5, 4 of whom sold newspapers and 1 of whom both sold and carried.77 77 Toledo School Children in Street Trades, p. 25. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis LAWS REGULATING STREET WORK 78 Legal regulation of child labor in street trades, as has been inti mated, is not nearly so general in this country as the legal regulation of child labor in industrial occupations, nor has it been so fully devel oped. Laws applying specifically to children engaging on their own account in street work are in effect in only 20 States and the District of Columbia.79 Two of these (Colorado and Oklahoma) apply only to girls, and therefore do not touch the chief street-trades problem, as even_ where no legal regulations exist girls are not engaged to any extent in street work. Because street work by children is chiefly in cities and because the harmful effects of this work arise chiefly in connection with the city environment, street-trades legislation was made applicable at first only to cities of a certain population or of a specified class. And at the present time this is true of 9 of the 19 laws applying to boys.80 Local regulation through city ordinances has supplemented State legislation both in States having no laws on the subject and in States having legislation with low standards or without adequate adminis trative provisions. The ordinances follow the same general lines as State legislation, but their standards on the whole are lower, and their administrative provisions often less specific. On the other hand, they often lay down detailed rules, for instance as to the conduct of newsboys, such as would be considered outside the scope of a State law. Other types of legislation applicable to some extent to children in street work are: (1) Child-labor laws regulating general industrial employment which in some States cover certain street occupations; (2) prohibitions of the employment or use of children in certain mendicant or “ wandering” occupations, including peddling; (3) restrictions on the sale or distribution of literature devoted to criminal or obscene subjects; and (4) juvenile-court laws which class as de pendents or delinquents, children under certain ages selling on the street. (See pp. 49, 50.) STATE LEGISLATION SPEC IFIC S T R E E T -T R A D E S LA W S Of the 19 street-trades laws applying to b oys81 4 (California, Florida, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania) merely fix minimum ages or prohibit work during certain night hours. All the others not 78 This section was prepared by Ella A. Merritt, assistant in legal research, industrial division,Children’s Bureau. For a tabular analysis of the provisions of these laws, see Laws and Ordinances Regulating Street Work (U. S. Children’s Bureau Chart No. 15). Legislation passed in 1928 is included so far as available Apr. 1,1928. 7« Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Penn sylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin. The New Jersey law providing for the issuance of “ age and working certificates” to children between 10 and 16 years of age, which permitted them to engage in certain light employments outside school hours, including running errands, selling newspapers, and bootblacking, and penalized any person, the members of any firm, or the officers or agents of any corporation employing, permitting or allowing a child to work contrary to this provision, is omitted from this discussion, as under a decision of the attorney general it may be superseded by a child labor law of general application. (See Laws and Ordinances Regulating Street Work.) 8» The law for the District of Columbia enacted by Congress is here classed with State laws. The New Jersey provisions are omitted from this discussion, as under a recent decision of the attorney general they may be superseded by a child labor law of general application. (See Laws and Ordinances Regulating Street Work.) 8i Of the two State laws applying only to girls that of Oklahoma fixes a minimum age of 16 and that of Colorado a minimum age of 10. 47 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 48 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK only prohibit work under certain ages but also require street traders to obtain permits or badges. The badge system (with or without an accompanying permit) has the same function in enforcing a streettrades law as the employment-certificate or work-permit system has in the enforcement of laws relating to child labor in factories and other industrial establishments. It is the only effective method o enforcement in use, as it offers the only practicable means of insuring that children do not undertake street work until they have satisfied the legal requirements and of exercising any supervision over them while they are at work. All the 19 laws cover newspaper selling, and all except 7 apply also to the distribution of newspapers. They also usually cover boot blacking and other trades carried on in any street or other public place, but the exact application of the provisions varies from State to State. In a few laws a higher minimum age is set for bootblacks and certain other trades than for newsboys, though in none is the age for boy bootblacks higher than 14. Five laws fix 10 years as the minimum age for boys in newspaper selling; 1, 11 years; 12, 12 years; and 1, 14 years. Of the 5 laws that have a minimum age of 10, 4 do not apply to boys delivering news papers on routes; 1 regulates carriers in the same way as newspaper sellers. In addition carriers are not covered by 3 of the laws fixing a minimum age of 12, and they are given a lower minimum (10 years) by 2 laws of this group. In the remaining 9 laws carriers are regu lated in the same way as sellers. Thus newspaper carriers are un regulated under 7 of the 19 laws, and 3 laws fix the minimum age at 10 years, 1 at 11, 7 at 12, and 1 at 14 years. In all the 19 laws applicable to both sexes a higher minimum age is fixed for girls than for boys— 14 years in 1 law, 16 years in 9 l a w ^ 18 years in 8 laws, and 21 years in 1 law. The minimum ages for boys in street work in the different States are considerably lower than those for industrial employment. In all except 2 States children must be 14 years of age or over in order to work in factories and in many States in numerous other employments; 7 States have an age minimum of 15 years or over. It is true that work in industrial occupations is more likely than street work to be full-time work, but in many States the age minimum for such em ployment is the same whether it is engaged in outside or during school hours. Seventeen of the nineteen street-trades laws have a night-work prohibition, beginning under 5 laws at 7 p. m., under 2 at 7.30 p. m., under 6 at 8 p. m., under 2 at 9 p. m., and under 2 at 10 p. m. Morn ing hours before which work is prohibited are specified in 16 of these 17 laws and vary from 4 a. m. to 6.30 a. m., the beginning hour most usually permitted being 6 a. m. Little attempt has been made to regulate the maximum hours of labor in street trades because of the irregular hours of street work and the difficulty of enforcing such a regulation. Virginia, however, provides a maximum 8-hour day, 44-hour week, and 6-day week, and North Carolina has an 8-hour day and a 48-hour and 6-day week for children under 16 except those between 14 and 16 who have completed the fourth grade. All the laws providing any kind of badge system require that the work shall be done only outside school hour^jf either directly or indirectly by stating that the child must “ comply https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 49 with all the legal requirements concerning school attendance.” This applies only to children who are below the minimum age for employ ment in industrial establishments, for if a child is of regular age for employment and has secured an employment certificate, he may obtain a badge permitting him to work during school hours. Under the State laws the badge is usually issued by some school authority— generally the officer issuing employment certificates for work in industrial establishments. In Baltimore, however, where employment certificates are issued by the State commissioner of labor and statistics, street-trades badges are also issued by him. In the requirements for badges, as well as in other respects, streettrades laws fall behind those applying to other working children. Of the 15 laws providing for permits or badges, 2 require no evidence of age, and 1 allows the acceptance of less reliable evidence than is necessary for an employment certificate. Only 7 laws require an examination by a physician, though under 5 others the school prin cipal or the issuing officer must be satisfied that the child’s health is such that he can do the work in addition to attending school or that he is in good physical condition. Usually, too, the child must bring a school record from his principal certifying that he is attending school regularly, and, under a few laws, the issuing officer may revoke the badge if the child does not continue to do satisfactory school work. Enforcement is placed most often in the hands of the officers who issue the badges (usually school officials), with general supervisory powers in some instances given to the State labor board. Less cen tralization of authority is found than for enforcement and inspection under regular child-labor laws. Police officers, truant officers, and ^ p rob a tion officers in some instances are given coordinate authority, with the result that no one official or body feels or undertakes the responsibility for seeing that the law is enforced. (See p. 56.) Where badges are required the power of revocation of the badge, usually given to the issuing officer in express terms, offers a method of requir ing the child to live up to the legal regulations, such as the require ment, of school attendance and the prohibition of night work. Only 6 laws penalize the person who furnishes to the child the goods to be sold. Under 15 laws there is a penalty applicable to the person who employs the child, and under 16 a penalty is placed upon the parent who allows him to work in the prohibited occupations. Of the 19 laws discussed 9 provide specifically that a child violating the law may be brought before a juvenile court or other court having similar jurisdiction. CHILD-LABOR LAWS OF GENERAL APPLICATION In many States the child-labor laws regulating industrial employ ment apply to certain specific kinds of work usually included in street-trades laws, or are so general in application as to include all such kinds of employment. These laws are universally interpreted however, to apply only to the child who receives wages or other return from an employer. The “ little merchant” is held to be out side their scope. Although they are of importance in controlling ^ ce rta in kinds of work carried on by children in streets or other ▼ public places they do not affect the main problem of regulation. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 50 CHILDREN“ IN STREET WORK! OTHER CHILD-LABOR REGULATIONS Laws somewhat different in scope are the provisions in the penal statutes of some States which penalize the parent who “ sells or otherwise disposes o f ” a child under a specified age to engage in certain vocations or exhibitions such as rope or wire walking, begging, peddling, or other “ wandering occupations,” and which penalize also the person who so exhibits or employs the child. These laws usually date from a period before the development of effective childlabor legislation and were passed to meet an entirely different situa tion from that of the usual “ street trader,” being in effect laws to prevent the abuse of children by adults. As a rule they carry no provision for enforcement except by the police or by the “ Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children,” and have not been found adequate to deal even with those cases in which the street trader is in fact “ employed.” Another old type of legislation which because of its narrow scope and lack of enforcement machinery does not bear effectively upon the street-trades problem, though it deals with a certain phase of street selling, is found in the laws of 12 States which prohibit the distribu tion or sale by minors under 16, 18, or 21 years of age of pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines principally made up of criminal news, police reports, pictures and stories of deeds of crime, bloodshed, etc. JUVENILE-COURT LAWS Thirteen States and the District of Columbia have juvenile-court or other laws providing for the care and commitment of dependent, neglected, and delinquent children, which include in their definitions of such children any child who is found peddling or selling articles— 0 some of them specifying selling newspapers— or accompanying or assisting any person so doing. Only two of these States and the District of Columbia have specific street-trades laws. The States which declare a child dependent or neglected who is found peddling or selling articles on the street for gain are Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nevada, in which the age limit is 10 years; Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, and Washington, in which it is 12; and Oregon and Tennessee, in which it is 14. In Louisiana a child not over 17 years of age who is found peddling any article in a street, road, or public^ place is considered to be delinquent. In the Dis trict of Columbia the age limit is 8 years. None of these provisions, however, are on exactly the same basis as legal prohibitions of em ployment in such occupations, for though in general, under this definition of dependency, any person may make complaint that a child is dependent and the child may be taken before the court and so dealt with, there is no direct mandatory provision either that children shall not work in these occupations on the streets or that specific officials or other persons shall see that children do not so work. In some instances, however, interested agencies have been able to use such a law fairly effectively as a minimum-age provision. (See discussion of the regulation of newspaper selling in Omaha, Nebr., pp. 173-174.) M https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 51 MUNICIPAL ORDINANCES 82 Information regarding city ordinances was obtained by correspond ence with local school superintendents and police and other city officials. Letters were sent in the fall of 1926 to all the 287 cities in the United States having a population, according to the Federal census, of 25,000 or over,83 and replies were received from all except 28 cities.84 Officials in 39 cities in 16 States reported some sort of ordinance affecting children in street trades, though in some cases the state ment was made that it was not enforced. Of these 39 regulations, 7 were general curfew ordinances, which might be used to keep children from engaging in street work at night, and 1 applied only to bootblacks, leaving only 31 of the 287 cities with ordinances relating to street sellers.85 Twenty-four of these were in States where there was no State street trades law that affected the city concerned, 5 in States where the street trades law fixed a minimmb age for these cities but did not require badges, 1 in a State where the law provided a minimum age for girls only, and 1 in a State having a state-wide street trades law providing a licensing system.86 These 31 ordinances varied greatly in character, those at one extreme consisting merely of a requirement that all newspaper vendors obtain licenses, without regard to age, those at the other containing standards and provisions for administration similar to those found in the best State street-trades laws. In general, how ever, the standards were lower than those of the State laws, and less attention was paid to the administrative procedure and to the requirements that must be met before a child is permitted to work. Often, also, they applied only to vendors of newspapers and maga zines, though in some cases to sellers of all kinds of merchandise, and in a few instances all street traders were covered. Newspaper carriers were seldom affected. Usually the regulation extended to the whole municipality, but in 2 cities the boundaries of the district to be covered were defined, and the application of the regulation or cer tain parts of it was limited to the more congested sections of the city. In 7 of these cities the ordinances required that all newsboys obtain licenses without fixing any age minimum. Under regulatory powers of this type, however, it may be within the discretion of the licensing official to impose reasonable age or other requirements, and a minimum age had been fixed by regulation in 3 other cities with general ordinances of this kind. Two ordinances consisted only of a night-work prohibition, 1 merely established a minimum age for work, and 2 in addition to fixing a minimum age, had a night-work prohibi tion. The ordinances of the remaining 19 cities (including the 3 men tioned in which general ordinances are supplemented by regulations), like the majority of the State laws, fixed a minimum age, established 82 For a tabular analysis of the provisions of these ordinances, see Laws and Ordinances Regulating Street Work (U. S. Children’s Bureau Chart No. 15). 83 Letters were also sent to the largest city in each of the seven States (Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming) having no cities with a population of 25,000 or over, but no street-trades ordinances were reported as in force in thesecities. Information received has been revised to January, 1928. 84 In 1922, when letters requesting this information were sent to cities of 25,000 population or over, the information was received from 24 of these 28 cities that no ordinances were in effect; no reply was received from the remaining 4 cities. 85 See Laws and Ordinances Regulating Street Work. 88 This city was St. Paul, Minn., where the ordinance dovetailed with the State law. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 52 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK some sort of licensing system, and in all except 5 instances prohib ited work during certain night hours. The age at which boys were allowed to engage in street work was in general lower under these ordinances than under State laws. In 9 cities there was no minimum; in 2 cities the minimum age was fixed at 8 years; in 12 at 10; in 4 at 11; and in 4 at 12. The minimum age for girls was usually higher than for boys, as in State laws, but in some cases no separate provision was made for girls or the regula tion applied only to boys. . Twenty of the ordinances, two of which provided no minimum age for daytime work and no licensing system, had night-work prohibi tions, the hour when the prohibition began varying from 6.30 to 10 p. m. In some cities work was permitted until a later hour than under most of the State laws. The morning hour before which work was prohibited varied from 3 a. m. to 6 a. m. These nightwork prohibitions in the majority of cases covered children up to 16 years of age or even older, but in 9 instances the regulation stopped at 14 or 15 years of age. Exemptions were sometimes made for the selling of special editions of newspapers or work was per mitted to a later hour on Saturday night. Under some regulations, as is the case also in curfew ordinances, the prohibited period began at a later hour in the summer than in the winter. Unlike the State laws, city ordinances were not usually related to the regulations affecting the child’s school attendance. Most of the ordinances, in fact, were silent as to the requirements with which a child must comply. The person in charge of the issuance of licenses and badges was usually either the chief of police, or the mayor or some other city official. In only four cities did school authorities have control of the issuance; in one city the county probation officer was designated “ supervisor of newsboys,” but the city collector was authorized to grant the license. M ost of the ordinances named no official responsi ble for enforcement, but in such cases it would be inferred that the police officials were supposed to enforce this as they would any other city regulation, particularly in cities where the chief of police had the licensing under his control. A number of these ordinances had special rules as to the conduct of newsboys not usually found in the State laws. For instance, they prohibited selling in specified places— as near a railroad station or on a street car— or they contained provisions that the license might be revoked for such offenses as gambling or disorderly conduct. Only one of the ordinances penalized the person who furnished the papers to newsboys. Usually the penalty was placed upon the child who violated the ordinance and in a few cases also upon the parent who allowed him to engage in the prohibited work, ^ ADMINISTRATION OF STREET-TRADES LAWS The Children’s Bureau surveys of juvenile street work included inquiries into the administration of any legal regulations of such work as were in existence in the various cities. In addition, the bureau made a brief survey of the enforcement of street-work regulations in 21 other cities varying in population from 35,000 to more than 500,000 inhabitants, most of them, however, ranging from https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ^ INTRODUCTION 53 100,000 to 500,000. The regulations in effect included State childlabor laws applying specifically to street trades (see p. 47), a State juvenile court law with a dependency provision applying to street sellers under a certain age (see p. 50), and municipal ordinances (see p. 51). All the main general types of laws and ordinances were represented— those requiring permits and badges, those fixing only a minimum age, and those with both an age minimum and a nightwork prohibition but with no provision for permits. It was found that street-trades regulations, whatever their type, were in general less well enforced than other child-labor laws, owing in part to the greater difficulties of inspection and in part to a lack of such public recognition of the importance of regulating street work for children as would result in any real attempt at enforcement. Nevertheless, it was seen that where the problem was considered of sufficient importance to warrant the necessary effort, effective enforcement of street-trades regulations was possible. T H E P E R M IT A N D B A D G E S Y S T E M In the administration of child-labor laws some sort of work-permit system is necessary to keep children from going to work without fulfilling the age and other requirements of the law and to make possible supervision of the child while at work, supplemented by an inspection system to discover children who have failed to obtain permits and to require compliance with the hours of labor and other legal requirements as to working conditions. In most of the places included in the survey of street-work regula tions where no permits nor badges were required by law, no system of enforcement of the age or night-work restrictions made by the law had been worked out, and these regulations were very generally dis regarded. That at least partial enforcement, however, can be brought about by the special efforts of interested officials even though handicapped by the lack of a permit provision in the law has been shown in several places. For instance, in one city visited, juvenilecourt officials had succeeded in reducing the number of very young newsboys by making use of the clause of the juvenile court law that classed as dependent a child under 10 years of age found selling articles on the street, though the constant vigilance demanded for complete enforcement could not possibly be given by so small a force as that available. The reports of the board of education of another city also show that by the assignment of special attendance officers to patrol the streets at night it is possible to enforce the night-work prohibition of a State law that has no provision for permits, enforcing officials having vainly attempted to obtain the necessary amendments to aid in its administration.87 The issuing officer. Under State street-trades laws which require permits and badges, the issuing officer is in most cases the official who also issues em ployment certificates, usually the local school superintendent or some one deputized by him, but in one instance a State labor official. Under city ordinances, however, though in some cities school officials 87 See Reports of the Bureau of Compulsory Education, Board of Public Education, School District of Philadelphia, for the years ended as follows: June 30,1922, pp. 29-32; June 30, 1923, pp. 41-44; June 30,1924, pp. 34-36; June 30, 1925, pp. 29-31; June 30,1926, pp. 40-43. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 54 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK have this authority, the issuing is far more often in the hands of the chief of police or some city official such as. the mayor or the director of public safety.88 , .; ■ In cities where the granting of street-trades licenses was in the hands of the chief of police or some city official the issuing officer was seldom found to have the training and experience that guaranteed his sympathy with the spirit and purpose of the law or that fitted him either to deal with children of school age and their parents or to cooperate with the schools and other public agencies whose assistance was needed in enforcing the law. Too often the issuing power was delegated by city officials to obviously unsuitable persons. In one city where the mayor had this power, the circulation manager of one of the newspapers was issuing newsboy permits. Under another ordinance, enforced by the department of public safety, some badges were issued by a clerk in the office of the chief of police, and two of the newspapers had bought badges from the police and distributed them to boys applying for them. Some of the newsboy ordinances, in fact, were so similar to whose requiring licenses for businesses usually conducted by adults, where the underlying principle is the protection of the public or the raising of revenue, that it was not surprising to’find that they were seldom if ever administered from the point of view of the protection of the child. Many cases were found in which school officials also were issuing badges only perfunctorily; in one small city the school superintendent had delegated the work to the circulation manager of the largest local newspaper. Where such municipal officers as safety commis sioners or directors of bureaus of crime prevention have the necessary interest, aptitude, and time, the enforcement of a street-trades ordi nance might be successfully intrusted to them. But the best results * observed in this study were obtained under systems supervised by persons in charge of other laws governing the child in school and at work and controlling his transition from school to work. The ex perience and point of view of persons in such positions at least tends to make them interested primarily in the education and general welfare of the child and to fit them for dealing with the technical problems of administering laws regulating child labor. Methods of issuance. In the offices where certificates for general employment were issued and where considerable attention had. been paid to the technique of certificate issuance, the same good methods were taken over into the street trades law administration. This was true as to the evi dence of age demanded in a number of cities where reliable evidence was required for employment certificates and where care was taken as to the order in which it was received (the better types of docu mentary proof being required first and less satisfactory kinds being allowed only after evidence that the former were not available). In other cities, however, where the less reliable kinds of evidence (such as school records or parents’ affidavits) were accepted for employment certificates they were also accepted for street-trades permits, and little certainty existed that children under the legal age might not receive permits for street work. In some cases such laxity was due to the weakness or the ambiguity of the street trades 88 For details, see Laws and Ordinances Regulating Street Work, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis •* INTRODUCTION 55 law, but in others a law clearly specifying the evidence to be accepted was ignored. Although it thus happened that reliable evidence of age often was not required for street-trades badges even where they were issued in the same office as were regular employment certificates, usually in such offices much more effort was made to ascertain the child’s age than in offices where persons unfamiliar with employ ment-certificate laws enforced street-work ordinances. In the latter, no definite system or procedure for obtaining the best possible evidence of the child’s age was found. Sometimes, indeed, the child was merely asked to state his age, and one issuing officer said that a child must merely be “ old enough to care for himself on the streets” before a permit would be issued. A desirable prerequisite for the granting of a street-trades badge was found to be that the parent appear before the issuing officer, both to prevent the child’s working without the parent’s knowledge and to give the issuing officer an opportunity to impress upon the parent his responsibility for the child’s compliance with the legal regulations while at work. In some places it had been effective to require the parent to sign an agreement to see that the child lived up to the regulations. The requirement of the parent’s appearance was specified in some of the laws; in other places, though it was not so specified, it was imposed as part of the administrative procedure. Yet in some places the legal provision that the parent apply in person was ignored, and he merely had to sign an application for the child’s badge which was brought to the permit-issuing office by the child— a procedure offering an opportunity for the child to sign his own application. . In some cases the law on this point was defective in requiring the W parent to appear only before the school principal to obtain the child’s school record and not before the issuing officer. Although it may be desirable to give the school principal an opportunity to interview the parent this was not found to be an effective sub stitute for requiring the parent to come with the child to the issuing officer, who has the final decision as to whether the child shall undertake the work. Am attempt to insure that a child permitted to work in street trades should be physically fit for work was made in some laws by requiring, as in the best general child-labor laws, that he submit to examination by a physician. In a few cities where this requirement was mandatory street workers were required to have the same evi dence of physical fitness as children receiving employment certificates. The regulation in effect in some o f the other cities that left the determination of the physical fitness of the child to the discretion of the issuing officer or of the school principal was found to afford no protection to the child. The school principal’s statement on the child’s school record that the child was of normal development and physically fit to undertake the work in addition to his school work was merely perfunctory; the record was practically always issued as a matter of course if the child was of the required age. This state ment of the school principal, in fact, seldom amounted to more than proof that the child was enrolled in school and a record of his age on the school rolls. Nor were any issuing officers found to take advan^ tage of the clause in some regulations permitting them to refuse to 75034°—28-----5 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 56 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK issue the permit if the child did not seem physically able to do the work. Likewise little advantage was taken by school officials of other legal provisions giving the principal or teacher some discretion in signing the child’s application for a badge, as the provision that the principal certify that the child was mentally able to do the work in addition to his school work. STREET IN S P E C T IO N S Experience in the cities visited showed that in enforcing street-work regulations the permit system, though a very necessary and valuable aid, could not be relied upon to discover children attempting to enter street occupations illegally to the same extent as can be done in enforcing child-labor laws applying to industrial establishments. In the latter case, the fact that the child must leave school usually in order to enter regular employment makes possible such utilization of the school-attendance enforcement machinery by the adminis trative officer as will enable him to know, with at least a fair degree of completeness, what children attempt to go to work without proving compliance with the legal requirements. But in enforcing laws affecting the street worker, who usually works outside school hours, no such machinery is available, and a larger degree of dependence must be placed upon inspection. Moreover, because street work is much more unstable than regular industrial employment, the diffi culties of inspection, even in places where the inspector was aided by a well-administered badge system, were found to be greater in enforcing a law regulating street work than in enforcing laws regu lating other work of children. New children are continually taking up the work, and old workers shifting from one location to another. Under these conditions it was found that almost constant inspection, both in patrolling the streets and in visiting the newspaper-distrib uting offices, was necessary to inspire a wholesome respect for the law on the part of the street worker and to enable the inspector to become familiar with the boys legally qualified to work. On the other hand, the work of the inspector is simplified some what by the fact that most of the street workers are found in a some what restricted part of the city, and in some places the “ corner system,” under which a newsboy may acquire what amounts to ownership of the right to sell in a particular place, enables the enforcing official to become familiar with the boys working in certain localities. The enforcing officials. The first requisite for successful inspection appeared to be the plac ing of the responsibility definitely upon a single authority. A divi sion of authority— as where police officers and school authorities or where police officers, school authorities, and a State labor department were given the duty of enforcement— usually resulted in a situation in which no one was willing to take the responsibility, and as a consequence little was accomplished. Even where a single agency had the responsibility and a good system of inspection had been worked out, however, the inspecting authority was often hampered by lack of time to cover the whole ground daily; seldom did inspect ing officers have sufficient assistance for wholly satisfactory results. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 57 And in many places even interested officials with a disposition to enforce the law had so many other duties that they were unable to do effective street inspection. The necessity of placing the inspection work in the hands of the agency that issued the badges was also clearly indicated. Good results were obtained only when one person had control of both the issuance of badges and the street inspection or where there was very close cooperation between the persons who issued the badges and those responsible for inspection. The agency in control of both badge issuance and inspection was often hampered, however, by lack of adequate assistance. If the inspection was weak, either because the work was divided, as where school officials issued badges and the police were supposed to enforce the law, or because two agencies were responsible for en forcement and neither accepted the responsibility, or for any other reason, no amount of care in issuing badges could prevent illegal work. In fact, in one city where the mayor had delegated the power to issue licenses under the city ordinance to the school superintendent, the latter official had ceased to issue badges for a time because the police, who had the duty of enforcement, did not require children working on the street to have badges, and he felt it unfair to make a child who came to the license office pay for a badge when any child who cared to could sell without one. Enforcement of the regulation by the police alone was seldom reported as satisfactory. A certain degree of cooperation by the police in reporting violations to the school or other enforcing officials was occasionally obtained in some places, but the handling of viola tions of a street-work regulation demands a cooperation between the enforcing officer and . the school, the parent, and the worker, for which officials who deal with adult law breakers and criminals and whose main business is to look after the safety of citizens are not trained. Moreover, they have neither the time nor the opportunity to make the necessary contacts with the school and the home incident to complete enforcement. Even where some interested agency made special efforts to get the help of the police it was often found that the latter were not in sympathy with the law and would not molest a child selling papers illegally, because they saw no reason for such a regulation and felt that it was doing the child an injustice to prevent him from “ earning a few pennies.” In addition to the fact that it appeared usually very difficult to obtain cooperation from the police, except in a few cases for short periods, this method of enforcement is not recommended because of the obvious undesirability of the arrest of a child by a policeman, the consequent street commotion, and the effect of the whole pro ceeding upon the impressionable mind of the child. When the police merely “ chased the children off the streets,” as was reported in some instances, the results were not effective for long, nor had the method of reporting violations by the policeman on the beat to his superior officer and the warning of the parent by the latter proved effective. The badge as an aid in inspection. Although some inspecting officers reported that badges were of j^. little value in inspecting, evidently because of the ease with which ^ they might be transferred from child to child, this difficulty was overcome to a large extent where the badge contained such informa https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 58 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK tion as helped the inspector to identify the child to whom the badge had been issued. M any laws demand that the badge contain the child’s signature, and this was found to be a great aid in identifica tion. An issuing officer in one city had devised systems of symbols on the badge which enabled him to classify the child to whom it had been issued as of a certain age and nationality, and in this way to detect a transfer in many cases. The boys knew that a transfer would probably be discovered and punished by revocation of the badge and so were deterred from attempting to violate the law in this way. The regulations usually required that the badge should be worn conspicuously while the child was at work. Nevertheless, even in cities where at least a fair degree of enforcement had been obtained, badges were very often not so worn, but were carried in a pocket or fastened under the child’s coat. This was often due in part to the large size of the badge or to its clumsiness. On the other hand, where the badge was small it was sometimes of such flimsy construction that it was soon damaged, and for that reason not worn. Obviously the badge lost its value as an aid to the inspector if it was not worn in plain sight, and if badges were not worn the violator could easily claim that he “ had a badge at home.” Enforcement of night-work provisions. The most outstanding of the legal restrictions on street workers is the night-work prohibition, j This was often found to be poorly enforced, either because the inspection system in general was weak or because the enforcing officers— for instance truant officers— could not patrol the streets both during the day and at night. Where the amount of late-evening selling was small this fact often appeared ^ to be due merely to the fact that the last local paper came off the W press at an hour early enough to enable the children to finish selling before the prohibited period began. Under some regulations also work was permitted up to so late an hour in the evening (9 or 10 o ’clock) that, except in some cases on Saturday night* the children had no occasion to sell in the prohibited period. Where the law contained no night-work prohibition or where work was legally permitted until very late, attempts were sometimes made with a degree of success to use a curfew ordinance to prevent children from selling on the streets after a certain hour. Curfew ordinances were held in some cities not to apply to the street worker, however, as he was said to be a “ merchant” pursuing his own business and so to have a right to be on the street. P E N A LTIE S Penalty on the street worker and the parent. The temporary revocation of the worker’s badge, with the loss of the selling privilege, the penalty usually imposed upon a first offense, was found to be a deterrent to future violations, and where inspection was thorough enough to make street workers realize that there was likelihood of a violation of the law being discovered, it was instru mental in decreasing first offenses. In cities where it was customary to revoke the badge as a first penalty it was usual to send a written , warning to the parent, and some enforcing officials by visiting the ^ worker’s home and in this way enlisting the parent’s cooperation https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION ^ “ 59 appeared to be successful in many cases in preventing repeated viola tions. This procedure, together with the practice upon a second offense of summoning the child and the parent to appear before the enforcing official or officials at a formal hearing, was often effective in enforcing the law to a considerable extent without resort to court action. Such hearings, though sympathetically conducted, sometimes had all the impressiveness of court hearings. The parent was per mitted to state his side of the case, was clearly informed of his re sponsibility to see that the child obeyed the law, and was threatened with regular court procedure if the offenses continued. When court action was found to be necessary because of repeated offenses, both the child and the parent were brought before the juvenile court in some cities, but in at least one large city enforcing officials believed that placing the penalty wholly upon the parent as responsible for the child’s violation of the law was the best method of enforcement. Where the regulation held the parent directly respon sible for failure to cause the child to comply with the law and per mitted the imposition of reasonably heavy fines, an effective way to bring about compliance with the law was to suspend sentence on the parent or to place him under bond. Although some streettrades regulations may not define the parent’s responsibility in suffi ciently specific terms to permit this procedure, it would be possible under many State statutes to hold the parent responsible for con tributing to the child’s delinquency in violating a State law or city ordinance even though the street trades law itself contained no such provision. This method of holding the parent entirely responsible also had the advantage of making it possible to keep the children themselves out of court, except the comparatively few who were declared by the parents to be beyond their control and therefore had to be brought before the juvenile court. Some officials successful in enforcement felt that the procedure of bringing the child before any court, even the juvenile court, should be avoided at almost any cost. Arrest of the child was found to be a failure, moreover, because support from the court officials themselves was often lacking, and the fines imposed were so small as to make the whole procedure ineffective. The system of revoking badges upon complaint of the principal of the school that the child was irregular in attendance or was falling behind in his school work was said to be effective in a few places in maintaining attendance and scholarship. Generally, however, there appeared to be little or no cooperation between school and enforcing officials in this regard. Where inspection was sufficiently thorough to discover children working under the legal age or without having complied with the law in regard to obtaining badges, those eligible for badges were required to get them and those ineligible for street work were dealt with in the same way as children legally qualified to work who violated the regulations, except, of course, for the revocation of the badge. Penalty on newspaper supply agent. In a few places it was reported that a suit had been brought at one time against a newspaper distributor for violating the street work law, and in one city, when a child under the legal age was found selling papers, the enforcing official notified the supply agent that he was violating the law in selling to the child and was liable to a penalty https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 60 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK for so doing. But in general little attempt appeared to be made to hold responsible the supply agent or circulation manager furnishing the papers to be sold, even where the law imposed a penalty applicable in such a case. Often the law was defective in providing no penalty for the distributor or in wording the provision so vaguely that it was possible for him to keep within the letter of the law while violating its intent, and in some places the system of distribution was through a number of intermediaries, so that it was difficult to locate the person responsible for sales to the particular child found violating the law. SUMMARY On the whole this inquiry indicated that the legal regulation of street work presents difficult problems peculiar to itself; that, except in a few places, very little had been done toward working out and putting into effect adequate methods of administration and enforce ment adapted to meet these problems even when the street-trades laws were satisfactory; and that many of the regulations were them selves inadequate. On the other hand, defects in a law were some times overcome by efficient administrative procedure, whereas the enforcement of good laws was sometimes hampered by lack of wellconsidered administrative methods or by failure to take advantage of all the powers given by the law. Certain legal provisions were shown to be essential-to even moder ately .successful control of the street-trades problem. The first of these is a specific law or regulation applying to the street worker, for school authorities and labor officials have found that most street work can not be regulated by a general child labor law, the word “ employ” in the latter type of law being almost invariably con- ^ strued to mean the purchasing of the services of one person by another. “ Satisfactory regulations included a badge system; the placing of responsibility for enforcement definitely upon a single official; and the control of the issuance of badges and the street inspections by the same agency. In administering the law the principal difficulties encountered were: (1) A lack on the part of the enforcing officials of understanding of the law, of sympathy with its purpose, and of willingness to enforce it; (2) the appointment of issuing and enforcing officials not qualified by training and personal characteristics for the work; and (3) so insufficient a staff that even interested officials could not enforce the laws. Success in overcoming these difficulties seemed to be met with most often when the street-work regulation was administered by the officials who also administered the child-labor laws, usually the school officials, and when street-work permits and badges were issued by the same office as child-labor permits, even when the child labor law administration was rather imperfect. Many other standards of effective administrative procedure— as for instance in regard to methods of insuring that children have satisfied the legal prerequisites for obtaining badges, of keeping records, of inspecting and reporting violations, and of conducting prosecutions— are obviously needed, but a much more intensive study of administrative procedure would be necessary to determine the best methods for good enforcement along these lines. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CONCLUSIONS NEWSPAPER SELLERS Selling newspapers does not necessitate a boy’s leaving school, but this very fact results in its being undertaken by many children too yoimg to work except at tasks that are a necessary part of their training. Where the compulsory school attendance department is efficient it does not appear to interfere with school attendance. In some places newsboys are no more retarded in school, on the whole, than other boys; and, where they are retarded, too many factors in the home and school environment are involved to prove a direct connection between newspaper selling and failure to make normal progress in school. The physical effects of the work need to be investigated more thoroughly and more extensively before definite conclusions can be drawn as to whether or not the newsboy’s health suffers as a result of his work and in what respects it suffers. But whether or not the educational or physical effects are immediately measurable it can not be denied that boys who sell papers all the daylight hours after their release from school have no opportunity for wholesome recreation, nor time for the preparation of home lessons (except at the end of a long working day) and that they work at least as many hours a day as are regarded as suitable for adults (though almost half are under 12 years of age); and those ^ who sell early in the monring or late in the evening, or at such times as make it impossible to have meals at proper intervals, as many do, are following a program even less favorable to normal devel opment. The moral influences surrounding newspaper sellers in their work make it a dangerous occupation, also, for the immature. Conditions in and around newspaper-distributing rooms differ. Small towns and cities escape certain of the evils that flourish in the notorious “ news alleys” of some of the larger cities. But distributing rooms too often attract the type of man from whom the newsboy may learn at first hand the language, philosophy, and technique, so to speak, of the loafer and the tramp, or even of the thief, the gambler, and the moral pervert. The fact that in two of the four cities in which the Children’s Bureau investigated this aspect of newspaper selling the boys were exposed in their work to seriously unwholesome associa tions and influences indicates that such associations and influences are not uncommon in newspaper selling and may develop anywhere at any time. Newsboys have a delinquency rate several times as large as that of other groups of boys._ Much of this is accounted for, to be sure, by poor home and neighborhood environment, but boys so handicapped are obviously in greater need of protection than more fortunate children if they are to develop into law-abiding members of the community. The number whose lives may be . u n f a v o r a b l y influenced by their contacts in newspaper selling is ^ m u c h larger, owing to the turnover, than the number selling papers at any one time would indicate. Many boys sell papers only a few 61 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 62 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK weeks or months, but at impressionable ages a few weeks may undo the work of years on the part of the schools in training for citizenship. The similarity between the findings in the Children’s Bureau surveys and those in surveys made 10 or 15 years ago offers little foundation for the hope that conditions will improve of themselves. The indications are that in certain respects they are likely to grow worse instead of better. Competition between newspapers, which grows more rather than less intense, not only increases the number of newsboys but also, as the Children’s Bureau surveys show, creates especially unfavorable conditions for boys who sell. The increase in midday editions is likely to increase the temptation to stay out of school to sell, and no doubt children will do so unless the schoolattendance department keeps a close watch; the growing popularity of late-evening editions of morning papers provides new oppor tunities for selling late in the evening. These considerations seem to justify the conclusion that news paper selling by children should be regulated just as other forms of child labor are" regulated. The failure of the State laws and city ordinances regulating street work in the cities where the surveys were made shows that the provisions of the laws and the details of administration must be given careful consideration. _ A State law may have the advantage over a city ordinance in providing a degree of supervision over local administration that is desirable and giving protection to children in places that would not of their own accord enact measures regulating street work. The age minimum for licenses to sell newspapers should be as high as public opinion will support, looking toward the prohibition, as soon as practicable, of the work for boys under 16, just as street work now is very generally prohibited for girls under that age, wherever regulations are in effect. Some of the worst features of newspaper selling are of a kind that make it as little desirable for boys 12 to 15 as for those of 10 or 11. Prohibition of selling for children under 16 has the further justification, if further justification is needed, of causing no inconvenience to the public. As has often been observed by writers on street work, European cities have few if any newsboys. Elderly men and women and the physically handicapped, as well as such devices as newsstands or self-service racks, can take care of street sales. The prejudice that high-school boys of 16 or over have against newspaper selling because it is con sidered “ kids’ work” would be met, also, by the removal of the younger boys from the streets. Satisfactory proof of age, at least as good as that required under the child labor law regulating in dustrial employment, should be demanded of all applicants for licenses to sell papers. Where newspaper selling for children under 16 is not prohibited but is regulated, hour regulations should prohibit night work and work during school hours. Fixing the hour for stopping in the evening at 6.30 would permit newsboys to reach home at a reasonable time after dark in the winter (incidentally, it would also take care of the peak of the trade, for which boys are most desired) and would automatically restrict the number of hours of work a day. Fixing the morning hour for beginning at 7 would make it possible even for boys whose home environment does not favor an early bedtime to get sufficient sleep. Whatever arguments may be advanced as to https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 63 the need of schoolboys for newspaper selling during the rush hours, none can be urged against the adequacy of stands and racks for the comparatively few early-morning and late-evening purchasers. Although the educational provision contained in most child-labor ^ laws can be omitted from the law regulating newspaper selling, unless ™ the child is leaving school, it should contain a provision requiring a statement signed by the principal of the school and the teacher of the class that the child attends certifying that he is regularly enrolled in school and that he is able to sell papers without retarding his progress in school. The law should provide also for the revocation, on the recommendation of the child’s school principal, of the license to sell. The possibility of physical impairment as the result of work outside school hours and the strain and exposure incidental to newspaper selling is sufficiently great to make desirable the requirement of a physical examination, such as is required under the best child-labor laws. Periodical physical examinations of newsboys were recom mended by the heart committee of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association as a result of its findings in its study of the health of newsboys.89 If the law refused a newsboy’s license unless the applicant was accompanied by his parent or guardian, responsibility for complying with the terms of the law could be fixed more effectively; and, more over, those whose parents disapproved of the work and many whose parents were indifferent in regard to it and who therefore have no real reason for selling papers would be kept out of the work. Adequate penalties should be provided in the law. A penalty should be placed upon the child, the parent, and the newspaper publisher or news dealer supplying papers to unlicensed boys. The JP law should also contain a provision penalizing publishers, news agents, or others permitting boys to loiter about such places as circulation rooms and newspaper offices. Whether the regulation is by State law or local ordinance, it should designate specifically the person responsible for its enforcement. Enforcement should be centralized in one agency, the person directly responsible, however, being given authority to delegate his power to subordinates. The enforcing official should be properly qualified and should have a sufficient number of properly qualified assistants to issue badges with care, and to do the necessary street patrolling, school and home visiting, and inspection of distribution rooms and ‘ ‘ news alleys.” Spasmodic or even periodical patrol and inspection can not be expected to give successful results. In smaller com munities the administration of the street-work regulation may be combined with other duties, but complete responsibility should rest upon one agency, for division of responsibility for enforcement between any two or more agencies is always unsatisfactory in regula ting street work. Although satisfactory enforcement may be achieved by an efficient official in any department, enforcement by a well-administered schoolattendance department, especially where it has charge of the issuance of employment certificates to children entering other occupations, gives promise of best results, since most newsboys are schoolboys. Enforcement of street-trades regulations by the police is not desirable. 8» The Health of a Thousand Newsboys in New York City, p. 39. See footnote 31, p. 19. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 64 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK They are reluctant to disturb boys selling papers in violation of streetwork regulations, lacking the social perspective to realize that theirs may be a mistaken kindness, so that their delegation to the work is usually unproductive. Moreover, the public arrest of youthful offenders should be avoided at almost any cost. As policemen are on the streets at all hours and in sufficient numbers, they can, however, if their interest is enlisted, be of help to the enforcing agency. The best and practically the only effective method of enforcement is the badge system, which has the same function as the certificate system in the enforcement of laws relating to child labor in other occupations. This system of work certificates has proved so valuable that more and more emphasis is being placed upon its development in modern child-labor laws, and it is natural to find that the most effective method of regulating the work of newsboys follows the same lines. It offers the only practicable means of insuring that children do not undertake street work until they have satisfied the legal require ments as to age, physical fitness, etc., and of supervising them while they are at work. It also gives the enforcing official, through the power of revoking the badge, an effective method of requiring the child to live up to the legal regulations, such as the requirements of school attendance and the prohibition of night work. As an extralegal aid to enforcement a few cities have found effective the organization of “ newsboys’ republics” based on the principles of self-government and working in cooperation with the enforcing officials. Probably the best known of these are the ones in Boston and in Milwaukee, with their newsboys’ courts granted powers by the legal enforcing agency in each place.90 Unfortunately, their effectiveness depends so largely on the personality of the leaders that if does not always survive a change of enforcing officers.91 Under the right leadership there is probably no agency that can exert a more constructive influence among newsboys than a club of their own organization.92 That enforcing officials should seek the cooperation not only of the boys but of their parents, and of the newspaper publishers and circu lation departments, and of the schools is important. Visits to the homes of newsboys and informal conferences with parents would be effective in many cases in promoting good school work as well as in preventing violations of the law and disposing of first offenses. The right approach is sometimes all that is needed to obtain the coopera tion of the newspaper companies in clearing their premises of loafers, forbidding sleeping on the premises, and otherwise taking care of unwholesome conditions, though constant vigilance on the part of some responsible authority is necessary if satisfactory conditions are to be maintained. Successful cooperation with newspaper managers might well result in the provision by the newspapers of at least a clean, well-lighted, and supervised waiting room for newsboys, or better still, in the institution of the comer-delivery system of delivery to newspaper sellers or of substations or some other substitute for the congregation of large numbers of boys in a down-town office. The 80 See “ Milwaukee newsboys’ republic,” in The Outlook, vol. 103, No. 14 (April 5,1913), pp. 743, 744; and Street-Land, by Philip Davis, pp. 201-226 (Small, Maynard Co., Boston, 1915). 81 For a recent account of the Boston Newsboys’ Court, see “ Enforcement of the street trades law in Boston,” by Madeleine H. Appel, in American Child, Vol. IV, No. 2 (August, 1922), pp. 104-106. 82 The inspiration for most of the newsboys’ clubs was the Toledo Newsboys’ Association, for an account of which see Boyville, a History of Fifteen Years’ Work among Newsboys, by John E. Qunckel (The Toledo Newsboys’ Association, Toledo, Ohio, 1905). https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION ¥ 65 relations between the enforcing authorities and school principals and teachers are of special importance. Thorough instruction by the school principal of the would-be newsboy in the regulations would lessen the burden of enforcement. Much remains to be done in many places in educating both principals and teachers as to the requirements of the street work law. Regular visits to the schools to inspect badges, to instruct boys in the regulations, and to obtain reports from teachers should prove helpful in enforcement. The regulation of newspaper selling by children has other aspects than the legal. As in other forms of child labor, the economic factor is present. Newsboys, speaking generally, come from poor families, not destitute, except in rare instances, nor even so poor that they will acknowledge that they could not exist without the earnings of their children of school age, but in circumstances often so far below any reasonable standard of comfort that the temptation for the boys to earn what they can is irresistible. It is not a question of widow hood or of desertion or incapacity of fathers— almost as many news boys as other children have fathers supporting their families— but so many fathers earn so little that without the help of mothers or of children or of both the family is always hard pressed. As in other fields of child welfare, this problem can be solved only when the wages of the father are sufficient to support the family in health and reasonable comfort without the assistance of the mother, at least while the children are young, and without the assistance of children of school age themselves. The maintenance of families through the gainful employment of children has been demonstrated to be econom ically unsound; permitting young children to ease the pressure not only does not contribute to a solution of the problem but, on the contrary, probably delays it. Even if, through expediency, newspaper selling by boys were per mitted because of economic need, or even economic urgency, fully half at least of the newsboys would not be affected. Many children sell papers because they know of nothing more interesting to do. An adequate recreational program would remove them from the streets, and such a program the school must supply. Even if local condi tions are such that newspaper selling is relatively harmless, few com munities would admit that no better or more constructive activity could be offered to young boys. It might be expected that the regu lation of street work would hasten the development of recreational facilities and of all-day schools and vacation schools with a program of athletics, dramatics, and music, and opportunity for trying out vocational interests for the extra hours, just as the legal raising of the age of leaving school has resulted in an enrichment and greater flexibility of the regular school curriculum which has benefited all school children. Certainly the development of such activities would diminish the need for legal regulation. The education of the general public in the legal restrictions govern ing newspaper selling or other street work, and, especially, in the reasons for such restrictions is necessary. The public should be made aware that the regulations are in the best interests of the chil dren working on the streets, and that purchasing from underage boys or boys working at undesirable hours is misplaced kindness. Inter ested social agencies as well as the enforcing authorities might under take to give publicity to these simple but essentially important facts https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 66 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK through their contacts with local organizations, such as women’s clubs and parent-teacher associations. Such organizations can do valuable and constructive work individually by urging their members to purchase only from boys wearing badges and to report cases of violations to the proper authorities, as well as collectively by such activities as investigating local street-work conditions, endeavoring to procure the cooperation of newspaper managers in improving con ditions in their distributing rooms, and working for better laws and better enforcement of existing laws. NEWSPAPER CARRIERS The work of the newspaper carrier seems to be relatively unob jectionable, except where carriers sacrifice necessary sleep to morning routes. Moreover, carriers as a class come from better-regulated homes than newspaper sellers and from families that are better able, financially and through their knowledge of American life, to protect their children from exploitation. Under present conditions, at any rate, the possibility of danger to the child engaging in this work does not seem sufficiently great to justify as stringent regulations as other kinds of street work. PEDDLERS No excuse exists for the child peddler on the streets. The public is conveniently and abundantly supplied in other" ways with all the peddler’s commodities, and the work is demoralizing to the child. So clearly has the connection between peddling and begging and vagrancy been perceived that some State laws prohibit peddling by minors under 16 or under 18, along with any “ begging and other mendicant business.” However, such regulations are likely to be ineffective, depending for enforcement, as they do, upon police action. Street-trades laws and ordinances should specifically prohibit peddling by children, including those that accompany adult peddlers. As for boys who are hired by hucksters or by market-stand keepers, no valid reason appears why they should not be required to get em ployment certificates as for other types of “ gainful employment,” nor why the minimum age should be lower than that for boys working in grocery stores or on delivery wagons, for example, types of occu pation that are now prohibited to children under 14 in most States and for which children between 14 and 16 in most of these States must get employment certificates even for after-school and vacation em ployment. The conditions of work for hucksters’ assistants and stand tenders are more nearly like those of workers for mercantile establish ments than they are like those of street workers. The enforcement of either a child labor law or a street-trades regulation for the benefit of hucksters’ assistants has special problems because, the employer having no fixed place of business, inspection is necessarily difficult, though the enforcement of provisions relating to the licensing of hucksters has apparently proved practicable, and if the huckster can be required to get a license the huckster’s assistant can be required to get a certificate. Some special supplementary measure might be found necessary, such, for example, as a provision making it possible to revoke or suspend the licenses of peddlers hiring boys who do not have employment certificates in accordance with the child labor law. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis INTRODUCTION 67 BOOTBLACKS Bootblacking by children, like peddling, should be prohibited by street-trades regulations. The work has many of the disadvantages of newspaper selling, without such advantages in the way of training as selling papers may have. As in peddling, such a step is imme diately practicable, as neither the public nor any class of employers has any interest in keeping the bootblack on the streets. MISCELLANEOUS STREET WORKERS . Careful consideration should be given to the question of the inclu sion in street-trades regulations of the numerous miscellaneous kinds of street work in which children engage. Although only a few chil dren in any one place appear to be affected, and some of the work, such as distributing handbills, seems harmless, some of these kinds of work— as, for example, junk collecting with its temptation to steal saleable articles are quite as unsuitable as other types of street work that are given more attention because they involve larger numbers. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PART IL— STREET WORKERS IN FOUR SELECTED CITIES ATLANTA, GA. INTRODUCTION Down-town Atlanta, where boys sell papers, is a maze of narrow, crowded streets. Probably the best locations in the city for news paper selling are the Five Points, formed by the converging of five streets near the center of the business section. But at the viaducts, also, that span the railroad tracks running through the city, at the Arcade, the several railroad stations, around the city hall and the post office, and at many other corners in the retail-shopping center or in the congested hotel and restaurant and theater district, the con tinual crowds furnish excellent business for the newsboy. Above the din of the traffic his cry can be heard at almost any hour, with some thing alarming in its urgency that makes a stranger think he is hawk ing extras. Not only schoolboys but many young men sell papers on the streets of Atlanta, and not a few women, including some young girls. Fine days bring out street vendors of all kinds, children as well as adults. Even in the winter the peddler, man or boy, with a basket of apples on his arm is a familiar sight on down-town streets. Beggars are numerous, standing all day with their tin cups on the b viaducts, crouching outside a hotel in the dusk, lifting a quavering - voice in song at the entrance to a public building. All attempts by city social agencies to reduce the number of beggars on the streets through a change in the ordinance licensing peddlers and beggars have failed. Beggars are sometimes accompanied by children, or a child alone will beg a passer-by to buy a wilted bunch of flowers, pleading that he is hungry. <* Social workers say that failures in the cotton crop bring into the city many families unfitted to earn their living t h e r e T h e fact that Atlanta is a commercial rather than an industrial city— only about one-fifth of its employed males being engaged in manufacturing or mechanical occupations,1 a much smaller proportion than in any of the other cities in the Children’s Bureau surveys— results in fewer opportunities for the uneducated. Almost all newspaper sellers— men, women, and children— in Atlanta, and also the peddlers, were white, though 31 per cent of the population was negro.2 The Children’s Bureau survey in Atlanta was made in March, April, and May, 1923. In November, 1926, a Children’s Bureau agent returned to the city to inquire as to conditions in regard to street work at the later date. The director of the department of attendance of the public schools and several attendance officers, the director of the Associated Charities, one of the probation officers of the 4 » Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, p. 132. Washington, )23 > Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. Ill, Population, p. 226. Washington, 1922. 69 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 70 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK juvenile court, the secretary of boys’ work of the Young M en’s Christian Association, and several newspaper-circulation managers were questioned as to newspaper selling and carrying.3 Newsboys at work on the streets were observed during the day and evening, including Saturday evening, and many of the newsboys were inter viewed. The reports of both adults and children indicated that con ditions were practically identical with those found in 1923, except for the change in the enforcing agency described on page 71. The sta tistics presented in this report are those gathered in the survey in 1923. Table 1 (p. 8) shows the number of boys in each kind of street work who reported that they were working at the time the inquiry was made and who had done street work for at least one month during the year preceding the interview. (For details in regard to the selec tion of the children included in the survey see p. 5.) LEGAL REGULATION OF STREET WORK Georgia had no law regulating the work of children in street trades. Since 1917 Atlanta has had a street-trading ordinance4 which provided that no boy under 12 and no girl under 16 years of age should at any time sell or expose or offer for sale any newspaper or periodicals upon the streets or in any public place, that sellers should obtain badges, and that none under 14 might sell after 8.30p.m. or before 5 a. m. The penalties provided for violation were revocation of the permit, liability to a fine of not less than $1 nor more than $5 for each offense or imprisonment for not more than 30 days, and for a “ parent, guardian, person, or institution” responsible for a child’s violation of any of the provisions of the ordinance, liability to a fine of not less than $5 nor more than $25 or imprisonment for not more than 30 days. The enforcement of the ordinance at the time of the study had been delegated by the mayor to the juvenile court, but one of the newspaper offices was regularly issuing its own permits, and if this power had been granted the newspaper by the mayor, as was claimed, the permits issued by the newspaper itself were quite as legal as those issued by the juvenile court. The representatives of the other newspapers who were interviewed either admitted that no attention was paid to the ordinance in supplying boys with papers or seemed unaware of its exact provisions. The juvenile court considered its staff too small to enable it to enforce the regulation effectively and admitted that children under 12 were selling on the streets and that older children were selling without permits. Of the 144 newsboys included in the study, 53 were under 12 years of age, and so were ineligible for permits to sell. Of the remaining boys, only 75 re ported as to whether or not they had permits, only 27 said they had permits for 1923, the year in which the study was made (though the ordinance required that the permit be renewed on January 1 of each year), 13 had permits but did not know the year in which they had obtained them, 5 had permits for some year prior to 1923, and 6 had had permits but had lost them; 23 admitted that they had no 3The inquiry in November, 1926, was confined to newspaper selling and carrying. 4 Ordinance approved July 18,1917. Since this report was written, information has been received that this ordinance was repealed in August, 1927. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLANTA, GA. 71 permits. Assuming that the 13 who did not know the date of their permits had obtained them in 1923, only 40 of the 128 boys reporting were selling papers in accordance with the regulation, and some of these had only the permits issued by the newspaper office. In 1926 enforcement of* the street-trades ordinance had been delegated by the mayor to the attendance department of the public schools. This department issued permits and badges in accordance with the provisions of the ordinance to boys applying for them, but considered that it was powerless to do much more than this. The staff of three attendance officers was too small to permit the assignment of a worker to patrol the streets regularly, although newsboys under age or without permits were sometimes picked up by the attendance officers. The director of the department had sought the cooperation of the city police department and had been promised the assistance of the police in preventing boys from selling without badges, but the police were said to give little or no help. So impracticable was it under the circumstances to enforce the regu lation that the director of the attendance department had given up issuing permits for a time; he said that it seemed unfair and created hostility to the department among the boys to make a boy who applied for a permit pay for a badge while others who did not bother to apply sold as freely as they pleased without one. NEWSPAPER SELLERS All the newspaper sellers included in the study were boys. Al though one of the school-attendance officers and others said that girls as well as boys sold papers in Atlanta, no girls were reported through the school canvass and the few young girls seen selling papers on down-town street corners claimed to be 16 or older. A little girl of 8 or 9 used to stay with her mother, who sold papers on one of the most crowded street corners in the down-town district, but the mother maintained that the child did not sell. R A C E A N D N A T IO N A L IT Y OF F A T H E R S The newsboy problem in Atlanta is not primarily, as it is in many places, a problem related to the adjustment of immigrant families to their new environment. Only 38 of the newsboys (26 per cent) had foreign-born fathers, by far the larger number of whom were Russian Jews. The proportion is large, however, as only 2 per cent of the population of Atlanta is foreign born and only 4 per cent more is of foreign or mixed parentage; this shows the marked tendency on the part of the children of foreign-born parents to engage in newspaper selling. On the other hand, though 31 per cent of the population is negro, only 8 negro boys ( 6 per cent) sold papers on the streets of Atlanta. The great majority of the newsboys were of native white parentage. (Table 12.) A G E OF N E W S B O Y S In spite of the age provision of the street-trading ordinance, 37 per cent of the newsboys of Atlanta were under 12 years of age, the legal minimum for selling papers, and 11 per cent were under 10. (Table 2, p. 9.) The average age was 11.9 years. Almost all the boys under 12 said that they got their own papers at the newspapers’ 75034°— 28-------6 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 72 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK distributing offices, only 7 reporting that they bought them from other boys or from men on the street. T a b l e 12.— Race and nationality of father; newspaper sellers, Atlanta, Ga. Newspaper sell ers from 6 to 15 years of age Race and nationality of father Newspaper sell ers from 6 to 15 years of age Race and nationality of father cent Num Per distri ber bution Total....................................... 144 100.0 White— ............................................ 136 94. 4 Native_______ _____ ___ ____ _ Foreign born.—______________ 98 38 68.1 26.4 Russian Jewish................... 17 11.8 cent Num Per distri ber bution White—Continued. Foreign born—Continued. Other foreign and foreign not otherwise specified-- 4 2. 8 17 11.8 g 5.6 The comments of some of these younger boys in regard to their legal right to sell were illuminating. A boy of 11, who said he had been selling papers for two years, explained his selling by the remark, “ The juvenile-court lady told me I could not sell till I was 12 years old or I ’d be arrested, but my uncle is a prominent business man; he’s a prize-fighter promoter, so he fixed it up down there and I just go on selling.” Another boy of 11 when asked if he had a permit said, “ It’s last year’s. I intended to get a new one, but what’s the use? I sold two years without one.” A 10-year-old child said that a man who sold on his corner told him that if he did not get a permit he would have him arrested. Another boy of 10 said that he had 0 begun to sell papers independently, but that “ the lady from the juvenile court and a policeman told me I had to have a permit or I ’d be locked up. But the policeman said it was all right if I sold for another boy and was a helper, so that’s what I did, and he said they couldn’t do nothing to me now.” This child sold papers every school day from 3 to 8 and practically all day Saturday. Another boy, only 8 years of age, said that his 6-year-old sister “ had been locked up for selling papers— the cop put her in the penitentiary.” A boy who had been selling from the age of 5 years and who had twice been arrested for begging, the first time when only 7 years old, said, “ The juvenile-court lady don’t know I sell. She said you had to be 12.” W O R K E X P E R IE N C E A t the time of the survey only 6 newsboys had any other street job except selling papers; but 2 had newspaper routes, 2 sold magazines, 1 helped a peddler, and 1 watched automobiles near a theater from 7 to 11 every night. Including these, 45 boys (31 per cent) had had some experience in street work other than the newspaper-selling job in which they were engaged when interviewed, generally carrying newspapers, other periods of newspaper selling, or peddling. The largest number of the boys (25) had begun street work at the age of 12, but 97 (67 per cent) had begun before they were 12, and 50 (36 per cent) before they were 10. Except in 23 cases, this work was 0 newspaper selling. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 73 ATLANTA, GA. Between six and eight months was the median duration of the newspaper-selling jobs that the boys were engaged in when inter viewed; that is, the boys had had an uninterrupted period of selling of six to eight months. Forty-two per cent had been selling papers continuously at least one year, 26 per cent for two years or more, and 17 per cent for at least three years. (Table 13.) These boys represented the steadiest and most regular newsboys. The boy who went down town to sell papers occasionally would probably not have worked a sufficiently long time (one month) for inclusion in the study. No doubt there were many such boys selling papers on the streets of Atlanta. The director of a local newsboys’ club estimated that between 300 and 500 boys were selling papers, a minimum of more than twice the number included in the study. T a b l e 13.— Previous duration of job held at date of interview, by age period; news paper sellers, Atlanta, Ga. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Previous duration of job held at date of interview 12 years, under 14 Total 10 Under years, 10 under Per cent Num distri years 1 121 ber bution 14 years, under Per cent Num distri 161 ber bution Age not re ported! 144 100.0 16 37 56 100.0 34 1 83 57.6 13 26 30 53.6 13 1 Less than 6 months.____ _____ 63 43.8 10 20 23 41.1 9 1 Less than 2 months_______ 31 22 10 21.5 15.3 6.9 2 6 2 11 5 4 11 9 3 19.6 16.1 5.4 6 2 1 1 20 13.9 3 6 7 12.5 4 23 14 24 16.0 9.7 16.7 1 2 4 5 14 5 7 25.0 8.9 12.5 6 5 10 Total______________________ Less than 1 year........................... 2 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. The newsboys had had an unusual amount of experience in other kinds of work than street work. Eleven were holding such jobs when they were interviewed, chiefly as delivery or errand boys or grocers’ helpers, and 54 others (38 per cent) had previously had some other kind of work. This, too, had been chiefly delivering or errand work, but 10 boys had worked in stores or shops, 7 in offices, 5 on trucks and wagons, and 4 as telegraph messengers; and others had had experience at less common jobs, such as caring for boats at a park boathouse and cleaning bricks. M ost of this had been vacation work or after-school work, but 2 boys had had full-time employment, having left school temporarily— an 11-year-old boy who had worked as a telegraph messenger and attended night school,5 and a 14-year-old boy who had held a job in a railway and power company office for six months. 5 Under the Georgia child labor law in effect at the time of the survey a child who had reached the age of 12 years was permitted to go to work if compelled to do so on account of poverty to support himself, or to support a widowed mother, or if he was an orphan. A child thus excused from school in Atlanta was urged by the local school authorities to attend night school, though the law did not compel him to do so. Under the State school attendance law a child who had reached the age of 14 was not required to attend school, whether or not he went to work. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 74 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK C O N D IT IO N S OF W O R K A N D E N V IR O N M E N T Organization of newspaper distribution. Two so-called evening papers were issued in Atlanta about every hour between 11 a. m. and 4.30 p. m. The one morning paper had an early-morning edition and an edition appearing at 9 p. m. Each of the three published Sunday editions, coming out about 6.30 Saturday evenings. . Owing to recent trouble between the two evening papers at the time of the study, boys selling one were not permitted to sell the other. A 15-year-old newsboy said that he was paid $2 a week besides the regular profit on the papers to sell one of the newspapers exclusively, but none of the other newsboys mentioned extra profit. In 1926 the intense rivalry between the two papers had subsided. One of them had reduced its price, however, and therefore the profit to the newsboy, but the boys selling it received a minimum amount regardless of their sales profits, and a special effort was being made to recruit and keep boys by entertainments and prizes. The boys went to the distributing offices of the various newspapers in the down-town district to get papers for their first sales. Once they were on their corners they were supplied by trucks. The newspapers “ controlled the corners” ; that is, each paper placed its newsboys at all strategic points for selling, and independent sellers were not permitted at these points. Boys were assigned to the various corners according to their ability to make sales. Some said that they lost their comers if they did not sell in all kinds of weather and late at night. Newsboys were required to settle at the end of each day’s sales for the papers they had taken out. Settlement was usually made at 7.30 or 8, or earlier if the boys had sold out. Representatives of the newspapers at that time said that the boys were required to pay for all papers they took out, though, according to one of the circulation managers, the newsboys were often urged to take more papers than they wanted and “ favorites,” as he called them, were sometimes permitted therefore to return unsold papers. In 1926 it was generally reported that the return of unsold papers was allowed. The boys on the street corners even at the time of the study, it was observed, took the papers that were given by the truckmen without complaint as to their number. The newsboys themselves seldom made any reference to the matter of returns, but one boy said that he bought his papers from boys on the street because “ the paper sticks you.” Another said that he was allowed to turn in any that he did not sell. To a much greater extent than in the other cities included in the Children’s Bureau study the boys selling on the streets of Atlanta were selling for other boys or for older newspaper sellers. A number of them worked for a man who “ owned” one of the most profitable down-town corners. Especially on Saturday nights the papers were “ farmed out ” to the younger boys. Among the newsboys interviewed 39 (27 per cent) reported that they always worked as helpers or were hired to sell, and 8 others, who sold some papers on their own account, were employed as helpers at least once a week. The greater number of the boys hired as helpers received a regular ^ wage. One boy was paid 60 cents a night instead of the $2 that he ^ would have made selling the same number of papers for himself; 0 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLANTA, GA. 75 another made $1.50 a night instead of $2.50; most of the others were paid 1 cent or ^ cents on each paper sold, 2 cents being the regular profit. 13 Conditions in distributing rooms. The distributing room for the morning paper was the main hall of its down-town office, opening on one of the principal business streets. Both evening papers had distributing rooms opening on alleys. One of these, of unusually good size and well laid out for a newspaper-distributing room, was used by carriers as well as sellers. A “ special officer” was in charge, an elderly man with a city-police badge, employed by the newspaper “ to keep out the rough element,” and the distributing hour observed by the bureau agent was orderly and quiet. The younger newsboys collected early, however, and while waiting for their papers played on the railroad tracks on which the narrow alleys opened (the only open space near by) and in the freight cars on the tracks. The distributing room for the other evening paper opened on an alley which widened at the entrance to the distributing room, leaving an open space where the newspaper trucks were unloaded, and another open space, adjoining a dirty, ill-smelling toilet, where the boys congregated as they waited for the papers. The director of the Young M en’s Christian Association newsboys’ club hoped to get this space fitted up some time as a playground for the boys, but at the time of the study the boys merely crowded together in it indulging in rough play, fighting, and crap shooting. Some boys slept in the distributing rooms, under what conditions it is not known, though they can be surmised from the account of a 12-year-old seller who had recently spent a Saturday night there. He had gone there after disposing of his papers about 1.30 in the morning. Ten boys were already there, he said, shooting dice, and when he dozed off one of them stole his night’s earnings of $2.85. Local persons conversant with the newsboy situation reported that conditions in and around the distributing rooms were notoriously bad, especially in regard to gambling. Some of the newspaper employees in direct contact with the newsboys were reputed to be of a very undesirable type. The truck drivers, in particular, accord ing to the director of a newsboys’ club, attempted to corrupt the boys, and cases of the use of newsboys by the truck drivers for immoral purposes had come to his attention. One of the older newsboys said that one of the circulating men was “ almost always drunk” and one night had made him stay in the distributing room with him until 1 o ’clock. Rivalry between the evening papers had resulted, it was said, in bringing into town to sell papers a number of young men who were referred to in the community as “ toughs,” “ hobo newspaper sellers,” and “ strike breakers,” and who had the reputa tion of being able to break up any trouble, not stopping at “ busting heads.” Parents who voiced disapproval of their sons’ newspaper selling, though in some cases they felt that they must have the money earned in that way, objected not only because “ he does not learn good things down town,” “ he is thrown into rough company,” or “ they stand on the corner and catch all that is going,” but also because the older newspaper sellers abused and ill-treated the younger boys. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 76 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK Meals. The demand for papers around mealtime when more people are on the streets than at other hours often makes regular meals at suitable hours impossible for the newsboy. Only 39 of the 144 did not sell at mealtime on any day. Some of the others had their eve ning meal with fair regularity. It was not always with the family and was often only “ something kept h o t /’ however, though the after noon school session and several hours of selling had come between it and the noon lunch. These, however, were the more fortunate of the group. The great majority of those who sold at meal hours reported that they ordinarily had no supper or none until they reached home at a late hour, and even then often -only a cold lunch, or they “ picked up a supper,” “ got a bite,” or “ bought a wienie when there was time,” the last remark being that of a boy of 12 who sold from 3 to 9 p. m. Some of the boys were allowed a small sum by their parents to buy their suppers at a restaurant; this they often waited for until they had sold their papers, stopping on their way home at lunch rooms and cafes, where they mingled with the “ night crowd” of men. On Saturdays even more than on other evenings the boys bought supper down town and often the midday lunch also. Some boys sold all day Saturday on no more sustaining food than a sandwich, a “ wienie,” or “ cakes and soft drinks,” and some dispensed altogether with at least one meal. REGULARITY OF W ORK For the majority of the boys selling papers was a daily job; 70 per cent, including 99 of those who had no other street job and 2 of those 0 who had, sold papers every day, or every day except Sunday. Thir- ' teen boys did not have even Sunday off. Although Saturday-night selling was unusually profitable because of the appearance of Sunday papers at an early hour, only 16 boys said that they sold only on Saturdays. Two sold only on Saturdays and Sundays, and 2 only on Sundays. HOURS OF W ORK Newspaper selling by school children in Atlanta was not wholly confined to early-morning or late-afternoon hours; children were seen selling papers on the streets even when school was in session. The schools were said to be overcrowded, so that many children could be accommodated only on a half-day basis, and at that time the school-attendance department, since reorganized and enlarged, had only one attendance officer.6 Parents apparently found it easy to keep their children out of school and did so; a white mother vol unteered the information that she often kept her 12-year-old boy out to sell papers all day “ so as to have a little more money coming in.” Sometimes the boys when interviewed on the streets during school hours by the Children’s Bureau agents showed their conscious ness of being illegally absent from school by their glibness in giving false addresses and naming schools that they attended, though later investigation showed that they were not enrolled. 6 The State school attendance law required attendance only six months of the term, so that even in 1926 the school-attendance department reported that it was powerless to enforce attendance after Mar. 1 of any year. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLANTA, GA. 77 Few boys sold the daily morning paper. Of the six who worked on school mornings, a 10-year-old boy sold 12 morning papers in a residential neighborhood between 6.30 and 7.30, a 9-year-old boy sold 4 papers at a filling station every morning from 6 to 6.30, and a 15-year-old boy who had left the regular school and was attending night school sold morning papers daily from 5.30 to 9.30 a. m. and the early editions of one of the evening papers from 11 a. m. to 3 p. m., except on Saturday when he sold up to midnight, begin ning at 5.30 a. m. The remaining three boys also sold the evening papers: A negro boy, 11 years of age, in school from 2 until 4.30 p. m., sold papers from 11 a. m. to 1 p. m. as well as from 5 to 9 p. m. on school days; another negro boy, aged 13, sold from 11 to 12 in the morning in addition to his afternoon selling; and a 15-year-old boy attending night school sold all day, beginning about 11 in the morning. Fifty-one boys sold papers on Saturday or Sunday mornings. A few of the Sunday-morning sellers, of whom there were 20, were out before 6, but the great majority did not begin selling until 6 or later. The newsboys working on Saturday mornings usually sold the midday editions of the evening papers, and most of them began selling about 11 o’clock. The Atlanta newsboys usually stopped crying their papers at about 7 or 7.30 in the evening,, they reported. Of the 117 selling papers after school and having no other street work, 82 (70 per cent) stopped selling between 6 and 8 o ’clock, and 9 stopped before 6. Of the 5 with two street jobs who. sold on school days, 3 stopped selling between 6 and 8, and 1 before 6. Twenty-six boys (including 1 with two street jobs) reported that they sold until at least 8 p. m., 3 of them to 10 or 11. On Saturday nights they sold until a much later hour. The great majority of the boys who sold on Saturday afternoons and evenings— 74 (61 per cent) of those with but one street job and 2 of the 6 others— worked until at least 10 o ’clock, and 37 boys (29 per cent), including 2 with a secondary street job, worked until 12, 1, 2, and 3 a. m. (Table 14.) Many of the news boys who sold until 10 or later on Saturday nights were the younger boys— 25 of the 76 selling on Saturday afternoons and evenings were under 12 years of age, and 5 were boys under 10. A boy of 10 who sold papers up to 11 o ’clock said that an older brother took his place after that hour as he was too small to stay down town so late. “ I ’m afraid some of them boys,” he said, “ will hit me in the head and take my papers.” The following are the stories of a few of these boys who already in one way or another seemed to be paying the penalty for their street fife. The mother of a 10-year-old boy who sold until 11.30 Saturday nights but stopped at 7 on the evenings of school days said that he often did not come home until midnight. Among the older boys two brothers, one 12, the other 14 years of age, said that they did not sell later than 7.30 or 8 during the week, though the older acknowledged selling until midnight Saturdays; but a report of the Associated Charities stated that they were selling papers on the street until midnight and that their teachers found them drowsy in school, where they were much retarded though capable of doing good school work. A native white child of 6, clad only in ragged outer garments which showed his skin beneath, sold papers on a https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 78 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK down-town comer until 11 on school-day evenings as well as on Saturdays. He had been selling papers for seven months on a permit which he said had been given him at the newspaper office. His school principal told of seeing him down town at all hours, using newspapers as a pretext for begging. The child himself said that he “ just couldn’t help” asking people for money. T a b l e 14.— H o u r o f en d in g w ork on a typ ic a l S a tu rd a y night, b y age p e r io d ; n ew s p a p er sellers holding a sin g le jo b , A tla n ta , G a . N ew spaper sellers fro m 6 to 15 years o f age Hour of ending work on a typical Saturday night Total Num ber Total...................................................... Street work on Saturday____________ Total reported.____________________ _ Per cent distri bution 10 Under years, 10 under years1 12 1 12 years, under 141 14 Age years, under not re 161 ported 1 138 16 36 52 33 1 123 14 31 47 30 1 29 1 1 121 100.0 13 31 47 Before 6 p .m ..___________________ 6 p. m., before 8_________________ ___ 8 p. m., before 10__________ 10 p. m., before 12_____________ _ 12 p. m. and after_________________ 9 26 12 39 35 7. 4 21.5 9.9 32. 2 28.9 3 4 1 4 1 3 4 4 6 14 2 12 3 17 13 5 4 12 7 Not reported______ ___________________ 2 1 15 2 5 5 3 No street work on Saturday______________ 1 Per 1 cent d istrib u tion n o t sh o w n w here base is less th an 50. The provision of the street-trading ordinance relating to hours was as little regarded as that relating to age. Although children under 14 were forbidden by the ordinance to sell newspapers after 8.30 p. m., 65 children under 14 said that they did so, of whom 28 were under 12 years of age. Fifty-four sold later than 8.30 only on Saturday nights; 10 sold five or six nights a week until 9, some of them until 10 or 11; and 1 boy sold until 10 on Saturdays and until 9 one other night. Almost all the newsboys reported that they sold papers at least two hours on a typical school day— 110 (92 per cent) of those with one street job who sold on school days. (Table 15.) The great majority (81 per cent) worked at newspaper selling at least three hours on school days, and 26 boys (22 per cent) worked five hours or longer. Among those selling at least five hours on school days were two 15-year-old night-school boys who sold papers all day, eight or nine hours or longer, and a 15-year-old high-school pupil who sold from 2.30 to 10.30 p. m. every school day and even longer hours on both Saturdays and Sundays in order to add to a fimd for his college expenses. Some of the younger children also worked excessively long hours. A 13-year-old newsboy sold papers from 3 to 9 every school-day afternoon, another from 3.30 to 11.30, a child of 12 sold from 3 to 9.30 every school day, and a 13-year-old negro boy not enrolled in school but found on the streets was selling five days a week from 11 to 12 in the morning and again from 3 to 7 in https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 79 ATLANTA, GA. the afternoon, besides long hours on Saturdays and Sundays. An 11-year-old negro child sold from 11 to 1 and again from 5 to 9 p. m. every school day; his school life in the early hours of the afternoon between the two periods of selling papers must have seemed to him merely an interruption of his real activities, a suspicion confirmed by the fact that he was retarded four years, having reached only the second grade. Another newsboy who sold papers five hours on school days was in only the third grade though 13 years of age. According to his own statement and the record of the Associated Charities he had worked for some time as a telegraph messenger at the age of 10 or 11, going to school in the afternoon; at the age- of 11 he began to sell papers and even then worked so late that he was unable to go to the office of the association for some shirt material that they had for him. He was described at school as a “ serious child— never smiles’’ but was said to be quick to learn when he came to school. The school principal thought he had injured his voice selling papers, but when the Associated Charities offered to give the family the amount he earned if he stopped selling papers his mother refused, saying that it was better for him to work and that it required no more strength to work than to play. T a b l e 15.