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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
W . N . D OAK. Secretary

CHILDREN’S BUREAU
G RACE ABBOTT. Chief

EMPLOYMENT OF
MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS
By
ALICE CHANNING

Bureau Publication N o. 210

U N ITE D STATES
G OVERN M EN T PR IN T IN G OFFICE
W ASHINGTON : 1932

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D . C.

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CONTENTS
Page

v
Letter of transmittal________________
Introduction_________________________________________________________
1
Part 1.— Employment of former pupils of special classes__________________
3
3
Scope and method of study________________________
Instruction given in special classes__________________________________
5
6
The group studied_________________________________________________
Sex____________________________________________________________
6
Race and nationality____ *_____________________________________
7
Economic condition of families___________ . _____ ____________ __
7
Intelligence levels_______________________
7
Physical defects_________________________________ ______________
9
School progress____________________________________________ _
Delinquency r e c o r d s ..._______________________________:________
12
Entrance upon- working life________________________
13
13
Age on leaving school_________________________________________
Age on starting work_________________________________
14
16
Assistance in obtaining their first job s_________________________
Continuity of employment___________*______________________________
17
Length of possible work history and time employed___________
17
U nemploy ment________________________________________________
18
Reasons for unemployment____________________________________
20
Duration of and changes in positions___________________ .______
21
Factors affecting continuity of employment___________________
26
Cases illustrating continuity of employment___________________
31
Occupations________________________________________________________
34
First and last occupations_____________________________________
35
All occupations during work history________________________________ 37
Intelligence levels and occupations____________________________
43
Training required for occupation. _____________________________
43
Duration of work in all occupations____________________________
44
Cases illustrating occupations____________________
46
Wages___________________________________________________________ __
51
First and last wages_____________________________________
51
56
Intelligence levels and wages__________________________________
School accomplishment and wages________________
58
Cases illustrating relatively high boys’ wages__________________
58
Success in jobs_________________________________
60
Employers’ o p in io n s ...__________________
61
Reasons for leaving job s___________
63
Summary and conclusions__________________________________________
66
Part 2.— Boys and girls formerly in Illinois State institutions for the
feeble-minded__________________________
70
70
Method and scope of study_______
The group studied__________________________________ >_____________
70
Employment after leaving the institutions__________________________
75
Length of work history and number of positions_______________
75
Unemployment____________________________________________
76
Occupations_________________ ._________________________________
79
Duration of jobs_______________________________________________
81
Wages____________________________________
82
Accidents while employed_____________________________________
83
Success in j o b s . . . ____________________________________________
84
Cases illustrating work experiences____________________________
85
Conclusions__________________________________________ 7 ____________
95
Appendix A.— Tables and tabular summaries of work histories__________
97
Tables__________________________
97
Tabular summaries of work histories_____________________________
101
Appendix B.— List of references________________________________________
106

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LETTER OF T R A N SM IT T A L

U . S. D e p a r t m e n t o p L a b o r ,
C h il d r e n ’ s B u r e a u ,

Washington, M ay 20, 1932.
S i r : There is transmitted herewith a report on the work histories of

mentally handicapped minors dealing with their industrial adjustment.
Part 1 of the report relates to pupils formerly enrolled in the special
classes of the public schools in Detroit, Rochester (N. Y .), Newark,
Cincinnati, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland; Part 2, to
young persons formerly attending two Illinois State institutions for
the feeble-minded.
The study was made under the direction of Ellen Nathalie M at
thews and the report was written by Alice Channing, who were at the
time director and associate director of the industrial division of the
Children’s Bureau. The work in Newark was developed under the
general supervision of Dr. Mary H. S. Hayes, director, vocational
service for juniors, New York City, who also advised on the psycho
logical aspects of the study and read the report. Dr. Meta L. Ander
son, director of the department of Binet classes, board of education,
Newark, has read the report with especial reference to these aspects.
Acknowledgment is made of the cooperation given the bureau on
the conduct of the inquiry by the public-school officials in charge of
the special classes for mentally subnormal children in the cities
visited and by the officers of the Illinois State institutions for the
feeble-minded, in making their records available for the study. The
bureau is also indebted for their helpful cooperation to employers of
minors included in the study and to employment certificate issuing
officers, juvenile courts, and the social agencies in the communities
visited.
Respectfully submitted.
Hon. W. N. D o a k ,
Secretary of Labor.

G r a c e A b b o t t , Chief.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS
AND GIRLS
IN TRO D U CTIO N

In recent years attention has been drawn increasingly to the large
number of persons in the general population whose mentality is so
low as to handicap them in their industrial as well as in their social
adjustments. To give training to children who are mentally in
capable of progressing in ordinary school subjects, the public schools
have developed special classes for their instruction. The first publicschool classes in this country specifically for the training of mentally
deficient children were established between 1895 and 1900.1 Since
that time special classes have been established rapidly. The number
of children enrolled in classes for subnormal and backward children
in city schools for which reports were received by the United States
Office of Education increased from 10,890 in 1914, the first year in
which such figures were available, to 23,252 in 1927.2 Similarly
the number of persons cared for in institutions for mental defectives
has increased from 14,347 in 1904 to 42,954 in 1923.3
A number of studies have been made to find out what becomes of
mentally deficient young persons after they leave the special classes
and also of persons who have been discharged or paroled from
institutions for the feeble-minded. (See Appendix, p. 106.) Most of
the studies dealing with the institutional group have laid especial
emphasis on the social adjustment of the young persons, on whether
they remain in the community, marry, and have children, or whether
they drift into institutions for defectives and delinquents; some of
the studies also take up the question of their occupations and earning
capacity. The studies concerning the afterhistories of boys and
girls who have passed through special classes generally contain
information about the kinds of work in which they are employed,
their earnings, and whether or not they are capable of self-support,
as well as some reference to their social adjustment.
The present study was undertaken primarily to obtain informa
tion on their industrial adjustment. In 1923 and 1924 the Children's
Bureau, in a series of studies in seven cities, obtained information
on the employment histories of 949 boys and girls who had attended
special classes for children of subnormal mentality in the public
schools and who had been out of school for three years or more. In
1925 another study wàs made of the after-institution histories of
167 boys and girls who had been cared for in two Illinois State
institutions for the feeble-minded and who had been out of the insti
tutions for at least one year. In both surveys information was
1 Wallin. J. E. Wallace: The Education of Handicapped Children, p. 67. Cambridge, 1924.
2 Schools and Classes for Feeble-minded and Subnormal Children, p. 3. U. S. Bureau of Education
Bulletin, 1928, No. 5. Washington, 1928.
3 Feeble-minded and Epileptics in Institutions, 1923, p. 26. U. S. Bureau of the Census. Washington, 1926.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

sought regarding the work histories of these individuals of sub
normal intelligence and the success they attained in industry. De
tailed data were obtained regarding the duration of their various
employments and the extent to which they had been unemployed
since they had started work, the number of positions they had held,
the kind of occupations in which they were employed, and their
earnings in their first and last positions. An effort was also made to
get the opinions of employers in regard to the success with which they
met the requirements of their jobs.
Part 1 of this report gives the information obtained on the employ
ment of the special-class pupils and Part 2 gives the information
obtained for the boys and girls who had been in institutions.

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PART 1.— E M P L O Y M E N T OF FO R M ER PUPILS OF SPECIAL
CLASSES
SCOPE AND M ETH O D OF STUDY

The cities selected for inclusion in the study of the work histories
•of former special-class pupils were Newark, Rochester (N. Y .),
Detroit, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland, in all
of which special classes had been in operation for some time and were
well organized. At the time of the inquiry children were assigned
to special classes in these cities only after those who had been referred
by their teachers or school counselors had been given psychological
tests. As a rule, only children whose intelligence quotients were
below 75 or who were at least three years retarded were admitted,
the standards for admission varying slightly in the different cities.
The proportion of the total elementary-school population in the
special classes varied somewhat from city to city, Detroit having a
larger proportion than the other cities.1
The study was based on the boys and girls who had left the special
•classes during a 3-year period, in Newark covering the school years
from September, 1916, to June, 1919, and in the other cities covering
the school years from September, 1917, to June, 1920. An interval
o f from three to seven years had elapsed between the date they had
left school and the date they were interviewed, a period sufficiently
long to make a satisfactory study of their work experiences. Young
persons who were not typical of those for whom special classes were
organized, that is, those who had been returned to the regular school
grades, transferred to parochial schools or to institutions for defec
tives or delinquents, or exempted from school attendance because
they were mentally or physically unfit, were excluded from the group
selected for investigation. Others were excluded because their
school records were incomplete or because there was no record of a
mental test or because they had moved out of the city. In Detroit,
where many more boys and girls had left special classes during the
3-year period than in the other cities, those who lived at some dis
tance from the center of the city were also excluded.
Of the 1,172 boys and girls whose employment histories were inves
tigated, 1,067 were located. Nine hundred and ninety-eight (94 per
cent) of those who were located had been employed at some time
after leaving school. Sixty-nine— 12 boys and 57 girls— had never
been employed. (Table 1.)
1 Biennial Survey of Education 1920-1922, pp. 123-125 and pp. 725-728. U. S. Bureau of Education Bulle
tin, 1924, No. 14. Washington, 1925.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T able 1.— Number of young persons selected for investigation, number included and
excluded from special study, and reasons fo r exclusion from study o f young per
sons form erly attending special classes in seven specified cities
Young persons selected for investigation
Excluded from study
Reason for exclusion

City
Total

Included
in study
Total

Employed
but work
history
not ob
tained

Never
em
ployed

Not
located

All cities.....................— ......... ........

1,172

949

223

105

Detroit_______ ________ _______________
Rochester------- ------------ --------- ------------Newark..------ --------- . .......................... .
Cincinnati_______ . . . ___ _____ _________
California cities............ ............................

474
242
222
97
137

391
210
181
81
86

83
32
41
16
51

14
9
14
3
9

25
10
9
3
22

44
13
18
10
20

Oakland___________ ______ ________
San Francisco------------------ -------------Los Angeles...................... ................ .

54
43
40

38
29
19

16
14
21

6
2
1

3
7
12

7
5
8

A somewhat larger proportion of the 69 young persons who had
never worked than of those who found employment were of inferior
mentality; 24 (35 per cent) of the 69 had intelligence quotients of
less than 50 as compared with 71 (7 per cent) of the employed group.
(See p. 8.) The boys who had not been employed appeared to
have been kept at home because of their low mentality or because
they were physically unable to work. Thirty of the girls also had
been kept at home for these reasons; the remainder (including 19
girls who had married) were said to be needed at home.
Fairly complete information was obtained for the 949 former specialclass pupils who had obtained employment, and these comprise the
group included in the present study.
The data for the study were obtained from records and from inter
views. Records from schools and psychological clinics contained
the young persons’ intelligence ratings and certain facts of their school
ing and social history. An attempt was made to get information
about their personal traits, but the material available proved too
incomplete to use. Records of employment-certificate and juvenileemployment offices were consulted as to the jobs they had held. Court
and police records were searched for information concerning delin
quency. The home of each individual was visited for information
from him or from his parents regarding the nature and wages of each
job, the duration of the job, and the reason for leaving it. Con
siderable difficulty was experienced in tracing these individuals and
their families, as the last known address obtained from the schools
was from three to seven years old. Some of the individuals who
had moved out of town were visited, and in some cases information
for these was obtained through correspondence. All former employ
ers who could be located were interviewed, and in some cases present
employers, but in other cases it was not considered advisable to visit
the latter, as jobs might have been jeopardized if it were known that
inquiries were being made. Sixty-five per cent of all the employers

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

were visited. Some of them did not keep records and remembered
only that the individual had been employed and that no unfavorable
reports had been made concerning him. Others remembered their
employees well and could give valuable information about them.
The results of the Binet-Simon tests given the children while in
school were used to establish an index of the mentality of the indi
viduals included in the study. The Stanford revision of the BinetSimon test results were used where they were available, but in Newark,
San Francisco, and Los Angeles most of the young persons had been
tested by the Goddard revision,2 and this test was accepted for the
study in these cities. The results obtained even from the same type
of tests given one individual at different times vary somewhat,
depending on a variety of causes, such as the conditions under which
the tests are given, the emotional reactions of the individual, and, if
he is foreign born, his knowledge of English, but it is generally believed
that they afford the best measure of general intelligence available.3
The revisions of the Binet-Simon scale are, of course, somewhat differ
ent, so that the intelligence quotients obtained by one revision are
not exactly comparable to those obtained by the other. However, as
they were distributed in relatively large groups, the measure was
considered sufficiently accurate for purposes of comparison. For 586
(62 per cent) of the individuals included in the study the tests from
which the intelligence quotients were computed are the Stanford
revision of the Binet test, and for 337 (36 per cent), the Goddard
revision. (Table 2.) The earlier Terman revision of the Binet test
given to 6 (less than 1 per cent) of the young persons was also used.
Another 2 per cent (20 Cincinnati boys and girls) had been tested by
the Yerkes point scale; these mental ratings were not used.
T able 2.

Type o f mental test given young persons form erly attending special
classes in seven specified cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes

Type of mental test
All cities

Detroit

Roches
ter

Newark

181

Total................... .

949

391

210

Stanford revision—Binet_____
Goddard revision—Binet_____
Yerkes point.....................
Terman revision.............

586
337
20
6

352
39

136
74

181

Cincin California
nati
cities 1
81

37
43

1 Includes Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco.

INSTRUCTION GIVEN IN SPECIAL CLASSES

At the time the boys and girls included in the study attended
school the instruction given in the special classes in academic work
and m physical and manual or industrial training varied in the different
cities. Reading, spelling, arithmetic, and English were the principal
academic subjects taught, such work depending upon the mental
capacity of the children. Handwork included such subjects as beadwoik, clay modeling, basketry, sewing, cooking, weaving, brush
1 Between 1916 and 1920, when the children included in the study were leaving school the Stanford
revision of the Binet-Simon test was just coming into use in these cities.
g
’ tne Hanford
aTs determined by the Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon
test, see The Intelligence of School Children, by Lewis M . Terman, ch. 9 (New York, 1919).

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

making, and woodworking. Detroit had two kinds of classes— one
for children under 13% years, the other, known as prevocational classes,
for older children. In the latter the boys were trained in the more
advanced forms of woodwork and in printing, cobbling, and automo
bile repairing, and the girls in sewing, millinery, and cooking.4 In
Rochester some of the older special-class boys who had shown ability
in handwork attended a prevocational school in which they had
training in printing, cobbling, and cabinet work. Some of the boys
were assigned work in connection with filling orders for school furni
ture or printing school-report forms. This school also admitted
children who were retarded but had not been assigned to special
classes. Newark had a so-called “ trade class” in which boys were
trained in the more advanced kinds of woodwork and in cobbling, and
the girls in domestic science. All the other cities included in the study
also had classes in which the older children were taught a greater
variety of handwork than the younger children.6 Trade training that
prepared directly for wage earning was not attempted in the special
classes at the time the young persons included in the study were
attending school; the effort was to keep the children occupied in tasks
that would train them in habits of industry and would improve their
habits of personal hygiene and conduct.
THE GROUP STUDIED
SEX

In this study of former special-class pupils the boys outnumbered
the girls almost two to one. (Table 3.) As a rule more boys than
girls were enrolled in special classes.6 The boys included in the study
greatly outnumbered the girls in Detroit, Newark, Cincinnati, and
San Francisco, but the number of each was about the same in Roches
ter, Oakland, and Los Angeles. In some cities troublesome boys of
border-line mentality were assigned to special classes rather than
girls of the same mentality who did not constitute disciplinary
problems.
T able 3.— Number of boys and girls included in study form erly attending special
classes in specified cities
Young persons f ormerly
attendi!ig specia1classes
City
Total

Boys

Girls

All citie s...................................

949

603

346

Detroit............ ........... ..................... .
Rochester___________ !_____ ____ _
Newark......... ..................................
Cincinnati______ _______ ____ _____
California cities__________ _________

391
210
1.81
81
86

255
109
128
59
52

136
101
53
22
34

Oakland_____ ____ ____________
San Francisco...............................
Los Angeles...................................

38
29
19

20
23
9

18
6
10

4 A cafeteria center for training girls was established in Detroit in 1922, after the children included in the
study had left school.
5 For information on the curriculum of special classes, see The Education of Handicapped Children, by
J. E. Wallace Wallin (Cambridge, 1924).
6 Schools and Classes for Feeble-minded and Subnormal Children, p. 10. U. S. Bureau of Education
Bulletin, 1923, No. 59. Washington, 1924. In 1921-22 there were 14,480 boys and 7,587 girls in the special
classes of the cities reporting to the bureau.