— N u m b e r o f hours o f street w ork o n a typ ic a l school d a y , b y age p e r io d ; n e w sp a p er sellers holding a sin gle jo b , A tla n ta , G a. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Number of hours of street work on a typical school day Total 10 Under years, 10 under Per cent Num distri years 1 12 i ber bution 12 years, under 14i 14 Age not years, Under reported i 16i T ota l..------- ------------------------------------ 138 16 36 52 33 1 Street work on school days. --------------------- 119 14 31 47 26 1 Total reported________________________ 118 100.0 14 31 47 25 1 2 6 14 70 26 1.7 5.1 11.9 59.3 22.0 1 2 2 6 3 1 2 4 16 8 1 5 33 8 1 3 15 6 1 2 hours, less than 3 _____________ 5 hours and over__________ ________ 1 1 19 2 5 5 7 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Free from school, with newspapers fresh from the press almost every hour, many boys made an all-day affair of selling papers on Saturdays. Of those with one street job who did Saturday selling 80 (67 per cent) sold 5 hours or more. (Table 16.) Among these were 43 who sold papers more than 8 hours on Saturdays, many of them 10 to 15 hours. For the few boys who sold on Sundays 3 to 5 hours or more was not uncommon. A few selling until a late hour on Saturday night were out on the streets again early Sunday morn ing. Among these was the high-school boy mentioned on page 78, as working 8 hours on school days; although he worked until 1 Saturday night he began selling Sunday morning at 5 and continued to sell until 2 in the afternoon. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 80 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK T able 16.— N u m b e r o f hou rs o f street w ork on a typ ic a l S a tu rd a y, b y age p e r io d ; n e w sp a p er sellers holding a sin gle jo b , A tla n ta , Ga. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday Total 10 Under years, 10 under Percent Num distri years 1 12i ber bution 12 years, under 14i 14 Age years, not re under ported i 16 i Total................... ................................... 138 16 36 52 33 Street work on Saturday.... ............................ 123 14 31 47 30 1 Total reported.............. ........... ................ 120 100.0 13 31 47 28 1 Less than 1 hour._________________ 1 hour, less than 2______ ___________ 3 hours, less than 5________________ 5 hours and over......................... ........ 2 2 9 27 80 1.7 1.7 7.5 22.5 66.7 1 1 2 4 5 l 1 1 3 25 2 10 35 4 10 14 1 Not reported.. .................... ................... 3 1 15 2 , 1 2 5 5 3 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. The number of hours a week spent in newspaper selling were thus often excessive; 99 boys (73 per cent) of those whose only street job was newspaper selling worked at least 16 hours, 62 (46 per cent) at least 24 hours a week. (Table 6, p. 14.) Excluding a boy who had left day school and who sold papers 60 hours a week, the longest weekly hours were 5 9 ^ reported by the high-school boy who has been referred to. A 13-year-old white boy worked 52 hours, and an 11-year-old negro boy worked 51. The latter complained that the weight of his papers gave him a backache, and for that reason his mother would let him “ knock off work” for a day or two now and then. His mother said that he was nervous, but she believed that the work was good for him because it kept him “ out of devilment.” Many of the children working long hours were very young; of the 62 spending 24 hours or more a week selling papers on the streets, 25 were under 12, including 6 boys under 10 years of age. Among these younger boys were a child of 9 who sold papers 333^ hours a week; an 8-year-old boy who worked 293^2 hours, spending his earn ings of $1.80, to quote his own words, “ mostly on candy, foolishness, and stuff, like other boys;” and a child of 7 who worked “ whenever he wanted t o ” but whose hours of selling in an average week totaled 243^. A young white boy, who was 10 years old but was in only the second grade, sold papers 453^ hours a week, staying out until 9 o ’clock on school nights and until 12 on Saturday nights. This child’s sister, a feeble-minded girl of 16, also had sold papers during the winter preceding the study. EARNINGS The margin of profit on newspapers in Atlanta was unusually high. The newsboy who sold on his own account made 2 cents on the daily papers and 3 cents on Sunday papers; the boy selling on a commission for other boys or adult newspaper sellers usually made a smaller profit per paper (see p. 74) or was paid a fixed sum for his work. Of the 144 newsboys included in the study, 107 (74 per cent) https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 81 ATLANTA, GA. earned only in accordance with the number of papers they sold, 23 (16 per cent) received only a regular sum regardless of the number of papers sold, and the others sometimes sold on a profit basis, sometimes for a fixed sum. Almost all the boys (89 per cent) made at least $1 a week. (Table 17.) The median earnings were between $4 and $5, and 58 boys (44 per cent) earned $5 or more. Boys working all day, as several of the older ones did, those selling the 9 p. m. edition pf the morning paper on school days as well as Saturdays, or especially attractive children made $8 or $10 or more in some cases. A little lame boy of 11, appealing in appearance, who worked until 9 on school nights and until 11 on Saturday nights, said that his earnings, including his tips, which were large, usually averaged $10 a week. The older newsboys had the larger earnings. The proportion of those under 12 years of age making less than $2 a week was more than twice that of boys of 12 and over; on the other hand, only onethird of those under 12 made at least $5 compared with one-half those who were at least 12 years old. Earnings were closely related to the number of hours spent in selling. Thirty-six per cent of the newsboys working less than 24 hours a week made less than $2, whereas of those working 24 hours or more a week only 11 per cent earned less than $2. T able 17.— E a r n in g s d u rin g a typ ic a l w eek, b y n u m b er o f h ou rs en ga ged ; n ew s p a p er sellers holding a sin gle jo b , A tla n ta , G a. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Working specified number of hours per week Total Earnings during a typical week 12 cent Less hours, Num Per distri than 12 less ber bution hours1 than 241 Total............ ........ 138 Total reported............... 132 Less than $0.25-----$0.25, less than $0.50 $0.50, less than $1___ $1, less than $2____ $2, less than $3......... $3, less than $4____ $4, less than $5____ $5, less than $6____ $6 and over.......... . 100.0 0.8 4.5 6.1 13.6 7.6 11.4 12.1 7.6 36.4 24 hours and more Num ber 47 62 46 58 Hours not re ported i Per cent distri bution 100.0 5.2 6.9 6.9 10.3 15.5 13.8 41.4 Not reported................. 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. The boys reporting that they usually received tips were fewer than those who denied that tips were customary. Of the 144 news boys 28 did not report whether or not they were tipped by their customers, 71 did not get tips, and 45 did. Up to 14 years the boy’s age appeared to make little, if any, difference in his receiving tips, but boys of 14 or 15 were less likely to get them than younger children. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 82 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK Five of the 11 newsboys under 10 reporting, 13 of the 28 who were 10 or 11, 21 of the 47 who were 12 or 13, but only 6 of the 30 who were 14 or 15, were customarily tipped. The idea that the younger boys were both more generally and more generously tipped was prevalent, as usual. “ I used to get tips every day,” explained one of the older newsboys, ” but I ’m getting bigger and now all my regular customers do is to set me up at a soda fountain or something like that. ” Little boys, especially, boasted of their tips. “ When I was 5 a man gave me a $2.50 tip,” said a 10-year-old child who had been arrested for begging; “ I get quarters and dimes— lots of them,” said a little newsboy who sold on a busy corner with his mother; “ A man gave me $1 once and another stole it out of my pocket, and I never did see it no m ore,” was the plaintive story of another 10-year-old seller. Probably the younger children were more likely than the older ones to get large tips, but the boy of 12 or 13 appeared to be almost as generally favored. NEED FOR EARNINGS That actual need of the money was generally back of newspaper selling in Atlanta was the opinion of several persons in close touch with the newsboy situation. “ The streets have their fascination for the boys, of course,” said the director of a local family-welfare society, “ but the people are also very poor.” “ Small boys whom I have picked up on the streets,” said an attendance officer, “ have begged me not to make them give up selling: ‘ We gotta eat,’ they say.” The Russian-Jewish boys, however, according to the director of the Jewish charities organization, were impelled to sell papers rather by the desire for the money than by any real need. Among the newsboys included in the study the, proportion coming from broken homes was unusually large. Only 63 per cent were from families in which both father and mother were present and the father was the main support. This relatively small proportion of normal homes is not accounted for by the inclusion of negroes, for the number of negro newsboys (8) included in the study is too small to affect the proportion. Forty-three (30 per cent) of the newsboys had lost their own fathers; 9 of these had stepfathers or male rela tives or others taking the place of fathers, but the remaining 34 (24 per cent) came from fatherless homes. In some of these f amilies brothers or sisters bore the burden of support, but 17 per cent of newsboys (23 of the white boys and 1 of the negro boys) were in families supported chiefly by mothers. A 15-year-old boy living with a married sister supported himself. Many of the heads of the families from which the newsboys came were engaged in occupations that commonly yield only a very modest if not a precarious livelihood. In the 144 families repre sented were 20 chief breadwinners in domestic and personal service (almost twice the proportion among all the male workers 20 years of age and over in the city7). They were chiefly mothers who kept boarding houses or did domestic work, but they included also several barbers and porters and several other men in domestic and personal service. Ten fathers or mothers peddled fruit, dry goods, junk, or chickens and eggs; 9 were factory operatives, chiefly in cotton mills or in an overalls factory; 3 drove trucks or taxis. There 7 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, pp. 1053-1055. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLANTA, GA. 83 were 17 proprietors of grocery or clothing stores, a pawnbroker, and a junk-shop keeper. Skilled workmen were represented by 16 car penters, 9 other artisans, mechanics, and machinists, 5 tailors, a molder, a cabinetmaker, a jewelry repairer, 3 dressmakers, and 2 printers. Only 7 chief breadwinners were in clerical positions, rela0 tively less than half as many as male workers 20 years of age and over in the city as a whole.8 The professions were represented only by a negro woman teacher. The other chief breadwinners were in a variety of occupations; they included an auctioneer, a pawnbroker’s assistant, a mother who supported her family by selling papers on the streets, a father who had just opened a small cap factory, an automobile washer, a telegraph operator, a laborer in a brickyard, a ticket agent, a cobbler, a street-car motorman, and a wrecking engineer. As a rule the heads of families seemed to have been fairly steadily employed if the families visited may be considered representative. In these 29 families 19 chief breadwinners had had no unemployment during the year immediately preceding the inquiry, though 5 had been out of work three months or longer. Many of the newsboys’ mothers were gainfully employed. Not counting those who were the main support of their families nor those who supplemented the income by taking boarders or lodgers, 29 boys’ mothers were at work, 22 per cent of the white boys and four of the seven negro. A study of sources of income in the families of wage earners-and small-salaried men in Atlanta made by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1919 disclosed that only 8 per cent of the white families studied had earnings from the mother, though in the negro families more than half the mothers were em,0 ployed.9 The newsboys’ mothers were chiefly factory operatives ^ or servants, but a few were saleswomen or seamstresses or had other occupations. The 29 families that were visited in an effort to get more specific information as to the need of the newsboys’ earnings contained 37 (27 per cent) of the newspaper sellers included in the study. Only 19 of the 29 heads of households reported their earnings for the year. Nine had made under $1,050, 5 between $1,050 and $1,250, 3 between $1,250 and $1,450, and 2 had made $1,850 or more. These were all white families. Only two negro families were visited, in neither of which could the father’s earnings be ascertained. One was a carpenter, the other a railroad porter. The median earnings of chief breadwinners in white families were between $1,050 and $1,250; so far as can be concluded from so small a number of families the amount is somewhat less than the average among the heads of households in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study, which for white families in Atlanta was found to be $1,246,10 the newsboys’ families averaging 6.1 members and the families in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study averaging 5.1. The extremes among the newsboys’ families are represented by the family of a 12-year-old newsboy of W s Idem. » Monthly Labor Review (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), Vol. IX , No. 6 (December, 1919), pp. 36, 38. ic Ibid., p. 36. The Bureau of Labor Statistics figures represent the incomes as of 1918, whereas the incomes of the newsboys’ chief breadwinners are those of the year Feb. 1, 1922, to Feb. 1, 1923. Unques tionably the incomes of an unselected group of wage earners in 1922 or 1923 would have been much larger than in 1918 (the index numbers of union wage rates were 130 in 1918,183 in 1922, and 199 in 1923,1913 being 100, and wages for unskilled labor followed the same trend), so that the difference between the two groups to the disadvantage of newsboys’ chief breadwinners would have been much greater. (See Union Scale of Wages and Hours of Labor, U, S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 404, M ay 15, 1925, p, 17.) https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 84 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK native white parentage whose mother helped to support her six children under 14 years of age by washing lace curtains and made only $321 during the year, the major part of the family support coming from the Associated Charities; and by the family of another 12-year-old boy, also of native white parentage, whose father was a preacher on circuit, was on a State board, and ran a rooming house on salary, his earned income amounting to between $2,250 and $2,650. ■■ In spite of the fact that the newsboys’ families were large and in spite of the large proportion of mothers who contributed to the family income, the median family earnings, including those of all members 16 years of age and over, were only between $1,050 and $1,250 in the 16 newsboys’ families reporting on this point, compared with $1,366 in the white families included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study.11 Information in regard to ownership of their homes was obtained from only 29 of the newsboys’ families. Only 6 of these families reported that they owned or were buying their homes. In this con nection it is of interest that 25 per cent of the dwelling houses in At lanta in 1920 were owned in whole or in part by their occupants.12 On an average the newsboys’ families had five rooms, and the average household consisted of seven persons, so that on the whole, so far as can be judged from the small number of families for whom the more detailed information was obtained, overcrowding was not a problem. According to the records of the Associated Charities and the Hebrew charities, 11 families in which were 12 of the newsboys (8 per cent) included in the study had been aided during the year preceding the study. Only 1 of these was a colored boy. Thirteen other families with 18 boys had previously received assistance. The records of the city warden’s office, which in Atlanta gave quite ex tensive relief, were not available, so that the proportion of newsboys’ families reported as having received charitable aid no doubt is smaller than the proportion actually aided. The following accounts are typical of newsboys’ families receiving any considerable amount of help from charitable organizations: A native white family in which the father was a carpenter was first referred to the Associated Charities in 1914. The family was described as shiftless, unde pendable, of low mentality, and physically weak. The father was continually out of work and expected aid from the association. The family moved fre quently, the four children were often ill, and the mother, a poor manager, was obliged to keep them out of school on account of lack of clothing. Between 1914 and 1923 the Associated Charities had paid the rent several times, frequently provided food and clothing, aided the family in moving, and provided other services. The city warden also assisted. An 8-year-old boy sold newspapers several hours a day, earning $1 a week, all of which he said he gave his mother. He said he had begun to sell papers because his mother needed his earnings. A Russian-Jewish family had been known to the Hebrew charities since 1912 when the parents and three children were living in one room. The father was reported as buying and selling old clothes for a living. Three boys, 10, 13, and 14 years of age, sold papers, but the mother complained that they spent their money on motion pictures. The oldest boy was said to have made as much as $14 a week selling papers but, according to his mother, was “ too la zy ” to continue 11 Idem. The Bureau of Labor Statistics study excluded families in which children were wage earners but did not turn in all their earnings to the family, so that disproportionately few families with grown chil dren were included. It might have been expected, therefore, that the total family earnings in the newsboys’ families would be larger than in the families included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study. ia Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. II, Population, p, 1288. Washington, 1922, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLANTA, GA. 85 doing so. The family had received $50 during the year preceding the study for three months’ rent and $25 for coal. The boys reported making from $7 to $9.50 each selling papers 17 to 33 hours a week. All three said that their earnings were used for food and clothes, though the oldest said that he saved some of his. A native white family whose father had deserted had been assisted by the Associated Charities irregularly since 1912 and had received regular aid during 1922 and 1923 from the city warden, and some help from the Salvation Arm y. An 8-year-old newsboy was the only child. His mother tried to support herself from 1921 to 1923 by selling flowers on the street and by selling furniture polish when she could not get flowers. She said that when the child was with her she could make more money. He himself made 50 cents a week selling papers on Saturdays and Sundays, all except 10 cents of which he said he gave to his mother for rent. A t one time the family had been so poor that the two had lived in a tent in the woods on the outskirts of the city. A deserted mother, formerly a mill worker, supporting herself and her 13-yearold son at the time of the study by selling papers, had been given groceries, coal, and rent by the Associated Charities and the city warden since 1919. The boy said he sold papers because he “ had to make a living” and that all his earnings, amounting to $3 a week, went for food and house rent. A native white family in which there were six children, the oldest of whom was 12, had been assisted by the Associated Charities and the city warden since 1920, owing to the father’s desertion. The mother tried to support the children by taking in washing but had to be assisted constantly by gifts of groceries, clothing, coal, and money for the rent. In 1923 a fund providing $13.65 a week for the year was raised through newspaper publicity. The boy of 12 said that he earned $6.80 a week selling papers between four and five hours a day and until midnight on Saturdays; all of this except 20 cents and his car fare he gave to his mother for the family. Of the 29 families visited 12 said definitely that they needed the newsboys’ earnings. Among the 8 native white families claiming need were 5 in which the mothers were widows, 1 in which the father was reported “ worthless,” 1 in which the father, a carpenter, earned only about $1,000 a year and had five children under 14, and 1 in which the father had been ill for several months. The 3 foreign fami lies claiming need included 1 in which the father was dead, the re maining 2 being supported by fathers, of whom one was a peddler, the other a grocer. The negro family claiming need was also supported by the father, who was a carpenter, and whose earnings in the winter were irregular. Considering all the evidence as to the extent of need among the newsboys’ families it appears that many were probably below the poverty line. Twenty-four per cent of the boys were fatherless; 17 per cent were supported by mothers; 21 per cent were in families that at some time had had to be aided by charity; 6 of 19 fathers or other heads of households reporting their earnings made less than $850 a year; 12 of the 29 families visited maintained that they needed the money the newsboys made, and in at least 8 of the 12 cases the evi dence supported the parents’ claims. These are the families that come to the attention of social workers and philanthropic citizens, causing them to feel that poverty is the determining factor in news paper selling. The proportion is certainly large, larger in Atlanta than in other cities in the Children’s Bureau study of street workers, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 86 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK but it assuredly does not exceed, even in Atlanta, one-third of the total number of newsboys included in the study. The great majority of the boys, though poor, were not so poor that selling newspapers was absolutely necessary for support. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K The proportion (28 per cent) of newsboys in Atlanta who said they had begun to do street work because their families had needed their help accords with the findings as to the extent of family need among them. The need appeared to have arisen chiefly as a result of the death or desertion of the father, though in some cases fathers had been out of work or the families had been unusually large. Only 15 (15 per cent) of the 101 boys with own fathers at home said that poverty had compelled them to sell papers or do other street work. Need as a motive for street work was of no greater importance among the younger newsboys than among the older ones, the proportion report ing that they had gone to work because their earnings were needed at home being the same for boys under 12 as for those of 12 and older. The desire for money, even where there was no acknowledged need, was the ruling motive for street work in many cases; 21 boys (15 per cent) had begun work in order to have spending money, 18 (13 per cent) because they wanted to buy some particular thing (a bicycle, a new suit, Christmas presents) or to put money into the school bank. Thirteen boys (9 per cent) said they had begun to work because their parents had insisted. The father of a boy of 15 had made him sell papers because he had left school and was “ hanging around the streets” ; a boy of 8, whose mother sold papers down town, said, “ Mother was afraid I might get runned over at home and took me down town with her.” More of the parents wanted their boys to sell papers than were opposed to it, though few had any except a financial reason for favor ing newspaper selling. In the 29 families visited, 16 parents approved of the work. However, one mother said that she wished her boy could earn money in a less dangerous way, and two others that they did not like night selling, though they evidently felt it was an un avoidable part of the job. Several of these parents had no stronger motive for encouraging their boys to sell than that it “ was better than loafing” or “ kept them out of other devilment.” One mother denied that her boy sold papers, another was unaware of her son’s selling. Four were indifferent— they “ saw no harm in i t ” or “ it’s all right if he wants to ” — but seven expressed disapproval because of undesirable associates, late selling, interference with school work, the undesirability of having too much money to spend, and the tendency to become unmanageable as a result of the street life. Eleven of the newsboys (8 per cent) had been impelled by their own desire to work or by sheer boredom. “ It’s no fun loafing,” they said, or “ I just wanted to work and be down town,” or “ just wanted something to do,” or “ I ain’t got nothing to do at home after school or Saturday.” Thirty others (21 per cent) had begun in imitation of older brothers or other boys or because others had asked them to help or had suggested their selling, Five said that they had begun to sell papers at the suggestion of newspaper agents. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 87 ATLANTA, GA. D IS P O S IT IO N OF E A R N IN G S The majority (56 per cent) of the newsboys reported that at least some of their earnings helped support their families. (Table 18.) Eight turned over all that they earned to their parents for house hold expenses, and 22 others used all the money they made selling newspapers for household expenses and their own clothing. In addition to these, 5 boys spent all their earnings to clothe themselves. Thus 35 of the newsboys (24 per cent) had none of their newspaper money either for savings or for their own pleasures and amusements. Forty-seven of the 101 boys whose own fathers were living at home helped with family expenses; this proportion was much smaller than among fatherless boys, 33 of the 43 in the latter group reporting that they assisted in the support of their families. The boys who made rather large amounts, say as much as $4 a week, were much less likely than the others to hand over all their earnings for the support of the family, but they were more likely than boys making smaller sums to give something toward family expenses. Including the boys who used all their money for clothing, 92 (64 per cent) helped to buy their clothes. The majority (56 per cent) had some of their money to spend as they chose, but only 4 boys acknowledged that all their earnings were spent on their own luxuries. About half (52 per cent) saved something, among whom were 5 boys who banked everything that they made. T a b l e 18.— Disposition of earnings; newspaper sellers, Atlanta, Ga. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Disposition of earnings : Number Total_________________________________ Per cent distri bution 144 100.0 All for self______ ____ ______________ _____ ___ 64 44.4 Spent for necessities.._______ _____ ______ Spent for luxuries.......................... .......... . Spent for necessities and luxuries......... ....... Saved_________ ______ _______ ____ _____ Saved and spent for necessities____________ Saved and spent for luxuries.......... ...... ....... Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. 5 4 10 6 9 11 19 3.5 2.8 6.9 4.2 6.2 7.6 13.2 Part to family and part for self2______________ Spent for necessities______________________ Spent for luxuries____ ____ _______________ Spent for necessities and luxuries................. Spent for expenses only.......................... ...... . Saved________________ _____ _________ ____ Saved and spent for necessities____________ Saved and spent for luxuries______________ Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. Saved and spent for expenses only................. All to family________________________________ 1 Earnings spent for necessities, luxuries, or both may include expenses of job. [ 2 Subsidiary items show disposition of part spent for self. 75034°—28-----7 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 72 50.0 22 11 7 2 1 9 8 11 1 15.3 7.6 4.9 1.4 .7 6.2 5.6 7.6 .7 8 5.6 88 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK The following cases are illustrative of the way in which the earnings of the newsboys were spent: A Russian-Jewish boy earning $4.65 a week said that he sometimes gave a small sum to his mother but spent most of it. The father was a traveling salesman, and the family lived in a good neighborhood in a comfortable frame house with such comforts and luxuries as French doors, a sun parlor, and electric lights. The boy, though only 12 years of age, had a juvenile-court record and was reported as unmanageable. H e sold papers until 10.30 Saturday nights, in spite of his mother’s objections. A 15-year-old boy in an apparently prosperous family earned $5.25 a week. H e spent some of it for his own clothes, saved some, and spent the rest for ice cream and candy. His mother did not want him to sell papers and said that he was saving to buy a suit with long trousers which she did not want him to have.. A boy of 14, whose mother was a widow, earned $4.10 a week. H e said that he gave his money to his mother for his clothes, except what he spent on motion pictures. His mother said that he used his money for his clothes, school lunches, amusements, and savings. “ I hardly get $1 a week from him ,” she said, “ but I am going to pin him down soon and see if I can. get more help from him, as I need it.” The 10-year-old son of a Polish Jew, who kept a grocery store, earned $6.75 a week. After six months of selling he had $11 in one bank and $3 in the school bank, and he bought all his clothes. His parents corroborated his statement that he sold until midnight Saturday nights. The father said that his business had been bad during the year and the children must help to buy their clothes. A boy of 11, who said he earned $4.50 a week selling papers, said that he gav e, all his money to his mother, who gave him 15 cents to spend and something f o i ^ the school bank. The mother, a widow, said that she could not get along without the money her three boys earned selling papers. She was not sure that they brought it all home, but all that they gave her she used for the family support. This boy was out selling papers until 2 o’clock Sunday mornings. A 13-year-old newsboy said that he gave his earnings of $5.28 a week to his mother to buy his clothes, except enough for a picture show each week. The father, a painter, was reported by the mother as having earned $1,170 during the year, but, according to a record of the Associated Charities, he did not support his family. The mother said that the boy’s earnings were a great help, as the father had been ill for several months, and the only money coming in was what the boy earned. “ H e don’t bring it all home,” she said. H e spends it down town on shows and things to eat, but what he does bring home he gives to m e.’ A 10-year-old boy said that he made $1.35 a week from his paper selling. H e was saving to buy a suit, went to “ a show ’ each week, and put 5 cents a week in the school, bank. His mother said that she encouraged him to save money for a college education, and that he had saved $30, which his father had borrowed when his work as a tailor had been dull. N E W S B O Y S IN SC H O O L Almost all the Atlanta newsboys included in the study were in the elementary grades. Only 8 (6 per cent) were high-school boys, though at the time of the study the elementary-school course Atlanta was only seven years in length, children entering high school https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLA N TA , G A. 89 at the completion of the seventh grade. Three boys attended night school. (See footnote 5, p. 73.) In general, school records in Atlanta were not available by semes ters, so that the last records to be obtained in the spring of 1923, ^ when the study was made, were those for the school year ended ■ June, 1922. As the school-record study was confined to boys who had sold papers during the period for which the record was obtained, comparatively few boys had worked long enough to be included in this part of the study. Attendance. Of the 56 boys who fulfilled the requirements for the record study, attendance records could be found for only 32. The average per centage of attendance for these boys was 91. Eleven had absences of 18 days or more, or at least 10 per cent of the school term. Almost all these boys sold papers from 3 to 6 ^ hours every school day; 1 9-year-old boy sold every morning before going to school, 4 sold until midnight or later Saturday nights. When boys whose street life fills almost all their waking hours except those spent in school have absences of 19 to 43 days, as did these 11 newsboys, a cause-and-effect relation may justifiably be suspected, though it can not be proved by such information as was available. Truancy records were not available for the Atlanta newsboys. Deportment. The average deportment mark for the 35 newsboys for whom deportment marks were obtained was 84 per cent. One boy was below the passing mark in deportment. Although the numbers involved are too small to furnish conclusive evidence, it is inter^estin g to compare the deportment marks of boys working on the streets very long hours with those whose hours were shorter. Of the 12 boys with deportment marks under 80, 5 worked at least 24 hours a week, whereas of the 21 whose mark was 80 or higher only 5 worked as long as 24 hours. Progress and scholarship. More than half (54 per cent) the newsboys between 8 . and 16 years of age were below normal grades for their ages (see footnote 38, p. 22), and only 5 per cent were above the grades that they would be expected to have reached. Excluding the negro boys, 53 per cent of the newsboys had failed to make normal progress. Com pared with all white public-school children of their ages in Atlanta, among whom the proportion who were overage for their grades in 1924, the year nearest to that of the study for which comparative figures could be obtained, was 31 per cent,13 the amount of retarda tion among the newsboys was excessive. The inclusion in the news paper-selling group of a disproportionate number of boys of foreign parentage, some of whom may be presumed to be at a disadvantage in English-speaking schools, does not explain the greater retardation among the newsboys, for the percentage of retarded pupils among the boys of native white parentage was even larger (60 per cent) than among all the newsboys. i, is Compiled from figures furnished by the director of vocational guidance and educational research of ?the Atlanta public schools. These figures include children between 7 years 9 months and 15 years 9 months instead of between 8 and 16 years, but this fact does not materially affect the percentage of retarded pupils. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 90 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K Common causes for retardation in school, unrelated to street work, such as subnormal mentality and poor home environment, no doubt played their usual rôle in the retardation of the Atlanta newspaper sellers. Unfortunately, the results of. mental tests given in the schools were available for too few of the newsboys to justify analysis, and, therefore, whether the boys were mentally up to the average is ™ not known, though no evidence exists for supposing the contrary. The effect of many social and economic factors on the boys’ school progress can not be determined. Some evidence exists to support the conclusion that street work itself may have been one of the causes of the newsboys’ backward ness in school. Newsboys had had more absence than others, one of the chief factors in retardation. Boys who worked very long hours were more retarded than those who spent less time on the streets. Of the 71 working less than 24 hours at newspaper selling alone 37 (52 per cent) were overage for their grades, and of the 59 working at least 24 hours 34 (58 per cent) were overage. Moreover, only 45 per cent of the boys who had sold papers less than a year were retarded compared with 64 per cent of those who had been selling at least one year. The difference in age between these two groups is too little to account for the larger proportion of retarded in the group working the longer time. Scholarship marks could be obtained for only 33 newsboys who had worked during the school year 1921-22. These averaged 83 per cent, the same as that of the newspaper-route carriers, the only group of Atlanta schoolboys for whom similar information is avail able, indicating that the newsboys managed to maintain a fair standing in school. ^ D E LIN Q U E N C Y A M O N G N E W S B O Y S W " The records of the Fulton County juvenile court showed that 12 (8 per cent) of the newspaper sellers, 11 white and 1 colored, had been brought before the juvenile court. Of these 12 boys, 9 had never been in court until after they had begun street work, and of the 26 charges against them 22 had been made after the boy had done street work. The charges included stealing, 9; fighting or disorderly conduct, 6; begging, 4; truancy, 2; selling papers without a permit or underage, 2; trespassing, 2; “ incorrigibility,” 1. Whether or not the newsboys had been in trouble involving court action to a greater extent than other groups of boys can not be inferred from the percentage of so-called delinquents among them, No comparable figures for other boys in Atlanta have been com piled; the impossibility of using delinquency rates for other cities has been commented upon elsewhere in this report. (See p. 27.) A comparison of the rate for newspaper sellers with that for newspaperroute carriers in Atlanta, whose activities approximate more nearly those of the average nonselling boy, is greatly to the disadvantage of the sellers. (See p. 104.) The records themselves give so few details as to throw little light on any connection that may have existed between street work and delinquency. Cases in which late hours, begging, or other factors associated with the conditions surrounding street work play a con siderable part are described in the following stories. Such fa c to r ^ affected 6 of the 12 delinquents. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLANTA, GA. 91 A 14-year-old Russian-Jewish newsboy who had begun to sell papers when 7 had been brought before the court when 10 for selling papers under age and without a permit. Two years later he was arrested for disorderly conduct and selling papers without a permit and put on probation. According to the court record, his parents were determined that the boy should sell papers, though the pro bation officer tried to keep him off the streets. The Hebrew charities reported that although the family was not a relief case the income was small and the boy’s money was needed in the home. The boy, however, said he had begun to sell because he wanted extra spending money, and he spent part of his earn ings on violin lessons. A t the time of the study he sold only Saturday nights from 6.30 to 11.30. The 12-year-old brother of the boy in the preceding case sold papers Saturday evenings up to midnight. He had first begun to sell at the age of 6, and at 8 his court record began with a charge that he “ tied autos together.” Before he was 9 he was in court charged with truancy from school, a few months later with selling papers under age, and when 10 years old with stealing newspapers. A 10-year-old child said he had been selling papers from the age of 5. When only 7 he had been arrested for begging on the streets, and within a year was arrested three other times— twice for stealing and once for begging. A t the time of the study he was selling around down-town office buildings three hours every afternoon and until midnight Saturdays. He boasted of the large tips he got. Two other boys in the family (one 14, the other 12) also sold papers every day and until late Saturday nights. Both these had juvenile-court records, including charges of stealing and begging. The father was an old-clothes man and a taxi driver, making an insufficient income to support the family, which was aided by the Hebrew charities. The mother complained that the boys spent down town the money they made on papers and did not bring it home to her. A very small boy gave his age as 7 ; his mother said he was 8, and the schoolattendance officer said that he had given his age as 7 for two years. He had sold papers for six months, staying out until 8.30 every school-day evening and selling, according to his mother, all day Saturdays and Sundays. He said he hardly ever gave any of his money to his mother, but spent it for food for him self. He bought his evening meal down town every night. This family lived in a dilapidated house, in which they had three scantily furnished rooms. The parents were divorced, and the mother supported herself and five children by dressmaking, a 17-year-old boy giving some assistance. The mother said that she used to worry about the younger boy’s playing truant and staying on the streets and the use to which he put his money, but that she no longer cared. She had not asked him to work. The school principal reported the boy as irreg ular in his attendance, unreliable, “ incorrigible,” and a “ little thief.” He was said also to be a beggar. A few months before the study he had come before the juvenile court for truancy and for selling papers until 11 at night. The pro bation officer found that the boy had been in the habit of spending nights at one of the hotels with a traveling salesman, who said he wished to take the boy home with him. When brought to court, however, the man denied wishing to adopt the child. The court left the boy in the custody of his mother after she had promised to keep him off the streets. The unusual number and variety of beggars on the streets (see p. 69) made street life in Atlanta more than ordinarily unwholesome and dangerous for children, many of whom were at the most imi tative and impressionable ages. The Young M en’s Christian Association at the time of the survey was unusually active in attempting to reach the newsboys. The director of boys’ work of the association was a well-known figure in the distribution rooms, where he frequently went to invite the newsboys to association activities or to recruit members for the newsboys’ club. This club at thé time of the survey had about https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 92 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK 500 members, of whom about one-fourth sold papers. For $1 a year, payable in installments, the boys were allowed the use of the gymnasium afternoons and evenings. Once a week a program of motion pictures, singing, addresses by outside speakers, and other attractions was given. N E W S P A P E R CARRIERS The three leading daily newspapers were distributed to regular subscribers by both men and boys. Several other newspapers pub lished three times a week and a weekly newspaper for negroes were mailed to their special groups of readers. In the public schools 350 boys and in the private and parochial schools 6 boys reported that they had newspaper routes. Two girls who regularly helped their brothers carry papers are not included in the tables.14 R A C E A N D N A T IO N A L IT Y OF F A T H E R S More newspaper carriers than street salesboys were of native white parentage. Only 6 per cent had foreign-born fathers, less than one-fourth the proportion among the sellers. (Table 8, p. 25.) Like the newspaper sellers of foreign parentage, the latter were largely Russian Jews. Compared with the sellers, the carriers included a good many negroes. This does not mean, however, that carrying newspapers was a negro boy’s job in Atlanta; the 38 negro carriers were only 11 per cent of the total number, whereas almost one-third of the population of Atlanta was negro.15 A G E OF C A R R IE R S The Atlanta street-trading ordinance did not cover delivering papers on a route. The carriers were of all ages from 6 to 15 years. (Table 2, p. 9.) The average age was 12.4 years. A large propor tion (36 per cent) were boys of 14 or 15. Of the 108 who were under 12 years of age, 69 were only helpers to brothers or friends, but the remainder had routes of their own, though some of them were hired by men who owned the routes. (See p. 93.) W O R K E X PE R IE N C E Few of the carriers had ever done any kind of street work except carrying papers, though many had delivered for some other paper or had had different routes from the ones they had at the time of the study. Eleven carriers had sold papers; 18 had peddled various articles such as flowers, vegetables, and candy; 10 had sold or carried magazines; and 9 had had other kinds of street jobs, such as distributing circulars. At the time of the study 14 boys were engag ing in some sort of street work besides their paper routes— 5 sold or carried magazines, 4 peddled, 3 made collections or did other similar jobs for newspapers, and 2 sold newspapers. Almost half (46 per cent) of the carriers had had some other kind of work than work on the street, including 29 who had jobs when they were interviewed. They had hoed cotton and done other farm 14 One of the girls was 8 years of age, the other 11. Both were of native white parentage. One carried papers half an hour every week day, the other from 6.30 to 8 Sunday mornings. Both were paid by their brothers for their work. 14 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. Ill, Population, p. 226. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 93 ATLA N TA , GA. work, worked in grocery stores, been table boys in restaurants, tele graph messengers, and soda-fountain boys, and had caddied and worked at many other jobs. The median duration of the last period of newspaper carrying for the Atlanta carriers was between four and six months. A number of boys (18 per cent) said they had worked as carriers without inter ruption for as much as two years, and some of them (11 per cent) had carried newspapers three years or longer. (Table 19.) C O N D IT IO N S OF E M P L O Y M E N T The morning newspaper sold its routes to men, some of whom hired boys to help them. The evening papers had at least some schoolboy carriers. These worked under several different arrange ments. (Table 20.) Some were independent carriers, paying for their papers when they got them, or by the day, like the street sellers, and collecting from their customers, their profit being the difference between the amount they paid for their papers and the amount they succeeded in collecting. Other routes paid the carrier a percentage of the value of the route, which was reported as 15 to 20 per cent if collections were made by the newspaper office or agent and 20 to 40 per cent, usually the latter, if the boy assumed the risk of making collections himself. Thus, on a route of 100 subscribers, the cost to the customer being 20 cents a week and the value of the route therefore $20, the carrier might make from $3 to $8. Carriers having “ ledger” customers, that is, customers with paid-up subscriptions, of whom many boys had some, usually received only 10 per cent of the amount due from the customer. T a b l e 19.— Previous duration of job held at date of interview, by age period; news paper carriers, Atlanta, Ga. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Previous duration of job held at date of interview 10 years, under 12 years, under 14 years, under 12 14 16 Under 10 Num Per cent years 1 Num Per cent Num Per cent Num Per cent distri distri distri distri ber bution ber bution ber bution ber bution Total Total____________________ 356 44 64 Total reported................................ 354 100.0 42 64 100.0 121 100.0 127 Less than 1 year...................... 250 70.6 37 46 71.9 87 71.9 80 63.0 200 56.5 33 39 60.9 72 59.5 56 44.1 75 83 42 21.2 23.4 11.9 12 16 5 14 17 8 21.9 26.6 12.5 27 29 16 22.3 24.0 13.2 22 21 13 17.3 16.5 10.2 Less than 6 months_____ Less than 2 months... 2 months, less than 4.. 4 months, less than 6.. 121 127 100.0 6 months, less than 1 year. 50 14.1 4 7 10.9 15 12.4 24 18.9 1 year, less than 2.................... 2 years, less than 3 .............. . 3 years and over...................... 42 22 40 11.9 6.2 11.3 4 1 11 4 3 17.2 6.3 4.7 13 9 12 10.7 7.4 9.9 14 8 25 11.0 6.3 19.7 Not reported................................ . 2 2 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 94 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK T a b l e 2 0 . — Type of employer, by age period of carrier; newspaper carriers, Atlanta, Ga. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Type of employer 10 years, under 12 years, under 14 years, under 12 14 16 Under 10 cent years 1Num Per cent Num Per cent Num Per cent Num Per distri distri distri distri ber bution ber bution ber bution ber bution Total Total..................................... 356 100.0 44 64 100.0 121 100.0 127 100.0 Newspaper company or agent Self.______ _____ _________ _____ Other carrier______ _______ _____ Self and newspaper company or agent...____________ _________ 46 203 106 12.9 57.0 29.8 3 8 33 8 21 35 12.5 32.8 54.7 18 74 28 14.9 61.2 23.1 17 100 10 13.4 78.7 7.9 1 .3 1 .8 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. The majority (59 per cent) of the carriers included in the study made collections themselves. Boys were bonded to cover somewhat more than the amount of the collections, and each week a settlement was required, the carrier turning in the full amount he had collected and receiving back several days later the amount due him. Trucks deposited the newspapers in bundles at accessible street corners. At least one of the evening papers at the time of the study, the boys reported, required carriers to report daily at the main office on the completion of their routes, generally in person, though a report by telephone was allowed in exceptional cases, and three visits a week to the main office were always required to turn in col lections, to receive earnings, and to obtain the latest list of customers with the amount of their bills. Some of the carriers said that they were required to take out and pay for “ extras” or papers other than those for their regular cus tomers or that the truckmen would leave more papers than the car rier needed, driving off before the boy had time to count his bundle; but few made any complaints on this score. Neither did the boys report that they were urged to build up their routes, though they said they received a small amount, usually 10 or 15 cents, for each new customer, and prizes were sometimes given. One of the news papers in order to build up its circulation hired a number of boys to deliver sample papers in different parts of the city. Carriers had to pay 15 cents for each complaint recorded against them for non delivery of papers, and one boy reported that fines were imposed for not reporting at the main office or for failure to be at the corner when the truck deposited the bundles of papers. The largest number of the carriers (138) had routes of between 100 and 200 customers, and 41 per cent carried at least 100 papers on their daily rounds, the weight of one of which was about 7 ounces. Many of these boys carried an even larger number of papers on Sun days, when the edition weighed about 1 pound. One of the boys and some of the parents referred to the weight of the papers as a good deal of a strain. The mother of a 15-year-old high-school boy who carried 175 papers said that he was “ tired out after dragging those big bundles around,” and that she believed he would do better in school if he were not so worn out by his route, the income from which she felt, however, was a necessity. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ▲ * ATLANTA, GA. 95 R E G U L A R IT Y OF W O R K The carrier who had the full responsibility for a route usually had to deliver the Sunday edition as well as the daily editions of the paper; 265 (77 per cent) of the carriers in the study served papers every day. Those who did not carry their routes every day in the week were, as a rule, helpers or substitutes or were employed under some special arrangement— as to deliver sample papers— though a few boys with regular routes did not have Sunday customers. Eleven boys carried only Sunday papers. Two hundred and ninety-nine of the carriers (87 per cent) worked at least six days a week, <? H O U R S OF W O R K Although the morning newspaper made a practice of giving the paper routes to men rather than boys, some of the men hired boys to carry. Included in the study were 43 who had paper routes on school-day mornings. The hour of beginning work was unusually early. All except 7 began before 6 o’clock, generally around 4 or 4.30, and most of them worked at least an hour and a half before breakfast. Although the larger number of the 36 who began before 6 a. m. were 12 years of age or older, including a number of 14 or 15 year old boys, 7 were 10 or 11 years of age and 2 were children under 10. Five of the morning carriers had afternoon routes. On Sunday mornings 298 of the 342 boys who had but one street job including the boys with afternoon routes, the special Sundaypaper carriers, and the regular morning-route boys, delivered papers. Of these 18 began carrying before 4 a. m. and 196 between 4 and 6. The great majority of the carriers delivered the evening papers— 285 of those with no other street work than carrying and 11 of the 14 with a secondary street job. All except 28 in the one group and 3 in the other had delivered their last paper before 6 o’clock. Even these were generally through by 6, though one who began late and had a large route worked later, usually until 7 or 7.30. One of the boys said that if the trucks delivered the papers to him promptly he finished his route by 5, but that they were nearly always behind schedule, so that he was occasionally as late as 7. Few, if any, of the afternoon carriers found it necessary to carry their routes during the family dinner or supper hour, and the morning carriers usually had breakfast with their families after the morning’s work; newspaper-route carrying, unlike selling, did not interfere with the boy’s home life or develop irregular habits of eating. On Sunday mornings, when many of the routes took longer than on week days, breakfast was preceded in many cases by several hours of work. Carriers in Atlanta spent rather more time on their routes than is customary. Although more than half (59 per cent) carried papers between one and two hours on school days and 16 per cent worked less than one hour, a large proportion (25 per cent) spent at least two hours a day on their routes. (Table 21.) Apparently many of the routes had an unusually long list of subscribers. The boys who collected worked longer hours on Saturdays. They spent several hours in collecting, in addition to the time taken for settling their bills at the newspaper offices. The majority (57 per cent) of the carriers worked at least two hours on Saturdays, including 38 per cent who worked at least three hours and 9 per cent who worked https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 96 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K five hours or longer; 33 per cent worked between one and two hours, and only 9 per cent less than one hour. (Table 22.) On Sundays, when the papers were unusually heavy and a number of the boys had extra customers, the hours of work were even longer than on Saturdays. Only 3 per cent of the carriers could cover their routes in less than an hour, whereas 33 per cent required between one and two hours, 64 per cent were obliged to spend two hours or more, and 26 per cent required at least three hours. T a b l e 21.— Number of hours of street work on a typical school day, by age period; newspaper carriers holding a single job, Atlanta, Ga. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age 14 years, under 16 12 years, under 14 10 years, under 12 Total Number of hours of street work on a typical school day Under 10 Per Per Per Per years1 Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent ber distri distri distri ber ber ber distri bution bution bution bution 342 43 59 119 328 39 56 113 __________ — 121 120 323 100.0 39 56 100.0 111 100.0 117 100.0 51 192 80 15.8 59.4 24.8 13 19 7 10 35 11 17.9 62.5 19.6 14 68 29 12.6 61.3 26.1 14 70 33 12.0 59.8 28.2 4 3 5 14 2 3 6 1 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. T a b l e 22.— Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday, by age period; newspaper carriers holding a single job, Atlanta, Ga. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday Total___________________ ____ ____ 12 years, under 14 years, under 16 14 Total Under 10 years, 10 Num Per cent years1 under Num Percent Num Per cent distri distri 12 1 ber distri ber ber bution bution bution 342 43 59 119 312 38 48 108 ===== 121 - 118 Total reported..... .............. .......... ...... 307 100.0 38 48 106 100.0 115 100.0 Less than 1 hour___________ ____ 1 hour, less than 2—........................ 2 hours, less than 3.......................... 3 hours, less than 5______________ 5 hours and o v e r ........................... 29 101 60 90 27 9.4 32.9 19.5 29.3 8.8 10 18 5 4 1 9 18 10 8 3 4 36 23 33 10 3.8 34.0 21.7 31.1 9.4 6 29 22 45 13 5.2 25.2 19.1 39.1 11.3 2 3 5 11 11 3 5 30 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLA N TA , GA. 97 Although the majority of the carriers spent less than 12 hours a week on their routes, a large proportion (40 per cent) worked at least 12 hours. (Table 23.) Among the latter were 29 per cent of the carriers under 12 years of age. Less than 4 hours a week were needed by 10 per cent of the carriers (including 23 per cent of those under 12) to deliver their newspapers. E AR N IN G S Owing to the different arrangements under which carriers worked there were several methods of payment. About three-fifths (58 per cent) of the carriers obtained their papers on credit, in almost all cases by the week, and collected from the customers. A great many carriers (36 per cent), however, received a fixed wage for their services, either from adult employers or from other boys who had hired them. A few paid for their papers as they got them and made their own collections, and a few were paid varying amounts or collected from some of their customers and received a fixed sum for delivering to others. Seven boys worked as helpers for pleasure, or for “ treats,” or because their parents made them help their brothers, receiving no money for their services. Of the carriers who did no other street work, 131 (39 per cent) earned less than $3 a week. Half the helpers received less than $1, generally small amounts such as 25 or 50 cents. Excluding these, only one-fourth of the carriers earned less than $3. The median earnings for all were between $3 and $4. About one-fourth (29 per cent) reported that they made at least $5. (Table 23.) Losses on account of customers who did not pay were common. Carriers in Atlanta did not complain on this score, however, as did those in other cities included in the Children’s Bureau study where carriers were obliged to make collections, for those who did their own collecting made a considerably higher profit than those who did not care to assume the risk. Boys did complain that they were cheated by the circulation men. “ You have to watch the man in the circu lation department so that he treats you squarely,” said a 13-year-old carrier. “ M y pay is never quite correct. It’s generally less than it should be,” said another boy, adding that many of the boys had told him of having the same experience. A boy who was convinced that the newspaper cheated him said that his father checked up on his accounts and always found that he was given less than the amount due him. The carrier seldom received tips. Only about one-eighth of the 243 boys reporting on this point were usually tipped. An older boy, a carrier for one of the evening papers, said that his newspaper had forbidden the boys to accept tips. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 98 T CHILDREN IN STREET WORK able 23.— Earnings during a typical week, by number of hours engaged; news paper carriers holding a single job, Atlanta, Ga. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Total Earnings during a typical week Working specified number of hours per week 4 hours, less 8 hours, less 12 hours, less than 8 than 12 than 16 Hours Per 16 not re Less ported1 Num cent than hours 4 ber distri Per Per and Per bution hours1Num cent Num cent Num cent over1 ber distri ber distri ber distri bution bution bution Total______________ 342 33 52 Total reported___________ 337 100.0 32 51 100.0 117 100.0 89 100.0 9 19 27 33 43 59 41 28 69 9 2.7 5.6 8.0 9.8 12.8 17.5 12.2 8.3 20.5 2.7 6 8 7 '4 3 1 4 6 12 13 7 4 2.0 7.8 11.8 23.5 25.5 13.7 7.8 4 2 2 3.9 3.9 1 5 7 10 16 27 21 12 18 .9 4.3 6.0 8.5 13.7 23.1 17.9 10.3 15.4 1 2 6 7 6 17 9 11 27 3 1.1 2.2 6.7 7.9 6.7 19.1 10.1 12.4 30.3 3.4 1 1 Less than $0.25_______ $0.25, less than $0.50__ $0.50, less than $1.00--. $1.00, less than $2.00__ $2.00, less than $3.00__ $3.00, less than $4.00__ $4.00, less than $5.00... $5.00, less than $6.00__ $6.00 and over......... . No earnings.................. Not reported____________ 5 89 118 44 6 44 4 1 3 7 6 6 22 1 2 1 1 2 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. N E E D F O R E A R N IN G S The carriers came from families which were superior both socially and economically to those of the Atlanta newspaper sellers. Although the heads of households represented in their occupations practically all classes from the domestic servant to merchants and professional men, their distribution in the various occupational groups was closely analogous to that for the male population 20 years of age and over for the city as a whole,16 and did not show, as did the occupational distribution of the street sellers’ chief breadwinners, a preponderance of the less skilled and less well paid groups. In the manufacturing and mechanical occupations, relatively about as many carriers’ as sellers’ fathers, or other heads of households, were mechanics, artisans, and machinists, but relatively somewhat fewer were factory operatives and several times as many were foremen in factories and superintendents or owners of plants. Only one car rier’s father was a peddler, representing a proportion less than onetwentieth of that for the newspaper sellers, and fewer carriers’ fathers were small storekeepers. In occupations classified under transportation, relatively less than half as many of the carriers’ fathers were teamsters, drivers, and chauffeurs; but eight times as many were railroad conductors, engineers, and other trainmen. Scarcely more than half as many of the heads of carriers’ families as of other newsboys earned their living by domestic and personal service; but more than twice as many had clerical positions and eight times as many were professional workers. The great majority of the chief breadwinners had had steady work during the year immediately preceding the study, judging from m Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, pp. 1054-1055. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ,▲ " ATLANTA, GA. 99 the carriers’ families that were visited. Of the 74 chief breadwinners in these families, 47 (64 per cent) had had no unemployment during the year, and only 9 (12 per cent) had had as much as three months’ unemployment. jk Much more generally than the street sellers the carriers came from normal homes— those in which the child’s own father and mother lived together and the father supported the family. Among the white carriers 80 per cent were in such families, a proportion that is 78 per cent even when the negro carriers are included. Father less carriers numbered 48 (13 per cent), not counting 10 who had lost their own fathers but had stepfathers or foster fathers. The mothers of 34 boys, 28 white and 6 negro, or 10 per cent of the group, were the chief support of their families, about one-half being in domestic service. Besides those carriers whose mothers supported their families, 46 (33 white and 13 negro) had mothers who worked, not including women who kept boarders or lodgers. These represented 11 per cent of the white carriers in families in which some one other than the mother furnished at least the greater part of the livelihood, a proportion very little larger than that found in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study in Atlanta.17 Almost half these mothers worked in occupations classified as personal and domestic, the remainder being chiefly saleswomen and seamstresses. One-fourth (24 per cent) of the carriers were represented in the family interviews— 74 families in which were 87 of the carriers in cluded in the study. The information as to the year’s earnings furnished by 58 of the ^ 7 3 chief breadwinners (one family had no chief breadwinner) showed “ them to be more prosperous than the. average family among the wage earners and low-salaried men of Atlanta; their median earnings (even including those of the heads of negro families, which were smaller than those of the white chief breadwinners) were between $1,450 and $1,850, compared with $1,246, the average among white families included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study.18 Onethird (34 per cent) of the families had chief breadwinners earning at least $1,850. The income earned by all members of the carriers’ families was also above the average; the median family earnings in the 50 car riers’ families reporting were $1,850 or more, whereas the average in the white families included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study was $1,366.19 The carriers’ families averaged six members, the families included in the other Federal study averaging five, a fact that may explain in part the higher income, as well as indicating that the advantage was less than appears, as the carriers’ family incomes had to support a larger number. (See footnote 10, p. 83.) More than twice as many carriers’ families, in proportion to their number, owned their dwellings, compared with all the families in the city—-relatively almost three times as many as among the families of the street-sales boys. (See p. 84.) The carriers’ families had houses containing on an average five rooms and average households 17 Monthly Labor Review (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), Vol. IX , No. 6 (December, 1919), pp. W 36, 38. T w ibid., p. 36. I* Idem. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 100 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK of six persons, so that overcrowding among them offered even less of a problem than among the families of the newsboys. (See p. 84.) Almost none of the carriers came from families that had ever found it necessary to accept aid from charity. Only one, a boy in a white family, had received charitable aid during the year immedi ately preceding the study, and only eight other families, all white, had ever received assistance from charitable organizations. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K Thirty-eight carriers (11 per cent) said that family need had caused them to get a street job. These included a large proportion (29 per cent) of the 58 who had lost their own fathers. Most of the boys (75 per cent) had begun to work in order to earn some money for themselves or to do what others were doing and “ have some fun.” Seventeen per cent had wanted to earn spending money; 15 per cent had wanted money to gratify such specific ambi tions and desires as saving for college, buying a scout suit or a radio, or starting a savings account; 14 per cent had wanted something to do— “ I felt cooped up in the house and wanted exercise,” said one boy from one of the more prosperous homes; “ I wanted to get off from home,” admitted one of the younger carriers; 17 per cent had merely followed the example of other boys; and 12 per cent had started because friends or brothers needed helpers. A few (7 per cent) had begun to work because representatives of the newspapers had solicited route boys. The other boys (5 per cent) had begun to work for such reasons as “ my father wanted me to have a job and not play all the time,” or “ my mother wanted me to get the training,” or “ my mother told me to take my brother's route when^ he gave it u p.” ; . ^ Most of the parents who were interviewed heartily approved of newspaper carrying. Only 4 of the 74 disapproved, and 9 were indifferent, saying that “ carrying papers will not hurt him ” or “ we have no objection.” The parents who disapproved of the work did so on the ground that the papers were too heavy, that boys who worked go beyond their parents’ supervision and control, that “ a boy should just be a boy,” or that carrying newspapers was beneath the social position of the family. Those who were glad to have their boys carry papers believed that the work kept them out of mischief or was good training, making the boys systematic and teaching them how to keep accounts and to understand the value of money, though a few expressed only financial reasons for their approval. Considering the rather high level of prosperity among them, an unexpectedly large number of the carriers’ families which were visited (18 or 24 per cent) said that the boys’ earnings were necessary for family expenses, not counting many who regarded them as a great help, or as necessary because they enabled the boys to have better clothes than the parents could afford, or to take music lessons, or even because without them the boys could not continue in high school. D IS P O S IT IO N OF E AR N IN G S Comparatively few of the carriers (27 per cent) contributed directly^ to the support of their families. In this group were 11 boys (3 per cent of all the carriers) who gave all their earnings to their families. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 101 ATLANTA, GA. Besides these, 17 boys (5 per cent) spent all their earnings from their paper routes on clothing and other necessities for themselves, and 11 others (3 per cent) used all their money to help their families and to buy their own necessities. Only 11 per cent in all had none of the money that they earned to use as they wished. (Table 24.) The proportion of fatherless boys who gave direct assistance to their families was more than twice that of boys whose own fathers were living— 48 per cent in the one case and only 22 per cent in the other. The prosperity of the family gauged by the chief bread winner’s earnings also made a great difference, for of 27 boys in the group visited at home whose fathers or other chief breadwinners had made less than $1,450, 11 contributed some of their earnings toward family support, whereas of 31 boys in whose families the head made at least $1,450, only 7 helped with family expenses. A very much larger proportion of boys who earned at least $3 a week than of those earning less helped out at home. T a b l e 24. — Disposition of earnings; newspaper carriers, Atlanta, Ga. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age. Disposition of earnings Number Per cent distri bution Total_____________________________________ 356 ^Total reported______________ u___ ________________ 354 100.0 All for self_______________________ ___________ 248 70.1 Spent for necessities.._______ ____________ Spent for luxuries________________ _____ _ Spent for necessities and luxuries................ . Saved..................... ........... ........................ . Saved and spent for necessities____________ Saved and spent for luxuries________ _____ _ Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. 17 9 19 25 54 36 88 4.8 2.5 5.4 7.1 15.3 10.2 24,9 Part to family and part for self2—....................... 86 24.3 Spent for necessities....... .............. ................ Spent for luxuries___ _____ _________;_____ Spent for necessities and luxuries__________ Saved.._______________ __________________ Saved and spent for necessities............. ....... Saved and spent for luxuries______________ Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. 11 6 6 7 11 13 32 3.1 1.7 1.7 2.0 3.1 3.7 9.0 All to family.................................. ...................... No earnings____________ ____ ______ ______ ___ 11 9 3.1 2.5 Not reported____________________________________ 2 1 Earnings spent for necessities, luxuries, or both, may include expenses of job. 2 Subsidiary items show disposition of part spent for self. Many carriers were of great help to their families because they bought at least some of their clothing; 67 per cent reported that they paid for some of their necessities, including those whose entire earnings were needed to do so. The proportion who helped to clothe themselves or bought other personal necessities was even larger than ^pKhat (59 per cent) who had some of their earnings for spending money. Only six boys kept all that they made to spend on their own amusements and luxuries. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 102 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK An unusually large number of the boys (266, or 75 per cent) had savings as a result of their work; among these were 25 who saved all that they earned. Some of the carriers had spent or were planning to spend part of the money they made in ways that could not be classified in any of the groups discussed; for example, they were saving for Christmas presents, had paid dentists’ or doctors’ bills, or were earning their school tuition. The following cases, selected at random from the group whose parents were interviewed, will give a concrete idea of ways in which carriers’ earnings were spent: The 12-year-old son (one of six children under 14) of a railroad conductor earning $1,800 a year, made $3.50 weekly on his paper route. He gave part of the money to his mother, saved some, and bought his clothes. Both parents considered the boy’s money a great help to them. H e bought all his clothes, even his suits, “ and that alone is a mighty help” they said, “ with so many chil dren and boys like him wearing out so many shoes and pants. Besides, he buys all his school supplies and lunches and pays car fare. I t ’s only because of his earnings he can still stay in school.” A 13-year-old carrier making $3 a week bought all his own clothes and had some spending money, which his mother said he could not otherwise have had, as the father earned only about $1,350 a year. A carrier earning $6 a week bought all his clothes, went to two picture shows a week, and was able to put something in the school bank. The father, a ma chinist, had earned only $1,040 during the year, and there were five children under 16 in the family. The mother said that the carrier’s earnings “ helped out.” A boy of 12 whose father had earned more than $2,500 during the year in spite of a long illness was said to be of real assistance to the fam ily, as his earn ings of $4.87 a week helped to buy his clothes. In addition, he saved $1 a week and had $1 for school lunches, car fares, and spending money. A plumber’s 11-year-old son made $2.50 a week on his paper route. H e said that he gave most of his money to his mother for his own clothes and family expenses, put something in the school bank, and spent some on baseball games and picture shows. His mother admitted that the boy’s earnings “ helped out som e” but apparently did not regard them as of much assistance. The father’s earnings during the year had been about $2,000, and the family was of moderate size. A carrier making $3 a week contributed some of his money toward family expenses, paid for his clothes, and had spending money. His father, a carpenter, had earned only about $1,100 during the year, and there were four children under 16 years of age. His mother felt that the boy’s earnings were a great help to the family. C A R R IE R S IN S C H O O L Many of the carriers (22 per cent) were high-school boys, the proportion being four times as large as that for newspaper sellers. Attendance. School-attendance records were obtained for 75 of the 108 carriers who had worked long enough for inclusion in the school-record study... (See p. 89.) Their average percentage of attendance was 95, which is higher than that of the newspaper sellers. Only 7 carriers had been present less than 90 per cent of the term (that is, had had https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 103 ATLANTA, GA. absences of 18 days or more), and these absences apparently had no connection with the fact that the boys had routes. Deportment. The median mark in deportment for the 73 carriers for whom deportment marks were available was between 80 and 90, 19 boys having marks under 80, 29 between 80 and 90, and 25 marks of 90 or higher. Their deportment in school appeared to average about the same as that of the newsboys. Progress and scholarship. About one-third of the carriers between 8 and 16 years of age (35 per cent) were overage for their grades, and 7 per cent were accelerated in school. (See footnote 38, p. 22.) The exclusion of the 36 negro carriers in these age groups reduces the proportion who were retarded to 34 per cent, and the exclusion of both the negro carriers and the 18 carriers whose parents were foreign born raises it to 36 per cent. The percentage of retarded, though considerably lower than among the newsboys, was a little larger than that among all white boys of the same ages in the Atlanta public schools. (See p. 89.) Any effect of long working hours was not apparent in the carriers’ school progress; although 32 per cent of those working less than 12 hours a week and 38 per cent of those working 12 hours or longer were retarded, the slight difference is probably accounted for by the larger proportion of older boys in the latter group. The boys who had carried papers for several years (that is, the steadiest workers), were less retarded than those who had had their routes for a shorter time; 36 per cent of those who had worked less than two years and only 27 per cent of those who had worked two years or longer were overage for their grades, whereas only 5 per cent of the first group but 15 per cent of the second were in advanced grades for their years. The results of mental tests given in the schools 20 show that carriers were of about average intelligence. The intelligence quotients of the 147 white carriers 21 who were tested indicated that 76 per cent were of average or of superior intelligence, compared with the norm of 80 per cent, though these included only 10 per cent with ratings that were better than average compared with 20 per cent in the control group.22 2o The tests had been given to all pupils in some of the schools and to all sixth and seventh grade pupils and miscellaneous classes in others, principals and teachers giving the tests under the general direction of the director of vocational guidance and educational research of the Atlanta public schools. The Illinois University General Intelligence Scale was used. 81 Mental tests which in the opinion of the director of vocational guidance and educational research were sufficiently reliable to be used could not be obtained for negro carriers. 83 The distribution of intelligence quotients derived from the Illinois General Intelligence Scale and the degree of brightness that the intelligence quotients indicate is as follows: Degree of brightness “ Near” genius or genius..___________________________________________ Very superior____"___________________________________________________ Normal or average._____ ____ ______ ______ ___ ____ ___ _____ __________ Dull.................................................................................................................... Intelligence quotient 125-139 115-124 85-114 75- 84 60- 74 Below 60 Normal distri bution 1 6 13 60 13 6 1 (See the Illinois Examination I and II, Teachers’ Handbook, prepared by Dr. W. S. Monroe and Dr. B. It. Buckingham, p. 25.) 75034°— 28------- 8 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 104 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK The average scholarship marks were no better than those of the newspaper sellers. Of the 85 carriers for whom information on scholarship was obtained, 2 had averages under 70, 29 had averages between 70 and 80, 43 had averages between 80 and 90, and 11 had averages between 90 and 100. The average was 81. DELINQUENCY AM ONG CARRIERS The juvenile-court records contained the names of but 7 of the carriers included in the study, 6 white and 1 negro— that is, 2 per cent of the entire group of carriers. Of the 7, 4 had never been delin quent until they had begun to do street work. In no case, however, did the offense or the fact of delinquency appear to be connected in any way with newspaper carrying. An 8-year-old boy, who was 11 at the time of the study, had been brought to court for selling papers while under age. PEDDLERS RACE AND NATIONALITY OF FATHERS Ninety-three (42 per cent) of the 222 boy peddlers in Atlanta and 2 of the 17 girl peddlers were negroes.23 Only 1, the child of a .Russian Jew, was of foreign-born parentage. AGE OF PEDDLERS The peddlers on the whole were younger than the newsboys, the average age of the boys being 11.2 years and of thé girls 10.7 years. One hundred and twenty boys (54 per cent) were under 12 years of age, and 46 were 6, 7, 8, or 9 years. Three of the girls were under 10, 7 were 10 or 11, and 7 were 12 years or older. W ORK EXPERIENCE Although 99 of fhe boys had never done any other kind of work than the job in which they were engaged when the inquiry was made, ^&d one to four or more other street jobs, generally peddling, though a few had carried or sold newspapers or done one or two other kinds of street work. Only 2 girls had had other street-work experience, both in peddling jobs. At the time of the study 5 boys had a secondary street job, of whom 4 were junk collectors and 1 had two different huckstering jobs. Peddling, or huckstering, was work in which many children engaged for only a short time. The median duration was between 2 and 4 months for both boys and girls. Sixty-three of the boys and 5 of the 17 girls had worked between 1 and 2 months. On the other hand, » ooy® (31 Per cent) and 4 girls had held their jobs at least a year, including 45 boys and 2 girls who had been working 2 years or longer, 28 boys who had been working at least 3 years, and 13 who had been working at least 4 years. CONDITIONS OF WORK Among the 129 white boy peddlers, 45 were hucksters. A few of these were apple sellers who went about the streets with baskets of apples or accompanied adult “ basket peddlers.” Twenty of the white boys sold potato chips, some of them adding sandwiches or 23 Girls are not included in the tables. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLANTA, GA. 105 pies to their stocks; 14 sold peanuts; 10, candy; 6, flowers; the remaining 34 peddled various other articles, including soft drinks, pop corn, seeds, bread, soap, willow furniture, writing tablets, chicken and eggs, butter, shoe polish, glue, wood, ice, and radio sets. The largest number (39) of the 93 negro boy peddlers peddled coal, coal and wood, or coal and ice, from door to door; 24 others peddled ice; 15, including 1 apple seller, peddled fruit or vegetables; and the remaining 15 sold other articles, such as meat, milk, flowers, wood, brushes, cosmetics, and kerosene. The girls sold candy, salve, toilet goods, and several other articles; none of them huckstered produce. The peddlers of staple foods or of household commodities worked in residential sections of the city; but 46 boys and 4 girls did all their selling down town, and 15 boys worked in the down-town as well as in the residential sections. The boys working in residential sections included a few who sold peanuts and candy to the Sunday crowds in one of the larger parks. The down-town workers included the apple sellers; peanut, pop com, and candy vendors; boys with flowers for sale; and those peddling potato chips and other similar articles such as would be likely to attract persons going to and from offices and stores or passing along the down-town streets. Some of them went the rounds of the office buildings or high-school and college buildings or stood at the doorways of banks or stores or at busy street corners, such as those in the vicinity of the capitol building or the courthouse. The proportion of young children among the down town peddlers was rather large; 7 of the 46 boys and 2 of the 4 girls who always worked down town and 3 of the 15 who sometimes worked down town were under 10. Some of these went with their par ents or with other adults who in some cases confessed that the presence of the little boy increased their sales to sympathetic passersby. Many more of the boys were employed by others (60 per cent) than sold on their own account (30 per cent). Three helped other children, and 20 worked both as helpers and on their own account. The employed boys most often helped hucksters or wood, coal, or ice peddlers, though some boys doing peddling of this kind procured their own commodities and sold for profit, and some selling candy and flowers worked for wages. In a great many cases the employer was the boy’s own father. The father would own a horse and wagon in which he hauled coal from door to door, taking the boy with him to carry in baskets of coal, or he himself would peddle fruit or flowers on the streets and insist on the boy’s accompanying him. In other cases a neighbor who was a huckster or peddled coal or ice hired the boy, but an occasional child said that he “ asked any man for a jo b ” or “ worked for a cripple (don’t know his name), met him in the street and he asked me to help.” One man hired a number of small boys to sell for him in one of the parks, the boy furnishing a basket which the man fitted out with merchandise worth about $1 or $1.50 and which the boy carried out among the crowds. A school principal said that this man was reported as attempting to evade the law against cigarette selling to minors by getting the small boys to sell the cigarettes for hipi and then pleading that the boys were unaware of the law. An occasional case of exploitation by a parent was also found. Probably the most extreme instance of this kind was that of two white boys, one 13 and the other 10 years of age, who supported their https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 106 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK father and a recently acquired stepmother by peddling fruit. The father said he had been unable to work for more than a year on ac count of rheumatism and that he was unable to go out with the boys, as he did not feel like walking so far. “ Besides, they sell better than I can,” he added. He bought apples and bananas each morning, and the boys sold them, walking around down town in the neighbor hood of the courthouse and the stores from 1.30 to 7 on school days and from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. on Saturdays. A t the time of the visit to the family during school hours the 10-year-old child was at home, and his father was getting bananas ready for him to take out to sell. According to the records of the Associated Charities he would not per mit the boys to go to live with more prosperous relatives who wanted to take them. In one neighborhood and school a veritable epidemic of potato-chip peddling was in progress owing to the activities of the father of one of the boys. His only occupation was making potato chips and sandwiches which he disposed of through school-boy peddlers, having sometimes as many as 12 boys on the streets with his goods. In one family a woman lodger who made paper flowers asked the boys to go out and sell them whenever she “ got out of money.” Most of the girls sold on their own account, but several were employed by their parents. i Fights among the boys over their merchandise and their cus tomers occurred frequently. At the time of the interview a 10-yearold boy had a badly cut face which he said had been acquired in a fight with another peddler over merchandise. The mother of a 9-year-old candy seller deplored the fact that the older boys stole the candy out of his boxes because he was “ not big enough to fight back.” Seventy-five boys worked only on Saturdays or Sundays, or both, generally only on Saturdays; and others worked one or more school days, in some cases in addition to Saturday or Sunday; and 96 boys (43 per cent) peddled 6 or 7 days a week. Eight of the 17 girls worked every week day. Early-morning work was rather uncommon; 37 boys peddled such articles as ice, milk, coal, and wood, and one girl peddled willow tables, on the mornings of school days. Of these only 13 began work before 7; the morning selling hours were generally from after break fast to noon, and the morning peddlers were often children who attended afternoon school. A few began early, however— 3 before 5 a. m. and 5 between 5 and 6. Of these 6 were ice peddlers; 1 boy sold milk, and 1 helped his father, a huckster, working from 4 to 5.30 a. m. and going out again after school for several hours. The week-end morning workers, of whom there were 129 boys and 1 girl, almost all working on Saturday mornings, usually did not begin work until after a normal breakfast hour. The majority were not out on the streets late at night. Of the 142 boys working on any school day 101 reported their hour of stopping work as before 6 p. m. However, 31 worked until between 6 and 8, and 10 until between 8 and 10, even on school-day evenings. These late workers included almost all the apple sellers, several flower vendors, and a peanut peddler, all white, working down town generally until 8 and in several cases until 9 or 9.30 p. m. One of these, a 12-year-old apple seller was said to go to sleep in school https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 107 ATLANTA, GA. owing to his late hours down town, and the year before the study the Associated Charities had aided the family so that he and his brother could stop peddling and do better work in school. Among the late workers were 9 negro boys selling coal or ice in residential £ districts until 7, 8, or, in one case, 9 o ’clock. An 11-year-old white ^ boy selling fruit in residential streets also worked until 7 on the evenings of all school days as well as Saturdays. Only 4 of the girls worked as late as 6 p. m., including 2 sisters, 7 and 8 years old, who sold candy made by their mother until 8 o ’clock every school-day evening. On Saturdays a somewhat larger number of boys worked late. (Table 25.) Of the 193 Saturday workers 112 finished their peddling before 6 p. m. Some of these worked only in the morning; but 35 worked at least until 8, and 16 did not stop until 10 or later. These were fruit, peanut, and flower sellers (white boys) who stayed down town in a few cases until midnight Saturday nights, and coal, wood, and ice peddlers and produce hucksters (negro boys), who were out on their wagons until 10, 11, or 12 p. m. Many of these boys spent very long hours on the streets. (Table 26.) Of the 142 peddling on a school day 119 (83 per cent) worked at least 2 hours and 78 (55 per cent) at least 3 hours, of whom 38 spent 5 hours or more peddling in addition to the hours spent at school. Of the 17 girls, 11 worked 2 hours or more on at least one school day, and 3 worked at least 5 hours. T a b l e 25.— Hour of ending work on a typical Saturday night, by age period; peddlers holding a single job, Atlanta, Ga. Peddlers from 6 to 15 years of age Hour or ending work on a typical Saturday night 10 years, under 12 Under 10 cent years1 Num Per cent Num Per distri distri ber ber bution bution Total 12 years, under 14 14 years, under cent Num Per if* distri ber bution 217 46 72 71 28 193 39 67 61 26 Total reported......................... 187 100.0 34 66 100.0 61 100.0 26 Before 6 p. m ..................... 6 p. m., before 8_________ 8 p. m., before 10________ 10 p. m., before 12________ 12 p. m. and after.............. 112 40 19 11 5 59.9 21.4 10.2 5.9 2.7 18 11 1 3 1 43 10 12 1 65.2 15.2 18.2 1.5 37 14 4 3 3 60.7 23.0 6.6 4.9 4.9 14 5 2 4 1 6 5 1 No street work on Saturday.......... 24 7 5 i per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 10 2 108 T CHILDREN IN STREET WORK able 2 6 . — Number of hours of street work on a typical school day, by age period; peddlers holding a single job, Atlanta, Ga. Peddlers from 6 to 15 years of age Number of hours of street work on a typical school day Total Per cent Number distribu tion Under 10 10 years, 12 years, 14 years, yearsi under 121 under 14 > under 161 Total_____________________ 217 46 72 71 28 Street work on school day________ 142 34 41 47 20 Total reported................................ Less than 2 hours________ 2 hours, less than 3______ 3 hours, less than 5......... 5 hours and over_____ _____ Not reported............................. No street work on school day__ 137 100.0 31 40 46 20 18 41 40 38 13.1 29.9 29.2 27.7 7 9 7 8 4 16 10 10 5 10 17 14 2 6 6 6 3 1 75 ................ 12 31 . 24 8 5 • Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Thirty of the 38 boys working at least 5 hours on school days were coal, wood, or ice peddlers, almost all negro boys, but 7 were basket peddlers, white boys selling apples and other fruit, peanuts, and flowers on the down-town streets, and 1 was a huckster’s helper. Many of the helpers on coal, wood, ice, and produce wagons or trucks attended school only in the morning or in the afternoon and worked in the afternoon or in the morning, but a few went to night school (see p. 73) and worked all day— some of them 10 or 11 hours. Several also worked both before and after school. An 11-year-old child helped his father peddle ice 3)^ hours before going to school, begin ning at 4 a. m., and for 3 hours in the afternoon, beginning at 1, an hour after he was dismissed from school. Another child, a white boy of 13, rose at 4 a. m., and accompanied his father to market where he held the mule while his father bought the day’s stock of fruit and vegetables; he went to school, in the third grade, from 8.30 to 1.45, but about 2 p. m. started out on his peddling rounds, coming in at 6. The 7 down-town peddlers working 5 hours or more a day (all under 14 years of age, 4 under 12, and the youngest only 8) started as soon as possible after school, about 2 or 3 p. m., and worked until 7, 8, or 9.30 p. m. One of these, a white boy of 11, worked until 9.30 p. m. every school day. When only 10 years old he had been kept out of school half a year to sell peanuts on the streets, as his father had deserted and the boy was the only wage earner in the family. Most of the girls who worked long hours were candy sellers. Of the 186 Saturday peddlers among the boys reporting the num ber of hours that they spent in their street work, 177 (95 per cent) worked at least 2 hours, 161 (87 per cent) at least 3 hours, and 142 (76 per cent) at least 5 hours. (Table 27.) The latter included 33 boys who were out peddling between 8 and 10 hours and 56 who worked 10 or more hours. About half of those with a working day on Saturdays of 10 hours or more were the negro boys who peddled r coal, wood, or ice, some of whom worked 13, 14, 15, and, in one case, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 109 ATLANTA, GA. 16 hours. The majority of the others were hucksters' helpers. A few of them worked as much as 13 or 14 hours on Saturdays (some of them working only one day a week), but among them were 9 peddlers of peanuts, chewing gum, apples, bananas, and flowers, who sold from 10 to 13 hours. A mother whose 9-year-old boy helped a peddler from 8 a. m. until 6 p. m. on Saturdays, with half an hour off in the middle of the day, said that she had made the boy stop, though she needed his earnings for school books and clothes, as he used to get so tired that he could not sleep at night. Only 4 of the girls worked more than 3 or 4 hours on Saturdays. T a b l e 27.— Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday, by age period; peddlers holding a single job, Atlanta, Ga. Peddlers from 6 to 15 years of age liNumber of hours of street work on a typical Saturday 10 years, under 12 Total 12 years, under 14 14 Under years, 10 under cent years1 Num Per cent Num Per cent 161 Num Per distri distri distri ber ber ber bution bution bution 28 Total........- ------ ---------------- 217 46 72 71 Street work on Saturday------------- 193 39 67 61 Total reported______________ 186 100.0 34 66 100.0 60 100.0 26 9 4.8 5 3 2 3.3 1 4 19 142 10.2 76.3 1.5 13.6 13.6 71.2 6 52 10.0 86.7 21 2 hours, loss than 3___— — — — — 1 22 1 9 9 47 7 5 1 . 1 24 7 5 10 ft fi 26 2 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Twenty-three of the boy peddlers or hucksters were Sunday workers. Of these 15 were ice peddlers, but 6 peddled peanuts or pop corn. All worked at least 3 hours, and 15 at least 5 hours. Of the 207 boys with only one street job, 89 worked less than 12 hours a week, but 57 worked at least 24 hours j 30 of the latter worked 36 hours or longer. (Table 28.) Among these 30 were 19 coal, wood, and ice peddlers (12 under 10 years of age, 6 aged 10 or 11, 7 aged 12, and 4 aged 14 or 15), 1 of whom, a 15-year-old boy going to night school, peddled up to 61/^ hours a week, and 7 of whom (5 attending day school) worked at least 44 hours a week. 1 he others included a few hucksters but were chiefly basket peddlers, whose hours on the streets, school children though they were, m several cases totaled more than 40 hours a week. Seven of the girls worked at least 12 hours a week, including 3 selling candy for a woman who spent 28 hours a week on the work. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 110 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK T a b l e 28.— Number of hours of street work during a typical week, by age period; peddlers holding a single job, Atlanta, Ga. Peddlers from 6 to 15 years of age Number of hours of street work during a typical week 10 years, under 12 years, under 12 14 14 Under years, 10 under Per cent years 1 Per cent Per cent Num distri-. Num 161 distri Num distri ber ber ber bution bution bution Total Total.............................. ...... 217 46 72 Total reported......... ...................... 207 100.0 41 71 100.0 69 100.0 26 Less than 12 h o u rs............... 12 hours, less than 24............... 24 hours, less than 3 6 ............ . 36 hours and over __________ 89 61 27 30 43.0 29.5 13.0 14.5 16 15 6 4 39 17 6 9 54.9 23.9 8.5 12.7 27 19 11 12 39.1 27.5 15.9 17.4 7 10 4 5 Not reported..._________ _______ 10 5 1 71 28 2 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. E A R N IN G S Fifteen boys working for their parents or for premiums were not paid in cash for their work, and 57 earned less than $1 a week. The median earnings were between $1 and $2, but 22 boys earned at least $5. The peddlers of candy, fruit, and floWers in the business districts made the most money. Two brothers, 10 and 12 years of age, whose sister was the main support of the family as the father had pellagra and was partly insane, and who peddled apples from A the time they .left school until bedtime, made $9.50 in one case and * $14 in the other, including tips. The older boy, ragged and appeal ing, said that he took in $2 a week in tips. A 12-year-old flower peddler, who was out from 2.30 until 8 on school days and all day Saturdays, said that he averaged a little more than $8 a week, though one Saturday he had made $9; in this family the father when at work made only $35 a month, and the entire family income, ex clusive of the boy’s earnings, had been only $367. A 10-year-old boy, one of two brothers who supported their father and stepmother by peddling apples and bananas in the neighborhood of the court house, made $7 a week. Contrasted with this boy was a 10-year-old boy who was a huckster’s helper and who said he earned 50 cents a week working on Saturdays. The child’s mother said that his step father threatened to punish him if he worked for less than $1, and that she was afraid to let him know that the child was working, as she was sure he could not earn $1 a day for some time to come. Among the girls, two sold for premiums and four worked for their parents without pay. The others earned from 10 cents to $6 a week, the latter amount being reported by a child who sold flowers on down-town streets. The mother of two little girls of 7 and 8 years said that once the children had taken in $27 in two days selling candy that she had made. Twenty-six of the boy peddlers reported receiving tips; 18 were under 12 and 9 under 10 years of age. Two girls who sold candy in W shops and offices were tipped. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLANTA, GA. I ll N E E D F O R E AR N IN G S A few of the children engaging in this kind of work were from prosperous families, to judge by the occupation of the head of the household. A civil engineer’s 10-year-old son peddled flowers of his own raising several hours on Saturdays, putting part of his earn ings in the school bank and giving the rest to an orphans’ home. The 7-year-old son of a shoe-store owner had asked him how to make money, and the father had suggested his selling shoe polish which he brought home to the child from his store. The 11-year-old son of the head of a department in a large corporation sold flower seeds to get money to feed his pets. But, on the whole, though they represented almost all occupational groups, an unusually large num ber of the boy peddlers were from families of unskilled workers. More of the chief breadwinners (16 per cent) were peddlers than were in any other one occupational group except domestic and personal service. An even larger proportion (18 per cent) were in, domestic and personal service than among newsboys’ chief breadwinners (see p. 82), including more than one-third of the chief breadwinners in the negro families. None of the girls was from a family in which the chief breadwinner was employed in domestic and personal service; two were the children of peddlers. Many were from homes disrupted by the death or desertion of father or mother or crippled by the father’s inability or unwillingness to support the family. Fifty-one per cent of the 93 negro boys and 26 per cent of the 129 white boys were in such families, so that only 64 per cent of the group had normal homes. Twelve of the 17 girls were from such homes. Twenty-four of the 222 boys and 1 of the 17 girls had stepfathers or foster fathers, such as grandfathers and uncles, and 40 (18 per cent) of the boys and 4 of the girls had no one taking the place of a father. The mothers of 12 (9 per cent) of the white boys and 23 (25 per cent) of the negro boys were the main support of their families. Two girls were supported by their mothers, 1 by an older sister, and 1 by an older brother. Exclusive of these and of women who kept lodgers or boarders, 15 per cent of the white boys, 57 per cent of the negro boys, and 6 of the 14 girls had mothers who were gainfully employed. Twelve families in which were 13 (6 per cent) of the peddlers in the study, 11 white and 2 negro, had been helped during the year pre ceding the study by city charitable agencies. Fifteen boys (13 white and 2 negro) were in families which had at some time been recipients of relief. Many of these families had been known to the Associated Charities for a long time, some of them for years. Among them were country people who owing to their failure to make a living on the farms had come into Atlanta, where the father was often unable to get any work. More detailed information in regard to home conditions was ob tained from the families that were visited. In 41 boys’ families visited were 50 (23 per cent) of the boy peddlers. The median arniual earnings of the chief breadwinners in the 17 white families giving information were between $1,050 and $1,250, the same as for the chief breadwinners in newsboys’ families (see p. 83); 5 reported less than $850 as the chief breadwinner’s annual earnings, 2 between $850 and $1,050, 2 between $1,050 and $1,250, 5 between $1,250 and $1,450, and 3 at least $1,450, the highest being $2,400. Of the 13 negro chief https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 112 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK breadwinners reporting, 10 earned less than $850; the highest income in the negro families was that of a brick mason, who had earned between $1,850 and $2,250 during the year. The annual earnings of the negro families included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study were $995,24 indicating a higher level of prosperity for the aver age negro family in Atlanta than that enjoyed by the negro peddlers’ families. Four white families, in which were 5 of the girl peddlers, were visited. The chief breadwinner’s earnings in these families had averaged $1,383. Excluding one family in which the father earned $2,400 a year and the mother did not know that the girl worked, the average was $1,014. A somewhat larger proportion of the peddlers’ dwellings than all Atlanta dwellings were owned, at least in part,- by their occupants—• 12 of the 41. (See p. 84.) It appears that though a small proportion of the white peddlers came from homes of dire poverty, the average home of the white children was only slightly less prosperous than that of the average wage earner in Atlanta. The negro boys, however, were from con siderably less prosperous families than the average negro workman’s family in the city. Seven of the 22 white boys’ families visited, 6 of the 19 negro fami lies, and 3 of the 4 girls’ families said that the peddlers’ earnings were needed to help support the household. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K The peddlers much less commonly than other groups of street traders said that they had begun their street work of their own initiative or because of their own desire to work or to earn money. Only 26 boys (12 per cent) had been actuated by the desire to get money to gratify some special wish or to carry out some special plan, only 16 (7 per cent) had had spending money uppermost in their minds, only 18 (8 per cent) had been drawn to the work because, as an 11- year-old ice peddler phrased it, they “ weren’t doing nothing but playing.” Unlike the newsboy the peddler seldom started to work to imitate other boys or to help boy acquaintances; only 12 (5 per cent) gave this as the reason they had begun to peddle. The need to help support the family was given as the reason for working by 47 of the boy peddlers (21 per cent), a smaller propor tion of those under 12 than of the older boys. Forty-five others (20 per cent) said that their parents had told them that they must work. The great majority of the latter were children employed by their own parents who were themselves hucksters or peddlers and “ needed a b o y ” or who furnished the goods for sale, like several mothers who made candy or flowers and sent the children out to sell them; but a few parents had urged the boys to peddle even when the work was not a family enterprise. “ M y mother said I stayed around the house too much and ought to earn m oney,” said the 12- year-old son of a widow who sewed for a living. “ M y father made me go to work—he ain’t got much money and he wants us children to work,” explained an 8-year-old white boy who sold potato chips, candy, and sandwiches in the post-office building and whose father was a pie vendor. The girls gave about the same >* Monthly Labor Review (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), Vol. IX , No. 6 (December, 1919), p. 38. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 113 ATLANTA, GA. reasons for peddling as the boys; 3 said that their families needed their earnings. In 30 of the 41 boy peddlers’ families and in 3 of the 4 girls’ families visited the parents or the parent interviewed approved of the work jfc generally because of the money earned or because the child’s father ^ needed him, but in some cases because work taught regular habits and thrift or at least was better than “ playing idly on the streets.” Only 3 parents disapproved— older boys teased the child, the associ ates might not be good, the child got too tired. Three expressed themselves as indifferent. The other 5 said that they had not known the children were peddling or denied that they were doing it. A large proportion (20 per cent) of the boy peddlers had begun to work at the suggestion of adults other than their parents. Almost all these adults were the men who were hiring the boys. “ The Greek asked me to help him,” “ The man on the coal wagon wanted me to work,” “ M y mother let me because the man wanted me to,” “ The peddler asked me as I was playing on the street,” “ The man came after me to work for him till I did,” and similar remarks were very common. A number of these were under 12 years of age. D IS P O S IT IO N OF E A R N IN G S Comparatively few (38 per cent) of the boys and only 6 of the 17 girls reported that any of their earnings were used to help pay house hold expenses. About one-fifth of the boys (19 per cent) turned in all their earnings to the family or all except the amount spent on their own clothing, and 2 girls did so. Including 17 boys all of whose earnings went for clothing and other personal necessities, 107 boys ^ ( 4 8 per cent) and 2 girls helped to buy their clothes, and 110 boys ™ (50 per cent) and 5 girls had part of their earnings to spend. About half had savings as a result of their work, of whom 22 boys and 2 girls saved all their money. In the group of 64 boys whose own fathers were dead or away from home, 37 contributed directly toward the support of the family, a proportion (58 per cent) more than twice as large as that (28 per cent) among boys whose own fathers were in the home. Table 29 shows the disposition of the earnings of the boy peddlers. T a b l e 29. — Disposition of earnings; peddlers, Atlanta, Ga. Peddlers from 6 to 15 years of age Disposition of earnings1 Spent for necessities________________________ _____ ______ _______ ___ _____ Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries_________________ _______ ________ i Earnings spent for necessities, luxuries, or both, may include expenses of job. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Per cent Number distribu tion 222 100.0 123 55.4 17 9 9 27 17 26 18 7.7 4.1 4.1 12.2 7.7 11.7 8.1 114 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K T a b l e 29 . — Disposition of earnings; peddlers, Atlanta, Ga.— Continued Peddlers from 6 to 15 years of age Disposition of earnings Per cent Number distribu tion Part to family and part for self2______________ Spent for necessities______________ ______ Spent for luxuries___________ _______ _____ Spent for necessities and luxuries__________ Saved________________________ __________ Saved and spent for necessities____________ Saved and spent for luxuries............... ......... Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries All to family. No earnings.. 71 32.0 12 9 9 5.4 5.9 7.7 1.4 3.6 4.1 4.1 13 15 5.9 6.8 13 17 3 8 ' f t 2 Subsidiary items show disposition of part spent for self. P E D D L E R S IN S C H O O L A few peddlers attended night school (see p. 73)— three white boys, one 13 years old, and two 14, who worked from 6 ^ to 11 hours a day peddling strawberries, vegetables, and ice; and two negro boys, aged 12 and 15 years, who worked 9 Y i hours a day peddling coal and ice. A 12-year-old negro wood peddler interviewed on the street was not in school. The school-record study (see p. 89) included 38 white and 25 negro boy peddlers and 2 girl peddlers, but records could be obtained for only 25 white boys, 14 negro boys, and 2 girls. The average per- £ centage of school attendance during the year was 95, 90, and 85, respectively. Deportment marks were found for 26 white boys, 12 negro boys, and 2 girls; the average for the white boys was found to be 86 per cent, for the negro boys 82 per cent (about the same as that found for street newsboys and for newspaper-route carriers), and for the girls 90 per cent. The proportion of peddlers who had failed to make normal progress in school was very high. Fifty per cent of the white boys from 8 to 15 years of age and 52 per cent of the negro boys were retarded (see footnote 38, p. 22), about the same as the rate for street newsboys in Atlanta but considerably larger than that for the route carriers and more than twice the rate for magazine carriers and sellers. (See pp. 89, 103,117.) Only 6 of the 16 girls from 8 to 15 were over . age for their grades. The boys who worked less than 12 hours a week showed better progress in school than those working 12 hours or more, the percentage of retarded being only 36 for the one group but 58 for the other. Peddlers of several years’ standing had about the same proportion of retarded among them as those who had worked too short a time for their school progress to show the effects of their work; 52 per cent of those who had worked less than 2 years were below normal grades for their ages, and 22 of the 44 who had worked 2 years or longer. However, the number who had worked at least 2 years is too small ^ to furnish a reliable basis for conclusions. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis A TLA N TA , GcA. 115 The average scholastic standing of the 25 white boys for whom school marks were obtained was 82, somewhat lower than the average for any of the other groups of Atlanta street traders, and that for the 12 negro boys was 72. The one girl for whom a record of school standing was found had an average of 85 per cent. D E LIN Q U E N C Y A M O N G P E D D L E R S Juvenile-court records were found for 7 (3 per cent) of the peddlers, 4 white and 3 negro. One peddled willow tables made by his mother, 1 sold peanuts in a park on Saturdays, 2 helped produce hucksters, 1 helped his father peddle coal and wood. None of the girls had court records. Five of the boys (2 per cent) had begun to do street work before their delinquency. The 8 offenses committed were: By white boys—• stealing (2), throwing rocks (1), and ‘‘ incorrigibility ’ ’ (1); by negro boys-—larceny (1), breaking glass (1), turning in a false alarm (1), and idling on the streets at 3 a. m. (1). The boy against whom the last two complaints were made helped a huckster until 10 p. m. on Saturday nights. MAGAZINE SELLERS AND CARRIERS R A C E AN D N A T IO N A L IT Y OF F A T H E R S Seventy-eight boys sold or carried magazines on a route, and 2 canvassed for magazine subscriptions. Only 2 of the 80 were negroes, and only 3 of the white children had foreign-born fathers. AGE OF W O R K E R S The average age of the magazine sellers and carriers was 11.1 years, but 24 boys were under 10 years of age, 10 being 8 and 2 only 7 years old. W O R K E X PE R IE N C E Only 1 of the magazine workers, a boy who helped carry a news paper route, did any street work except carry or sell magazines or solicit subscriptions for them. A number had had experience in other street work; 13 had had newspaper routes, 4 had peddled, and 2 had other street jobs, such as distributing handbills. Thirty-five of the boys had worked less than three months, and 55 less than six months. Fourteen had worked a year or longer, including a 15-year-old boy who had sold magazines from the age of 6. C O N D IT IO N S O F W O R K Most of the children handled women’s magazines, coming out once a month, or one of several popular weeklies; but a few sold or carried such publications as the Boy Scout magazine or trade journals. A few sold several magazines. Almost all the boys sold or carried on their own account, but six helped brothers or friends and one was employed by his uncle to carry an automobile trade paper. The boys were generally supplied by local magazine agents, who delivered the magazines at drug stores or grocery stores near the boys’ homes or at their houses. One agent went once a week to the schools and persuaded as many https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 116 C H IL D R E N IN STREET W ORK boys as he could to take some magazines to sell. Some of the boys dealt directly with the publishing company, which sent them the magazines by mail. The majority (52) worked only in residential districts, including even many of the sellers,, but 28 boys, of whom 23 were sellers, went down town, selling their magazines both on the streets and in the office buildings. The boys who sold or carried monthly magazines worked only one or two weeks each month. Those selling weekly magazines usually worked one or two days a week. In their busiest week 38 of the 80 children worked only on one day, almost all of them on a school day, and 12 others worked only on two days. A few worked so irregularly that they could give no account of their hours. “ No special time,” these boys reported, “ just when I happen to feel like it.” Twentyfive reported working on at least three days; only 9 worked every week day even in their busiest weeks. One boy, who went to school in the afternoon, worked mornings from 10 to 12. Only 13 were out with their magazines as late as 6 p. m., and 10 o f these stopped at 6. Two of these boys went out after the evening meal, selling until 6.30 and 8. The great majority (51) worked less than 6 hours in their busiest week, and 61 worked less than 12 hours; only 9 worked 12 hours or more, 10 being unable to say how many hours they usually worked. E AR N IN G S The money earned was almost negligible in many cases. Prizes and premiums appeared to be the great inducement; some of the boys had earned watches, motion-picture machines, flashlights, electric cars, and other coveted objects as well as a small amount in cash. Of the 80 boys, 5 received no cash, 23 earned less than 25 cents a week, and 46 made less than 50 cents. Only 11 boys made as much as $1 a week. A few (11 of the 50 reporting on this point) said that they received a little in tips. N E E D F O R E A R N IN G S The great majority (84 per cent) of the boys carrying or selling or soliciting subscriptions for magazines came from homes in which both the child’s father and mother were living and in which the father furnished the livelihood. (For comparison of this proportion with unselected groups, see footnote 49, p. 29.) Thirteen children came from families in which some unusual situation existed; 5 were sup ported by mothers, 4 by other relatives, and 2 by pensions or com pensation; 2 boys had lost their mothers. The boys came from families that on the whole were above the average in prosperity. The fathers of 6 were in professional pur suits— physicians, engineers, clergymen, teachers; the fathers of 6 were owners of considerable business enterprises, 8 were managers of businesses, 1 was the vice president of a corporation, 1 was a broker, 1 was a bank president; 15 were salesmen, and 6 were clerks. A number of the fathers were skilled manual workers, but few were unskilled or semiskilled laborers or factory operatives. Only one family, in which the father was alcoholic, had ever received any charitable assistance, and that had been many years before the Children’s Bureau study. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLANTA, GA. 117 Nine families, in which were 10 of the magazines carriers or sellers, were visited. Exclusive of 2 families in which the chief breadwinner’s earnings for the year were not reported and 1 in which the family had lived principally on the father’s insurance, the annual earnings of the fathers or other chief breadwinners had ranged from $1,559 to $2,880, in 3 cases being at least $2,400. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K Only 1 boy, whose father was the foreman of a stone cutter’s crew and whose mother worked in a garment factory, said that his reason for beginning to sell magazines was to help out at home, in hjs case by buying his clothes. The largest number of boys (21) said that they had begun to sell or carry magazines because an agent of the magazines had solicited their services or because they had been attracted by an advertisement for workers. Seventeen had started at the suggestion of brothers or friends, and 15 had wanted to earn money for some special purpose, such as to save in the school bank, to get a scout suit, or to pay for summer camp. Seven boys had been led into the work by a desire to do something, 9 had begun in order to earn spending money, and 6 had been urged by parents or other adults to undertake the job. In the nine families visited the parent who was interviewed ap proved of the work in five cases, disapproved in three, and was indifferent in one case. Where it was approved, the work was encouraged because it taught regular habits and thrift, kept the boy busy or provided an interest, and furnished spending money. Parents who objected wanted the boys to put all spare time on lessons. D IS P O S IT IO N OF E AR N IN G S None of the boys turned over all their earnings to their families, and only 2 (3 per cent) gave any direct help at home. Twenty-three boys (29 per cent) spent some on their necessities, including 1 boy who spent all that he earned in this way. Generally, the boys saved a little and used the rest for spending money. Forty-five (56 per cent) used some of the money for spending money, including 4 who spent all that they made on personal luxuries and 62 (78 per cent) who saved some of the amount earned, including 18 who saved all that they made. SCH OOL A TTEN D AN CE AND PR O G R E SS In spite of the low average age of the magazine carriers and sellers, 10 of the 80 were high-school boys. Only 10 were eligible for inclu sion in the school-record study (see p. 89), and records could be ob tained for only 5 of these. These boys had had an average percent age of attendance of 95. Deportment marks, found for 6, averaged 90, and scholarship marks 83. None of the boys had received less than a passing grade in his studies. Of the 73 who were between 8 and 16 years of age and for whom grade was reported (see footnote 38, p. 22), 16 (22 per cent) were retarded, a proportion that is lower than that of any other group of Atlanta street workers. D E LIN Q U EN C Y Three (4 per cent) of the magazine sellers, two white and one negro, had juvenile-court records. Their offenses appeared to have https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 118 Ch i l d r e n in street work no connection with their magazine work. One of the boys had been arrested at 13 years of age for failing to make returns after collecting for a newspaper that he had carried on a route. MISCELLANEOUS STREET WORKERS O C C U P A T IO N S A N D W O R K E X P E R IE N C E Table 30 shows the occupations and ages of the 79 miscellaneous boy street workers. Of the 9 girls in this group 4 were junk col lectors, all under 10 years of age; 3 were stand tenders, aged 7, 11, and 14 years; and 2 were canvassers, 9 and 14 years of age. Only 2 of the boys had a second street job at the time of the study, a 10-year-old bootblack who sold papers and a 12-year-old junk col lector who helped a coal peddler, but 16 had other street-work experience. Four handbill distributors, a canvasser, a route inspec tor, and a stand keeper had had newspaper routes; 2 bill distributors and a stand keeper had sold papers or magazines; 3 bill distributors, a bootblack, a route inspector, and 2 stand keepers had peddled; a junk collector had helped on a dray; and a stand keeper had watched parked automobiles. T a b l e 30. — O ccu p a tion and age period , m iscella n eou s street w ork in g b o y s, A tla n ta , Ga. Boys from 6 to 15 years of age in street work Occupation Total Total................................................................ . Junk collector_______ ____ _______ ____ _______ ____ Handbill distributor______________________________ Stand tender-------- ------ ---------------------------------------Other______ _____ _____ ____ ____ ____ _____ - ......... 10 years, 12 years, 14 years, Under 10 under 12 under 14 under 16 years years years years 79 12 25 27 15 29 20 8 7 1 15 5 3 2 9 10 1 2 3 11 4 3 5 4 4 3 2 2 6 i Includes 4 boys guarding automobiles, 4 workers on drays, 3 assisting blind men or women, 1 news paper-route inspector, 1 collector of milk bottles, 1 collector, 1 canvasser for newspaper. Thirty-five of the 79 boys and 3 of the 9 girls had been working less than 3 months at the jobs in which they were engaged at the time of the inquiry. Twenty boys (25 per cent) and four girls had held their jobs one year or longer— 7 junk collectors, 2 handbill distributors, 3 stand keepers, 2 bootblacks, 2 boys who accompanied blind beggars, and 4 dray helpers among the boys; 2 junk collectors, a canvasser, and a stand keeper among the girls. A 7-year-old negro boy had accompanied a blind negro woman to her corner and had held her tin cup since he was 5, and an 11-year-old negro boy had accompanied his blind father on his begging tours about the streets for four years, and at the time of the inquiry was being kept out of school for the purpose. R A C E A N D N A T IO N A L IT Y OF F A T H E R S About half the miscellaneous workers (42 of the 79 boys and 4 of the 9 girls) were negroes; only 1 boy and 1 girl were of foreign parentage, the son of a Greek restaurant keeper, who helped at his https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ATLANTA, GA. Mr 119 uncle’s fruit stand, and the daughter of a Polish Jew who helped her father tend his sock and stocking stand. All except 4 of the 33 junk collectors were negroes, as were 5 of the 7 bootblacks, the 4 dray helpers, the 3 who led blind men, and several others. On the other hand all except 3 of the 20 handbill distributors, the 8 stand keepers, the automobile caretakers, the canvasser, the collector, the route inspector, and a few others were white. C O N D IT IO N S OF W O R K About half (15) the junk collectors were hired to do the work, usually by fathers, older brothers or other relatives, or neighbors, and received a fixed sum a day or a week. These boys as a rule went about with an older person in a horse and wagon collecting old papers. Those who collected junk independently usually had a small wagon in which they collected newspapers, or tin cans and bottles. Almost all the hired boys and several of the others (15 in all) worked 6 days a week. Few reported that they collected junk only two or three times a week or irregularly. The majority (17) worked at least 12 hours a week, and among the hired boys 24 hours of work a week and even longer was common. Some of them started at 5.30 or 6 in the morning, working an hour or so before school, or if they did not go to school until the afternoon, continuing to work throughout the morning. Others attending morning sessions of school began in the early afternoon and worked until 5 or 6. A few worked both before and after school. Those who disposed of their own junk made a cent or two on a can or a bottle or from 50 to 75 cents a hundred pounds of paper, netting on their deals about the same as the wages £ paid hired boys. Most of the latter received at least $1 a week for their work; the others most often made between 50 cents and $1 and several made under 50 cents, but a few made considerably more than hired boys. Handbill distributors were hired by stores, newspapers, physicians, manufacturing companies, correspondence schools, and cafés. A few worked in business sections of the city (one boy toured down-town parking spaces, throwing circulars into automobiles), but generally the work was done from house to house. The majority did the work once a week either on Saturday or in the late afternoon on a school day. Only five reported spending as much as six hours a week on the work. Most were paid a fixed sum, such as 25, 35, or 50 cents a day, but others were paid by the hour or the number of circulars distributed. More than half made less than $1 a week, a number less than 50 cents. Several of the stand tenders were hired by market-stand keepers or others, but three boys kept soft-drink stands of their own, in front of their own houses or in parks, and a 13-year-old Jewish boy ran a little outdoor notion stand. Four boys and two girls worked 6 days a week, four who were hired and two who conducted their own busi ness; the others, at most 3 or 4 days. Several stand tenders worked after 6 p. m.— a fruit-stand helper worked from 6.30 to 8 every schoolday evening; the two market-stand tenders worked until 10 or 11 Saturday nights (in each case a 13-hour day); the notion-stand keeper worked until 7.30 on Saturday nights; and a hired stand keeper ▼ 75034°—28----- 9 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 120 C H IL D R E N IN STREET W ORK worked until 7 on school-day evenings and until 9.30 on Saturday nights. All except three worked at least hours a week. The boys made $1.25 to $ , but no girl made more than $ . One of the bootblacks, a -year-old boy, was hired at $2.50 a week by a man keeping a news stand. The others worked on their own account, making $2 to $4.50 a week, including tips. Four of the ♦ seven worked every school day, including two who worked 7 days a week; the others worked only or or 3 days. All except one worked at least 12 hours, and three at least 24 hours a week. Several worked 3, 4, or 5 hours on school days. Only one, the boy hired by the news-stand operator, stayed out as late as 7 on school-day evenings. On Saturday nights the latter worked until 9 and another boy worked until 7. The four boys guarding automobiles in the theater districts worked in the evening. The youngest was , the oldest 15. They worked from 7 or 7.30 until 9.30, 10.30, 11.30, or 12, generally every schoolday evening as well as Saturday nights. They reported making from $5 to $18, getting 25 cents a car and tips. The four dray boys hauled furniture or other articles, sometimes on their own account, in some cases as employees. One worked twice a days, from 9 to 33 hours, usually finishing week, the others 5 or their day’s work about p. m. The three children who assisted blind men and women worked 26 ^ , and 49 hours a week. One was not in school, an -year old boy going out with his father every week day from 9.30 to 5, with half an hour off at noon; on Saturdays the stopping hour was postponed to 7.30. A child of 7 who accompanied a blind woman every day from 1 to 9 p. m. and on Saturdays from to 5, received $1.10 a week. The third boy, also years of age, was employed by a blind man at 60 # cents a week, working from to p. m. on three school days and from a. m. to p. m. on Saturdays, with half an hour off at noon. One of the blind men played a mouth organ, while the boy collected the money in a tin cup, but the others apparently made no pretense of offering either goods or services. 12 6 10 1 1 2 12 6 6 4412 11 11 9 9 8 1 6 N E E D F O R E A R N IN G S Of the 42 white boys and girls, 33 lived with their own fathers and mothers in families supported principally by the fathers, but of the 46 negro boys and girls only 24 were from such homes; thus, the proportion of children from normal homes was only 65 per cent. The mothers of (14 per cent) of the children supported their families, and 27 others had mothers who were gainfully employed, not including those keeping boarders or lodgers. The fathers or other chief breadwinners of two-fifths of the children were unskilled workers, such as servants, janitors, junk collectors, stockyard and railroad laborers, “ handy men,” street vendors, teamsters or drivers, and telegraph messengers. Most of the others were carpenters, cotton-mill operatives or other factory workers, rail road workers, tailors, cabinetmakers, automobile mechanics, miners, ¡policemen, machinists, butchers, and boilermakers. Relatively few boys had fathers who were clerks or salesmen, or managers or owners of stores or other business establishments. Although the proportion ^ in domestic and personal service was more than twice that for all the 12 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 88 ATLANTA, GA. 121 employed males 20 years of age and over in the city, that of clerks was only about half.26 Thirteen families in which there were 14 (16 per cent) of the miscellaneous street traders were visited. The annual earnings dur ing the year preceding the inquiry were reported for 10 chief bread winners. They had averaged $999 for the 4 white heads of house holds (representing the families of 2 automobile guards, a stand tender, and a newspaper-route inspector), and $801 for the six negro chief breadwinners (representing the families of 5 junk collectors and a bootblack). The earnings of the white chief breadwinners were smaller than those reported for any other group of white street workers in Atlanta. The negro chief wage-earners’ incomes were about the same as those in the families of negro peddlers, and smaller than the average in unselected negro families in Atlanta. (See pp. 111-112.) It is possible that families visited, though they were selected at random (see p. 6) and though they represent 16 per cent of the miscellaneous street workers, were a little less prosperous than the entire group of families. During the year immediately preceding the study one white family had been aided by the Associated Charities, representing 1 per cent of the miscellaneous street workers. Prior to that year two other families, one white and one negro, had been in receipt of relief. Parents who were interviewed in the 13 families visited said definitely in four of these families that the child’s earnings were needed for support. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K Twelve boys and one girl (15 per cent) in this group of workers— 5 junk collectors, a stand tender, a bootblack, a newspaper-route inspector, a boy leading a blind beggar, 2 dray boys, and 2 automo bile caretakers— said that they had been obliged to go to work to help their families financially, a smaller proportion than that among Atlanta newspaper sellers or peddlers and somewhat larger than that among newspaper-route carriers. (See pp. 86,100,112.) The following cases of boys who gave this as their reason for doing street work are cited as typical of this group: A first-year high-school boy, acting as route inspector for a newspaper at $6 a week, was the oldest of three children of a street-car conductor living in a well-kept house in an attractive suburb. The father reported his earnings for the year as $1,560, the only income the family had. He said that it was necessary for the boy to earn money in order to complete his high-school course. An 11-year-old negro boy had begun to help a blind beggar several months before the study began because, he said, his father had deserted the family, his •mother was ill, and his earnings were needed. He and his mother lived with the blind man and his wife, a relative, who was also blind. In return for cooking for the couple, the mother received her own and the boy’s food, and in return for the boy’s help they received lodging and 60 cents a week. . An unusually large number of the miscellaneous workers (17, or 19 per cent) had gone to work at the insistence or suggestion of their parents, about half of them because the father’s or an older brother’s work supplied the opportunity. Thirteen boys and 1 girl (16 per cent)— junk collectors, automobile caretakers, bootblacks, stand tenders, and others— had been attracted « Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, pp. 1053-1055. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 122 C H IL D R E N IN STREET W ORK by the work because it was “ lots of fun to do it” (this from a 14year-old boy who stayed out until midnight five nights a week “ watching cars,” and who had run away from home and been m the juvenile court for truancy), or because they “ liked to work.” The desire to have spending money had been the principal motive for nine boys (10 per cent) seeking their jobs, and seven boys (8 per cent) had wanted to earn some money for Christmas, for savings, or for gifts. Their employers or other adults had persuaded 10 boys and 1 girl, chiefly the hand-bill distributors, to undertake the work, and 11 boys and 1 girl (13 per cent) had been led into it in imitation of acquaintances or of older brothers. D IS P O S IT IO N OF E A R N IN G S Fourteen boys and four girls (20 per cent) used all their money for family support or for their own clothing and other necessities or for both. Twenty-nine boys and five girls (38 per cent) gave some of their earnings to their families, including those who gave every thing, and 37 boys and 6 girls (49 per cent) spent at least part of their earnings on their own necessities. Forty-four children (50 per cent) spent some on luxuries of their own, including 6 boys who spent all in that way. Forty (45 per cent) saved some, including 4 who saved all SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND PR O G R E SS In this group of workers were two negro junk collectors one 12 years of age, the other, who attended night school, 14 years— and an 11-year-old negro, begging on the streets with his blind father, who had left school. , , . . . . . Only 16 boys and 1 girl had worked long enough for inclusion in the school-record study. Attendance records were obtained for 8 boys, 2 white and 6 negro. The average percentage of attendance for the white boys was 85 and for the negroes, 92. The average scholarship mark for the 8 boys and 1 girl lor whom reports were obtained was 78 for the white boys, 80 for the negroes, (rather lower averages than those of newspaper sellers or carriers), and 89 for the girl. Both the white and the negro boys had averaged 80 in deportment which is about the same as was found for the boys doing other kinds of street work. The girl had an average of 85 in deportment. . T1 The school progress of the miscellaneous street workers, especially that of the negroes, had been unusually slow— 13 of the 34 white boy workers between 8 and 16 years of age who were attending school, 27 of the 35 negro boys, and 2 of the 6 girls for whom age and grade were reported were retarded. (See footnote 38, p. 22.) D E LIN Q U E N C Y Two stand tenders, an automobile guard, and two junk collectors had juvenile-court records, a total of five boys (6 per cent of the group). No girls had been delinquent. The charge was stealing in all cases except that of the boy watching automobiles, who had been charged with truancy and running away from home. No direct con nection between the child’s work at the time of the inquiry and his delinquency was discernible. Two of the boys had been delmquent before and three had been delinquent after they had begun street work. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO INTRODUCTION The down-town section of Columbus centers around the statehouse and its grounds, forming a 10-acre square, around which are located offices, banks, stores and shops, theaters and motion-picture houses, restaurants, cafeterias, hotels, and various public buildings. The main offices of the principal newspapers are also in the immediate neighborhood. High Street, which passes the statehouse, is one. of the main business thoroughfares. M ost of the down-town news paper selling is done on High Street between the statehouse and the union station, a distance of about 10 blocks, and on the streets sur rounding the statehouse; and many of the juvenile peddlers also sell their* candy, popcorn, and other wares in the office buildings around the statehouse park. The city is large enough, however, to make the young street workers rather inconspicuous. It is only when a small newsboy is seen standing at the entrance to a restaurant or in a hotel doorway after dark on a cold or snowy winter evening that attention is arrested. Much more conspicuous than the boys are the blind and crippled men selling papers on the comers and along the principal business streets. (See p. 127.) The Children's Bureau survey was made in the winter months (December, 1922, and January and February, 1923), when it is probable that fewer children were working on the streets than would have been working in warmer seasons. In June, 1926, a representa tive of the bureau revisited Columbus and interviewed the chief attendance office of the public schools, the director of the boys' work of the Young Men's Christian Association, the director of the Jewish Welfare Federation, a number of boys who sold papers, and the man ager of one of the newspaper-distributing stations, in order to learn in what respects, if any, conditions had changed since 1923.26 Boys selling papers on the streets also were observed at work throughout the day and early evening hours and around the entrances to the newspaper-distribution rooms at hours when the daily returns were being made. According to the information obtained at this time conditions were substantially the same in 1926 as in 1923. Any change in conditions of work reported by any of the informants has been noted in the report. The statistics are those gathered in the original study in 1923. Table 1 (p. 8) shows the number of boys in each kind of street work who reported that they were working at the time the inquiry was made and who had done street work for at least one month during the year preceding the interview. (For details in regard to the selection of the children included in the survey see p. 5.) LEGAL REGULATION OF STREET WORK The Ohio child labor law at the time of the study had no provision regarding street trades. A city ordinance provided that parents who permitted children under 8 years of age to sell newspapers, chewing 28 The inquiry in June, 1926, was confined to newspaper selling and carrying. 123 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 124 C H IL D R E N IN STREET W O RE gum, or “ other wares and merchandise/’ on the streets should be fined.27 The police department reported, however, that in clearing the streets of children found selling after 8 p. m.— which it was reported that they were active in doing— they worked under an order from the juvenile court and not under this ordinance nor under an old curfew law that was in existence. NEWSPAPER SELLERS The study of newspaper sellers in Columbus, Ohio, includes 273 boys under 16 years of age, all of whom had sold papers at least 30 days of the previous year and were selling at the date of the inter view. Several boys said that their sisters helped them to sell their papers, and occasionally several girls were seen selling papers on the streets. But no girl reported having sold papers a month or longer. R A C E A N D N A T IO N A L IT Y OF F A T H E R S Selling papers was more popular among both negro boys and those of foreign parentage than among boys in native white families, for 44 (16 per cent) of the newsboys were negroes, compared with 9 per centpf negroes in the total city population, and 70 (26 per cent) had at least one foreign parent and 20 (7 per cent) had themselves been born outside the United States, compared with 23 per cent of foreign birth or of foreign or mixed parentage in the population of the city as a whole.28 The preponderance of newsboys from foreign families would be even more striking, no doubt, if comparison could be made with children under 16 years of age of foreign birth or parentage, as the adult population undoubtedly contained a much larger percent age of immigrants and children of immigrants than did the popula tion under 16 years of age. As in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Toledo (other Ohio cities where surveys of newsboys have been made) a large proportion of the foreign newsboys were Jews; among the Colum bus newsboys were also small numbers of Italians, Germans, Aus trians, Hungarians, and Russians, and a few of English-speaking but non-American parentage. (Table 8, p. 25.) Although comparatively more boys in immigrant families and more negro boys sold newspapers, the proportion of newsboys of native white parentage was striking in view of the findings in most surveys. The preponderance of natives in the population of Columbus accounts, of course, to a considerable extent for the large number of children of native parentage selling papers, though in Cincinnati, where the foreign-bom population is small, Hexter found comparatively few children of native parentage working as newsboys.29 The news papers, moreover, reported that they made a real effort to recruit boys from responsible and well-regulated homes such as were more likely to be represented by those of the native white population. The idea, also, that the newsboy receives valuable training and is a business man in the making was uncommonly prevalent, owing partly, it may be, to the existence in Columbus of the “ Charity Newsies,” a group of prominent and successful citizens who had once been newsboys and who sold papers on the streets one day a year at Ordinance No. 29056, approved Nov. 22,1915. Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. Ill, Population, p. 784. 2» Hexter, Maurice B.: The Newsboys of Cincinnati, p. 131. *> 28 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Washington, 1922. COLUM BUS, O H IO 125 Christmas time, giving the proceeds of their selling to charity. Whatever the reason for the interest in newspaper selling found in many of the American homes of Columbus a little more than half the newsboys were of native white parentage. • A G E OF N E W S B O Y S The Columbus newsboys were younger on the whole than newsboys in most other cities where surveys have been made in recent years. (Table 2, p. 9.) In spite of the ordinance with its low minimum age of 8, 13 boys of 6 or 7 years of age reported that they were selling papers on the streets. The prevalence of little newsboys in Columbus is partly explained by the custom among the older newsboys holding busy corners of engaging as a helper a little boy too young perhaps “ to go in business” for himself, but boys so littler that the tops of their heads were almost on a level with the counters were seen to negotiate directly with the circulation men in the distributing rooms. The proportion who were at least 14 (20 per cent), however, was larger than in the other cities in the survey where children might leave school for work at the age of 14, but about the same as was found in surveys of street workers in Toledo (22 per cent) and Cleve land (23 per cent). Under the child labor law of Ohio the minimum age for the employment of children during school hours is 16,30 and this probably accounts for the fact that many boys of 14 and 15 were selling newspapers in Ohio cities, as selling and carrying newspapers were among the few things open to them outside school hours. Many of the parents interviewed in the Children’s Bureau study in Columbus expressed the opinion that at 14 or 15 years of age a boy .should be earning something. W O R K E X PE R IE N C E Many of the boys had had some experience outside the job at which they were working at the time of the survey, in street work or other kinds of work or both. At the time of the interview 59 did some other kind of street work; 46 carried newspapers, 6 sold maga zines, 2 tended market stands, 2 distributed handbills, and 1 each peddled, blacked boots, and led a blind man about the streets. A few (26) had some other work in addition to their street jobs, such as delivery work or work in a grocery store or a barber shop; of these 17 were under 14 years of age. About one-fifth of the newsboys had had at least one job at some time in their lives other than street work. Almost half (127 boys) had done some street work prior to the job that they held when they were interviewed, usually either selling or carrying newspapers. Some boys had worked only a few weeks in these jobs, others had held them for considerable periods. An 11-year-old seller of news papers and magazines, for example, had taken a newspaper route at the age of 9 and had held it for a year and a half. A 14-year-old newsboy had carried papers for six months when he was 10. Another newsboy, aged 12, had sold newspapers off and on for a year when he was 11, had sold regularly for a month just before the study wbegan, and was again selling every day at the time of the study; he whad also worked one month in a livery stable when he was 10 years old. so Ohio, Acts of 1921, p. 376, as amended by Acts of 1925, p. 63. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis * 126 C H IL D R E N IN STREET W ORK The most common age for beginning newspaper selling was 9 years, and the next most common ages were 10 and 11. The children of native white parents were about as likely as those of immigrants to begin work under the age of 10, the proportion of newsboys begin ning to sell papers before they were 10 years old being 49 per cent ^ for children of foreign-born fathers and 43 per cent for children of™ native parentage. Unlike newsboys in some cities, the majority of the Columbus boys did not sell papers without interruption for long periods. Only 38 per cent had held the selling jobs that they had when interviewed for one year or longer. The conditions of work (see p. 128) were more exacting in Columbus than in some places, and this may have discouraged many boys from continuing after a few months’ trial. It was not unusual for boys to report that they “ lost money on their corners” and that they were going to give up selling on that account. However, 23 per cent of the boys had sold papers steadily for at least 2 years and 17 per cent for at least 3 years, and some had worked for 4, 5, or 6 years. (Table 31.) T a b l e 3 1 . — P r ev io u s d u ra tio n o f j o b held at date o f in terv iew , b y a ge p e r io d ; n e w sp a p er sellers, C o lu m b u s , O h io Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Previous duration of job held at date of interview Total / Under 10 years 10 years, under 12 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Age Per Per Per Per Per not re cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent ported K Num distri distri distri ber bu ber distri ber distri bu bu ber bu ber bu tion tion tion tion tion i Total__________________ 273 53 70 94 55 271 100.0 51 100.0 70 100.0 94 100.0 55 100.0 1 Less than 1 year__________ 168 62.0 42 82.4 46 65.7 55 58.5 24 43.6 1 Less than 6 months___ 131 48.3 33 64.7 35 50.0 43 45.7 19 34.5 1 53 19.6 9 17.6 16 22.9 20 21.3 8 14.5 53 19.6 17 33.3 11 15.7 18 19.1 7 12.7 25 9.2 7 13.7 8 11.4 5 5.3 4 7.3 Total reported_______________ Less than 2 months. 2 months, less than 4 -.......................... 4 months, less than 6 months, less than 1 year........................... 1 year, less than 2.. 2 years, less than 3. 3 years and ov er... Not reported. 1 37 13.7 9 17.6 11 15.7 12 12.8 5 9.1 41 17 45 15.1 6.3 16.6 4 4 1 7.8 7.8 2.0 14 4 6 20.0 5.7 8.6 17 6 16 18.1 6.4 17.0 6 3 22 10.9 5.5 40.0 2 1 2 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Among these more seasoned workers was a Jewish boy of 15, who had sold evening papers steadily for five years; he had first begun to sell at the age of 8 because he “ liked excitement and wanted spending money.” One of the newsboys had such a passion for sell ing that at the age of 8— four years before the study— he had rum* away from home after being refused money to buy papers and hati stayed away all night, returning with money that he had earned https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUM BUS, O H IO 127 selling newspapers; he had continued to sell ever since. A 13-yearold boy had sold papers from the age of 6, working at the time of the study 46 hours a week. Another newsboy, aged 12, had begun to sell when only 7, saying in explanation of his beginning that “ some boy took me up.” A boy of 14 had begun at the age of 7 ^ i n order to help his family financially; after selling for two years he stopped, but a year later he began to sell again and at the time of the interview had been selling without interruption since he was 10 years old. C O N D IT IO N S O F W O R K A N D E N V IR O N M E N T Organization of newspaper distribution. Most of the newsboys in Columbus sold one of three papers, of which two were evening dailies (one with a Sunday edition) and one was a morning paper. A few boys reported selling out-of-town papers, but these appeared to be sold chiefly by boys of 16 or older. Each of the evening papers issued three editions. Except on Saturdays, when some of the boys were on the streets all day, men sold the “ noons,” issued at 9.45 a. m., and men and high-school boys, as a rule, sold the “ homes,” which came out at 2.30 p. m. The boys included in the study generally sold the “ night finals,” appearing at 4.30 in the afternoon. . . . . An interesting feature of the system of distribution m Columbus was the use of blind men and cripples to sell newspapers. The news papers reported that this policy had originated as the result of the desire on the part of the newspaper owners to cooperate with the school authorities in enforcing the school attendance law; others interviewed said that it had grown out of a movement a few years ^ b e fo re the present study to clear the streets of beggars by giving them legitimate work. The fact that Columbus is something of a medical and institutional center for the State made it comparatively easy to recruit men from the ranks of the physically handicapped. The Volunteers of America, the Salvation Army, and the Ohio State Commission for the Blind cooperated, it was said, by notifying men of the work. Men selling papers usually left the streets at about the time the newsboys came out. The morning papers used adults entirely for the sale of the papers on down-town streets, permitting schoolboys to sell only on outlying corners. (See footnote 33, p. 131.) The system used by the newspapers of assigning boys to street corners was said to have been in existence for about 20 years and was well established. Boys were allowed to sell only on the corners to which they had been assigned (an 8-year-old newsboy with a poor corner confessed that he walked down near the next comer, which was a good one to sell, “ but not near enough to be seen” ). Each of the evening papers stationed a boy at each comer to sell in competi tion. So far as could be learned this rivalry was friendly in the mam. Although boys were supposed to sell only one of the evening papers, a few boys reported that they sold both, and passers-by were some times offered both by the same boy. New boys were tried out on inferior comers and moved to better ones if they were successful. Each comer was calculated to be “ good fo r” a certain number of ^ pa p ers, and the boy assigned to it was given that number to sell. ^ A ccord in g to representatives of the newspapers, their policy was not to permit the return of unsold papers. Some of the boys themselves https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 128 C H IL D R E N IN STREET W ORK said that unsold copies could be returned unless the circulation man was in a bad humor or thought the boy had been loafing on the job, in which case he would require the boy to keep and pay for at least a few of the left-overs and tell him to go out and try to sell them. However, if the newsboy kept on turning in unsold papers he f o r - 0 feited his corner. Some stories of injustice in connection with returns were related. One boy complained that “ they stack you up with enough papers to last a month,” and the newspaper sellers returning to the distribution room of one of the newspapers at settling-up time were observed to have piles of unsold papers under their arms.31 Another newsboy told how the rivalry between two young assistants in the circulating room for a raise in pay had resulted in their forcing the boys to take more papers than they could sell in order to bring up their own circulation figures, and to pay for unsold copies. This, the boy said, had caused “ a lot of quarreling and fighting.” Boys lost their corners also if they did not sell regularly or if they were late. Older boys with good corners hired younger ones to help them sell. Sometimes boys with corners disposed of some of their papers to other boys who sold them up and down the streets, “ bootjacking,” as they called it. At intervals during the hours of selling a truck with a load of papers was sent past the corners to supply the boys with more papers if they had exhausted their stocks. Each of the evening papers required, the boys to return to the office at 7 o ’clock in order to “ settle u p ” for their papers, as it was cus tomary to give credit for the day’s papers until after they had been sold. Of the 273 newsboys included in the study, 160 obtained credit from the newspaper offices and 67 boys paid cash for their papers either at the office or to another boy. Fifty worked as helpers t<ki other boys, 21 receiving a fixed sum for their work. A few boysw worked both independently and for others. Proprietors and managers of the newspapers in Columbus were insistent that they “ had a business proposition” for the newsboys. It is certainly true that the system of assigning corners encouraged promptness and regularity; that a certain amount of supervision over the work was provided through the periodical rounds of the truck supplying boys at the corners with additional papers,^ and that a< degree of responsibility was inculcated through the giving of credit and the requirement that the boys return at a fixed hour each even ing to settle the day’s accounts. One of the papers endeavored to foster an esprit de corps among the boys and to strengthen their loyalty to the paper by issuing a miniature newspaper, chiefly for carriers but containing a section known as “ Street boys column” for the sellers, with short items about the sales of different newsboys and their successes and failures, All the papers operated substations and branch offices, so that the majority of the boys were not obliged to go down town to the main distributing offices. Most of the branch offices were in small stores usually candy, stationery, or tobacco stores— and were in charge of the proprietors of the stores. Boys of high-school age working on a salary had charge of most of the substations, though in a few instances men, some of them old employees of the newspapers, managed substations. Both substations and branch offices were to some extent under t h ^ si This observation was made in June, 1926. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 129 supervision of the circulation managers for their districts, but the newsboys worked directly under the person in charge, who gave credit and assigned corners. As many as 30 boys, carriers and sellers, worked from some of the substations and as many as 10 from some of the branch offices. The boys called at these offices for their * papers at distribution hours, were given numbers in the order of their application, later receiving their assignments and papers in that order, and did the necessary inserting (or “ shoving,” as putting together the different sections of the newspaper was called in Colum bus)— followed the same procedure, in a word, as boys calling at the main offices. M ost of the substations and branch offices were visited by a repre sentative of the Children’s Bureau. The substations were small, separate buildings, many of them new tin shanties (the system of substations had been in operation only about 18 months), usually clean and in good order. Those visited were in residential neighbor hoods, with entrances on the street. It was reported to the Children’s Bureau by the local parent-teacher association that one of the parents had complained that whisky had been in the possession of boys at one of the substations, and that complaints had been made regarding wrestling among the boys, the “ hanging about” of girls, and bad language. No improprieties of any kind were observed by the Children’s Bureau representative at any of the stations or branches visited during distributing hours. | . . " . The system of substations, though subject to abuse if the substa tions are in undesirable buildings or neighborhoods ox are in charge of persons likely to have a bad influence over the boys in their charge, appeared to minimize the disadvantages of bringing the boys to a * central place. . . . Each newspaper had also a distributing room at the mam office in charge of a manager of street sales. Newsboys did not go to the main office of the morning paper because of the rule excluding schoolboys from selling the morning paper in the down-town section. But the main offices of the evening daffies were patronized by the down-town sellers. These were rooms on the ground floor of the newspaper buildings opening on narrow, alleylike side streets. At distribu tion hours thè places were noisy and confused, the boys pushing and jostling each other about and shouting for their papers and their assignments, the confusion being increased by the fact that each newsboy was obliged to “ shove,” or put together the different sections of the papers. , The newsboys here were the typical down-town group, much rougher in appearance and manners than the boys going_ to the substations. Many of the parents expressed disapproval of the main offices o f the newspapers because of the “ roughness” or “ badness” of the boys going there. According to a 13-year-old boy, who ob tained his papers at one of the main offices, it was frequented by a “ rough crowd— they throw you around and hit you.” Swearing and vulgar talk were indulged in and smoking and gambling went on, despite the efforts of the management to prevent it. One of the managers said that after repeated warnings to the boys to stop crap shooting he had had the police raid the place and some arrests had * been made, but that, even since then, he had had occasion to con fiscate dice from some of the boys. An unusually bright 12-year-old https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 130 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K newsboy, after describing the fighting and gambling that went on m and around the distributing rooms, said that gambling among the bi?yS more common there than elsewhere because the boys when they did not make as much money on their papers as they expected took a chance/7 to use his words, on making up the amount by pitching pennies and shooting dice. The employees in these offices appeared to be, for the most part, steady, responsible men. One of the newspaper managers maintamed that Columbus newspapers were able to get a better type of man for their part-time work than the newspapers in some cities because they were able to hire university students for much of this work. The newsboys did not come in contact in the down-town oJwcqs with the men who sold newspapers on the streets, owing to the fact that almost none of these men sold the late editions that most of the boys sold.32 Street life. The great majority of the newsboys worked in business or semi business districts, only 50 (18 per cent) selling solely in residential districts. Boys sold papers in and around office buildings, at car barns, railroad shops, clubs, markets, railroad stations, hotels, steel mills, theaters, and up and down all the principal thoroughfares. The most popular down-town section was around the statehouse; between 5 and 6 o clock one February afternoon 67 newsboys under 16 years of age were interviewed by agents of the Children’s Bureau on the street^ in the vicinity of the statehouse and between the statehouse and a few blocks north of the station. Even among boys in the less crowded sections of the city “ hopping cars” was an established practice. By agreement with the s tr e e t-^ car companies, newsboys were allowed to ride one block free of charge if they displayed a badge. The badge was furnished by the newspaper office, a deposit in some cases as high as $1 being required (the deposit was refunded when the badge was returned), though some boys reported that the badge was loaned without a deposit. That this feature of street life was much prized by some of the boys goes without saying. “ Hopping cars is all the fun I want” was a typical remark; or, from a disillusioned boy, “ I thought selling papers was nothing but hopping cars.” Many of the parents, however, expressed their fears of automobile and street-car accidents when their boys were selling on the cars or in the crowded down-town section. That their fears were not without foundation is shown by the story of one boy who had been injured while selling newspapers on street cars. At 12 years of age he had been “ hopping cars” for 5 years, but the spring before the Children’s Bureau study, while getting off a car with his papers, he had been struck by an automobile, he said, receiving such severe injuries that an operation had been necessary and he still suffered with pains in his head. Although it was chiefly dangers from traffic that parents feared, one of the news boys, 9 years of age, had been hit by a freight elevator in an office building where he had been selling papers, and as a result he had been out of school for 12 weeks. 33 In the summer of 1926 when hoys sold on the streets all day, as it was vacation time, some of the newsboys complained that negro men selling papers on the comers hit the boys and fought tthem, accusing them of “ stealing” their sales. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 131 Because of the hours during which boys sold (see pp. 132-133) the majority of the newsboys selling evening papers were able to have their meals at home, though the 7 o ’clock “ settling u p ” made it impossible for many of the boys to have dinner with their families. They usually had this meal alone between 7 and 8, with “ something hoV’ that their mothers had kept for them. A few boys, perhaps half a dozen, ate dinner down town regularly. More bought their Saturday lunch or dinner at a restaurant. Among boys selling in the morning some instances of what appeared to be real hardship in regard to meals were reported. A 14-year-old boy whose morning selling hours were from 4.45 to 7.30 never ate breakfast until he had sold his last paper. “ You get used to it,” he said. A 13-year-old boy sold for an hour or so before buying his 10-cent breakfast. A 12-year-old boy who sold out-of-town papers 11 hours on Sundays’ had a hot breakfast before setting out between 5 and 6 a. m. and did not eat again until he returned home at 5 in the afternoon. Another newsboy, only 11 years of age, who sold 10 hours on Sundays, ate no breakfast, getting his first meal after 1 p. m. Another ate nothing between his 3 a. m. breakfast and his 2 o’clock dinner. “ If you’re making money,” said one of the boys, “ you don’t feel hungry.” REGULARITY OF W ORK The assignment of the best street corners to boys who sold papers every day offered an incentive to regular work that is lacking where the occasional seller may compete on equal terms with the boy who makes selling a daily occupation. Whether or not this is the explana tion of their regularity, a larger proportion of the Columbus news boys sold six or seven days a week than has been found to be the case among newsboys in some other cities. One hundred and ninety-eight boys (73 per cent) sold every school day and either Saturday or Sunday or both. Only 30 boys (11 per cent) sold papers only on Saturday or Sunday or both. HOURS OF W ORK About half the boys (136) sold morning papers— the majority only on Sunday, but 51 reported selling on school days.33 More boys (193) sold evening papers, including 50 who also sold morning papers, though only 4 of these sold both morning and afternoon on school days. Morning hours were early. Most commonly on school days news boys were out on the streets selling between 5 and 6 a. m.; 34 of the 51 reporting selling on school days began before 6 and 11* before 5, all except 5 of the 34 going out every school day. Their hours were also long. All except 2 of the 34 beginning before 6 o’clock sold papers for two hours or more, the great majority (23) for at least three hours, before going to school. The Sunday newsboys were not obliged to be out so early as those selling on week days. But 41 boys began selling Sunday papers before 6 a. m., among them several who reported having their Sunday breakfast at 3 or 4 o’clock. 33 In June, 1926, it was reported that the morning newspaper had stationed boxes around the outlying sections of the city, with one newsboy in charge of a number of boxes, so that the number of boys selling the morning paper may have decreased. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 132 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K For boys to be out selling papers late at night was unusual in Colum bus. (Table 3, p. 11.) As both the evening newspapers required a settlement at 7 o’clock,34 that hour was the most common for stopping. Of the 163 boys selling the evening dailies and doing no other street work 78 stopped selling between 7 and 8 o ’clock, usually at 7 or shortly after the hour, and 30 stopped between 6 and 7, usually just before 7. The 34 newsboys selling evening papers and also carrying on some other street work stopped at about the same hours as the others, as their street jobs were often carried on simultaneously. The 21 boys in both groups who reported selling until at least 8 o ’clock— 12 of whom said that they sold papers until 10 o ’clock or later on school nights— were chiefly the boys who bought papers from other boys on the street and so had no occasion to return to the newspaper office to settle for their papers. Among them, however, were some who obtained papers directly from the newspaper offices. One of these said that he settled for his papers at 7 and then returned to the streets to sell until he had disposed of those left on his hands, working usually until about 9. A 10-year-old white boy reporting that »he obtained his papers at the main office on credit nevertheless said that he sold until 9 or 10 o’clock, working near the statehouse with a younger negro boy, earning, he said, “ a tin can half full of money.” A few of the other boys selling until 8 or later got their papers at branch offices; one boy said that the branch from which he worked did not close until 9 and that he usually stayed out as late as that. Other boys owed their late hours to some unusual circumstance; one boy, for example, sold a Greek newspaper, coming in on a late train, until 9.30 p. m. every week day. In addition to the 7 o’clock rule of the newspaper management, another factor in sending the newsboys home earlier than in some places was the stand taken by the police department in clearing the streets of children out after 8 p. m. (See p. 124.) Only a few boys, therefore, were out on the streets late at night, but though the 7 o’clock hour for settling up operated to' send boys home earlier than they might otherwise have gone it also kept out until that hour many boys who might have left the streets earlier if they could have done so. The presence of many small boys on the streets after 6 o’clock in the evening, especially in bad weather, was particularly noticeable during the winter months when by 6 or 7 it has already been dark for an hour or two. “ The boss won’t let us stop until 7,” or “ If I sell all my papers before 7 I have to take more,” and similar remarks were very common. In connection with the subject of late hours the statement of one of the circulation managers in regard to “ extras” is interesting. When an extra paper came out, according to this statement, the newsboys in the outlying neighborhoods were called and notified that a certain number of papers were being sent to them. “ A boy takes out 100 papers,” said the manager, “ jumps around his block, the papers are gone, he is home in bed in no time.” Presumably such a call might come at any hour of the night, though it was, of course, of comparatively rare occurrence. Practically no late Saturday night selling was found among school boys in Columbus. A patrol on High Street one Saturday night 3* The hour for settlement was reported as 7.30 in the summer. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis A ^ ^ 133 COLUMBUS, OHIO ht discovered only seven boys out as late as 7.50 p. m., of whom three were boys of 14 or 15 and three were about 12, though one was a child of 6, from whom a newspaper was bought after 8 p. m. the same evening. By 10.30 only four boys (the older ones) were out. Several boys included in the survey sold Chicago, Pittsburgh, and other out-of-town papers until 12 or later Saturday nights. One 13-yearold boy, the son of a rabbi, started selling at 4 o ’clock Saturday afternoon, remaining on his corner down town until 12.30; he then went -to the agent’s, where he ate the lunch that he had taken with him from home and went to sleep “ on a bag under a bench” until the agent had made up his accounts, when he took him home about 3.30 or 4 a. m. Sunday. The child when seen on a Monday morning in December had a very bad cold and was very hoarse from “ holler ing.” One other boy reported that he slept at this agent’s after midnight selling. If Columbus newsboys, on the whole, did not sell at particularly undesirable times they were on the streets a great many hours. (Table 32.) Of the 186 boys whose only street work was selling papers and who worked on school days, 83 per cent worked two hours or more a day and 58 per cent worked at least three hours. Those who sold papers in connection with some other street job did not sell quite such long hours. The fact that in Columbus boys selling evening papers had to sell a certain number of papers or lose money and also that the settlement hour was 7 probably explains the unusually long hours. T a b l e 32.— Number of hours of street work on a typical school day, by age period; newspaper sellers holding a single job, Columbus, Ohio # Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Number of hours of street work on a typical school day 12 years, under 14 Total 10 Under years, 10 under cent years1 121 Num Per distri ber bution 14 Age years, not re under cent ported i Num Per 161 distri ber bution Total_____________________ 214 47 54 69 43 Street work on school days_______ 186 40 48 60 38 Total reported_______________ 185 100.0 40 47 60 100.0 38 Less than 1 hour.......... ...... 1 hour, less than 2________ 2 hours, less than 3............ 3 hours, less than 5________ 5 hours and over__________ 7 24 46 94 14 3.8 13.0 24.9 50.8 7.6 2 6 11 19 2 4 10 14 18 1 1 6 13 33 7 1.7 10.0 21.7 55.0 11.7 2 8 24 4 No street work on school days........ 28 7 6 1 1 1 9 5 1 i Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 5(). On Saturdays the hours were even longer, for the boys, not having to go to school, could sell the earlier editions of the evening papers.35 * 38 All-day selling was common during the summer vacation. In June, 1926, boys were observed selling papers on the streets throughout the day, some of them provided with small packing boxes on which to sit when business was dull. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 134 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K Of the 184 boys who worked on Saturday and had no other street work except selling papers, 86 per cent worked at least two hours and 67 per cent worked three hours or more. Sunday selling did not require quite as. long hours as either week day or Saturday work. Sixty-four newsboys doing no other street work and 17 with some other job than selling sold Sunday papers. Almost two-thirds (41) of those doing no other street work and 9 of those doing other street work worked three or more hours on Sun days. As most of the newsboys in Columbus sold every day, or nearly every day, their weekly hours were in many cases excessive. More than half (52 per cent) the 214 boys whose only street work was newspaper selling worked 16 to 32 or more hours, and 33 per cent worked at least 24 hours, usually in addition to about 25 hours of school. Among these, and typical of the older boys working long hours, was a 15-year-old boy who spent 5 hours a day selling on school days and sold papers altogether 38}4 hours a week. News boys with a secondary street job sold papers somewhat fewer hours than did those whose only street work was selling papers; only 9 of 59 sold 24 hours or more a week. Of the 79 boys in both groups selling papers at least 24 hours a week 26 (33 per cent) were under 12 years of age and 12 (15 per cent) were under 10. These hours mean that for the majority of the newsboys the hours a week given to work and school, not including the preparation of home lessons, were at least 41; for approximately one-third the weekly hours of school and work were at least 49. Such hours ap proximate and even surpass the hours of work of many adult workers. They leave little time for recreation and relaxation, and, consider ing the nerve-taxing nature of street selling, in an overstimulating environment such as the busy down-town comers and in keen com petition, the long hours must have made heavy demands upon physical and nervous energy, making it doubtful whether, as one father said, “ it was just what the boy needed.” EARNINGS Almost all the newsboys were able to estimate the amount that they usually made a week from the sale of newspapers fairly accurately as many of them held the same comers and sold about the same number of papers week after week. The weekly earnings of these boys would differ from week to week only as the amount of their tips rose or fell, which in turn depended, according to one 8-year-old newsboy, on whether you have “ the pennies to make change” or on a “ rich man coming along.” The earnings reported by Columbus newsboys, in spite of the greater number of hours that they devoted to the work, were about the same as those reported by newsboys in other surveys of street traders; 28 per cent of those doing no other street work and reporting their earnings were found to have made less than $1 a week, 40 per cent earned at least $3, and 20 per cent made $5 or more. (Table 33.) Of the 35 boys employed as helpers by older newsboys who did no other street work and reported their earnings only 1 made as much as $5. The others making $5 or more were chiefly boys who had regular comers, including some of those with the best locations in the city. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 135 COLUM BUS, OHIO T a b l e 33.— Earnings during a typical week, by number of hours engaged; news paper sellers holding a single job, Columbus, Ohio Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Total Earnings during a typical week Less than 12 12 hours, less 24 hours and over than 24 hours Hours Per not re cent ported1 Num dis Per Per Per ber tribu cent Num cent Num cent dis dis tion Num dis ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu tion tion tion Total............ ...... ..................... . 214 Total reported____________________ 196 Less than $0.25__________- ____ $0.25, less than $0.50___________ $0.50, less than $1.00............. ....... $1.00, less than $2.00.... ......... ..... $2.00, less than $3.00.............. ..... $3.00, less than $4.00.... ............. j . $4.00, less than $5.00___________ $5.00 and over.............................. No earnings and no cash earnings Working specified number of hours per week 72 100.0 67 70 100.0 4.6 8.7 14.8 16.8 12.2 11.2 8.2 20.4 3.1 13.4 19.4 22.4 22.4 10.4 3.0 3.0 1.5 4.5 63 100.0 3.2 20.6 19.0 20.6 7.9 9.5 19.0 64 1.6 1.6 9.4 6.3 23.4 10.9 42.2 4.7 Not reported_____________________ 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Older boys earned the most. Of the 88 boys under 12 years of age whose only street work was selling newspapers and who reported the amount of their earnings, 66 per cent made less than $2 a week, whereas of the 107 boys 12 years of age and older only 27 per cent made less than $2. No boy under 10 made as much as $4 a week, only 5 of the 49 boys of 10 and 11 years who reported what they earned and only 27 of the 64 who were 12 or 13 made as much as $4, whereas 24 of the 43 boys who were 14 or 15 years old made at least $4 a week. The difference in earnings is partly explained by the fact that boys under 12 did not work such long hours as the older boys; 41 per cent worked at least 16 hours and 24 per cent at least 24 hours, compared with 63 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively, of the boys who were 12 years of age and over. It may be that the more youthful newsboy could earn more money than an older one if he worked just as long, but the fact is that he seldom spends as much time on the street and so does not make as much money for himself and the paper that he sells. A close correlation between the number of hours spent on the street and earnings was found; for example, 78 per cent of those reporting hours of work who spent less than 12 hours selling made less than $2 a week, whereas only 45 per cent of those working between 12 and 24 hours and only 13 per cent of those working at least 24 hours made less than $2. The amounts that the boys reported as earnings included tips. Report as to the receipt of tips was obtained from 253 of the 273 newsboys. One hundred and ninety (75 per cent) of the 253 stated that they received tips. Tipping of newsboys of all ages was fairly 75034°— 28------ 10 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 136 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K common, but boys 10 to 12 years of age were tipped most frequently. Fifty-six (86 per cent) of the 65 boys of this age period who reported stated that they received tips, as compared with 34 of the 45 boys under 10 years of age, 64 (72 per cent) of the 89 boys 12 to 14 years of age, and 35 (66 per cent) of the 53 boys 14 years of age and over. Whether the lack of pennies for change or the incidence of “ rich men’ ’ among purchasers accounted for the tipping, or whether the inability to give the correct change was genuine or not, is not known. Several social workers and others reported that a good deal of begging by small children went on around theaters and in other public places, and some of the newsboys said that selling papers was used as a cloak for this practice. The danger in receiving tips, of course, lies in suggesting, as it does, that money can be obtained without work and that the sympathy and generosity of the public can be capitalized easily. The remarks of some of the newsboys indicated that a con siderable part of the money they took in was unearned. A 9-year-old child, for example, said that about two-thirds of his earnings were in tips; a 12-year-old boy said that his daily tips averaged 25 cents but that one day he took home 60 cents, though his actual earnings amounted to only 18 cents. An 11-year-old boy reported tips amounting to $1.50 a week. The fact that the study was made near Christmas may account for the prevalence of tipping that was found in Columbus. NEED FOR EARNINGS Seventy-two per cent of the boys were in families in which both father and mother were present and the father supported the family. Fifty-six boys (21 per cent) had lost their own fathers; of these only 16 had either stepfathers or foster fathers to earn the family living, 39 had neither, and 1 was not reported upon. For 33 newsboys (12 per cent)— including 8 of the 44 negro and 25 of the 229 white boys— the mother was the chief breadwinner of the family. Occupationally the fathers or other chief breadwinners in the news boys’ families were only fairly representative of the city as a whole. There was a slight preponderance of industrial workers; 54 per cent, compared with 46 per cent of the male workers 20 years of age and oyer in the city, were in manufacturing or mechanical industries. A disproportionately large number of chief breadwinners in newsboys’ families were in domestic and personal service— 11 per cent compared with 5 per cent— accounted for largely by the mothers who supported their families by keeping boarders and lodgers and by doing laundry work and housework. The chief breadwinners in the families of 4 per cent of the newsboys were in clerical or professional pursuits compared with 13 per cent of the male workers at least 20 years of age in Columbus.36 Although its diversified industries probably made for steadiness of employment, Columbus had been affected during the year covered by the study by the railroad-shop strike beginning in July, 1922, and continuing into the winter. The majority of the heads of families of the newsboys studied had had little or no unemployment, but 18 per cent had been unemployed at least three months during the year, most of them as a result of the strike. 36 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, pp. 1088-1090. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 137 Many of the mothers worked. Exclusive of those who were not the main support of their families and of those who may have kept boarders or lodgers to supplement the family income the mothers of 74 boys (less than one-fifth of the white boys and more than half the negro boys with some other chief breadwinner than their mothers) had a gainful occupation, chiefly laundry or housework, though some were factory workers, others worked in shops, restaurants, or cafete rias, and a few did sewing or tailoring. That the number of working mothers was unusually large is seen by a comparison of these propor tions with the findings in a study of the sources of income in the families of wage earners and small-salaried workers made by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics in Columbus in 1919, in which it was found that in only 9 per cent of the white and 29 per cent of the negro families did the mother contribute to the family earnings.37 In the smaller group, the 91 selected families visited, in which were 116 (42 per cent) of the newsboys, 60 per cent of the 70 chief bread winners reporting earned less than $1,250 during the year. The median falls between $1,050 and $1,250. The average earnings reported for chief breadwinners in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study just referred to were a little higher— $1,295 for white and $1,122 for negro families.38 (See also footnote 10,,p. 83. The incomes of the chief breadwinners of the newsboys were those of approximately the year 1922.) The earnings of the chief breadwinners in the newsboys’ families were supplemented to some extent by those of other members of the family. Of the 56 families visited reporting the total annual earnings of the family,39 28 earned less than $1,450, the median falling between $1,050 and $1,450. This amount is approximately the same as the average family earnings in families included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study, in which it was found that the earned income of white families averaged $1,328 and that of negro families averaged $1,198.40 It would appear that the family income was brought up to average from the comparatively small earnings of the heads of households by the earnings of other members of the families, chiefly those of wives judging from the prevalence of employment among the boys’ mothers. Although the amount is about the same as the aver age in Columbus wage-earning families that is shown by the Bureau of Labor Statistics study, it represents a rather lower level of prosper ity, for the newsboys’ families were a little larger than the average, 55 per cent of those reporting family earnings having more than five members. The average size of the sellers’ families was 6.2 as com pared with 4.8 in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study The proportion of the families visited who owned their houses with or without encumbrance (35 per cent) compares favorably with that for the entire city. Thirty-six per cent of the dwellings in Columbus were owned either with or without mortgages, according to the United States Census of 1920.42 37 Monthly Labor Review (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), Vol. IX , No. 6 (December, 1919), pp.31, 32. 88 Ibid., pp. 36,38. , _ . . . . , ..... 88 The number of families reporting family earnings was considerably reduced by the number of families unable to report earnings from boarders and lodgers. Total family earnings included the earnings of all members of the family 16 years of age and over. v „ r to Monthly Labor Review (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), Vol. IX , No. 6 (December, 1919), pp. 36,38. 41 Ibid., pp. 36, 38. (See footnote 11, p. 84.) « Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. II, Population, p. 1297. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 138 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K An examination of the records of Columbus social agencies revealed that 15 white families in which were 17 newsboys and 10 negro fam ilies in which were 12 newsboys had received aid from charitable organizations, some of them from several organizations, during 1922.43 The newsboys in these families constituted 7 per cent of the 229 white boys included in the study and 27 per cent of the 44 negro boys, or 11 per cent of all the newsboys included in the study. Prior to 1922, 15 other families (including 1 negro family), in which were 18 newsboys, had received aid.44 Four mothers, some of whom had had other assistance, were in receipt of mothers’ aid. In 20 of the 25 families receiving relief in 1922 the father was the chief bread winner; in the negro families most of these fathers cpuld not get work, but the majority of the white fathers whose families had to seek aid were unsteady or intemperate. The amount of relief given varied from several dollars or some grocery orders or a few months’ rent to a regular sum each month paid over a considerable period. The following cases are typical both of the families receiving.relief and of the extent of the relief given: A white family consisting of father, mother, seven children from 2 months to 14 years of age, and two older children, and living in an eight-room rented house, had first come to the attention of the family-service society in 1918, when the school asked an investigation. The father drank and was out of work frequently, and the mother did whatevel work she could get. N o aid was given until April, 1922, when the society gave $8 because the father was out of work. When the family was visited by an agent of the Children’s Bureau in February, 1923, the mother said that the father had worked for the railroad, but had gone out on the railroad strike of 1921 and had not worked steadily since. He had gone to work in the car shops in the spring of 1922 only to go out again on strike in July, and during the year covered by the study he had earned only $788. A t the time of the interview he was employed in a shoe factory at $20 a week. An 18-year-old daughter had worked in a candy kitchen 25 weeks during the year at $10 a week, and a 17-year-old son had been a telegraph messenger for about four months and was then employed in the stock room of a shoe factory at $14 a week. One younger boy had a paper route, and an 11 year-old boy sold papers, earning 90 cents a week. H e had been selling for six months, first going to work, he said, because a newspaper agent had come to the house and urged the boys to sell and carry for the paper. The mother said that it was necessary for the boys to work, as they had to buy their clothes. She would have preferred not to have them do the street work, as she was afraid of accidents, but she thought paper selling was better than the paper route, as customers on the route did not pay. According to the child, all his earnings went to the family and for cloth ing. The family earnings had amounted to a little more than $1,600 during the year covered by the study. A negro family that had come to Columbus in 1918 from Alabama had five children under 16 and two older ones. The father was frequently out of work and in 1920 deserted the family for three months, during which time a 17-year-old daughter supported the family. The family-service society had helped the fam ily every year since 1918, usually in the winter, when the father was out of work. When interviewed by the Children’s Bureau agent early in 1923, the father was employed as a laborer for the city at $20 a week and had earned $867 during the year preceding the interview. H e had been unable to get work in the spring of 1922, and the family-service society at that time had given $39 and a ton of coal. N o one else in the family was reported as working during the year except two boys, under 14, who sold papers. One of the boys sold evening papers about two hours every day “ anywhere” and the other several times a week down « This does not include families that had been registered with hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, the Dis trict Nursing Association, the Tuberculosis Society, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, day nurseries, benevolent societies, or social settlements. It includes one white boy who had received shoes through the school-attendance department. n Includes 2 white boys in 2 families who received shoes through the school-attendance_department. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO town, both of them stopping not later than 7 o’clock. The family lived flimsily built shanty of three rooms, which they owned. The mother said the family needed the money that Pete and Jake earned ($1.70 a week) to along.” The boys themselves said that they gave all their money to help family expenses except “ perhaps a dime a week.” 139 in a that “ get with A Hungarian family with 10 children under 16 years of age had been reported by a neighbor to the family-service society early in 1921, because the father was ill. He was not strong, but did all he could to support the family. During the year preceding the study the society gave $180. W hen the family was inter viewed by the Children’s Bureau agent in February, 1923, the mother reported that the father had worked in the car shops until the strike in July and since that time had had only odd jobs. They were buying the four-room house in which the family of 12 were living; the father had repaired and painted it and had made a garden. The only other income during the year besides the father’s earnings of $817 was $40 in union benefits and the earnings of two of the boys who sold and carried papers. The one who sold papers was 11 years old and had been a newsboy for two months. He sold a morning paper every day from 5.30 to 7.30 and a little longer on Sundays, and he carried a few papers also, earning $3.10 a week. The mother felt that they needed his money, all of which went to the family. W A negro family in which the father had deserted, had come to the attention of the family-service society in 1915. During the year preceding the study the society had given the family $7 a week besides paying for rent and fuel occasion ally. The family had no other income. The oldest of the five children was a 9-year-old boy who said he stayed out selling papers around the statehouse sometimes until 10 or 11 o’clock at night, spending all that he earned (the amount of which he did not know) on his own pleasures. He was reported as a habitual truant and runaway, though normal mentally. Just prior to the study he had been put in the opportunity school (a public school for difficult and for subnormal children), which he seemed to enjoy and which he attended regularly. N o visit was paid to this family. What does this array of facts signify? It would appear that a small proportion of the newsboys’ families were actually necessitous and could not manage to live, even though the boys worked, without calling upon public agencies. A small proportion were fatherless families; few of them had been obliged to seek financial aid, but they appeared to need the money that their boys earned selling papers. Representative of these was a family in which the mother received mothers’ aid. She had five children under 15 and no help except her grant of $36 a month and something from a married daughter whose husband earned $30 a week as a salesman. In regard to the work of her 13-year-old boy, who earned $6.50 a week selling papers, this mother said, “ Unless he sells papers he won’t have any clothes,” adding that his earnings clothed all five children. Among the families with fathers also were some in which the father’s earnings were small and the family large, and the newsboy’s earnings were almost as much needed as in widows’ families. For example, a railroad clerk earning $1,200 a year had a family of six children. The oldest, a 14-year-old-boy, earned $10 a week selling papers; the mother said that the family could not pay for food nor clothe the children with out his earnings; often she could not buy groceries until he brought in the money from his papers. But on the whole the earnings of the chief breadwinners in the newsboys’ families were but little below those of the average wage earner in Columbus, and they exceeded the average if the widows who were the chief support of their families are not included. Un https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 140 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K doubtedly these earnings were small compared with budgetary standards recognized as providing a minimum of comfort and decency, and even when they were supplemented by the wages of wives and by “ doubling u p” in the homes— overcrowding was very common in the living quarters of newsboys’ families, almost one-fourth of whom kept boarders or lodgers— the newsboys’ earnings must have been in many of the homes a welcome addition to the family income. For example, of the 22 newsboys whose fathers made less than $1,050 a year and who had no other street job, '9 made at least $3 a week, and 4 made at least $5 a week— sums which may have been of some real help. Typical of families in which the earnings from selling papers were useful but could hardly be regarded as absolutely necessary was that of a 9-year-old seller and carrier, whose 13-year-old brother also carried papers. The younger child sold papers in front of a hospital from 6 to 8 every evening. His father, a polisher in a shoe factory, had earned $1,274 during the year of the study, and two sisters, 19 and 21 years of age, had together earned $1,488, so that the family income for the four adults and four children was $2,762. The nine-room house in which they lived was fully paid for, and the family was buying another house. The 9-year-old newsboy earned $2 a week, with which he clothed himself and his 6-year-old brother. The facts seem to warrant the statement repeatedly made by cir culation managers and others connected with the newspapers that they aimed to recruit their newsboys from the better types of home, those in which the money was not actually needed, and they also seem to bear out the statement made by some of the social workers in Columbus that children from the poorest families did not sell papers. ^ The testimony of the parents who were interviewed also tends to ^ confirm the conclusion that only a minority actually needed the money earned in selling papers. In the 91 families visited only 23 parents said definitely that they needed the newsboys’ earnings; 39 other parents said that the earnings were a help; 13 parents said that the boys’ earnings were of no help to the family; and 18 did not report whether or not the family needed the money or found it helpful. That this method of supplying family needs— that is, by the employ ment of young children— is a costly one for society is generally accepted. It is to prevent exactly this solution of family problems that mothers’ aid and other forms of relief are provided. REASONS FOR UNDERTAKING STREET W ORK The largest number of the newsboys (131, or 48 per cent of the 273) said that they had first undertaken street work because they wanted to— 27 per cent to earn spending money, 14 per cent to satisfy a desire to work, and 7 per cent to buy some object which they especially wished to have. Besides these boys, many of whom undoubtedly had been stimulated by the example of other newsboys, a number said that they had first done the work for the sake of helping out some other boy (9 per cent) or at the suggestion of their companions (14 per cent). A few (9 per cent) reported that they had begun to sell papers at the suggestion of a representative of the newspaper. The proportion (13 per cent) that claimed economic necessity as the principal reason for first taking their jobs is rather small. Pos- https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ^ COLUMBUS, OHIO 141 sibly some of the 14 boys (5 per cent) who said that they had gone to work because their parents had urged them to do so may have been from necessitous families; in a few instances the need of the b oy’s earnings had arisen after the boy had begun to work for some other reason, as in some of the families of car-shop employees who were on strike. Of the boys whose own fathers were living and at home 18 said that they had begun street work because of financial pressure at home; 14 of the 39 fatherless boys gave this reason. Whether or not the money was needed the majority of the parents (66 of the 91 interviewed) approved of their boys’ work. Only 2 parents said that they did not know that their boys were selling papers, and only 1 denied that the child was a newsboy. Generally they approved because it kept the boys out of mischief or kept them from “ bumming.” Some of the parents, however, had other reasons for desiring the work for their children; they thought it taught the boy to save, or taught him business methods and made him alert and energetic. The mother of a 13-year-old newsboy selling every week day from 3.30 to 7 p. m. liked him to do this work “ because it kept him busy and she knew where he was and what he was doing,” and because the boy met high-grade business men and lawyers in the buildings where he sold and these she hoped would be a help to him. The fact that the organization of newspaper selling in Columbus im posed certain definite responsibilities upon the regular sellers (see p. 128) may account for the unusual prevalence of the parents’ belief in the educative value of the newsboy’s work. However, some of the parents (16 of the 91) definitely disapproved of their boys selling papers on the streets. A negro mother, for example, said that she liked to have her 14-year-old son earn money, but was afraid to have him down town, where he learned to “ shoot dice” and smoke; the boy had been in the reform school for truancy. The mother of a 10-year-old newsboy of Jewish parentage said that an older boy used to “ drag him off to sell” ; that he Came home tired and sick; that in the business districts he shot craps and learned “ terrible” language and spent the money he earned on things to eat that made him ill; she was also afraid of accidents from automobiles. In vain some parents objected to the work, reporting that the boy “ slipped o u t” and did it or that he “ just will work because other boys do.” The father of a 13-year-old boy did not like to have him sell morning papers because of the early hours and the danger of street accidents; he tried to get the boy to stop selling by promising to give him $1.50 a week if he would stop, but the boy insisted on get ting up at 3 o ’clock every morning to go out and help a friend. How far the boys sold papers in order to satisfy their instinct for adventurous play and exciting companionship it is hard to say. In Columbus the relatively exacting character of newspaper selling, the greater supervision over boys on the corners, the fact that many of the newsboys obtained their papers in their own neighborhoods, that they had to stay at their comers, and that late selling was little done probably stripped the job of much of its glamour. Although it was clear that the street had a great fascination for some— one small boy complained that he never got down town unless he sold papers, another had run away from home to sell; others liked selling “ better than play” or “ better than anything,” or, like a 9-year-old news- https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 142 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K boy, thought it was “ fun hopping cars, playing, and selling” — now and then a boy would confess that he liked it only “ pretty well” or “ didn’ t like it at all,” or “ didn’t like it, but now I started to I have to.” The desire to work and earn money either for themselves or for their families seems to have been a more compelling motive for street work in Columbus than the satisfaction of the desire for play. Although only 12 playgrounds were maintained in the city, and these were open only during the summer, certain recreational facilities for boys of the less prosperous families were fairly well developed. Eleven social settlements or community houses or centers, most of them with recreational and gymnasium classes for boys and some with Boy Scout troops, made a special effort to reach such boys. In one settlement the scout troop was especially active and included both newsboys and newspaper carriers. The Young M en’s Chris tian Association maintained a club supposedly for newsboys, but it was not restricted to newsboys and the leaders did not know how many of the boys belonging to it sold papers. This club met every Saturday evening at 6.30 (an hour when the regular sellers of after noon papers could not attend) for a program including swimming gymnasium work, motion pictures, and Bible stories. The news papers cooperated in promoting the popularity of the club among the newsboys. D IS P O S IT IO N O F E A R N IN G S Now and then parents who were questioned about their boys’ work would say, “ I like George to get the business experience, but I have a hard time keeping him from spending all his money on candy,” or “ It would be all right if Cecil brought home any money, but he never does.” One of the newspaper circulation managers also complained that the boys spent their money foolishly. But the large proportion of parents who regarded the earnings from news paper selling as of real assistance to them (see p. 140) and the remark frequently made by parents that the money was very worth while to the boy seemed to indicate that at least some of the money earned by many of the newsboys was put to good use. One hundred and four newsboys (39 per cent) reported that they contributed at least part of their earnings to the family, including 8 boys who contributed all that they earned and 17 who used it afi for their families and their own “ shoes and pants,” as one little Italian boy said. Five other boys spent all that they made on their own clothes or other necessities. Altogether, 30 boys (11 per cent of the total number) used their entire earnings for neces sities for themselves or in support of their families. Only 7 of the 56 whose own fathers were dead or away from home used their earnings in this way. The proportion thus having none of the money that they earned for their own pleasures and amusements or even savings, and even the proportion who gave any help to their families is smaller than studies of newsboys in other cities have shown. (Table 34.) https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 143 COLUMBUS, OHIO T able 34.— Disposition of earnings; newspaper sellers, Columbus, Ohio Newspaper sellers 6 to 15 years of age Disposition of earnings Total_____________________________________ Per cent Number distribu tion 273 Total reported............................................................. . 272 1 0 0 .0 All for self..............- ...........- ................................. . 158 58.1 Spent for necessities______________________ Spent for luxuries............................- ............., Spent for necessities and luxuries------ --------Saved---------- ----------------------------- ------ -----Saved and spent for necessities.................... Saved and spent for luxuries.--------------- .... Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. 5 18 1 .8 6 .6 8 .1 41 37 9.9 2.9 15.1 13.6 Part to family and part for self 2..............—- ....... 99 36.4 Spent for necessities------------------------ --------Spent for luxuries-----------------------------------Spent for necessities and luxuries............ . Saved.____________________ ____ ________ _ Saved and spent for necessities-----------------Saved and spent for luxuries____ _____ . . . . . Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. Not specified------------------------------------------- 17 6.3 7.4 9.2 1.1 All to family...........................- ......................................... .................................... 7 — No earnings and no cash earnings--------------------------------------- --------- ------------ Not reported. 