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS
RACE

AND

N A T IO N A L IT Y

Three-fourths of the young persons were native-born white, 18 per
cent were foreign-born white, and 6 per cent were colored. Threefifths, however, had foreign-bom fathers, Italians, Germans, Austri
ans, and Poles predominating.
E C O N O M I C C O N D I T I O N O F F A M IL I E S

Although no special information concerning the economic condition
of the families was obtained, the occupation of the father or guardian
and the employment of the mother at the time the boy or girl was in
the special class may serve as an indication of their economic status.
The occupations of the fathers or guardians of 795 boys and girls
were ascertained; the remainder either had no father or guardian or
information as to their occupation was not obtained. More than
three-fifths had fathers or guardians engaged in manufacturing and
mechanical industries, and about one-fourth had fathers in occupations
classified under trade or transportation. Thirty-four per cent of
these fathers of former special-class pupils in Detroit and 31 per cent
in both Rochester and Newark were employed as laborers or semi
skilled operatives in manufacturing and mechanical industries, com
pared with 28 per cent of all male wage earners of 25 years of age
and over in Detroit, 25 per cent in Rochester, and 26 per cent in
Newark; in other cities studied the number of fathers so employed was
not large enough for comparable purposes. About 1 per cent of the
fathers were in clerical occupations and less than 1 per cent in pro
fessional occupations; among male wage earners 25 years of age and
over as a whole the proportion of clerical workers was about 6 per
cent in each of the cities and of professional workers from 4 to 5 per
cent.7
One-fourth of the young persons had mothers who were gainfully
employed at the time they were attending the special classes, the
proportion ranging from 18 per cent in Detroit to 39 per cent in
Rochester. The proportions of mothers of special-class pupils who
were employed in the different cities were much greater than the
proportion of married women in these cities reported as employed in
1920. According to census figures, 9 per cent of the married women
15 years of age and over were gainfully employed, a proportion rang
ing from 7 per cent in Newark to 14 per cent in Los Angeles.8
IN T E L L IG E N C E L E V E L S

Seventy-seven per cent of the individuals for whom mental ratings
based on revisions of the Binet-Simon tests were available had intel
ligence quotients of less than 70, the usually accepted border fine of
feeble-mindedness,9 and 69 per cent had intelligence quotients between
50 and 70, falling into the so-called “ moron” group.10 (Table 4.)
Only 12 had intelligence quotients of less than 40, and the highest was
88, a higher level of intelligence than that of children generally
accepted in special classes. Somewhat larger proportions of the indi
viduals were in the upper intelligence groups in Rochester and the
California cities than in the other cities. In Cincinnati only 6 of 61
« Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, vol. 4, Population, Occupations, pp. 1101, 1181, 1213.
Washington, 1923.
8 Ibid., pp. 694, 800.
s Terman, Lewis M.: The Measurement of Intelligence, p. 79. Cambridge, 1916.
io In computing intelligence quotients for persons oyer 16 years of age, 16 years was used as the adult
age level.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

children who had been given Binet tests, relatively fewer than in any
other city, had intelligence quotients as high as 70. Variations in
the different cities may be explained partly by the differences in
standards for excluding children who are mentally unfit from regular
school and partly by the differences in the extent of local provision
for the mentally subnormal, either in the special classes themselves or
in institutions.
T able 4.— Intelligence quotient o f boys and girls formerly attending special classes
in seven specified cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes

Intelligence quotient and sex

Alle iities
Per cent Detroit
Number distribu
tion

Roches
Newark Cincin
ter
nati

Califor
nia
cities 1

Total....... .....................................

049

391

210

181

Intelligence quotient reported...............

929

100

391

210

181

Less than 40-....................................
40, less than 50.................................
50, less than 60....................... .........
60, less than 70......... ......................
70, less than 80____________ ____
80 and m ore................ ....................

12
59
266
379
186
27

1
6
29
41
20
3

2
27
117
163
71
11

1
11
56
81
54
7

6
7
52
75
38
3

1
7
17
30
5
1

2
7
24
30
18
5

Intelligence quotient not reported____

20
255

109

128

255

109

128

12
69
113
53
8

4
24
39
36
6

3
3
37
51
31
3

1
4
10
23
5
1

1
3
17
20
8
3

136

101

l 20

Boys______ ___________________

603

Intelligence quotient reported...............

588

100

Less than 40___________ ____ ____
40, less than 50.................................
50, less than 60_________________ _
60, less than 70............. ...................
70, less than 80.____________ _____
80 and more......................................

5
26
157
246
133
21

1
4
27
42
23
4

Intelligence quotient not reported____

Girls............. .................................

346

Intelligence quotient reported...............

341

100

136

101

Less than 40_______________ _____
40, less than 50.................................
50, less than 60............. ....................
60, less than 70— ................... .........
70, less than 80______ _______ ____
80 and more...... ...............................

7
33
109
133
53
6

2
10
32
39
16
2

2
15
48
50
18
3

1
7
32
42
18
1

3
4
15
24
7

3
7
7

1
4
7
10
10
2

Intelligence quotient not reported____

115

1 These young persons received the Yerkes point test; no intelligence quotients were computed unless
based on revisions of the Binet-Simon tests.

The boys in the special classes were of somewhat higher grade men
tality than the girls, 26 per cent of the boys, compared with 17 per
cent of the girls, having intelligence quotients of 70 or more, and only
5 per cent of the boys, compared with 12 per cent of the girls, having
intelligence quotients of less than 50. The same explanation may be
given for this as for the preponderance of boys in special classes—
the fact that boys of somewhat inferior intelligence, though not of
especially low grade, were more apt to be troublesome than girls of
the same intelligence levels and were accordingly assigned to special
classes, for which there was usually a waiting list, in place of girls

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

who may have been mentally inferior but who were not such a source
of annoyance to the regular-grade teachers.
P H Y S IC A L D E F E C T S

According to the information entered on the special-class records
85 per cent of the boys and girls had no obvious physical disability
at the time they attended the special classes. The remainder had
defects of some kind, such as those of vision, hearing, or speech;
9 had epilepsy; 14 were crippled in some way; and a few were reported
to be highly nervous.
SCHOOL

PROGRESS

Almost three-fourths of the boys and girls for whom the number of
years in regular school was reported (72 per cent of each sex) had spent
five years or more in regular school before entering the special classes.11
They had entered the special classes from every grade in regular
school from the first up to and through the seventh. The girls on
the whole had made higher attainment in regular school than the boys,
57 per cent of them having attended the fourth or a higher grade as
compared with 46 per cent of the boys. (Table 6.) Frequently the
children had repeated grades several times before they were trans
ferred.
The median grade attained in the regular school before transfer to
a special class was the second for those with intelligence quotients of
less than 50 (as determined by tests given while the children were
attending the special classes), the third for those with intelligence
quotients between 50 and 60, and the fourth for all those with intelli
gence quotients of 60 or higher. Fifty-one children whose intelli
gence quotients were less than 70 and who were in the sixth or seventh
grade had obviously been promoted to grades too advanced for chil
dren of such limited mental ability.
The majority of the young persons (71 per cent of the boys and
78 per cent of the girls reporting) entered the special classes when
they were 12 years of age or older. A large proportion (37 per cent
of the boys and 48 per cent of the girls) entered after they were 14
years of age. The boys were transferred earlier than the girls not
because of greater dullness, for they usually had higher mental rat
ings than the girls, but probably because they had become trouble
some at earlier ages than the girls and accordingly were assigned to
special classes. The age of entering the special classes differed
somewhat from city to city, Newark and Rochester children, for
example, entering special classes at younger ages than those in Detroit.
These differences are undoubtedly due to differences in the policies
in the special-class departments of the cities in regard to assigning
children to those classes and in the facilities for accommodating those
of different ages.
The young persons studied had spent from 14 days to 9 years in
the special classes, but more than half had spent less than two years.
(Table 5.) Boys on the whole had attended the special classes longer
than the girls. In Detroit, Cincinnati, and the California cities
combined 65 per cent of those studied had attended less than two years,
but in Newark 55 per cent and in Rochester 76 per cent had attended
two years or longer.
ii The term “ regular school” as used in this study means “ regular grades” for most cases, but in a few
instances it included also ungraded classes, sometimes called “ opportunity classes, where the children
were tried out for awhile, and then, failing to make progress, were assigned to the special classes for the
feeble-minded.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T able 5.— Duration o f attendance in special classes o f boys and girls formerly >
attending special classes in seven specified cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes

Duration of attendance in special
classes and sex

All cities

Number

Roches Newark Cincin Califor
Percent Detroit
ter
nati nia cities:
distri
bution

Total....... .................................... .