1 2 22 27 8 20 25 3 6 4 23 2.2 1 1.5 8.5 0.4 ® < ^.9 4P 1 Earnings spent for necessities, luxuries, or both may include expenses of job. Subsidiary itemsjshow disposition of part spent for self. Many boys (53 per cent) used at least some of their money for clothes, dentistry, schoolbooks, or other necessities for themselves, though most of these kept some to spend on their own pleasures or for their banks; and even more (70 per cent) spent some of their earnings on candies, motion-picture shows, toys, or other pleasures and luxuries, including 18 boys who used in this way all that they made from selling papers. These 18 /boys usually earned very small amounts. The following are typical cases of boys who spent every thing that they earned on their own pleasures: A 9-year-old boy earning 20 cents a week spent it on shows, though he took Mom to shows when she didn't have any money." A 7-year-old boy selling papers in a residential neighborhood from 4 to 5 every week day afternoon and earning 20 cents a week spent it all on shows and candy. A 12-year-old negro boy whose mother supported the family by collecting rags reported that selling two or three tunes a week he earned about 45 cents, all of which he spent for candy except that he paid for the penny lunch at school. One older newsboy spent his 65 cents a week on violin lessons, and another who had sold papers for four years spent his $2.50 a week on installments for a radio set, for which he said he had paid $100. A 12-year-old boy bought Boy Scout clothes with his 50 cents a week, and an 11-yearold boy earning 16 cents a week helping his brother had bought a $2.50 pair of skates. More than half (55 per cent) of the boys saved some of their earn ings, including 27 boys (10 per cent) who saved the entire amount. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 144 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK Among these was a 9-year-old boy, working three-quarters of an hour every week day, who was saving all his money to go to the uni versity. A boy of 15 who had sold papers eight years and who was making $8 a week at the time of the survey had saved $400. A few other boys were saving for Christmas, for Young M en’s Christian Association fees, or for other special purposes. ■ Most characteristic probably of the manner in which earnings were spent were those cases where there was considerable diversity in the uses to which the money was put. One 14-year-old boy, for example, who had been a newsboy for three years, earned $9.80 a week, work ing every school day from about half past 2 until 7 o ’clock, 10 hours on Saturday and 8 on Sunday; he put half his money in the bank, had 15 cents a week spending money, and used the rest to buy his clothes and to help toward family'expenses, as his father, a butcher, earned only $20 a week. Another 14-year-old boy earning $3.50 a week for 18 hours’ work, gave all except $1 to his mother for family expenses, using the $1 for spending money, clothes, and some sav ings. An 11-year-old child, selling down town about 38 hours a week and earning with tips $6, contributed some of his money to the family, had saved $8, bought shoes and shirts for himself, bought breakfast and dinner down town on Sundays, rode down for his papers in the street car each day, went to a show three times a week, and bought candy. The proportions of boys disposing of their earnings in the various ways (that is, the proportion giving all to their families, giving some to their families, using part for their own necessities, spending part on pleasures) were about the same in the more prosperous and the less prosperous families, judging prosperity by the chief breadwinner’s earnings, but the amount expended for each item may have differed greatly according to the circumstances in the homes. The larger the amounts the boys earned the larger the proportion contributing ah their earnings and the proportion contributing some of their earnings to the support of their families. Boys making at least $2 a week were twice as likely to give all, or twice as likely to give some, of their earnings to their families as those earning less than $2. It seems safe to conclude, especially in view of the fact that on the whole boys in families in which the chief breadwinners had the lowest incomes made the largest amounts (see p. 140), that boys in needy homes were more regular and energetic workers, as well as that when the amount earned was significant the parents were more likely to claim at least some of it. m NEWSBOYS IN SCHOOL Most of the newsboys were in the elementary grades. Only 17 (6 per cent) of the 273 were high-school boys; that is, were in the ninth or a higher grade.45 Attendance. School records of attendance were copied wherever they were found, for all newsboys (146) who had worked in the school semester ended June, 1922, the last semester that had been completed when the study was made. Records were obtained for 124 boys, of whom the great majority had worked throughout the semester. The average <« Some of the 17 hoys were in the ninth grade of the junior high school. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ^ w COLUMBUS, OHIO 145 percentage of attendance for these boys was found to be 94. It is impossible to make a direct comparison of this attendance record with that of all Columbus school boys, as the available statistics on attend ance in the Columbus public schools are for both boys and girls. These statistics show that the average attendance in the elementary schools was about 88 per cent, in junior high schools 90 per cent, and in senior high schools 92 per cent.46 Even assuming, on the one hand, that the attendance of boys is superior to that of girls (and some evidence exists to support this assumption47) and taking into consid eration, on the other hand, the fact that a large proportion of the newsboys were in the higher elementary grades where there is less absence for illness than among younger children, no great difference appears to exist between the attendance of newsboys and other boys in Columbus. A small proportion (17 boys, or 14 per cent) of the Columbus newsboys had been absent from school at least 10 per cent of the term; that is, approximately 19 days, or one school month. For many of these boys- the street work may have been an indirect if not a direct cause of absence by making excessive demands on his time and strength or by causing a distaste for the routine of the school room in contrast with the hours of greater freedom on the streets. Among the 17 was one boy 1*4 years of age who slept on a bench at a newspaper agent’s all Saturday night, after selling until 1 a. m.; 13 others sold papers more than 12 hours a week, and 9 sold from 22 to 46 hours a week, including a 13-year-old newsboy who sold papers 7 hours every week day and 4 hours on Sunday, beginning his work soon after 4 a. m. on school days. Nine of the 17 boys had juvenile-court records, and 2 were said to be habitual truants. Tru ancy records could not be obtained for the Columbus newsboys. Deportment. If, as some writers have maintained, the newsboy because of his experience in dealing with the public has become a better judge of the moods of his elders and has acquired more skill and tact in adapt ing himself to their moods than the average schoolboy, he might be expected to show greater discretion in his deportment while at school; at least he would be a better judge of “ how far he could g o ” with safety. Whether or not this is the explanation, the ma jority of the newsboys in Columbus conformed fairly well to the teacher’s standard as shown by the last school deportment marks that they had received. Marks were obtained for 107 boys who had worked during a completed school semester. Of these 69 (64 per cent) had been marked 80 or higher in deportment, and 17 (16 per cent) had a mark of 90 or more. On the other hand, 12 newsboys (11 per cent) had averaged less than 70 in deportment and so had failed to pass. These marks were not so good as those of Columbus boys who had newspaper routes; for instance, among the route carriers only 3 per cent had failed to pass in deportment, and 22 per cent had been marked at least 90 compared with only 16 per cent of the street sellers. The boys who sold on the streets came from less fortunate homes, on the whole, than the route carriers, and their work, more particularly that of the ones who sold down town, exposed « Figures furnished b y attendance d epartm en t, C o lu m b u s P u b lic Schools. « See B ureau o f C om p u lsory E d u ca tio n , Philadelph ia, R e p o rt for th e Y e a r E n d e d June 30, 1925, p . 15. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 146 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK them to certain influences and made certain demands upon them from which carriers were generally free and which may have reacted unfavorably on their attitude toward school standards. To which of these sets of circumstances (if, indeed, either offers an explanation) the less satisfactory deportment of street sellers may be chiefly attributed it is impossible to say. It can be said, however, that the boys with poor marks in deportment had sold papers longer than the others. Seven of the 12 marked less than 70 had sold papers at least two years. Also, boys who worked fewer hours on the streets showed a tendency to behave better in school than those who were out unusually long hours— although of the 107 newsboys for whom marks in deportment were obtained, 40 per cent had worked at least 24 hours a week; of the 69 who had achieved a mark of at least 80, only 35 per cent had worked as long as 24 hours. The number involved is too small to be more than merely suggestive. Progress and scholarship. Thirty-six per cent of the Columbus newspaper sellers were re tarded (see footnote 38, p. 22) in school, 54 per cent were in normal grades for their ages, and 10 per cent were advanced. The proportion of all Columbus public-school children, including girls, of the same ages who were retarded in June, 1925, the only statistics available for com parison of the retardation of newsboys with an unselected group in Columbus, is 25 per cent.48 The street sellers were considerably more retarded than the route carriers, only 15 per cent of whom were retarded (see p. 161). The greater amount of retardation among the newspaper sellers is not accounted for by the greater number among the newsboys of children of foreign and of negro parentage, as the proportion of retarded newsboys even among those of native white parentage was 28 per cent. In regard to school attendance, the main factor in school progress provided children are of normal mentality,49 the Columbus newsboys, so far as can be determined, were about as regular as other boys. Long hours of work, however, made heavy demands on the newsboys’ time, possibly also on their strength. The percentage of retardation was slightly greater among newsboys who worked longer hours, but the differences in the percentages are so slight that no real relation ship can be shown between the number of hours worked a week and retardation. That the hours of work seemed to influence school prog ress as little as they did may be laid perhaps to the fact that street selling in Columbus was lacking in some of the more romantic aspects (such as selling late at night and sleeping at newspaper offices with the opportunity to associate with all types of men and boys) that make newspaper selling in some places dangerously stimulating for the schoolboy, capturing his interest to the neglect of his school work. The relatively exacting conditions of work also may account for the fact that the percentage of retarded boys is slightly smaller (31 per cent) for boys who had been selling at least three years than that (35 per cent) for boys who had been selling less than one year or that (40 per cent) for boys who had sold newspapers between one and three years. By imposing a certain amount of responsibility and by penalizing the unsteady or the lazy boy, newspaper selling in 48Compiled from unpublished figures furnished by the attendance department, Columbus Public Schools. 49 Psychological examinations had been given to the entire enrollment of a number of the public schools in Columbus, but too few newsboys were among those who had been tested to justify analysis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 147 COLUMBUS, OHIO Columbus may have weeded out from its ranks the majority of the boys who were too dull or too irresponsible to keep up with their grades in school. School standing is more immediately responsive than school prog ress to unfavorable influences, such as street work might be expected to create. The following list shows the semester’s average in studies obtained from school records for 123 boys who had worked during a completed school semester, most of them throughout the semester.50 • Average standing Number of boys Total__________________________________________ Less than 70-------------------------------------------------------70, less than 8 0 ----------------80, less than 9 0 ----------------------------------------------------------90 or m ore____________________________________________ 123 3 41 70 0 Percent distribution 100 2 33 57 7 The marks are inferior to the scholarship marks of route carriers in Columbus (see p. 162), the only large group of boys in Columbus for whom similar information has been compiled. D E LIN Q U E N C Y A M O N G N E W S B O Y S The records of the Franklin County juvenile court showed that 34 of the Columbus newsboys had been before the court, including 25 of the 229 white newsboys and 9 of the 44 negroes, or 12 per cent of the total. Nineteen of these boys had first been delinquent since they had begun to sell newspapers; 15 of the 19 had sold papers or done other street work for at least two years prior to their delin quency, and 11 were on the streets at the time of the survey selling at least 24 hours a week. . Many of the charges against the newsboys were serious. The 52 offenses for which the 34 boys had been brought into court were stealing (28), in many cases combined with breaking into stores or houses, truancy (8), loitering around railroad property or injuring property (3), “ incorrigibility” (6), stabbing or shooting (2), and breaking windows or throwing stones (5). The records of three boys identified in the index files of the court were not found, and the nature of their delinquency therefore is not known. The records of the cases were so brief that it was seldom possible to determine whether or not the b oy’s work had been a factor in his committing the offense with which he was charged. The following cases, however, showed that newspaper selling furnished the motive or supplied the environment for the delinquency: An Italian newsboy, who was 15 years of age at the time of the study, said that he had begun to sell papers at the age of 12. In 1917, however, more than five years before the study, he’ had been arrested for stealing newspapers; m 1918 his parents had been arrested for allowing their children to be on the streets late at night and had been ordered not to allow the boys to sell newspapers; again in 1918 his parents were fined for allowing three children, aged 3, 5, and 8 years, to sell papers; and two months later he himself was arrested for stealing news papers from a crippled newsboy and was ordered not to sell papers for a year. In 1920, his father having died and his mother having been committed to an insane asylum, he and his brothers and sisters were committed to the county children’s home. H e ran away from the home, and though only 12 years of age, was declared to be incorrigible and to have a bad influence on the other boys in the home, and was committed to an industrial school for one year. About a to The marks in the various studies given in the school records for the semester were averaged to obtain one mark for the semester’s work in all studies. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 148 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K year after leaving the school and just before the study, he was charged with stealing a bicycle and was put on a suspended sentence to the industrial school. He had been diagnosed as feeble-minded and psychopathic and was in an ungraded class at the opportunity school. He sold three or four hours every school day. A 13-year-old newsboy whose father, a native white, had deserted him, lived with an uncle. H e had been selling papers for three years in order to keep himself in clothes, selling down town from 4.30 to 7 daily. Almost a year before he was interviewed he had been taken before the court for stealing newspapers and had been forbidden to sell for 60 days. A 13-year-old boy of native white parentage had sold papers from the age of 9. A t the time of the study he sold only on Sunday from 4.30 a. m. to 1.30 p. m. He had had four court charges against him. When only 8 he was charged with breaking into a business establishment with intent to steal And had been put on probation. Two years later he stole $10 worth of cigarettes from a con fectionery company. In January, 1923, he was charged with littering the public streets with bottles, and in February, 1923, with stealing newspapers. A t that time the court forbade his selling newspapers for six months. Two negro brothers, 12 and 11 years old at the time of the study, had been arrested in 1921, 1922, and in February, 1923, for stealing. The third charge was of stealing money from milk bottles on the steps of the customers who bought papers from them. As a result they had been forbidden to sell papers for a year. A 13-year-old boy of native white parentage, who had begun to sell papers ^ at the age of 11, had been arrested in June, 1922, for stealing newspapers and W had been ordered not to sell again for six months. When interviewed in Novem ber, 1922, however, he reported that he was selling daily. A boy of Russian-Jewish parentage, who had sold papers for five years, begin ning at the age of 10, had been brought to court in January, 1921, for truancy, and the following September for stealing from newsboys. A negro boy, 13 years of age, selling daily, had begun to sell papers at the age of 8. When 10 he had been charged with truancy. When 11 he was again in court for stealing newspapers from stands and porches, and was forbidden to sell papers for a year. N E W S P A P E R CAR R IE R S In addition to the three principal daily newspapers of Columbus, all of which were distributed to subscribers as well as sold on the streets, several others (among them a German newspaper issued several times a week and a newspaper published daily by the State university) employed a few route boys. A few boys also delivered out-of-town Sunday papers. The Children’s Bureau study included 986 newspaper-route boys, of whom 826 attended public schools and 160 attended parochial schools. Seventeen girls also reported that they had delivered news-1Wt papers, and one had collected on a newspaper route, long enough to https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 149 be included in the study. The girls are not included in the tabula tion for this report or in the following discussion.61 R AC E A N D N A T IO N A L IT Y OF F A T H E R S The newspaper carriers were chiefly from native white families. (Table 8, p. 25.) Only 12 per cent, compared with 26 per cent of the newsboys, had foreign-born fathers, and only 4 per cent, compared' with 16 per cent of the newsboys, were negroes. The carriers of foreign parentage as a rule were from the older immigrant families, predominantly of German stock; only 11 per cent, compared with 43 per cent of the newsboys, were Russian Jews. Sixteen carriers had been born outside the United States, a very much smaller pro portion than that of newsboys who were of foreign birth. A GE OF C A R R IE R S The age distribution of the Columbus carriers was very similar to that of carriers in other cities; 29 per cent were 14 and under 16 years, 38 per cent were 12 and under 14, and 33 per cent were under 12 years of age. The average age of the carriers was 12.2. One-third of the carriers under 12 years of age were only helpers to other boys, often their older brothers, but the majority, even among this younger group, had their own routes. Almost all the helpers were under 12 years of age. W O R K E X PE R IE N C E The great majority of the carriers had never done any street work except carry newspapers, most of them only on the route which they had at the time of the study. However, when interviewed 80 carriers were engaging in some other form of street work, almost always newspaper selling, and 422 (more than two-fifths) at some time in their lives had had other street work than the newspaper route on which they were employed at that time, generally either carrying on another route or selling papers. Very few of the carriers at the date of interview had any kind of work except street work, but 34 had such jobs as that of errand boy or helper in a grocery store, and 199 at some time had had some work experience other than street work— caddying, working in drug stores, etc.— most of them in only one job. More than two-fifths (43 per cent) of the Columbus carriers had carried newspapers without interruption less than six months, the median duration being between six and eight months. (Table 35.) On the other hand, 23 per cent had had newspaper routes continu ously for at least two years, and 13 per cent (123 boys) had had them for three to nine years. The group which had carried the longest period included some of the younger as well as older boys. For example, a boy of 11 had been carrying on the same route for three and one-half years, acting as helper to his older brother but receiving his share of the earnings; he had started “ for fun” but at the time of Of the 18 girls 10 were employed to help brothers, 1 helped an older sister, and 1 helped another girl. The remaining 6 had routes of their own. All were white, and only 3 reported foreign parentage. Five were under 10 years, 4 were between 10 and 12, 8 were between 12 and 14, and 1 was 14. All worked in the afternoon except a 12-year-old girl, who delivered papers between 6 and 8 a. m. on Sundays. The maximum number of hours worked per week was 12, and most of the girls worked only a few hours a week. Five of the 18 had worked at least one year. All except 2 reported receiving some money for their work; most of those helping other route carriers earned less than $1 a week, but most of those working independently made.’at. least $1. .None contributed any of their earnings toward family support. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 150 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK the study was buying all his clothes and helping his mother, who was supporting the family because of his father’s chronic illness. This boy was in the sixth grade and had an average of more than 90 in his studies. Like newspaper selling, though for somewhat different reasons, delivering papers in Columbus was an exacting job (see pp. 151, 152), so that the less intelligent or less persistent boys got tired of it and quit after a few months. T a b l e 35. Previous duration of job held at date of interview, by aye period; news paper carriers, Columbus, Ohio Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Total Previous duration of job held at date of interview Under 10 years 10 years, under 12 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Age Per Per Per Per Per not re port cent cent cent cent cent Num ed 1 dis Num dis Num dis Num dis Num dis ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu tion tion tion tion tion Total______________ 986 Total reported.......... ...... 984 102 100.0 101 217 100.0 217 376 100.0 376 288 100.0 287 3 100.0 3 1 Less than 1 year______ 605 61.5 75 74.3 148 68.2 231 61.4 150 52.3 Less than 6 months 424 43.1 64 63.4 103 47.5 151 40.2 106 36.9 Less than 2 months____ 2 months, less than 4_____ 4 months, less than 6______ 6 months, less than 1 year__________ 1 year, less than 2. 2 years, less than 3 3 years and over........ Not reported............ 1 121 12.3 23 22.8 33 15.2 42 11.2 23 8.0 162 16.5 24 23.8 39 18.0 60 16.0 39 13.6 141 14.3 17 16.8 31 14.3 49 13.0 44 15.3 181 18.4 11 10.9 45 20.7 80 21.3 44 15.3 155 101 123 15.8 10.3 12.5 21 3 20.8 3.0 2.0 36 20 13 16.6 9.2 6.0 49 44 52 13.0 11.7 13.8 49 34 54 17.1 11.8 18.8 2 1 tv » *« * 1 1 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. C O N D IT IO N S OF E M P L O Y M E N T Carriers in Columbus, as a rule, were not employed by the news paper offices. They generally had so-called independent routes, over which they had full control, even of the right to sell the route, and for which they had full responsibility, including the responsibility of making collections and of meeting deficits if customers failed to pay. ^ They were not independent carriers, however, in the sense used in many places (that is, carriers who work on their own account purchasing their papers like the street seller and like him making whatever disposition of them they wished), for on the one hand they were given credit, usually weekly, for the papers that they took out, and on the other hand they were part of a carefully organized system which enforced definite regulations and exacted a special type of service. At least two of the newspapers, however, had a few “ office routes. ” Boys carrying on these routes were paid a fixed salary, and collections were made by the office; or if the boy collected and was unsuccessful, he was given assistance from the office in making the collection. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 151 Before giving A boy a route all the principal newspapers made a point of sending a representative to call on the boy s parents m order to get their consent and cooperation and to explain to them tne nature of the work, and throughout the boy’s employment visits were made to discuss the boy’s progress with his parents. Fifteen per cent of the boys m the C hildren s Bureau survey worked only for another carrier, including about half those who were under 10 years of age and one-fourth of those who were between 10 Although some of the carriers went to the main offices down town for their papers and others received their papers at street corners near their routes, where they were sent by truck or trolley, the larger number, like the newspaper sellers, called for their papers at the substations and branch offices. In fact, according to one of the circulation managers, one of the reasons for instituting the system of substations had been to meet the objections of carriers parents who did not wish their sons to come in contact with the newsboys at the main offices. Conditions at the substations and branch offices, as well as at the main offices, were the same for carriers as for newspaper sellers (see pp. 128-130), though only carriers worked from some ot the substations. _ . . A Bovs delivering any considerable number of papers carried them m a canvas sack slung over the shoulders, or in two sacks; others used small express wagons; both sacks and wagons were sometimes given as prizes for new customers. The majority of the boys delivered at least 50 papers; 261 delivered between 25 and 50, and 152 boys (15 per cent) delivered at least 100 papers, the weight of which was 1 ^ “ u t ^ o f t K a ^ e r involved a good deal of responsibility. Carriers were required to learn and abide by certain rides, such as sending a substitute in case of illness, reporting orders to stop subscriptions or changes of address, and reporting on collections at, 8 specified time; and penalties were imposed for breaking the rules, “ skipping” customers, etc. The carriers were expected to enlarge their routes (though at least one newspaper office reserved the right to split independent routes that had grown too large by paying bov for the customers that were withdrawn from his route), and prizes were given to encourage them to get new subscriptions. I heir duties obliged them, also, to learn a certain amount of simple book keeping, keeping of accounts, and filling m of forms. They were given some instruction in how to meet with the public by the older boys in charge of the substations. At least one of the newspapers had a regular weekly meeting of substation managers managers in order to keep up interest in the work and help the boys with their problems of supervision over the earners. Another paper published a small four-page newspaper addressed chiefly to route boys, printing articles, such as “ Every customer once a prospect, ^ “ Good carriers’ creed,” and “ See that you are not the weak link , advertisements of prizes for new subscriptions; list of pnze winners instructions to new boys; news items about mdividual camers a letters from district managers commenting on the work ot tne boys I in their districts. Some of the newspaper proprietors and circulation * managers.maintained that the carrier’s work had definite promotional 75034°— 28-------11 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 152 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK possibilities; the best of the route boys, they said, had the oppor tunity of becoming substation managers at a small but regular salary, and the training and experience gained and the contacts made m this position were valuable assets if they were interested in enter ing the circulation department of a newspaper organization. R EG U L A R IT Y O F W O R K Even more generally than that of the newspaper sellers, whose work in Columbus was unusually regular, the carrier’s job was a daily one. The principal papers were issued daily, and two of the three had Sunday editions. Almost all the carriers included in the g 2 per cent) worked every day or every day except Sunday, 486 oi the 986 working every week day and 420 others working Seven days a week. Only 12 boys worked Saturdays or Sundays only or both; these boys had routes for out-of-town papers. Some of the other boys who did not work every day carried a newspaper issued three times a week, and others helped regular carriers on days when their papers were unusually heavy or acted as substitutes when regular carriers were unable to work. H OURS OF W O RK Only a few of the boys included in the study carried the daily mornmg newspaper and so worked in the morning on school days, but the majority worked on Sunday mornings delivering the Sunday edi tion ot the afternoon dailies. Of the 48 carriers working in the morn ing on school days, 41 began before 6 a. m., of whom 14 reported beginning before 4.30, the others around 5 or 5.30. Many of the carriers getting out very early in the morning were boys of 14 or 15 years of age, but 21,of the 41 were under 14. One 12-year-old boy and two 13 years of age said that they started work about 3 30 Une ol these boys maintained that he got eight or nine hours’ sleep by talang a nap after school and going to bed at 6 p. m. On Sunday mornings 390 boys with no other street job carried papers, 247 of them beginning before 6 a. m. and 43' before 4 o’clock. Most of these 43 boys began delivering their papers at 3 or 3.30, besides WOTkmg every week-day afternoon; 9 were under 12 years of age ih e great majority of the carriers worked in the afternoon after school. Almost all (96 per cent) of the 866 whose only street work was carrying papers ended their work before 6 o’clock. M ost of those who did not finish their routes by 6 or shortly after that hour also sold newspapers, generally while on their way from house to house or office to office delivering their papers, and this made them later than boys who only carried. A few boys, however, had unusually heavy or scattered routes or were kept out because of some other unusual feature of their work. For example, one boy delivered his own papers between 3.30 and 5, went back to the distributing agent to get a list of “ misses” reported for other carriers, and delivered the papers to these customers between 6.30 and 7.30. Another boy delivered New York papers every evening on a round of hotels between 6.45 and 7.15 or 7 and 8.30. Unlike the boys selling papers on the streets, afternoon carriers 1 usually comDleted their work in time to join their families for the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 153 COLUMBUS, OHIO evening meal. Some of the morning carriers got a bite to eat before starting out on their routes, but it seemed to be more customary to have breakfast with the family after the morning’s work was done. Sunday carriers often worked two or three hours before breakfast. Some of the circulation managers reported that efforts were made to regulate the routes so that less than an hour s work a day would be required of the carriers. The majority (57 per cent) of the boys themselves reported that on school days they spent between one and two hours on their routes, though 31 per cent spent less than an hour (Table 37). These hours included “ shoving,” or putting together the different sections of the papers, four or five days a week, work that took 15 or 20 minutes a day and was done under rather trymg cir cumstances because of the crowded rooms and the haste. A 13-yearold boy said that at his substation the younger carriers could not get away until after the older ones had finished their shoving, as the larger and stronger boys monopolized all the space available for shoving, pushing the smaller boys out of the way. A small proportion of the carriers (107, or 12 per cent) worked at least two hours a day, including a number under 12 years of age. Some of these boys had heavy routes (that is, routes of 100 customers or more), but others delivered “ misses” made by other carriers or left bundles of papers at stores or news stands (without extra pay), or had both morning and afternoon routes. Typical of the last group were two boys, one 14 years old, the other 9. The older boy, who was employed by a branch office, delivered and sold 148 morning papers between 5 and 7.30 a. m. and carried an afternoon paper from 3.15 to 5, working 4M hours on school days, 4 % hours on Saturdays, and 3 hours on Sundays. The younger boy also worked from a branch office, carrymg the morning paper for l}4 hours and one of the evening papers for threequarters of an hour. T able 37.— Number of hours of street work on a typical school day, by age period; newspaper carriers holding a single job, Columbus, Ohio Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Total Number of hours of street work on a typical school day. Under 10 years 10 years, under 12 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Age re Per not Per Per Per Per port cent Num cent Num cent Num cent cent ed 1 Num Num dis dis dis dis dis ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu ber tribuì tion tion tion tion tion Total______________ 906 91 195 351 268 1 Street work on school days. 898 89 193 348 267 1 Total reported----------- 895 100.0 89 100.0 192 100.0 347 100.0 266 100.0 1 Less than 1 hour— 1 hour, less than 2. 2 hours and over... 280 508 107 31.3 56.8 12.0 40 39 10 44.9 43.8 11.2 65 108 19 33.9 56.3 9.9 98 215 34 28.2 62.0 9.8 77 145 44 28.9 54.5 16.5 1 3 No street work on school days----------------------- -— 8 2 1 1 1 2 3 1 i Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 154 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK Because of the time that they were obliged to give to collecting the Z e± J ^ m ent fr° mt cust°mers, making their returns, and settling their own weekly bills, carriers’ hours were much longer on Saturdays than on other days. Almost half (46 per cent) the boys iin S tV I T 1 h° Urs ?n Sat.urday s> a not negligible propor tion of the total (12 per cent) working five hours or more. Some of the carriers said that it took them practically all day Saturday to Saturday^1117 269 b°yS 32 per cent^ worked less than two hours on The hours on Sunday, though not so long as on Saturday, were longer than on school days. Almost half (45 per cent) the 390 Sundav carriers worked at least two hours, and 13 per cent at least three hours ~undY ? aperS wJere1much heavier than the week-day editions, so mat the boys made slower progress on their routes. As almost all the carriers worked six or seven days a week their weekly hours were long. Although 11 per cent of all of them and 20 per cent of those under 12 years of age worked less than four hours a week on their newspaper routes, 25 per cent (including 16 per cent of the boys under 12 years) worked at least 12 hours a week Co lumbus newspaper carriers worked much longer hours than news paper-route boys m other cities. . I^ fhis connection it was interesting to find that some of the more intelligent parents deplored the fact that the newspaper work took so much time that their boys had too little left for recreation: others made the same comment, though from the opposite angle, when thev congratulated themselves that the boys “ had no time for mischief not even on Saturdays.” Some of the boys, also, reported that they were much too busy to mdulge in any form of recreation, though it was seldom that any of them voiced a complaint like that of one 11year-old earner who said, “ It kind of takes away all my playtime.” E AR N IN G S Under,tke independent-carrier system in Columbus carriers made a profit ol three-fourths of a cent on each daily paper delivered and 2 A l cents to %/i cents on Sunday papers, usually getting the papers on credit by the week and makmg their own collections. The great majority of the carriers were paid in this way; only-5 per cent paid for .then* papers as they got them and delivered to their customers entirely on their own account, and only 20 per cent were paid a fixed sum. Bess than half those being paid a fixed sum were boys having office routes who were paid a regular weekly wage by the newspaper company, the others being only helpers or substitutes paid by the boys for whom they worked. All except 15 of the helpers were paid for them work, more than half of them less than $1. Of the 893 carriers who did no other street work and who were able I» ai?2U\nt made a week, 54 per cent made less than $o. fia b le 38.) -Excluding those who were only helpers, 48 per cent made less than $3. A not inconsiderable proportion (18 per cent) of all the carriers earned at least $5, a few boys reporting weekly earnings of $8, $10, or even larger sums. 6 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 155 CÔLtfMBÜS, ÔHIÔ T a b l e 38.— Earnings during a typical week, by number of hours engaged, newspaper carriers holding a single job, Columbus, Ohio Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age 71 104 273 290 158 Total reported— ^---------------- 893 100.0 102 100.0 271 100.0 285 100.0 156 100.0 21 37 63 185 172 140 102 08 80 2.4 4.1 7.1 20.7 19.3 15.7 11.4 7. 6 10.0 14 13.7 13 12.7 20 19.6 40 39.2 5.9 6 1 1.0 .4 1 5.5 15 8.9 24 75 27.7 75 27.7 34 12.5 8.1 22 3.3 9 4.1 11 2 7 13 49 57 62 42 25 26 .7 2.5 4.6 17.2 20.0 21.8 14.7 8.8 9.1 4 1 4 13 23 31 25 23 31 16 1.8 ■ 1.8 2 .7 1 Total___________ Less than $0.25____ $0.25, less than $0.50 $0.50, less than $1.— $1, less than $2____ $2, less than $3____ $3, less than $4------$4, less than $5____ $5, less than $6------$6 and over_______ N o earnings and no cash . earnings________ 906 Not reported------------- 7.8 8 5 2 1 5 2 Per cent dis tribution £ |Number O 16 hours and over Per cent dis tribution U 12 hours, less than 16 Number Per cent dis tribution 8 hours, less than 12 Per cent dis tribution 4 hours, less than 8 Number Per cent dis tribution Number Less than 4 hours Number Total Earnings during a typical week Per cent dis tribution Working specified number of hours per week 71 100.0 2.6 .6 2.6 8.3 14.7 19.9 16.0 14.7 19.9 1 5 10 11 12 11 21 1.4 7.0 14.1 15.5 16.9 15.5 29.6 .6 . . . . 1 ' i Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. As in the majority of instances earnings varied directly with the number of customers, they varied directly also with the length of time given to the work (though they were affected by other elements, such as the distance between customers ’ houses) and especially with the b o y ’s collecting ability. A number of boys reported that they should earn more than the amount that they named but that they could never collect from their customers the full amount due. Comments like the following were rather common from both the car riers and their parents: “ Boys have to stand all losses when customers m ove,” “ One lady owed Bennie 72 cents, and she finally paid 55 cents. The paper man don’t care whether people pay as long as he gets his money. One week he didn’t give Bennie nothing. 1 should make $2.44 a week, but I never made more than $1.50 except once. If I stopped serving them the substation man would ja ise the dickens and dock me 15 cents for each customer each time. lh e monev helps the family, but he loses some by customers not paying, unless I help.” “ He is unable to collect all the money due him even when I help. I don’t care to give him the money to pay his weekly bill, and I want him to give up his route.” “ Bob quit last Saturday because he had so much trouble collecting his money, and 1 often had to help pay for the papers.” “ He doesn’t earn enough to count. It should be more, but he loses through customers moving or failing to pay. The newspapers don ’t help the children or give them proper backing when they lose.” “ I really earn $6.40 a week but am never able to collect it.” https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 156 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK The earnings that carriers reported included tips if they received them. It appeared to be more customary in Columbus than in other places to give the carrier a tip; about one-third of the carriers reported that they usually received from at least some of their customers something more than the amount owed them. The fact that the weekly bill for most customers was 22 cents probably accounts for some of the tipping; it was easier to let the boy “ keep the change” a quarter than to wait. The fact that the study was mtde at the Christmas season also explams part of the tipping reported. N E E D F O R E A R N IN G S The carriers came from rather more prosperous families than news paper sellers, if the occupation of the chief breadwinner may be taken as an indication Among them were relatively more skilled mechanics and machinists than among the newspaper sellers, more commercial travelers and salesmen, more professional men, and three times as many clerks. Fewer carriers ’ fathers were factory workers or laborers, and only about half as many fathers or mothers were in occupations classihed as domestic and personal service. The occupations of the chief breadwinners were fairly representative of those of all the male workers 20 years of age and over.52 They included about the same proportion of railroad employees and other transportation workers a slightly larger proportion of salesmen, proprietors and managers of stores, and others m trade, almost as many clerks and not many more factory workers, mechanics, and artisans; but only half as many were m professional pursuits or in public service, and the same pro portion were m domestic and personal service. ,i “ ?,uck larger proportion of the newspaper-route carriers than of the sellers came from families m which father and mother were living together and the father was supporting the family. The proportion of normal homes (81 per cent) was about the same as had been found m unselected groups of boys. (See p. 29.) On the other hand many of the carriers were fatherless— 134 boys had lost their ow i fathers but 42 of these had stepfathers or others taking the place of their fathers; so that 92 boys (9 per cent) were in what may be termed widowed homes. In the families of 64 boys (6 per cent) the mother was the main support, working chiefly in domestic service, though a lew were factory operatives or saleswomen or had other occupations In order to get more specific mformation as to their social and economic standing carriers’ families, like those of the newsboys were visited Visits were made to 112 families in which were 142 (15 per cent) of the carriers included in the study. The earnings of the chief breadwinners in the carriers’ families were about the same as those of Columbus wage earners as shown in e a r n S ^ o f the f i atlsi Cf? stud^ <Se.e P- 137,) The median nm1 u 95 breadwinners reportmg were between $1,250 " ¿ S ? ; whereas the average for white families in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study was $1,295 and for negro families was lower.53 i air ? a*Fe proportion (29 per cent) of the carriers were in families e ffathers e r edwith *• i,850 ° r-m0re; ly 9 as Per$1,850. ^ of A majority newspaper sellers thad earnmgs as rlarge of 83 f c t h l y L a b o ^ v i i w ^ ^ B ^ S ^ L i b O T O ^ n i^ tio n s , PP. 1088-1090. See footnote 101, p. 83. ' ‘ eau 01 ■Lat)0r statistics), Vol. IX , No. 6 (December, 1919), pp. 36,38. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 157 the heads of carriers’ families had had no unemployment, but a small proportion (13 per cent)— almost as many as among newspaper sellers—had been unemployed three months or longer during the year preceding the interview with the family. Family earnings seemed to be somewhat larger than those of the families of Columbus wage earners included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study, for the median annual earnings in the 79 families reporting (see footnote 39, p. 137) were between $1,450 and $1,850, whereas in the families included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study the average earned income ranged from $1,198 in negro families to $1,328 in white families.84 The carriers’ families were a little larger than those included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study, averaging 6.1 compared with an average of 4.8 members. (See footnote 11, p. 84.) The proportion of gainfully employed mothers was a little larger than the average shown in the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of wage earners’ incomes in Columbus; 12 per cent of the carriers, exclusive of those whose mothers earned the family living, had mothers who were employed, not including those who may have kept boarders or lodgers, compared with 9 per cent of the white mothers in the Federal study of family incomes.65 The difference is probably fully accounted for by the number of carriers’ mothers who were widows or deserted wives though not the main support of their families, for the Bureau of Labor Statistics study included no family in which the father was not present. That on the whole the carriers’ families were rather above the average in prosperity is shown also by the fact that half of those to whom visits were paid were buying or had bought the houses in which they lived. About one-third of the dwelling houses in the city of Columbus were owned either in whole or in part by their tenants.56 At the time of the study 11 carriers’ mothers were in receipt of mothers’ pensions. A very small percentage of the carriers’ families had received relief from charitable organizations. (See footnote 43, p. 138.) In 1922 or 1923 (that is, approximately in the year preceding the reading of the agency record) 21 white families in which were 26 carriers and 5 negro families with 5 carriers had received aid, consti tuting 3 per cent of' the 946 white carriers and 13 per cent of the 40 negro carriers included in the study. Before 1922 charitable assistance had been given to 28 other families of carriers. Typical of families receiving more than a few grocery orders or perhaps a small amount of money once or twice were the following: A native white family in which the father was dead was supported by the mother who worked as extra waitress at a tea room and had a mothers’ pension of $36 a month. A t the time of the survey the family consisted of four children from 5 to 14 years of age. A 9-year-old boy earned 50 cents a week helping another boy deliver papers and $1.50 a week helping a grocer, working eight hours a week on his paper route and three hours a day (from 6.30 to 8 a. m. and 4.30 to 6 p. m.) every week day in the grocery store. The family-service society had aided with $8 a week since 1921. The boy reported that he bought all his clothing, saved some of his money, and had some for spending money. A n oth er n ativ e w h ite fa m ily , w ith tw o ch ildren u n der 16 w h ose pa ren ts w ere d iv o rce d , w as Supported b y th e m oth er, w h o w ork ed in a 5 -a n d -1 0 -cen t store, MIbid., pp. 36, 38. 56 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Voi. II, Population, p. 1297; https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 158 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK receiving $11 a week. A 15-year-old boy earned $2 a week on his paper route. The family-service society gave $8 a week during an illness of the mother and paid the rent. A native white family in which were four children from 7 to 14 years of age was supported by the father’s earnings of about $15 a week as a house-to-house canvasser on commission. The father was a carpenter but was not strong enough to work at his trade. The mother did washing and cleaning when she was able, but she was suffering from goiter. Two boys, 13 and 14 years old, had paper routes, earning together a little more than $5. The family-service society had given almost continuous relief for 10 years, and during the year preceding the study had contributed $10 a week. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K When the carriers were asked why they had first taken newspaper routes or had first sold papers or done their first street work, what ever it may have been, 536 of the 986 gave a personal reason; 25 per cent had wanted spending money, 17 per cent had wanted to work, and 12 per cent had wanted to earn money for some special object or hobby. A few boys (5 per cent), it appeared, would not have gone into the work except for the suggestion of a representative of the newspaper or the desire to win prizes offered by the newspapers. Eighteen per cent had begun to work because their friends were doing it and 9 per cent in order to help another boy. Only a small number (41 boys) said that their reason for going to work had been the need to earn money to help out at home. This proportion (4 per cent) is less than one-third that of newspaper sellers who said that they had been obliged to go to work because of poverty. (See p. 140.) The boys’ statements on this point, as well as the financial status of the families, when compared with that of other wage earners’ families and the mode of living, all indicate that only rarely was the carriers’ job undertaken to relieve actual need. Although only 6 per cent of all the boys said that they had first gone into street work at their parents’ instigation, a large majority of the carriers’ families visited (88 per cent) were emphatic in their approval of newspaper-route work. Only nine parents expressed disapproval, generally because the boys lost money on their collec tions, and only a few were indifferent. The fact that the news papers made a point of seeking the parents’ cooperation may account for this attitude. (See p. 151.) Some parents even gave active assistance; fathers drove their boys to the substations for their papers or on Sundays even helped them deliver the papers, and mothers supervised accounts and helped to make collections. One of the best examples of such cooperation was in a family in which three boys, 10, 13, and 14 years of age, respectively, had routes. The mother had advanced money for the routes which they had bought at various times, and had helped them divide the routes among them. She computed their earnings twice a week, checked up their accounts, and took charge of their earnings. She approved of the work because it “ kept them off the streets” and because she wanted them to learn to take care of themselves. The money helped to clothe the boys, repair their shoes, etc. In general the same reasons for approving of the work were expressed by carriers’ parents as by those of newspaper sellers. (See p. 141.) Only 21 per cent of the 112 carriers’ families visited said definitely that they needed the carriers’ earnings, but an additional 23 per cent said that they were a real aid, either in supporting the family or in buying the boys’ clothing, school books, or other necessities. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 159 That the boys’ earnings were helpful in those families (51 per cent of the total) in which the head of the family earned less than $1,450 a year is self-evident. D IS P O S IT IO N O P E A R N IN G S As might be expected from the fact that the carriers’ families in the main were better off financially than the newspaper sellers’ families, fewer carriers than sellers contributed any of their earnings toward the support of their families, and relatively only about half as many had to turn in to the family all that they made from their newspaper routes. The proportion of carriers helping with family expenses was only 25 per cent. (Table 39.) These included 13 boys contributing all their earnings and 25 using all either for family or for personal necessities; moreover, 23 other boys spent all their earnings on clothes, school books and supplies, and other necessities, so that altogether 61 boys (6 per cent) had none of their money for pocket money or savings. One of these boys earned $6.75 a week; he helped with family expenses, spent $50 a year for his school tuition, and bought his clothes. The father owned a store and had three children. Another was the son of a watchman at a rail road crossing who, owing to illness, had earned only $511 during the year preceding the interview, though he had been assisted by a fraternal society and had a small sum from the rental of part of his house, which he owned. The earnings of the 13-year-old boy, the oldest of three children, were all used for family expenses. Another 13-year-old boy, earning $1.15 a week from his paper route, was the oldest of three children in a thrifty German family. The mother jjjf reported the father’s earnings as $1,500 and her own as a laundress as about $87 during the preceding year. The family owned the house in which they lived. She said that they would not let the boy work, because it was “ awful hard in winter,” except that they needed the money, all of which went toward the support of the family. These three cases are probably typical of the families in which all the carriers’ earnings were used for necessities. The number of boys reporting that at least some of their money went for clothes and other necessary personal expenses was rather surprisingly large; these boys constituted 61 per cent of all the carriers, compared with only 53 per cent of the newspaper sellers. A large proportion (75 per cent) also used some of their money for pleasures and amusements, including 44 boys who said that all their earnings went in that way. One of the 44 selected at random from the group was a 10-year-old boy earning 50 cents a week; his father, the pro prietor of a confectionery store, reported an income of about $4,000 a year. Two-thirds of the carriers (67 per cent) saved at least part of the money they earned , including 6 per cent who saved all. Among those saving all was a 9-year-old carrier, again selected at random, making $1.65 a week on an afternoon route; his father earned about $2,100 a year as a sales manager, and there were six children in the family. Nevertheless, the boy was permitted to save all that he earned in ^ order to teach him to save, though his mother said that occasionally " she bought something for him from his savings so that he might have the pleasure of saying that he had earned it. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 160 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK T able 3 9 . — D is p o s itio n o f ea r n in g s; n e w sp a p er ca rriers, C o lu m b u s, O hio N ew sp ap er carriers to 15 years o f age 6 D isp o sitio n o f earnings 2 N um ber P er cen t distri b u tio n T o ta l............................ ...... ............................ 986 Total reported_________________ _______ _________ 982 100.0 All for self............................................................. 719 73.2 Spent for necessities_______ _______ ______ Spent for luxuries________________________ Spent for necessities and luxuries__________ Saved______________________ _______ ____ _ Saved and spent for necessities____________ Saved and spent for luxuries______________ Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries 23 44 89 60 2.3 4.5 9.1 148 269 15.1 27.4 Part to family and part for self2......................... 86 6.1 8.8 233 23.7 Spent for necessities.................................... . Spent for luxuries________________________ Spent for necessities and luxuries__________ Saved.-....... ................................................... Saved and spent for necessities____________ Saved and spent for luxuries______________ Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries 25 56 60 2.5 5.7 11 6.1 1.1 9 37 35 .9 3.8 3.6 All to family......................................................... No earnings and no cash earnings....................... 13 17 1.3 1.7 Not reported______________________ ______ - ......... 4 1 E arnings spen t for necessities, luxuries, or b o th , m a y in clu d e expenses o f jo b . S u bsid iary item s sh o w disp osition o f part spen t for self. 2 Of the 90 carriers who were fatherless 30 per cent helped their families as compared with 22 per cent of those whose fathers were in the home. Fewer fatherless boys were able to save, and fewer had any of their money to spend on themselves. The differences between the two groups in the distribution of the boys’ earnings were slight, though, as was pointed out in regard to newspaper sellers, the amounts for each item may have differed considerably for fatherless boys and boys with fathers at home and working. Greater differences in the distribution of earnings were found on comparing carriers in families whose chief breadwinners earned at least $1,450 with those in families whose chief breadwinners earned less than $1,450. The numbers are small, but it is interesting to note that 38 per cent of the boys in the poorer homes and only 14 per cent of .those in the more prosperous ones reported contributing anything toward family expenses. The proportion using their money for Christmas gifts, radio sets, toys, and the like was more than twice as large among carriers coming from the more prosperous homes than among those who were less well off. C A R R IE R S IN S C H O O L One hundred and forty (14 per cent) of the carriers were high-school boys.57 This proportion is twice as large as the proportion of news boys who attended high school, though the proportion of carriers who were 14 or older (that is, of an age to enter high school) was 29 per cent, compared with 20 per cent of the newsboys. Som e o f th e 140 b o y s w ere in the n in th grade o f th e ju n io r high school. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 161 COLUMBUS, OHIO Attendance. School-attendance records were found for 475 (87 per cent) of the 548 carriers who had worked at least part of the school semester ended June, 1922. The average percentage of attendance was 95, which is a somewhat better record than for all children in the Colum bus public schools. (See p. 145.) All except 47 boys (10 per cent) had been present at least 90 per cent of the semester. No apparent con nection existed between the fact that these boys were absent ap proximately 19 days or more of the term and their work as newspaper carriers. Deportment. The deportment of the carriers appeared to be equally satisfactory. Of the 339 boys for whom semester marks in deportment were obtained, 22 per cent had marks of at least 90, and 82 per cent had been marked at least 80. Fifteen per cent had received marks of between 70 and 80 in deportment and only 3 per cent less than 70 (the passing mark). These marks were decidedly better than the deportment marks of the boys who sold papers on the streets. (See p. 145.) Progress and scholarship. w , The carriers’ progress in school seems to indicate that, so far as ability goes, they were a picked group. The proportion of carriers who were retarded in school (see footnote 38, p. 22) was only 15 per cent, less than half that of the newspaper sellers and much less than that of all Columbus public-school children of the same ages (see p. 146). Eighteen per cent of the carriers were in higher than average grades for their ages, a proportion that is almost twice that of the newspaper sellers in higher than average grades. The carriers who worked long hours had advanced in school as rapidly as those who worked comparatively few hours, for although 16 per cent of the boys spending at least 12 hours a week on their route work were re tarded, compared with only 14 per cent of those working under 12 hours, the difference is so slight as probably to be accounted for by differences in the ages of the two groups; the group working the longer hours contained more of the older boys, and the percentage of retarded among any group of school children increases with the ages of the children. . . . , As was pointed out earlier in this report (see p. 23) the adverse effects on school progress of the work that the boys did, if adverse effects there were, would not have been felt by those who had engaged in it for only a short time. Boys who had been working two years or more, however, might be expected to show by their success or failure in making normal progress whether or not the demands of their job interfered with their ability to do satisfactory school work. An examination of the facts in regard to the Columbus newspaper-route carriers shows that 15 per cent of those who had had their routes less than two years were retarded in school, but only 14 per cent of those who had kept their routes at least two years were retarded. More over, a large proportion (21 per cent) of the boys working two years or more were in higher grades than children usually are at their ages an even larger proportion than that (16 per cent) of those who had worked less than two years. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis I 162 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK The semester marks in their studies, which were obtained for 504 carriers who had worked in the semester ended June, 1922, tell much the same story, as the following summary of the averages shows: Number of boys Average grade T o t a l . ____ __ Less than 70__ _ __ _ 70, less than 80 _ _ _ _ 80, less than 90 90 or m ore___ _ _ _ ___ __ ____ _ _______ _ 504 _____________ _____________ ________ _____________ 7 130 306 61 Per cent distribution 100 1 26 61 12 Only 1 per cent of these carriers had failed to make a passing aver age, and the large majority had made an average of at least 80 in their studies. D E LIN Q U EN C Y A M O N G C A R R IE R S The conditions of work in Columbus probably put in the way of carriers few or no opportunities to become delinquent. Only 93 of the 986 carriers had routes in business districts; the others delivered papers, if not in the immediate vicinity of their homes, at least in residential neighborhoods. Only a few of the boys went to the main offices of the newspapers for their papers; at the substations they were likely to meet only a small group, including chiefly boys who lived in their own residential district. Carriers were enjoined on penalty of losing their routes not to loiter while delivering their papers, so that while they were at work at least they were, as many parents declared, “ kept out of mischief.” In these circumstances the danger of forming undesirable associates and habits and hence of falling into delinquency was reduced to a minimum. Only 27 of the carriers (3 per cent) were found to have had court records, 11 of them in 1922 or 1923— a proportion only one-fourth that among the Columbus boys who slold papers. All the delinquent carriers were white boys. In 3 of the 11 cases brought before the juvenile court in 1922 or 1923, the charge was stealing newspapers. In the other cases no connection between the offense and the boy’s work or the conditions of his work was apparent. P E D D LE R S A N D M IS C E L L A N E O U S S T R E E T W O R K E R S O C C U P A T IO N S A N D W O R K E XP E R IE N C E Besides the children connected with the sale and distribution of newspapers 195 others were engaged in different kinds of street work. These included 66 peddlers and miscellaneous street workers, 58 children who tended market stands, 44 magazine carriers or sellers, and 27 handbill distributors. The peddlers, of whom there were 55, sold a great variety of articles— candy, nuts, chewing gum, fruit, vegetables, maple sirup, brooms, toys, bread, butter, buttermilk, wood, salve, horse-radish, sausages, flowers, sachet, and miscellaneous goods from a mail-order house. The 11 miscellaneous workers were bootblacks, junk collectors, carriers of advertising signs, a news-stand assistant, and a boy who led about the street a blind man selling magazines. Only 2 of the 66 children had a second street job at the time of the study— 1 worked at a market stand and 1 carried news papers— but 23 of the boys and 2 of the girls at some time in their lives had had other street jobs than those in which they were engaged https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 163 when interviewed— such as selling or carrying papers or magazines, peddling other articles, or helping at market stands. ' Twenty-six (40 per cent) had been peddling or doing other street work for at least one year and 16 (25 per cent) had worked two years or more. A few hucksters and one or two candy sellers had worked for at least three years. A 13-year-old girl who sold candy every afternoon in the post office and on one of the main business streets said she had been doing it for seven years, though that was her first year in Columbus. About one-third (35 per cent) had been working on the street less than six months. R A C E A N D N A T IO N A L IT Y O F F A T H E R S A N D A G E O F W O R K E R S Among the peddlers and miscellaneous street workers were 16 who had foreign-born fathers, chiefly Russian or other foreign-born Jews and Italians,, and 7 children were negroes; the remaining 43 were of native white parentage. The peddlers averaged 11.4 years of age and the miscellaneous workers 12.2 years. However, of the 66 peddlers and miscellaneous workers, 8 were under 10 years of age, 27 were 10 and 11 years, 19 were 12 and 13 years, and 12 were 14 years of age or over. C O N D IT IO N S O F W O R K Only 15 of the 66 children worked on their own account— 8 candy, nut, and chewing-gum sellers, 3 other peddlers, and 4 miscellaneous workers; 51 were hired— 24 by their parents, 6 by other relatives, and 21 by other employers. All the fruit or vegetable hucksters were employed, chiefly by their own parents, and a surprising number of the peddlers of confectionery were hired— 7 by parents, 2 by other relatives, and 7 by persons outside their families or by candy firms. About half the peddlers (25 of the 55) sold in business streets, including 19 candy, nut, and chewing-gum sellers, of whom 5 were girls from 8 to 13 years of age, who went in and out of the down town offices and stores offering their wares. Among the candy sellers working down town on the streets and in the post office and other office buildings was a 13-year-old girl who was reported as offering her candy to men in the streets with false tales as to the illness of her father, who, according to the family-service society, was working and able to support his family. Two other little girls, one 8 and the other 12 years old, were sent out by their mother to sell candy in down-town office buildings every week day and sometimes on Sundays. The father, earning $30 a week, worked steadily as an electrician, and there were only four children in the family. The family-service society had attempted to find places such as the Woman's Exchange for the mother to sell the candy that she made, but their attempts had not been successful and the children continued to go on the streets with the candy, as they had done for several years. One of the girls was described a s “ a very good little beggar.” The older one related how one evening in a hotel a man had taken their basket and sold all their candy for them in the lobby, taking in between $5 and $10. Three brothers, 10, 11, and 13 years old, all rather pale and delicate-looking children, sold candy and pop corn regularly every week-day afternoon, making the rounds of the office buildings, and three times a week on school-day evenings they sold in motion https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 164 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK picture houses. The majority of the peddlers, however, went from door to door in residential sections of the city. A 10-year-old boy went with his father, who was blind, to sell candy and sachet powder on the streets of Columbus and in Lancaster, Dayton, and other Ohio cities and towns during vacations. The State commission for the blind, which had assisted this boy’s father to learn basket making and had found him a place in a factory at $3 a day, reported that the organization could do nothing with the man; he had left the position to go begging on the streets and had been arrested in several cities for begging. According to the commission the boy also had learned to beg. A 14-year-old girl in another family also accom panied her blind father as he went from house to house selling brooms which he made himself; the commission regarded this work as entirely suitable for the girl. Twenty-three of the 66 peddlers and miscellaneous workers worked only on Saturdays, but 24 worked at least 6 days a week and 18 worked on at least 2 days of the week. M ost of the candy sellers worked every day except Sunday, and most of the hucksters worked only on Saturdays. All except two 10-year-old brothers, who sold milk from house to house every morning, worked after school, usually not later than 6 o’clock, or on Saturday morning after breakfast. Of the 58 workers who reported their hours, 40 worked less than 12 hours a week and 26 (45 per cent) worked less than 8 hours. But 18 worked 12 hours or more, of whom 11 were candy, chewinggum, and nut sellers. E A R N IN G S A few children— 2 girls working for prizes and 6 boys helping their fathers on hucksters’ wagons— received no money for their work, w and 9 children did not know the amount of their earnings. These 9 were usually children who sold some commodity the profit on which they did not know, though they knew the amount for which the article sold and usually how much money they took in. Judging from those who did report their earnings, peddling seems to have been profitable for the time given to it; 17 of the 47 children reporting their earnings earned $4 or more a week, and 37 earned at least SI, including 14 of the 17 candy sellers. Tips were only fairly common; 30 children reported that they did not get tips, and 16 (including 7 candy sellers) reported that they did. N E E D F O R E A R N IN G S About one-fourth of these children came from “ broken” homes— only 76 per cent were in families in which both the father and mother were present, and only 74 per cent were from families in which both the father and mother were present and the father supported the family. Even where the father was at home and supporting the family, they were often far from prosperous. For example, the main support in the families of 14 of the 66 workers was a peddler or a huckster, 1 was a garbage collector, 1 a laundress, 1 a cook, and 1, the father of a colored bootblack, though a “ preacher” on Sunday, was an odd-job man and junk collector during the week. Some of the children, however, had fathers who were in some skilled trade or ^ clerical position or who owned a small business, and a few were well-to-do. For example, the 12-year-old son of a traveling salesman https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 165 earning more titan $4,000 a year sold almonds to make money for college; and a lawyer’s son, aged 11, sold butter twice a week for a concern in which his father had an interest, earning $1.50 a week. The mothers of 13 of the 53 boys and 9 of the 13 girls were em ployed, exclusive of those who may have kept boarders or lodgers; 8 did housework or laundry work, 2 peddled, 3 worked in a factory, 3 were saleswomen or kept a market stand, 4 made candy or sausages, 1 was a stenographer, and 1 took orders for dry goods. Two of these women were the main support of their families. Visits were paid to 15 families in which there were 17 peddlers and miscellaneous street traders— about one-fourth of this group of workers. Only 8 reported the chief breadwinner’s annual earnings, which in 3 families were less than $1,050, and in 5 were at least $1,250, 1 being more than $3,000 and 1 more than $4,000. Practically all (13) of the families visited approved of the work the children were doing, generally because they believed that it gave the child valuable experience or because they thought that ‘‘ children should help their parents.” One mother, however, disapproved of her 10-year-old son’s leading a blind man about the street, as she thought it too much responsibility for him, and another was indifferent, saying that the child’s work did not amount to much. Fourteen families had received aid from charitable organizations at some time. (See footnote 43, p. 138.) Nine families, in which were 9 of the street traders in this group, had received assistance in 1922. In all the families receiving aid the fathers (of whom two were step fathers) were the chief breadwinners, but they had been unable to take care of their families chiefly because of unemployment or illness. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K Seven of the 54 boys and 7 of the 12 girls said that they had first gone to work in order to help their families financially. Nine of these 14 children had own fathers who were reported as the main support of their families, but the fathers of 4 of them were ill, those of 3 others were peddlers earning comparatively little, and those of 2 were out of work; 3 of the 14 had stepfathers, of whom 2 were peddlers and 1 a cook whose 9-year-old stepdaughter volunteered the information that he was “ no account— might just as well not work as he don’t do no good” ; 2 of the 14 were supported by brothers, who were factory hands. The 6 girls who did not claim economic need as their chief reason for working, had begun to sell because they wanted to help their parents, who peddled or made candy, usually the mothers, who in this way endeavored to increase the family income; and many of the boys also had started to work at their parents’ request. Comparatively few were doing the work just to make spending money or because the “ other boys were doing it,” though an occasional boy worked to buy a Boy Scout uniform or a bicycle. D IS P O S IT IO N OF E AR N IN G S ^ Only 5 of the 66 children contributed all that'they earned toward family expenses, but 3 used all for their own clothing— a very ragged 11-year-old junk collector said that he bought all his own clothes and 2 divided their earnings between the families and their own necessities, making 10 who did not use any of the money that they https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 166 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK earned on their own pleasures or for savings. In addition 15 children contributed something to the family budget, and 21 used part of their earnings for their own clothing. Only 2 children spent all their money on pleasures for themselves, but 33 spent some of their earn ings for candy, motion pictures, or “ fun.” A fairly large number, 25, saved some of their money, and 5 boys saved it all. A few of the children had some special object in view for their earnings. The interviewing was done near Christmas time and 8 children were sav ing for Christmas presents; several others were saving for music lessons, Boy Scout dues, or “ pigs and chickens.” SCHOOL ATTENDANCE, D E P O R T M E N T , AND PROGRESS Nine of the 33 children who had worked during the school term for which records were obtained and for whom records were found had been absent 10 per cent or more of the term; that is, at least 19 days. The absence appeared to be unconnected with the child’s work except possibly in the case of 2 boys. One of these boys worked until 8 o ’clock and the other until 8.30 three or four school nights a week. Only 1 of the children had failed to pass in deportment— a 12-year-old fruit peddler whose family was reported as “ no good,” and who had previously played truant from school to sell papers. Seventeen of the 65 children between 8 and 16 years of age were retarded in school (see footnote 38, p. 22), and 11 were advanced beyond the normal grades for their ages, showing better progress in school than newsboys. Only 3 children, a candy peddler and 2 fruit and vegetable ped dlers, had a standing of less than 70 in their school work, and 22 of the 31 for whom reports were obtained had averaged at least 80 in their studies. D E LIN Q U E N C Y Four boys had juvenile-court records. Three brothers, who sold candy in motion-picture houses at night, had broken into a store several years before the study (before beginning to sell) and had stolen $4.50, and in 1922 they were again before the court on a charge of shooting with an air rifle at the windows of a house. Another boy, who sold fruit from door to door for his father, had been charged in 1922 with destroying property and being disorderly before a motionpicture house, and in 1923 had stolen milk from a dairy. He had been working for a year, though only 11 years of age at the time of the study, M A R K E T C H IL D R E N O C C U P A T IO N S A N D W O R K E X P E R IE N C E Columbus had a number of large markets, the streets surrounding which were lined with stalls where fruit, vegetables, and, less fre quently, other produce or commodities were sold. Most of the 58 market children were stand tenders, but 1 boy was hired to “ put out benches” on market days and 15 of the boys waited in the streets around the markets sometimes with little express wagons, offering to carry market baskets. Five were girls, all stand tenders. A few of the market boys did other street work; 5 sold newspapers, and 2 had newspaper routes. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 167 A number had had other street jobs at some time in their lives; 10 had sold papers, 6 had had newspaper routes, several had either sold or carried papers or both and had also sold articles on the street or done bootblacking, and 2 others had peddled. Almost half (26) had done market work at least one year, and 22 had worked two years or more, four or five years or more being not uncommon. A 15-year-old native white boy had helped his father sell cider and vinegar at the market for eight years, and a 12-year-old Russian Jew had been helping at his father’s fruit stand since he was 5. Twelve of the 15 market messengers had worked less than 1 year, 6 of them less than six months. R A C E AN D N A T IO N A L IT Y OF F A T H E R S A N D A G E O F W O R K E R S Only 16 of the market children were of native white parentage. The remainder were negroes (12) or of foreign parentage (29), includ ing 19 Jews (18 Russians and 1 Rumanian), 5 Italians, 2 Germans, and 1 each of several other nationalities. The market children were somewhat older than other miscellaneous street workers. The average age was 12 years; but 28 of the 58 were under 12, 7 being under 10, and 15 were 14 or 15 years old. C O N D IT IO N S OF W O R K The majority of the 42 stand tenders worked for their own parents or other relatives, but 11 were employed by other proprietors of market stalls* Almost all the market children (52) worked only on Saturdays, and only 2 worked every week day. One of the daily workers was the boy who put out market benches, and the other was a 13-year-old boy who stood at his father’s stand every day from 4.30 to 7 p. m. and 12)^ hours on Saturday. Although most of the children worked only one day, their hours were very long; 21 worked at least 12 hours on their market jobs, and a number of others worked between 11 and 12 hours. A market day of 13 to 15 hours or more was not uncommon, beginning at 5 or 6 in the morning and ending at 9 or 9.30 at night, with a short period out for lunch. Among the 5 market children who also sold newspapers were 2 whose selling added appreciably to their hours of work. A 12-yearold negro boy sold papers 3 ^ hours daily except Saturday, when he worked in the market, staying out until 7.30 in the evening; a 13year-old Russian Jew, in addition to his 13 hours of market work, sold papers almost 4 hours a day four days a week. E A R N IN G S As many of the market-stand tenders worked for their own par ents, a comparatively large proportion of the market children (12 of the 58) received no money for their work. The largest number (15) earned between 50 cents and $1, but 11 children, including a ¿4-year-old girl, received $2 or more. Only 7 children received less than 50 cents; 3 of these carried market baskets, and 4 were 9 or 10 year old stand tenders earning 25 cents for their Saturday’s work. 75034°— 28-------12 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 168 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK N E E D F O R E AR N IN G S An unusually large number of children were in families in which some abnormal social or economic situation existed. Only 39 of the 58 stand tenders came from homes in which both their own fathers and own mothers were present and the father was the chief breadwinner. The mothers of 7 children supported the family, and, excluding those who may have kept boarders or lodgers, the mothers of 10 other children were employed—4 as stand keepers in the mar ket and 6 at laundry work or day’s work. The fathers or mothers of a number of the market children (15 of the 58) kept stands in the market. Some of the other parents earned only a very modest, if not a precarious living; 4 of the children, for example, had fathers who were hucksters and among the other 39 chief breadwinners were 3 junk dealers, 1 hotel maid, 1 laundress, 2 trucksters, and 2 laborers. A few skilled workmen were represented, and there were also a few factory operatives, a few foremen and clerks, a butcher, and a proprietor of a clothing store. The families of 24 market children (about two-fifths of this group of workers) were visited; only 12 of these families reported the chief breadwinner’s annual earnings, which in 3 families (those of 2 labor ers and 1 carpenter) were less than $1,050 and in 6 families were at least $1,450, one being $1,800 and another $2,100. Five of the families had received charitable assistance, 3 in 1922. The 3 chil dren in these families were 5 per cent of the children in this group. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K Only four of the market children had done street work first because of family need; in three of these cases the mother supported the family from the proceeds of a market stand, and in one the father was a junk dealer. Most of the stand tenders had begun to work because their parents needed some one to help them at the market, and most of the boys who carried baskets had gone down to the market because they wished to earn a little spending money or because “ all the boys had a job.” Many of the parents wanted their boys to work at the market, chiefly because they needed some one to help them, but five were indifferent to the boys’ work and three disapproved, saying that the boys “ got into trouble at the market” or “ got in with a rough crowd.” Several parents said that they wished their boys could earn more, as they needed the money; a number believed in the work because it kept the child from “ bumming” or “ devilment,” and others wanted to teach their children through work the value of money or wanted to “ bring them up to work.” D IS P O S IT IO N OF E A R N IN G S Only 1 of the market children contributed all his earnings toward the support of the family, a 10-year-old boy earning 50 cents a week whose father was in a penitentiary and whose family was supported by charity. Two children gave all their earnings to their families except what they spent on clothing for themselves. Fourteen others (24 per cent) of the 58 children contributed some of their money to their families, and 16 (28 per cent), besides the 2 who divided their https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis COLUMBUS, OHIO 169 earnings between family support and the purchase of their own clothing, spent some on necessities for themselves; 28 (48 per cent) spent some on pleasures, and 4 spent in this way all that they earned; 18 (31 per cent) saved some money, 3 boys saved all that they earned, and 3 others were saving all that they made for Christmas presents. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE, D E P O R T M E N T , AND PR O G R E SS Of the 32 market children whose school records were obtained— 21 children had worked too short a time for inclusion in the schoolrecord study and records for 5 could not be obtained— 10 had been absent from school at least 10 per cent of the school term. No obvious connection existed between the child’s work and his school absences. Two boys, a 15-year-old Russian Jewish stand keeper in the ninth grade and a 9-year-old Italian market helper in the second grade, had been marked below passing in deportment. Of the 32 children whose school records were obtained, 14 had made a rating in their studies of between 70 and 80, and 15 between 80 and 90; and a 9-year-old girl in the fourth grade had an average of 91. ,» A 9-year-old Italian boy in the second grade with an intelligence quotient of 88 had averaged only 69, the only market child who had failed to pass in his studies. Fifteen of the 58 market children between 8 and 16 years of age were retarded in school (see footnote 38, p. 22), so that their progress in school compared favorably with that of the newsboys but was inferior to that of the carriers in Columbus (see pp. 146, 161). D E LIN Q U EN C Y Three stand tenders and one market messenger had court records. All had been truant, and one had been convicted of stealing. M A G A Z IN E C ARRIERS A N D SE LLER S A N D BILL D IST R IB U T O R S O C C U P A T IO N S A N D W O R K E X P E R IE N C E Thirty-four boys and 1 girl included in the study carried magazines, 3 boys and 1 girl sold them, and 5 boys both sold and carried them. The 27 children who “ passed” bills were all boys. Only 3 of these 71 workers had a second street job; 1 carried a paper route, 1 maga zine distributor “ passed” bills, and 1 bill distributor had a magazine route. A fairly large proportion (20 of the 71) had previously had some other kind of street work; 12 boys had had a paper route, 1 had sold papers, 4 had both sold and carried papers, 3 had peddled, and 1 had tended a market stand. For most boys distributing bills is.a very temporary job ; 23 of the 27 had worked less than six months, though 2 boys had worked at least one year. One of these had distributed theater programs once a week for three years, ever since he was 10 years old, earning $1 a week, which he saved for music lessons. The magazine carriers and sellers as a rule continued the work for a somewhat longer time. Although 15 had worked less than six months, the majority (24) had carried or sold magazines at least one year. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 170 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK R A C E A N D N A T IO N A L IT Y O F F A T H E R S A N D A G E O F W O R K E R S There was only one negro boy in this group, and only 6 of the 70 white children had foreign-born fathers. The average age of the workers was 11.2 years, but 13 were under 10, 25 were between 12 and 14, and 9 were between 14 and 16 years of age. C O N D IT IO N S OF W O R K The bill distributors worked for theaters and motion-picture houses, stores, a chiropractor, and a church society. They were all hired, though 3 boys who distributed theater programs received no money for their work, being paid in the form of passes to the theater. All except 9 of the magazine carriers or sellers worked entirely on their own account. Almost all the handbill distributors went from house to house in residential streets throwing the bills or programs in the doorways, but 3 worked down town. Only 9 of the magazine carriers or sellers worked in business districts, chiefly carriers, some of „whom had routes in down-town offices. Almost all the children worked only once a week (all except 8 mag azine children and 6 bill distributors), the bill distributors generally on Saturdays, the others most often on a school day, when their magazines came out. Only 1 boy— a bill distributor— worked as much as six days a week. As a consequence the hours of work a week were few. Only 5 of the magazine workers worked four hours or more a week, and only 1 worked as much as eight hours. This was a 14-year-old boy who had been carrying magazines for almost two years, and who delivered 90 weekly and 50 monthly magazines, working about nine hours a week. M ost of the children worked only an hour or two a week, almost always in the afternoons. Only 2 bill distributors worked as much as eight hours a week, and 13 of the 27 worked less than four. No children worked early-morning or late-evening hours; those who worked on Saturday morning usually finished by noon, and afternoon workers were through distributing their bills before 6 o ’clock, as a rule. ^ ™ E A R N IN G S The earnings in both kinds of work were small; 12 of the 24 bill distributors who received cash earnings and 28 of the 44 magazine workers made under 50 cents a week, and only 4 boys in each group made as much as $1. Some of the bill distributors who received a very small amount for their work, such as 25 cents, were given theater passes in addition to the money. N E E D F O R E A R N IN G S Almost all the children— 39 of the 44 magazine workers and 25 of the 27 bill distributors, 'making 90 per cent of the two groups— were from homes in which both father and mother were present and the father supported the family. The mother was the chief support in the family of one boy in each group, one keeping a boarding house, the other being a clerk. A few other boys’ mothers worked— those of 5 of the bill distributors, generally at cleaning, laundry, or factory work, and those of 4 of the magazine workers, chiefly in some pro fessional occupation. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ^ COLUMBUS, OHIO 171 The occupations of the fathers, or other chief breadwinners, cov ered a wide range. In the case of bill distributors they included a professional man, a butcher, several clerks and salesmen, a jeweler, an automobile mechanic, street-car conductors, a building contractor, blacksmiths, a few laborers, 6 factory operatives, a telegraph opera tor, a foreman, an electrician, and a machinist. Among the chief breadwinners of the magazine carriers or sellers were a president of a corporation, 2 lawyers, a civil engineer, a mechanical engineer, a broker, several store managers, 10 salesmen, a bank cashier, several clerks, proprietors of stores, and 2 building contractors; no unskilled laborers and few skilled laborers or artisans were among them. Visits were paid to five families of magazine workers, all of whom were apparently prosperous. In the three families reporting earn ings, the father’s earnings were more than $2,000 a year, including one family in which the father’s earnings were more than $4,000 a year. These were families with not more than three children. In three of these five families the boy’s work was thoroughly approved of. In one family carrying magazines was a tradition, the route being handed down to the younger brother as soon as the older boy felt himself too grown up for the work; one father, a traveling sales man, wanted his son to carry and sell magazines because he believed it was good business training; in another family both parents wished their 11-year-old child to earn and save money for his university education and they insisted on the work. But one mother, whose husband was ill, wished that her 13-year-old boy would get a news paper route, as she said his magazine work amounted to very little, and another mother disapproved of the carrying that her 10-year-old son did because he went down town to the main office for his magazines. The three families of bill distributors appeared to be rather less prosperous than those of the magazine carriers and sellers. One was that of a 12-year-old boy, one of nine children under 16, whose father was a moulder. The father’s income for the year had been $1,259, but this was supplemented by earnings of two brothers over 16. The boy had delivered bills for a theater for 25 cents a week and a ticket to the show for five weeks. His mother did not mind his doing the work as it took very little of his time, only two and one-half hours on Saturday morning. A second 12-year-old boy also worked about two hours on Saturday mornings, earning 45 cents. He was the son of a blacksmith with five children under 16, earning $1,733 a year, the only earnings coming into the household. This boy gave some of his money to the family and used the remainder for spending money. The parents liked the boy to have some work to do. The third boy whose home was visited was also 12 years old; he had dis tributed bills for a grocery store Thursday afternoons for seven months, earning $1 a week. He saved 75 cents of his money and spent the remaining 25 cents; he had $30 in the bank. His father was an account clerk earning between $2,250 and $2,650 a year, and the home, in which there were only two children, gave every evi dence of prosperity. The parents liked the boy to have some regular duty and thought that one afternoon a week was sufficient. Two white families in which were threer bill passers had received aid from charitable organizations, both in 1922. ^In both cases the father was out of work and both had large families; one had nine https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 172 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K children, the other five, under 15 years of age. One magazine car rier’s mother had a mothers’ allowance, but none of the magazine carriers’ families had received relief. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K None of the children in either group had begun to do street work because of financial need in the family. Most of the magazine car riers and sellers had begun working because they wished to obtain a prize or a premium offered by the magazine, because they wished spending money or money to save, because they wanted something to do after school, or because they saw other boys doing similar work and they wanted to try it. M ost of the bill distributors also “ wanted some money to spend” or “ wanted something to do.” D IS P O S IT IO N O F E AR N IN G S None of the children in either group gave all their earnings to their families or used them all on clothing or other necessities of their own. Only 5 of the 44 magazine workers and 3 of the 27 bill distributors contributed anything to the family support, and only 5 bill distrib utors and 12 magazine workers used any of their money for their own clothes, school books, or the like. About half— 24 of the maga zine workers and 13 of the bill distributors— used some of their earnings for spending money, and 4 of the magazine workers and 5 of the bill distributors used all that they earned on their own pleas ures. In each group were 5 boys who saved all that they earned, and 24 other magazine workers and 5 other bill distributors saved at least part of their earnings. A few others were saving for bicycles, toys, or Christmas gifts. -0 S C H O O L A T T E N D A N C E , D E P O R T M E N T , AN D P R O G R E S S School-attendance records were obtained for 31 children who had attended school for one semester during the school term, most of the remainder having worked too short a time to be included in the study of school records. Only two of these children had been absent 10 per cent or more of the term, apparently for no reason connected with their work, a much smaller proportion than among peddlers and market children. Only one boy had a deportment mark below passing— an 11-year-old magazine carrier, one of a few who worked before school in the morning. He worked once a week from 6 to 7.30 a. m. and again in the afternoon. None of the 30 children whose school standing was ascertained had made less than a passing mark in their studies, 26 making at least 80 and 7 at least 90. Twelve children— 3 of the 42 magazine carriers or sellers between 8 and 16 years of age and 9 of the 27 bill distributors— were retarded in school (see footnote 38, p. 22), and 18 of the former and 2 of the latter were advanced. The school progress of the magazine carriers was superior to that of any of the other street workers, and superior also to the average among Columbus schoolboys. (See p. 146.) D E LIN Q U EN C Y A handbill distributor 11 years of age had a court record. He had broken railroad switch fights with a sling shot. The proportion of ^ the group that had been before the juvenile court was therefore only 1 per cent. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis * OMAHA, NEBR. IN T R O D U C T IO N The main business district of Omaha consists of a section approxi mately 9 blocks long and 11 blocks wide; some distance away are several secondary business sections. Thus the city has an unusually large number of “ busy corners/’ where the patrons of retail stores, theaters, hotels, banks, and public buildings afford a constant stream of customers for the newsboys. Hardly one of these corners is with out its group of newspaper sellers, and the best of them are occupied by newsboys from the early hours of the morning until late at night. The newspaper sellers are not always boys-—a number of men (both elderly and crippled men and young men in their late teens and early twenties), and even a few women, sell papers on the streets of Omaha. ' . T T The survey in Omaha was made in M ay and June, 1923. In June, 1926, a representative of the' bureau revisited the city for the purpose of learning whether or not conditions with respect to street work had changed.58 The chief probation officer of the juvenile court, the chief attendance officer of the city school system, the secretary ot boys’ work of the Jewish Welfare Federation, and the secretary ot boys’ work of the Young M en’s Christian Association, a number ot boys selling papers on the streets, several newspaper carriers, and the manager of a carriers’ substation were interviewed. Boys selling papers on the streets were observed at work throughout the day and evening, including Saturday night up to 12 o clock, and around the entrances to the distribution rooms of the various newspapers. The consensus of opinion among the adults interviewed was that probably a slight improvement in some of the conditions under which newsboys work had taken place since 1923. The information given by the boys themselves and observation, especially as regards the number of boys selling, their ages and their hours of work, indicated that conditions were substantially the same in 1926 as m 1923. Wherever a change in conditions of work was reported by any ot the persons interviewed it has been noted in the report. The statistics are those gathered in the original study in 1923. Table 1 (p. 8) shows the number of boys m each kmd ot street work who reported that they were working at the time the inquiry was made and who had done street work for at least one month during the year preceding the interview. (For details m regard to the selection of the children included in the survey, see p. 5.) LEG AL R E G U L A T IO N OF S T R E E T W O R K Under its dependency laws Nebraska has a provision, state-wide in its application, 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 any person so doing, is deemed dependent and neglected https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 174 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K and may be declared a ward of the court.” 59 The Douglas County juvenile court attempts to enforce this provision in Omaha, and it is generally conceded by the local school department, social workers, and others in close touch with the newsboys and their activities that the number of newsboys under 10 years o f age has greatly decreased. The enforcement of such a provision, however, lacking as it does a permit or badge requirement, and without penalties of any kind, requires eternal vigilance, and that in turn an adequate enforcement staff; whereas the probation staff of the juvenile court in Omaha is small and supervision of street workers only one of its numerous duties. N E W S P A P E R SE LLE R S 60 R A C E A N D ” N A TIO N A L I T Y O F N E W S B O Y S A N D T H E IR F A T H E R S Many of the Omaha newsboys were of foreign birth; 66 (21 per cent) had been born outside the United States, chiefly in Italy, Russia, or Poland, though one was a Mexican, another a native of Argentina, one Danish, another Scotch. Many were Jews. The majority, though themselves native born, were the children of immigrant parents. Sixty-nine per cent of the total had foreignborn fathers, a much larger proportion than that (49 per cent) of the general population who were of foreign birth or of foreign or mixed parentage; these were chiefly the children of Italians and of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland. The German, Czechoslovakian, and Scandinavian elements in the population, though by far the most numerous, supplied few newsboys; as soon as the immigrant family becomes Americanized and thoroughly assimilated into the life of the community its children rarely sell papers on the streets. The pro portion of newsboys who were Negroes (4 per cent) was about t h e 0 same as that of Negroes in the population as a whole. Only about one-fourth of the newsboys were native white of native parentage.61 (Table 40.) T a b l e 40.— Race and nationality of father; newspaper sellers, Omaha, Nebr. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Race and nationality^ father Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Race and nationality of father cent Num Per distri ber bution Total......................... ............. 320 100.0 White____________________ _____ 306 95.6 N ative........... ......................... Foreign born________________ 81 221 25.3 69.1 Italian___ _______ _____ Russian Jewish._________ Other Jewish.. _______ German______________ 97 61 12 7 30.3 19.1 3.8 2.2 Num Per cent distri ber bution Foreign born—Continued 3 .9 36 11 3 Other foreign born and foreign born not other- Negro____ 4 1.3 14 4.4 *•Nebr., Comp. Stat. 1922, sec.:H73, p. 445. 60 The only girl who reported selling newspapers was 10 years of age, of native white parentage. Her father and mother were separated, and her mother was a chocolate dipper in a candy factory. The child had begun to sell papers two months before the inquiry in order to help her mother with family expenses, and her earnings of $3 a week went for groceries and clothing. She sold papers from 4 to 6 every week day in a store, a theater, and a hotel, obtaining her papers at a down-town corner from a newspaper truck. This girl is not included in the tables. si Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. Ill, Population, p. 604. Washington, 1922. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, N EB R . 