949

391

210

181

86.

Duration reported___________________

938

100

389

210

175

Less than 6 months.........................
6 months, less than 1 year. ______
1 year, less than 2_____ ____ _____
2 years, less than 3...........................
3 years, less than 4......................... _
4 years, less than 5_______________
5 years and more___ _______ ____ _

112
128
248
155
97
74
124

12
14
26
17
10
8
13

64
72
113
54
31
25
30

9
11
30
42
33
28
57

11
11
57
39
22
12
23

817
28
12
4
4
7

20i
17
20i
8
7'
5
7

Duration not reported_______________

2«

Boys.............................................

603

255

109

.128

52-

Duration reported___________________

593

100

253

109

122

Less than 6 months..........................
6 months, less than 1 year.......... . .
1 year, less than 2_____ ______ ___
2 years, less than 3.................... ......
3 years, less than 4_______________
4 years, less than 5...........................
5 years and more ......... ..................

62
78
156
94
67
53
83

10
13
26
16
11
9
14

34
47
74
37
23
16
22

5
2
10
15
21
19
37

6
4
44
26
16
10
16

8
12
IT
10
3
3
5

9>
16
11
6
4
5;
6,

53:

34i

101

53'

33:

4
9
20
27
12
9
20

Duration not reported................... ........

G irls.................................. ..........

346

136

101

Duration reported..................................

345

100

136

Less than 6 months______________
6 months, less than 1 year________
1 year, less than 2.............................
2 years, less than 3....... ...................
3 years, less than 4_______________
4 years, less than 5.......................
5 years and more____ ____ _______

50
50
92
61
30
21
41

14
14
27
18
9
6
12

30
25
39
17
8
9
8

Duration not reported...........................

13
13
6
2
7

5
11
2
1
1
2

11
4.
9»
2
3.
4.
1

That the young persons on the whole were unable to make further
progress in academic subjects by the time they were transferred to
special classes is shown by the reports for the grades they attained in
academic work while in the special classes. The academic grade
equivalent was determined by the teachers’ reports of the last year’s
work in the special classes. Sixty per cent of the boys and 68 per
cent of the girls had reached an academic grade in the special classes
no higher than that which they had attained in regular sehool; tho
remaining boys and girls had made some progress. The proportion
(25 per cent) who were doing the equivalent of fifth-grade work or
more in the special classes was the same as the proportion who had
reached this grade in regular schools. (Table 6.) The median grado
reached in academic subjects in the special classes was the fourth.
The proportion who had reached the equivalent of the fourth grade
varied somewhat in the different cities, owing no doubt both to
differences in grading in the special classes and to differences in the
mental ability of the young persons in the various eities. The pro
portion who were doing academic work equivalent to, the fourth grade

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

was 74 per cent of the young persons in Detroit, 56 per cent in
Rochester, 54 per cent in the California cities, and only 15 per cent in
Newark.
In cities in which the grades reached in handwork were given—
Detroit, Rochester, Newark, and Los Angeles— the reports for the
boys’ and girls’ last year in the special classes were recorded. The
median grade reached in the industrial courses of the special classes
by the 270 boys for whom such reports were obtained was the sixth;
the grade reached by the 164 girls was the fifth. These figures suggest
that boys and girls of inferior intelligence can attain a certain degree
of proficiency in handwork that is not possible along academic lines,
although grades reached in academic subjects and in handwork are
not comparable.
T able 6.— Academic grade equivalent attained in special classes and last grade
attended in regular school by boys and girls formerly attending special classes
in seven cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes
Last grade attended in regular school

Academic grade equivalent attained
in special classes and sex
Total

First or Second Third Fourth
lower

or Notre*
Fifth Sixth
higher ported

Total....................... - ..................

949

115

133

213

228

167

Grade equivalent reported__________

829

102

110

184

207

150

58
115
195
255
138
68

24
24
23
24
6
1

18
27
29
26
10

12
30
63
59
14
6

2
23
54
81
43
4

5
17
48
51
29

2
12
14
28

120

Third..................................- .........
Fourth____________ ____________
Fifth
Grade equivalent not reported...........

2
6
7
5»

B o y s..._____ _________ _______

603

143

136

Grade equivalent reported__________

522

79~

124~

124

Third....................................... ......

36
74
128
161
83
40

12
14
14
18
5
1

15
20
20
15
9

8
18
40
43
10
5

14
34
48
24
4

2
13
29
25
19

1
4
10
11

Fifth

_ .................

li
6

Grade equivalent not reported...........

Girls............ ....................- .........

346

Grade equivalent reported...... ...........

307

22
41
67
94
55
28

12
10
9
6
1

3
7
9
11
1

4
12
23
16
4
1

2
9
20
33
19

3
4
19
26
10

1
8
4
17

Third___________ _____________
Fourth______ _________________
Fifth
Grade equivalent not reported...........

-----

l
X

The quality of the work done in the industrial classes, irrespective
of the grade of work, was recorded on the reports of 428 boys and 288
girls. Forty-seven per cent of the boys and 59 per cent of the girls
were said to have done good work; the remainder, fair or poor work.
For the young persons for whom the quality of work was reported,
100633— 32------ 2

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

almost as large a proportion with intelligence quotients of less than
70 as of those with intelligence quotients of 70 and more had done
work that was rated good. No doubt the standards for marking
differed among the teachers and in the different cities.
D E L IN Q U E N C Y R E C O R D S

In the absence of other concrete information concerning the char
acter traits of the individuals included in the study, court records
may serve as one indication of unfavorable personal characteristics.
Individuals who had been placed on probation or sent to institutions
for delinquents, but not those whose cases had been dismissed or who
had been fined, were classified as delinquent. As is true of boys and
girls in general,12 relatively more of the boys of subnormal mentality
than of the girls (20 per cent of the boys and 6 per cent of the girls)
had been in court and had been either placed on probation or com
mitted to correctional institutions at some time in their history before
the date of the study. (Table 7.) More than two-fifths of the boys
who had been delinquent and a few girls had been brought to court
only before leaving school; the others had been in court after leaving
the special classes. In spite of the fact that the courts in different
cities have different policies in regard to dismissing cases and placing
children on probation, the proportions of delinquent boys in the three
cities in which the numbers were large enough to give reliable per
centages were very similar— 19 per cent in Detroit, 20 per cent in
Rochester, and 22 per cent in Newark.
T able 7.— Delinquency record and intelligence quotient of boys and girls form erly
attending special classes in seven cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes
Intelligence quotient
Total
Delinquency record and sex

50, less than 60, less than 70 and more
60
70
Less
than
Not
50
re
Per
Per
Per
Per ported
(num
Num cent
Num cent Num cent Num cent
ber distri ber) ° ber distri ber distri ber distri
bution
bution
bution
bution

Boys__________________

603

157

Delinquency record reported..

598

100

155

100

243

100

154

100

Delinquency record...........
No delinquency record___

117
481

20
80

1
30

24
131

15
85

54
189

22
78

36
118

23
77

2
13

109

133

108

100

132

100

8
100

7
93

11
121

g
92

1
58

2
98

Delinquency record not reported...................................

Girls__________________

346

Delinquency record reported..

344

100

Delinquency record..........
No delinquency record___

20
324

6
94

Delinquency record not reported____________________

154

246

° Per cent distribution not shown because number of boys and number of girls was less than 50.
11 Seventeenth Annual Report of the Chief of the Children’s Bureau, 1929, p. 24. Washington, 1929.

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

Because of the reported tendency to assign troublesome boys to
special classes in preference to boys or girls of the same mental capac
ity who did not constitute disciplinary problems, it would be expected
that boys of the upper-intelligence groups in special classes would be
more likely to be delinquent than those of inferior intelligence. Only
13 per cent of the boys whose intelligence quotients were less than 60,
compared with 23 per cent of those whose intelligence quotients were
60 or more, had been delinquent at some time in their lives. Only
one boy whose intelligence quotient was less than 50 had a court
record for delinquency. The number of girls who were delinquent
was so small that differences in the proportions delinquent in the
various intelligence groups were not conclusive.
Special-class pupils as a whole, however, constitute a group of young
persons whose behavior is much less troublesome than that of indi
viduals who have been sent to institutions. Mentally deficient
children who have been delinquent and prove unmanageable at home
are generally those who are committed to institutions for the feeble
minded ; others of the same grade of mental defect who are not brought
to the attention of the courts remain with their families. According
to a report on cases discharged from the institution at Letchworth
Village, N. Y., the border-line cases of mental defectives who are com
mitted to institutions are a selected group of the feeble-minded, the
majority of whom have previously been misfits in the world at large.13
Compared with 15 per cent of the special-class pupils who had been on
probation or in institutions for delinquents, 76 per cent of the indi
viduals included in the study of former inmates of two Illinois State
institutions (see Part 2, p. 73) had been brought to court on delin
quency charges at some time in their lives before the study was made
and either placed on probation or committed to institutions for defec
tives or delinquents.
ENTRANCE UPON W ORKING LIFE
A G E O N L E A V IN G S C H O O L

The compulsory school attendance laws of all the States in which
the young persons lived at the time they attended special classes re
quired school attendance up to the age of at least 16 years, and did
not permit a child under 16 to leave school for work unless certain
educational requirements were fulfilled, ranging from completion of
the fifth grade for children of 14 in New Jersey 14 to completion of
the eighth grade for children of 14 in New York and California and
the seventh for children of 15 in California. In Cincinnati mentally
defective boys of 15 years of age were allowed to leave school for
work if they were deemed mentally incapable of completing the sixth
grade by the time they were 16; all girls were required by law to re
main in school until they were 16. In Newark mentally defective
children were, in practice, allowed to leave school for work at either
14 or 15 years of age, even if they had not completed the fifth grade.
Sixty-two per cent of the young persons included in the study,
relatively more boys than girls, left school before they were 16 years
w storrs, Harry C., M . D.: A Report on an Investigation Made of Cases Discharged from Letchworth
Village, p. 221. Fifty-third Annual Session, 1929, American Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded.
14 Raised to completion of the eighth grade for children of 14, sixth grade for children of 15, since the date
of the study.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

of age, but only 15 per cent before they were 15 years of age. (Table
8.) Relatively more young persons who lived in Newark, Cincinnati,
and the California cities left school before they were 15 than in the
other cities. The proportion of boys leaving school before they were
16 in the cities covered by the study varied from 56 per cent in Detroit
to 88 per cent in Cincinnati. This relatively high proportion in Cin
cinnati was due no doubt to the exemption of mentally retarded boys
from the educational requirement of the law. Forty-eight per cent
of the Detroit girls, 55 per cent of the Rochester girls, and 64 per cent
of the Newark girls left school before they were 16. About twothirds of the girls in Cincinnati and about the same proportion of the
girls in the California cities also left school before they were 16. With
one exception none of the young persons who left the special classes
before the age of 16 had completed a grade equivalent to the grade
requirements of their respective States.
T a b l e 8 .— A ge on leaving special classes of boys and girls form erly attending’

special classes in seven specified cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes

Age on leaving special classes and sex

All :ities

Number

Total.......................................... .

Roches Newark Cincin Califor
ter
Percent Detroit
nati
nia cities;
distri
bution

949

391

210

181

86;

2
12
47
36
2

2
18
187
174
10

1
2
11
102
93
1

8
54
74
43
2

3
13
51
14

5;
22
32:
225

100

13 years__________________ ____ _____
14 years---------------------- -------------------15 years------------------ ------------------------16 years------- ------------------------------------

1
20
118
446
346
18

Boys.................................... .........

603

100

255

109

128

52-

14 years______________ _____________
15 years------- ------ ----------------------------16 years------------ -------- ----------------------

14
86
294
195
14

2
14
49
32
2

11
131
105
8

2
5
53
48
1

5
42
55
25
1

3
12
37
7

4
16.
18
104

Girls.............- ........... ............ ......

346

100

136

101

, 3
12
19
18
1

1
14
7

1
614
12:
1

14 years______________________ ______
15 years_________ ____ _______ _______
16 years-------- ------- --------------------------

1
6
32
152
151
4

(i)

1
2
9
44
44
1

2
7
56
69
2

6
49
45

1 Less than 1 per cent.
A G E O N S T A R T IN G W O R K

About one-half of the boys and nearly two-fifths of the girls for
whom age on going to work was reported went to work before 16.
The proportion for both sexes ranged from 36 per cent in Detroit to
70 per cent in Cincinnati. A considerable number of the young per
sons in Newark, Cincinnati, and the California cities, but few in either
Detroit or Rochester, went to work when they were 14 years of age.
(Table 9.)
Most of the young persons apparently experienced little difficulty
in getting employment as soon as they left school. Seventy per cent
of the boys and 56 per cent of the girls went to work within a few

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

weeks or a month after leaving school. A considerable proportion,
however, especially among the girls (16 per cent of the boys and 29
per cent of the girls), were still unemployed after they had been out
of school three months or more. Probably many of these girls did
not try to find employment immediately outside their homes. At
the end of a year’s time most of these young persons had gone to work.
T able 9.— A ge on going to work o f boys and girls form erly attending special classes
in seven specified cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes
All cities
Age on going to work and sex
Number

Boys.............. .

603

Age reported_______

596

Under 14 years..
14 years________
15 years________
16 years...... ........
17 years and over

11
70
240
244
31

Age not reported___

Girls_________

346

Age reported_______

344

Under 14 years..
14 years________
15 years________
16 years________
17 years and over

112

Roches Newark Cincin Califor
nia cities
nati
Per cent Detroit
ter
distri
bution
255
100

109

128

125

135
16

136

4
18
171
39

Age not reported___

The child labor laws in effect in the various cities in which the young
persons lived did not permit children under 16 to work in most occu
pations (domestic service and farm work were the usual exceptions)
unless they obtained employment certificates. Only one young per
son included in the study had completed the grade requirements for
employment certificates,15 and altogether 474 boys and girls, according
to the child labor laws of the States in which they lived, should have
obtained employment certificates when they first went to work for the
occupations in which they were employed. From the records at the
employment-certificate offices information was obtained regarding
356 of these boys and girls; 197, or 55 per cent of these (132, or 53 per
cent, of the boys, and 65, or 62 per cent, of the girls) had failed to get
employment certificates before they went to work. (Table 10.)
Most of the young persons who had succeeded in getting certificates
lived either in Cincinnati, where mentally defective boys of 15 years
and over were exempted from the educational requirements of the
law, or in Newark, where it appeared to be the practice to issue em
ployment certificates to mentally defective children over 14 years of
age, regardless of whether or not they met the grade qualifications.
u Employment certificates were not necessary for children 16 years of age and over in any of the cities
except Cincinnati, where the law required girls up to 18 years of age to get work permits, and Oakland, where
after the autumn of 1920 they were required for children up to 17 years of age.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T able

10.— Working papers required and obtained by boys and girls form erly
attending special classes in seven specified cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes
Working papers and sex
All cities

Detroit

Roches
ter

Newark

Cincin
nati

T o t a l.................................................

949

391

Boys....................................................

603

255

Working papers required—.........................
Obtained _________________________
Not obtained..................... ...................
Not reported whether obtained______

326
119
132
75

Working papers not required______ _____

Califor
nia cities

210

181

109

128

101
6
66
29

49
2
9
38

92
64
27
1

50
33
16
1

34
14
14
6

272
5

152
2

58
2

35
1

Girls....................................................