175 A G E OF N E W S B O Y S Probably as a result of the work of the juvenile court the propor tion of newsboys under 10 years of age included in the study was smaller in Omaha than in the other cities in which the Children’s Bureau made surveys of street workers. Nevertheless, this propor tion was 12 per cent. The proportion who were at least 14 years of age (27 per cent) was larger than in most other places for which information was available. (Table 2, p. 9.) The average age of the street newsboy was 12.1 years. W O R K E XP E R IE N C E At the time of the survey another street job in addition to paper selling was held by 67 of the newsboys, of whom all except 8 carried newspapers on a route. Usually these carriers had only a few cus tomers, not a regular route. Excluding those who at the time of the survey had two or more street jobs,;99 boys (39 per cent) had had some experience in another street job, though in most cases this was only another period of selling newspapers. For example, a Rumanian boy of 12 had sold papers irregularly about two months at a time every year since he was 6 years old. Another boy, though only 10 years of age, had had two other newspaper-selling experiences before his present one. He had begun at the age of 7 and had sold papers regularly for a year; when he was 8 he had begun selling irregularly; when he was 10 he had begun to sell regularly again (that is, every day) and had been selling regularly about six weeks when he was interviewed. The largest number of the newsboys (55) had begun street work at ^the age of 9, though almost as many (51 in each case) had begun when 10 or 11. Almost half (46 per cent) of the newspaper sellers said they had begun before they were 10 years of age, the proportion being the same for the children of native white parents as for those in immi grant families. Only 5 per cent had not begun until they were 14 or 15 years of age, and only 21 per cent had been as old as 12. As the Children’s Bureau survey was confined to those who had worked at least one month the most casual and irregular workers do not appear. Almost half (48 per cent) the boys included in the study had worked at the newspaper-selling job in which they were engaged at the time of the study (that is, had sold papers without interruption) for at least one year, the median duration being between 10 and 12 months. An even larger number of boys had had more than a year’s experience in newspaper selling, if those who had sold at several different periods are included. Thus a 15-year-old highschool boy when interviewed had been selling steadily for only about 20 months; he had begun to sell papers, however, at the age of 9 and had sold regularly for four years, when he had stopped selling for about a year. A 13-year-old Russian Jew had sold his first papers when 10 years old; he had had three periods of newspaper selling, each lasting eight or nine months, as he always stopped selling in summer because of the heat. A large proportion (31 per cent) had sold papers steadily for two years or longer, 19 per cent had sold at ^east three years, and a number had worked from four to nine years. (Table 41.) https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 176 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K These veteran newsboys had begun selling at very early ages. A 15-year-old boy had sold papers ever since he was 6 years of age; at the time of the study he was selling both before and after school. Another boy had begun when only 5 and had been selling regularly for eight years. A 13-year-old boy of Syrian parentage had been selling for seven years, having started in order to help his brother; he said that he liked it when he began but “ hated it now ” because he had to stand up all the time. An Italian boy had been selling morning papers five years, a boy friend having taken him down to the newspaper office to get papers when he was only 6; he had been selling so long, he said, that he no longer got sleepy m school as he had at first. A 15-year-old newsboy had first sold at the age of 10 because “ some guy told my father to make us sell papers.” Another boy had begun at the age of 5 and had been selling seven years; he said that when he first began selling a probation officer had told him he must quit because he was too young, but he had continued to sell and had not been disturbed again. T a b l e 41.— Previous duration of job held at date of interview, by age period; news paper sellers, Omaha, Nebr. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Previous duration of job held at date of interview 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Under 10 Per Per Per Per years1 Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent distri-^ ber distri ber ber distri ber distri b u tioij^ bution bution bution 87 115 37 81 Total reported ------------------------------------- 318 100.0 37 81 100.0 114 100.0 86 100.0 Less than 1 year.....................——........ 165 51.9 23 50 61.7 63 55.3 29 33.7 113 35.5 21 35 43.2 38 33.3 19 22.1 Less than 2 months_________ 2 months, less than 4 --------4 months, less than 6 ........... 55 45 13 17.3 14.2 4.1 13 6 2 11 19 5 13.6 23.5 6.2 18 16 4 15.8 14.0 3.5 13 4 2 15.1 4.7 2.3 6 months, less than 1 year ........... 52 16.4 2 15 18.5 25 21.9 10 11.6 1 year, less than 2................................. 2 years, less than 3--------------------------3 years and over------------------------------ 54 39 60 17.0 12.3 18.9 6 5 3 16 10 5 19.8 12.3 6.2 16 10 25 14.0 8.8 21.9 16 14 27 18.6 16.3 31.4 Total________________ ___________ Less than 6 m onths............ ........ 320 2 1 1 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. About one-fifth of the Omaha newsboys had had some other kind of paid work in their lives in addition to street jobs, and at the time of the survey 22 boys (of whom 14 were under 14 years of age) reported that they were doing some other kind of work, chiefly cad dying or errand or delivery work, which could be done on Saturdays or before or after school (school was in session at the time of the in terview). The vacation work experiences of some of these boys had been many and diverse. One had bootblacked for two summers an<|| had driven a peddler's horse a third summer; another reported that for two years, during vacation and on Saturdays, beginning at the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, NEBR. 177 age of 7, he had filled sacks at a granary; a 15-year-old boy had worked for a farmer five summers and had caddied one summer; another boy, besides shining shoes and selling papers, had spent four months during the summer preceding the interview, when he had been 12, helping to load cars with bricks; a negro boy of 15, whose mother supported the family by laundry work, had had a variety of jobs besides his newspaper selling. His first work experience had been hauling junk, beginning at the age of 8 and continuing until he was 13; at 14 he had helped a huckster for two months, had helped on a garbage wagon for one month, and had swept up the floors at the stock market for two months. C O N D IT IO N S OF W O R K A N D E N V IR O N M E N T Organization of newspaper distribution. . Omaha had three _important daily newspapers, each of which was issued five or six times a day. Two of them had early morning editions and each had an edition that was issued about 4.30 or 5 p. m.62 According to the publishers’ statement of circulation, ap proximately 27,000 copies of these newspapers were sold on the streets daily. Each of the three had a Sunday edition, which appeared Saturday evening. On school days boys sold only the early morning or the late afternoon papers, but on Saturdays and during vacations the numerous editions provided an opportunity to sell papers all day and well into the night. The business arrangements between the newspapers and the boys were seriously affected at the time of the study by the bitter rivalry between one of the newspapers and the other two. Some months before the study began, according to one circulation manager, one of the newspapers had brought into town a street circulator who hadhad orders to drive the other two papers off the streets; he was reported to have had put at his disposal a fund of $15,000 with which to accomplish the work, with the result that professional “ hustlers” were employed and bonuses to sell that paper exclusively were freely bestowed. This paper, however, charged the other two with combining to monopolize sales by forbidding boys selling them to sell the third paper. Whatever the origin and history of the con troversy, when the survey was made newsboys selling one of the papers were not permitted to sell the other two, and vice versa, and bonuses in varying amounts were paid by one of the papers provided the newsboys refrained from handling its rivals.63 Despite the rule and the acceptance of the bonus, many boys sold all three newspapers, often obtaining the rival sheets from other boys at the wholesale price or trading some of their own papers for them.64 “ I put t h e ----------on top when the ----------- truck comes around,” was a typical explanation of the procedure. Young men and boys, generally known as “ tramp newsboys” and “ hobo newsies,” were hired to sell, and, according to some of the younger newsboys, these “ hustlers” were given room and board in addition to a cash bonus and the regular commission on their sales. The younger newsboys 62 In June, 1926, it was reported that each newspaper was issuing also a daily “ bulldog” edition at 9 p. m. (see footnote 66, p. 183). > 63 In 1926 boys selling this paper on the streets reported that they were not given bonuses, though one boy said that he believed out-of-town boys and men selling in Omaha received a bonus Mi n 1 9 2 6 boys were openly selling all three newspapers. Some of them said that this was permitted, but one boy reported that he was not allowed to do it. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 178 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K were encouraged by prizes, such as knives and baseball bats, small amounts of cash, picnics, and passes to motion-picture shows. Boys working directly for the newspapers were allocated to comers in accordance with their selling ability, subject to the promptness of their arrival at the office, and were required to take out as many papers as the street-sales manager believed could be disposed of on a particular comer. Boys lost their comers if they did not sell regularly or were late. Each of the papers required the street newsboys to settle at the end of each day’s sales for the papers that they had taken out. Representatives of the different newspapers said that full returns were allowed, but many complaints ware made by the boys in regard to returns. The intense competition between the papers made the matter of increasing street sales more than ordinarily urgent, and it was clear that the circulation men often took unfair advantage of the boys to make a good showing for themselves. One newspaper especially (a paper which had been dropped from the audit bureau of circulation, supposedly because of “ padding” its circulation) was accused of making the boys “ eat” papers (that is, pay for those that they failed to sell), though the circulation men on all three newspapers sometimes refused to allow the return of unsold papers. “ Bill makes me take out 50 or 60 papers, though I know I can’t sell more than 40, and I have to eat the rest” ; “ Some times I lose 25 cents a day because they won’t let me turn in the papers I don’t sell, and last spring they beat me up because I hadn’t sold any” ; “ This newspaper makes me eat on an average of 25 papers a week” ; “ They canned me because I wasn’ t selling enough papers; I often got stuck with 10 and had to pay for them,” were typical comments. In order to make a good reputation for themselves with the circulation manager and his assistants boys would sell the papers0 below the regular price or sell papers at the wholesale price to other newsboys who either did not wish to deal with the office or who could not get papers for themselves because they were known to sell the rival papers; others threw away copies that they were unable to sell. The truck drivers who delivered late editions of the papers to the boys on their corners and made some collections were accused of abusing the boys as well as of cheating them. It was reported that they sometimes slapped and cursed the boys, twisted their arms behind them, searched them for money, left papers on their comers that they did not want and made them pay for them. One boy said that a policeman watched him and came to his aid if a driver attacked him, and a circulation manager reported that one of the circulation men had been arrested for ill-treating a newsboy. Some of the boys reported that they were cheated in other ways; for example, the promised bonus was not always paid, or the distrib uting men would claim that they had given a boy more papers than they really had and would make him pay for the extra ones. Although some of the newsboys received and paid for their papers at the street corners, having all their dealings with the truck drivers, and a few obtained their papers' at carriers’ substations (see p. 204), almost all went to the main offices of the various newspapers to get their stock and returned there to pay for it after the day’s work was done. One paper required a settlement at the office at 7 o’clock, and the newsboys were required to stay on their corners until that^p hour, though most of the business was over by 6.30. Boys said that https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, NEBK. st 179 ~ ,*-s*w— ,'a“ “ from 6.30 to 7 -t h e y want you to c o ™ back for m f c S f t K S " ft th6m “ d “ ^ t p ^ turn them baPekPthe Some of the boys refused to have any dealings with the npwsn»nfir ; Sasjsc Conditions in distributing rooms. One of the newspapers had a distributing room on the ground floor with an entrance on the street. The others used basement rooms entered down narrow stairways, one from an afley, the other from the street, though it abutted onto an alley. All these rooms w eS ark. One, consisting of a small space where the boys made their returns, under the sidewalk and next to a foul-smelling toilet and H v L argf uSPf e (ab.01i t 2 0 * * * & 40 ^et), where the papers w ire Kolfb ° Ut’ h5d ,110 Windows All were equipped-with long tables or benches used during distributing hours for sorting and counting papers and at other times for lounging and sleeping g At almost any hour of the day or night newsboys and older bovs and young men could be seen in and around some of the distributing rooms. Without supervision except that of the street circulators and truck drivers, the boys smoked, played cards and craps and carried on other forms of gambling. Cursing and vulgar language were common, lying and stealing were regarded as jokes, a n d X w s m Afliai I i rreSt WaS a slgnal.for ,the crowd to repair to the police station. newspapers permitted the newsboys to sleep on their premises* o u n X nL r ° yS dld S0> es5ec;ally on Saturday nights when they were out late selling papers and planned to sell also on Sunday morning « They lay on the long benches or on boxes, or even on a cem en tX or sometimes with a few papers under them, covered in cold weather J o i , X i b aP ^ gS ° r m th newspapers. As a rule, little sleeping was done-throw ing paper wads or snuff, or deluging one another S f l i g h t r s e X G1 a w T g the.niore innocent pastimes of X™ k 66 P’ 18° ) ~ tl:iough at 1 a. m. m awmdowless distributing h T l b° y \ T rel ee\ by t b e bnreau representative fast asleep on the benches, while other boys talked and played about the room, some of home at2^or';S^clocl^i^the^moraing^ ^ ^ to them m ld e fh e T p ^ c u la r iy 6 undeshaSf l o u n g i n g ‘ p “a c e s X ^ t h e m c X X ne)vsb1oy?' F °r this reason one of the newspapers, accordmg to its circulation manager, had issued orders that no ' ‘ floaters” would be employed or allowed in the distributing room. The other hoZ - YeTl gave sPecial encouragement to this type of nf i b f k Z PWvJding lodgings for them at small near-by hotelSyPOne of the boys included m the study had spent a week at one of these hotels with the tramp newsboys ” before the school authorities, at the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 180 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK instigation of his mother, had prevailed upon him to return home. Some of the “ hobo newsies” were young boys who had run away from home, some were young men out to see the country by “ bum ming rides,” others, no doubt, were ordinary tramps. Most of them would not work and sold papers only long enough to get a free bed and earn a few dollars for food; others, though professional “ hust lers,” were too restless to stay long in one place and spent their tune “ bumming” their way from city to city wherever they heard that a paper was booming its circulation. The younger newsboys and their parents accused these older boys and men of dishonest or unwholesome practices of varying degrees of seriousness. They urged the boys to practice various tricks on the public in order to sell papers, and themselves set the example and boasted of it. They taught the boys to gamble and kept them playing cards all night, cheating them and taking away their money. One boy said, that the men urged them to steal and bought the stolen goods from them, so that the newsboys “ got to be regular crooks.” One of the older newsboys, a local young man for whom a number of boys worked and of whom one of the boys said that he stayed in the distributing room with the boys Saturday night in order to protect them, said that he had known of instances of the use of newsboys by the “ hobo newsies” for immoral practices. Meals. For boys who sold papers after school until at least 6.30 or 7 p. m., an evening meal with their families was usually out of the question. Only 66 of the 320 newsboys reported that they did not sell papers at mealtime on any day. The larger number of the others had supper, or, if they sold morning papers, breakfast at home, but far more often than not they were obliged to eat alone some time after the family meal cold leftovers or something kept hot, or, in the case of a few especiallyTucky boys, a meal cooked for them. Many had no supper of any kind until 8 p. m. or later, and a few merely picked up a bite to eat in the intervals of their work or went without supper. Twelve boys regularly had their evening meal, and several regularly break fasted at down-town restaurants, and others said that they some times did so. On Saturdays, when many boys sold practically all day, a few took lunches from home with them, and in some cases had no supper until they reached home late at night. But news paper managements quite generally gave meal tickets for Saturday night supper to their regular newsboys, and 26 of the boys included in the study said that they ate Saturday supper at restaurants. Among the sellers of daily morning papers were five who said that they ate no breakfast, and several had none until they returned home after two hours or more of selling papers. Many of the boys who were on the streets early breakfasted at 5 or earlier at home, sold until 8 or 8.30, and then rushed off to school. On Sunday mornings a number ate at restaurants. < The following cases illustrate some of these different situations and give a fair picture of conditions among the large group of boys whose work kept them away from home at meal time: A boy of 10 selling papers from 5.15 to 8.30 every school-day morning had breakfast before leaving home— “ just coffee, but sometimes corn flakes. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, NEBR. 181 A boy of 12 selling every school day from 3.30 to 7 p. m. had his supper at home after 7. On Saturdays he worked' from 7 a. m. to 7 p. m. H e had an early breakfast at home, and sometimes he bought a “ Coney Island sandwich” at noon, but the Saturday before the interview he had had no lunch. “ Twice he caught me leaning against a building,” said this child, referring to the streetcirculation man. “ He told me I ought to stand up straight and keep at work.” A boy of 13 who sold from 3.30 to 7.30 every school day and most of Saturday afternoon and evening up to 1 a. m ., said that he had supper at a restaurant Saturday nights, and at 1 o’clock his employer, an adult newspaper seller who had a number of boys working for him, gave him 30 cents for food. The boy was paying on an endowment-insurance policy and two accident-insurance policies, and his mother said that she regarded the money he earned as of value chiefly because he was learning to save. A 9-year-old boy working from 3.30 to 7.30 every school day said that his stepmother warmed up his supper, which he had between 7.30 and 8 p. m ., but that he also bought sandwiches (three for 5 cents) on his way home. A boy of 11 who sold papers every school-day afternoon until 7 o’clock, in th.6 mornings from 5.30 to 8.30 several days a week, and all afternoon and evening on Saturdays, staying out until 1 a. m. and sleeping at one of the distribution rooms, bought both his breakfast and his supper at a down-town restaurant, having doughnuts and coffee for both meals, though he sometimes ordered meat for supper and bought bananas and apples. “ D on’t wanta eat hom e,” he said, adding that his mother “ worried” and he did not want to worry her, but he wanted to eat down town with the boys. H e had been selling papers for three years. A boy of 11 who sold papers several hours before going to school, every after noon, all day Saturday, and Sunday mornings had his meals at home, his supper between 7 and 7.30. His breakfast, prepared by his mother, he had at 4 a. m ., sold papers until 8.30, and was taken to school on the newspaper truck. A boy who. sold, several hours every school day and Saturday afternoons and evenings until after 1 a. m. had supper on school-day evenings at 7.30 or 8. This meal his mother kept hot for him. On Saturday nights he had a 25-cent meal at a restaurant. Two brothers sold after school until 8 every night, getting warmed-up leftovers from the family meal about 8.30 p. m. The younger boy at 9 already had a truancy record. A 12-year-old boy who wanted to make money to buy clothes for his graduation from the eighth grade sold papers every afternoon, except Saturdays and Sundays, up to 7 p. m ., having a supper of bread and milk on reaching home. On Saturdays he sold practically all day until past midnight, having a late breakfast at home, no lunch, and supper, consisting of “ hot dogs” and pie, at a restaurant. Another boy of 12, who worked only an hour and a half on school days but was out selling papers Saturday nights until 2 a. m ., had a warmed-over supper at 8 at home on school-day evenings, and on Saturdays had supper at a cafeteria about midnight milk, pancakes, bread, and meat. He said he was troubled with rheumatism and was so tired Saturday nights after selling so many hours that he could hardly stand up. H e had been selling papers about 10 months. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 182 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK A boy who sold several hours both before and after school had breakfast and supper down town when he got tips. Two Italian boys, one 11, the other 8, whose father wanted them to sell papers in order to learn English, had supper at home school-day evenings after they had sold out about 7 p. m. On Saturdays they sold all day up to 7 p. m ., buying cakes for their lunch and their supper. ^ “ A 10-year-old boy who sold from 5 to 8.30 every school-day morning had breakfast before he left home, but he also bought pie and cookies to eat just before going to school. One of the oldest boys sold morning papers from 5 to 8, leaving home at 4 a. m. and walking 2 miles down town. Ordinarily he ate no breakfast, but if he “ made a lot” he would get coffee and hot cakes down town. H e said he might lose his corner if he stopped for breakfast before he started to sell. This boy had long truancy and juvenile-court records. R E G U L A R IT Y O F W O R K The bonus and prizes offered by the newspapers were given only to steady workers. Moreover, boys who did not sell every day were penalized by assignment to the least profitable corners or to a dif ferent corner each time they sold, so that they were unable to acquire regular customers. Thus, every encouragement was given to sell daily. The proportion of Omaha newsboys who sold every day, or every day except Sunday, was unusually large. Of the 253 boys whose only street work was newspaper selling 76 per cent and of the 67 with a second street job 82 per cent worked every day, and in spite 0 of the fact that at the time of the interviews school was in session only 28 (11 per cent) of the first group and only 3 of the second came out to sell papers only on Saturdays or on Sundays or both. H OURS OF W O R K , Most of the boys sold the evening papers and their Sunday morning editions, but 54 sold daily morning papers. The boys who sold morning papers on school days usually began between 5 and 6; 40 of the 54 were out on the streets before 6 a. m., 2 of them before 5. Almost all of them sold every morning. Onethird of these morning sellers were 14 or 15 year old boys, but the others represented all age groups, including several under 10. The majority (32) sold papers three hours or more before going to school, those with down-town corners being taken to school on one of the newspaper trucks. Some of the younger boys said that their work in the morning made them sleepy in school. Among these were two boys, one 12 years old, the other 13, who could not keep awake in school. A 15-year-old boy who had sold morning papers for two weeks had been obliged to stop because he used to go to sleep at his desk, and on his way home would be so sleepy that he would call out, “ Papers, Mister?” though he had no papers to sell. The chief attendance officer, also, said that teachers sometimes complained to the attendance department that newsboys went to sleep in school. ^ A fairly large proportion of the morning sellers (19 of the 54) sold papers in the afternoon as well as in the morning, thus working https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, NEBR. 183 under a double strain, and almost all of them sold every school day. One boy who sold papers in the morning delivered papers in the afternoon. Of the 20, 2 were only 9 years of age and 6 were 11, the others being from 12 to 15. Although only 24 of the 98 boys selling on Sunday morning were out on the streets before 6, some of them, especially those who sold on down-town corners, spent Saturday night in the distributing rooms, saying that it was not worth while to go home for the few hours elapsing between the time they stopped Saturday night and the time they began Sunday morning. Typical of these was a 10-year-old boy who with his two brothers sold papers until midnight on Saturdays, bought a breakfast of Hamburger sandwiches and coffee, and went to one of the newspaper offices, where he slept from 1.30 to 5, the hour for starting his Sunday morning’s work. Another boy, 14 years of age, who turned in at the newspaper office around 12.30 Saturday nights, was out selling again on Sunday mornings at 4. Boys selling evening papers usually stopped on school nights about 6.30 or 7. By 7 the demand for papers was practically over.66 Of the 194 boys selling papers after school and having no other street work, 21 stopped selling before 6 o ’clock and 166 between 6 and 8, of whom only a small number sold after 7. A few, however, reported very late hours. For example, a 15-year-old boy sold at a news stand until 11 every night except Sunday, and two brothers, aged 10 and 13 years, stayed out selling papers until 10.30 three nights a week and until 12 other nights. On Saturday nights the down-town streets were full of boys calling the Sunday morning papers, which were issued about 8 p. m. Leav ing their stock of papers spread out in piles on the pavement, weighted down by bricks and sometimes in the custody of an older boy, the younger boys would take 10 or 12 papers under their arms and sally out among the crowds “ hollering” for all they were worth. Hardly a comer in the down-town district was without its little group of newsboys. About 11 o ’clock they congregated about the theater entrances and for a short time did a brisk business. Even after the theater crowds had dispersed, however, they continued to sell for an hour or so. Of the boys included in the study who sold Saturday evenings and had no other street job, 69 (31 per cent), and 20 of the 67 boys with a secondary street job, said that they sold papers on Saturday nights until 10 o ’clock or later. (Table 42.) In the first group 46 boys were under 14 years of age, 12 under 12 years, and of the second group 14 boys were under 14 and 4 under 12. Fifty-four boys (25 per cent) of those with one street job selling on Saturdays and 16 of the boys with a secondary street job were out until midnight at least, including 9 boys who said that they usually stayed out all Saturday night. Of these 70 boys, 2 were under 10, 8 were 10 or 11, and 35 were 12 or 13 years of age. A 10-year-old boy said that the 66 In June, 1926, the chief probation officer of the juvenile court reported that the daily “ bulldog” edition at 9 p. m., which for some months had been issued by all three of the newspapers, had created a new problem— that of newsboys selling papers until a late hour on the evenings of school days. After a conference with representatives of the newspapers, who had agreed to cooperate, the court had fixed 15 years as the mini mum age for selling this edition. A boy under the age of 15 found by probation officers selling the late edition was stopped, under the general power of the court to deal with neglected children, unless a home investigation indicated that the family needed his earnings, in which case the boy was given a written permit t;o sell. i 75034°—23— 13 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 184 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK police made him “ quit hollering” at 11, though he continued to sell until 12, stopping then because he was too young to sell later than that. One or 2 a. m. was a common hour for the after-midnight sellers to stop. After that time the boys who were out all night usually slept or stayed in the newspaper-distributing rooms. T able 42.— H o u r o f en d in g w ork o n a typ ic a l S a tu rd a y n igh t, b y age p eriod ; n e w sp a p er sellers holding a sin g le jo b , O m a ha, N eb r. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Hour of ending work on a typical Saturday night. Total_______ ____________________ Street work on Saturday_______________ 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Un der Per Per Per Per 10 Num cent years1 Num cent Num cent Num cent dis dis dis dis ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu tion tion tion tion 253 36 65 88 221 28 52 82 64 59 Total reported....................................... 220 100.0 28 52 100.0 81 100.0 59 100.0 Before 6 p. m ..... ................ ........... : 6 p. m., before 8____ ____________ 8 p. m., before 1 0 .............. ........... 10 p. m., before 12______________ 12 p. m. and after_______________ 51 94 6 15 54 23.2 42.7 2.7 6.8 24.5 6 17 2 1 2 18 22 3 3 6 34.6 42.3 5.8 5.8 11.5 15 31 1 7 27 18.5 38.3 1.2 8.6 33.3 12 24 20.3 40.7 4 19 6.8 32.2 8 13 Not reported......................................... 1 No street work on Saturday...................... 32 1 6 5 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. The Saturday-night newsboys had ample opportunity to observe the night life of the city. Some of them counted on the Saturdaynight “ drunks” to buy them out; they often paid as much as $1 for 10 newspapers and then returned the newspapers to the boy to be resold. Sometimes they “ got rough,” in the language of the youth ful narrators, but more often they were “ just funny.” A charac teristic antic was one described by a 13-year-old boy as occurring the Saturday night before he was interviewed. A man and a woman emerging from a restaurant had borrowed the boy’s newspaper wagon (the usual toy express wagon); the man had ridden the woman about the streets in it for about five minutes and had given the news boy a dollar. A city ordinance 67 prohibited children under 18 from being on the streets of Omaha after 9 p. m. from March 1 to August 31 and after 8 p. m. from September 1 to the last day of February, but this so-called curfew law was apparently a dead letter at the time of the Children’s Bureau survey. Very few of the Omaha newsboys sold less than two hours a day. (Table 43.) Of the boys working on school days and not having any other street job, 90 per cent sold for two hours or more on a typical school day and 68 per cent sold at least three hours. Ordinance No- 9762, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 185 OMAHA, NEBR. T a b l e 4'3.— N u m b e r o f hou rs o f street w ork o n a typ ica l school d a y , b y age p e r io d ; n ew sp a p er sellers holding a sin g le j o b , O m a h a , N eb r. ' Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age i Number of hours of street work on a typical school day 10 years, under 12 12 years, 14 years, under 14 under 16 Un der Per Per Per ! Per 10 Num cent years1Num cent Num cent Num cent dis dis dis dis ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu tion tion tion tion j Totali Total_______ ___________________ 253 36 65 88 Street work on school days_____________ 225 31 57 78 Total reported_____________________ 224 100.0 31 57 100.0 Less than 1 hour__________ 1 hour, less than 2______________ 2 hours, less than 3.... ........... ........ 3 hours! less than 5.... 5 hours and over________ _______ 4 19 50 139 12 1.8 8.5 22.3 62.1 5.4 8 5 16 2 3 5 13 32 4 5.3 8.8 22.8 56.1 7.0 5 8 Not reported......................................... N o street work on school days 1 28 77 3 21 51 2 64 59 100.0 59 100.0 3.9 27.3 66.2 2.6 1 3 11 40 4 1.7 5.1 18.6 67.8 6.8 1 10 5 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. The numerous editions of the three papers made it possible for boys to sell all day Saturdays, and many of them did so. Almost all (97 per cent) of the newsboys selling on Saturday and doing no other street work sold at least two hours, 87 per cent sold at least three hours, and a large majority (59 per cent) sold five hours or longer. (Table 44.) Many boys sold on Saturdays from 8 to 13 hours or more. The following accounts are representative of the hours of these boys: A 12-year-old newsboy of native white parentage, who had been selling papers from the age of 7, began selling down town at 11 Saturday mornings and sold until 7 p. m ., having had lunch before leaving home; at 7 he had a 25-cent supper at a restaurant, began to sell again at 8, and continued selling until midnight. An Italian boy 15 years old sold papers from 5 to 10.30 Saturday mornings, and beginning again in the afternoon at about half past 1 he sold until 7, and again from 8 to midnight, making a 15-hour day. A 12-year-old boy started selling at 2 Saturday afternoon and continued to sell until 1 o’clock Sunday morning. A boy of 11 sold continuously from 11 Saturday morning until 12.30 at night, except for an hour between 7 and 8, when he stopped to get a supper of “ hot dogs” and pie at a restaurant. A 10-year-old boy of native white parentage went down towii at 10 Saturday morning with two brothers and sold papers until 1 o’ clock; between 1 and 3, he said, he “ monkeyed around the office or went to a show, ” but beginning at 3 he sold again until about 1 o’clock Sunday morning, and then slept at the newspaper office on bags (“ if some of the big kids did not come in and jerk them from under him ” ) until 5 o’ clock Sunday morning, when he again went out on the streets to sell for two hours. He and his brother ate three successive meals down town at a restaurant fre quented by a rough type of men. An 11-year-old boy, the child of Italian immigrants, worked on Saturdays 14}4 hours; he sold morning papers from 5.30 to 10, and after lunch sold from 1.30 to 7 and from 8.30 to 1, going to the dis tribution room, where he slept on benches or played around until 4,30 Sunday morning, the hour at which he began to sell again. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 186 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K T a b l e 4 4 . — N u m b e r o f hours o f street w ork o n a typ ica l S a tu rd a y, b y age p e rio d ; n e w sp a p er sellers holding a sin g le jo b , O m a ha, N eb r. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Un der Per Per Per Per 10 cent Num Num cent years1 Num cent Num cent dis dis dis dis ber ber tribu ber tribu tribu ber tribu tion tion tion tion Total_________ _______ ___________ 253 36 65 88 Street work on Saturday.'_______________ 221 28 52 82 Total reported..... ................... ............. 219 100.0 28 52 100.0 81 100.0 58 100.0 Less than 1 hour........................... 1 hour, less than 2______ ________ 2 hours, less than 3........ ............... 3 hours, less than 5 . . .............. ...... 5 hours and over..... ....................... 2 5 21 61 130 .9 2.3 9.6 27.9 59.4 2 3 5 18 2 1 6 14 29 3.8 1.9 11.5 26.9 55.8 1 8 23 49 1.2 9.9 28.4 60.5 1 4 19 34 1.7 6.9 32.8 58.6 8 13 Not reported...... .................................. 2 No street work on Saturday____________ 32 64 59 1 1 6 5 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Besides the boys who continued to sell after midnight on Saturdays, 80 newsboys with no other street job and 18 others sold papers on Sundays. More than half (47) of the group with no other street job and 11 of the others worked at least five hours on Sundays. Although a few of the newsboys who worked late Saturday night ^ and early Sunday morning did not sell papers during the week, the great majority of all the Omaha newsboys sold papers every day. (See p. 182.) The hours a week for many were so long that taken in conjunction with the number of hours spent in school they constituted a working week considerably longer than that of most adult workers and resulted in virtual separation of the boy from his home and family. The great majority of the boys whose only street work was newspaper selling worked 16 to 53 hours (in two cases), and 43 per cent worked at least 24 hours a week. Thus, with about 25 hours of school, two-fifths of the boys had a working week of at least 49 hours. Of the 107 boys selling papers at least 24 hours a week (excluding those who worked 24 hours or more both selling papers and doing some other street work) 37 (35 per cent) were under 12 years and 14 (13 per cent) were under 10. In some cases the very long weekly hours resulted from long daily hours, as did those of an 11-year-old boy who sold from 4 to 9 p. m. every week day. In other instances the hours on school days were somewhat shorter, but an 8 or a 10 hour day on Saturday, with perhaps several hours of selling on Sunday, brought the weekly hours up; thus a 12-year-old boy sold 34J^ hours a week (4 hours every school day, hours on Saturday, and 6 on Sunday); an 11-year-old boy selling 4 hours each school day, spent 103^ hours in selling on Saturday and more than 7 on Sunday, making a total of 38 hours a week. The longest weekly hours among boys doing no street work except selling were reported by those who sold both morning and afternoon papers. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, NEBR. 187 The worst case was that of an Italian boy only 11 years of age who worked 53)4 hours a week; he sold papers each day about 4 hours before going to school, and in the afternoon for 3 hours, selling also all day Saturday until 7 in the evening and again early Sunday morning. A number of other boys selling morning and evening papers worked at least 40 hours a week. The long hours on the streets kept the boys away from their families, in many instances even at mealtimes, so that they were at home hardly any of their waking hours. This was particularly unfortunate in immigrant families, where the mother especially often finds her Americanized boys getting out of hand at an early age because she can not keep in touch with them and their activities. Physically, also, so many hours of work could hardly fail to have been exhausting. The newsboys were on their feet many hours at a time; the strain of calling their papers must have been considerable; they were obliged to be constantly on the alert— even though a boy relaxed a moment to engage in playful wrestling or boxing with his fellow newsboy on the comer or to take a brief turn around the comer in his little newspaper wagon, it was clear to an onlooker that he kept an eye out for possible customers. The boys were urged to stand up straight and keep at work on penalty of losing their comers. “ Say, I wan’ you to sell papers and quit holdup up that buildup. If you don' some one else will,” was a typical remark in the distributing room. Now and then a boy complained of being too tired to sell or so tired that he could not stand on his feet; one boy, nicknamed “ Graveyard” because he was said to fall asleep on even the busiest comers, was probably not so much indifferent to his work as he was exhausted by it. Certainly on Saturday nights the newsboys on the down-town streets, with few exceptions, looked worn out; their shoulders drooped and they were hollow eyed and pale under the bright lights. E A R N IN G S a W The earnings of newsboys in Omaha were unusually large. Besides their regular profits— 1 cent on the 2-cent dailies and 2 cents on the 5-cent Sunday papers— the steady workers selling one of the news papers received bonuses, amounting in some cases to as much as S3 or $4 a week. Only 13 per cent— a much smaller proportion than has been found in other surveys of newsboys— received less than $1 a week, including tips. A large majority (60 per cent) made at least S3 a week, the median earnings being between S3 and $4. More than one-fourth (27 per cent) of the boys earned at least S5, and a few of the older boys made S8, $9, or S10 or more. (Table 45.) The earnings of boys under 12 were much smaller than those of boys of 12 or over, and in general the older the newsboy the more he earned. Of the 101 boys under 12 years of age whose only street work was selling newspapers 42 per cent made less than S2, whereas only 13 per cent of the 152 boys who were from 12 to 15 years old made less than $2. Only 2 of the 36 boys under 10 made as much as $5, only 9 of the 65 who were between 10 and 12 and only 22 of the 88 who were 12 or 13 made as much as $5. Of the 64 boys who were 14 or 15 years of age, however, 33 made $5 or more a week. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 188 T able CHILDREN IN STREET WORK 45.— E a r n in g s d u rin g a typ ic a l w eek, b y n u m b er o f hours en ga ged; n e w s p a p er sellers holding a sin gle j o b , O m a ha, N eb r. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Working specified numbers of hours per w6ek Total Earnings during a typical week 12 hours, less 24 hours and Hours than 24 over not re Per Less ported i Num cent than 12 Per Per ber distri bution hours 1Num cent Num cent ber distri ber distri bution bution Total_____ __________________ 253 50 Total reported______________ ______ 100.0 Less than $0.25____________ ____ $0.25, less than $0.50....... ...... ........ $0.50, less than $1.00...................... $1.00, less than $2.00________ ___ $2.00, less than $3.00-____ _______ $3.00, less than $4.00____________ $4.00, less than $5.00-..................... $5.00, less than $6.00____________ $6.00 and over______ ___________ No earnings and no cash earnings 1.6 5.7 5.3 12.7 13.9 20.1 13.1 9.4 17.6 .4 47 92 103 1.1 2.2 16.3 14.1 31.5 19.6 5.4 4.9 15.5 16.5 12.6 16.5 33.0 1.0 Not reported______________________ i Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Although even the younger newsboys in Omaha spent a great deal of time on the streets, they did not work so steadily as the older boys— 60 per cent of the boys under 12 worked 16 hours or more and 37 per cent at least 24 hours, compared with 77 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively, of the boys from 12 to 15 years of age— a fact that accounts very largely for their lower earning power and suggests that the boy under 12 or even under 14 years is not such an asset to the newspapers as his older brother. The hours count in newspaper selling; 67 per cent of the Omaha newsboys who sold papers less than 16 hours a week made less than $2 a week, compared with only 10 per cent of those working 16 to 24 hours and only 5 per cent of those working 24 hours or longer. Boys of all ages reported that they were generally tipped by some of their customers, though 96 of the 320 said that they did not receive tips, Twenty-four of the 33 boys under 10 and 56 of the 74 who were 10 or 11 years of age received them. The proportion was 70 per cent of the 103 boys between 12 and 14 reporting on this point and 52 per cent of the 79 between 14 and 16. In some instances tips amounted to very little— 25 or 30 cents a week; to quote one of the boys, they were given “ quarters and nickels— mostly nickels.” However, in a number of cases, a considerable part of the boy’s income from papers was unearned. A dwarf, who though he was 15 was only about 3 feet tall, said that he took in from 15 to 20 cents a night in tips— more than most of the boys did— because of his size. And little boys, especially, reported 25 cents a day, or $1 or $1.50 a week, in tips, and more on Saturdays; a few said that they habitually received very large tips, such as “ $1 on Saturday night,” or “ 50 cents for a Sunday paper,” or “ 25 cents for one paper.” https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis O M AHA, N EB R . 189 N E E D F O R E AR N IN G S Some of the circulation men and business managers of the Omaha newspapers said that the majority of the newsboys sold papers because their families were in need of the money, one circulation manager putting this proportion at 90 per cent; others believed that the need was not general. Judging from the information on the economic and social status of the boys included in the study it is undoubtedly true that on the whole the newsboys’ families were poor; to what extent they were dependent upon the children’s earnings from newspaper selling to keep them from falling into debt or seeking the aid of charity is more difficult to determine. The majority (71 per cent) of the newsboys came from families in which the parents lived together and the father was the main support. This means, however, that a not inconsiderable proportion were fatherless or motherless, or were not supported by their fathers. About 17 per cent had lost their own fathers through death or other causes. In the families of 17 (5 per cent) the mother supported the family, and 17 others had no father— not even a stepfather or a foster father— to whom they could look for support; 34 boys (11 per cent), therefore, may be regarded as coming from fatherless homes. Occupationally the newsboys’ fathers or other chief breadwinners represented the least skilled and the least well paid groups. Although the proportion of industrial workers and of persons in trade and in occupations classified under transportation is about the same for the chief breadwinners in newsboys’ families as for all the male workers 20 years of age and over in the city, only a few were skilled artisans or mechanics, very few were salesmen, and even fewer had responsible positions on the railroad, such as that of motorman or conductor. They were chiefly factory operatives, small-store keepers (usually grocery stores or second-hand clothing or furniture stores), peddlers, and laborers on the railroad. Almost twice as many of the chief breadwinners in newsboys’ families as of all the male workers 20 years of age and over in Omaha were in personal and domestic service, because most of the newsboys’ mothers supporting their families were laundresses or servants, and only 7 per cent were in clerical or profes sional occupations, compared with 15 per cent of the male workers at least 20 years of age.68 The majority of the heads of families had had steady employment during the year immediately preceding the study, judging from the sample represented by the families that were visited (see p. 6), but a small number (14 per cent) had had as much as three months’ unemployment. It was evidently necessary for the mothers of many of the news boys to work. N ot including the mothers who supported their families chiefly or entirely, or those who may have kept boarders or lodgers to supplement the income, the mothers of 52 of the newsboys (15 per cent of the white boys and 6 of the 11 negro boys having some other chief breadwinner than their mothers, or 17 per cent of both white and negro) were employed. Some of them were sales women or factory workers, and a few did sewing or other kinds of work, but the majority took in washing or did housework. The 68 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, pp. 1188-1189. Washington, 1923. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 190 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K United States Bureau of Labor Statistics study of sources of income in Omaha families in 1919 showed that in only 9 per cent of the families of white wage earners and small-salaried men did the mothers work.69 The larger proportion of working mothers in the newsboys’ families seems to indicate economic pressure above the average. Information on the amount of their earned incomes was obtained for only the families that were visited. In these 59 families were 89 (28 per cent) of the Omaha newsboys included in the study. Only 48 chief breadwinners reported their annual earnings. More than half (28 of the 48) had earned less than $1,050 during the year pre ceding the visit, the median being between $850 and $1,050. These earnings are much smaller than the average for wage earners and small-salaried men in Omaha, as indicated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics study, in which it was found that the annual earnings of white chief breadwinners for the year covered in the study averaged $1,417.70 In the newsboys’ families the mothers’ earnings and those of other members of the family were insufficient to bring the family income up to average. The median annual family earnings, including those of all members 16 years of age and over, were between $1,050 and $1,250; 28 of the 46 families reported having earned less than $1,250. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics study the earned income of the white families averaged $1,503. The newsboys’ families, moreover, were larger than those included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study, averaging seven members compared with only five.71 (See footnote 10, p. 83. The earnings of the newsboys’ chief breadwinners were those of the year M ay 1, 1922, to April 30,1923.) An unusually large percentage of the homes in Omaha are owned, and the same tendency to own the home is shown among the news boys’ families. Almost half (49 per cent) of the families visited either were buying or had paid for the houses in which they lived, almost the proportion (47 per cent) of the homes in Omaha which were reported in the United States census of 1920 as owned, either with or without encumbrance.72 The houses were small, however, and the families large. Moreover, 10 of the 59 families visited kept lodgers. The result was a con siderable degree of overcrowding. Half the families had at least 1.5 persons per room, which means that a family of parents and four children would occupy at the most only four rooms. Further evidence as to the economic condition of the newsboys’ families was sought in the records of the local charitable organiza tions. All the families represented in the bureau study were cleared with the confidential exchange, and the records of all families reg istered with the exchange by any relief agency were read if they were available in the files of the agency. As some of the local agencies, however, did not register with the exchange or registered only some of their cases, the proportion of families found to have received aid is probably an understatement of the extent to which the families of newsboys in Omaha had been recipients of relief. It was found that 10 families, in which were 14 (4 per cent) of the boys included 69 Monthly Labor Review, (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), Vol. IX , No. 6 (December, 1919), p. 31. Figures for negro families in Omaha are not given in this study. 70 Ibid., p. 36. Only two negro families were included in the newsboys’ families visited. « Ibid., pp. 33, 36, 38. 79 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. II, Population, p. 1294. Washington, 1922. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis O M AHA, N EB R . ^ " 191 in the study, had received relief during the last six months of 1922 or the first six months of 1923; that is, approximately during the year preceding the study. Prior to the middle of the year 1922 charitable organizations had given aid to 15 other families, in which were 20 of the newsboys. In most instances the aid given during the year preceding the study amounted to little more than clothing or shoes for the children or a grocery order or two, but several of the families receiving relief might be considered regular charges. These were a peddler’s family in which the mother was dead and the oldest girl was enabled to remain at home to care for the children because the family received in aid from the organization the amount that she would have earned in a factory; a laborer’s family in which were 11 children, so that when ever the father was out of work the organization had to aid; and a deserted mother in receipt of mothers’ aid who was given $40 a month by the organization in addition to rent and coal. The news boys in these families were, respectively, 11, 9, and 10 years of age and earned from $2.50 to $7 a week selling papers. Aside from those who were below the poverty fine, a small propor tion of the families were probably dependent on the newsboys’ earnings for some of the necessities of life. These included the families of some of the fatherless boys, some of the boys whose mothers were at work, and some of the families visited in which the chief breadwinner had been unemployed three months or longer during the year. For example, in an Italian family with seven children under 16, the father, a laborer in a railroad car shop, had earned only $482 during the year, as he had been unemployed about six months; the family income had been brought to $748 by the earnings of an older son who also worked in the car shops. In addition five of the boys together earned about $30 a week selling and carrying papers; one of them, a 13-year-old boy, earned $5.70 a week working about four and one-half hours every week day and two hours on Sunday, and used all his earnings for family expenses and his own clothes. Another family, typical of those in which the newsboys’ money was apparently needed, was that of a freight checker with three children. He had been unemployed four months dining the year owing to an old injury to his leg that still troubled him at times, and had earned only $613.50— the entire family income except the $3 a week eariied by a 15-year-old boy selling papers. In these families with very low incomes the boys’ contributions formed no doubt a significant proportion of the total. Of the 24 newsboys visited in whose families the chief breadwinners had earned less than $1,050 during the year, 17 made at least $3 a week selling newspapers, and their median earnings had been between $3 and $4. But though some of the newsboys’ families undoubtedly would have found it impossible, without charitable assistance, to meet their expenses unless they had had help from the boys, more commonly the families, though many of them were poor, could probably have managed to get along without the newsboys’ earnings. Typical of these was an Italian family having six children under 16 in which the main support was an older son, who, as a boiler maker, had earned $784 during the year; the mother took in washing and an older daughter had earned $5 a week, bringing the family earnings up to $1,109, In addition the mother owned property from which she https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 192 CHILDREN1 IN STREET W O R K received $8 a month rent, and the house in which the family lived was partly paid for. The 13-year-old newsboy in this family earned $6.90 a week selling papers, and besides helping the family and clothing himself he spent some of his money on motion pictures and saved 25 cents a week, with which he hoped to “ buy a house lot.” The average newsboy’s family in Omaha was the one in which the father supported the family and earned between $850 and $1,050, and in these families the newsboys’ earnings, though they were usually of assistance and in some instances were relied on, were not regarded as absolutely essential unless there were many young children. Among these the following are representative: A Swedish father, a tally man at the Omaha grain exchange, had earned $1,015 during the year, having had about six weeks’ unemployment owing to illness. Of the 11 in the family, 5 children were under 14, and 3 older children were at work, bringing the family earnings up to $1,994. The 12-year-old newsboy earned $3 a week, which he said he spent on his own pleasures and amusements and which the family said was not of much help to them. A Sicilian truck farmer, who estimated his year’s earnings at $1,000, had 3 children under 16. No one else in the family except the 15-year-old newsboy was at work. The boy earned $6.50 a week; he spent 10 cents a day for candy, went to the motion pictures once a week, and in five years of newspaper selling had saved $127. The parents, who said that the boy’s earnings were of assistance to them, were “ willing for him to help a little but did not force him .” A Polish laborer in a meat-packing house, with six children under 14, had earned $1,040 during the year. The mother also worked in the packing house and two older girls worked, so that the family earnings were between $1,850 and $2,250. A 13-year-old boy in the family earned about $4 a week selling and carrying papers, contributing some of his earnings to the family, using some for his clothes and other necessities, and having 25 cents a week for spending money. The mother said that she wanted the boy to work because they needed the money to support their large family and to help pay taxes and other expenses on their house, which they owned. An Italian laborer working for a gas company had six children under 16 and earned $1,080 a year, the only income in the family except what the boys received selling newspapers and doing other jobs. The mother said that she could not get along without their earnings in buying the children’s clothes and helping out in other ways. The 10-year-old newsboy said that he earned $3.20 selling papers and that he gave the money to his mother for food and clothing, having 10 cents a week for spending money. • In such families as these, and even in those enjoying a somewhat greater degree of prosperity, it is only natural that parents should say, as some of them did, that the newsboys’ earnings “ came in handy for clothes,” or even “ if he has clothes he must earn them,” or that they made it possible for the boys to have better clothes or something for the school bank. Of the 14 boys representing the families visited who did no other street work and whose fathers or other chief breadwinners made at least $1,050 during the year, 7 made at least $4 a week, the median earnings being $4. The amounts the boys could earn therefore were sufficiently large in proportion to the other income to be appreciated. Nevertheless, the earnings from newspaper selling were apparently not necessary to the actual maintenance of these families. The proportion of families which claimed that the boys’ earnings were needed parallels rather closely that (31 per cent) in which the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, N EB R . 193 chief breadwinner earned less than $850. Of the 59 families visited 21 reported that the newsboys’ earnings were necessary to support the family. Of the 59 families 33 said that the amounts earned were sufficient to be of real assistance, 3 others said that they were of only a little help, and 3 that they were too small to be of any help. In 9 of the other 20 families the mother or father said that they did not use the boy’s money for necessities, in 10 they expressed no definite opinion in regard to it, and in 1 they denied that the boy sold papers. In connection with the subject of the need of the money that the boys earned selling papers it was interesting to find that during the year preceding the study the median earnings of the chief bread winners of 13 boys who were out selling on Saturday nights until 11 or 12 o ’clock or later and whose homes were visited had been the same as that of the chief breadwinners of the 59 families visited, and that in only four of these families did the parents say that they needed their children’s earnings from newspaper selling. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K ^ w " Many (20 per cent) of the newsboys in Omaha had first begun to sell .papers or to do other street work because the money was needed at home. This need seemed to have resulted less from widowhood or from desertion by the father than from the inability of the boys’ fathers to make a living for large families, judging from information obtained in visiting the families of the boys giving need as their reason for working, and also from the fact that 19 per cent even of the boys with fathers at home said that they had first gone to work on the streets in order to help out financially. A number (11 per cent) had begun to sell papers chiefly because their fathers or mothers had told them to do so or had insisted upon the work. In desiring their boys to work some of these parents had had other than financial reasons— they wanted the boy to learn how to work, they feared he would ‘ Team bad habits just playing around,” or they desired, to keep him from fighting, the mother wanted the boy out of the house or did not want him “ loafing around,” or the father wanted him to learn English, to quote a few of these reasons— but in some instances it was clear from the circumstances of the family or from the boy’s explanation, even though he did not admit need, that the whole question had been one of money, as in the case of a 10-year-old child who said, “ M y mother get mad at me. ‘ Why don’t you sell? Make m oney!’ ” Even when they had not urged or suggested the work the greater number of the parents interviewed (43 of the 59) approved of it, though two whose boys sold in the morning disapproved of evening selling. Very few of the parents who approved of newspaper selling claimed any reason for their attitude beyond desire for the money. A few believed that the work “ made men of them,” or taught boys to handle or to count money or to save, or taught them “ business tactics,” and a few others believed in the work because it gave their boys something to do to keep them out of mischief or because all the boys in the neighborhood did it. Ten parents disapproved of newspaper selling, generally because of the bad influences of the street or of the distributing rooms. “ It makes them little bummies,” https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 194 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K “ The boys get spoiled and spend their money shooting craps and playing cards for money,” “ Afraid he will become a tramp,” were characteristic objections. The great majority of the newsboys had not gone to work either because of economic need in the home or because their parents wanted them to sell papers; only about one-third of them gave either of these as the principal reason for their having become newsboys. The largest number (122 of the 320) had had some personal reason; 14 per cent had wanted to earn their spending money; 14 per cent had wanted to do some work; 7 per cent had had some special object in view— a graduation suit, for example, or money for the school bank, or the repayment of passage money to this country— and 3 per cent gave miscellaneous personal reasons for beginning. Twenty-two per cent had started in order to help another boy, in 4 per cent of the cases an older brother, and in 18 per cent because other boys were selling papers. Some of these boys had been persuaded by friends (“ He called me crazy till I went down with him and did it,” said one boy), but more often the boy had been eager for the experience. “ It’s fun to hustle and there’s nothing to do at home,” “ I saw other kids making money and I wanted to have a pretty good time,” “ Had nothing to do,” “ Got tired o ’ stayin’ home,” “ It was fun to find out what it was like,” “ Just thought it would be fun,” “ I saw other boys doing it and said to myself, ‘ I believe I ’ll sell papers’ ” — such remarks as these were very common. A few boys (3 per cent) had begun to sell papers at the suggestion of an employee of the newspaper, as for example the truck drivers who went to school to take the newsboys down town or to recruit sellers. D IS P O S IT IO N O F E A R N IN G S In homes of the type from which most of the newsboys in Omaha came it would be expected that the children would contribute at least part of their earnings to the family. Not only were the incomes small, but it was the custom especially among the Italian and Jewish families, for every member of the family to share in its support as soon as he was able to do so. More than two-thirds (69 per cent) of the boys reported that they contributed at least some of their earn ings toward family expenses. (Table 46.) These included 25 boys who contributed all their earnings and 11 who contributed all except the amount spent for their own clothes and personal necessities. In addition to the 36 were 2 boys who used all their money for their own necessities, so that 38 boys (12 per cent) retained nothing out of the money they earned for spending money or even savings. The proportion helping out at home was a little larger among boys with fathers than among those who were supported by stepfathers or others. Half the boys helped to clothe themselves, including the boys whose entire earnings went for clothes or other personal necessities, and three-fourths used some of their money for spending money, including 11 who admitted that all they made went for candy, shows, and other personal luxuries. Almost all these 11 sold papers only once or twice a week, earning not more than 50 cents. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 195 O M AHA, N E B R . T a b l e 46.— Disposition of earnings; newspaper sellers, Omaha, Nebr. Newspaper sellers from 6 to 15 years of age Disposition of earnings1 Per cent Number distribu tion T o t a l. A ll for self. Spent for necessities...................... Spent for luxuries................... Spent for necessities and luxuries. Saved______ Saved and spent for necessities...................... Saved and spent for luxuries-------- -------- ---Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. Part to family and part for self2. Spent for necessities---------------------------------Spent for luxuries........................................... Spent for necessities and luxuries................... Saved__________________ __________ ______ Saved and spent for necessities....... .............. Saved and spent for luxuries...................---Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. All to family......................... ......... No earnings and no cash earmngs. 100.0 30.6 0.6 3.4 4.4 2.5 1.6 10.9 7.2 61.3 3.4 8.1 6.6 2.8 15.6 10.3 14.4 7.8 .3 1 Earnings spent for necessities, luxuries, or both may include expenses of job. 3 Subsidiary items show disposition of part spent for self. About half the boys put some of their money in the bank, includ ing 8 boys who saved their entire earnings. The school bank was especially popular. . j7 , v tV , The larger the amount of the newsboy’s earnings the less likely he was to contribute all that he made to the support of the family, but the more likely he was to contribute something. Boys who made at least $4 a week were only half as likely as boys who made less than $4 to give all their money to their families, but rather more likely to give some of it. The porportion using some of their earnings for savings, spending money, and necessities, respectively, did not differ greatly for fatherless boys and boys with fathers, though the distribution of the earnings among the different types of expenditure was undoubtedly different for the two groups. For example, the proportion of fatherless boys who spent some of their earnings tor clothes was no larger than that of boys whose fathers were at home, but more of the fatherless boys probably clothed themselves entirely, whereas many of the others bought only stockings or neckties or an occasional article. . , The following cases selected at random illustrate the variety ol uses to which the earnings were put in most instances, and the details of expenditure: The 13-year-old son of an Italian street-car motorman earned $3 a week selling and carrying papers and gave his money to his mother f o r § r0?®£ies’ .ei c£ j cents that he kept for spending money. He had also saved $10 with which he had bought a suit. ________ A 13-year-old boy, who earned $8.25 a week, helped his family (the father was window washer), bought his clothes, and put $1 a week m the school bank. H e had saved $42 toward a car that he wished to buy. a https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 196 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK A boy of 10 earning $2.40 a week bought his clothes, put 10 cents a week in the; school bank, had 10 cents “ for a show,” and gave the rest to the family. The 12-year-old son of a plumber earned $2.55 selling papers and magazines.. He gave some of his money to his mother “ to use for dresses,” saved 10 cents a week, spent 20 cents a week on his own pleasures, and bought milk and doughnuts, once a week down town while selling. A negro boy, whose father was a barber, earned $4.90 a week selling papers.. H e kept 25 cents a week to spend, saved some— he had $9 in the school bank and a sum in another bank, after three years as a newsboy— bought his clothes, and helped his family. A 10-year-old Syrian boy whose father was an automobile mechanic, earned' $3.60 a week. He had been selling papers a month and had $1.35 in the school bank. He bought some of his clothes, contributed some to the family, and had 10 cents a week “ for shows.” A 13-year-old boy with his two brothers earned $10.50 a week selling papers. They bought dinner and supper Saturday and breakfast Sunday down town and paid carfare to go down town to sell. The rest was used for family expenses. “ W e ’re poor and mother can ’t give us any to spend,” he said. The father was a laborer frequently out of work, and the family had received aid during the year from the Associated Charities. A 15-year-old Italian boy whose father was a laborer and whose family had been assisted by charity said that he contributed all his earnings— $3 a week— toward family expenses, because, he said, he “ did not want any spending m oney,” The 10-year-old son of an Italian baker gave the $2.20 a week that he earned selling morning papers to his mother to “ buy things to eat,” though he also bought his clothes, had saved 40 cents, and had 5 cents a week to spend in addition to what he spent for pie and cookies between selling out and going to school. A Russian Jew, who was 14 years of age, earned $10.25 a week selling and carrying papers. H e had 50 cents to spend, spent a nickel or a dime for a sandwich when he finished selling late Saturday night, saved some, and gave the rest to his family. He had saved $75 toward a college education. His father was a baker. A 13-year-old boy, son of a Russian-Jewish manufacturer, earned about $7 a week selling and carrying papers. He contributed none of his earnings toward the support of the family but helped buy his own clothes, put $5 a week in the bank, and had 75 cents for spending money. The 14-year-old son of a Russian-Jewish hotel keeper earned $13.75 a week. He spent all his money for himself— clothes, shows, and meals down town when he sold late. A Polish boy of 11, whose father was a peddler, earned $3.96 selling and carry ing papers. H e was s a y in g all h is money in t h e s c h o o l bank to have when he ‘ grew up big,” https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, NEBR. 197 A 12-year-old boy whose sister, a stenographer, was the chief support of the family, earned $10.45 a week selling and carrying papers. H e spent 50 cents a week on motion pictures and candy and sometimes bought doughnuts and fruit when selling down town, but gave the rest of his money to the family. He had had $15 in the bank but had drawn it out to help pay rent. Another 12-year-old boy earned a little more than $7 a week selling and carry ing papers. His sister supported the family by working as a multigrapher. He had gone to work when 6 because “ the family was getting short” and had needed his help. Out of his earnings he bought his clothes, put $5 in the bank every two weeks, paid for violin lessons, and helped the family. N E W S B O Y S IN SC H O O L Attendance. The newsboys were in all grades from the first to the tenth, 17 (5 per cent) being high-school boys. The median grade completed at the beginning of the school year in which the interview was held was the fourth. Records of school attendance were obtained- for 122 of the 145 newsboys who had worked a complete school semester during the school year ended June, 1922. The average percentage of attend ance for these boys for the year was found to be 93. No figure show ing the average percentage of attendance among all elementary public-school boys in Omaha is available for comparison. A small proportion of the newsboys had been absent from school 10 per cent or more of the term; that is, at least 18 days. Among the 19 who had had absences amounting to as much as 10 per cent of the term were a number whose street work was of such a character that it might well have interfered with school attendance. Five of ¡jjjjthe boys, from 11 to 14 years of age, worked from 2 % to 33/2 hours every morning before school, of whom two sold papers also two or more hours after school; nine worked from 24% to 33 hours a week; five were among the late Saturday night sellers. The presumption is at least admissible that some of these boys were working so many hours and at such unsuitable times as to over tax their strength and their physical resistance and so render them less fit for regular attendance at school than the more protected boy, even if the street life had had no demoralizing effects that would predispose to truancy. Truancy. According to the records of the school-attendance department 23 of the 320 newsboys (7 per cent) had been reported to the truant officers during the school year in which the survey was made. Three boys had court records as habitual truants. Twenty of the 23 truants had done street work prior to their truancy and 11 had begun their street-selling careers before reaching the age of 10. The majority (13) may be regarded as “ professional” newsboys, as they had sold papers at least two years. No information on the amount of truancy among nonstreet-working boys in the Omaha schools was available for comparison. That truancy among the newsboys was more common than among others is indicated, however, by the fact that relatively less than half as many of the newspaper-route carriers Jk (whose associations and contacts were in general more those of the ^ average, normal boy) as of the boys who sold papers on the streets .had been truant. (See p. 215.) https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 198 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK Seven of the truants sold papers Saturday nights until midnight at least, some of them going home in the newspaper trucks in the early hours of the morning or spending the night in the distribution rooms. Three had been found selling papers on the streets during school hours, and three others, though they were not selling papers, had been picked up by truant officers on the streets. One other boy, who regularly sold papers until 2.30 Sunday mornings, had been reported to the truant officer as having been away from home for two days. Home conditions in some of the truants’ families— such as extreme poverty, neglect by the parents, death of the mother, or desertion by the father— no doubt played their part in bringing about the boys’ maladjustments. Some of the conditions of street selling in Omaha— late Saturday-night selling, sleeping away from home, association in the distribution rooms with the itinerant men and boys with their tales of wandering and adventure— were such as to foster unrest and discontent with authority and the established routine even in boys from normal homes; in the case of boys with no counteracting influ ence in the home such conditions as surrounded some of the news boys make the task of the schools in developing law-abiding citizens seem an impossible one. Progress and scholarship. The percentage of boys who were retarded in school was very large. Forty-four per cent were below the grades that their ages warranted (see footnote 38, p. 22). They were retarded to a far greater extent than Omaha public-school boys as a whole, among whom 21 per cent were reported as overage for their grades in 1925, the only year for which a comparable figure could be furnished.72a ^ It might be assumed that the greater retardation among the ^ newsboys was due to the large proportion among them of boys with foreign-born parents, as such boys presumably were more handicapped in American schools than children of native parentage. But only 41 per cent of the newsboys with foreign-born fathers were retarded in school, whereas 45 per cent of those of native white fathers had failed to make average progress, though only 6 per cent of the former, compared with 13 per cent of the latter, were advanced for their ages. The fact that boys working the longer hours were more retarded than those who spent comparatively little of their time selling papers offers some evidence that the street work had a detrimental effect on school progress. This might have been expected; aside from those boys to whom school life and its interests and ambitions must have seemed shadowy indeed compared with the exciting life of the down town corners, the newspaper trucks, and the distribution rooms, those who worked such long hours as have been described (see pp. 182—187) must have had no time, if they had had the energy, for preparation of home lessons, and must have regarded as the more important the pursuit that claimed most of their time and brought visible rewards. The figures tend to confirm this expectation. Of the 47 newsboys working less than 12 hours a week, 17 (36 per cent) were retarded in school, and of the 64 working at least 28 hours 30 (47 per cent) were retarded. The difference in the average age of 4^ Figures furnished by attendance department, Omaha Public Schools. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 199 OMAHA, NUBE. the two groups— somewhat less than 2 years— is sufficient to account for at least part of the retardation among the group selling the longer hours. The proportion of retarded (43 per cent) among those who had sold papers less than one year was much smaller than that (53 per cent) among those who had sold between one and two years. On the other hand, the proportion of retarded was least (42 per cent) among those who had sold at least two years, the group in which it might have been expected that street selling would begin to show its effects on school progress. Possibly one explanation of the relatively good school progress of the boys who had sold papers for several years is that in the keen competition of newspaper selling only the brighter boys survive and become “ professional” newsboys. The newsboys’ averages in their studies show that very few of them were below the passing grade. Records covering a semester’s work were obtained for 120 boys who had worked at least one semester in the school year completed in June, 1922.73 These records gave the following average semester grades: Average grade Number of boys T otal___________________ Less than 7 0 ______________________________ 70, less than 8 0 _____________ :__________ _______________ 80, less than 9 0 _______ 90 or m ore_________ Per cent distribution 120 100 3 31 78 8 3 26 65 7 Similar information for nonworking schoolboys in Omaha is not available. Compared with the Omaha newspaper carriers (see p. 216) the marks indicate somewhat inferior school standing for newsboys. D E LIN Q U E N C Y A M O N G N E W S B O Y S Examination of the records of the Douglas County juvenile court showed that 19 (6 per cent) of the newsboys included in the study had court records, of whom 12 had been delinquent only after they had begun to sell newspapers. Whether the Omaha newsboys were more or less delinquent than the general run of school boys who had not suffered |the disadvantages of street life can not be inferred from this percentage of delinquents among them. No similar percentage for Omaha boys who did not sell papers is available for comparison, nor can comparison be made with the percentage of delinquents in the child population of the few cities for which such statistics are avail able, because of the widely different classifications in use. (See p. 27.) Compared with the proportion (2 per cent) of the Omaha newspaper-route carriers who had had court records it would seem that the street sellers were decidedly more likely to get into trouble. (See p. 216.) A number of the newsboys against whom charges had been preferred in court were repeated offenders. Not counting six delinquents whose complete records were not found, the 19 boys had a record of 55 offenses, as follows: Stealing, 33; injuring or destroying prop erty, 7; truancy, 5; “ incorrigibility” or “ delinquency,” 3; fighting, 2; charges in connection with liquor, 2; annoying little girls, 1; shooting craps, 1; trespassing, 1. 7S The school records indicated in letters the grade attained by the pupil in each study. In order to obtain an average tor all studies a number was assigned to each letter, as 95 for A, 85 for B, etc. 75034°— 28------ 14 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 200 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K It is impossible, in the absence of more detailed information than that supplied by the court records, to establish a direct relation, if a direct relation did, in fact, exist, between delinquency and news paper selling. The following cases are cited as representative of the difficulties which had brought before the court the more typical of the newsboy delinquents; that is, those who had sold papers for a long time or who spent much of their time on the street selling, or both: A boy of 12 who had sold papers from the age of 10 was brought into court for habitual truancy. He had stayed out of school an entire term. Hom e con ditions were fairly good, though the father was not living with the family and the income was small. A boy of 14 who had been selling papers for five years and before that had been a bootblack, had been charged at the time he was a bootblack with stealing pencils and small sums of money, and had been placed in a detention home for a week. Less than a year later he had stolen a watch and other articles and had been committed again to the detention home for several weeks. Again, less than a year later, when only 10, he had broken into a house and stolen $10, which had resulted in his being committed to a home for delinquent boys. When 11 he was brought into the court as incorrigible; he stayed out late at night, sometimes until 2 in the morning, and had stolen a revolver. He was committed to the State industrial school, but the sentence was suspended and he was sent instead to the detention home. Here he stole $2 from one of the teachers and was sent to the industrial school. A few months later he was released but accord ing to the court record did so badly that he was returned to the school a month after his release. A t the time of the study, a year and a half later, he was selling papers morning and afternoon, over 49 hours a week, but he said that he did not sell Saturday nights as his mother objected. This boy-had a stepfather, and just before the boy’s first offense the mother, at that time in receipt of mothers’ aid, had been charged with neglect of her children. A 14-year-old boy had sold papers for two months when he was 9 years of age and had been selling again for six months when hfe was interviewed. H e sold papers more than three hours a day on school days, stopping at 7 p. m ., and 11 hours on Saturday, staying out until 1 o’clock Sunday morning. On Saturdays he ate two meals at a down-town restaurant. H e said that he kept $1.50 of his weekly earnings for spending money. After beginning his second period of newspaper selling he had been implicated with another boy in the theft of $46 and had been committed to a detention home. The father and mother of this boy were living together, and the father supported the family. Both father and mother were illiterate. A 12-year-old boy, who had first sold papers at the age of 7 but had sold only about 15 months in all, sold from 3.30 to 7 p. m. on school days and from 3.30 to midnight on Saturdays. A few weeks before being interviewed he had been implicated in stealing coal from railroad yards. The boy was committed to a detention home, where he remained a few weeks. The parents of this boy lived together, both were illiterate, and the father was a peddler. A boy of 12 of Syrian parentage who had been selling papers for two years had been arrested for breaking into a freight car and stealing watermelons shortly after he had begun to sell. About a year later he was again in court charged with stealing bottles from a bottling company and selling them, and had been sent to a detention home for a week. A t the time of the study he was selling papers down town from 5 until 7 p. m. every school day and on Saturdays until 2 o’clock in the morning. Just prior to the Children’s Bureau study the parents had been charged in the juvenile court with neglecting their five children, who “ ran w ild” and played truant from school. One of the younger boys, only 10 years of age, sold papers until midnight Saturday nights. Both father and mother were literate and the father was a mechanic. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis O M AHA, N EB R . 201 A 13-year-old newsboy had sold papers without interruption since he was 9 years of age. A t the time of the study he was selling about three hours on school days and on Saturdays all the afternoon and evening until 1.30 Sunday morning. H e had dinner at home at 7.30 or 8 on school nights and ate down town at a res taurant on Saturday evenings. He had a long truancy record and had been in court four times for truancy. The boy’s father and mother were living and the father supported the family by hauling coal for a fuel company. Both parents were illiterate. Of the social agencies in Omaha the juvenile court and the local Jewish Welfare Federation concerned themselves especially with the newsboys and the conditions under which they worked.74 The federa tion conducted three newsboys’ clubs with a combined membership of about 45 boys. The members were allowed the use of the federa tion clubhouse gymnasium free of charge. Attempts were made to hold regular meetings, but the boys were reported as hard to handle, and the question of leadership had not been solved. The Young M en’s Christian Association in Omaha did no work with newsboys, because, according to the secretary of boys’ work of the association, it could not reach the Italian and Jewish boys, who composed most of the newsboy group. N E W S P A P E R CARRIERS More than three-fifths of the city circulation of the three principal newspapers was distributed by route carriers, and a few schoolboy carriers were employed by a foreign-language daily paper not sold on the streets. Several other foreign-language newspapers and a few weekly papers published in Omaha were distributed by mail. The newspaper-route carriers included in the study numbered 740 boys, of whom 81 were found in the parochial schools, and 10 girls. The girls have not been included in the statistical analysis.75 R A C E A N D N A TIO N A LITY OF F A T H E R S Unlike the street sellers the majority of the carriers were of native white parentage. The 41 per cent who had foreign-born fathers were chiefly of Scandinavian, of Czechoslovakian, and of Russian-Jewish stock. Unlike the street sellers very few were Italians. (Table 47.) A few of the carriers (33) themselves were foreign born, relatively only one-fifth as many as foreign-born boys selling papers on the Omaha streets. AG E O F C A R R IE R S The average age of the carriers was 12.7 years. Many were older, however, 41 per cent being 14 or 15 years of age. (Table 2, p. 9.) Of the 179 carriers who were under 12, including all those who were only 7 or 8 years old, 112 merely acted as helpers, usually for their brothers, but 67, the great majority of whom were 11 years of age, though a few were 10 or even 9, had routes of their own. 74 In 1919 an Omaha school principal made a survey of about 200 newspaper sellers attending the public schools through a questionnaire filled in by the boys’ teachers. This survey covered home and working conditions and school records. 75 Of the 10 girls 6 were employed to help brothers, 1 helped an older sister, and 1 helped a boy who was not her brother. Only 2 had routes of their own. All were white and all except 1 of native parentage. Two were under 10 years, 2 were between 10 and 12, 5 were 12, and 1 was 14. All worked in the afternoon except the 14-year-old girl, who delivered papers between 5.30 and 7 a. m. every day. The maximum num ber of horns worked per week was 15J4 the minimum was 2 % . Five of the 10 had worked at least one year. All except 3 received some money for their work; those helping other route carriers earned from 10 cents to $1.20 a week; the 2 girls working independently made about $4 a week. Only 1 girl (with a stepfather") contributed any of her earnings toward family support. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 202 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K T able 4 7 .— Race and nationality of father; newspaper carriers, Omaha, Nehr. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Newspaper car riers from 6 to 15 years of age Race and nationality of father Race and nationality of father Per Num cent ber distri bution T otal........... ......................... 740 100.0 White..............................— ........... 731 98.8 Native. ......... ...................... . Foreign born________________ 412 303 55.7 40.9 Scandinavian_______ ____ Czechoslovakian_________ Russian Jewish________ _ 60 52 51 8.1 7.0 6.9 Per Num cent ber distri bution White—Continued Foreign bom—Continued German_____ ___________ Italian................................. Other Jewish____________ Other foreign born and foreign born not otherwise specified_____ _____ 37 15 6 5.0 2.0 .8 82 11.1 Nativity not reported......... . 16 2.2 9 1.2 Negro. _______________________ W O R K E X P E R IE N C E Many of the carriers had never done any street work except to carry newspapers, though the;great majority had had several news paper routes. On the other hand, at the time’ of the study 37 boys were doing some other kind of street work, and 116 others had pre viously had a street job other than their newspaper routes. M ost of those who had had other street-work experience had sold newspapers. A few boys (33) had work other than street work at the time of the study, generally helping in grocery stores, and 160 others had had previous working experience. This was chiefly caddying and farm work, though some had been grocery or delivery boys, and a few had worked as helpers in drug stores, as special delivery and messenger boys, ticket sellers at motion-picture houses, barber-shop helpers, helpers in dairies and in garages, water boys, bottle washers, and at setting up pins in bowling alleys and sweeping out theaters and office buildings. The majority (52 per cent) of the carriers had had at least six months the newspaper routes that they were carrying when the study was made, between six and eight months being the median duration. Many boys (18 per cent) had held their routes for two years or longer, and some (10 per cent) had carried papers without interruption at least three years. (Table 48.) As has been said, probably most of the boys had previously had one or more newspaper routes at which they had worked a few months at different times. Thus, to cite a typical example, a 13-year-old carrier, who had had his route for a year, had worked as a helper for more than a year beginning at the age of 9, had had a regular route for three months when he was 10. and another for four months when he was 11. Of the 740 carriers 28 per cent had first carried papers before the age of 10, and 65 per cent before 12; only 7 per cent had been 14 or 15 when they started carrying papers. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 203 O M AH A, N E B R . T a b l e 48.-— Previous duration of job held at date of interview, by age period; newspaper carriers, Omaha, Nebr. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Previous duration of job held at date of interview Under Per 10 years* Num Num cent dis ber tribu ber tion 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Per Per Per cent Num cent Num cent dis dis dis tribu ber tribu ber tribu tion tion tion Total______ _____________________ 740 45 134 Total reported............................................. 738 100.0 45 133 100.0 259 100.0 301 Less than 1 year_______________ ,____ 518 70.2 35 109 82.0 191 73.7 183 60.8 Less than 6 months_____________ 356 48.2 31 81 60.9 139 53.7 105 34.9 Less than 2 months_________ 2 months, less than 4________ 4 months, less than 6________ 174 115 67 23.6 15.6 9.1 17 10 4 38 29 14 28.6 21.8 10.5 74 38 27 28.6 14.7 10.4 45 38 22 15.0 12.6 7.3 259 302 100.0 6 months, less than 1 year............. 162 22.0 4 28 21.1 52 20.1 78 25.9 1 year, less than 2................................. 2 years, less than 3__________________ 3 years and over____________________ 87 56 77 11.8 7.6 10.4 7 2 1 8 11 5 6.0 8.3 3.8 30 16 22 11.6 6.2 8; 5 42 27 49 14.0 9.0 16.3 Not reported.......... .................................... 2 1 1 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. C O N D IT IO N S O F E M P L O Y M E N T Almost all the carriers for the three principal newspapers had independent routes in the sense that they did not receive wages for their work but were obliged to make their own collections, out of which they paid for the papers and took their own profits, standing all losses when customers did not pay. However, their work was under the supervision of the newspaper offices, and they were subject to fines and penalties for unsatisfactory service or for failure to observe the regulations laid down by the office. Weekly credit was given in most cases, and the boys were bonded, generally for twice the sum of their weekly bill, out of which a substantial amount was taken if the carrier failed to give the required notice before giving up his route. In some cases boys were allowed to pay their bonds in installments. The bond not only covered the ».mount of credit given, but it also made the parents feel more responsibility for the boy’s work. Table 49 shows the types of carriers’ employer. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 204 T able CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K 49.— Type of employer, by age period of carrier; newspaper carriers, Omaha, Nebr. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Type of employer 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Under 10 Per years1 Per Per Per cent cent Num cent Num dis Num cent dis Num dis dis ber ber tribu tribu ber tribu ber tribu tion tion tion tion Total________________ _____ ______ 740 100.0 Newspaper company or agent__________ S elf,................................................ Other carrier_______________ ____ Self and newspaper company or agent... Newspaper company or agent and other carrier_____________________ Self and other carrier.... ....................... 12 395 199 132 1.6 53.4 26.9 17.8 1 1 .1 .1 45 134 100.0 259 100.0 302 100.0 6 39 2 45 71 16 1.-.5 33.6 53.0 11.9 4 142 66 47 1.5 54.8 25.5 18.1 6 202 23 69 2.0 66.9 7.6 22.8 1 1 .3 .3 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Newspapers for the carriers of morning routes were deposited by truck or street car at convenient street corners. Carriers of evening routes obtained their newspapers at substations. The substations were maintained by each of the newspapers 76 in different sections of the city. Most of them were wooden buildings, consisting of one very small room with a counter at which the boys received their papers and “ stuffed” them when necessary. Each of the news papers also had a substation for route carriers at the main office— a separate room with its own manager operating under exactly the same, rules as the other substations. Generally only carriers used the substations, so that they did not come in contact with news boys. Each substation was in charge of its own manager. Repre sentatives of the newspapers reported that they made an effort to get high-grade men (married ones if possible) to fill these positions, and one newspaper reported paying as much as $50 a week to its substation managers. However, one of the managers, about whom a number of boys complained, was said by one of the older carriers to “ smell of liquor” all the time he was on duty. The competition between the newspapers which has been described (see p. 177) reacted unfavorably on the conditions of employment for carriers as well as sellers. It was customary for the newspapers to require each carrier to take several papers more than the number needed for his customers, and these papers, known as extras, the boys were obliged to pay for. Boys complained that some of the managers made them take many more than the customary two or three extras a day. One carrier, for example, said that his route list contained as many as 15 fake names and addresses and that he was obliged to take and pay for these papers in spite of his protests; the manager, he said, threatened to “ beat u p ” boys who tried to return the extras. Boys complained also that they were often not permitted to stop delivering a paper even though the customer failed to pay and they themselves had to stand the loss. n in June, 1926, one of the newspapers had discontinued almost all its substations and was delivering the papers to the route carriers. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, N EB R . 205 Carriers were expected to build up their routes, and in some cases a good deal of pressure was brought to bear to get the boys to solicit customers. Some of the managers required the boys to go out with them several nights a week to solicit, keeping them out for this purpose until 9 or 10 at night. Prizes and cash amounts (15 cents a subscriber) were also offered-to encourage the carriers to get new subscribers. Besides the necessity of building up their routes the carriers had other duties which imposed greater responsibilities than those of street sellers. They were expected to furnish substitutes in case of illness, to pay for special messengers to take papers to customers who reported not receiving them, and to settle their bills regularly at a specified time. The work involved also at least a rudimentary keeping of accounts. The boys carried their papers in sacks or in small wagons. The majority delivered fewer than 75 papers daily, but 321 boys (43 per cent) delivered from 75 to at least 200 newspapers daily and more than half of these had larger Sunday routes. The weight of one of the daily papers was about 6 ounces and of a Sunday paper a pound or more. Both the boys and their parents mentioned the weight of the papers as a serious drawback to the work. One of the younger boys who usually carried more than 100 papers said that the school nurse had noticed that he “ was getting one-sided from carrying such a heavy bag of papers,” so that he had begun to carry fewer papers and to shift the bag from shoulder to shoulder. R E G U L A R IT Y OF W O R K 9' , Owing to the fact that the principal newspapers had Sunday edi tions the great majority of the carriers (81 percent), including those with more than one street job, carried papers every day in the week, and almost all (91 per cent) carried at least six days a week. Those who did not deliver papers every day were helpers or carriers who hired a helper to carry their routes for them one or more days a week, or they were employed by a foreign-language paper with no Sunday edition. Six boys carried only on Saturdays or Sundays or on both days. H OURS OF W O R K Most of the carriers of the daily morning papers in Omaha were older high-school boys or young men attending the University of Omaha, and were not included in the study. However, 40 boys under 16 years of age who were included in the study reported de livering papers in the morning on school days. Of these, 29 began their work before 6 a. m., most of them about 5 or 5.30; 7 began before 4.30. The 29 boys included 16 under 14 years of age, though only 2 were under 12. One of these early-morning carriers, a boy of 14 in the seventh grade, who started on his route at 4 a. m., main tained that a few hours7 sleep were enough for him but admitted that he was sleepy in school. A 9-year-old carrier who began his work at 4.30 a. m. returned home at 5 a. m. and went to bed in his clothes, sleeping until 7.30. A number of the boys7mothers objected H to the early hours even for some of the older boys, saying that they could not get them to go to bed early enough to get a sufficient num- https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 206 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K ber of hours’ sleep. “ He’s burning the candle at both ends,” said the mother of a 15-year-old high-school boy, adding that she felt he could not do justice to his school work. The great majority of the carriers (620, including 17 who had a second street job) delivered on Sunday mornings; 463 began before 6 o ’clock, of whom 206 began before 5 and 49 before 4 o ’clock. A few (37) of those who began work before 5 a. m. were under 12 years of age. These hours included the time spent stuffing papers (that is, putting together the various sections of the paper), which boys re ported took on Sunday mornings from 15 minutes to an hour, ac cording to the size of their routes. A few stuffed for other boys, receiving small amounts for the service. Almost afi the carriers had afternoon routes. Ninety-one per cent of the 662 with afternoon routes who had no other street job, finished delivering their papers before 6 o ’clock, and 24 of the 37 with a second street job were through before 6. As a rule, the boys who were out until 6 or later had country routes, as they called routes in unpaved or wooded sections on the outskirts of the city; or had such large routes that they carried them in two sections, returning home for the second lot of papers after delivering the first; or they acted as special carriers to deliver to customers that the regular carriers had skipped; or, in the case of the boys with street work other than carrying, they sold papers on their routes. Even these boys were through before 7, except in rare instances. Meals offered no problem to the afternoon carriers, as almost all of them finished delivering their papers in time to have dinner with their families. Most of the morning carriers postponed breakfast until after they had served their routes, though a few took a light lunch at home before starting out and several bought breakfast at a restaurant. An hour or an hour and a half a day was usually all the time re quired for a route; 61 per cent of the carriers worked between one and two hours on school days and 27 per cent less than one hour. How ever, a small proportion of the boys (12 per cent) spent two hours or more a day delivering papers. (Table 50.) Saturday and Sunday hours were much longer. Although some of the carriers made their collections throughout the week as they de livered, most of them spent Saturday morning at least and some spent almost all day Saturday collecting, including the time given to settling up with the substation manager for their week’s papers. On Sundays the papers were much heavier than the week-day issues, and many of the boys had more Sunday customers than daily ones, so that routes could not be covered so quickly. Besides, the stuffing or putting together of the several sections of the Sunday paper took sometime. (See above.) More than half (59 per cent) of the Sunday carriers worked at least two hours, and 19 per cent worked at least three hours. Only 151 boys (23 per cent) delivering on Saturdays worked less than two hours; 62 per cent worked at least three hours, and 22 per cent worked five hours or longer. (Table 51.) Owing chiefly to the hours spent in collecting a large proportion (42 per cent) of the carriers worked 12 hours or more a week, including https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 207 OMAHA, N EB R . 