346

136

101

Working papers required........... ................
Obtained____ _____ _____ ____ ______
Not obtained_________ _______ ______

148
40
65
43

38
4
27
7

42
1
9
32

30
18
10
2

22
14
8

16
3
11
2

197
1

58
1

The influence of the minimum-age requirement of the child labor
laws in effect in the different cities for the issuance of employment
certificates to children no doubt limited the employment of mentally
defective children of less than the minimum legal age even where they
went to work without certificates, although local custom was also a
factor. For example, in Detroit, where the minimum working age at
the time of the study was 15 years for children with employment
certificates, only 2 per cent of the subnormal boys and girls went to
work under this age. Ninety-two per cent of those who went to work
after reaching the minimum age of 15 years, however, had no employ
ment certificates. On the contrary, in Newark, where the law per
mitted the employment of children at 14 provided they had employ
ment certificates, 29 per cent of the subnormal boys and girls went to
work in or before their fourteenth year.
A S S IS T A N C E IN O B T A IN IN G T H E IR F IR S T JO B S

Only 5 per cent of the boys and 7 per cent of the girls had any aid
from school teachers, school placement bureaus, employment offices
not connected with schools, or social-welfare agencies in getting their
first jobs, according to the statements of the young persons and the
records of placement offices. Thirty-one per cent of the boys and
38 per cent of the girls were assisted by friends or relatives in finding
work. A small number (9 per cent of the boys and 1 per cent of the
girls) were actually employed by their relatives. More than half of
each sex were entirely dependent upon their own efforts in getting
employment. A similar situation was found among children of
unselected mentality, according to figures collected in 1922 by the
New Jersey Council of Education for employed boys and girls attend
ing continuation schools. Two per cent of these children were assisted
in getting their first jobs by the school employment or other employ
ment offices, 48 per cent had had the help of friends and relatives,

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

and 50 per cent had had no assistance.16 Considering the special
needs of the subnormal children and the interest taken in their
problems by the special-class teachers, it is surprising that so few
included in the study had had assistance in getting work. Vocationalguidance activities or juvenile-placement bureaus were found in
several of the cities covered by the study. Rochester and Los
Angeles had juvenile-employment offices, and Cincinnati and Oak
land had vocational-guidance bureaus.17 The lack of guidance and
supervision for mentally deficient children was unfortunate not only
because the transition from school to work, difficult enough for
normal children, is particularly difficult for subnormal children, but
also because many of the mentally inferior children entering industry
did not have even the protection or supervision, slight though it
may be, that the employment-certificate system provides for all
employed children who obtain certificates before going to work.
CONTINUITY OF EM PLOYM ENT

Nine-tenths (94 per cent) of the boys and girls who had attended
special classes and were located in the course of the investigation had
been employed after leaving school (see p. 3). Among the 949 for
whom relatively complete employment records were obtained were
168 girls who had married and whose work histories were subject to
interruption. The following discussion as to continuity of employ
ment includes 603 boys and 178 unmarried girls. Of these only 3
boys were considered by their relatives as incapable of work, even at
home, and 23 (17 boys and 6 girls) were in institutions for defectives
or delinquents at the time of the study. The majority of both
sexes were employed when interviewed. One hundred and seventyfour boys and 54 unmarried girls were unemployed; most of them
claimed that this unemployment was temporary.
L E N G T H O F P O S S IB L E W O R K H I S T O R Y A N D T I M E E M P L O Y E D

A sufficient period had elapsed between the date the individuals
included in the present study had left school and the date of the
inquiry to show whether their employment was temporary or regular
in character; that is, to show whether or not mentally defective
individuals, who would be classified as imbeciles of the higher grades
or as morons, can find and keep employment. The 949 individuals
had all left school from a little less than three and a half years to a
little more than seven years before they were interviewed. The
median period of time between the date that they left school and the
date of the study (that is, the possible period during which they had
an opportunity to work 18) was nearly five years (59 months) for the
boys and 4% years (55 months) for the unmarried girls. (Table 11.)
i« Unpublished figures furnished by the committee appointed by the New Jersey Council of Education
to ascertain facts regarding employed minors attending continuation schools.
17 A vocational bureau was established in Detroit in 1921, after the young persons in the present study
had left school, and placement and follow-up work for special-class children was started in 1923. Since
the study was made the schools in Los Angeles and San Francisco have also organized placement work
for children from special classes. (Crockett, Alexander C., and James M. Clow: Occupations of Junior
Workers in Detroit, School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1923.) In Cincinnati the
vocation bureau in 1920 organized a special committee to give advice and supervision to mentally defective
children entering industry; this work was afterwards taken over by the social agencies of the city. (Report
of the Mental Hygiene Survey of Cincinnati, May, 1922.)
18 The length of the possible working period for all individuals was the time between t he date of leaving
school and the date of the study, including the 45 boys (6 per cent) and the 6 unmarrie d girls (3 per cent)
who had been in institutions for some part of the time.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

11.— Length of possible working period and number o f months actually
employed for boys and, girls ( unmarried ) form erly attending special classes in
seven cities

T able

Boys and girls (unmarried) formerly attending special classes
Length of possible working period

Total

Number of months actually employed
and sex

Per cent
Number distribu
tion

Less
than 4
years

4 years,
less
than 5

5 years,
less
than 6

6 years
and
more

Boys...................................... .............

603

254

176

Number of months reported.......................

573

100

241

170

Less than 12 m on th s..........................
12 months, less than 18......... ........... .
18 months, less than 2 4 ................. ......
24 months, less than 30.........................
30 months, less than 36______________
36 months, less than 42______________
42 months, less than 48................. ........

23
18
38
53
66
62
98
77
72
66

4
3
7
9
12
11
17
13
13
12

5
2
11
10
11
13
20

10
11
18
25
33
34
38
44
28

5
4
7
14
16
13
31
18
28
34

3
1
2
4
6
2
9
15
16
32

Girls (unmarried)...............................

178

Number of months reported........................

177

100

31
4
18
13
14
23
22
20
11
21

18
2
10
7
8
13
12
11
6
12

8
2
7
4
4
11
8

7
2
2
1
1

1
4

4
5
8
15

18 months, less than 24................... ......
24 months, less than 30__________ ___

8
4
9
11
10
12
3

6
1

The individuals included in the inquiry were employed the greater
part of the time after they had left school. Approximately 75 per cent
of the boys worked more than one-half their possible working period
and about 40 per cent as much as three-fourths of the time. The
unmarried girls were employed for shorter periods than the boys;
38 per cent of the boys and 29 per cent of the girls had worked four
years or more, those with the longer work histories naturally reporting
the longer periods of actual employment.
UNEM PLOYM ENT

Although, of course, many factors that have nothing to do with
mental ability are involved in unemployment, such as restlessness and
other character traits, ill health, family situation, general industrial
conditions, and other factors beyond the individual’s control, the
amount of their unemployment may be taken as at least one indica
tion of the success or failure of individuals of subnormal intelligence
in adjusting themselves to industrial life.
The amount of unemployment among these boys and girls who were
formerly in special classes was greater than that generally found
among workers of unselected mentality. The majority of the boys
and girls in the present study had been out of work at least 20 per

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

cent of their possible working periods. (Table 12.) Twenty per cent
of the boys and 34 per cent of the girls from special classes had been
out of work half the time compared with 8 per cent of the boys and 11
per cent of the girls of unselected mentality included in a Children’s
Bureau study of employed minors between 15 and 18 years of age in
Milwaukee. Only 29 per cent of the boys and 26 per cent of the girls
of subnormal mentality had been unemployed less than one-tenth of
the time contrasted with 63 per cent of the Milwaukee boys and the
same proportion of the Milwaukee girls.19 Employed children in
cluded in two other studies made by the Children’s Bureau in Boston
and in Connecticut likewise were unemployed a smaller proportion
of the part of their industrial lives covered by these studies than the
young persons of the present study.20 Employed children between
14 and 18 in Cincinnati with work histories of four years, according
to a study made in that city of 753 children at work,21 also had rela
tively little unemployment. Three-fourths or more of these children
were employed each year for 50 or more weeks.
T able 12.— Percentage o f unemployment among boys and girls (unmarried )
form erly attending special classes in seven specified cities
Boys and girls (unmarried) formerly attending special classes
All fities
Percentage of unemployment and sex
Number

Roches Newark Cincin Califor
Per cent Detroit
ter
nati nia cities
distri
bution

Boys..............................................

603

255

109

128

Percentage of unemployment reported.

568

100

243

103

122

Less than 10 per cent____________
10 per cent, less than 20......... ........
20 per cent, less than 30...................
30 per cent, less than 40__________
40 per cent, less than 50............ ......
50 per cent, less than 60__________
60 per cent, less than 80................ .
80 per cent and more.................. .

164
85
83
66
57
46
45
22

29
15
15
12
10
8
8
4

59
42
36
26
34
20
20
6

34
12
15
17
8
5
10
2

38
15
16
15
11
11
6
10

18
10
11
6
3
6
2

15
6
5
2
4
7
3
2

Percentage of unemployment not reported...______________________ _
Girls (unmarried)_____________

35
178

Percentage of unemployment reported-

176

100

Less than 10 per cent____________
10 per cent, less than 20............. .
20 per cent, less than 30__________
30 per cent, less than 40...................
40 per cent, less than 50__________
50 per cent, less than 60__________
60 per cent, less than 80__________
80 per cent and more........ ..............

46
32
14
15
9
15
16
29

26
18
8
9
5
9
9
16

15
9
5
5
2
7
6
17

14
12
5
5
2
3
5
4

6
7
2
2
5
4
3
3

4
4
i

Percentage of unemployment not reported.......................... .......................

1
3

1
2
4
1

1
18 Unpublished figures.
20 The Working Children of Boston, p. 191 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 89, Washington,
1922); Industrial Instability of Child Workers, p. 34 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 74, Wash
ington, 1920).
22 Woolley, Helen Thompson: An Experimental Study of Children at Work and in School between the
Ages of 14 and 18 Years, p. 559. New York, 1926.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

Several differences between this study and other Children s Bureau
studies of employed children enter into but do not seem to explain
altogether the greater unemployment among the subnormal workers.
The fact that the work histories of employed boys and girls of unse
lected mentality included in these other reports start with the date of
their first employment after leaving school, and that of minors in
the present study with the date they left school, accounts for part
of the difference, especially between the girls in the two groups.
The majority of the mentally deficient boys and girls, however,
began work within a few weeks or one month after leaving school.
Another reason for the greater amount of unemployment among the
subnormal workers may be that the employed minors in other Chil
dren’s Bureau studies were of employment-certificate age in all the
States except Wisconsin and were required under the child labor and
school attendance laws to be either in school or at work, whereas
about two-fifths of the minors of the present study were at least 16
years of age when they left school and were not subject to such a pro
vision of law. In addition, according to reasons given on the school
records of the special-class children, only 69 per cent of the subnormal
boys and 55 per cent of the subnormal girls under 16 left school to
go to work.
The longer possible work histories of the young persons of subnor
mal intelligence as compared with the possible work histories of the
unselected groups of young workers in other cities do not explain
the larger percentage of unemployment among the subnormal workers,
because it has been demonstrated that unemployment among a
group of children of unselected intelligence decreases as they grow
older and spend a longer time in industry.22 The greater amount of
unemployment among mentally deficient young workers as compared
with those of unselected mentality corresponds with the findings of
the study of employed children in Cincinnati, that on the whole those
from the lowrer school grades were unemployed relatively longer
than those from the upper grades.23 Similarly, in the Children’s
Bureau study of working children in Boston those who were one or
two years retarded in school were unemployed a greater percentage
of the time than those who had made normal progress in school.24
REASONS FOR U N EM PLOYM ENT

Just how far variations in employment conditions in the different
cities affected the amount of unemployment of young workers of
unselected and of subnormal mentality included in various studies
can not be ascertained. The fact that in the present study mentally
defective boys from seven cities were all unemployed about the same
proportions of their possible work histories (Table 14) would indicate
that this factor is of small importance. Probably the effect of local
differences in industrial conditions was somewhat neutralized by the
long period of time covered in the present study, which included both
the war years from 1917 to 1919, when business was prosperous and
all kinds of labor in great demand, and the period of business depres
sion during and after 1921, when an unusual amount of unemploysee Industrial Instability of Child Workers, p. 31, and An Experimental Study of Children, p. 562.
« An Experimental Study of Children, p. 559.
m The Working Children of Boston, p. 192.

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

ment was found in all industrial centers.2* It may have been par
ticularly difficult, however, for the subnormal boys and girls to obtain
employment during the winter of 1921.
The boys and girls themselves were asked the reason for their longest
period of unemployment, but the responses to this question were not
very satisfactory. Only a small proportion (14 per cent of the boys
and 5 per cent of the girls) said that a slack season, a strike, or a general
period of unemployment was the cause of their idleness. Fifty-five
per cent of the boys and 36 per cent of the girls said that they were
unable to get work or they appeared to the bureau agent who ques
tioned them to have been indifferent on the subject of getting work.
About 5 per cent of each sex said that the chief reason for their
unemployment was due to seeking a better job, and 8 per cent of the
boys and 16 per cent of the girls gave illness as the cause.
The reason that the girls had a greater amount of unemployment
than the boys may be partly that the girls were kept at home to help
with the housework or that their relatives feared they would get into
some trouble if employed outside the home. One-fifth of the girls
but few of the boys gave as a reason for their longest period of un
employment that they were needed at home. The probability
that the girls found it no more difficult than the boys to get and keep
employment and that some of their unemployment was voluntary is
supported by the fact that nearly as large a proportion of the girls
as of the boys were employed 90 per cent of the time, although a much
larger proportion of the girls than of the boys were employed for very
short periods. A tendency of girls in general to be unemployed some
what more than boys has been brought out in several studies;28
in a study in New York State of children attending continuation
schools made by the New York State Department of Education this
tendency was marked.27 For other factors that may have entered
into the unemployment of the subnormal children, see pages 18 and 20.
D U R A T IO N O F A N D C H A N G E S IN P O S IT IO N S

Duration of first positions.

The girls and boys in the present study on the whole kept their
first positions but a short time.28 The same is true of the duration of
first positions of young workers as a whole. The majority of the
individuals of subnormal intelligence (54 per cent of the boys and
52 per cent of the girls) kept their first positions less than six months,
including nearly 40 per cent (about the same proportions of each sex)
who left their first employer before three months had passed. (Table
13.) A small group, however (about one-third of each sex), had kept
their first positions at least a year. A few were still employed in their
first positions at the time the study was made, from three to seven
years later. As has been stated (see p. 14), more than three-fifths of
the young workers of subnormal intelligence started work before they
25 According to figures for the number of persons employed in 53 industries compiled by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, the general employment index number, which was taken as 100 in 1923, was 115 and 114
in 1917 and 1918, and 85 and 88 in 1921 and 1922. Monthly Labor Review (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statis
tics), vol. 23, No. 2 (August, 1926), pp. 132,134.
* The Working Children of Boston, p. 191; Industrial Instability of Child Workers, p. 32; The Working
Children of Newark and Paterson, p. 37 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 199, Washington, 1930);
An Experimental Study of Children, p. 603.
27 New York State Education Department: Survey of Continuation-School Children. Statement issued
July 8,1929.
28 B y the term ‘ ‘position” is meant a continuous period of employment with one employer regardless of
any change in occupation while with that employer; by the term “ jo b " is meant the length of time in one
occupation.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

were 16. In the Children’s Bureau study of employed minors of
Milwaukee, who were about the same age as those of the present study
when they started work, 62 per cent of the boys and 59 per cent of the
girls whose first positions were ended, larger proportions than in the
present study, had held their first positions less than three months;
in a study of working children in Newark, N. J., all of whom went to
work before they were 16, 48 per cent of the boys and about the same
percentage of the girls whose first positions were ended had held
these positions less than three months.29 According to Children’s
Bureau studies of working children in Boston and in Connecticut
the children’s first positions were also found to have been of short
duration.30
T able 13.— Duration o f first 'position and intelligence quotient o f boys and girls
(unmarried) formerly attending special classes in seven cities
Boys and girls (unmarried) formerly attending special classes

Duration of first position and sex

Num
ber

Boys..............................................

603

Duration reported......................... ........

597

Less than 1 month_____ _________
1 month, less than 3.........................
3 months, less than 6.......................
6 months, less than 1 year..............
1 year, less than 2........................ .

98
121
102
94
87
45
50

3 years and more..............................

Intelligence quotient

Total

Percent Less
50,less 60, less
distri
bution than 50 than 60 than 70

70 and
more

Not re
ported

157

246

154

100

155

243

153

16
20
17
16
15
8
8

8
6
4
4
3
3
3

28
27
24
22
29
11
14

32
52
41
40
40
21
17

27
31
32
26
14
10
13

3
5
1
2
1

Duration reported___________________

177

100

Less than 1 month...........................

33
36
23
28
28
3
26

19
20
13
16
16
2
15

6
6
1
2
3

9
6
11
9
9
11

7
6
2
3
7
2
2

10
18
8
14
9
1
10

Girls (unmarried)_____________

3 months, less than 6.......................

3 years and more______ __________

178

Duration of longest positions.