25 per cent of the boys under 12 years of age. A few boys, however (7 per cent, and 15 per cent of those under 12), spent less than four hours a week on their newspaper routes. T a b l e 50.— Number of hours of street work on a typical school day, by age period; newspaper carriers holding a single job, Omaha, Nebr. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Number of hours of street work on a typical school day Total____________ ______ _________ 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Under Per Per 10 Per Per cent Num dis years1 Num cent Num cent Num cent dis dis dis ber tribu ber tribu ber ber tribu tribu tion tion tion tion 703 43 126 244 290 Street work on school days__ *____ . . . . 699 42 126 242 289 Total reported_____________________ 695 100.0 40 124 100.0 242 100.0 289 100.0 Less than 1 hour________________ 1 hour, less than 2 _____ _ 2 hours and o v e r ....................... 187 427 81 26.9 61.4 11.7 19 18 3 39 72 13 31.5 58.1 10.5 60 150 32 24,8 62.0 13.2 69 187 33 23. 9 64.7 11.4 2 Not reported........................................ 4 2 No street work on school days......... .......... 4 1 1 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. T a b l e 51.— Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday, by age period, newspaper carriers holding a single job, Omaha, Nebr. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday Total________________________ 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Under Per 10 Per Per Per cent . years1 Num dis Num cent Num cent Num cent dis dis dis ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu ber tribu tion tion tion tion 703 43 126 244 Street work on Saturday_____ _______ _ 662 33 119 229 Total reported_________________ 659 100.0 32 117 100.0 229 100.0 281 100.0 54 97 102 263 143 8.2 14.7 15.5 39.9 21.7 9 9 7 6 1 13 32 15 41 16 11.1 27.4 12.8 35.0 13.7 18 28 37 98 48 7.9 12.2 16.2 42.8 21.0 14 28 43 118 ■ 78 5. 0 10.0 15.3 42.0 27.8 Less than 1 hour__________ 1 hour, less than 2__ _ 2 hours, less than 3________ _ 3 hours, less than 5 . . ......... 5 hours and over___________ Not reported_____________ 3 1 2 No street work on Saturday_______ 41 10 7 i Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 15 290 281 9 208 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K EARNINGS An afternoon route of 100 customers, including Sunday delivery, paid $6 a week, and a morning route paid $7; that is, the carrier made in the one case 6, in the other 7, cents a customer. The carriers on so-called country routes received a bonus in the form of a deduction from their weekly bill, which the boy himself collected. The amount of this bonus the boys reported as from 50 cents to $2.50 a week. About half (55 per cent) of the carriers were paid entirely on this basis, but 23 per cent, almost all of whom were either helpers or substitutes or were carriers for a foreign-language daily, were paid a regular weekly wage; 19 per cent carried under more than one arrange ment— for example, both as independent carriers earning the usual amount for each customer and as helpers to others at a fixed sum a week. Six boys who helped brothers or friends received no pay. Of the 703 carriers who did no other street work, 35 per cent made less than $3 a week. (Table 52.) Not counting those who were only helpers, half of whom were paid less than $1 a week, the propor tion making less than $3 was only 16 per cent. A large proportion of the carriers (35 per cent) made at least $5 a week, a number of boys making up to $8 or $10. These earnings represent the usual amount actually made, excluding fines for customers’ complaints, charges for extras, and losses from customers who did not pay. A great many of the regular carriers reported their actual earnings as less than the amounts they should have made according to the number of their customers. Most of this loss was attributed by the boys to inability to collect from customers the full amount of their bills. When the customer did not pay, the carrier lost not only his own profit but also the cost of the newspaper. One of the substation managers said that the carrier could count on losing in this way 15 to 30 per cent of his profits. The most common losses occurred through customers moving away, especially from apartments and lodging houses; other customers were thoughtless, postponing paying their bills so that the carrier was always in arrears, if he did not lose the full amount in the end. Although 50 cents or $1 a week were the losses most commonly reported, some boys lost more, according to their own statements; one carrier at times “ only made his bill” ; another never made more than half the amount due him on his route of 100 subscribers; another “ had $12 or $13 coming to him ” from customers who were behind in their payments; one boy had lost $10 through customers who had moved without paying their bills, despite the fact that he always “ run ’em down. Find their new addresses and go after ’em.” In some cases the newspaper gave a bonus for routes in which col lections were exceptionally hard to make, but even with the bonus the boy sometimes lost. A carrier with a bonus of $1.50, for example, said that in most weeks his losses amounted to more than $2. Parents sjaid that the newspaper offices, in spite of their claims to the con trary, gave the boys no assistance in collecting bad bills. x è https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 209 OM AHA, N E B R . T a b l e 52.— Earnings during a typical week, by number of hours engaged, news paper carriers holding a single job, Omaha, Nebr. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Total................................ 703 No earnings and no cash Per cent dis tribution 1 Number Per cent dis tribution Number Per cent dis tribution 1 50 100.0 150 203 197 98 5 145 100.0 198 100.0 191 100.0 95 100.0 3 23 24 59 66 64 91 106 87 151 3.4 3.5 8.7 9.7 9.4 13.3 15.5 12.8 22.1 12 11 14 3 2 4 24.0 22.0 28.0 6.0 4.0 8.0 6 7 31 35 18 13 10 8 14 4.1 4.8 21.4 24.1 12.4 9.0 6.9 5.5 9.7 11 1.6 4 8.0 3 2.1 21 Number Per cent dis tribution Number Per cent dis tribution 50 Total reported_______________ 682 100.0 $0.25, less than $0.50--------$0.50, less than $1.00______ $1.00, less than $2.00--------$2.00, less than $3.00-......... $3.00, less than $4.00......... 12 hours, 16 hours, 8 hours, Less than 4 hours, 4 hours less than 8 less than 12 less than 16 and over Number Per cent distribu tion Number Earnings during a typical week j Hours not reported1 Working specified number of horns per week Total 5 2 4 7 21 21 36 35 28 41 3 5 1.0 2.0 3.5 10.6 10.6 18.2 17.7 14.1 20.7 2 1 5 6 17 28 40 35 57 1.0 .5 2.6 3.1 8.9 14.7 20.9 18.3 29.8 1 1 1 6 10 21 16 39 1.1 1.1 1.1 6.3 10.5 22.1 16.8 41.1 1 Ï — — 1 6 3 2 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. A second source of loss in earnings came from fines for complaints. A complaint from a customer that his paper had not been delivered cost the carrier 10 or 15 cents for a daily paper and 25 cents for a Sunday paper, the amounts paid the special carrier who delivered to the customer who had been skipped. Supposedly these were fixed charges, but, according to one boy, one of the managers, “ a rough sort,” charged 25 cents for complaints on dailies and 50 cents for those on Sunday papers. Both boys and parents complained that some of the managers charged the carriers for complaints that were not their fault, though other managers were said to give them full opportunity to prove that they had not been negligent. The earnings reported included tips if the carrier customarily received tips. About one-eighth of the carriers reporting on this point said that they did, though the amount for each boy was usually only a nickel or a dime a week. A few boys reported 25 cents or more, a boy who delivered papers to the soldiers at Fort Omaha receiving at least $2 a week in tips. Other boys said that tips were given only at Christmas time or on special occasions, such as snowy mornings. Several said that the tips they received just about made up for the extras they were obliged to take. NEED FOR EARNINGS A The carriers’ families appeared to represent a fair cross section of the city population, judging from the occupations of the chief wage earners. The proportion in each of the large occupational groups was almost exactly the same as that of all the male workers 20 years https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 210 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K of age and older in the city.” They were on a much higher level, occupationally, than the families of newspaper sellers. Relatively many more of the carriers than of the newsboys’ fathers or other chief breadwinners were skilled mechanics or artisans and machinists; more than twice as many were commercial travelers and salesmen; many more were clerks and professional men; relatively fewer carriers’ fathers worked in factories, and of those who did almost one-third were superintendents, foremen, or owners of factories, more than twice as many in proportion as newspaper sellers’ fathers occupying such positions. More of the carriers’ fathers were in trade; but less than one-tenth as many of the carriers as of the newspaper sellers in proportion to their number had fathers who were peddlers. Of carriers’ fathers^ in occupations classified under transportation, relatively four times as many as sellers’ fathers were conductors, engineers, or other trainmen, and considerably fewer were teamsters, chauffeurs, and railroad laborers. The proportion of homes that might be considered normal, both economically and socially, though somewhat larger than that among newspaper sellers, was a little smaller than has been found for carriers in the other studies. (Table 10, p. 29.) Only 78 per cent of the car riers came from families in which both parents were living together and the father provided the livelihood. Many were fatherless boys; 123 (17 per cent) had lost their own fathers, of whom 35 had step fathers or others taking the place of fathers as wage earners in the family, so that 88 boys (12 per cent) were in homes in which the mother was the head of the household. In the families of 42 boys (6 per cent) the mother was the chief breadwinner. Most of these mothers earned their living by domestic service, though some were seamstresses or factory workers and several were teachers. Besides those whose mothers were the main support of their families 14 per cent of the carriers had mothers gainfully employed, excluding boarding or lodging housekeepers, a larger proportion than that (9 per cent) for white families found in the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics study of sources of income in the families of wage earners and small-salaried men made in Omaha in 1919.78 This cir cumstance is probably accounted for by the number of carriers’ mothers who were widows or deserted wives, even though they did not wholly support their families, and the fact that the Federal study of family incomes was confined to families with fathers. The group of ^families that were visited and from which more detailed family information was obtained numbered 108, in which were 146 (20 per cent) of the carriers included in the study. These families seemed to be of more than average prosperity. Of the 98 chief breadwinners reporting their earnings for the year pre ceding the interview, 59 per cent had earned at least $1,450, and the median earnings were between $1,450 and $1,850. The average income earned by the father in the white families included in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study referred to was $1,417.79 A large proportion (33 per cent) of the carriers had fathers earning $1,850 or more. The majority of the heads of carriers’ households had had no unemployment during the year, but 15 per cent had had at least Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, pp. 1188-1189. ™Monthly Labor Review (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), Vol. IX , No. 6 (December, 1919), p. 36. 79 Idem. 9 9 H https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, NEBR. 211 three months’ unemployment, the same proportion as was found among the newspaper sellers of Omaha. When the fathers’ or other chief breadwinners’ earnings were sup plemented by those of wives or of sons and daughters over 16 years of age the total was probably somewhat larger than the average income of workingmen’s families. The median annual earnings in the 88 families reporting on family earnings were between $1,450 and $1,850; 59 of the families had an income of $1,450 or over. Again, a comparison may be made with figures obtained in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study, in which it was found that the average earned f a m i l y income in white families in Omaha was $1,503.79“ The car riers’ families were larger, averaging 5.8 persons compared with 4.8 in the families in the Federal study, and probably contained a larger proportion of adult sons and daughters. (See footnote 11, p. 84.) Further evidence of the prosperity of carriers’ families was found in the fact that 75 per cent owned their houses— though some of them were mortgaged— whereas the proportion of dwelling houses in Omaha owned by their tenants, whether with or without mortgages, though unusually large, was only 47 per cent.80 Only 20 per cent of the families had 1.5 persons or more per room, a proportion less than half that reported for the newspaper sellers. (See p. 190.) The number of carriers’ families that had been aided by charitable organizations (see p. 190) was negligible. From July 1, 1922, to June 30, 1923 (approximately the year preceding the examination of records), only two carriers’ families (including 3 of the 740 carriers) had been in receipt of relief. Only 16 other families were reported as ever having had aid from relief organizations/ At the time of the study three mothers were in receipt of mothers’ aid. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K Comparatively few of the carriers had begun street work because their families were in need of their earnings. Only 76 boys (10 per cent) had taken their street jobs for this reason— fathers had died, mothers needed help, fathers’ wages were too small to support the family, fathers were in debt, or, as One boy said, “ the family kept growing.” Half of these 76 boys were fatherless and almost one-third were in families supported chiefly by the mother, whereas of all the carriers only 17 per cent had lost their fathers and only 6 per cent were in families in which the mother was the main support. M ost of the carriers had done their first street work to satisfy their own pleasures or desires. Twenty-two per cent wished to earn spending money; 11 per cent wanted money to gratify some special wish or for some special object, such as to go to college, to buy a bicycle or a sled, to put money in the bank, to pay Young M en’s Christian Association dues, to cover high-school expenses; 17 per cent wanted something to do or thought the job was fun; 14 per cent had begun because other boys were doing it; 13 per cent had started in order to help friends or brothers or to learn the work. A few boys (5 per cent) could offer no other reason for beginning than that they had been asked to undertake the work by agents of the newspapers. The remaining boys (7 per cent) said that they had begun to work at their parents’ desire, generally, because the parents wished them to so Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. II, Population, p. 1294. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 212 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK learn to work or to learn to save, though some had apparently no very seriously considered reason for advocating the job. A 9-year-old carrier gave the rather amusing reason that his father had asked him to help another boy with his route because he liked to read that par ticular paper and the mother refused to buy it, preferring another for her own reading. Approximately four-fifths (81 per cent) of the parents visited approved of their boys delivering newspapers, chiefly because it kept them busy and out of mischief or because it developed regular habits and taught them the value of money. Only 18 parents voiced objections, such as, “ people don’t pay,” “ associates are bad— shoot craps, swear, and use indecent language,” “ has to get out too early Sunday,” “ could use his time to better advantage either playing or doing his school work,” “ too young— afraid he will get into bad company,” “ perhaps hard on study,” “ work is hard on Sunday,” “ doesn’t make enough to pay for his shoe leather,” “ boy is not strong enough,” “ too small to carry so many papers,” “ should not carry such a heavy load,” “ most of the boys around the paper office are tough,” “ has to get up too early and go out in all kinds of weather,” “ has a long route and gets tired,” “ it gives him no time for play during the day,” “ it gives boy more spending money than is advis able,” “ papers are heavy and in winter he is exposed to bad weather; associations are poor, also.” Although one-fourth of the families visited regarded the carriers’ earnings as necessary for support, it should be noted that the large majority of these were immigrant families (relatively far more than the proportion of immigrant families in the whole group), among some of whom it was so customary to expect the children to contribute to the support of the family as soon as they could that they were likely to consider such contributions as an absolute necessity. Of the 12 families with foreign-born fathers claiming need of the carriers’ earnings, 4 had incomes earned by the fathers of at least $1,500, whereas in the 8 native families claiming need only 1 father earned as much as $1,500. About half the families interviewed regarded the carriers’ earnings as of assistance to the family, whether or not they were necessary for its upkeep. D IS P O S IT IO N O F E A R N IN G S Many of the carriers (39 per cent) gave some assistance to their families, though the proportion was little more than half that of Omaha newspaper sellers who were obliged to help with the family expenses. Included in this group were 22 boys who said that all that they earned was used for family support and 9 whose entire earnings went for clothes and other personal necessities. Counting 10 other boys who divided their earnings between personal necessities and family expenses, 41 boys (6 per cent) reported having none of their money for spending money or for savings. (Table 53.) The following cases were selected at random from this group: A high-school boy of 15, of Italian parentage, both sold and carried newspapers, earning $4.50 a week at both jobs, all of which he said was used for family ex penses. H e was one of a family of 11, of whom 7 were under 16 years of age. The father, a street-railway mechanic, made $1,265 a year, and an older brother, a clerk, made $1,200. The family owned their dwelling. The mother said that the boys should help because of the size of the family. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 213 OMAHA, NEBR. A 15-year-old boy, the only child in a Russian-Jewish family, earned $7 a week on his route, all of which went for family expenses, clothing, and doctors’ bills. His mother, the chief support of the family, kept a grocery store from which she had cleared only $375 during the year preceding the study. They had lived partly on savings of the father, who had died. When interviewed the mother said that the boy’s earnings were not at that time necessary to their support but that until recently they had been. N ow that she was on her feet financially, she said she would not touch the boy’s money but would have him pay for violin lessons and save the remainder. T a b l e 53.— Disposition of earnings; newspaper carriers, Omaha, Nebr. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Disposition of earnings 1 Per cent Number distribu tion m Total___ ___________ ¡1.................................. 740 Total reported______ _____ _______ - ........................ 738 100.0 All for self____________________ ______ _______ 441 59.8 Spent for necessities____________ _________ Spent for luxuries________________________ Spent for necessities and luxuries................. Saved_______ ____ ______________________ Saved and spent for necessities____________ Saved and spent for luxuries...... .......... ...... Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. Saved and not specified.............. ........... ....... Not specified__________ _____ ____________ 9 42 72 33 35 94 153 2 1 1.2 5.7 9.8 4.5 4.7 12.7 20.7 .3 .1 Part to family and part for self 2— ............ ......... 264 35.8 Spent for necessities________ .___________ Spent for luxuries_________________ ______ _ Spent for necessities and luxuries__________ Saved__________________________ ________ Saved and spent for necessities-----------------Saved and spent for luxuries-------- ------ -----Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. Saved and not specified____ ______________ Not specified-------------- ---------------------------- 10 40 81 11 25 37 58 1 1 1.4 5.4 11.0 1.5 3.4 5.0 7.9 .1 .1 All to family______________ _________________ No earnings and no cash earnings_____________ 22 11 3.0 1.5 Not reported____________________________________ 2 1 Earnings spent for necessities, luxuries, or both may include expenses of job. 2 Subsidiary items show disposition of part spent for self. A 13-year-old boy of Austrian parentage, one of three children under 16, said that he gave his entire weekly earnings, amounting to $2.25, to his family. The father was a foreman in a smelting plant, earning $1,910 a year. The family were buying their house, with a large vegetable garden, and raised chickens and ducks. The mother said that the object of the boy’*s work was to teach him to earn money. Although the great majority of the carriers gave no direct assist ance to their families, 60 per cent paid for some of their own neces sities, chiefly clothes, out of their earnings. It was customary also for the boys to keep some of their earnings for spending money; 71 per cent had at least part of their earnings to spend as they chose, including 29 boys who had all their earnings for pocket money. The families of 2 of these 29 boys were visited. One was a negro boy, earning 80 cents a week as a helper, whose father earned over $1,200 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 214 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K as a cook and whose aunt said of the boy, “ Money don’t do no good— he just throws it away” ; the other was the 13-year-old son of a Swedish father, earning $1,500 a year, who received 50 cents a week for helping on a route and spent it all on Boy Scout activities. Saving was popular among the carriers; 60 per cent reported sav ing some of their earnings, including 4 per cent who saved everything. Boys who had lost their fathers showed a greater tendency to help their families than those whose fathers were living, 54 per cent of the fatherless boys compared with 35 per cent of those with fathers reporting that they gave some of their earnings to help support their families. Carriers whose chief breadwinners earned less than $1,450 a year were apparently much more likely to contribute to the family support (though the numbers involved are too small to be more than suggestive) than those with chief breadwinners earning at least that sum. The differences in the manner of disposing of their earn ings between fatherless boys and boys with fathers and between the more prosperous and the less prosperous boys were in other respects slight, though the proportion of the earnings spent for the various items may have differed. Because the carrier most commonly spent his earnings in a variety of ways, the following examples of the use of earnings are presented as characteristic: A boy of Italian parentage earning 75 cents a week as a carrier’s helper had 10 cents a week for spending money, helped to buy his clothes, and gave the remainder to his mother for “ groceries and m eat.” A boy of 11, making $2.66 a week, had 50 cents for spending money and 10 cents for the school bank, the remainder being spent for clothes. A 14-year-old carrier earning $5 a week put $1 in bank, had 20 cents for candy and motion pictures, and gave the remainder to his mother for taxes and repairs on their house. An 11-year-old son of a publisher earned $2.15 a week on his route, out of which he paid $1 a week for.violin lessons, paid car fares on his job, had 10 cents a week for spending money, and had saved $95. H e had had his route for four years. A carrier who earned $2.04 a week put 50 cents in the school bank, bought some of his clothes, and was saving the remainder for a bicycle. A 15-year-old carrier of Russian-Jewish parentage earned $8.70 a week. H e spent $1 to $1.50 a week on his own pleasures, helped with necessities of his own, and saved the remainder. He had $300 in bank toward his college expenses. A boy of 12 who averaged $4.56 from his route paid for his clothes^ and his music lessons, had 50 cents for spending money, and paid car fares going after his papers. A motorman’s son, aged 13, earned $6 a week. H e spent $1.50 on fun, bought all his own clothes, and gave the remainder to his family. His parents did not like to have him do the work, but the money helped so much that they allowed him to continue. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, NEBR. 215 A 13-year-old carrier earning $2.70 a week paid his car fare to the substation, saved $1, had 25 cents for spending money, and had “ just paid 35 bucks’:’ for a suit in which to be confirmed. A boy who earned $4.62 a week carrying and selling papers paid all his per sonal expenses and had 25 to 50 cents a week spending money. A 15-year-old boy whose mother (a teacher) supported the family earned $6.83 a week. He put half his money in bank toward his college expenses, used one-fourth for clothing, and one-fourth for spending money. C A R R IE R S IN SC H O O L Attendance. One hundred and eight of the carriers (15 per cent) were high-school boys, but 415 (56 per cent) were in the sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. School-attendance records for 248 of the 279 carriers who had done street work during the school semester ended June, 1922, showed that the average percentage of attendance of the carriers was 93, about the same as that of newspaper sellers. (See p. 197.) Relatively as many carriers (15 per cent) as sellers had been absent from school 10 per cent or more of the semester. No connection between these boys' work and their long absences was apparent. Truancy. Nineteen carriers (3 per cent) had been reported to the truant officer during the school year 1922-23. The records were so brief that it was not clear even in all these cases whether or not the boy had been truant (for example, where the only record was “ lectured boy in school on poor attendance"), but the assumption is that most cases reported to the truant officer were cases of truancy. Progress and scholarship. Carriers' hours of work as a rule were long only on Saturdays and Sundays, so that it is easily conceivable that school work might not have been affected by their jobs. Carriers had made better than average progress in school. Only 19 per cent of those between 8 and 16 years of age were retarded (see footnote 38, p. 22), and 16 per cent were advanced, whereas 21 per cent of all the Omaha publicschool boys of the same ages were overage for their grades. Long hours of work apparently did not affect the carrier’s progress in school, for though 23 per cent of those working at least 12 hours a week were retarded and only 16 per cent of those working less than 12 hours were below normal grades for their ages, the former group contained a much larger proportion of t^he older boys, and the common tendency is for the proportion of retarded pupils to increase with their ages. Only 16 per cent of those who had had their routes at least two years were retarded, compared with 20 per cent of those who had worked less than two years; 22 per cent of the former group compared with 14 per cent of the latter were advanced. Those who had delivered papers for several years actually surpassed in their school progress those who had worked a comparatively short time. The carriers’ standing in school likewise indicates that they were a superior group. The following is a summary of the average standing (see footnote 73, p. 199) during the semester ended June, 1922, of the 75034°— 28------ 15 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 216 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK 245 carriers who had worked during the semester and for whom records could be found: Average grade Number of boys Total___________________ ___________ ___________ Per cent distribution 245 100 Less than 70______________________________________________ 6 70, less than 80_________ 69 80, less than 90____________________ 146 90 per cent or more_______________ 24 2 28 60 10 D E LIN Q U EN C Y A M O N G C A R R IE R S Only 12 of the Omaha carriers (2 per cent) had juvenile-court records, 8 of them after they had begun to carry papers. Of the 18 offenses reported, 12 were stealing, 3 truancy, and the remainder were miscellaneous. M A G A Z IN E SELLERS A N D C ARRIERS R A C E AN D N A TIO N A LITY OF F A T H E R S A N D A G E O F W O R K E R S Ninety-one boys and 1 girl sold magazines, and 13 boys carried magazines to subscribers’ houses. All were white children, and all except 25 of the 105 were of native parentage. Those whose fathers had not been born in the United States were, like the news paper carriers, chiefly of Scandinavian stock rather than from families of the more recent immigration. Only 1 of the children selling or carrying magazines was himself of foreign birth. These workers were a little younger than boys in most other types of street work. The average age of the boys was 10.9 years; the girl was 8. W O R K E XPE R IE N C E Very few of the children selling or carrying magazines did any other street work; 1 carried newspapers, 1 canvassed for newspaper subscriptions, 1 distributed handbills, and 1 peddled radio sets. A fairly large proportion (32 of the 104 boys) had previously done some street work other than that in which they were engaged at the time of the study; 18 had had newspaper routes, 16 had sold or peddled various articles, and 5 had sold newspapers. Magazine selling or carrying for most children appeared to be a job of short duration. The median length of time the Omaha children had been selling or carrying magazines was between four and six months. Only a few boys— 12 sellers and 7 carriers— had worked a year or longer. m ■ C O N D IT IO N S OF W O R K Most of the children sold or carried a popular weekly magazine or one of the well-known household magazines, or both, obtaining them through the local agency of the publishing company. The agent made a practice of going to grade schools about dismissal time and talking to boys as,they came out, showing them some of the premiums offered and otherwise trying to interest them in his proposition. Finally he would give each boy who would take them several of the magazines. In a few days he would send a letter to the boys inquiring about their progress and asking them either to send in the money for the magazines they had sold or to return them. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis O M AHA, N E B R . * 217 Each sale was worth a certain amount of cash or could be accredited toward a premium selected from a number of things that appeal to boys. Boys who sold were organized, in accordance with the company’s national system, into a salesmanship school or league with junior and senior salesmen, according to the number of sales of each magazine. The company promised a permanent position to boys who attained a specified degree of proficiency in selling. The magazines as a rule were sent out by truck to the salesmen’s own houses or to near-by drugstores, and the agent collected from the boys, giving them credit by the week or the month according to the type of magazine sold. Almost all the children (88 of the 105) did their selling or carrying in residential streets, many of them near home or school, but a few went down town to sell in business offices and in stores, in front of the larger office buildings, and before the grain-exchange building. Some of those who handled only monthly magazines worked only two or three days one or two weeks during the month. The ma jority, however, sold or carried a weekly magazine, most of them in addition to the monthly, working perhaps two or three afternoons a week after school, or, if they sold a monthly magazine also, working every week day one week a month and once or twice a week during the remainder of the month; but there was great variety in the number of days a week spent at the work. They worked only a few hours a week in all. Of the 104 boys, 90 were out selling or carrying magazines even in their busiest weeks less than 12 hours. The little girl sold only three hours a week. There is no demand for magazines in the early-morning hours, so that although a few of the boys went out to sell once or twice a week before going to school, in some cases in combination with afternoon selling, most of the boys did the work immediately after school. A few sold later than 6 o ’clock in the evening, including several who reported going out after dinner and selling until 8 or 9. E AR N IN G S The profit on the weekly magazines that the children most gen erally sold was from ^ to 2 cents a copy and on the monthly maga zines 4 cents a copy. The amounts earned were very small; 70 of the 104 boys made less than 50 cents a week, 44 less than 25 cents. Only 5 made as much as SI a week. The girl sold 10 magazines a month, averaging about 10 cents profit a week. A few children (9 of the 83 reporting) said that they took in a little in tips. All these were magazine sellers. 13 N E E D F O R E A R N IN G S Most of the children selling or carrying magazines could earn only such insignificant amounts that those whose families were hard pressed financially were not likely to select it as an occupation. Eighty-eight of the 104 boys and the girl (85 per cent of the group) came from homes in which both father and mother were living and the father supported the family, probably as large a proportion as & would be found among an unselected group (see p. 29). Judged by ™ the occupations of their fathers, the children selling or carrying magazines came from the more prosperous elements in the community. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 218 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK Relatively somewhat more of the boys’ fathers or other chief bread winners were professional men than among all the male workers of the city 20 years of age or over.81 Compared with less than onethird of the employed males in Omaha, more than half were in clerical positions, many of them of high grade, or in trade, of whom many were proprietors of considerable establishments. Very few magazine sellers or carriers came from the homes of unskilled laborers or even from those of mechanics and artisans. None of the families were reported as ever having received any charitable aid. The 11 families visited were probably typical of the entire group. In these families the annual earnings of the chief breadwinners averaged $2,229 for the year immediately preceding the study. The following accounts illustrate the extremes among them: A wholesale dealer in cigars and tobacco had an income from his business of about $5,000 a year. There were only two children in the family. The 11year-old boy earned 12 cents a week selling magazines for an hour and a half a week, except once a month when he sold for two hours. H e had been working for 4 ^ months and was saving all his earnings. His mother liked the work because it kept the boy busy and out of mischief, and the father approved because he felt that it was teaching his son business methods. H e insisted on the boy’s keeping careful accounts. A 13-year-old seller had seven younger brothers and sisters. The father, a native of Switzerland, was a machinist by trade, but had been injured at his work during the year and had been able to earn only $848 helping his brother in a real-estate office. T h e‘mother had earned $300 renting rooms in their 10-room house, which they owned.. The boy sold a monthly magazine an hour or two every day for a week or 10 days during the month, averaging a profit of 23 cents a week. His mother approved of his magazine work because it helped him to pass the time and to make a little extra money, some of which he used to help pay for his violin lessons. Probably more typical than either of these is the following: A stamp seller in the post office had a salary of $2,000 and owned the house in which he lived. The only child under 16 was a 10-year-old boy. He had been selling both weekly and monthly magazines for six months, working a little over nine hours a week in his busiest week and earning 28 cents a week. The boy’s mother said that he did not want the job, but she insisted on his doing it in order to give him some regular duty. R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K The largest number of magazine sellers and carriers (51) gave as their principal reason for beginning to work that they had been persuaded to try it by the agent of the publishing company, by letters from the company, or by advertisements in magazines. Compara tively few (31) had undertaken it chiefly because of the money or because they “ wanted something to do.” Only five had been im pelled by economic need at home. The others had started the work because their parents, brothers, or friends had urged them to do it. Several of the parents in the families visited said that they wished the boy to do the work because they believed it good training. All of them approved, except one mother who was indifferent, regarding it as “ merely a boy’s fad.” The local agent of the com pany publishing the magazines said that although the talks and lessons on salesmanship, which were part of the company’s program 81 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, pp. 1188-1189, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, NEBR. 219 with the boys, were rather above the heads of the younger children he thought they were of benefit to the older boys in helping them to meet the public and to learn the rudiments of salesmanship. D IS P O S IT IO N O F E A R N IN G S The most common way of using the money earned from magazine selling (reported by 26 boys) was for the child to save a little and spend the remainder as he pleased. Only 23 of the 104 boys used any of their earnings for necessities, either for themselves or for their families. The majority of these 23 helped only to buy some of their clothing or other personal necessities. The majority (62 of the 104) spent some of their money for their own pleasures and amusements-, including 17 who spent it all in this way. The girl seller and 23 boys saved all their money, and 36 other boys regularly saved a part of what they earned. A few other children were saving for some special object, such as a trip to the country or “ to buy a present for my mother.” SCH O OL ATTEN D AN CE AND PR O G R E SS Magazine selling and carrying among these children was of too unexacting a nature to affect their school life unfavorably. More over, only 19 of them (all boys) had sold or carried magazines for as long as a year. Only 15 had worked during a completed school year, and school records could be found for only 13 of these. The average percentage of attendance for these children for the year was 93 per cent, the same percentage as for newsboys. None of the 13 children selling or carrying magazines for whom school records could be found had less than a passing mark in his studies, and two had averages of 90 or higher. Of the 99 boys between 8 and 16 years old, 11 were overage or retarded, and 20 were in advanced grades for their ages. (See footnote 38, p. 22.) The proportion of retarded children was only about one-fourth that of the Omaha boys who sold newspapers on the streets and only about half as large as that of the boys with newspaper routes. The girl was in a normal grade for her age. TR U A N C Y A N D D E LIN Q U E N C Y The children who sold or carried magazines were not exposed by the conditions of their work to temptations or associations that might reasonably be suspected of contributing to delinquency. Two boys (2 per cent) had juvenile-court records, the offenses being theft. One of these boys, who had been before the court twice, had previ ously sold newspapers. None of the magazine carriers or sellers had truancy records. P E D D L E R S A N D M IS C E L L A N E O U S STR E E T W O R K E R S C H IL D R E N W O R K IN G F O R P R E M IU M S Included in the study was a group of 17 boys and 19 girls who were peddling or canvassing for prizes or premiums. Four boys were canvassing for newspaper or magazine subscriptions; the others sold or took orders for various articles obtained from out-of-town firms, generally garden seeds, perfume and sachet, or post cards. This group averaged 11 years of age; only 3 of the boys and 5 of the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 220 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK girls were over 12. They represented almost all social and economic classes; the occupations of the fathers ranged from laborers in pack ing houses to a treasurer of a corporation and a major in the Army, whose boy was working for a prize to give his mother. Eighteen of the 36 children had foreign-born fathers and 8 were negroes. M ost of these children had not been doing the work more than a month or two and had never done any other kind of street work. The majority went around from house to house in their own neighborhood several times a week, but others did the work only once or twice a week; a few worked so irregularly that they could give no account of their hours. On the other hand, a few were so zealous that they spent their after-school hours every day trying to find a market for thenwares. They seldon were out after 5 or 6 in the afternoon, and the majority worked less than six hours a week. O T H E R P E D D L E R S A N D M IS C E L L A N E O U S S T R E E T W O R K E R S Besides the boys and girls who canvassed or peddled for premiums were 67 other peddlers or canvassers and 30 children engaged in a miscellany of street occupations. Among these were six girls, all of whom were peddlers. Occupations, age, and work experience. Table 54 shows the occupations and ages of the boys in this group of workers. Only 7 of the 97 children were attempting to do more than one street job at the time of the study— one huckster and one junk collector also sold magazines, two of the other peddlers sold or carried magazines, one magazine-subscription canvasser peddled eggs, a junk dealer peddled seeds, and one bill distributor had a small newspaper route. T a b l e 54.— Occupation and age period, miscellaneous street-working boys, Omaha, Nebr. Boys 6 to 15 years of age Occupation Total Total............................... ...... .............. Huckster............................... .................. _ Other peddler or canvasser i ____ r________ Bill distributor.............................1______ Junk collector_____________ __________ Bootblack...................... ...................... Stand tender.................... .......................... ...... Under 10 years, 12 years, 14 years, 10 years under 12 under 14 under 16 91 14 22 13 48 11 11 5 3 1 10 1 2 1 12 4 2 2 i 33 22 16 10 1 Boys working for premiums are not included. A fairly large proportion, however (32 of the 97), had had other street-work experience— 5 bill distributors, 3 peddlers, 3 hucksters, and 1 junk collector had carried newspapers or magazines; 3 of the 5 bootblacks, 1 huckster, 3 junk collectors, and 8 peddlers had sold papers or magazines; 1 junk collector and 2 peddlers had “ huck stered,” 1 peddler had been a bootblack, 2 peddlers had distributed handbills, 1 bill distributor had peddled. Almost half of these street workers (45 boys) had held their jobs less than three months, but 32 of the 97 had worked at least a year, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, NEBR. 221 including some in each of the various occupations. One boy, for example, had distributed advertisements for four years, 1 had been collecting and selling junk for five years, a 12-year-old canvasser for magazine subscriptions had kept at his job since he was 8, a 13-yearold boy had been bootblacking from the age of 10, and 2 of the 3 stand tenders had worked at least three years. On the other hand, a large number, especially among the peddlers and the bill distributors, had been working only a month or two. Race and nationality of fathers. The majority of this group of workers were of native white parent age; 38 per cent had foreign-born fathers; and 8 per cent were negro children. Two of the 5 bootblacks were Italian, and 1 was a negro; 6 of the 11 junk collectors had foreign-born fathers (Poles, Italians, Serbians, and Rumanians), and 1 was a negro; and 16 of the 54 canvassers and peddlers were of various foreign stocks, and 3 were negroes. In some of the occupations children from immigrant families predominated; 2 of the 3 stand keepers were Italians, and 11 of the 13 hucksters were of Lithuanian, Bohemian, German, or Polish parentage. All the bill distributors were of native parentage, including 3 negro boys. Eight of the 97 workers had been born outside the United States— 4 peddlers, 2 junk collectors, 1 huckster, and 1 bootblack. Conditions of work. ^ ^ jÉ The hucksters were employed by men selling produce from wagons or pushcarts. Almost all of them worked only on Saturdays, but 2 boys worked after school several times a week, and 4 of the Saturday hucksters said that during school vacations they worked every day. For most of them the working-day was from 9 to 12 hours, for which $1 was the most common compensation, though several of the older boys made as much as $2 to $4. The other peddlers and canvassers worked under a great variety of conditions. Four boys solicited subscriptions for magazines or newspapers, working from V/v to 1 3 ^ hours a week and receiving amounts varying from 12 ^ cents to $3 a week, according to the number of subscriptions they succeeded in getting. Thirteen boys and 2 girls peddled articles made by their fathers or mothers or obtained through their parents. For example, a negro girl peddled cosmetics for which her mother had the local agency, 2 boys peddled soap that their fathers made, a little boy sold aprons and baby clothes made by his mother. Four boys sold candy and peanuts at the baseball park; 9 boys sold candy or pop corn; 1 boy accompanied a blind man selling brooms; 2 girls made and sold paper flowers; 1 boy peddled asparagus from his grandmother's garden; 1 peddled onions bought from a neighbor; another sold kindling wood which he collected; 10 boys sold articles obtained from out-of-town Anns, such as the children who were working for premiums sold, preferring to be paid in cash; and 6 boys and girls sold various articles (cheese, spices, and toilet goods) obtained from local firms. Most of these children sold on their own account, but a few were employed, chiefly by parents or relatives at a flat sum. The majority confined their activities to residential sections of the city, often near home or school, though 1 boy selling spices toured near-by rural sections on horseback. The 21 who sold in business streets included 8 of the 9 candy or pop-corn https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 222 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK sellers, who sold their wares in garages, in office buildings, and in front of down-town theaters. Although 18 of the 54 miscellaneous peddlers worked only 1 or 2 days a week, usually on a school day, 29 worked 5, 6, or, in the case of boys selling at the baseball park, 7 days. M ost of the children who sold candy and pop corn and 7 of the 15 selling some article for their own parents worked at least 5 days a week. The majority worked less than 12 hours a week, but 22 boys and girls worked 12 hours or more. The extremes were represented by a boy of 9 who had been selling candy, for a woman who made it, for half an hour on Wednesdays and a quarter of an hour on Saturdays for a month, and by a 13-year-old boy of Russian-Jewish parentage who for five years had sold candy down town and in office buildings 23 hours a week— from 2]/2 to 5 ^ hours on week days, staying out until 10 one night a week. Except for this boy, who was out until 7 three nights a week, and 5 others, the children always stopped selling about 5 or 6 in the afternoon. The others included a negro boy of 11 who went out after his supper from 7 to 9 to sell seeds; a pop-corn peddler of Italian parentage, 10 years of age, who was out from 7 to 9 every night and from 2 until 8.30 on Sunday evenings; a boy of 13 selling horse-radish for his father who worked from 3.30 to 7 every week day; and a girl of 13 who sold paper flowers up to 9 p. m. three nights a week. The majority (30) of the peddlers made at least $1 a week, 8 of them reporting their earnings as $5 or more, but 10 children earned less than 50 cents, and 5 of the 15 who worked for their parents received no pay for their work. Several of the boys made very large amounts. For example, the boy who sold candy in down-town offices averaged $18.90 a week, a pop-corn seller made $15.83, a boy who sold pop at the baseball grounds 7 days a week made $16.50. On the other hand most of the children peddling such articles as post cards and seeds made only small amounts. The handbill distributors were employed by theaters, drug stores, creameries, and other business and manufacturing establishments. Although a few of them worked three or four times a week, once or twice was more common, some of them going on their rounds after school, others on Saturdays. Rarely was any boy out distributing bills after 6 p. m., and none of them worked early in the morning. The majority spent less than six hours a week distributing their bills, some of them as little as one or two hours. About half of them were paid by the piece— a specified amount for every 1,000 circulars delivered— or by the hour, but a few were employed for a flat sum. Four boys received no money for their services, being paid in theater tickets, or, in the case of a boy who worked for a dairy com pany, in milk and cheese. The earnings varied considerably; 2 reported earnings of more than $5 a week, 3 had made from $1 to $2, and 2 had made between 50 cents and $1. Most of the junk collectors confined their work to one to three days a week, but several went around the streets and down-town alleys every day collecting rags, old metal, bottles, and anything that they could find to dispose of. One of these, an 11-year-old Italian boy, whose father corroborated his statement that he had been collecting and selling junk ever since he was 6 years old, found lumber yards particularly profitable. “ Sometimes,” he said, “ I https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ^ ^ m OMAHA, NEBK. 223 collect four or five whisky bottles a night from behind piles of lumber where men go to drink.” The majority worked at least 6 hours a week, and one spent several hours every week day and half an hour on Sundays, a total of 20 hours a week, collecting and sorting his junk. The collections were generally disposed of to junkmen, but two Polish boys, who prowled around behind hotels, wholesale houses, and stores looking for bottles, said that they sold them to poolroom keepers and bootleggers, and another disposed of his to a man who made furniture polish. The most common amount earned was about $1 a week, but five boys averaged less, the minimum being 25 cents, and one boy made $2.50. All the bootblacks worked down town, generally in front of hotels or at the railroad stations. Three of the five worked every week day, the others only twice a week. One worked until 8 p .m . every week day, one until 8 and one until 9 on Saturday nights, but the others always stopped not later than 6.30. All except one worked more than 12 hours a week and a 14-year-old boy worked 25 hours, 3 hours on each school day and 10 on Saturdays. They all worked on their own account and averaged earnings of $1.75 to $9.50 a week, including tips. Of the three stand keepers, one sold fruit at his father’s down-town stand, another sold lemonade and pop at his father’s stand on a down-town corner, and the other sold pop corn at a stand operated by his grandfather. One worked six days a week, and another (the pop-corn seller) worked every day including Sundays, the one 18, the other 15 hours. The third worked on Saturdays for 8k£ hours. The fruit-stand tender, a 14-year-old boy, who had been doing this work for four years, sold at the stand from 4 to 7 every Week-day morning. The others stopped selling at 5 or 6 in the afternoon. Two of them were paid a flat sum a week for their work, but the fruit-stand tender received no pay. Need for earnings. The proportion of these workers (75 per cent) coming from homes in which both parents were present and the father supported the family was a little smaller than that for newspaper-route carriers, considerably smaller than that for children who sold or carried magazines, and a little larger than that for boys who sold papers. (See pp. 189, 210, 212.) The mothers of 6 of the 97 children were the chief breadwinners in their families, and 23 other mothers an unusually large proportion (see p. 210), were gainfully employed, not including those who may have kept boarders or lodgers to sup plement the income. These workers came from many different types of home. Their fathers were clergymen, peddlers, salesmen, coal dealers, painters, carpenters, bookkeepers, druggists, janitors, teamsters and truck drivers, barbers, bakers, laborers in the packing houses, firemen, watchmen, elevator operators, lawyers, detectives, garage owners. The number of chief breadwinners in trade and in professional occupations was relatively the same as for all employed males 20 years and over in the city,82 but more than twice as many chief breadwinners were in domestic and personal service, only a little less than one-third as many were in clerical occupations, a somewhat © Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, pp. 1188-1189. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 224 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K larger proportion were in occupations classified as transportation (chiefly teamsters, drivers, and railroad laborers), and somewhat fewer were in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, owing largely to the few skilled mechanics and artisans whose children did this kind of work. The chief breadwinner’s annual earnings for the year were reported for 24 of the 27 families visited. These had averaged $1,379, and the average size of these families was 6.3. This amount is larger than that reported by the families of Omaha newsboys but smaller than the chief breadwinners’ earnings in the families of route carriers and much smaller than in those of the children who sold or carried magazines. Of the 97 children 2 were in families which were reported as having received assistance from the Associated Charities during the year immediately preceding the study, and 8 others were members of families which had been aided prior to that time. The mother or father in 7 of the 27 families visited said that the child’s earnings from his street work were needed to help support the family. An extreme case of need was that of an Italian family with three children in which the father had deserted. The family was supported almost entirely upon the $6 or $7 a week earned by the 12-year-old boy selling candy bars and ice cream. Reasons for undertaking street work. A small proportion (13 of the 97 children) had begun street work because their families needed the money that they could earn. The reason for beginning most commonly given was the desire to earn money; 28 children, not including the 13 who claimed family need, gave this reason. To help their parents or because their parents wished it was the reason given by 16 children for undertaking a street job, and 22 others had been influenced chiefly by seeing other children at work or by their own desire to be working or busy. The others gave miscellaneous reasons. Disposition of earnings. Of the 84 children receiving pay in cash and reporting the way in which they spent their earnings, 12 (14 per cent) used all their money for family expenses or clothing, or both. Thirty others used part of their money to assist their families, and 37 used a part for clothes or for other personal necessities. Almost half (38) saved a portion of their earnings, including 8 children who saved all that they earned. In addition 2 children were keeping all their money until they should have enough for a trip or some other special purpose. The majority (56) had some of their earnings for spending money, including 6 children who spent all they earned on their own pleasure. School attendance and progress. The peddlers and miscellaneous street workers had made some what better progress in school than newspaper sellers, but their progress compares unfavorably with that of both newspaper carriers and the children who «carried or sold magazines. Of the 93 between 8 and 16 years of age, 32 (34 per cent) were below normal grades for their ages. (See footnote 38, p. 22.) Only 31 of these workers had been working long enough to be included in the school-record study, and for 7 of these no records could be found. The average percentage of attendance for the re https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis OMAHA, N EBR. 225 maining 24 children was 93, the same as that for children in each group of street workers. Of the 24, 2 junk collectors had failed to make a passing grade in their studies m the last completed school year, but only 1 child, a boy who helped a blind man sell brooms, had made an average of 90 or higher. Truancy and delinquency. An examination of the truant officer’s record showed that 7 boys (8 per cent) had been reported, apparently for truancy, during the school year in which the study was made, though in one case the report was not found. The 7 included a huckster, a bill distributor, a stand tender, a peddler, a bootblack, and 2 junk collectors. The stand tender worked from 4 to 7 every morning, but no apparent connection, even an indirect one, between their work and truancy could be traced in the other cases. Juvenile-court records were found for 6 (3 peddlers, 2 junk collec tors, and 1 bill distributor) of the 91 boys, 1 of whom was dismissed after a hearing. Of the 5 others (5 per cent of the boys) 2 had not begun street work at the time of their appearance in court. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis WILKES-BARRE, PA. IN T R O D U C T IO N Wiikes-Barre is in northeastern Pennsylvania in one of the princi pal fields of the anthracite region. It is therefore an “ anthracite town, as the collieries along the river bear witness. But with its iron, steel, and textile mills it is an important manufacturing city also, and m addition is the retail trading and banking center for a large population concentrated within a comparatively small radius. About one-fifth of the male workers of Wilkes-Barre proper are employed m mining; but this does not indicate the full extent to which toe city is influenced by the mining industry, for surrounding WilkesBarre are numerous small settlements, known as “ the boroughs ” many of which consist entirely of miners’ cottages clustered about’ a colliery.' More than one-third of the male workers of Wilkes-Barre are engaged m manufacturing, however, chiefly in the iron and steel industry. About one-third of the women workers are factory opera tives, chiefly m the silk mills, where many 14 and 15 year old bovs and girls, especially the latter, also find employment.83 Settled many years before the Revolution by New Englanders chiefly from Connecticut, Wilkes-Barre still has its “ old families ’’ but the native population of native parentage forms less than twofattos ol the total. Of a population of 73,833, 14,567 are of foreign birth and 30,000 others are of foreign stock. The earlier Ens;lishspeakmg immigrants— Engflsh, Welsh, and Irish— who between 1840 and 1880 worked most of the mines have been largely displaced by Poles and by natives of southern and eastern Europe. According to the United States Census of 1920, Poles constituted one-fifth of the foreign-bom population of the city, and Poles and Lithuanians together constituted one-fourth. The only other immigrants of whom there were 1,000 or more in 1920 were, in the order of their THsh6™ ^ unPor^ance> Welsh, Germans, Russians, Engflsh, and The commercial life of the city centers about the Public Sciuare a 4-acre park into which run the main business streets. The square is surrounded by stores and shops, moving-picture houses, restaurants, and cafeterias and within a few minutes’ walk are the principal hotels and banks and the railroad stations. It is the starting place the b o ro ijh s1* meS ^ worker. w busses gomg to a11 parts of the citJ 911(1 to sq£ arG ls ^ f^PPy bunting ground for the young street Before school in the morning, after school until long after L K o r i m ™ ° f the UDited Stat6S’ lfi20’ VoL I V >Population, Occupations, pp. 331-335,472,688. J9« Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. I ll, Population, pp. 867, 884, 886. 226 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Washington, W IL K E S-B A R R E , PA. 227 dark, and all day Saturday, scores of boys hawk their papers there— so many, in .fact, as to cause one small boy to observe “ Business don’t go good— too many sellin’.” The bootblack with his kit over his shoulders, who has all but disappeared from the American scene, also haunts the Public Square in Wilkes-Barre, chiefly, however, on Saturday. On Saturday afternoons and evenings, even in the late fall and in winter, the square and the adjoining streets are thronged with people, and the street cars coming in from the boroughs disgorge ever-increasing crowds up to a late hour. There is a holiday spirit abroad. The stores are open until half-past nine, the theaters are brilliantly lighted, with crowds continuously coming out and going in, the pop-corn and peanut vendors do a lively business, and the hot-chestnut stand whistles and hisses invitingly. The benches are filled with young men and their sweethearts in their best clothes, and boys, but yesterday grown up, rove about in noisy groups seeking what amusement there is to be had. With the crowds, the lights, the noise, and the excitement, it is small wonder that the little news boys and bootblacks, linger as long as they dare. Eleven o’clock comes before they know it, and it is midnight before some take a reluctant leave, though their fathers may “ holler” at them and their mothers may threaten to lock them out if they do not come home earlier. It was reported to the Children’s Bureau by school officials, social workers, and others that many of the boys selling newspapers or shining shoes on Wilkes-Barre streets came into the city from the boroughs and that the juvenile street trading problem in WilkesBarre was complicated by the fact that the school authorities had no 'm- jurisdiction over these boys even when they were found at work during school hours, the boroughs being politically separate units from Wilkes-Barre proper. Several of the boroughs directly adjoined the city limits, separated from Wilkes-Barre only by railroad tracks; others, though lying on the other side of the Susquehanna River, or several miles distant from the center of the city, with open fields and country between, were within half an hour’s ride on the trolley, so that for many boys it would have been easy enough to come down to the square to sell or shine. In order to ascertain to what extent this very prevalent impression was correct, the Children’s Bureau agent interviewed children reporting street work in the public and parochial schools of seven of the boroughs nearest to the city: Wilkes-Barre Township, Kingston (including Dorrancetown and Westmoor), Ashley, Edwardsville, Parsons, Plains (including Midvale), and Hanover Township. Of the 339 street workers located in these boroughs, 247 were newspaper carriers, almost all in their own boroughs; of the remaining 92, 67 (of whom 52 were from Plains and Kingston) said that they went over to Wilkes-Barre to work— 30 were newsboys, 30 were bootblacks, 4 had paper routes, and 3 did other street work. Thus, of the 302 newsboys and bootblacks in Wilkes-Barre and the neighboring boroughs who worked in WilkesBarre, 20 per cent came from the boroughs. The 339 street workers living in the boroughs have not been included in the tabulations for ^ Wilkes-Barre. % The Children’s Bureau study was made in October, November, and December, 1922. In January, 1927, a representative of the Children’s Bureau visited Wilkes-Barre in order to learn in what https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 228 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K respects conditions in regard to juvenile street work had changed since the survey was made. The chief attendance officer of the public schools, the director of the United Charities, and the director of the Young M en’s Christian Association, which maintains a newsboys’ club, were emphatic in their assertions that conditions were the same as at the time of the study, with thé exception (noted by the chief attendance officer) of a decline in the number of bootblacks on the streets. This was believed to have resulted from an increase in indoor bootblacking stands. The chief attendance officer said that no special attempt was being made and that none had been made by his department to enforce the street-trades regulations of the State child labor law (see below), as the staff of the department was too small to undertake the responsibility. Members of the civic committee of the local women’s club, who were interviewed because it was learned that the committee was planning activities directed toward better enforcement of the street trades law, reported that the presence of very young children selling papers on the streets and selling late at night had become increasingly noticeable. The Children’s Bureau agent saw newsboys who looked as young as 5 or 6 in the streets around the square, at hotel entrances, and in restaurants, and, although the weather was unusually cold, many small boys were selling papers on the streets up to 7.30 or 8. This was a Monday night, and Saturday-night hours were said to be much later than hours on other nights, just as they were when the study was made. The statistics presented in the report are those collected in 1922. Table 1 (p. 8) shows the number of boys in each kind of street work who reported that they were working at the time the inquiry was made and who had done street work for at least one month during the year preceding the interview. (For details in regard to the selec tion of the children included in the survey see p. 5.) • LEGAL REGULATION OF STREET WORK Wilkes-Barre had no local ordinance regulating street trades. The street trades law of Pennsylvania, which was state-wide in its application, provided as follows : No male minor under 12 years of age, and no female minor, shall distribute, sen, expose, or offer for sale any newspaper, magazine, periodical, or other publi cation, or any article of merchandise of any sort, in any street or public place. N o male minor under 14 years of age, and no female minor, shall be suffered, em ployed, or permitted to work at any time as a scavenger, bootblack, or in any other trade or occupation performed in any street or public place. N o male minor under 16 years of age, and no female minor, shall engage in any occupation mentioned in this section before 6 o’clock in the morning, or after 8 o’ clock in the evening, of any day.85 If the law had been enforced the majority of the newsboys in Wilkes-Barre would not have been on the streets at all. But the law required no permit or badge, without which enforcement is practically impossible (see p. 53); it also made enforcement the joint responsi bility of the school-attendance officers, inspectors of the State depart ment of labor and industry, and the police, with the result common in cases of divided responsibility that the law was practically un88 Pa., Acts of 1915, P. L. 286. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 229 W IL K E S -B A R R E , PA. heeded,86 and it failed to penalize the newspaper distributor for fur nishing papers to minors under the legal age. The law was ambiguous as to whether it applied to bootblacks working on their own account. NEWSPAPER SELLERS, BOOTBLACKS, AND MISCELLANEOUS STREET WORKERS Table 55 shows the number of newsboys, bootblacks, and boys engaged in other street work.87 The miscellaneous group consisted of 17 peddlers, 16 magazine carriers, 7 handbill distributors, 3 boys delivering newspapers to subscribers whose regular carriers had failed to leave the papers, 3 magazine sellers, 1 boy operating a peanut stand, and 1 boy carrying travelers’ handbags. RACE AND NATIONALITY OF FATHERS With the exception of 13 newsboys, 6 bootblacks, and 2 in other street work, the street workers of Wilkes-Barre were American born. The great majority of the newsboys and almost all the bootblacks, however, were the children of immigrants,, about one-fourth of each being Polish, and close to one-third of the bootblacks being Lithu anian, with Italians and Russians fairly well represented among the bootblacks, and Italians, Russians, and Russian Jews among the newsboys. (Table 55.) Among those who made up the miscellane ous group of street workers most of the peddlers were immigrants’ children, but the magazine sellers and carriers and the handbill distributors were chiefly of native stock. T able 5 5 .— R a c e and nationality of father; boys engaged in certain types of street work, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. B o y s from 6 t o 15 years of age N ew sp ap er sellers B o o tb la ck s R a c e and n a tion a lity o f father O thers 1 N um ber P er cent distri b u tio n N um ber 167 100.0 75 100.0 48 166 99.4 75 100.0 48 20 133 12.0 79.6 4 69 5.3 92.0 29 16 P o lis h ________ L ith u a n ia n _______ _____ Italia n _______ R u s sia n . ________ R ussian J e w i s h ____ O ther J ew ish _________________________________ O ther foreign b o rn and foreign b o rn not otherw ise specified __________________________ 41 14 21 3 13 6 24.6 8.4 12. 6 1.8 7.8 3.6 20 23 3 7 26.7 30.7 4.0 9.3 3 1 3 35 21.0 16 21.3 9 N a tiv it y n ot r e p o r te d . ................................................. 13 7.8 2 2.7 3 1 .6 T o t a l______________________ _____ ______ ____ W h it e ..................................... .. N a tiv e __________ F oreign b o r n . .......................................................... N e g r o ................................................................................. P er cent distri b u tio n 1 P er cen t d istrib u tion n o t sh ow n w h ere base is less th a n 50. 86 A s a result o f a ch ild -la bor con ference held u n d er th e auspices o f th e State dep a rtm en t o f la b o r and in d u s try and the State dep artm en t o f p u b lic in stru ction in A p ril, 1926, w h ere it w as re com m en d ed that to con serve the best interests o f the w o rk in g ch ildren the local school officials s h ou ld tak e th e r e s p on sib ility of enforcing th e street trades la w , an official co m m u n ica tio n urging sch ool officials t o un dertake this w ork w as transm itted b y th e su p erintendent o f p u b lic in stru ction to th e local school superintendents throu gh the P en n sylva n ia S chool Journal for June, 1926 (v o l. 74, N o . 10), p . 662. 87 O ne girl s old paper flow ers, a 10-year-old ch ild o f n a tive w h ite parentage, w h ose m oth er, a w id o w , m ade th e flowers th at she sold . She w o r k e d four hours a w eek o n S aturdays and h a d been w o rk in g tw o m on th s. T h is girl is not in clu d ed in th e tables. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 230 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K AGE OF W ORKERS The newsboys were the youngest of the Wilkes-Barre street workers. (Table 2, p. 9.) About one-fifth were under 10 years of age, and about one-half were under 12. Almost equally popular ages for selling papers appeared to be 10, 11, 12, and 13, but comparatively few newsboys were 14 or older. The bootblacks, peddlers, and other street workers were not so likely as newsboys to ply their trades before they were 10 years old, but they, too, seldom continued at them after reaching the age of 14. The newsboys themselves believed that small boys made the best sales. (But see p. 242.) “ M y little brother sells m ore/’ said one, himself only 11 years old, “ because people think he is cute,” and a 9-year-old newcomer in the field declared that he had first gone with an older brother “ for fun,” but that when he came home “ my brother says to my mother, ‘ He’s sellin’ ahead of m e/ and I went back.” The fact that many of the newsboys, peddlers, and bootblacks were from families in which it was the custom for the boys to leave school for regular work as soon as the law allowed accounts in large measure for the falling off in their ranks after the age of 14. W O R K EXPERIENCE Many of the boys had had considerable experience in street work. Forty-four per cent had had from one to five or more other street jobs than the one at which they were working at the time of the study. At the time of the interview 19 of the newsboys did bootblacking, and 3 some other kind of street work; 12 of the bootblacks also sold papers, and 1 carried traveling bags; and 5 of the other street workers had some other street job, generally selling papers or bootblacking. A few boys (25) had some other work in addition to their street jobs, such as delivering merchandise, cleaning offices or stores, caddying, helping in newspaper offices, or bootblacking at indoor stands. About one-fifth of all the boys had had some work experience other than street work, the majority in one job. Possibly many boys try selling papers or shining shoes and finding that they are not attracted by the work, or are not successful in it, give it up after a few weeks. As the Children’s Bureau study in cluded none who had not worked at least one month, such transient workers are not represented. Three-fifths of the newsboys had held the street jobs that they held when interviewed at least one year, two-fifths for at least two years, and one-fifth for at least three years. (Table 56.) A few had worked for five or six years or longer. Boot blacks had had a somewhat longer experience in street work than newsboys. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 231 W IL K E S -B A R R E , P A , T a b l e 56.— Previous duration of job held at date of interview, by age period; news paper sellers and bootblacks, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. B o y s from 6 t o 15 years o f age 10 years, u n der 12 T o ta l P revious du ration o f jo b h eld at date o f in terview 12 years, u n d e r 14 14 U nder A ge years, P er 10 P er P er n o t re u n der p o rte d 1 N u m cent y e a r s 1 N u m cent N u m cent 16 i dis dis dis ber ber ber trib u tribu trib u tio n tion tion NEWSPAPER SELLERS T o t a l........................................................ 167 35 52 165 100.0 34 51 100.0 55 100.0 23 66 40.0 21 20 39.2 17 30.9 7 1 L ess th an 6 m o n th s ...................... . 54 32.7 18 17 33.3 13 23.6 5 1 Less th an 2 m o n t h s .............. 2 m on th s, less than 4 _______ 4 m on th s, less th an 6________ 23 25 6 13.9 15.2 3.6 7 8 3 8 9 15.7 17.6 4 6 3 7.3 10.9 5.5 3 2 1 T o ta l rep orted _________________ L ess th an 1 y e a r .______________ 55 23 6 m on th s ,less than 1 y e a r . . ......... 12 7.3 3 3 5.9 4 7.3 1 year, less than 2 ..... .............. .. . . . 2 years, less th an 3 .................................. 3 years a n d o v e r _______ _____ _____ 32 32 35 19.4 19.4 21.2 6 6 1 9 11 11 17.6 21. 6 21.6 14 11 13 25 5 1 1 2 .0 N o t re p o r te d ______________________ 2 20 O 23! 6 0 2 2 3 4 9 1 BOOTBLACKS T o t a l_____________________________ 75 100. 0 7 28 28 24 32. 0 5 11 5 L ess th a n 6 m o n t h s ................................ 20 26.7 4 9 4 L ess th an 2 m on th s ........................ 2 m on th s, less th a n 4 ___ 4 m on th s, less th an 6 ..................... 5 10 5 6.7 13.3 6.7 i 1 3 3 5 1 4 • 5.3 1 2 1 12 19 20 16.0 25.3 26. 7 1 1 5 8 4 3 8 12 Less th an 1 yea r________________ 6 m on th s, less th an 1 y e a r____ 1 year, less th an 2 .............................. 2 years, less th an 3..................... 3 years a n d o v e r ____________ i1 10 1 1 1 3 1 P er cen t d istrib u tion n o t sh o w n w h ere base is less th an 50. The most common age among the Wilkes-Barre boys for beginning street work was 9, and the next most common ages, 8 and 10 years. Only 18 per cent had begun when they were as old as 12, and only 3 per cent (10 boys), when they were 14 or 15 years of age. CONDITIONS OF W ORK Organization of newspaper distribution. Wilkes-Barre had two evening newspapers, one morning daily, and two Sunday papers, besides a number of foreign-language papers. Most of the newsboys sold one of the evening papers, a few sold the other evening paper, either as their only stock or as one of several, and fewer still sold the morning paper. The foreignlanguage papers were delivered to subscribers either by mail or by carriers. Only the Sunday papers— both the local ones and the Sunday editions of New York, Philadelphia, Scranton, and other 75034°— 28------- 16 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 232 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K out-of-town papers— vied in popularity among the boys with the evening paper that the majority of them sold. As a small city Wilkes-Barre escaped many of the distribution problems that have been found to react unfavorably on the news boys m larger cities. The intense and.often bitter competition that tne existence of rival newspapers creates was lacking, there was no assigning of boys to special locations, no struggle for desirable corners, dther by purchase or by force, no special privileges were to be had, and therefore there was no occasion to pay or bribe supply men for privileges, and no substations or branch offices existed such as are necessary m large cities, sometimes in questionable parts of t * e c ity or under the supervision of unsuitable persons. i hree men handled the distribution of all the papers that had anything more than negligible street sales. One of these was the distribution agent for both the principal evening paper and one of the local ounday papers, another handled the distribution of the morning paper, and the third was the agent for out-of-town papers and the other local Sunday paper. This third agent was a middle-aged man with a family, who was said by one of the Wilkes-Barre social workers to have good control over the boys who sold for him. The other two were younger men, but they had been in the employ of their respective papers for some years. No complaint of any kind was made of i ° f , theSeime^ ky either boys or others in discussing street work from the angle of newspaper distribution. Some older men and boys sold papers on the streets, chiefly editions issued during the day y°^nger newsboys were in school, and newsboys came into httie contact with them. The one regular street news stand, the permit for which had been granted only after the passage of a special ordinance, was conducted by a cripple, who according to his own story, had begun to peddle at the age of 12, -peddled cheap jewelry up one side of the Hudson and down the other,” had spent several yearn on the Bowery m New York, and had known “ the racing gang at Saratoga. He was apparently well thought of in th e'com munity, which had given him a wheel chair in which to go to and from his news stand. The boys were obliged to call for the local daily papers at the main offices down town and at the agent’s office down town for out-oftown and Sunday papers. The distributing rooms varied in size and character from a good-sized cheerful office room entered from the street to a rather dark and dingy basement with an alley entrance. One of these was the paper that most of the boys sold. The boys selling this paper collected as soon as school was over m order to get good numbers for t e line-up, and as the distributing hour drew near the room was overflowing with boys, who were crowded out of the basement into the open spaces and the alley behind the building. The boys waiting lor the paper to come from press were in a continual hubbub, jostling, L ° r gl Sh0U ^ g h m g , and calling to each other, but according to the boys themselves there was “ hardly any fighting.” Pennv f ap games, however, were carried on in the distributing alleys, though one of the newspaper managers declared that the -w f round of these alleys at distribution time and had the boys pretty well scared so that they did not do much penny shooting. Whether the amount of petty gambling that went https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis W IL K E S-B A R R E , P A. 233 on in the alleys was more or less than is indulged in by schoolboys of a similar type in general is open to question. Certainly school boys were sometimes seen “ pitching pennies” on the vacant lots around the city. But as has been pointed out in other reports on the subject of street trades, the fact that the newsboy usually has more money in his pocket than the average nonearning boy gives him more opportunity to indulge in this form of excitement. As soon as the boys received their papers they rushed out to the square or its adjacent streets to begin selling. They had no occasion to return to the office after they had sold their papers, for cash payment was the rule for the daily papers. Newsboys did not sleep or spend the night at the newspaper offices or in the alleys, but some boys spent Saturday night at the office of the distributing agent for the Sunday papers. According to the agent these boys were all “ inserters” (that is, boys who put the “ mains” or news sections, “ seconds,” or editorials, and the magazine sections into the “ comics” ), but a few street sellers said that they spent Saturday nights at the agent’s in order to get their Sunday papers early, and several were found to be staying there who were not engaged in inserting. A representative of the Children’s Bureau with the consent of the newspaper agent spent one Saturday night in this distributing room. Besides the newspaper agent in charge, two men were directing the work, and a group of seven young men (about 20 years old) were inserting. Some of the inserters were clerks working for extra money, but others had no regular employ ment. In addition to the men three boys inserted. At 1.30 a. m. six boys were spending the night, and some came in later. The night’s work started about 2 a. m., when out-of-town papers were brought from the train, and the men and boys began to insert and to make up orders. While the work was in progress much joking was carried on and swearing was common, but no vulgar or immoral conversation was heard. No one attempted to sleep during the night, but about 7.30 a. m. two boys around 10 years of age were seen curled up asleep on some old bags. Carriers and newsboys began to arrive before 6 o’clock, and shortly after 6 these left with their wagonloads of papers. M ost of the boys who spent the night said that they went to sleep as soon as they reached home or “ slept all Sunday after noon.” Street life. All except eight of the newsboys and two of the bootblacks worked down town in the business district, chiefly in and around the Public Square, though a number of boys sold papers or did shoe shining up and down a tawdry business street on which were located many of the poolrooms of the city. The eight newsboys selling in residential streets sold only on Saturday or Sunday, and the two bootblacks worked only once a week. The boys who really made a business of street work, and many who may have used the street work chiefly as an escape to freedom and adventure, went down town. The square was no doubt a fascinating place to the boys, both day and night (see p. 226). As an 8-year-old newsboy said, “ M y brothers learned me. It’s good a-goin’ sellin’, they says.” Although some of the boys had no time between sales or between shines to play, no one watching them, especially on Saturdays, when the square was alive https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 234 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K with small boys, could fail to see that for many the life of the square satisfied their instinct for play, companionship, and continual change and excitement. The newsboy and bootblack are supervised only by the public, but, though the public which employs them generally takes but little responsibility for them, in a place like the WilkesBarre Public Square this supervision affords the boys the maximum amount of safety of which it is capable. Even so, parents and others expressed their fear and disapproval of the associations that the boys made on the streets and the bad habits that they formed. Among; parents whose children worked on the streets such remarks as “ They learn bad habits, climb street cars, and hear bad language,” “ They get in with bad boys who steal,” “ It makes the boy dishonest,” “ He learns to steal and smoke,” “ There are bad boys among the newsboys,” “ It gets them into mischief,” were very common. Parents of boys mother street work than selling papers (for example, those whose sons had regular newspaper routes or carried magazines or distributed handbills) frequently expressed the opinion that while they approved of the work their boys were doing they were much opposed to selling papers because of the street influences. A police man whose boy carried an evening paper said that the boys on the streets learned too much that was not good for them. A mother whose 14-year-old boy distributed handbills for a grocer once or twice a week said when asked if she would like to have her boy sell on the down-town streets, “ Not nohow, I ’d rather go out myself.” A Polish father would not let his boy sell. “ Boys get spoiled down town— too much bumming around,” he said, and others made such remarks as “ They learn to steal on the streets,”. “ Selling on the square makes boys too bold,” or “ It makes them little bums.” Many newsboys and bootblacks worked around hotels and in and outside of poolrooms. The chief of police reported that several poolroom owners had asked him to keep boys out of their establish ments and that when they went in they did not stay long. An Italian priest told of a poolroom owner who had asked his advice in regard to a newsboy who he said used to come to the poolroom every night and stay until after 2 o ’clock in the morning, when he “ chased him out.” The same priest told also of finding two other boys, members of his parish, selling newspapers in the doorway of a dis reputable hotel, and of their carrying notes for women in the hotel. The boys were attracted by the lights and warmth of the poolrooms, particularly on cold nights. “ Drunks ” were considered fair prey; one boy explaining the profitableness of late hours on Saturday night, said that bootblacks got “ lots of shines from drunks.” A bad feature of street life for some of the boys was their irregular meals. Some never ate supper, others had no supper on Saturdays, when they were down town all day until late in the evening. More, however, bought a meal on the square. They bought such food as boys would be likely to buy; “ hot dogs and coffee,” or “ hot dogs, coffee, and pie ” were almost universally favorite meals, though “ pretzels or stale cakes ” or “ hot dogs, candy, or soda ” were indulged in. “ I get six pieces of bread, coffee, and hot dogs for 20 cents,” said an 11-year-old bootblack speaking of his Saturday lunch. But though most of those who bought meals down town bought only their Saturday supper or lunch, some boys had their evening meal down town several times a week or every night. An 11-year-old https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis x W W IL K E S -B A R R E , P A. 235 boy who sold newspapers every night, usually until 8 or later, had no' regular supper, but bought “ a nickel’s worth of cakes ” when he felt hungry. • A 13-year-old bootblack shining shoes inside barber shops1 ' down town until 8 o ’clock on school nights and 12 o ’clock on Satur days bought “ cakes for about 10 cents a day. It is easier to do that than to go home.” No doubt the excitement of selling often dulls the pangs of hunger or completely takes away the appetite. A. newsboy who bought his supper down town on Saturday night said that he did not want anything to eat after he got home other nights. Another 12-year-old newsboy who was out selling until 8, 9, 10, and 11 on school nights said that he never ate more than one meal a day, though he “ sometimes bought hot dogs.” Some boys took a lunch in their blacking box or had their meals brought down by their sisters or younger brothers. Many of the boys who had their meals at home had to eat alone, usually a cold supper, though some mothers “ kept it hot.” An 8-year-old newsboy who sold until 9 every school night and who looked sleepy and tired said that he ate his supper after he got home, and studied his lessons, spelling and arithmetic, after that. . Some of the newsboys selling mornmg papers sold papers several hours before having anything to eat, and a few ate no breakfast. A 10-year-old Italian boy said, “ Sometimes I don t have any break fast and sometimes I get it myself” ; and another, aged 12, who rose every morning about 3.30 and sold papers until 8 and who had been selling papers since he was 5 years of age said that he went to school without breakfast if he got “ stuck with his papers. It was reported that boys going into cafés to sell would be offered tarsomething to eat by the patrons. “ Hey, kid, want a piece o’ pie? they would be asked. “ Why, a lot of boys, declared the news stand keeper, “ get fed better down here than at home.” This was undoubtedly true in some cases. In regard also to the popularity of coffee among these boys it should be remembered that most of them came from homes where it was customary for children as well as adults to drink as much coffee as they liked; on the other hand, the effort to keep alert and energetic up to a late hour on empty stomachs or nourished only by u &few pretzels?? probably increased the temptation to indulge in excessive coffee drinking. REGULARITY OP W ORK Half the newsboys (86) sold papers at least five school days and Saturday, including 10 who sold every day in the week. Saturday was the great day for bootblacks. Half of them worked only on Saturday, and only 3 did not work on Saturday. However, 15 bootblacks worked at least three school days m addition in most cases to Saturday and in a few cases to Sunday; and 22 worked one or two school days in addition generally to Saturday, or more rarefy, to Sunday. The majority of the boys in the miscellaneous group of street workers worked only once or twice a week,^ generally after school; some, most of whom were peddlers, worked m the mornmg, generally only on Saturday. . HOURS OF W ORK ■ M ost of the boys selling the daily morning paper (11 of the 19) began working before 5 a. m. The papers were not given out until 4.30, but ambitious boys arrived at the office as early as 4 o clock m https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 236 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K order to get ahead of the others. All the daily morning sellers sold at least 1Yi hours, and all those who began before 5 o’clock sold from ^ to 4^2 hours before rushing off to school, sometimes without their breakfast (see p. 235); 10 (of whom 3 were under 12) of the 19 daily morning newsboys sold papers both morning and afternoon. On Sunday mornings the newsboys did not find it necessary to be out on the streets so early as during the week; the majority of the 27 boys selling papers on Sunday mornings did not begin until at least 6 o’clock, and as a rule the morning was well advanced before the papers were seen spread out in piles on the sidewalk around the square. Four boys began selling before 5 o’clock even on Sunday mornings, however. One of these, an 11-year-old Jewish boy with a school standing of 66 and a deportment mark of 70 habitually spent Saturday nights at the newspaper agent’s office sleeping on papers on the floor, and another, 12 years of age, insisted that he stayed out all night and until 3 o’clock Sunday morning selling Sunday papers, though his mother said he was “ seldom out until 3 a. m .” Boys who sold the evening dailies usually stopped selling before 8 o ’clock on school nights, but 22 sold until at least 8 o ’clock. Sat urday hours were later. The majority of the newsboys selling on Saturday afternoons and evenings sold until at least 8 o ’clock, and 24 boys (18 per cent), of whom 7 were under 12 and only 3 were 14 or 15 years of age, reported selling until 8 p. m. or later. Just before 11 one Saturday night in November, 31 newsboys were counted in the square and the adjacent streets, most of them selling New York Sunday papers to the Saturday-night crowds. Typical of the group of newsboys who kept late hours were two 12-year-old boys, each of whom had sold papers from the age of 7. ~g§ One of these boys sold from 4 or 5 in the afternoon until 8, 9, 10, or 11 o ’clock school nights, until midnight Saturdays, and almost all day Sunday; in spite of the fact that he said he ate but one meal a day he did fairly good school work and was satisfactory in deport ment. The other boy, a Syrian, stayed out selling on Saturdays until 11 p. m. His mother said that he was a good boy but that she was afraid of the influence of the streets, as the boy’s brother had been sent the year before to reform school for staying out all night. The family was fairly prosperous, and the boy, who earned $8 a week selling papers, had $300 in the savings bank. Among the younger newsboys who stayed out late was an 8-year-old child who said that his older brother, a bootblack, stayed out with him until 12 o ’clock Saturdays, adding that the “ police didn’t bother them.” A few of the boys who stayed out until 11 or 12 o ’clock Saturday nights spent the remainder of the night at the newspaper agent’s distributing room. Among those who sometimes did this was a 12-year-old high-school boy. Ordinarily he sold until 12 on Saturday nights, but when he went to the agent’s to help insert he stopped selling on the streets about 11, slept at the agent’s on a bed of bags covered with coats until about 2 a. m., and then worked until 4.30; he slept again until 6 and then gave out papers, after which he went to sleep again until 8 or so, when he started out on his Sunday-morning selling. Late hours were the rule for the bootblacks. Those who did the W work most regularly (that is, some school days and almost invariably Saturdays) did not stop work usually before 8 and often worked 23 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis WILKES-BARRE, PA. 237 until 9 on school days as well as Saturdays; almost half those who worked only on Saturdays did not stop until 9 or later. On Satur day evenings bootblacks were all over the square, some strolling in among the crowds with apparent aimlessness, others begging the m people sitting on the benches for shines. Some of them were out * until 11 or 12. At 11.20 one Saturday night a little bootblack, who gave his age as 9 years, was seen at one of the railroad stations. A few boys stayed out all Saturday night. Of the five who reported bootblacking on Sunday, three stayed out all night. One of these, a 15-year-old boy whose father was dead, helped to support his family by bootblacking from half-past 11 Saturday night until half past 6 Sunday morning; he had not begun to shine shoes until he was 13, and possibly this accounts for the fact that his deportment and school standing in the fourth grade were fairly good. A 12-yearold boy who had been bootblacking for two years and whose deport ment and school standing were poor, stayed out all Saturday night getting shines from “ drunks” ; he said he would not do it when it got cold (it was then November). A 13-year-old boy who had been shining shoes for four years went out with his blacking box about 11 Saturday night and stayed out until Sunday at 9 a. m.; he made $2.35 a week, of which he got 5 cents a week for a show. His father said, “ Seven children too heavy for me, so the boy works.” Staying out after 9 on school nights was less common than on Saturday nights, though sometimes even the younger ones did it. A 10-yearold boy usually stayed out until 10 o ’clock on school days blacking shoes around pool rooms. He earned $3 a week at bootblacking, all of which he gave to his mother, though he received back a “ nickel on Sunday.” He said, however, that his mother tried to prevent W him from shining shoes, but he thought it was fun to do it. He used to carry satchels, he said, but had not done so regularly since he “ got run in ” for it. He smoked and had been a truant, and both his scholarship and his behavior in school were poor. The street-trades section of the State child labor law (see p. 228) prohibited boys under 16 from engaging in any street occupation before 6 a. m. or after 8 p. m.; but this provision, like the provision as to the age at which children might engage in the various types of street trading, was not enforced in Wilkes-Barre. A curfew ordinance authorized the police to arrest children under 14 who were on the streets alone after 9 p . m . Now and then the police made an attempt to send home the newsboys and bootblacks whom they found working after 9 o ’clock at night. Such a “ clean u p ” was said to be in progress at the time of the study, but for the most part the regulation seemed to be disregarded. Not only did many boys work at undesirable hours when they should have been at home in bed, but many also worked such long hours that overfatigue and po6r school work were bound to result, to say nothing of the fact that the longer the exposure to the influences of the street (admittedly not of the best even if it can be conceded that they were not all evil) the greater the chances of their leaving a permanent impression. A large proportion of the newsboys of Wilkes-Barre worked more ^ than two hours a day. Of the 108 who did no other street work ^ except selling papers and who worked on school days and reported their hours of work, 69 worked two hours or more a day and 36 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 238 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K worked at least three hours. Many of the boys working the longer hours were under 12 and even under 10 years of age. (Table 57.) Some of them, however, were high-school boys who, because school was dismissed early in the afternoon could sell the early editions of the evening papers several hours before supper. Among these highschool sellers was one 14-year-old boy who sold papers every schoolday afternoon from 2.30 to 8. For a number of boys the long hours were the result of selling both morning and evening papers. Some of these children, 10, 11, and 12 years old, beginning at 4 or 4.30 in the morning were out until after 7 at night. T a b l e 57.— Number of hours of street work on a typical school day, by age period; newspaper sellers and bootblacks holding a single job, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Boys from 6 to 15 years of age Number of hours of street work on a typical school day Total 10 Under years, 10 Per cent under Num distri years1 12i ber bution 12 years, under 14i 14 Age years, under not re ported! 16i NEWSPAPER SELLERS 145 33 44 46 20 2 Street work on school days_________________ 109 24 32 37 14 2 Total reported_____________ _____ _____ 108 100.0 23 32 37 14 2 Less than 1 hour__________________ 1 hour, less than 2__ _____ _________ 2 hours, less than 3________________ 3 hours, less than 5 _____________ 5 hours and over___________________ 4 35 33 27 9 3.7 32.4 30.6 25.0 8.3 9 5 8 1 2 6 16 7 1 2 13 11 6 5 Not reported.............................................. 1 1 No street work on school days_____________ 36 9 12 9 7 4 2 2 BOOTBLACKS Total....................................................... 62 7 21 23 9 Street work on school d a y s............... ............. 27 5 8 7 5 2 26 5 8 7 4 2 i 6 17 2 3 1 1 2 2 13 Total reported___________ ____________ 1 hour, less than 2............................... 2 hours, less than 3_ ______________ 3 hours, less than 5 _____ _________ 5 hours and over__________________ Not reported.......................................... __ 1 No street work on school days_____________ 35 1 1 16 4 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Only 27 bootblacks who did no other street work worked on school days; 19 of these, of whom 8 were under 12 years, worked at least three hours on a typical school day. On Saturdays the boys were often out on the street selling or shining all day long. One hundred and twenty-six newsboys doing no other street work worked on Saturdays; 94 per cent worked at least two hours, 86 per cent at least three hours, and 56 per cent at least five hours. More than half the boys selling papers at least five hours on Saturdays were under 12 years of age. (Table 58.) Sixty-one boot blacks whose only occupation was shoe shining worked on Saturday; 47 worked at least three hours and 34 at least five hours. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 239 WILKES-BARRE, PA. Comparatively few of either the newsboys or the bootblacks worked on Sundays— only 25 of the newsboys and only 3 of the bootblacks who did no other street work. Fourteen of the Sunday newspaper sellers and all the Sunday bootblacks worked at least five hours on Sunday. T a b l e 58.— Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday, by age period; newspaper sellers and bootblacks holding a single job, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Boys from 6 to 15 years of age Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday Total 10 Under years, 10 under Per cent Num distri years1 12 i ber bution 12 years, under 14 i 14 Age years, not re under ported 1 16 1 NEWSPAPER SELLERS 145 33 44 46 20 126 30 39 39 16 2 2 Total reported____________ _____ ______ 123 100.0 30 37 38 16 .8 5.7 7.3 30.1 56.1 1 5 9 15 1 1 3 9 23 3 1 10 24 2 5 hours and over..... ................ ........... 1 7 9 37 69 2 1 3 9 5 19 3 5 7 4 2 2 BOOTBLACKS Total_______________________________ 62 7 21 23 9 2 Street work on Saturday................................ 61 6 21 23 9 2 Total reported________________________ 60 100.0 6 21 22 9 2 5 hours and o v e r..._____ ___________ 1 1 11 13 34 1.7 1.7 18.3 21.7 56.7 2 4 1 1 6 5 10 1 2 4 15 1 1 3 4 1 1 1 1 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. The hours of work a week give a more accurate picture of the extent of the street life among the Wilkes-Barre street workers than do the daily hours, as many of the boys did not work every day. (See p. 235.) The weekly hours in individual cases were such as to show that the boy’s occupation was making heavy demands on his energies, as well as eating into time that he probably needed to keep up with his studies, even admitting, for the moment, that he had sufficient exer cise and recreation. Of the 145 newsboys who did no other street work than selling papers the groups that worked between 4 and 8 hours and between 8 and 12 hours were the largest, although almost as large a number worked between 12 and 16 hours. However, 50 newsboys (36 per cent) worked from 16 to 36 hours or more. Altogether, 22 boys (16 per cent), of whom 8 were under 12 and only 4 were 14 or 15, worked at least .24 hours a week in addition to about 25 hours of school. Younger newsboys worked almost as long hours as older ones. About https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 240 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K half the boys of each age group worked 12 hours or longer— 52 per cent of those 12 years of age or over, 49 per cent of those under 12, and 45 per cent of those under 10. The proportions of the different age groups working at least 24 hours a week varied more widely— 20 per cent of those 12 years of age or over, 11 per cent of those under 12, 0 and 12 per cent of those under 10.88 Some of those who worked long hours sold papers before and after school; more sold only in the after noons, but worked all day Saturdays and until 8 or 9 on school days. A 15-year-old boy sold 5 or 6 hours every school day and more than 7 hours on Saturdays. An 11-year-old boy worked more than 10 hours on Saturdays and 3 or 4 hours every school day; another, aged 12, sold 5% to 7 hours on school days and 13 hours on Satur days. Nine of the 22 newsboys working these long hours had been before the juvenile court, and boys working 24 hours or more a week were more retarded in school than those working fewer hours. (See p. 252.) Among the 22 newsboys who also did some other kind of work, chiefly bootblacking, the distribution of hours was about the same; 5 worked between 28 and 36 hours a week, and of these, 3 had been before the juvenile court or had been in the reform school for truancy. (See also pp. 250-251.) Bootblacks worked shorter hours than newsboys. The largest numbers of the 62 not doing any other kind of street work worked between 4 and 8 hours or between 8 and 12 hours a week, but almost as many worked less than 4 hours. Only 18 (30 per cent) worked 12 hours or more, though a very few worked between 24 and 36 hours a week. The bootblacks who did some other kind of street work, usually selling papers, had somewhat longer hours. Four wqrked 0 between 28 and 36 hours a week, and of these, two had juvenile-court records. The boys doing other kinds of street work, such as peddling or selling or delivering magazines, worked only a few hours a week. More than half the 43 having only one street job spent less than 4 hours a week on their jobs, and only 7, chiefly peddlers, worked as much as 8 hours a week. Even of the 5 boys who had some other street work in addition to their principal job (most of these sold papers) all except 1 worked less than 8 hours a week. EARNINGS Most of the workers were able to estimate the amount of their earnings in an average week, including the tips that they had received, though a few, either because they worked with another boy (or as one of them said, had “ gone into a corporation” ) or for some other reason, were not certain what their weekly earnings usually were. Among those who did not do any street work except sell papers, the majority (60 per cent) reporting what they made earned less than $2 a week, and a large proportion (31 per cent) made less than $1. But a number of the boys made $2 or more a week. (Table 59.) Investigators of the problem of juvenile street trades quite generally emphasize how little the newsboy earns, and many among those in terviewed in Wilkes-Barre were inclined to refer to “ the newsboys’ ^JL pittance ” ; even needy parents sometimes exclaimed of their children’s w 88 The number of boys in the different age groups on which these percentages are based is small; 33 boys were under 10 years of age, 73 under 12, and 65,12 years or over. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 241 W IL K E S-B A R R E , BA. earnings, “ What is that for all that work?” The earnings were indeed small when the time and energy expended and the ill effects of the work are considered. But aside from this consideration $2 or S3 a week must have seemed a large amount in many of the house holds, especially under the industrial conditions in Wilkes-Barre at the time this study was made (see pp. 243,244). Very few boys made S5 or more a week from paper selling— the amount frequently given by committees granting scholarships to enable children to continue in school. An 11-year-old Syrian boy made $8 selling chiefly in lunch rooms and pool rooms, from 2% to 4 hours on school days, 9 hours on Saturdays, and all Sunday morning. A 14-year-old boy with six years’ experience in paper selling made $11.30 a week, though he never worked after 7 in the evening. “ Other guys call me the profiteer,” he said. “ I make most money of anybody and never bother to stay out nights.” For most boys, however, the hours counted. Except for a few evidently not very successful sellers, who spent 16 or even 20 hours or more on the streets and earned less than $1, earnings increased with the number of hours spent at work; 80 per cent of those reporting earnings who spent less than 12 hours at their jobs made less than $2 a week, and only 2 of the 16 working at least 24 hours made less than $2. A few of the newsboys having another street job made $5 or $6 at all their street work, and one made $8, but about the same proportion made less than $2 a week as among those who confined their activities to selling papers. T a b l e 59.— Earnings during a typical week, by number of hours engaged; news- paper sellers and bootblacks holding a single job, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Boys from 6 to IS years of age Working specified number of hours per week Total Earnings during a typical week Less than 12 hours 12 hours, cent Num Per less distri ber bution Num Per cent than 24i distri ber bution Hours not re 24 ported * hours, and over i NEWSPAPER SELLERS Total______________________________ Total reported................................................. $1, less than $2__....................................... $2, less than $3.................................... $3, less than $4.......... ............................. $4 and over____________ _____ ________ 14S 124 5 13 21 35 25 11 14 21 100.0 4.0 10.5 16.9 28.2 20.2 8.9 11.3 62 57 7 17 21 7' 3 2 5 100.0 12.3 29.8 36.8 12.3 5.3 3.5 BOOTBLACKS Total..................................................... Total reported___________________________ 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 68 59 5 11 14 17 7 3 2 9 42 40 7 15 16 2 2 100.0 8.5 18.6 23.7 28.8 11.9 5.1 3.4 50 44 22 16 5 5 2 7 14 15 3 3 6 2 2 4 8 6 2 1 1 1 14 11 4 4 2 2 1 4 5 1 3 1 1 2 1 1 242 Ch i l d r e n in street w ork The youngest sellers, contrary to popular opinion, earned the least, though they worked almost as many hours a week as older boys. Eighteen of the 33 newsboys under 10 years of age made less than $1, compared with 9 of the 44 between 10 and 12, 7 of the 46 between 12 and 14, and 4 of the 20 who were 14 or 15 years of age; only 4 of the newsboys under 12 years of age made $3 or more, compared with 13 of the boys between 12 and 14, and 8 of those 14 or 15. The numbers are too small, however, to be conclusive. Bootblacks earned less than newsboys, though several of the former said they had given up selling because there was more money in “ shines.” Fifty-seven boys who did no other street work except bootblacking reported the amount of their earnings; 45 of these made less than $2 a week, and only 1 (a 14-year-old boy) made as much as $5. As with the newsboys, the bootblack’s earnings increased with the amount of time he spent on the street. Some of the bootblacks complained that selling was “ too hard” or “ too much trouble.” Only a few of the boys doing other street work than selling papers or bootblacking made as much as $1 a week, even when they had several jobs. M ost of those who made $1 or more were peddlers, though a 12-year-old boy made 75 cents a week carrying traveling bags and about $2 selling papers and bootblacking. Both newsboys and bootblacks said that part of their earnings were in tips. A 12-year-old newsboy said that SI.50 of his week’s earnings of S3.53 (for which he spent more than 40 hours on the streets and was out until 12 o ’clock Saturday night) came from this source. On the other hand, 43 newsboys and 26 bootblacks did not receive tips. Older boys were more likely to receive tips than the younger ones— thus 26 of the 75 newsboys under 12 years of age reporting on tips said that they did not receive them, whereas only 17 of the 74 who were 12 or over had not received tips; and among the bootblacks, 14 of the 30 under 12 reporting, but only 12 of the 34 who were 12 years or over, had not received tips. One-third of the 30 newsboys under 10 reporting and 3 of the 6 bootblacks under 10 received no tips. The boys themselves, however, maintained that the little boys were the ones who generally received tips— perhaps because of a few striking instances which stuck in their memories. A 14-year-old newsboy said that he got tips perhaps three times a week, but “ they give them to little children more than m e,” and a small, attractive 8-year-old boy told the investigator, “ I get lots of tips. M y brother’s too big— he don’t get much.” Tips were more likely to be given late at night, especially on Saturday night, than at other times, thus proving a temptation-’ to the boys to sell or shine at undesirable hours. A 15-year-old bootblack said that he made more money on Saturday because of tips and that few tips were given during the week. A 10-year-old news boy doubled his earnings on Saturday because of tips. A 12-year-old newsboy who reported staying out until 3 a. m. Sunday mornings said that he generally got tips Saturday night and early Sunday morning. The bootblacks usually charged 10 cents a shine, but some of them said that some customers gave them as much as 15 cents or even 25 cents a shine. A very small 8-year-old boy in the second grade who had been a newsboy and bootblack from the age https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis W IL K E S -B A R R E , BA. 243 of 6 said, “ I make more money shining. Late at night men going home with dirty shoes want a shine and give big tips— I charge a dime but they give me a quarter. ” N E E D F O R E A R N IN G S An attempt was made to discover the actual economic status of the street workers’ families. (See p. 28.) But this task, always a difficult one, was found virtually impossible in the present study owing to the industrial situation in Wilkes-Barre in 1922. The nation-wide seven-craft strike of the railway shopmen (the most extensive and complete tie-up of that branch of the railroad industry that the United States had ever experienced) began in July, 1922, and was only partly settled when the study started in October; and the anthracite miners’ strike of that year— beginning April 1— had lasted into September. As in other surveys of street workers, it was found that the great majority (81 per cent) of the boys were in families in which both father and mother were present and the father supported the family. The proportion of boys from families in which this was not the case was 17 per cent for newsboys, 25 per cent for bootblacks, and 19 per cent for other street traders. Forty-five boys had lost their own fathers by death or otherwise; as only 13 of these had stepfathers, 32 boys (11 per cent) might fairly be regarded as coming from widowed or fatherless families. The mother was the chief breadwinner in the families of 6 boys; brothers, sisters, or other relatives took care of the other fatherless families, and 3 boys, though they had fathers at home, were in families supported by older brothers. The street-trading boys were predominantly from the families of miners; the chief breadwinners in the families of 48 per cent of the newsboys and 76 per cent of the bootblacks were working in the mines, though only 23 per cent of the male workers of Wilkes-Barre were in the mining industry.89 In fact, only 3 or 4 of the bootblacks had fathers in any other one kind of work. Not only had many of the wage earners in the street traders’ families been directly affected by both strikes but many of those in other than mining or railroad occupations also (an unusually large proportion were storekeepers or otherwise engaged in trade) had been indirectly affected by the strikes. Visits were made to 103 families, in which were 139, or almost half the street workers (other than newspaper carriers) included in the study, and for these families additional information was obtained. During the year preceding the visit only 22 (22 per cent) of the 96 chief breadwinners in the families visited reporting on unemploy ment, had had regular employment. Forty-seven had been unem ployed at least five months and 34 had been unemployed six months or longer. The majority (53) of the 88 families from which a report was obtained on the chief breadwinner’s earnings had made less than $850 during the year. In these poorer families, so far as the small numbers involved may be trusted as an indication, boys were twice as likely to go into street work under the age of 10 as boys whose fathers earned at least $1,250 a year. « Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, p. 331. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 244 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K In many of the families the chief breadwinners’ earnings had been supplemented by earnings of wives and of children old enough to go to work. Excluding mothers who were the chief breadwinners in their families, the mothers of 28 (10 per cent) of the street traders worked (not including mothers who kept boarders or lodgers), usually cleaning or doing laundry work. The proportion is about the same as that (9 per cent) of white families in which-the wife worked included in the study of family incomes of more than 12,000 white wage earners and small-salaried men made by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1919.90 All except 5 of the street workers whose mothers worked had fathers in the home. In spite of the assistance of wives and children, however, the family income from earnings, including the earnings of the street workers themselves, was less than $1,250 in 49 of the 85 families reporting on this point, considerably less than the average family earnings ($1,455) in the white families included in the study made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.91 (See footnote 10, p. 83. The earnings of the chief breadwinners of the street workers were of approximately the year 1922.) Moreover, the average number of persons per family in the street workers’ families was 7.2, whereas in the Bureau of Labor Statistics study the average was only 4.9 persons per family. The street traders were in unusually large families. The average number of children under 14 years of age in a family was approximately 4, but 41 of the 103 families visited had at least five children under 14. The long-continued unemployment probably accounts to some extent for the comparatively large proportion of families, as compared with that found in some surveys of street workers (see pp. 30-31) applying for relief. Nineteen families (in which were 24 boys, 8 per cent of the total number) had received some form of public aid, including free nursing care, in 1921 or 1922. Four of these had received aid from the needy-families fund, organized during the strike to assist miners’ families (owing to the fact that the strike was tech nically a “ suspension,” strike benefits were not given), and three families in which the father was out of work had been assisted by the local poor board or by the United Charities. Ten of the remaining 12 families also had received aid from the poor board or from the United Charities or from both; these families included two widows, one deserted wife, and four families in which the father was ill or in jail. Probably a more accurate indication of the family status in normal times than the father’s earnings, the fact of the mother’s employ ment, or the extent of charitable assistance may be found in the facts as to the ownership and size of dwellings. Among the 103 families visited 27 (26 per cent) owned the house in which they lived and 20 other families were,buying their houses. The 1920 census shows that 20 per cent of the homes in Wilkes-Barre were owned with out encumbrance,92 so that in' this respect the street traders’ families seem to have been rather above the average. It would appear that even in a period of economic stress the great majority of the families could manage without the street workers’ earnings. 80 M onthly’Labor Keview (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), V ol.IX , No. 6 (December, 1919, p. 40). MIdem. 82 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. II, Population, p. 1299. Washington, 1922. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis W IL K E S-B A R R E , PA. 245 R E A S O N S FO R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K When questioned as to their reasons for engaging in street work the largest number of the boys— 120 of the 290— gave replies of which the sum and substance was that they “ just wanted to ” ; 63 said that an agent of the newspaper had first put the idea into their heads; 37 gave family need as the compelling motive; 23 others said that they had gone into street work because their parents had urged them to do so; 22 were unable or unwilling to tell why they had gone to work on the streets; and the other boys gave a variety of reasons. The small proportion (13 per cent) claiming economic necessity as the principal motive in undertaking street work accords with the facts as to the extent of widowhood in their families (see p. 243) and with the other evidence in regard to the economic status of the fami lies. It is interesting to note that only 15 (10 per cent) of the 146 boys under 12 years of age said that their reason for first working on the street had been that the family needed their earnings. It is interesting also to find that among the street traders who had gone to work within eight months, or approximately since the beginning of the coal strike (somewhat less than one-fourth of the total number), a somewhat larger proportion (18 per cent) than among all the street traders said that their reason for working was to help with family expenses. But although this group is interesting, it is small. Many more boys had taken to street work because “ all the other boys did it ” or because “ it was more fun than playing around” or because “ it’s fun to make some money.” It is unnecessary to dwell upon the fascination of the streets or to point out that street work with its excitements, its sociability, and its freedom scarcely needs the added charm of money jingling in the pockets to seem to the boy himself a well-nigh perfect activity. “ The guys says, ‘ Come on ’ ,” narrated a bootblack dramatically in explaining the reason for his vocation; “ and I saw a little box at home and bust it open and made me a blacking box.” So strong was the call of the streets that some of the parents could not keep their boys at home. The mother of an 8-year-old newsboy, who confessed that he did not give “ much” of his 40 cents a week at home, said that she could not prevent his going down town except by calling for him when school was out; and a 13-year-old bootblack, who had run away from home and had been before the juvenile court for stealing, was described as “ sneaking o ff” from his mother, who objected to his going down town to shine. Various persons in contact with the street traders or their families were convinced that the foreign-born parents exploited their children for the money that they brought in even when there was no actual need. The number of parents that did this appeared to be compara tively small— only 23 of the 268 boys said that they had first done street work at their parents’ suggestion or request. However, the idea that every member of the family must help in the family upkeep was a strong motive in sending boys from the immigrant families to the streets. A 7-year-old child of Slovac parents, who made $1.50 a week selling on the square, said that he had first sold papers because his “ mother chased him down— she wanted m oney.” A Russian mother reported that her boys had to work as bootblacks, as the father made her run the house on the children’s earnings. Others said that “ all must help,” “ too big family,” or “ when he is https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 246 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K little that’s all he can do to help. ” Most of the parents, in fact, were willing and even desired to have their children work on the street— only 18 of the 86 newsboys’ and bootblacks’ parents interviewed said that they did not want the boys to do the work, some of them be cause their sons had been in trouble as a result of street influences. It is doubtful whether many parents forced the boys out, but most of them “ saw no harm in it .” Some even regarded a street occu pation as a substitute for less desirable activities— “ better than running outside” for an 11-year-old boy, “ didn’t want h i m laying around the house” in the case of a 14-year-old, “ did not want h i m to bum around the streets” in the case of a 13-year-old. “ He’d be on the streets anyway, so he better have somethin’ to do, ” “ they get into less mischief selling papers on down-town streets than if they had nothing to d o ,” “ better for boy to work than to hang around cor ners, smoke, and play cards, ” “ they have got to learn what the street teaches them anyhow, so they might as well sell papers and make m oney” — these were typical remarks. It is clear that a large proportion of the street workers in WilkesBarre would not have been on the streets if they and their parents had been aware of more desirable activities. More and better recreation was what those boys needed who said that selling papers was “ more fun than playing around” or that they went bootblacking because there was “ nothing else to d o .” Wilkes-Barre offered little in the way of directed or supervised recreation. Newsboys and bootblacks did not belong to the Boy Scouts. It was reported that the local troops had no newsboys nor bootblacks among their members and that the typical street boy “ had no use for that sort of thing.” Possibly boys whose spirit of adventure has been nourished by smoking, playing cards, and hanging around comers, to say nothing of the continual excitements of street life, would not be satisfied with anything less stimulating. It is more likely, however, that if there had been troops of boys from homes and neighborhoods similar to their own and with the right leadership newsboys and bootblacks would have responded to the universal appeal of Boy Scout activities, although it is true that many of them could not have afforded the fees and expenses. Wilkes-Barre had no social settlements to provide through boys’ clubs and classes a safe and happy outlet for the gang spirit. The Young M en’s Christian Association maintained a newsboys’ club of about 80 members, which made a special effort to reach boys whose parents could not afford to pay for recreation. A fee of 25 cents was charged for initiation and of 10 cents a week until $1 had been paid. The club met once a week and had an athletic program. It was reported that some of its members were boys who sold on the down town streets, but though the club made no racial or religious dis tinctions it failed to reach the Catholic boys of foreign stock who made up the mass of the newsboys. Though the public schools were the logical agency to supply the recreational needs of school children and the only agency capable of doing so on a large scale, they were not equipped to undertake the task. At the time of the study the schools had no physical-education program; only 10 schools had playgrounds, and these were small, ill equipped,.and entirely inadequate. The city had only one real playground. In the spring of 1922, however, a playground and https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 247 W IL K E S -B A R R E , PA. recreation association with a paid director had been organized, and efforts were being made to obtain more play spaces with better equipment, to coordinate the recreational activities of different agencies, and, above all, to extend the recreational program to chil dren of foreign parentage. D IS P O S IT IO N OF E A R N IN G S The industrial situation in Wilkes-Barre during 1922 could hardly have failed to affect the uses to which the street workers’ earnings were put; although the miners had gone back to work by the time the survey was begun, it is to be presumed that their families were still feeling the effects of the long months during which the chief bread winners were bringing in no earnings. For this reason the number of boys contributing to the support of the family may have been larger than would have been the case in more normal times. T a b l e 60. — D is p o s itio n o f ea rn in g s; b o y s engaged in certain ty p e s o f street w o rk t W ilk e s-B a r re, P a . B o y s from 6 to 15 years o f age D is p ositio n o f e a rn in g s 1 N ew sp ap er sellers and b o o tb la ck s O thers * N um ber P er cent distrib u tto n Total.......................................................... 242 100.0 48 All for s e lf....______________________________ 77 31.8 31 6 5 8 16 10 11 19 2 2.5 2.1 3.3 6.6 4.1 4.5 7.9 .8 3 1 12 2 11 2 14 Spent for necessities_________________ Spent for luxuries.................... ....................... Spent for necessities and luxuries.... ............. Saved.... ....................................................... Saved and spent for necessities..................... Saved and spent for luxuries......................... Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. Saved and spent for expenses only________ Part to family and part for self 3...................... 139 57.4 Spent for necessities____ ______ ___________ Spent for luxuries______ ____ ____________ Spent for necessities and luxuries............ . Spent for expenses only__________ __ _____ Saved_________ _____ ______ _____________ Saved and spent for necessities.___________ Saved and spent for luxuries______________ Saved and spent for necessities and luxuries. Saved and spent for expenses only________ Not specified..._____ ____ _______________ 8 63 10 8 17 1 23 5 3 1 3.3 26.0 4.1 3.3 7.0 .4 9.5 2.1 1.2 .4 All to family___________ _____________________ 26 10.7 ■ 6 1 4 3 3 1 E arnings spen t for necessities, luxuries, or b o th , m a y in clu d e expenses o f jo b . a P er cent d istrib u tion n ot sh ow n w here base is less th an 50. 8 S u b sid iary item s sh ow disp osition o f part spen t for self. The great majority of the newsboys and bootblacks (165 boys, or 68 per cent) gave at least part of their earnings from street work to their families; this number included 26 boys who contributed all that they earned toward family support, 8 who gave to their families all that they earned except the expenses incident to their jobs, such as lunches and car fares, and 8 who used all that they earned for their families and their own necessities, such as clothing. (Table 60.) 75034°— 28— 17 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 248 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K Six other boys used all their earnings on necessities for themselves. Thus 48 boys (20 per cent of the newsboys and bootblacks) used all their money outside the expenses of their jobs for necessities either for themselves or for their families. This proportion is somewhat larger than the proportion of fatherless street traders m Wilkes-Barre and of those who claimed family need as their reason for first going to work (see p. 245); this fact and also the fact that the proportion is the same for boys with fathers as for fatherless boys may indicate the extent to which unemployment may have caused families not normally in actual want to draw upon the street workers money, or it may be interpreted to indicate that once a boy goes to work bis family finds that it can make good use of his earnmgs even if it has hitherto not felt them to be absolutely necessary. A majority of the boys (60 per cent) kept something for spendmg money, including 5 who acknowledged that they spent everything on their own pleasures. One of these 5 was a 14-year-old high-school boy whose earnings only kept him in spending money. Another was an 11-year-old boy who reported weekly earnmgs of $1.40 and whose statement that he never gave a cent at home was corroborated by his mother. In some of the foreign families it was evident that the boys were expected to turn over to the parents all that they earned and equally evident that they kept back as much as they dared. A few parents complained that “ Nick never brings a penny home,” or, “ We never see a cent of his money” or, like the mother of a 10-year-old newsboy who said, “ He go to show and shoot de penny,” they accused the boys of .misspending what they earned. On the other hand, many of the boys who used some of their earnmgs on their own pleasures gave almost all that they earned to then parents to be used either for family expenses or their own clothes, the boy receiving a small sum, usually about 10 cents a week, for sDendins: money. “ M y mother gives me a dime on bund ays, or “ I get a nickel for the show once a week,” or “ I have 10 cents for candy” were very common remarks. , Forty-four per cent of the newsboys and bootblacks saved some of their money, including 16 boys (7 per cent) who saved all that thev made. A few said that they had been saving, but when thenfather bought the house” or “ when the strike came or when they needed a new suit” they had been obliged to draw the money out of 1 Only 17 of the 48 street traders other than newsboys and boot blacks gave any of their earnings to the family, including 3 peddlers who contributed all that they earned. These 3 boys were the only ones in this group spending all their money on necessities either tor themselves or for their families. A much larger proportion ol these other street traders than of newsboys and bootblacks saved all that they made, and the great majority saved some of their earnmgs. A majority kept something for spending money, including 3 boys who spent all except the expenses of their jobs on their own pleasures. These 3 boys earned only 10 cents to about 25 cents a w eek.' ^ Among the entire group of street traders the proportion giving at least some of their earnings to their families increased with the amount the boy earned. Boys making the larger^ amounts (at least $2 a week) were much more likely to give all their money to their iamilies than those making less than $2 a week, but boys making an unusually https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis W IL K E S-B A R R E , PA. 249 large amount ($4 or more a week) were about as likely as those earning less than $2 to keep something. It would be expected that the poorer the family the greater would be the tendency for the boy to turn in all or part of his money toward its support. Such was the case so far as conclusions based on small numbers can be trusted. Of the 72 street traders visited in their homes whose fathers earned less than $1,250, 6 gave all their earn ings for family expenses and 47 gave part; whereas of the 17 whose fathers earned at least $1,250 none gave all to the family and only 6 gave any. The proportion keeping at least some of their earnings for spending money was the same for both these groups, but boys in the more prosperous families were more likely to save money— 5 of the 72 in the lower-earnings group saved all their earnings and 28 saved part, whereas of the 17 whose fathers had incomes of $1,250 or more 3 saved all and 11 saved part. The extent to which unemploy ment influenced the disposition of the boys’ earnings is indicated by the fact that of the 30 boys in families whose chief breadwinners had been unemployed less than two months or not at all 2 used all their earnings for the family and 11 used at least part in that way; but of the 66 boys in families whose chief breadwinners had been unem ployed two months or more 6 gave all their earnings to help with the family expenses and 45 contributed to the family budget at least part of what they earned. S T R E E T W O R K E R S IN S C H O O L Attendance. The street traders were in all grades from the first grade to the second year in high school. Only 13 (4 per cent) were in high school, including 10 newsboys and 3 of those in the miscellaneous group but no bootblacks. A record of school attendance was sought for all those who had been in street work at least part of the school year 1921-22, and records were obtained for 182 street workers. The average per centage of attendance for these boys for the school year ended June, 1922, was 94, the same as that for all children in the Wilkes-Barre public schools for the same year. Of the 26 boys (14 per cent)who had been absent 10 per cent or more of the term (that is, at least 18 days) 11 had truancy records. Truancy. An examination of the files of the attendance department showed that 41 o'f the street traders had been reported to the attendance officers for absence in 1921 or 1922 but that 17 of these were appar ently not truants; therefore 24 street traders had truancy records— 11 newsboys, 10 bootblacks, and 3 boys in other street trades. That is, 7 per cent of the newsboys, 13 per cent of the bootblacks, and 6 per cent of the other street traders had been truant; a fairly large proportion of these* boys had been before the juvenile court for truancy or were reported as chronic truants. No comparative figures for the total enrollment of the WilkesBarre schools are available, but among the newspaper carriers in Wilkes-Barre the proportion who had been truant was only 2 per cent. (See p. 269.) This fact and the fact that almost twice as large a proportion of bootblacks as newsboys had been truants (though the temptations to truancy presented by their work must have been https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 250 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK much the same) suggests that the reason for the excessive amount of truancy found among street traders can not be laid entirely to their occupation; that it is to be accounted for by the home environ ment as well as by the street environment. The newsboys more than the carriers and the bootblacks more than the newsboys came from immigrant homes and from the homes of the newer nnmigrants. Their truancy may be considered one of the problems common to the unadjusted second generation, reared by parents whose contacts with American life are few and in homes entirely foreign in language and customs. That street work is a factor, however, which tends to increase the child’s maladjustment to school life can not be doubted in view of the influences of street life and its tendency to weaken home ties and parental control. (See pp. 234, 236, 237.) The following stories typical of the more serious cases of truancy among the Wilkes-Barre street traders, are illustrative of both home and street conditions that may have contributed to the boy’s stay ing away from school. A 14-year-old boy, son of a Polish, loader in the mines and next to the oldest in a family of six children, had been selling newspapers for five years, shining shoes for two vears, and carrying bags at the railroad station for one year or more. The boy’s school-deportment mark was 80 and he had pleasant manners. The assistant principal of his school reported, however, that he slept at the railroad station, out of doors, or anywhere (he was reported to the attendance officer in January, 1922, as absent and sleeping out under porches), and the school boys spoke of him as being “ on the bum .” In April, 1922, h e was brought before the juvenile court for not being home in two weeks, being out ot school, and stealing. The father was ill with miner’s asthma and had been unemployed for 11 months, the mother took in washing, and a 15-year-old sister worked in a candy factory. The parents thought it a good thing for the boy to do street work as it was a help to them. He reported that in his three ]obs he averaged $9.25 a week, but his mother said that he never brought home more than 20 or 25 cents a day. A 12-year-old Italian boy whose father was dead and whose family was sup ported bv an older brother had had absences of several days each in April and October, 1922. He had previously been in a reform school for nine months. He said in excusing his absences that his mother made him go to the square to sell papers. He sold from 4 to 8 a. m. on school days and from 5 to 10 p. m on Saturdays, earning $4.25 a week in both his jobs. H e also blacked boots and had been doing both kinds of work for several months. He had sold papers until 12 o’clock Saturday nights, but reported that for several weeks prior to the inter view “ the cop had chased them home at 9 o’clock.” A 13-vear-old Italian newsboy had been absent from school sometimes as much as a week at a time a number of times during 1921 and 1922. H e had been twice before the juvenile court for truancy. When he came to the court m November, 1922, he had been selling papers while playing truant from school. He told the court that his mother told him to go out and earn and not bother about going to school. N o action was taken, and a month later he was*a truant for a week. He was in the fifth grade and had fair standing. H e had been selling for four years and had previously been a bootblack. H e earned $3.25 a week. The mother when interviewed at home said that she wanted the boy to earn money but did not mean to have him stay out of school. He was proud of earning his own clothes, was a well-mannered, clean boy, and though his mother said that he was “ fresh” and she could not keep track of what he did she reported that he had given his money to her for the family during the strike and clothed himseli. in e boy was the oldest of seven children in a clean, well-kept home. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis W ILKES-BARRE!, B A . 251 An 11-year-old Italian boy had a history of truancy in both 1921 and 1922, some of which was blamed upon parental neglect and the fact that the “ boy was allowed to sell papers at 5 o’clock in the morning.” He had been selling papers from the age of 8, both morning and afternoon. He had had a juvenile-court record at the age of 9 and was brought before the court again when 10 and 11. His school deportment was fair, and his work passing. His father had regular work and an income during 1921-22 of more than the average of the chief bread winners in this study. The family lived in a rented house of five rooms; this boy was next to the oldest of five children. The parent’s only comment on the boy’s work was that he “ goes with his own will.” Although the boy said he had begun his street work four years before because of family need, he gave no money to his family, but saved some and spent the rest for his clothes and luxuries for himself. He could not estimate how much he earned in an average week, but said he sold about 45 papers. The 13-year-old son of a Lithuanian miner was in the eighth grade and was reported “ very bright” in school and of good school deportment and standing. He had been absent 6 ^ days in March, 1922, and 173^ days previously during the term, and was reported as spending his time selling papers. Absent in Sep tember again every afternoon for a week and several mornings, he was again reported by the boys to be shining shoes and selling papers. He worked about QH hours a day on school days (morning and afternoon). reporting that he arrived at the newspaper office by 3.30 a. m. in order to “ get his papers first.” He worked with his two brothers, aged 10 and 12, respectively, and estimated that the three of them averaged $11.50 a week. The mother said that the children must work to help support the family, as there were seven children, only one of whom was over 14. The father was reported by social agencies as a reliable man, but he had had a great deal of unemployment during the year owing to the strike, and in 1922 the family had received help from the United Charities and the poor board. Deportment. A mark in deportment for the school year completed June, 1922, was obtained for 178 of the Wilkes-Barre newsboys, bootblacks, and miscellaneous street traders. Ninety boys had not worked in the fKchool year 1921-22, so that their work could not conceivably have Affected their behavior in school, or they had attended high school where no mark in deportment was given, and a record could not be found for 22 boys. Fifty-two boys (29 per cent) had a deportment mark of at least 90 and 115 (65 per cent) had been marked at least 80. But 14 boys (8 per cent) had a mark less than 70, or less than passing. No comparative information on boys who do not do street work exists. A comparison of the deportment marks of the street traders with those of the Wilkes-Barre route carriers, however (see p. 270), shows that although almost as many of the newsboys, bootblacks, and other traders as route carriers, in proportion to their numbers, had received a deportment mark of at least 80, a very much larger pro portion of the carriers (42 per cent) than of the others (29 per cent) had received at least 90. This may indicate that though the street worker may as a rule behave well enough to “ get by ’ ’ he is more likely than the average boy to give some trouble in school. Among the 14 Wilkes-Barre street traders whose behavior in school was below passing were a number of boys whose conditions of work were such as to suggest a connection between the street occupation and unsatisfactory school conduct. Some had worked several years and some stayed out selling papers or shining shoes until 9 or 10 o ’clock at least several nights a week. One 14-year-old newsboy in this group sold papers until 2 o ’clock Sunday morning ^every week, and a 13-year-old newsboy who had been selling papers llin ce the age of 7 worked five hours or more a day, selling both before and after school. He was above the average in intelligence, but his school-deportment mark was only 53. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 252 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R E Progress and scholarship. The Wilkes-Barre newsboys were of about average intelligence, if the results of intelligence tests, which were available for one-fifth of the group, may be trusted as an indication.93 The intelligence quotients of 49 of the 56 street traders who had been tested rated them as of average or better than average intelligence, compared' with 80 per cent as the norm for these groups. (See footnote 22, p. 103.) However, only 5 of the street workers had an intelligence quotient that would rate them as superior, though 20 per cent is the norm for the superior groups. The fact that the “ sample” was confined to boys who were in the sixth or seventh grade at the time of the test (the only grades that had been completely tested) may mean that the intelligence quotients were rather more favorable than they would have been if they could have been obtained for all the street traders, as children who have reached at least the sixth grade represent a somewhat selected group. This being so, the percentage of boys of superior mentality should have been greater than in an unselected group of children, and that it was not greater, but much smaller, is especially interesting in view of the popular conception of the juvenile street trader as an unusually bright boy. The school progress of the newsboys was found to be as good as the average among all boys of their ages enrolled in the WilkesBarre public schools.94 Thirty per cent of the newsboys 8 to 15 years of age were retarded in school (see footnote 38, p. 22), compared with 31 per cent of the male enrollment of the Wilkes-Barre ele mentary schools.95 Even if the 10 newsboys who were in high school are excluded in order to make the figures more strictly comparable only 32 per cent of the newsboys are found to be retarded. More over, 10 per cent of the newsboys compared with 5 per cent of a l^ the boys in the elementary grades of the public schools were above normal grades for their ages. Newsboys working very long hours were more retarded than those whose work kept them on the streets a shorter time; 38 per cent of those spending 24 hours a week or longer selling papers and 28 per cent of those spending less than 24 hours were retarded. The school progress of the bootblacks compared very unfavorably with the average, 49 per cent of the bootblacks 8 to 15 years of age being retarded and only 3 per cent being advanced.96 Judging from these findings street work does not appear to have affected adversely the boys’ school progress, for the street life to which the newsboys and bootblacks were exposed was the same, and the newsboys were out on the street even longer and were more likely to work early and late, especially on school days, than the bootblacks. (See pp. 235-240.) It would appear that the type of home exerts more influence on school progress than street work, for the bootblacks came from homes which were far less Americanized and less prosperous on the whole than those of the newsboys. (See pp. 229, 243.) Taking the nativity and the literacy of the father as typical of home factors likely to influence »3 These were group tests given to sixth and seventh grades throughout the city by a school principal who used the Illinois general intelligence scale. 91 Forty-four of the street traders were in parochial schools. 95 The retardation for the male enrollment of the Wilkes-Barre elementary schools is based on age-grade statistics obtained from the offlee of the superintendent of the Wilkes-Barre public schools, excluding«* 14 boys between 15}^ and 16 years whose exact ages were not obtainable. Like statistics for pupils abov^pthe eighth grade were not available. . 99 The number of bootblacks was too small to compare the retardation of the groups working less, or more, than 24_hours a week. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 253 WILKES-BARRE, PA. the educational progress of the children, it is seen that only 19 per cent of the street workers whose fathers were of native birth, in contrast to 38 per cent of those with immigrant fathers, were retarded and that only 29 per cent of those with literate fathers, but 47 per „ent of those with illiterate fathers, were retarded. However, it takes time for the influences of a street occupation to make themselves felt in the street trader’s school work. He is not likely to have fallen behind his normal grade a year or more as a result of his street work unless he has been engaged in the work for several years. It is more accurate, therefore, in trying to reach a conclusion in regard to the effect of street work on school progress to confine the discussion to boys who have worked at least two years. It was found that 34 per cent of the newsboys working two years or more but only 28 per cent of those working less than 2 years were retarded, a difference that is probably accounted for by the greater age of those working the longer time. The number of bootblacks was too small to supply reliable information in regard to the relation between the duration of work and school progress. The more immediate effects of street work are reflected in the street trader’s school standing or school marks. Information on scholarship was sought from the school records for the school year ended June, 1922, for only the 204 boys who had worked at least part of the last completed school year. The following averages 97 were obtained for 183 boys: Average grade Total______________________ Less than 70__ ___________________ 70, less than 8 0 __________________ 80, less than 9 0 __________________ 90 or more________________________ Number of boys _ 183 . . 20 92 63 8 Per cent distribution 100 11 50 34 4 A comparison of the marks of the Wilkes-Barre newsboys, boot blacks, and miscellaneous street workers with those of the WilkesBarre newspaper carriers, whose scholarship appeared to be rather above the average, shows that 49 per cent of the carriers had a rank of 80 or more compared with 38 per cent of the other street workers and that almost three times as many in proportion averaged 90 or higher in their studies. (See p. 253.) D E LIN Q U E N C Y A M O N G S T R E E T W O R K E R S An examination of the records of the Luzerne County juvenile court showed that 41 (14 per cent) of the Wilkes-Barre street workers had court records, 31 of whom had been before the court in 1921 or 1922. The only statistics with which this figure could be compared properly would be those showing the proportion of nonworking boys or of boys in other occupations and of the same economic and social background who had ever been delinquent. No such statistics exist. Even a delinquency rate for the general child population of Wilkes-Barre is not available. On the school permanent record card from which the records were obtained the pupil’s standing in ch study was indicated by a letter, as A, A —, B, B + , etc. In order to obtain an average for all the studies a numbei was assigned to each letter, as 95 for A, 93 for A —. In making up the average the marks in such subjects as manual training, music, drawing, were disregarded. )> • https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 254 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK A comparison of the percentage of delinquents among boys in different kinds of street work shows that 14 per cent of the newsboys, 23 per cent of the bootblacks, and 2 per cent (one boy) of the boys engaged in other street trades had court records. Although the numbers involved are too small to be conclusive, the variations^ suggest the influence of home environment in the boy’s delinquency^ as well as the influence of his occupation. To a much greater extent than either the newsboys or the boys in the miscellaneous group of street occupations, as has been shown, the bootblacks were the children of immigrants who had not had time to become thoroughly adjusted to the life of the community, and to a greater extent they came from “ broken” homes and from homes of poverty. The offenses for which the boys had been brought before the juvenile court were truancy (16, including 12 whose only offense was truancy), stealing (17), mischief (5), trespassing on railroad property (4), “ incorrigibility” (1), begging (1), and gambling (1). In pro portion to their numbers almost twice as many bootblacks as news boys were charged with truancy and three times as many with theft. In the absence of reliable and comparable statistics a study of cases throws some light on the possible relation between street work and delinquency. Among the 12 boys whose only offense had been truancy 2 had sold papers for four years, since they were 9 years of age, another for two years or since he was 10; 1 boy had shined shoes for three years and 3 for two years; thus 7 of the 12 had worked on the street at least two years. The following stories are characteristic of this group of truants: A 12-year-old newsboy and bootblack, who had been shining shoes for t w ^ years and selling papers for one year, reported that he stayed out very l a t * Saturday night “ getting shines from drunks” and that his mother threatened to lock him out all night if he did not come home sooner. The boy’s behavior in school was very poor and his standing barely passing, though he was in the sixth grade at 12 years of age; the school principal reported that the boy, unlike his brothers and sisters, was “ hard to reach.” A 10-year-old boy, who both sold papers and blacked boots on “ Saturdays and pay days,” had very good marks in deportment and in his studies and was in the fifth grade. About the time of the study he had come before the juvenile court asking to be sent to the reform school because his mother hit him if he did not bring in money. His mother, a neat, intelligent woman, said that the boy stayed away from school and home and was restless, and denied striking him. A month later she herself brought him to the court on a charge of truancy saying that he had stayed away from home, eating stale cream puffs thrown out by a bakery, and sleeping in one of the newspaper offices, where he had been found and brought home by older boys. Although the court records often gave few or no details, a relation between the boy’s delinquency and his work or the conditions of his work, such as excessive hours or he fact that he had been at work on the street for a number of years,- could be discerned in a number of the 28 cases involving charges other than truancy, as the following accounts show: A 12-year-old Italian boy had begun his court record at the age of 10 (his work as newsboy antedated this event by one year) when he was charged with breaking^, in and robbing a freight car with other boys, his parents paying $7.50 d a m a g e s» Two years later he was brought in by a railroad employee for hanging around the railroad station selling papers, and a few weeks after that was referred to the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis WILKES-BARRE, BA. 255 juvenile court charged by a newspaper company with stealing newspapers. The boy spent his spare time hanging around newspaper offices with other boys who played craps; he said that he himself did not play because he was afraid of the police. The boy worked 38 hours a week selling papers both morning and ,afternoon, beginning in the morning at 4 or 4.30, his object being to earnhis clothes and save money. The family was comparatively prosperous, and the mother said that she did not want the boy on the street as he learned stealing and other “ bad tricks.” A 12-year-old Italian boy had been selling papers since he was 8 years old; he sold papers three and one-half hours a day before and after school. When only 9 he had stolen a gold watch valued at $40 and had sold it for 10 cents and a bag of peanuts. During the same summer he was arrested for begging money to buy papers and for stealing papers. When he was 10 he had been arrested for begging at the theater, pretending that he was crippled; after a sojourn in the reform school he was arrested again for stealing papers. He also had a history of truancy. The father was employed steadily, and the family seemed fairly prosperous. A Polish boy of 14, who had been selling papers for five years and bootblack ing for two years, and who “ hung around the railroad station” to carry bags, had begun to work “ just for fun.” H e had been charged with stealing from a 10-cent store when he was 12 years of age. Less than a month later, while on probation, he was brought before the court for sleeping out, and on a second charge of staying away from home he was committed to a reformatory where he remained eight months. About a year later (six months before the begin ning of the Children’s Bureau study) he was again brought to court for being out of school and away from home for two weeks, earning his food by carrying bags at the station and sleeping in barns. The family were buying the house in which they lived and had made a cash payment of $1,100 the year before the interview. # A 10-year-old bootblack of Lithuanian parentage had been shining shoes on »Saturdays and selling papers irregularly since he was 7 years old. H e had been brought into court at the age of 6 for stealing money from neighbors, and when 10 had helped other boys steal three bicycles within a period of three months. An 11-year-old bootblack and newsboy had been working for five years. H e had been arrested for stealing and truancy and had been committed to the reform school. Shortly after his release he was arrested again for truancy. He sold papers on the square every evening until 9 o’clock. His home conditions were very bad. An 11-year-old boy, who had sold papers regularly since he was 6 and had shined shoes for two years, had meddled with a railroad switch in company with his brother, causing damage of between $1,400 and $1,500. This boy said that he used to stay out Saturday nights until 12 or 1 o’clock but that within a few weeks previous to the interview the police had been making boys go home at 9 o’clock. A 10-year-old Polish newsboy who had been selling papers for three years had been arrested in 1921 for truancy and running about the railroad station. The truant officer reported to the court that the boy sold papers late at night. H e had been put on probation on his promise to go to school, to keep away from the railroad station, and not to sell papers. When interviewed in Decem ber, 1922, he was selling papers every school day from 3.30 p. m . to 8 p. m . and on Saturdays until 11 o’clock at night. § An 11-year-old Italian newsboy had sold papers since he was 8. H e sold Doth morning and afternoon 293^ hours a week, and wrapped and packed bread in a bakery three-quarters of an hour a week. H e was in the sixth grade, and https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 256 CHILDREN IN STREET WORE his school behavior and standing in school were fairly good. He had been arrested in the summer of 1922 for playing craps, and earlier had been in court for throwing stones and breaking windows in a mill. Three bootblacks and one newsboy, ranging in age from 10 to 13 years, wef implicated together in stealing automobile tires. The leader of this group, a 13-year-old Lithuanian boy, attended a different school from the others, and may have met them during the course of their work down town. H e had been shining shoes for two years. He had a court record for stealing, truancy, and staying away from home and sleeping in a box, where the police had found him. In the summer of 1922 he was arrested with the three other boys charged with stealing an automobile tire, and while the case was under way he was charged with two other boys with stealing bicycles, admitting the theft. H e smoked and had a poor school record in behavior, but he was in the eighth grade and did very good school work. H e had an intelligence quotient of 120. The other two bootblacks in this affair stayed out shining shoes until 8.15 or 9 o’clock every evening except Sunday. One, who had been bootblacking only a few months because he “ wanted to ,” had no other court record except this and stealing bicycles with the same leader. The other, who had been shining shoes for two years and had also sold papers, was arrested about the same time for stealing in one of the 10-cent stores. This boy also had a good school record. The newsboy implicated in the same theft had been selling papers since he was 8 years old. His behavior in school was excellent, but his standing was very poor. H e was later charged with stealing in one of the 10-cent stores. A 14-year-old Italian boy had been a newsboy and bootblack for eight years, selling papers and shining shoes after school hours; he also carried a theater advertising sign every evening from 7 to 8.30 and three hours Saturday after noon and evenings, earning altogether $8 a week. His school standing in the fifth grade (which he was repeating) was poor and his deportment barely pass ing. His court record began when he was only 9 (when he had been working on the streets for three years) on a charge of truancy; a year later he was b ro u gh t to court by the police charged with truancy and being out on the streets l a w at night. A t that time he was told that he must not sell papers at night. Several months later he was again brought to court for truancy. In June, 1921, his parish priest complained to the court that he was incorrigible, staying out late to shine shoes. His mother said, “ Tony is a bum. Can’t do anything with him .” His teacher said the same, adding that he smoked to excess, and that his mother had once come to school crying and saying in her broken English that the boy had beaten her. The boy said that of his $8 a week he gave his mother $1. H e bought his own clothes, which he showed with pride, and ap peared well mannered. The early age at which the delinquent career of many of these boys began calls to mind an 8-year-old delinquent in the making. H e was a rosy-cheeked, well-dressed, and attractive child from an intelligent family and apparently a good home who had been selling papers three months, several times a week. H e said that his mother would not let him sell unless he came home by 7 o’clock; his mother reported that she could not keep the boy at home, that the week before the interview he had been out two nights until half past 1, and the second time had been brought home by a policeman. His teacher reported that he was truant, had stayed out several nights earlier in the year selling papers, and one night had been found sleeping under a porch. The court records did not show whether or not boys used their wares as an excuse or as a cover for their delinquencies. One of the Wilkes-Barre street traders had been arrested for begging, a bootblack who stood at the door of a 5-cent motion-picture house begging for the price of a show. One of the school principals also told the story of two brothers in his school, the older about 12 years of age^ who had sold papers on the down-town streets. They used to stop tW motion-picture theaters on their way home, not arriving home until https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 257 WILKES-BARRE, PA. 10 o ’clock or so. They began to beg and were put on probation by the juvenile court. Somewhat later they had been arrested for stealing about $30 worth of boys’ books from one of the stores. They had been in the habit, of entering the store to sell their papers and had used paper selling to cloak the stealing. N E W S P A P E R C ARRIERS The three daily newspapers of Wilkes-Barre were distributed to subscribers at their houses and places of business as well as sold on the streets. The morning daily depended mainly upon subscribers, hiring about 90 route boys or carriers. Approximately 10,000 copies of the two evening papers were delivered by carriers in Wilkes-Barre proper, exclusive of the boroughs. New York, Philadelphia, Scran ton, and other out-of-town Sunday papers, as well as the two local Sunday papers, were also distributed by carriers in large numbers. The foreign-language papers were distributed by a few carriers though for the most part they were sent in the mads. The study in Wdkes-Barre included 315 carriers. R A C E A N D N A T IO N A L IT Y OF F A T H E R S Unhke the newsboys of Wdkes-Barre, the great majority of whom were of foreign parentage, half the carriers were the chddren of native fathers, and among those of foreign parentage the number of English, Irish, or Welsh stock was larger than any other racial group. The newer immigrants, the Poles, Lithuanians, and Italians, who largely supplied the ranks of the newsboys and bootblacks, had few children in the more responsible work of delivering on a newspaper route. (Table 61.) Only 5 carriers were of foreign birth. A G E OF C A R R IE R S The carriers were older than the newsboys. (Table 62.) Twentyseven per cent were 14 or 15 years of age and 67 per cent were at least 12. The distribution managers of the Wilkes-Barre papers reported that they preferred older boys and that they made every attempt to get a responsible type of boy. T able 6 1 . — R a ce and n a tio n a lity o f f a th e r ; n e w sp a p er carriers, W ilk e s -B a r r e , P a . Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Race and nationality of father Race and nationality of father Number Per cent distri bution Total.............................. 315 100.0 White....................................... 314 99.7 Native_________________ Foreign horn................ . 156 139 49.5 44.1 British______ ____ _ Polish__________ ___ Russian Jewish_____ Lithuanian-------------Italian..........■-............ 30 21 18 16 16 9.5 6.7 5.7 5.1 5.1 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Number White—Continued Foreign bom —Continued German____________ Other Jewish-----------Other f o r e i g n born and f o r e i g n born not otherwise speci fied.......... .............. - Per cent distri bution 12 6 3.8 1.9 20 6.3 Nativity not reported----- 19 6.0 Negro....................................... 1 .3 258 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K Of the 105 carriers under 12 years of age 59 were only helpers or substitutes sharing the route of another boy, often an older brother. (Table 63.) Almost half the helpers were little boys, under 10 years of age. Some of them did the work for nothing or at most for a few cents a week or a paper to “ carry home to the family,” working “ just for the fun of it,” though a few were learning the business in order to take over the route when it was abandoned by the boy for whom the helper worked. It was unusual for a substitute to have full responsi bility for another boy’s route like an 8-year-old boy who carried all the papers for his older brother, though the brother kept his name on the books at the newspaper office and called for the money when due, giving the younger boy 25 cents a month for his work. Of the boys under 12, however, 21, most of whom were 11 but a few of whom were 8, 9, or 10 years old, were employed by the newspapers on a regular route, though the street trades law of Pennsylvania prohibits the distribution as well as the sale of newspapers by boys under 12. (See p. 228.) Many of these boys had originally worked as helpers and had fallen heir to the route when the older boy whom they helped had given it up. Two of the boys listed as helpers were hired also by the newspapers— one, 9 years of age, as an assistant at 35 cents a route to a regular route boy when the papers were unusually heavy, and another, 11 years of age, as “ extra b o y ” when a regular carrier was absent. W O R K E X PE R IE N C E The typical carrier had never done any street work except carry papers. At the time of the interview 70 carriers were engaging in some form of street work, usually newspaper selling and often a con-*# siderable amount of it, in addition to their routes. Many of these were boys who had begun by selling papers and had worked up a route of their own in connection with their selling. Although these boys carried papers they were on the whole untypical, in almost every way, of the great majority of carriers. Only 30 of the 245 more typical carriers who had no other street job at the time of the study, had ever had any other street job; 2 had been magazine carriers, 19 newspaper sellers, bootblacks, or both, 7 peddlers, 1 a helper on an ice wagon, and 1 a handbill distributor, at some time in their lives. Of the 70 who sold papers or did some other street work in addition to handling a route 16 had done other street work in the past; 11 had been newspaper sellers or bootblacks, 2 peddlers, 2 had delivered magazines, and 1 had operated a sausage-roasting stand. A few carriers (37) had work of another kind, such as delivering groceries, selling in stores, or working in newspaper offices. The carrier of 14 or 15 more often than the younger boy had an extra job. However, 16 of the 37 were under 14 years of age, and a few of them worked 5, 6, or 7 days a week from one-half to five hours a day. About one-fifth of all the carriers had had some work experience other than street work, most of them in only one other job. The majority of the carriers had had but one route. Half (50 per cent) had held their routes for at least one year, and more than onefourth (27 per cent) for at least two years. Some of the boys had had their routes for three years or longer and a few for at least five years. (Table 62.) Almost all these boys had good or excellent school records, and 1 was saving to go to college. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 259 W IL K E S-B A R R E , PA. T a b l e 62. — P r ev io u s d u ra tion o f jo b held at date o f in terview , b y age p erio d ; n ew s p a p er carriers, W ilk e s -B a r r e , P a . Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age 14 years, 12 years, 10 years, under 16 under 14 under 12 Un der 10 Per Per Per Per years1 Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent distri ber distri ber distri ber ber distri bution bution bution bution Total Previous duration of job held at date of interview 86 124 42 63 Total reported............... . .............. ........ 308 100.0 38 62 100.0 122 100.0 86 100.0 Less than 1 year......... - ------ --------- 154 50.0 20 37 59.7 59 48.4 38 44.2 113 36.7 17 31 50.0 41 33.6 24 27.9 Less than 2 months______ 2 months, less than 4 ___ 4 months, less than 6_ ___ 41 43 29 13.3 14.0 9.4 7 4 6 15 10 6 24.2 16.1 9.7 14 17 10 11.5 13.9 8.2 5 12 7 5.8 14.0 8.1 6 months, less than 1 year____ 41 13.3 3 6 9.7 18 14.8 14 16.3 1 year, less than 2________________ 2 years, less than 3....... ................... 3 years and over................. ............. 70 48 36 22.7 15.6 11.7 9 7 2 15 6 4 24.2 9.7 6.5 27 21 15 22.1 17.2 12.3 19 14 15 22.1 16.3 17.4 4 1 315 Less than 6 months..... ......... 7 2 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. C O N D IT IO N S OF E M P L O Y M E N T The majority of the carriers were regularly employed by the newspaper corporation whose papers they distributed, but about one-fifth, in addition to those boys who worked only as helpers, worked on their own account, purchasing their papers, like other newsboys, at the main office of the paper or through an agent. (Table 63.) Such independent carrying was usually done in con nection with Sunday papers. T a b l e 63. — T y p e o f em p lo ye r, b y age p eriod o f ca rrier; n e w sp a p er ca rriers, W i l k e s B a rre, P a . Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age 14 years, 12 years, 10 years, under 16 under 14 under 12 Un der 10 Per Per Per Per Num cent years1Num cent Num cent Num cent ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri bution. bution bution bution Total Type of employer Total......... .................................... 315 100.0 42 63 100.0 124 100.0 86 100.0 Newspaper company or agent- --------Self ........................... ................... . Other carrier. ------------- ------------------Self and newspaper company or agent. Newspaper company or agent and other carrier---------- --------- ------------- 160 67 70 9 50.8 21.3 22.2 2.9 2 6 31 19 11 28 2 30.2 17.5 44.4 3.2 74 33 11 5 59.7 26.6 8.9 4.0 65 17 75.6 19.8 2 2.3 8 1 2.5 .3 3 3 4.8 1 .8 1 1 1.2 1.2 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 260 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K Carriers were recruited through other carriers, though teachers sometimes recommended boys in need of a job. It was said that the jobs had always more applicants than were needed. In a num ber ol families the route was an “ hereditary office, ” though no doubt very few families were able to supply such a succession of claimants as that of one boy who said with pride, “ M y brother who is 26 years old used to have this very same route, and now we still have it. t iVxrM1 re^ui 1ar emPloy ee the carrier has certain definite responsibilities. In Wilkes-Barre he was required to keep a “ route book” with an up-to-date list of his customers and their addresses. The newspaper o ^ e s «ad definite regulations in regard to the character of service the boy was expected to' give, such as notifying the office in case of inability to work, and penalties for “ slapping” customers and other complaints of neglect of duty. The building up of routes was left largely to the boy’s own initiative. Several of the papers gave 25 ° r ur S“ * * ® each new subscriber, and one of them once a month published the names of the boys who had obtained new customers uring the month. Sometimes the papers gave prizes, amounting to as much as $50 (one boy had received a gold watch) to carriers getting new subscribers When a route reached a specified size the wage paid the carrier by the newspaper was usually increased. Some of the carriers called for their papers at the down-town newspaper offices or at the office of the agent handling Sunday and out-of-town papers. In these offices they encountered the same con ditions and the same distribution men as the street sellers. (See pp. 231-233.) Many, however, did not have to get their papers across the counter m the mam offices but received them at a street corner m the neighborhood of their routes, where the papers were thrown from a trolley. Only 49 of the carriers had routes in the business districts, serving stores, hotels, banks, and offices mostly around the square and on streets leading off from the square. These were generally older boys. The others delivered entirely in residential sections of the city. The majority of the boys delivered at least 50 papers; the largest number (85) of the 288 boys reporting the number of papers that they earned on their daily route delivered between 50 and 75, but 64 boys 0-2 per cent) delivered from 75 to 200 or more papers. Many of the boys earned the papers about in children’s express wagons, but some bundled them up in straps and slung them over their shoulders. who had just bought a 7-foot strap for his 123 newspapers said that it was hardly long enough to hold them all. When the papers were unusually heavy the company furnished a boy helper at 35 cents a route to accompany the regular carrier. R EG U L A R IT Y OF W O R K The carrier must deliver his papers, rain or shine, unlike the street newsboy, who may sell or not as he chooses. The great majonty of the typical carriers (173, or 71 per cent) worked on all five school days and on Saturdays, and 16 others worked seven days a week, -rorty-one of the carriers worked only on Saturdays or Sun days or both; almost all these boys delivered Sunday papers, usually only on Sunday morning, though some worked both Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning on Sunday-paper routes. Except for https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis W IL K E S-B A R R E , BA. 261 one boy whose brother carried his route on Saturday so that he could work in a store, the carriers working only on school days were helpers or carried one of several foreign-language papers, which were not issued every day. H O U R S OF W O R K Of 169 boys delivering morning papers, 72 delivered on school days and 97 only on Saturdays or Sundays, generally Sundays. Eight of the typical carriers had both a morning and an afternoon route on school days, and 6 other morning carriers either carried or did some other street work in the afternoons. Excluding the boys who did some other street work in addition to their routes and whose hours therefore were not always typical of the hours for carrying, it was found that on school days 46 of the carriers delivered papers before 6 o’clock. Although it was in general the older boys who went out on morning routes (the daily morning carriers included 23 highschool boys and the Sunday morning carriers 11), 6 of the boys were under 12 years of age and 24 were under 14. Nine carriers of daily papers, of whom 3 were under 12, began their work before 5 a. m. Most of these went out every morning, some of them be ginning their work as early as 4 or 4.30, but several carried papers only a few times a week. On Sundays the carriers did not have to begin their work so early as on week days; 5 boys began their work before 6 a. m., only 1 of whom was under 12 years of age. A 10-yearold boy, a Hungarian Jew, who was an independent carrier, set his alarm for 3 o ’clock and started on his route at 3.30. The early hours of the morning carrier constitute one of the few objectionable features of .carrying newspapers on a route. Almost all the carriers of the morning daily had to rise by 5 at the latest, which would have meant, if the 12-year-old or 13-year-old boy were to receive sufficient sleep, going to bed about 7. Other investiga tions have quoted teachers to the effect that children who do earlymorning work come to school so sleepy and tired that they can not keep awake. In the present study teachers were not interviewed in regard to the effects of street work on their pupils, but one school principal, who was inclined to see nothing but good in the work of the carrier, volunteered the story of a boy in his school who rising at 4 each morning to deliver papers habitually went to sleep in class about 11 o’clock. Parents also sometimes said that morning work made the boys “ cranky.” The hours of the carriers of afternoon papers are unobjectionable. The great majority (83 per cent) of the afternoon carriers who had no other street work finished on school days before 6 o ’clock, and all finished their work before 8 p. m. Of the few carriers who as a rule did not finish their routes until after 6.30 almost all sold papers, blacked boots, peddled, or did some other street work before beginning to carry their papers or carried papers in the intervals of the other jobs. One of the very few cases of hardship in hours among the carriers who did not work on morning routes was that of a 13-yearold Greek boy who had worked every night except Sunday for three months from 9.30 to 12.30 delivering a Greek newspaper that came in on an evening train which was often late. As almost all the morning carriers ended their work before 8 o ’clock and the great majority of the afternoon carriers completed https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 262 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K theirs before 6, as a rule the boys were able to have meals at home at reasonable hours, though not always with the family. A newspaper route seldom means more than an hour’s work a day. (la b le 64.) The great majority of the 204 typical carriers working on school days worked less than an hour, and almost all the carriers who reported working two hours or more on street work had some other work in addition to their routes. The 5 typical carriers who worked two hours or more owed their unusually long hours to some unusual cncumstance. One independent carrier, for example, who collected each day had to wait for his customers, who might be away from their places of business where he delivered the paper; another got Philadelphia papers at the railroad station and had to open the bundles and count out his own before starting out on his route. A few of the carriers with extra jobs worked very long hours. Among these the case of a 14-year-old boy is interesting though not typical. Ihe boy worked five hours a day six days a week as a threader in a lace mill, spent an hour and a half on school days and an hour on Saturdays on his paper route, and attended high school 4 ^ hours a ran 11-hour day (exclusive of lessons to be prepared at home) on school days and 6 hours on Saturdays, or 61 hours a week. His father, a machinist’s helper in a railroad shop, was out on strike, and the family, in which there were four other children, reported that they were in need of the boy’s earnings. T a b l e 6 4 — Number of hours of street work on a typical school day, by age period; newspaper carriers holding a single job, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. I j — Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Number of hours of street work on a typical school day Total................................. Street work on school days. Less than 1 horn-....... ................ 1 hour, less than 2........ ...... 2 hours and over........................ No street work on school days ____ 12 years, under 14 years, under 14 16 Total 10 Under years, 10 Per under years 1 Num cent 121 ber distri bution 245 Num ber Per cent distri bution Num ber Per cent distri bution 31 45 97 204 100.0 27 36~ 78 100.0 63 100.0 138 61 5 67.6 29.9 2.5 19 27 2 1 57 21 73.1 26.9 35 26 55.6 41.3 3.2 4 9 41 72 19 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Carriers had longer hours on Saturdays and Sundays than on school days. Although 60 per cent of the 210 typical carriers work ing on Saturday worked less than an hour, 18 boys (9 per cent) worked at least two hours, usually those with a heavy Sunday-paper route which they delivered Saturday afternoon. Sunday hours were longest. All except 10 of the 52 typical carriers working on Sundays worked at least 2 hours. A few boys worked 7, 8, or 9 hours deliver ing Sunday papers. A 15-year-old boy worked from 6 a. m. to 1 p. m. distributing with his brother’s help 401 Philadelphia, New York, Scranton, and local Sunday papers; a 13-year-old boy dis https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 263 W IL K E S -B A B B E , PA. tributed Sunday papers from 7 a. m. until 1 p. m; and another, also 13 years of age, worked from 4 a. m. until 1 p. m. on a route of about 200 papers. Sunday work increased the number of hours per week, though even with Sunday work only 7 (3 per cent) of the 245 boys whose street work was confined to carrying worked 12 hours or more a week, and only 1 worked as much as 16 hours. Almost half (46 per cent) worked less than 4 hours a week delivering papers. (Table 65.) EARNINGS The majority of the carriers were employed at a flat sum, receiving from $3.50 to $6.50 a month for delivering the evening papers and about $8 a month for the morning papers. Payments were made biweekly. When boys worked in groups as some of them did (usually two or three brothers) they did not always know how much their individual earnings were, and a few carriers worked without pay; but 231 boys who did no other street work except carrying were able to report the amount of their earnings, if any, from their routes. The majority (•54 per cent) received between $1 and $3 per week. (Table 65.) Only 15 carriers made as much as $3 a week from their routes, includ ing boys who had both a morning and an afternoon route or who delivered Sunday papers in addition to a daily, and none made as much as $6. Thus, 88 per cent of the carriers reporting their earn ings made less than $3 a week. Carriers made considerably less than the more enterprising newspaper sellers, for though about the same proportion of carriers as of sellers made less than $1, many ♦ m o r e sellers than carriers earned $3 or more. T a b l e 65. -Earnings during a typical week, by number of hours engaged; news paper carriers holding a single job, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Working specified number of, hours per week Total Earnings during a typical week Less than 4 hours Per Num cent ber distri bution Total_____ _____ 245 Num ber 100.0 Less than $0.25........ $0.25, less than $0.50. $0.50, less than $1__ $1, less than $2......... $2, less than $3......... $3 and over......... . No earnings............. 11.3 3.5 19.5 32.5 21.6 6.5 5.2 109 Not reported................. 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. 75034°— 28------- 18 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Per cent distri bution Num ber 100.0 90 113 Total reported............... . 4 hours, less than 8 Per cent distri bution 99 17.4 5.5 21.1 35.8 11.0 1.8 7.3 Hours not re 8 hours ported i and over 1 32 100.0 5.6 2.2 20.0 33.3 27.8 8.9 2.2 31 264 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K A few of the carriers who did other street work also reported that they had made considerable amounts, some of them $10 or more a week, but these boys usually did a good deal of selling. A 13-yearold schoolboy making $8 a week and working 3234 hours sold and carried both morning and afternoon (except Saturday afternoon). He had worked up his own routes and had about 40 customers. Another boy, 13 years old, making $8.50, earned the greater part of it selling newspapers but had worked up a route, chiefly in office buildings, while selling. A 15-year-old Polish boy made $9.30 selling and carrying newspapers. He worked both morning and afternoon, 37)4 hours a week. Few carriers ever received tips except in connection with the sale of calendars at New Year’s, which they bought at a small cost from the newspaper and sold to their customers for whatever they were willing to pay. One boy reported that he netted as high as $15 on a day’s sale of these calendars. N E E D F O R E A R N IN G S The carriers were recruited from the families of all classes of wage earners and small-salaried men. Occupationally their families were representative of the entire city, except that the professional group was only slightly represented (only 3 of the 315 carriers, 2 of whom were only helpers, had fathers in a professional occupation, whereas 4 per cent of the male workers of the city 20 years of age or older were in the professional class) and the fathers of carriers in business or trade were usually owners of small neighborhood stores. But the parallel among all other occupational groups was striking. The pro portion of chief breadwinners in carriers’ families who were in the mining industry, in manufacturing, and in trade was almost exactly the same as among all employed males in the city. For the other principal groups of industries, the greatest difference was between men engaged in transportation. Even in this group, however, the proportion of chief breadwinners in carrier’ s families was only 4 per cent larger than that among the total number of employed males in the city. More than twice as many carriers as other newsboys had fathers in clerical occupations, and three times as many had fathers who were skilled mechanics in the building trades. In the main the carriers, like the other street workers, car$e from normal homes in which the father and mother were present and the father earned the living for the family. Four-fifths of the boys came from such homes. The remaining one-fifth (64 boys) were in families in which some abnormal condition existed; the mother or the father, or both, were dead or had deserted, or the father, though at home, was ill or incapacitated and the mother or an older brother was the principal support of the family. The mother was the chief breadwinner in the families of 14 boys. Most of the mothers acting as chief breadwinners in carriers’ families were widows, though in a few instances the father had been ill for a long time and unable to work. Most of them worked at home, principally as laundresses or as proprietors of small grocery stores. The majority of the carriers in these families were typical paper-route boys, doing no other street work. One of these families was typical of a carrier’s family in which his earnings were felt to be needed. A mother was struggling to support her six children on the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis W IL K E S-B A R R E , P A. 265 $18 a week which she earned as a weaver in a silk factory, assisted by the grandmother, who owned the house in which they lived, and whatever the children could earn. Two older children, who were in high school, assisted by working in stores after school and during vacations, and the 12-year-old boy earned $5 a month on his paper route. This family hoped to send all the children through high school. Less typical of the carrier’s family was that of a 13-year-old Italian boy who in addition to his route both sold newspapers and did bootblacking, earning about $4 a week for about 20 hours’ work. His father, a laborer in the breakers, was ill and had been unable to work for many months. The family of six was supported by the mother and a sister of 15 by means of a small grocery store which the mother had just opened and for which she was heavily in debt. Although not the main support of their families, the mothers of 30 other carriers were employed (not including those who kept boarders or lodgers), about half of them away from home. These women worked principally as laundresses, charwomen, and saleswomen, though several owned small businesses. In most of these families the boy’s own father was the principal breadwinner, and they were chiefly the families of the less typical carriers who did some other street work, generally selling papers, in addition to having a paper route. As in the case of the other street workers, an effort was made through interviews with parents to obtain information showing the extent of the need of the boy’s earnings. Visits were made to 93 carriers’ families in which were 122 (almost two-fifths) of the carriers included in the study. The widespread unemployment in Wilkes-Barre in 1922 (see p.243) had affected carriers’ families far less than those of other street workers, as a comparatively small proportion of chief breadwinners in carrier’s families were in mining, the industry in which unemploy ment had been most serious. Only about half as many of the carriers’ chief breadwinners as of the other street workers, in proportion, had been unemployed and had had a period or periods of unemployment extending over six months or more. Nevertheless 56 per cent of the carriers’ chief breadwinners in families visited and reporting on un employment had been unemployed during the year, 35 per cent had had at least three months’ unemployment, and 20 per cent at least six months’ . This fact no doubt accounts for the abnormally low earnings reported. Forty-one of the chief breadwinners reporting had earned less than $1,050 during the year preceding the inquiry. Earnings of other members of the family brought the median family income up to between $1,250 and $1,450, 47 per cent of the families reporting having earnings of at least $1,450. Carriers’ families aver aged 6.6 members with an average of three children under 14 years of age. . . . . , Certain conditions indicated, however, that m normal times carriers families were about as prosperous as the average. Thus, 28 (30 per cent) of the 93 families visited owned without encumbrance the houses in which they lived, compared with the fact that only 20 per cent of the total number of homes in Wilkes-Barre were owned without encumbrance.98 Overcrowding amounting to an average of more than »8 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. II, Population, p. 1299. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 266 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K 1.5 persons (that is, for example, households of 6 with fewer than 4 rooms) was present in only 11 per cent of the carriers’ families, only one-third as large a proportion as was found among other street traders’ families. In spite of higher incomes and the large number of native families among them the proportion of carriers’ families receiving assistance from some public agency was almost as large as that of the other street workers. The extent of the aid is accounted for, however, by widowhood and illness rather than by unemployment. Among the group of more typical carriers, 11 families with 16 boys (7 per cent of the total number), and among the group of carriers with some other street job, 5 families with 7 boys (3 per cent of the total number) had received charitable aid, including nursing care, in 1921 or 1922. In 7 of the 16 families the mother was a widow and in 1 the father had been ill for more than a year; 2 of the widows received pensions from the mothers’ assistance fund, and the 6 other mothers were assisted by the poor board or the United Charities, either by a regular pension or by contributions of money, food, or clothing.^ Only 4 other fami lies received any assistance other than nursing care; 2 had had aid from the United Charities or the poor board and 2 from the needyfamilies fund. (See p. 244.) R E A S O N S F O R U N D E R T A K IN G S T R E E T W O R K The reasons given by carriers for undertaking their first street jobs paralleled closely those given by newspaper sellers and other street workers, except that more carriers had begun by helping some other boy. The majority of the boys (165 of the 315) said that their prin cipal motive in undertaking a newspaper route had been the desire t o ^ work (some of them simply to “ be doing something,” others, to earn spending money or money for some specific object, such as a bicycle or music lessons), or the desire to do what their friends were doing, or to help their friends or brothers. Thirty boys (10 per cent) said that they had first done the work because their parents desired it. Some of these parents may have urged the work because they wished the boy to help buy his clothes or otherwise share in the family expenses, but none of these boys said that they had gone to work because the family needed the money. It was clear from talks with the parents of carriers that many of them valued highly the training and experience that they believed the responsibility of handling a route gave. They desired the work for their boys because “ It gives him ambition to get somewhere” ; “ It is good for a boy to be responsible for some real work” ; “ Boys who do no work get lazy” ; “ It is nice for a boy to have a job of his own, though his money is barely worth considering” ; “ It gives him some thing to do and keeps him out of mischief” ; “ It makes the boy thrifty.” One or two parents even felt that the work would “ wake the boy u p ” and make him do better school work. A small proportion of the carriers, however (35, or 11 per cent— almost as many as among the other street workers), gave family need as their reason for undertaking their first street job. Like the other street workers the younger boys were not at work because their M families needed their help; only 8 of the 105 carriers under 12 years'Wof age, a smaller proportion than among the older carriers, said that their reason for taking their first street job had been to help with https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 267 W IL K E S-B A R R E , PA. family expenses. In five of these families the father was dead or had deserted, in one he was ill, and two of the families had five or six children under 16 and very small incomes. D IS P O S IT IO N O F. E A R N IN G S The majority of the carriers, like the newsboys and bootblacks, and perhaps like them influenced to some extent by need resulting from the coal and railroad strikes, gave at least part of their earnings to help with family expenses. (Table 66.) Among the 171 boys who contributed toward the family support were 28 who turned in all that they earned, and 4 who used all their earnings for their own necessi ties, usually clothing, and for family expenses. Eight other carriers used all that they made for their own necessities. Thus 40 boys (13 per cent of all the carriers) used all the money earned from their routes for the necessities of life, either for themselves or for their families, a proportion not very much smaller than among the news boys and bootblacks (see p. 248), and, as among the latter, similar to the proportion of fatherless families and to the proportion claiming economic necessity as their reason for working. Assistance for the family was demanded on the score of widowhood to a much greater extent among carriers than among other street workers; only 7 per cent of the 259 carriers whose own fathers were the chief breadwinners in their families gave all their earnings for family expenses, whereas of the 56 boys who were supported by others than their own fathers, 18 per cent contributed all that they made toward the family budget. Boys making at least $2 a week were somewhat more likely than those making less than $2 to contribute to the family income; 51 per cent of the boys who earned less than $2 contributed as com pared with 61 per cent of those who earned $2 or more. T a b l e 6 6 .— Disposition of earnings; newspaper carriers, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Disposition of earnings1 Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age Disposition of earnings 1 Num Percent distri ber bution cent Num Per distri ber bution Total reported—Continued. Part to family and part for self2. Total______________________ 315 Total reported___________________ 313 100.0 129 41.2 8 12 2.6 3.8 15 2 28 48 .6 8.9 13 29 4.2 9.3 19 3 6.1 1.0 Spent for necessities----------Spent for luxuries................ Spent for necessities and luxuries. _ ................. —. Spent for expenses only____ Saved------ --------------- -------Saved and spent for necessi ties ------------- ---------------Saved and spent for luxuries. Saved and spent for necessi ties and luxuries................ Saved and not specified------ Spent for necessities---------Spent for luxuries-------------Spent for necessities and lux uries____________ _______ Spent for expenses only-----Saved____________________ Saved and spent for necessi ties__________ ____ ____ Saved and spent for luxuries. Saved and spent for necessi ties and luxuries............... Saved and spent for ex penses only.......... ............ All to family— .......................... No earnings...... .......................... Not reported------ ------- ------------------ 1 Earnings spent for necessities, luxuries, or both, may include expenses of job. 2 Subsidiary items show disposition of part spent for self. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Newspaper carriers from 6 to 15 years of age 143 45.7 4 54 1.3 17.3 14 45 .3 3.8 1 12 1 36 .3 11.5 20 6.4 1 .3 8.9 42 28 13 2 268 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K None of the boys whose chief breadwinners had earned $1,250 or more gave all their own earnings for the family support. Boys whose fathers were in the higher-income groups were more likely than the others both to save and to have part of their earnings for spending money. That unemployment also affected the disposition of the boys’ earnings is shown by the fact that 2 of the 50 carriers, among those whose homes were visited, whose chief breadwinners had been unemployed less than two months or who had had no unemployment, used all their earnings, and 26 used at least part of their earnings for family expenses, whereas of the 31 carriers whose chief breadwinners had been out of work two months or more, 3 used all their earnings for the family and 17 used at least part. More than half (52 per cent) of the boys saved some of then- money, including 28 boys (9 per cent) who saved all that they made— higher proportions than those found among newsboys and bootblacks. The carriers more often than the newsboys and bootblacks, however, were saving their money for some specific object dear to a boy’s heart— a bicycle, a motion-picture machine, summer camp, or a musical instrument— though others were saving for Christmas savings clubs, the school bank, or a college education. A large majority (64 per cent), larger than the proportion among newsboys and boot blacks, kept something for spending money, including 12 boys who spent all that they made on their own pleasures. Almost all the latter were little boys, under 10, making only a few cents a week. The great majority of the carriers were likely to use their money in a variety of ways. Very often among these boys the bulk went for family and clothing, and the boy had a small sum for spending money. The following are typical cases: A 14-year-old boy of native parentage, whose father was a bookbinder, made 98 cents a week on a regular route which he had had for two years. He gave some . money to his family, helped to buy his own clothing, had saved about 830, and had bought a tire for his bicycle and a pocket knife. Another 14-year-old boy, of Welsh parentage, whose father was a spragger in the mines, earned $2 a week on a regular route which he had had for eight months. He was saving $2 a month to buy a bicycle and he bought his own clothes. He gave none to his family. The earned family income was $1,328 despite six months’ unemployment of the father. The mother worked as cleaner in a bank, and a boy of 16 and a girl of 20 were also at work. Only two children m the family were under 16. A school boy making $2 a week on a regular route, which he had had for a year, clothed himself almost entirely and had about 75 cents spending money every biweekly pay day. He contributed nothing to his family. In addition to his morning-paper route he worked three hours every afternoon in a newspaper office. _________ A substitute carrier, 10 years old, earning 23 cents a week, helped to buy his shoes and had some money to go to a show each week. The 13-year-old son of a miner earned $2 a week on an afternoon paper route which he had held for two years. He bought his own shoes, put some money m the school bank, went to two or three movies a week, and gave the rest of tne money to his mother for family expenses. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis W IL K E S-B A R R E , BA. 269 A 13-year-old carrier, the son of a truck driver, earned $2 a week. He saved some of his money, had paid a dentist’s bill of $36.50, and helped to buy his clothes. He said he got very little spending money. A 15-year-old high-school boy living with an uncle and aunt had had his route for six years, earning at the time of the interview $2.92 a week. He clothed himself entirely, had $5 in the bank, and used some of his earnings for spending money. A high-school boy making $1.03 a week on an afternoon route, which he had had for several months and at which he worked about four hours a week, bought his clothes, spent about $1 a month “ for fun,” had $2.37 in the school bank, and contributed some money to his family. A carrier, 13 years of age, making a little more than $5 a week on a morning and an afternoon route, at both of which he worked only about an hour a day, calculated that he could save two-thirds of what would be necessary to carry him through college. Besides his savings he was paying for music lessons, saving for a bicycle, and helping his family to buy a house. He compared his earnings with those of a friend who worked for a dentist at $20 a month and got no time for schooling. CARRIERS IN SCHOOL Eighteen per cent of the carriers, as compared with 4 per cent of other street workers, were high-school boys. The carriers in ele mentary school were in every grade. Attendance. ^ W School-attendance records, which were obtained for 215 of the 235 boys who had been delivering papers at least part of the schobl year 1921-22, showed that only 20 boys (9 per cent) had been absent as much as 10 per cent of the term and that the average percentage of attendance was 94, exactly the same as the average percentage for all children in the Wilkes-Barre public schools for the same year (see p. 249). A number of the boys who had lost as much time as 10 per cent of the term were boys whose occupational life, exclusive of their work as carriers, may have influenced their school attendance for the worse. Two had other street work, one of whom, a 10-year-old Italian fruit peddler, was reported as a habitual truant; one, a Russian Jew who was saving money for a college education, sold candy several hours each evening in a theater; a fourth worked 33^ hours a day as a delivery boy. The school attendance of boys with foreign-born fathers was slightly better than that of the boys of native parentage. Truancy. w “ The amount of truancy among the 245 carriers who did no other street work except delivering papers was very small. Nine of these boys had been reported to the school-attendance department as absentees, but only 5 of these may be said actually to have been truant, the absences of the others having been proved due to illness or some other legitimate cause. The truancy of these 5 boys (2 per cent of the group of typical carriers) appeared to be in no way con nected with their work. Four of the 70 carriers who had other street work had been truant (one of these was the habitual truant referred to on p. 272), another had stayed out of school to shine shoes. The proportion (6 per cent) of truancy among this less typical group of carriers resembles that found among the street sellers. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 270 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R E Whether or not the carriers were more often truant than the general school population is not known, as no truancy figures for boys in all the public and parochial schools of Wilkes-Barre are available. Deportment. A mark in deportment for the school year ended June, 1922, was obtained for 204 of the carriers. Ninety-three had not worked in the school year 1921-22, or they had attended high school where no mark in deportment was given; 2 had not attended school in 1921-22; and no report could be found for 16 boys. Eighty-five carriers (42 per cent) had a deportment mark of at least 90, and 146 (72 per cent) had at least 80. The proportion of carriers marked at least 80 in deportment was not much larger than that of the other street traders, but the pro portion with deportment marks from 90 to 100 was one and one-half times as great. Although 15 boys (7 per cent) among the carriers had received less than 70, the passing mark, in deportment, only 1 per cent less than the proportion of other street workers who had failed to meet the minimum requirements of good behavior in school, an analysis of the 15 cases shows that 7 boys had other street work in addition to their paper routes. Among the 8 typical carriers with poor marks in deportment, 1, a 14-year-old boy, worked three hours a day in a cigar store in addition to his work as paper carrier, and the remaining 7 had morning-paper routes. The fact that these seven constituted 11 per cent of the boys with morning routes on school days and no other street work, whereas less than 1 per cent of the carriers with afternoon routes and no other street work were marked below 70 in deportment suggests the relation that might be suspected between lack of sleep and restlessness and mischievous behavior in school. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that the results of mental tests, which were available for 6 of the 15 boys marked below passing in deportment, showed that 2 were below average in intelli gence and 1 barely average, with an intelligence quotient of 86. The last boy also had a history of selling papers and bootblacking. Progress and scholarship. Carriers had made better than average progress in school. Among all boys 8 to 15 years of age below high-school grades in the WilkesBarre public schools, the proportion of those who were retarded or overage for their grades was 31 per cent, and of those who were advanced or underage for their grades was 5 per cent (see footnote 38, p. 22). Among the carriers only 19 per cent of those 8 to 15 years of age were retarded and 20 per cent were advanced; or if the highschool boys among the carriers are excluded in order to make the figures more strictly comparable only 22 per cent were retarded and 14 per cent were advanced. The proportion of those who were advanced in school as compared with all the public-school boys of Wilkes-Barre 99 is particularly noticeable, being more than twice as great. Carriers with foreign-born fathers were only slightly more retarded than the boys of native parentage, the proportions being 20 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively. So far as could be determined from the results of intelligence tests which had been given to 99 of the carriers, or about one-third of their 99 Fifty-one of the carriers attended parochial schools. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 271 W IL K E S -B A R R E , P A . total number, carriers were not markedly superior to the norm in native intelligence (see footnote 22, p. 103). Although the intelligence quotients of 85 per cent of the carriers showed them to be of average or superior intelligence, compared with 80 per cent as the norm, the percentage of carriers with superior intelligence was only 12 per cent compared with the normal 20 per cent. The unusually good progress that the carriers had made in school should be attributed, it would appear, to other qualities than superior intelligence. This bears out the statement made by representatives of the newspapers, teachers, and others that the carriers as a class were boys with the qualities of character that make for success, such as persistence, industry, and ambition. The fact that the longer the carriers had held their routes the less retarded they were (exactly the reverse of the findings in the case of the street sellers) tends to confirm this conclusion. Thus the pro portion of retarded pupils among carriers who had been working at their jobs less than one year was 26 per cent, whereas among those who had been working between one year and three years it was only 14 per cent. Of the 26 boys who had worked at least three years, only 3 were retarded. Moreover, 24 per cent of the boys who had delivered papers for at least one year were advanced in school, whereas only 16 per cent of those who had held their routes for less than one year were advanced. The smaller percentage of retardation among carriers who had had their routes for a year or more is the more remarkable in view of the fact that this group included many of the older boys, and the percentage of retardation, as a rule, is higher the greater the age of the pupils. The school standing of the carriers, excluding those who did other street work in addition to their routes, was superior to the school standing of the other street workers, as is seen by comparing the school records of the latter (see p. 253) with the following distributiou of marks for 167 carriers who had no other street work, who had worked during the school year ended June, 1922, and for whom records of scholarship were found: Average grade Total_______ - ________ Number of boys J ________________________ Percent distribution 167 Less than 70----------------------------------------70, less than 8 0 _________________________________ 80, less than 9 0 -------------------------------------------------------------- 64 90 or m ore. ____________ ,---------------------------------------------18 100 1710 68 41 38 H Among the group of 53 less typical carriers, those who had other street work, the proportion having marks in scholarship of less than 80 (54 per cent) and the proportion with marks below passing (13 per cent) were only slightly higher than among the more typical carriers; but among these boys only 2 (4 per cent) had marks of 90 or more (scarcely one-third as many in proportion as among the boys whose street work was confined to newspaper carrying), and 1 of these 2 was a magazine carrier. DELINQUENCY AMONG CARRIERS Only 7 (3 per cent) of the 245 carriers with no other street work (that is, the group of typical carriers) had juvenile-court records. One boy had been arrested two years before he had begun to carry https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 272 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K papers, and of the remaining 6 only 3 had more than trivial charges against them. In 2 of these cases insufficient spending money seemed to offer a more plausible explanation of the delinquency than any conditions associated with the boy’s route work. Five other carriers who sold papers or peddled in addition to deliv ering papers (7 per cent of this group) had court records. As the following stories show, the delinquency was generally related to the boy’s secondary occupation or might easily be ascribed to the con ditions of his street work other than carrying: A 15-year-old boy, who for six years had sold newspapers, had had an inde pendent paper route for two years. He had also blacked boots at 8 years of age. In 1919 he had been arrested charged with being a nuisance around the railroad station and in 1922 was again before the juvenile court for trespassing on the railroad. He sold papers morning and afternoon, going out to sell at 4 in the morning, and selling as late as 7 p. m. on week days and 9 on Saturdays. He was in only the fifth grade. A 13-year-old boy who had sold papers since he was 11 and carried them (independently) since he was 10, was brought before the court in the summer of 1922 charged with being a nuisance around the railroad station. He sold papers until 9 Saturday nights. This boy had an intelligence quotient of 116 and came from a prosperous home. He was saving all his money to go to college. A 14-year-old boy who had sold papers for two years and had a small inde pendent route stayed out selling papers until midnight Saturdays. His deport ment and standing in school were poor. In March, 1921, he was charged with entering a store at night with other boys, though he denied stealing anything. While he was oh probation his teacher complained that he smoked and played craps. A 10-year-old boy, in a very poor Italian family with six children, peddled fruit in addition to his route. In the summer of 1922 he was taken before the juvenile court on the charge, made by the police, of stealing newspapers. The boy said that he had run away from home and was sleeping in a field, and had stolen the papers to sell to buy food. He was put on probation; but at the time of the study, during which he was on probation, his teacher complained that he had been tardy, truant, and a runaway from home. In December, 1922, he stole a bicycle and traded it for a watch. The boy wished to be sent to a reformatory but was put on probation as he was said to have “ been filled with stories of the reform school and wished to see it.” A 13-year-old boy, whose conduct in school was poor, was the son of an Italian bootblack. The boy both sold and carried papers and blacked boots on the street. He had sold papers since he was 11. In October, 1922, he was brought before the court for stealing chickens. He said he had been out late selling papers and as he left the square at 1.30 in the morning to go home an older boy handed him a bag saying, “ Take this.” https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis PART III.— STREET WORK IN NEWARK AND PATERSON, N. J. INTRODUCTION The study of children engaged in street work in Newark and Pater son was part of a series of studies of child welfare in New Jersey, including several others relating to children at work, made in the spring and summer of 1925.1 The scope was somewhat different from that of the earlier Children’s Bureau studies of street workers. It included not only children who were engaged in the work at the time of the interview with the Children’s Bureau agent but all children under 16 years of age attending public but not parochial schools 2 who reported to their teachers that they had engaged in any street occupation between the close of school in June, 1924, and the date of the inquiry (between March and the close of school in June, 1925) and who when interviewed by a Children’s Bureau agent said that they had worked at least 26 days during that period. The inclusion of children who had stopped street work prior to the date of inquiry gave a larger statistical base and an opportunity to compare condi tions of work during summer vacation with those under which the children worked while attending school. Somewhat less detailed information than in the earlier studies was sought. Fewer inquiries were made of the children, no visits were paid to their homes, and a much less complete study was made of the business arrangements between the newspaper companies or the dealers and the boys selling or carrying newspapers, and of condi tions in and around newspaper-distributing rooms. In January, 1927, a representative of the Children’s Bureau re turned to Newark and Paterson and by observations on the street and through interviews with circulation managers, newspaper deal ers, and social workers, as well as with newsboys on the street, at tempted to ascertain whether or not conditions with respect to selling and carrying papers, numerically the most important street work in which the children engaged, were the same as in the spring of 1925. No change was reported by any of the persons consulted. The statistics presented are those gathered in 1925. . Table 67 shows the number of boys engaged in each of the princi pal kinds of street work in Newark, and the race and nationality of their fathers, and Table 88 (p. 313) shows the number in Paterson who sold or who carried papers, and the race and nationality of their fathers. 1 See Thirteenth Annual Report of the Chief of the Children’s Bureau, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 192 Ofthe^total number of school children in Newark, a little less than 25 per cent were enrolled in parochial chools, and of those in Paterson 17 per cent. ?.73 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis NEWARK, N. J. LEG AL R EG U LATIO N OF STR E E T W O R K Street work in Newark at the time of this study was regulated by a local ordinance. A section of the New Jersey law 3 provided for the issuance of “ age and working certificates” to children be tween 10 and 16 years of age permitting them to engage in certain light employment outside school hours, including running errands, selling newspapers, and bootblacking, and penalized any person, the members of any firm, or the officers or agents of any corpora tion employing, permitting, or allowing a child to work contrary to its provisions, but this provision was not applied to street workers, apparently because such children are not customarily employed but work on their own account. The Newark ordinance relating to newsboys, passed in 1904, some years before the State child labor law, prohibited boys under 10 years of age and girls under 16 from selling newspapers on the streets. It required boys between 10 and 14 to obtain permits and badges from the board of education specifying that application must be made by the parent and “ satisfactory proof” of age must be presented. The permit had to be renewed annually and worn conspicuously while the newsboy was at work. Children were prohibited from sell ing after 10 p. m. or between 9 a. m. and 3 p. m., but were allowed to sell at any hour before 9 in the morning. The ordinance provided that a child selling papers otherwise than in accordance with the regu lations should be arrested and put on probation or confined in an institution, the cost of maintenance in case of commitment to an institution being borne by the child’s parent or guardian.4 No other penalties were provided. At the time of the Children’s Bureau survey no age and working certificates were issued in Newark to newsboys or other street workers. Newsboy permits and badges were issued under the local ordinance by the city school-attendance department on application of the child and his parent in person. These had to be renewed on June 30 of each year. No evidence of age was required other than the school record if the child appeared to be 10 years of age. An effort was made by the department to enforce the law by occasional surveys of the streets in search of newsboys under 10 years old and boys selling papers after 10 p. m. At such times the entire staff of the department (26 attendance officers at the time of the study) was assigned to patrol the streets and bring into the office for warning any child found selling papers contrary to the provisions of the ordinance. The parent also was visited and warned. 2 New Jersey, Laws of 1914, ch. 223, see. 13. * Newark Ordinances, secs. 670-676a, ordinance approved Apr. 2, 1904. See Laws and Ordinances Regulating Street Work (U. S. Children’s Bureau Chart No. 15). 274 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis N E W A R K , N . J. 275 Of the 336 boys under 14 years of age who were selling papers when interviewed between March and June, 1925, only 50 said that they had permits, and 7 of these were under 10, the minimum age for newspaper selling according to tlie local ordinance. Agents of tne Children’s Bureau examined the records of newsboy permits, kept m the office of the school-attendance department, for the year of the study and found that only two boys in the study were recorded as having permits. N E W S P A P E R SELLERS Four hundred and sixty-seven Newark school boys had sold papers during the school year 1924-25, including 397 who were selling before or after school at the time of the interview.5 Four hundred and fifty had sold papers during the summer vacation of 1924. Only 71 of the newsboys had worked only during vacation. The great majority are included therefore in both groups of workers. R A C E A N D N A T IO N A L IT Y OF F A T H E R S The newsboys were largely from the homes of immigrants, chiefly Italians. The proportion of negro newsboys, also, was large compared with the proportion of negroes in the population of Newark, which in 1920 was only 4 per cent.6 As has been said, the groups selling during the school period and during the summer vacation were largely the same boys. (Table 67.) E C O N O M IC C O N D IT IO N OF FA M ILIES No attempt was made to obtain information on wages or incomes ^ o f either the fathers or the families of the newsboys, but the father’s (or other chief breadwinner’s) occupation, the extent of widowhood, and the gainful employment of mothers, items regarding which inquiry was made, give an idea of the economic status of the families, and indicate, though in a very general way, whether or not economic necessity had compelled the boys to undertake newspaper sellmg. Among the boys selling papers during vacation, 74 (16 per cent) and among those selling during the school term, 71 (15 per cent) had no father, not even a stepfather nor a foster father, providing for their families. These boys may be regarded from the point of view of the economic condition of the family as coming from fatherless homes. Among the vacation workers 40 (9 per cent) and among the other newsboys 38 (8 per cent) were in families supported by mothers. Apparently a very small number of the boys could have been working to support a widowed family. » One girl reported selling papers m vacation, a child of 7, of Jewish parentage, who had sold papers four weeks in the summer of 1924, every weekday from 3 to 6 p. m. During the school year 1924-25 ^ other girls aged 11,12, and 13, all of foreign parentage, had sold papers 15, 32, and 10 weeks. respectively, and aU three were selling at the time of the interview. The oldest girl substituted for a brother severalAimes a week, half an hour on week-day afternoons and from 7 to 10 a. m. on Sundays, selhngm a residential neighbo hood. The 11-year-old girl sold in a business section from 4 to 5 p. m. daily. The other girl sold at her father’s news stand from 10 to 11 Saturday mornings. None of the girls is ih clu d ^ m the tablM. 6 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. II, Population, p. 56. Washington, 1922. * https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 276 T CHILDREN1 IN STREET W O R K able 67. Race and nationality of father and period in which work occurred/ boys engaged in certain types of street trades, Newark, N . J. Boys under 16 years of age Race and nationality of father Newspaper sellers Num ber Per cent distri bution Newspaper carriers Bootblacks Num ber Per cent distri bution Num ber Per cent distri bution Peddlers Num ber Per cent distri bution SCHOOL TEEM Total........................................... 467 100.0 679 100.0 387 100.0 243 100.0 393 84.2 653 96.2 293 75.7 226 93.0 80 310 17.1 66.1 259 384 38.1 56.6 19 273 4.9 70.5 58 164 23 9 67.5 Italian..................................... Russian Jewish....................... Other Jewish____ ____ Polish_____________ German_______________ Other foreign born and foreign born not otherwise specified_________________ 169 19 6 41 4 36.2 4.1 1.3 8.8 .9 109 69 25 26 55 16.1 10.2 37 3.8 8.1 251 64.9 76 31 3 5 1.3 12 9 4.9 3.7 71 15.2 100 14.7 17 4.4 26 10.7 Nativity not reported................... 3 .6 10 1.5 1 .3 4 1.6 74 15.8 26 3.8 94 24.3 17 7.0 450 100.0 407 100.0 340 100.0 343 100.0 393 87.3 395 97.1 261 76.8 309 901 66 323 14.7 71.8 148 244 36.4 60.0 13 246 3.8 72.4 68 235 19 8 68.5 156 21 14 45 5 34.7 4. 7 3.1 10.0 1.1 75 42 22 9 33 18.4 10.3 fi. 4 2.2 8.1 229 67.4 110 32 1 3 1 .9 .3 21 16 61 82 18.2 63 15.5 13 3.8 39 11.4 4 .9 3 .7 2 .6 6 1.7 57 12.7 12 2.9 79 23.2 34 9.9 White_________________ N ative................................ Foreign bom............................... Negro....................................... VACATION T o ta l....................................... White_____ ____ i Native............... .................. Foreign born....... ...................... Italian.... ................. Russian Jewish_________ Other Jewish________ Polish_____ ____ ____ German____________ Other foreign bern and foreign born not otherwise specified........... .................. Nativity not reported................. Negro...................................... j About one-third (32 per cent of both groups of the newsboys) were m families in which the mother helped supplement the income, excluding those who were the chief support of their families. The chief breadwinners in the families of about one-fourth of the boys in each group were laborers in the building trades, in factories, or in transportation; or were engaged in domestic and personal service; or were peddlers. Such workers were presumably in receipt of a comparatively small or uncertain income. The proportion in domes tic and personal service was more than twice that for all employed males of 20 years of^ age and over in Newark, whereas the proportion in professional and in clerical pursuits was only one-third of that for the male workers in the city.7 The great majority, however, were in families in which the chief breadwinner’s occupation indicated that they probably enjoyed as much prosperity as the average wage W a S S o n * ! ^ 611808 ° f th ® U nited States’ 1920’ Vo1, IV * P oP O & tion . O ccupations, pp. 1179-1181. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 277 NEWARK, N. J. earner’s family. One-fourth had chief breadwinners who were factory operatives, and almost one-third came from families where the heads of the household were machinists and mechanics, contractors and foremen or skilled workers in the building trades, skilled workers in factories, commercial travelers, clerks and professional workers, workers in public service, owners, of businesses, and, in a few cases, factory or shop owners. A G E OF N E W S B O Y S The Newark newsboys were younger than those in the other cities surveyed by the Children’s Bureau— about one-fifth were under 10 years of age and about half were under 12. Very young children were selling papers on the streets. The vacation newsboys included two 6-year-old boys and 15 who were 7 years of age; even among the group working during the school period 15 were under 8 years old. Table 68 shows the children’s ages when they were interviewed. As the groups were composed largely of the same children little differ ence in age would be expected. D U R A T IO N O F S T R E E T W O R K The great majority (86 per cent) of the vacation workers had sold papers between 9 and 10 weeks, approximately the entire summer vacation. The boys who had sold while school was in session could have worked a maximum period of about six months to about nine months; that is, from early in September, when school began, to a date between the latter part of March, when the first boys were inter viewed, to the close of school in June. Seventy per cent of the boys had worked at least 24 weeks while also attending school, and many i^had sold during the summer vacation. No inquiry was made as to the length of time the boys had been selling newspapers or doing othen street work prior to the beginning of the summer vacation in 1924. T able 6 8 . — Age at date of interview and period in which work occurred; newspaper sellers and carriers, Newark, N . J. Boys under 16 years of age Boys under 16 years of age Age at date of interview Newspaper sellers Newspaper carriers Age at date of interview Newspaper sellers Newspaper carriers Per Per Num cent Num cent distri ber distri ber bution bution Per Per Num cent Num cent distri ber distri ber bution bution VACATION SCHOOL TERM 679 Total________ 467 Total reported—....... 467 100.0 677 100.0 2 13 24 58 52 88 83 75 44 28 .4 2.8 5.1 12.4 11.1 18.8 17.8 16.1 9.4 6.0 6 18 13 30 67 95 127 151 123 47 .9 2.7 1.9 4.4 9.9 14.0 18.8 22.3 18.2 6.9 2 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 407 Total________ 450 Total reported_____ 450 100.0 405 100.0 2 15 20 50 57 75 84 80 40 27 .4 3.3 4.4 11.1 12.7 16.7 18.7 17.8 8.9 6.0 1 10 5 21 41 50 65 98 85 29 .2 2.5 1.2 5.2 10.1 12.3 16.0 24.2 21.0 7.2 6 years............— 7 years..... ......... . 8 years_________ 9 years.......... . 10 years________ 11 years________ 12 years________ 13 years________ 14 years________ •15 years________ Not reported_______ 2 278 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K C O N D IT IO N S OF W O R K Most of the Newark newsboys sold one of three daily papers. Two of these papers had four or five editions, beginning at about 11 a. m. and issued every hour or so. The other was a morning paper with a Sunday edition. One other Sunday paper coming from the press not later than 3.30 a. m. and many New York papers, both daily and Sunday, were sold on the streets. The New York papers and one of the local Sunday papers were distributed through two wholesale news dealers, but the other local papers were distributed by the newspapers themselves from their down-town offices, though some newsboys were supplied at convenient corners. All paid cash for their papers, and no returns were allowed. The boys usually bought a few papers at a time and if they sold these came back for more. They were not assigned to their locations nor supervised in any way. The busy down-town comers were well supplied with news stands and the boys occupied the less important points or sold up and down the streets. The business arrangements between the newsboys and the dealers handling out-of-town and Sunday papers were similar. The boys called at the down-town offices for their papers, paid cash for them, and took them out to sell wherever they could. Of the 397 newsboys included in the study who were working at the time of the interview, 275 always sold in business sections of the city, chiefly along Market Street and Broad Street and at the railroad terminals, the Tubes, and the Parkway. At these points, especially between 5 and 6 in the afternoon, when the newsboys’ trade is at its peak, the traffic is at its worst, and the boys darting in and out of the traffic, as many of them did, appeared to run an unusual risk of street accidents. Twenty-seven boys sold in both business and residential districts. Three hundred and fifty boys (88 per cent of the 397 who were working at the time of the interview) sold entirely on their own account, but 32 boys were employed by news-stand keepers or other adults, and 13 helped other boys; 1 other sold some papers for him self besides being hired by a news-stand keeper, and 1 sold for himself and helped another boy. It was not unusual to see young schoolboys busy at their down-town stands, arranging the papers and waiting on customers or even taking a few papers in hand and going out to solicit trade. This work was usually done in the late afternoon, but now and then a small boy would be seen during school hours and would explain that the “ teacher was sick” and he was “ helping a guy.” No special study of conditions in and around the newspaperdistributing rooms was attempted. The superintendent of a down town boys’ club and an agent of the children’s aid society, both in close touch with boys of the street-working type, were unaware of any special problems arising out of conditions in the distributing rooms of the local papers, nor did they know of any cases of boys sleeping on the premises of the newspaper offices. One, of the dealers reported that a good deal of penny pitching and crap shooting went https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis N E W A R K , N . J. 279 on in and around the alley upon which one of the distribution rooms opened, the boys pausing for a game or two whenever they returned for a fresh supply of papers. The explanation proffered by this dealer was that the boys had more money in their pockets than they would have if they did not sell papers, so that it was easier to indulge their taste for games of chance; and also that some boys, especially Italians, were expected to bring home a fixed amount, and if they had made less, they took a chance on making it up by gambling. R E G U LA R ITY O F W O R K Selling papers a few days a week or now and then was not cus tomary among the groups of newsboys included in the study. Only 19 among both the vacation newsboys and the others sold irregularly, and only 93 others in the vacation group and 101 in the other group sold on fewer than six days a week. Eleven boys in the vacation group and 18 in the other confined their selling to week-ends (that is, Saturdays or Sundays, or both). Thus three-fourths of the boys in each group of workers sold papers six or seven days a week. H O U R S OF W O R K Only 8 schoolboys sold the morning paper when school was in session, of whom 5 were on the streets selling before 7 a. m. Six of the morning newsboys also sold papers in the afternoons of school days. On Sundays papers were sold by 87 boys, of whom 51 were out selling before 8 a. m., including 7 boys who began before 6. During the summer vacation papers were sold on week-day mornings by 109 (24 per cent) of the boys, most of whom sold the mid-morning editions. Eleven reported that they began to sell before 7 o ’clock; of these 5 were under 12 years of age and 2 under 10. Some of these boys went out again in the late afternoon after selling an hour or so in the morning. Sunday sellers in vacation numbered 69; 41 began their work before 8 a. m., of whom 6 began before 6 o ’clock. Almost, all the boys sold in the afternoons of week days. (Table 69.) Although both during the summer and in seasons when school was in session the great majority of these boys were through selling their papers before 8 p.m ., a few boys sold until a later hour. Thirtytwo (7 per cent) of the vacation workers, and 36 (8 per cent) of the others sold papers on the evenings of week days until at least 8 p. m., several later than 10 p. m., the hour after which children were for bidden by city ordinance to sell papers on the streets. The vacation newsboys included a Polish child of 7 who sold until 10.30 every week night and another 7-year-old boy, a fruit peddler’s son, who sold papers up to midnight. On the evenings of school days, while attending school, three boys were out until 10 p. m., and one until 11. The latter, a 12-year-old Jewish boy, had sold New York papers from 9 to 11 for a month when he was stopped by the police. Two of the four boys selling until 10 or later sold for dealers. 75034°—28-----19 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 280 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK TAjBLE^ 9 — Hour of ending afternoon work on a typical week day other than Satur day during school term and during vacation, by age period; newspaper sellers Newark, N. J. Newspaper sellers under 16 years of age Hour of ending afternoon work on a typical week day other than Saturday Total Under 10 years 10 years, under 12 12 years, under 14 i 14 years, under 16 Per Per Per Per Per Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri bution bution bution bution bution SCHOOL TERM Total___ _____________ 467 97 140 158 72 Afternoon work........................ 438 87 133 150 68 Hour reported___________ 435 100.0 85 100.0 133 100.0 149 100.0 68 100.0 Before 6 p. m ________ 6 p. m., before 8 p. m__ 8 p. m., before 10 p. m__ 10 p. m., before 12 p. m . 168 231 32 4 38.6 53.1 7.4 .9 37 40 6 2 43.5 47.1 7.1 2.4 52 67 14 39.1 50.4 10.5 56 83 9 1 37.6 55.7 6.0 .7 23 41 3 33 8 fiO 3 4 4* Hour not reported_______ 3 Morning work only__________ No work on a week day other than Saturday____________ Time of day not reported____ 18 8 5 5 Total ________________ 450 87 132 164 Afternoon work_____________ 422 71 125 161 Hour reported........ ........... 421 100.0 71 100.0 125 100.0 160 100.0 65 100.0 Before 6 p. m ............ 6 p. m., before 8 p. m „ 8 p. m., before 10 p. m . 10 p. m., before 12 p. m. 12 p. m., and after 192 197 30 1 1 45.6 46.8 7.1 .2 .2 30 34 5 1 1 42.3 47.9 7.0 1.4 1.4 65 50 10 52.0 40.0 8.0 67 81 12 41.9 50.6 7.5 30 32 3 46. 2 49.2 4.6 2 1.5 1 3 3 3 2 6 1 v a c a t io n Hour not reported Morning work only_______ No work on a week day other than Saturday. . ________ Time of day not re p o rte d .__ 1 67 65 1 11 7 2 11 6 4 5 5 2 1 On Saturdays both in summer time and during the school year the newsboys worked later than on other nights. (Table 70.) Half the boys in each group who sold on Saturday afternoons stopped before 6; but a large proportion both of the vacation newsboys and of the others sold papers on Saturdays until between 6 and 8 p. m., and a few (10 per cent of one group and 12 per cent of the other) worked until 8 or later. These included some who worked until at least 10 p. m., among whom were several boys who stayed out until midnight or later. Some had sold all day, like an 11-year-old boy who sold from 8 in the morning until 10 at night, stopping at a lunch counter a few minutes for his meals, though even then he had his papers under his arm and an eye out for customers. Others had begun late in the afternoon or in the early evening, like a 10-year-old boy and his brother who took up their stand with their Sunday papers near the Hudson Tubes at 7 p. m., selling until midnight, summer and winter, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 281 NEWARK, N. J. T a b l e 7 0 — Hour of ending work on a typical Saturday afternoon during school term and during vacation, by age period; newspaper sellers, Newark, N . J. Newspaper sellers under 16 years of age Under 10 years Total Hour of ending work on a typical Saturday afternoon 10 years, under 12 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Per Per Per Per Per Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri bution bution bution bution bution SCHOOL TEEM Total _______________ 467 Afternoon work_____________ 1 345 Hour reported___________ 6 p. m., before 8 p. m „ 8 p. m., before 10 p. m._ 344 172 133 36 3 100.0 50.0 38.7 10.5 .9 97 140 158 67 107 118 66 31 27 8 1 1 30 83 9 9 15 6 72 53 100.0 107 100.0 118 100.0 53 100.0 47.0 40.9 12.1 56 40 10 1 52.3 37.4 9.3 .9 60 46 11 1 50.8 39.0 9.3 .8 25 20 7 1 47.2 37.7 13.2 1.9 2 17 12 26 2 7 25 1 VACATION Total ......................... Afternoon work......... ............ 8 p. m., before 10 p. m-----10 p. m., before 12 p. m ----- 67 164 132 87 450 339 100.0 59 100.0 98 100.0 128 100.0 54 100.0 170 136 29 2 2 50.1 40.1 8.6 .6 .6 26 27 4 1 1 44.1 45.8 6.8 1.7 1.7 52 33 11 1 1 53.1 33.7 11.2 1.0 1.0 64 53 11 50.0 41.4 8.6 28 23 3 51.9 42.6 5.6 No work on Saturday.............. Time of day not reported------ 25 81 5 10 13 5 5 29 9 27 1 12 Late selling, especially on Saturday nights, was usually due to the New York newspapers, the Sunday editions of which were sold on the streets of Newark on Saturday evenings. That more boys were not selling late at night was explained by one newsdealer as the result of the establishment of the news stands, which, he said, could take care of the night trade. He expressed the opinion that news boys out late at night were only begging, saying that the parkway leading to the Hudson Tubes was full of small boys at night using the old story of “ my last paper” to solicit money. He also said that in order to drive a rival from the field by competition he was planning to hire 20 or 25 small boys to sell for him at mght, though he had to “ defy the law.” He was well aware of the provisions of the street-trades ordinance but asserted that they were not enforced, as the police would not cooperate in sending boys oil the streets In vacation the boys could and did spend much more time on the streets selling papers than during the school year 51 per cent sold at least 3 hours a day and 27 per cent at least 5 hours, including 45 boys who sold papers 8 hours a day or longer. The proportion of young children, both those under 10 and those under 12, working https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 282 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K 5 or more hours a day, or even 8 or more hours, was as large as among the boys who worked only a few hours a day. (Table 71.) Although the boys working before or after school did not work so many hours a day as newsboys selling papers when school was not m session, nevertheless the great majority sold at least 2 hours and many sold at least 3. (Table 71.) Relatively, almost as many of the boys under 12 and of the boys under 10 years as of the plder boys worked 2 hours or longer on school days. A little group of boys, chiefly from Italian and Polish homes, sold from 5 to 6 3^2 hours on school days, beginning immediately after school and continuing until 8.30 or 9 or later, some of them with no supper until after their return home. Two brothers, one 11, the other 15 years of age, owed their long hours to the fact that they sold both before and after school, from 6 to 8.30 in the morning and from 4 to 7 in the evening. This they had done throughout vacation and during the school year up to May, when they were interviewed. T a b l e 71. Number of hours of street work on a typical week day other than Saturday during school term and during vacation, by age period: newspaper sellers Newark, N . J. 1 Newspaper sellers under 16 years of age Number of hours of street work on a typical week day other than Saturday Total Under 10 years 10 years, under 12 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Per Per Per Per Per Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri bution bution bution bution bution SCHOOL TEEM Total............................... 467 97 140 158 Street work on week days____ 449 92 134 155 Total reported...... ......... Less than 1 hour......... 1 hour, less than 2____ 2 hours, less than 3___ 3 hours, less than 5___ 5 hours, less than 8___ Not reported................. No street work on week days... 72 68 438 100.0 85 100.0 133 100.0 152 100.0 68 100.0 28 140 162 95 13 6.4 32.0 37.0 21.7 3.0 4 31 31 16 3 4.7 36.5 36.5 18.8 3.5 '5 47 45 29 7 3.8 35.3 33.8 21.8 5.3 15 42 58 35 2 9.9 27.6 38.2 23.0 1.3 4 20 28 15 1 29.4 41.1 22 1 1.5 11 7 1 3 18 5 6 3 4 67 5 9 VACATION Total........... .............. 450 87 132 164 Street work on week days I . 439 83 127 164 Total reported____ ____ 433 100.0 79 100.0 127 100.0 162 100.0 65 100.0 23 92 99 104 70 33 10 2 5.3 21.2 22.9 24.0 16.2 7.6 2.3 .5 5 17 21 15 13 5 3 6.3 21.5 26.6 19.0 16.5 6.3 3.8 3 27 30 29 24 11 2 1 2.4 21.3 23.6 22.8 18.9 8.7 1.6 .8 9 32 36 43 24 12 5 1 5.6 19.8 22. 2 26.5 14 8 7.4 3.1 .6 6 16 12 17 9 5 24.6 18. 5 26.2 18.8 7 ,7 Less than 1 hour____ 1 hour, less than 2 2 hours, less than 3__ 3 hours, less than 5___ 5 hours, less than 8___ 8 hours, less than 10... 10 hours, less than 12.. 12 hours and over____ Not reported____________ 6 4 No street work on week days . i . 11 4 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 65 2 6 2 9. 2 283 NE WABK, N. J. Saturdays offered an opportunity even when school was in se^sion for many newsboys to be on the streets long hours Half the boys selling on Saturdays during the school year hours, and one-third worked at least five hours. (Table 72.) Many worked eight hours or longer, from among whom the following ex amples were selected at random: The 10-year-old son of a Ukraman tailor’s presser sold papers from 11 a. m. to 8.30 p. m. on Saturdays, reporting that he “ ate on the jo b ” at noon and on his return home at night A 9-year-old boy of Italian parentage began at 10 on Saturday mornings and was out until 7, taking half an hour at noon for lunch. An 11-year-old boy started at 6 and sold until noon, beginning again at 12.30 and selling until 7. Another 11-year-old boy had an 11-hour day on Saturdays during the school year, from 8 a. im to 9 p. •, though he stopped an hour at noon and again at 5. On Saturdays during vacation even more boys worked all day. (table ( T 72.— Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday during school term and during vacation, by age period; newspaper sellers, Newark, N . . able N e w sp ap er sellers u n d er 16 years o f age Under 10 years Total Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday 10 years, u n d er 12 14 years, under 16 12 years, under 14 Per Per Per Per Per u m cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Nber distri distri ber ber distri ber distri ber distri bution bution bution bution bution SCHOOL TERM 158 Total. 115 82 Street work on Saturday. 384 Total reported--------- 374 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 32 8.6 5.3 5.3 21.1 13.8 23.8 13.1 12.3 19.2 14.6 1.5 1.5 7.3 29.1 18.2 12.7 16.4 9.1 5.5 Less than 1 hour----1 hour, less than 2 ... 2 hours, less than 3.. 3 hours, less than 5.5 hours, less than 8_. 8 hours, less than 10. 10 hours, less than 12 12 hours and over. . . 86 72 60 62 47 9 20.0 23.0 19.3 16.0 16.6 12.6 2.4 1.6 Not reported_________ - 6 10 No street work on Saturday. 83 15 450 87 Total. Street work on Saturday- Less than 1 hour____ 1 hour, less than 2— 2 hours, less than 3 ... 3 hours, less than 5 ... 5 hours, less than 8 ... 8 hours, less than 10.. 10 hours, less than 12. 12 hours and over----- 20.2 14.0 14.0 1.8 6.9 17.0 14.6 4.3 11.6 20.3 24.6 24.6 10.1 4.3 21.7 13.7 3.6 1.9 103 Not reported---------------No street work on Saturday. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 81 137 103 100.0 29 67 164 132 100.0 20.6 1.8 26 369 Total reported--------- 22.8 25.3 18.7 16.0 9.3 2.7 2.7 100.0 100.0 100.0 4.9 14.6 16.5 22.3 19.4 15.5 2.9 3.9 8.0 10.9 19.7 10.9 18.2 23.4 15.3 2.9 1.5 21.8 12.7 18.2 18.2 10.9 5.5 1.8 284 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K Many of the boys sold papers on Sundays— 69 during the vacation and 87 during the school year. Sunday hours also were very long. Many of them began early and sold throughout the morning or until the early afternoon; a few sold all day. The great majority both of vacation workers and of other newsboys selling on Sundays sold at least 2 hours, and 42 per cent of the vacation group and 31 per cent of the others worked at least 3 hours, 28 per cent of the vacation group and 14 per cent of the other working at least 5 hours. Five of the vacation newsboys sold papers at least 8 hours on Sundays. The Sunday newsboys were of about the same ages as the boys who sold during the week. As by far the larger number of the boys sold papers every day or every day except Sunday, these long daily hours resulted in a working week that was as long in some cases as that of full-time workers. (Table 73.) Among the vacation newsboys 295 (70 per cent) worked at least 12 hours a week, 141 (33 per cent) at least 24 hours, and 48 (11 per cent) at least 44 hours, almost all of the last working 48 hours or longer. A working week of 54 hours was not uncommon. The longest hours of paper selling in vacation (77 a week) were reported by the 12-year-old son of a proprietor of a shoe-shining parlor, an Italian; the boy sold papers every week day from 8 to 12 a. m. and from 12.30 to 8.30 p. m., and on Sundays from 8 to 1 at a news stand; in addition he worked on Sunday afternoon more than 6 hours shining shoes at his father’s establishment. He said that he was allowed to keep his tips from both jobs but was required to hand over the rest of his earnings to his father. Several other boys reported 71 or 72 hours of work a week. A 9-year-old child and a boy of 13 sold papers for their brother, who kept a news stand near a railroad terminal; they worked from 6 a. m. until 6 p. m. every week day in vacation, having 10 minutes off for lunch. The younger boy said that his brother gave him 25 cents a week for his work. Another newsboy, a child of 11, sold papers from 8 a. m. to 8 p. m. every day except Sunday when school was not in session, taking no regular periods for meals. He said he was obliged to sell papers as the family was one of 11 and his father, a janitor, made little money; a brother,‘ the only one of working age, never had steady work; and a sister who had gone to work had become ill and had had to stop. This boy had been in the last half of the fourth grade (only slightly below the normal grade for his age) for three semesters and ventured the opinion that he could do better in school if he had more time to study. Even during the school year he worked 28 hours a week selling papers. These are accounts of boys working the longest hours, but their number oould be multiplied many times over among those representing only slightly less extreme conditions. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis h 285 NEWARK, N. J. T a b l e 73.— Number of hours of street work during a typical week of school term and of vacation, by age period; newspaper sellers, Newark, N . J. N ew sp ap er sellers u n d e r 16 years o f age U n d er 10 years T ota l 10 years, u n d e r 12 12 years, u n d er 14 14 years, u n d er 16 N u m b e r o f hours o f street w o r k du rin g a ty p ica l w eek P er P er P er P er P er N u m cen t N u m cent N u m cen t Slum cent N u m cent distri ber distri ber distri ber distri ber distri ber b u tio n b u tio n b u tio n b u tio n b u tio n SCHOOL TERM 72 Ì58 140 97 T o t a l ........... ............. ........... 467 T o ta l r e p orted ............................... 437 100.0 83 100.0 131 100.0 151 100.0 72 100.0 Less than 4 h ou rs................. 22 168 158 63 20 6 5.0 38.4 36.2 14.4 4.6 1.4 5 28 33 10 5 6.0 33.7 39.8 12.0 6.0 2.4 7 50 48 16 7 3 5.3 38.2 36.6 12.2 5.3 2.3 7 60 50 28 5 1 4.6 39.7 33.1 18.5 3.3 .7 3 30 27 9 3 4.2 41.7 37.5 12.5 4.2 4 hours, less th an 12—......... 12 hours, 20 hours, 28 h ours, 36 hours, less than less than less than less than 20--------28--------36--------44--------- 2 7 30 14 9 450 87 132 79~ 100.0 124 100.0 155 100.0 67 100.0 5.1 21.5 38.0 10.1 10.1 3.8 1.3 10.1 4 34 39 17 7 9 1 13 3.2 27.4 31.5 13.7 5.6 7.3 .8 10.5 5 41 40 28 14 9 1 17 3.2 26.5 25.8 18.1 9.0 5.8 .6 11.0 3 22 15 13 3 4 1 6 4.5 32.8 22.4 19.4 4.5 6.0 1.5 9.0 VACATION T o t a l . . - ...........- ................. T o ta l r e p orted . ............................. L ess than 4 h ou rs-------------4 hours, less than 1 2 ............ 12 hours, less than 2 0 -......... 20 hours, less than 28--------28 hours, less than 36.......... 36 hours, less than 44.......... 44 hours, less than 48......... 48 hou rs and over - - ........... 100.0 425 3.8 26.8 29.2 15.5 7.5 5.9 .9 10.4 16 114 124 66 32 25 4 44 25 1 4 17 30 8 8 3 1 8 8 8 67 164 9 Those who spent 24 hours or more a week selling papers, and even those who worked 44 hours or longer, were almost as young as those who worked fewer hours. , , Boys who had to confine their selling to such time as they had before and after school could not put in so many hours a week at the work, but it may be assumed that they worked under a greater strain than during vacation. Moreover, even moderately long hours of news paper selling combined with the 25 hours or more of school work made an excessively long week. Two hundred and forty-seven (57 per cent) of those selling papers during the school year worked at least 12 hours, and 52 (12 per cent) at least 24 hours, several reporting 40 to 42^4 hours of work a week. A somewhat larger proportion ol the newsboys working at least 12 hours a week than of those working less than 12 hours were under 10, though about the same proportion were under 12. EARNINGS The profit in the local papers was 1 cent for dailies and 1/^ or 2^ cents for Sunday editions. New York papers netted a little more. The median earnings of the newsboys were between $2 and $3 a week. The newsboys working during vacatioii made only a little more than those who sold papers during the school year— in the vacation group https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 286 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K 13 per cent, and in the other 14 per cent, made less than $1; in the one group 53 per cent and in the other 62 per cent made less than $3: and 19 per cent and 13 per cent made $5 or more. (Table 74.) T able 74. Earnings during a typical week of school term and of vacation, by age period; newspaper sellers, Newark, N . J. Newspaper sellers under 16 years of age Total Earnings during a typical week Num ber Under 10 years 10 years, under 12 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Per Per Per Per Per cent Num cent Num cent Num cent cent distri ber distri ber distri ber distri Num ber distri bution bution bution bution bution SCHOOL TEEM Total______ Total reported____ Less than $0.25 $0.25, less than $0.50 $0.50, less than $1 $1, less than $2. _ $2, less than $3. $3, less than $4... $4, less than $ 5 ... $5, less than $6. $6, less than $8 $8 and over.. . No earnings and no cash earnings____ _ Not reported_____ 467 97 140 158 72 446 100.0 86 100.0 138 100.0 150 100.0 72 100.0 4 10 50 130 81 70 40 . 27 14 15 .9 2.2 11.2 29.1 18.2 15.7 9.0 6.1 3.1 3.4 3 5 20 30 8 9 2 3 2 3.5 5.8 23.3 34.9 9.3 10.5 2.3 3.5 2.3 1 4 16 54 24 19 4 10 3 2 .7 2.9 11.6 39.1 17.4 13.8 2.9 7.2 2.2 1.4 12 37 30 31 22 10 2 6 8.0 24.7 20.0 20.7 14.7 6.7 1.3 4.0 1 2 9 19 11 12 4 7 7 1.4 2.8 12.5 26.4 15.3 16.7 5.6 9.7 9.7 5 1.1 4 4.7 1 .7 21 11 2 8 VACATION T otal......... Total reported.. . Less than $0.25 . $0.25, less than $0.50 $0.50, less than $1 $1, less than $2. . $2, less than $3 $3, less than $4 $4, less than $5 ... $5, less than $ 6 ... $6, less than $8. $8 and over.. No earnings and no cash earnings............ Not reported .. 450 — 87 — 132 164 67 427 100.0 75 100.0 128 100.0 157 100.0 67 100.0 4 11 41 95 77 71 38 39 22 22 .9 2.6 9.6 22.2 18.0 16.6 8.9 9.1 5.2 5.2 3 4 16 21 10 5 3 5 3 1 4.0 5.3 21.3 28.0 13.3 6.7 4.0 6.7 4.0 1.3 1 3 15 37 24 18 10 10 4 5 .8 2.3 11.7 28.9 18.8 14.1 7.8 7.8 3.1 3.9 3 9 28 27 39 19 15 9 6 1.9 5.7 17.8 17.2 24.8 12.1 9.6 5.7 3.8 1 1 9 16 9 6 9 6 10 1.5 1.5 13.4 23.9 13.4 9.0 13.4 9.0 14.9 7 1.6 4 5.3 1 .8 2 1.3 23 12 4 7 J In view of the much longer hours of the newsboys working during vacation the similarity between their earnings and those of the boys working only before and after school and on Saturdays during the school year is surprising The demand for the mid-morning and mm-alternoon editions of the newspapers, which were sold by the boys during vacation possibly was not so great as the demand for tne late-alternoon and early-evening editions that schoolboys gen erally sold, so that the schoolboy’s business was brisker during his relatively few hours than that of the boy who was on the streets selling a large part of the long vacation days. Nevertheless, within each group the longer the hours per week the larger tne earmngs. Thus, among vacation newsboys the proportion https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis N E W A R K , N . J. 287 making less than $1 was 18 per cent for those who worked under 12 hours, 12 per cent for those who worked between 12 and 24 hours, and 5 per cent for those working at least 24 hours; the proportion making less than $3 was 64 per cent, 54 per cent, and 40 per cent, respectively; and the proportion making $5 or more was only 9 per cent for the group working the smallest number of hours but 21 and 30 per cent for the other groups. Among the boys selling papers during the school period, 21 per cent of those working less than 12 hours, but only 6 per cent of those working 12 hours or more, made less than $1 a week; 76 and 49 per cent, respectively, made less than $3; and 5 and 20 per cent, respectively, made $5 or more. The older boys were apparently much more successful in selling papers than the younger. Of the children under 10 years, 31 per cent made less than $1, but only 23 per cent made $3 or more and only 12 per cent made as much as $5; and of those between 10 and 12 years of age, 15 per cent made less than $1, but only 37 per cent made as much as $3 and only 15 per cent as much as $5; whereas among 12 and 13 year old boys only 8 per cent made less than $1, but 56 per cent made at least $3 and 19 per cent at least $5, and among boys of 14 or 15 only 3 per cent made less than $1 but 60 per cent made at least $3 and 37 per cent at least $5. A few newsboys were not paid for their work. Several of these worked for older brothers, apparently as a family enterprise; two boys of 6 and 7 worked half an hour a day in return for a paper, one of them for “ the funny papers.” The amount of the earnings reported included tips if the boy ordinarily received them, but specific information in regard to tips was not obtained. N E W S B O Y S IN SC H O O L School records were not obtained for the Newark newsboys. The only information obtained bearing on the success or lack of success of these boys in school is on their ages in relation to their grades. Few were high-school students— 5 of those working during the school term and 6 of those working during vacation. About twothirds (65 per cent) of the boys working during vacation and about the same proportion (67 per cent) of those working during the school period had reached at most only the fifth grade. Their progress in school, as indicated by age for grade, had been no slower than the average. Among the boys between 8 and 16 years of age who had sold papers during vacation, 32 per cent of those of native white parentage, 39 per cent of those of foreign parentage, and 60 per cent of the negro boys were overage or retarded. (See footnote 38, p. 22.) Among boys working during the school year these percentages were 26, 41, and 58. As the vacation newsboys and those who had sold during the school period were largely the same group, a comparison of their retardation rates has no significance. As only 71 had worked only in vacation the number was too small to permit a comparison between the rate of retardation of the boys of different race and nationality among them and that of boys whose time, energy, and attention were diverted from school work to outside interests. However, even the newsboys who worked during the school period were apparently no more retarded than other Newark school children of their ages. Of the public-school enrollment in the https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 288 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K fall of 1926, 8 to 15 years of age, inclusive, 35 per ce n t8 were below normal grades compared with 41 per cent of the newspaper sellers, the difference in favor of the school enrollment being more than accounted for, probably, by the larger proportion among the news paper sellers of negro boys whose retardation was very high. When an excessive number of hours a week were spent in selling papers the boys’ school progress was less satisfactory than when fewer hours had been given to such work; 40 per cent of the boys selling less than 12 hours, 38 per cent of those selling between 12 and 24 hours, and 62 per cent of those selling 24 hours or longer were retarded in school. Fourteen per cent of the newsboys working less than 12 hours, 20 per cent of those working between 12 and 24 hours, and 36 per cent of those selling at least 24 hours were two years or more retarded. The group working at least 24 hours con tained a somewhat larger proportion of boys with foreign-born fathers (who were more retarded than boys with native white fathers) than the groups working fewer hours, but it contained a smaller proportion of negro boys (who were even more retarded than those of foreign parentage). Negroes and boys with foreign-born fathers together comprised a slightly smaller proportion of the number who had worked at least 24 hours than of the number who had worked between 12 and 24 hours, and the percentage of retardation was least for the latter group. These facts seem to point to the conclusion that the conspicuously larger amount of retardation among the newsboys who spent most time on the streets can not be accounted for by the greater amount of retardation among children of foreign-born and negro fathers. Neither can it be accounted for by the age of the boys, for the group working 24 hours or longer contained proportionately almost as many younger boys as the groups working shorter hours. The number of hours spent in street work during the year in which the study was made could not have affected the newsboys’ progress in school, of course, unless they represented a similar situation in the past. How long the Newark newsboys had worked and what their hours of work had been in previous years are not known. In all the other cities in which the Children’s Bureau made studies of newsboys the majority had sold papers long enough to have influenced at least one of thenschool promotions, and no reason exists for supposing that the hours of work that were typical for an individual at the time of the inquiry were not typical of his newspaper-selling career in general. N E W S P A P E R CARRIERS Six hundred and seventeen boys had carried papers during the school year, of whom 517 had routes when they were interviewed.9 During the summer vacation of 1924, 407 boys had carried papers. Forty-three of the carriers included in the study had worked only in vacation. 8 Compiled from figures furnished by the superintendent of the Newark public schools. Figures by sex, or by race or nativity of father, were not available. •Ten girls reported that they had had newspaper routes during the school year, of whom 8 had had routes during vacation also, and 1 girl had had a route only during vacation. Of these 11 girls, 1 was 7,1 was 8, , 2 were 10, 2 were 11, 3 were 12,1 was 13, and 1 was 15 years of age. All except 2, who were of native white parentage, had foreign-born fathers. All except 1 carried the newspapers every day, spending in all except one instance less than 12 hours a week on the work. An 8-year-old girl helping her mother who had a newspaper route reported 13Ji hours of work a week. The girls are not included in the tabulations of carriers. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis N E W A R K , N . J. 289 R A C E A N D N A TIO N A LITY O F FA T H E R S In race and nationality the carriers were fairly representative of the general population. The great majority in each group (that is. vacation carriers and carriers working during the school term) had foreign-born fathers, proportions very similar to that ot all tne inhabitants of Newark who had at least one foreign-born parent or were themselves of foreign birth.10 The proportion who were negroes was nearly the same as for the entire city. Although the greater number of the carriers from immigrant families were Italian, like the newspaper sellers of Newark, almost as many were Jewish, chiefly Russian.10 (Table 67, p. 276.) E C O N O M IC C O N D IT IO N OF FA M ILIES Newspaper carriers’ families were on a higher social and economic plane than those of the newsboys, judging by the information avail able. (See p. 275.) . Forty-three (11 per cent) of the vacation workers and 64 (9 per cent) of the other carriers were in fatherless or widowed homes. Nineteen (5 per cent) of the vacation group and 30 (4 per cent) of the other were in families supported by mothers, relatively only about half as many as the newsboys whose families were dependent on the mother for their livelihood. Not counting those whose mothers were the chief breadwinners in their families, however, almost as large a proportion of the carriers as of sellers (one-fourth in each group of carriers) had mothers who added to the family income by gainful employment. .» ‘ A. The chief breadwinners’ occupations also indicate that the carriers came from homes which were more stable financially than those of the newsboys. The proportion whose fathers or other chief bread winners were laborers in the building trades, in transportation, or m factories or who were peddlers or servants or others m domestic and personal service was only 10 per cent for one group and 12 per cent for the other, compared with about one-fourth of the street sellers. Those in domestic and personal service, despite the inclu sion of mothers who earned the family living by domestic work, was about the same as for all male workers of 20 years or over m the city, and about half that for the newspaper sellers. Although the number whose chief breadwinners were in the professions or had clerical occupations was only about half that for all male workers 20 and over 11 it was relatively much larger than the number of street sellers from such homes. The proportion with chief breadwinners who were factory operatives was smaller than that among news paper sellers, whereas the proportion who were machinists and mechanics, contractors, foremen or skilled workers in the building trades, skilled workers in factories, owners of businesses, commercial travelers, clerks, or professional men was more than two-fifths compared with nearly three-tenths of the newspaper sellers. Com pared with the city as a whole the preponderance in trade was notice able, many of the carriers coming from the families of men, largely Jewish, who kept small neighborhood stores or operated modest business concerns of one kind or another. w Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, V ol. II, Population, p. 56. u Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, V ol. IV , Population, Occupations, pp. 1179-1181. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 290 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K AGE OF CARRIERS /^he city ordinance relating to newsboys did not affect carriers. 1 he provisions of the State child labor law relating to vacation work and work outside school hours were not applied, though strictly speaking, applicable to newspaper carriers if they were employed by others, as by far the greater number of Newark carriers were. Thus no minimum-age provision was in force. The carriers, however were older than the newsboys. The largest number were 12 or 13 years of age, but one-fourth were 14 or 15. A small number were under 10, some only 6 or 7. (Table 68, p. 277.) DURATION OF STREET WORK The great majority (77 per cent) of the vacation carriers had worked between 9 and 10 weeks; that is, approximately throughout the summer vacation. ^ Fifty-four per cent of the others had worked at least 24 weeks during the school term; all were interviewed at a time when they could have worked at least as long as that. CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT In Newark the newspaper routes of all the principal papers were managed by news dealers, so that boy carriers had no direct connec tion with the newspaper offices. The dealers made their own business arrangements with the carriers, generally hiring them at a regular 7 agu' n V- e carriers dld not make collections, nor were they responsible for building up routes, though at least one newspaper offered prizes and premiums for new customers. The carrier obtained the papers from the dealer for whom he worked, or, especially in outlying routes the papers were delivered to him. O fth e 517 carriers with routes at the time of the interview with the Children’s Bureau agent 467 (90 per cent) were hired by dealers, 46 (9 per cent) helped other boys, and 1 was not only hired by a dealer’ but also helped another boy. Only 3 had so-called independent routes; that is, they had acquired their own customers, bought their papers at the down-town offices, like the newsboys, and made their own collections. As in most cities, the great majority (92 per cent) of the carriers had residential routes, but a few (6 per cent) delivered papers at offices and stores in business sections of the city, and a few in both residential and business districts. REGULARITY OF WORK Almost all the carriers, whether they worked during vacation or durmg the school year, delivered their papers six or seven days a W ei j Imrteen ° f the 407 vacation carriers and 30 of the 649 others worked fewer than six days or irregularly, substituting for other boys or acting as helpers. HOURS OF WORK Many carriers, while school was in session as well as during the summer, had morning work; 79 of the 407 vacation carriers and 115 °|,the 679 others delivered a daily morning paper. These were older boys than the carriers of afternoon papers, though 25 per cent of the vacation group and 19 per cent of the group carrying papers https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 291 N E W A R K , N . J. before school were under 12 years of age, 9 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively, being under 10. During vacation 48 of the 79 witn morning-paper routes began work before 7 o ’clock (generally aroun 6 or 6.30), but a few began at 5 or 5.30 or, in the case of a JJ-year-old. boy, at 4.30; of these 48 boys 8 were under 12 and 3 under 10. Of the 115 boys who delivered morning papers before going to school, 77 began their work before 7 a. m. , , A surprisingly large number of boys— 67 (16 per cent) of those carrying in vacation and 99 (15 per cent) of those with routes during the school year— delivered papers both morning and afternoon. These unusually large proportions are easily understood when it is remembered that most of the Newark carriers were hired by news dealers h a n d l i n g several papers, so that the opportunity, it not the obligation, to carry both a morning and an afternoon route was more common than where a boy worked directly for one newspaper. Two hundred and eighty-eight of the vacation group and 460 of the other carried papers on Sunday mornings. The great majority began work before 8 a. m., some before 6. T a b l e 75.— Number of hours of street work on a typical week day other than Satur day during school term and during vacation, by age period; neswpaper earners, Newark, N . J ■ ____________ ____________ Newspaper carriers under 16 years of age Total Number of hours of street work on a typical week day other than Saturday Under 10 years 10 years, under 12 Per Per cent cent Num dis- Num dis- Num ber triber triber bubution1 tion 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Age not Per Per Per re cent cent cent port dis- Num dis- Num dis- e d 1 triber triber tribububution tion tion SCHOOL TEEM TotalStreet work on week days. 668 Total reported.......... . Less than 1 hour— 1 hour, less than 2 .. 2 hours, less than 3. 3 hours, less than 5_ 5 hours, less than 8. 162 679 202 346 93 23 2 100.0 65 100.0 100.0 30.3 62.0 14.0 3.5 .3 27.7 52.3 12.3 29.3 51.6 15.3 3.8 6.2 278 170 273 169 273 100.0 169 100.0 33.0 49.1 15.4 27.8 56.8 90 134 42 7 11.2 2.6 3.6 .6 1.5 Not reported----------------No street work on week days. T otal---------- --------- Less than 1 hour__ 1 hour, less than 2_. 2 hours, less than 3. 3 hours, less than 5. 5 hours, less than 8. Not reported..................... No street work on week days. 100.0 121 190 67 36 30.0 47:1 16.6 2Ò 5.0 1.2 5 1 3 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 163 37 Street work on week days. Total reported. 114 163 407 88 100.0 163 100.0 100.0 31.8 43.2 18.2 5.7 32.5 42.9 19.0 4.9 26.3 57.0 13.2 1.1 2.6 .9 292 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K Almost all the boys in each group carried afternoon papers. The great majority (80 per cent of each group) were through carrying their papers before 6 p. m. Saturday hours were no later than those ot other days. The few boys who worked on their routes until 8 worked under special circumstances, as, for example, not beginning to deliver the papers to their customers until after the ordinary dinner hour m the evening. ^ r o u t e uBualiy required only an hour or a little more each day. (1 able 75.) About one-fourth of the vacation carriers spent as much as two hours a day on their routes, and a somewhat smaller number ol those working during the school year reported two hours or more on week days. On Sundays the routes took much longer; 42 per cent of the 288 vacation carriers and 37 per cent of the 460 boys working during the school term who carried Sunday papers worked at least two hours, and 17 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, worked three hours or longer A number of carriers had to spend five hours or longer on their Sunday routes, beginning usually about 6 a. m. For each group the median number of hours of work a week was between 4 and 8. However, 27 per cent of the vacation carriers and 21 per cent ol the others worked at least 12 hours a week, and a few worked 24 hours or longer. They were chiefly carriers who had both morning and afternoon routes. EARNINGS As a rule the carriers earned much less than the newsboys The dealers generally paid $1 or $1.25 forroutes of 40 or 50 papers. Fourhfths of the carriers m each group earned less than $3 a week, and the median earnings were between $1 and $2. Many of the children under 10 and also those under 12 made less than $1 a week helping an older boy; and 31 of the vacation carriers and 52 of the boys with routes during the school term received no cash payment for their W ul bui h ,,pei bothers or friends for treats, an extra newspaper, or for fun. Excludmg boys under 12, the median earnings for carriers were between $3 and $4 a week. A few carriers made as much as $5 a week. (Table 76.) CARRIERS IN SCHOOL A number of the boys carrying papers— 33 of those working before or after school and 29 of those working during vacation— were high-school boys. The great majority were in the grades, however the median grade for each group being the sixth. Tbe amount of retardation for carriers was small compared with that for the street sellers or even with the average for all Newark schoolboys. Among vacation carriers between 8 and 16 years of age (see footnote 38, p. 22) 22 per cent of the boys of native white parentage and 17 per cent of those of foreign parentage, and among the other carriers, 18 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, were overage lor their grades, that is, were retarded. So few negro boys carried papers that a reliable percentage of retardation can not be found for negro carriers, but 5 of the 10 working during vacations and lb ol the 23 working during the school term were retarded. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 293 N E W A R K , N . J. T able 76.—Earnings during a typical week of school term and of vacation, by age period; newspaper carriers, Newark, N . J. Newspaper carriers under 16 years of age Under 10 years Total Earnings during a typical week 10 years, under 12 Per Per cent cent Num dis- Num dis- Num ber triber triber bubution1 tion 12 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Age Per not Per Per re cent port cent cent dis- Num dis- Num dised1 triber triber tribububution tion tion SCHOOL TEEM 64 100.0 100.0 1.0 3.4 11.0 3.1 7.8 10.9 34.4 10.9 1.9 12 1.8 2 .3 3.1 672 100.0 Total reported. Less than $0.25____________ $0.25, less than $0.50-----------$0.50, less than $1---------------$1, less than $2........................ $2, less than $3..... .............. . $3, less than $4........... ........... $4, less than $5.------ -----------$5, less than $6_____________ $6, less than $8-------------------No earnings and no cash earn ings................ ..................... 7 23 74 304 151 42 45.2 22.5 6.3 5 .7 52 7.7 1.6 1.6 170 278 162 679 Total. 100.0 2 18.6 44.1 16.1 1.9 7 32 137 64 15 4 .7 2.5 11.6 49.8 23.3 5.5 1.5 9.9 14 5.1 6.2 .6 .6 170 100.0 .6 2.9 42.9 31.2 13.5 2.9 .6 2.4 2.9 3 Not reported. 403 100.0 Total reported. Less than $0.25-------------------$0.25, less than $0.50------------$0.50, less than $1------ ---------$1, less than $2............... ......... $2, less than $3-------------------$3, less than $4_____________ $4, less than $5-------------------$5, less than $6------- ------ ----$6, less than $8....................... $8 and over............................. No earnings and no cash earn ings...................................... 114 163 407 Total. .7 11 2.7 46 11.4 174 43.2 94 23.3 7.2 29 10 2.5 1 .2 .7 3 3 1 .2 31 7.7 100.0 7.8 28.9 36.7 14.4 4.4 7.8 100.0 114 100.0 6.2 3.5 43.0 28.1 12.3 51.6 27.3 5.0 1.9 -6.8 6.1 .9 2.6 3.5 Not reported. » Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. BOOTBLACKS Almost, as many itinerant bootblacks as newsboys worked on the streets of Newark. Included in the study were 340 bootblacks who had worked during vacation and 387 who worked during the school year. Four hundred boys were working as bootblacks at the time of the inquiry, though 13 of them had had another more important street job at some time during the school year, so that they were not classified as bootblacks working during the school period. Twenty of the bootblacks included in the study had worked only during the summer vacation. RACE AND NATIONALITY OF FATHERS Few of the bootblacks were of native white parentage— 13 (4 per cent) of the vacation workers and 19 (5 per cent) of the others. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 294 CHILDREN IN STREET WORK The great majority (almost three-fourths) were the children of immigrants, almost all of whom were Italians, and many (about one-fourth) were negro boys. None of the bootblacks were Jews (Table 67, p. 276.) ECONOMIC CONDITION OF FAMILIES So far as the information obtained (see p. 275) would indicate the bootblacks generally came from homes in which the fathers endeavored ^ su p p o rt their families but were employed in low-paid occupations. The proportion that might have been blacking boots to help support widowed families was even smaller than among newsboys, for only 13 per cent of each group came from homes in which there was no father, not even a stepfather or a foster father acting as the chief breadwinner, and only 6 per cent of the vacation workers and 5 per cent of the others were in families in which the mother was the main support. The fact that many of the mothers, even in families having fathers, were employed, however, probably indicates that the chief breadwinner's wages were too small for family needs. Onethird of the bootblacks in each group, exclusive of those in families supported by mothers, had mothers who were gainfully employed. Many of these were in domestic and personal service, but many worked at home on factory goods. One-third of the bootblacks had fathers who were laborers in the building trades, in factories, or in transportation services, or who were servants or others in domestic and personal service or were peddlers. The proportion with fathers or other chief breadwinners in domestic and personal service was more than twice as large as that of all male workers aged 20 ¿r more in the city.12 About one-fourth of the fathers were factory operatives. Few of the bootblacks, unlike the newsboys, had fathers with small businesses of their own; the proportion with fathers in trade was only half that for the whole city.13 The proportion with chief breadwinners who were con tractors, foremen, or skilled workmen in the building trades, machin ists or mechanics, factory owners or skilled workers in factories, dealers, commercial travelers, clerks, or professional men (including an Italian lawyer and a negro minister) was only about one-fifth compared with two-fifths of the carriers and one-third of the newpaper sellers. AGE OF BOOTBLACKS Bootblacks were a little younger than newsboys, but the difference was not great. Almost as many were under 10 years of age as were 14 or 15. A few were only 7. The majority were at least 12, but 42 per cent of the vacation workers and 43 per cent of the others were less than 12 years old. (Table 77.) DURATION OF STREET WORK Almost all the boys bootblacking during vacation had worked throughout the summer; 308 of the 340 reported working between 9 and 10 weeks. Seventy-six and one-tenth per cent of the bootFourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. IV, Population, Occupations, pp. 1179-1181. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis m N EW ARK, N . 3. 295 blacks had worked at least 24 weeks while also attending school, all of them having been interviewed sufficiently late in the school year to have worked at least as long as that. CONDITIONS OF W ORK] Bootblacks as a rule were in business for themselves, but a few (37 of the 400 at work at the time of the inquiry) were hired, more often than not by fathers, brothers, or other relatives, but in some cases, even among children under 10 or 12, by others than relatives; several helped other boys. Almost all worked in the business dis tricts of the city, but 36 reported that they carried on their business in residential sections of the city, in front of their homes, outside clubs, etc., and 6 that they sometimes did so. REGULARITY OF WORK During vacation the majority (61 per cent) of the boys worked every day, or every day except Sunday, and even when attending school many boys (40 per cent) worked six or seven days. In the summer time 26 per cent and during the school year 46 per cent of the boys did bootblacking only on Saturdays and Sundays, or m most cases both Saturdays and Sundays. One-half of the boys working as bootblacks when they were interviewed, said they worked only week-ends. Only a few boys (31 of the vacation workers and 34 of the others) did bootblacking so irregularly that they were unable to say how many days a week they worked. During the school year 51 per cent of the boys said that they went out to shine shoes fewer than six days a week. Those who worked every day, or every day except Sunday, during the school year, were a little younger than those working fewer days a week. HOURS OF WORK In the summer many of the bootblacks (146 of the 340 vacation workers) worked during the forenoon, and most of these continued to work a large part of the day. When they were obliged to go to school, however, their work was confined to the late afternoon. Only two boys, one 10 years old, the other 15, reported any morning work during the school year; both began at 7 a. m. They also blacked boots after school. Several boys working in vacation or on Sundays said that they were on the streets shining shoes before 7 a. m., but early-morning work was not a problem. . On both Saturdays and other days half the vacation workers quit work before 6 p. m., and a large proportion stopped between 6 and 8. (Tables 77 and 78.) But 52 (18 per cent) on Saturday nights and 31 (14 per cent) on other nights were bootblacking until between 8 and 10. On summer evenings during the week several boys and on Saturdays a few more stayed out seeking patrons imtil 10 at least. Often the little boys were out late on Saturday nights. The 197 boys who blacked boots after school worked later than bootblacks in the summer, except those of the summer workers who worked Saturday nights. (Table 77.) Thirty-two per cent stopped before 6 p. m., 49 per cent worked until between 6 and 8, and 19 per cent until between 8 and 10. A 14-year-old negro boy was out until 75034°— 28------ 20 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 296 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K 10 every week day and 9 on Sundays. Saturday hours for stopping were nearly the same as on Saturdays in vacation. Sixty-seven boys worked until 8 p. m. or later on Saturdays during the school year. Unlike the Saturday night bootblacks during vacation, these boys were not primarily the younger ones but were of about the same ages as the entire group. T ™ 77,— Hour of ending afternoon work on a typical week day other than Satur day during school term and during vacation, by age period; bootblacks, Newark, Bootblacks under 16 years of age Hour of ending afternoon work on a typical week day other than Saturday 10 years, under 12 Total 12 years, under 14 Age 14 Undei years not 10 re Per Per Per under Num cent years Num cent Num cent 161 port ed 1 ber distri ber distri ber distri bution bution bution SCHOOL TERM Total........................ .......... Afternoon work________ 197 Hour reported....... .......... Before 6 p. m _______ 6 p. m., before 8 p. m 8 p. m., before 10 p. m ___ 10 p. m., before 13p. m___ Hour not reported___ _ No work on a week day other than Satur day..... ......................... Time of day not reported....... VACATION 387 .... 'I; 46 119 168 50 4 33 62 82 17 3 17 3 11 5 1 3 30 3 1 4 195 100.0 31 62 100.0 82 100.0 62 96 36 1 31.8 49.2 18.5 .5 14 11 6 22 27 13 35.5 43.5 21.0 26 44 12 31.7 53.7 14.6 2 2 178 12 12 1 51 6 84 2 340 41 102 137 56 222 29 64 87 39 3 . Total...................... Afternoon work______ Hour reported_____ Before 6 p. m............ 6 p. m., before 8 p. m ____ 8 p. m., before 10 p. m_._ 10 p. m., before i2 p. m . . Hour not reported____ Morning work only No work on a week day other than Satur day..... ....................... ... Time of day not reported___ 220 100.0 29 63 100.0 86 100.0 39 3 111 75 31 3 50.5 34.1 14.1 1.4 15 10 3 1 37 14 11 1 58.7 22.2 17.5 1.6 39 37 10 45.3 43.0 11.6 18 13 7 1 2 1 1 1 11 2 6 3 90 17 5 5 25 7 44 3 15 2 1 2 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 297 NEWARK, N. J. T a b l e 78 — Hour of ending work oh a typical Saturday afternoon during school term and during vacation, hy age period; bootblacks, Newark, N . J. Bootblacks under 16 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Hour of ending work on a typical Saturday afternoon Un Per der 10 cent Num dis- years1Num ber triber bution Afternoon work--------- ------------Hour reported------------------- 50 387 119 168 328 102 148 326 100.0 102 100.0 148 100.0 51.8 27.6 17.5 3.1 54.9 23.5 17.6 3.9 54.1 29.1 13.5 3.4 Before 6 p. m .................. 6 p. m., before 8 p. m .... 8 p. m., before 10 p. m „ 10 p. m., before 12 p. m . 14 years, under 16 Age not Per Per Per re cent port cent cent dis- Num dis- Num dis- ed 1 triber tritri- ber bububution1 tion tion SCHOOL TERM Total. 12 years, under 14 Hour not reported------------Morning work only................... No work on Saturday..---------Time of day not reported.......... VACATION T ota l............................................... Afternoon work........................ - ........ Hour reported------------------------Before 6 p. m ................ . 6 p. m., before 8 p. m .... 8 p. m., before 10 p. m .. 10 p. m., before 12 p. m . 340 102 137 56 285 83 120 51 284 100.0 27 83 100.0 119 100.0 100.0 13 55.4 21.7 20.6 2.4 52.9 31.9 11.8 3.4 49.0 19.6 27.5 3.9 52.5 26.4 18.3 2.8 Hour not reported-----------Morning work only------ --------No work on Saturday------------Time of day not reported......... i Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. Almost all the boys (91 per cent) shining shoes in yacation worked at least two hours a day during the week, the j f 7q5 Der at least five hours. (Table 79.) On Saturdays alm<sst i ^ (95 Per cent) worked at least three hours, and almost half (47 per cent) worked at least eight hours. (Table 80.) Of i l 5 boys who were out bootblacking on Saturdays more than eight h o i ^ ™ were under 10 years of age and 40 per cent under y g y fewer boys under 12 than in the entire group. Supday homs^for the 269 who reported Sunday work, though not so long as Saturday hours, were very long; 89 per cent worked three hours or longer, 51 pe cent five hours or longer, and 16 per cent at least eight hours. The boys who worked after school could not spend so much time on the streets. Nerertheless, 67 per cent worked two' hours at least, and a few (5 per cent) five hours or longer. On Saturdays during the school yea? 95 per cent worked at least three ho" ^ ’ ^ cent at least eight hours— similar proportions to those found 10 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 298 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K Saturday workers during vacation. Boys bootblacking more than eight hours on Saturdays during the school year were of about the same ages as all the Saturday bootblacks. A great many boys did shoe shining on Sundays during the school year as well as during the summer, and their hours were also long. Of the 308 who worked on Sunday, 291 reported the number of hours worked; of these, 95 per cent worked at least two hours and 51 per cent at least five hours, including 45 boys (15 per cent) who spent eight hours or more on Sundays wandering about the streets with their bootblacking boxes. T a b l e 79. Number of hours of street work on a typical week day other than Satur day during school term and during vacation, by age period; bootblacks, Newark, Bootblacks under 16 years of age 10 years, 12 years, under 12 under 14 Age Un14 der years not Per 10 Per Per under re Num cent years Num cent Num cent 161 port ed! ber distri ber distri ber distri bution bution bution Total Number of hours of street work on a typical week day other than Saturday SCHOOL TEEM T otal.._____ ______ Street work on week days__ . 209 Total reported_________ . 195 1 63 58 63 9 1 ‘ Less than 1 hour__ 1 hour, less than 2__ 2 hours, less than 3. . 3 hours, less than 6. . 5 hours, less than 8. . 12 hours and over___ Not reported__________ No street work on week days. . 46 119 168 50 34 68 84 20 100.0 31 62 100.0 82 100.0 17 3 .5 32.3 29.7 32.3 4.6 .5 1 13 8 8 1 23 19 16 4 37.1 30.6 25.8 6.5 25 25 28 3 1 30.5 30.5 34.1 3.7 1.2 2 4 10 1 2 1 14 3 6 2 178 12 51 84 4 3 ............ VACATION T o ta l....._____ ______ 340 41 102 137 56 Street work on week days___ 250 36 77 93 Total reported__________ 232 100.0 31 69 100.0 90 - ...........: 100.0 41 39 3 Less than 1 hour____ 1 hour, less than 2. _.. 2 hours, less than 3__ 3 hours, less than 5__ 5 hours, less than 8 . . . 8 hours, less than 10. . 10 hours, less than 12. 12 hours and over....... 2 19 25 47 70 40 20 9 .9 8.2 10.8 20.3 30.2 17.2 8.6 3.9 1 4 5 6 9 3 2 1 1 7 8 10 22 10 8 3 1.4 10.1 11.6 14.5 31.9 14.5 11.6 4.3 7 8 22 25 17 8 3 7.8 8.9 24.4 27.8 18.9 8.9 3.3 1 4 9 11 10 2 2 3 Not reported......... ......... No street work on week days. 18 5 8 3 2 90 5 25 44 15 ! 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 4 299 NEWARK, N . J. T a b l e 80.— Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday during school term and during vacation, by age period; bootblacks, Newark, N . J. Bootblacks under 16 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Number of hours of street work on a typical Saturday Un Per der cent 10 Num dis- years1Num ber triber bu- tion 12 years, under 14 Age not Per Per Per re cent port cent cent dis- Num dis- Num dis- ed 1 triber tritri- ber bububution1 tion tion SCHOOL TEEM Total Street work on Saturday--------------------Total reported------------------------------ 46 387 14 years, under 1 6 119 50 168 46 362 100.0 107 100.0 345 100.0 43 Less than 1 hour------1 hour, less than 2----2 hours, less than 3 ... 3 hours, less than 5 ... 5 hours, less than 8 ... 8 hours, less than 10-. 10 hours, less than 1212 hours and over----Not reported..................... No street work on Saturday— 41 Total------ ------------------Street work on Saturday------Total reported................. . 102 56 137 54 35 319 100.0 30 90 100.0 100.0 100.0 1 hour, less than 2— . 2 hours, less than 3— 3 hours, less than 5— 5 hours, less than 8-~ 8 hours, less than 10-. 10 hours, less than 12. 12 hours and over----Not reported----------------No street work on Saturday— 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. In the summer the great majority (80 per cent) hf the boys spent at least 12 hours a week bootblacking, more than half (56 per cent) spent at least 24 hours, and a large proportion (26 per cent) worked a full week of 48 hours or longer. When school was m session 64 per cent worked at least 12 hours. Only 22 per cent worked 24 hours or longer; but for these boys their actual working week, if the hours in school are included, was at least 49 hours. The proportion o children under 10 was about the same for those working 12 hours or longer a week as for those working a shorter time, and the proportion under 12 was a little larger. EARNINGS The bootblacks made more money than the newsboys. The median earnings for vacation workers were between $3 and $4 a week; only 40 per cent of the boys made less than $3. (Table 81.) A few https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 300 CHILDREN IN STREET W O R K earned small amounts (75 or 50 cents or less) working several hours a week, often only on Sundays, though a boy of 7 who worked for his brother 36 hours a week in vacation received only 35 cents A large proportion of the boys (34 per cent) earned at least $5 a week. I he older the child the more he earned; 47 per cent of the boys under 12 years of age, but only 36 per cent of those who were 12 or older made less than $3, whereas 26 per cent of the younger group and 39 per cent of the older made $5 or more. For boys 14 and 15 years of age the median weekly earnings were between $5 and $6, instead of between $3 and $4 as for the younger boys. The number of hours spent at work made a great difference in earnings. For example, 65 per cent of the bootblacks spending less than 24 hours a week at the work made less than $3, compared with only 19 per cent of those spending 24 hours or longer; and 13 per cent of those working less than 24 hours, but 55 per cent of those working at least 24 hours made $5 or more. T a b l e 81.— Earnings during a typical week of school term and of vacation, by aqe period; bootblacks, Newark, N . J. Bootblacks under 16 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Earnings during a typical week Num ber Un Per der cent 10 dis- years Num triber bution 12 years, under 14 Per cent dis- Num triber bution 14 years, under 16 Age Per Per not re cent cent dis- Num dis- port ed 1 triber tribubution tion1 SCHOOL TERM Total _ 387 46 119 168 50 4 367 100.0 42 111 100.0 161 100.0 49 4 1 .3 3 .8 31 8.4 $1, less than $2___________IIIIIIIIII 83 22.6 $2, less than $ 3 .._________ III” ” ” 88 24.0 $3, less than $4____________...111*11 59 16.1 $4, less than $5__________ I I I ” ” ” " • 26 7.1 $5, less than $6............ I I ..I I I I 35 9.5 $6, less than $8 .......... -I-IIIIIII 29 7.9 $8 and o v e r ........... ........... I .I I I I I I ” 10 2.7 No earnings and no cash earnings” 2 .5 1 1 8 9 8 5 2 2 1 3 2 1 10 30 25 19 4 17 4 1 1 .6 10 6.2 , 32 19.9 47 29.2 26 16.1 13 8.1 13 8.1 15 9.3 4 2.5 3 11 7 9 7 1 9 2 4 8 340 41 102 319 100.0 38 Total reported. Less than $0.25__________________ $0.25, less than $0.50_______ - I I I ” $0.50, less than $1_____ _______ Not reported. Total. Total reported. $0.25, less than $0.50.................... . $0.50, less than $1______________ $1, less than $2........ .......- . . I . . I I I I $2, less than $3_________ I .I I I I I I ” $3, less than $4.„________IIIIIII” $4, less than $5______ I .I .I I I I I I II I $5, less than $6____ ______.IIIIIII $6, less than $8.............. -IIIIIIIIIIIII $8 and o v e r .____ __________ I I IIIII” No earnings and no casif earnings__ Not reported. 20 3 16 53 56 50 30 40 33 36 2 .9 5.0 16.6 17.6 15.7 9.4 12. 5 10.3 11.3 .6 21 1 1 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 7 92 100.0 2 4 6 6 7 5 2 2 3 1 5 21 17 13 9 13 7 7 3 10 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. .9 9.0 27.0 22.5 17.1 3.6 15.3 3.6 .9 5.4 22.8 18.5 14.1 9.8 14.1 7.6 7.6 1 1 2 1 137 56 4 132 100.0 53 100.0 4 1 .8 6 4.5 17 12.9 29 22.0 22 16.7 12 9.1 15 11.4 15 11.4 15 11.4 5 1 1.9 8 15.1 4 7.5 8 15.1 4 7.5 7 13.2 9 17.0 11 20.8 1 1.9 3 1 3 301 N E W A R K , N . J. The boys who blacked boots after school and Saturdays made less than the vacation workers. More than half (56 per cent) earned less than $3 a week, the median being between $2 and $3. However, onefifth (20 per cent) made $5 or more. The median earnings for 14 and 15 year old bootblacks were between $3 and $4, $1 more than for the others; otherwise the difference in earnings for boys of ditterent ages was not great, though boys at least 12 years of age had somewhat larger earitngs than the younger bootblacks. The same differences in earnings according to the number of hours spent at the work were found among boys working during the school year as among those at work during vacation; 83 per cent working less than 12 hours made less than $3 and only 3 per cent made $5 or more, whereas only 42 per cent of those working 12 hours or longer made less than $3 and 29 per cent made at least $5. The earnings reported included tips if they formed a regular part of the weekly intake, but no specific information on tips was obtained. BOOTBLACKS IN SCHOOL Only one bootblack in each group was in high school. The median school grade was the fourth. The bootblacks were the most retarded of the Newark street workers. Among the group working during vacation 46 per cent of the boys 8 to 15 years of age with foreignborn fathers and 68 per cent of the negro boys were overage for their grades; among the group attending school these percentages were 42 and 74, respectively. Only 12 boys of native white parentage were included in the first group and 17 m the other; 6 of the 12 and 10 of the 17 were retarded. . , Little relation appeared between long hours of street work and retardation in school. Of the bootblacks spending less than 12 hours a week at work, 47 per cent, of those spending between 12 and 24 hours, 52 per cent, and of those spending 24 hours or more, 49 per cent were retarded; 22 per cent of the first group, 29 per cent of the second, and 32 per cent of the third were retarded two years or more. P E D D LE R S Two hundred and three of the peddlers working during the school year held their jobs at the time of the interview; 59 had worked only during vacation. The great majority of the boys “ were at least 12 years old, and about one-fifth were 14 or 15. (Table 82.) RACE AND NATIONALITY OF FATHERS A fairly large number of the peddlers, amounting to 20 per cent of the vacation workers and 24 per cent of those peddling during the school term, were of native white parentage. The great majority were the children of immigrant fathers, and a few were negroes. ¿ a s s e i M ing week of 12 hours or longer. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis e S r l S H S 302 CHILDREN IN STREET W Ô R E Those of foreign stock were largely Italian, but they included many Jews (especially Russian) and some whose fathers were of other nationalities. (Table 67, p. 276.) ECONOMIC CONDITION OF FAMILIES ™ on.g ***** kinds of street workers in Newark, few of the ped^, eIf were m fatherless families— 12 per cent in each group. Among VaC- ° i 21 (® Per,cent) amonS those working f, " g S'® sch°oi year 17 (7 per cent) were in families supported by ^ zrother. hake the otller street workers a large proportion of the peddlers, even when some one other than the mother provided the iamily living, had mothers who were gainfully employed— 27 ner cent of the vacation workers and 32 per cent of the o th e S M ost o X mothers were m domestic and personal service, but many did factorv uni Hornes and a number worked in stores. 7 breadwinners to a considerable extent were in occupations Î b commonly provide a small income. About one-fifth of the boys J},^Qfafit^ ? rfAor othe^ ch*ef breadwinners who were themselves ped dlers, and 16 per cent of those working during the school year and 13 per cent of the others had chief breadwinners who were in domestic and personal service or were laborers in the building trades, in facfabout°thrppt : b ! ? \ - f u ° utith-e same ProP°rtion as newsboys -tllS^ had chief breadwinners in occupations requiring education, training, or business enterprise, such as machinists and sk fffp d ^ 8Vcon^ra^to5s»/ oremen, and artisans in the building trades; killed workers m factories; owners of factories, owners of stores and hops; commercial travelers; clerks and professional workers. d u r a t io n o f s t r e e t w o r k As a rule the vacation peddlers had worked the greater part of the summer vacation; 80 per cent reported between 9 and 10 weeks of peddling. All the children who worked during the school session were interviewed at least 24 weeks after the opening of school- 71 per cent had worked 24 weeks or longer while attending school CONDITIONS OF WORK .. ,, f '1. Pf;ddlerS wer<S by city ordinance relating to health to and Clddi1en unf er 16 * ere not eligible for peddlers’ viVwS tbJt t L generally understood among the children interS eX “ at they were workmg illegally and were liable to be “ run off the streets by the police. Occasionally a child was forbidden nnn^e p°^ c® to continue his peddling activities, but in general they appear not to have been mterfered with, If the juvenile peddle? Z V lT ft 6 WOrL n Subi ecf t0 R a t i o n under the State of these WOTkers66 P' ^ bUt ^ ^ WaS n0t enforced “ the case By far the larger number of the peddlers— 127 of the 203 who were working w henthe inquiry was made— were employed by others or^and fn fh r t h m bus^ ss <? the* own account sold pretzels c lu d i^ yT ,n ibp ^ the remaPlmg .few selling many other articles,inffond?g p«?pL dS/Pa? Gr sb°PPmS bags, soap, salve, seeds, toilet i u c k s t c i w ? W * W? ° di C0j0a’ and j e w i n g gum. M ost of the hucksters (that is, fruit and vegetable peddlers), of whom there https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis N E W A R K , N . J. 303 were 77, were employed by others. Thirty-eight boys were employed by their own parents, chiefly by fathers who were hucksters, but a few by parents who sold other commodities, such as wood, ice, candy, dry goods, junk, and ice cream. A few were employed by uncles, brothers, or a cousin, generally as hucksters, but in several cases to sell pretzels or chewing gum. Although most of the pretzel sellers worked on their own account, a few were hired by dealers or bakers. More than half (59 per cent) of the children working when inter viewed worked only in residential sections of the city. Those who huckstered fruit, vegetables, and other produce as well as some who had other commodities for sale, including a number of pretzel sellers, found their customers mainly among housewives. Many peddled such articles as pretzels and candy that found a readier sale among pedestrians on the down-town streets and workers in offices and factories. Several boys sold paper shopping bags at one of the markets to marketers who needed a container for their purchases. REGULARITY OF WORK In vacation the boys’ peddling more often than not was a daily job— 67 per cent reported working six or seven days a week. Only 53 of the 343 worked only on Saturdays or on Sundays or on both days, and only 29 worked “ now and then.” The younger children as well as the older ones worked every day. When school was in session only 33 per cent worked every day, or every day except Sunday, and 48 per cent worked only Saturdays or Sundays or both; however, only 25 of the 243 worked so irregularly that they could not state definitely the number of days a week they ordinarily W worked. The daily workers during the school year were younger than the others, 51 per cent being under 12 years of age. HOURS OF WORK i ^ Very few of the boys peddled before school in the mornings; only 4 reported doing so, of whom 1 began work before 6, the others at 7 or later. In vacation a larger number began their rounds early in the morning; 10 started before 6 a. m. and 16 between 6 and 7. All except 2 of these 26, a wood seller and a pretzel peddler, were hucksters’ helpers, 13 of whom worked for fathers or, in one case, a brother, the others being hired assistants. The usual hour of starting out on the hucksters’ wagons was about 6, but a few started at 5 or earlier. Two little boys working for their fathers said that they started their work at 2 or 3 a. m. with a trip to the market to get the day’ s produce. Almost half (48 per cent) the vacation peddlers doing afternoon work stopped before 6 p. m., but a number of boys worked until 8 or later, a few reporting the hour of stopping as 10 or 11 or even mid night. (Table 82.) A number of the peddlers working until at least 8 p. m. were under 12, and some were under 10 years of age. A somewhat larger proportion of the 285 Saturday-evening peddlers worked until at least 8, several up to midnight or later (Table 83), some of whom were under 12 and several under 10 years of age. Most of these were fruit or vegetable peddlers or ice-cream sellers; some of them worked for their parents, but more were hired by others, A little boy of 10 accompanied his father, an Italian ice-cream peddler, until midnight every night. A 13-year-old boy of Polish-Jewish https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 304 CHILDREN IN STR EET W O R K parentage was out with his father’s pushcart selling fruit until 10 p. m. every evening not only during vacation but also through out a large part of the school year. T 8 2 . — Hour of ending afternoon work on a typical week day other than Saturday during school term and during vacation, by age period; peddlers, Newark, N . J. able Peddlers under 16 years of age 1 0 years, under 1 2 Total Hour of ending afternoon work on a typ ical week day other than Saturday 1 2 years, under 14 14 years, under 16 Age Un not Per der ID Per Per re Per cent years 1 cent cent cent port Num distri Num distri Num Num ber bu ber bu ber distri ber distri ed 1 bu bu tion tion tion tion SCHOOL TEEM Total________________________ Afternoon work_________________ 243 28 75 88 51 117 15 41 37 24 24 Hour reported__ ____ ____________ 115 1 0 0 .0 14 40 37 Before 6 p. m ............................... 6 p. m., before 8 p. m ________ 8 p. m., before 1 0 p. m_ ____ 1 0 p. m.t before 12*p. m 48 47 16 4 41.7 40.9 13.9 3.5 5 5 4 20 12 6 2 16 7 20 1 10 5 2 Hour not reported Morning work only______________ No work on a week day other than Saturday.............................................. Time of day not reported_________ 2 1 1 3 1 1 1 116 7 9 3 33 47 3 1 VACATION Total......................................... Afternoon work________________ Before 6 p. m __ ______ __________ 6 p. m., before 8 p. m ..... ................... 8 p. m., before 1 0 p. m__.......... ........ 1 0 p. m., before 1 2 p. m _____ 1 2 p. m. and after_______________ Morning work only____________ No work on a week day other than Saturday........................................ Time of day not reported________ 1 343 34 97 267 1 0 0 .0 23 78 128 94 38 4 3 47.9 35.2 14.2 1.5 L1 12 34 31 9 3 5 6 1 139 1 0 0 .0 43 ft 39.7 11.5 3.8 1.3 1 0 0 .0 38 13 3A 9 11.9 2 12 3 1 3 53 5 3 15 3 23 4 11 72 109 56 1 0 0 .0 1 19 33.9 1 10 1 L8 1 .8 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. When school was in session 117 boys peddled on the afternoons of school days. More than half (58 per cent) worked until 6 p. m. or later, including 16 boys (14 per cent) not stopping until between 8 and 10, and 4 (3 per cent) working until 10 or later. The 20 boys out until at least 8 p. m. on school-day evenings included some under 12, and even under 10 years of age. On Saturday nights 17 percent of the 188 boys who worked did not quit until between 8 and 10, and 4 per cent not until 10, of whom 1 was out until after midnight; thus, on Saturdays 39 boys, of whom 4 were under 10, and 11 were 10 or 11 years old, whre working until at least 8 p. m. The late workers included boys working under a variety of conditions. The 14-year-old son of a Polish peddler who helped his father regularly both during vacation and when school was in session, worked until 8.30 every school-day evening and until 10 on Saturday nights. A child of 10 worked with his father, an Italian ice-cream peddler, until https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis at 305 N E W A R K , N . J. 10 on school-day evenings, though not every day, and until 9 or 10 p. m. on Saturdays and Sundays when the weather was warm. Another 10-year-old boy, also, of Italian parentage, worked until 10 on Sat urday nights for a fruit and vegetable huckster; he had been em ployed throughout the summer vacation and had been workmg 36 weeks during the school year when interviewed. A Russian-Jewish boy of 15 sold candy on his own account, workmg daily mcludmg Sundays, until 10 p. m. A 14-year-old boy accompanied his father, a Polish-Jewish pushcart peddler, until 10 every night, mcludmg Sundays. T a b l e 83.— Hour of ending work on a typical Saturday of temoon during school term and during vacation, by age period; peddlers, Newark, N . J. Peddlers under 16 years of age 10 years, under 12 Total Hour of ending work on a typical Saturday afternoon Per cent Num distri ber bu tton 12 years, under 14 Un Per Per Per der 10 years1Num cent Num cent Num cent distri distri distri ber bu ber bu ber bu tion1 tion tion SCHOOL TEEM Total. 243 Afternoon work___ 188 Hour reported. 14 years, under 16 51 75 59 64 59 100.0 64 100.0 44.1 37.3 13.6 3.4 1.7 43.8 40.6 14.1 285 100.0 85 100.0 116 100.0 100.0 132 46.3 91 31.9 46 16.1 14 4.9 .7 2 48.2 32.9 11.8 5.9 45.7 31.0 19.0 3.4 .9 45.2 32.3 14.5 187 100.0 16 43.3 35.8 17.1 3.2 .5 Before 6 p. m ----- --------6 p. m., before 8 p. m_... 8 p. m., before 10 p. m_. 10 p. m., before 12 p. m. 12 p. m. and after_____ Age not re port ed 1 47 1.6 Hour not reported. Morning work on ly .------No work on Saturday-----Time of day not reported. Total. Afternoon work. Before 6 p. m ................ 6 p. m., before 8 p. m .... 8 p. m., before 10 p. m „ 10 p. m., before 12 p. m. 12 p. m. and after_____ Morning work only— .... No work on Saturday..... Time of day not reported. 343 34 72 97 1.2 8.1 21 22 15 1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50. The boys who peddled during vacation generally worked the greater part of the day; 78 per cent reported at least 5 ho
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