The majority of both the boys and the girls in this study ultimately
found work in which they were employed regularly for long periods.
The median length of the longest position in which the boys had been
employed during their work histories was 20 months; for the unmarried
girls the median length was 19 months. One hundred and twentyone boys and 59 girls were still employed at the time of the study in
the jobs that they had held the longest. About twice as many girls
as boys (17 per cent compared with 9 per cent) had held their longest
position less than 6 months; but, on the other hand, as large a pro
portion of girls as of boys (37 per cent of each) had worked two years or
2# Unpublished figures; The Working Children of Newark and Paterson, p. 39.
30 The Working Children of Boston, p. 41: Industrial Instability of Child Workers, p. 38.

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

longer with one employer. (Table 14.) Mentally deficient girls who
actually settle down to industrial employment appear to be as steady
workers (that is, they have as little unemployment and work as
regularly) as boys.
The long period that many individuals included in the study worked
m one or more positions without a break of more than a week between
positions also indicates that a considerable proportion of boys and
girls who are classified as morons or high-grade imbeciles may be
steady workers. Nearly two years (23 months) was the median
length of time that both the boys and unmarried girls had worked
continuously in one or more positions without a period of more than
a week’s idleness between positions. A small proportion of each sex,
relatively more girls than boys (17, or 10 per cent, of the girls and 14,’
or 2 per cent, of the boys), had never worked continuously for three
months at a time. This number includes 12 girls and 8 boys who had
not been employed three months in the whole period between the
time they left school and the date of the interview. On the other
hand, a considerable proportion of each sex (30 per cent of the boys
and 34 per cent of the girls) had worked continuously for three or
more years.
T able

14.-—Duration of longest position and intelligence quotient o f boys and girls
(unmarried ) form erly attending special classes in seven cities
Boys and girls (unmarried) formerly attending special classes

Duration of longest position and sex

Total

Intelligence quotient

Num Per cent Less
50, less 60, less
distri
ber
bution than 50 than 60 than 70
Boys................................
Duration reported______
Less than 6 months..........
6 months, less than 1 year.. .
1 year, less than 2.............
2 years, less than 3..............
3 years and more__ __
Duration not reported.........
Girls (unmarried). . .
Duration reported...........
Less than 6 months .
2 years, less than 3.......
3 years and more........

603

584

100

50
101
218
113
102

9
17
37
19
17

178

100

30
25
57
22
44

17
14
32
12
25

Not re
ported

246

154

238

149

20
33
101
48
36

12
35
47
28
27

1
3
6
1
4

11
7

10
28
53
29
31
6

10
18

8
14
21
7

19
178

157

70 and
more

7
1
3

14
5
4

1
1
1

Changes in positions.

The number of changes an individual makes in his positions is one
indication of his stability as a worker, provided he does not remain
unemployed for the greater part of his possible work history, as did a
small proportion of the mentally deficient young persons who had
but one position. Even long periods of time spent in one position
ana infrequent or no changes in position do not necessarily indicate
occupational success. Often the individuals who lack initiative and

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

ability to progress are the ones who make few changes. Some of these
young persons of subnormal mentality who worked for a long time in
one position or who made few or no changes were those who held
inferior positions and were probably incapable of holding better ones.
(See cases 13, 15, 17, 18, and 19, pp. 46-48.)
The boys who had the shorter possible working periods usually held
somewhat fewer positions than those with longer working periods;
those with work histories of three to four years had five or six posi
tions as compared with seven or eight for those with work histories of
six years Or more. (Table 15.) On the other hand, girls with the
shorter working periods usually held about the same number of
positions (about four) as those who had the longer working periods.
T able 15.— Length of possible working period and number of positions held by boys
and girls ( unmarried) form erly attending special classes in seven cities
Boys and girls (unmarried) formerly attending special classes
Length of possible working period

Total
Number of positions and sex
Per cent
Number distribu
tion

Less
than
4 years

4 years,
less
than 5

5 years,
less
than 6

6 years
and
more

Boys_____________________________

603

254

176

97'

Number of positions reported.....................

586

100

248

170

1 or 2__________________ ____ _______
3 or 4_______________________ ______
5 or 6________________ _____________
7 or 8. ____________________________
9 or 10_______ ________ ____ _________
11 or 12_______________________ _____
13 or 14_______________ _____ _______
15 or more..... .......................... ......... .

78
111
124
99
69
42
26
37

13
19
21
17
12
7
4
6

15
18
17
10
4
3
2
5

32
52
49
44
30
14
14
13

19
30
37
28
21
20
8
7

11
21
17
14
5
2
12

Girls (unmarried).............—.............

178

Number of positions reported.....................

175

100

1 or 2.......................................................
3 or 4_______ _
___________________
5 or 6------- ------------------------------------7 or 8____ _________________________
9 or more_____ _____________________

62
42
36
18
17

35
24
21
10
10

21
18
17
7
10

19
12

3
4
4
2
1

7
5
4

8
4
2

Obviously the amount of shifting between positions can not be
measured exactly by the number of positions held, as the length of
possible work histories varied from three and one-half to seven years
and the boys with the longer working periods usually held more
positions than those with shorter working periods. To indicate better
the amount of shifting from one position to another, the workers
were grouped according to the average number of changes in positions
per year they had made during their working period. (Table 16.)
One of the groups consisted of workers who had made less than
one change per year (Group A in Table 16), another group of workers
who had made one change but less than two changes per year (Group
B), and another group of those who had made two or more changes
a year (Group C).

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

16.— Average number of changes in positions per year during working period
and percentage of unemployment fo r boys and girls ( unmarried ) form erly attending
special classes in seven, cities

T able

Boys and girls (unmarried) formerly attending special classes
Boys

Girls (unmarried)

Average number of changes in
positions per year
Total

Total

164
168
123
113

29
30
22
20

Percentage of unemployment not
reported............... 35

218

100

120

46
21
14
19

44
79
51
44

20
36
23
20

17
38
39
26

14
32
33
22

Not reported

100 14

100

99
46
31
40

108

Number •

178

Number i

Per cent dis
tribution

131

216

Per cent dis
tribution

Not reported

225

Number

Per cent dis
tribution

Number

Per cent dis
tribution

222

Number

—

Number

I Per cent disbution

Number
Total_______ 603

Percentage of un
employment re
ported.................. 568 100

Per cent dis.tribution

Group
Group A, Group
B, 1, C, 2
less
less
than 2 than 2 or
more

Group A, Group B,
Group C,
less
1 ,less
than 1
than 2 2 or more

Number

Percentage of un
employment

Less than 10___
10, less than 30.
30, less than 50.
50 and m ore....

Average number of changes
in positions per year

176

100

108

100

4
5
2
3

46
46
24
60

26
26
14
34

36
23
8
41

33
21
7
38

8
14
12
14

2
7
4
4

1 Per cent distribution not shown because number of girls was less than 50.

A large number of boys and girls changed positions on an average
of less than once a year. Girls, as has already been indicated, made
fewer changes than boys; 62 per cent as compared with 38 per cent
of the boys averaged less than one change for each year of their work
history. A relatively small proportion of either sex (10 per cent of
the girls and 23 per cent of the boys) changed positions two or more
times a year.
Comparisons of the amount of shifting of positions among the
individuals from special classes with that among groups of young
workers of unselected mentality are misleading unless the long periods
of unemployment among the former are taken into account. Among
children of unselected mentality, those who seldom change positions
generally have relatively little unemployment.31 However, many of
the young workers from special classes who had seldom changed
positions, as well as those who had changed positions frequently,
had a great deal of unemployment. Nineteen per cent of the boys
who had made less than one change a year had been out of work at
least half the time. About the same proportions of boys who had
changed positions more frequently had also been out of work at
least half the time; 2(1 per cent of the boys who had changed positions
once but less than twice a year and 22 per cent of the boys who had
changed two or more times a year. Thirty-eight per cent of the girls
31
p. 42.

See The Working Children of Boston, pp. 186,193-194; The Working Children of Newark and Paterson,
'

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

who had changed less than once a year and 28 per cent of those
who had shifted more often had been unemployed half of their possible
working periods. The girls, as has been said, changed their positions
less than the boys but on the whole they reported more unemployment.
The mentally deficient boys and girls changed their positions some
what less frequently than the boys and girls employed in Milwaukee.
The work histories of the latter were from one to four years in
length, not so long as those of the workers in the present study. Only
18 per cent of the Milwaukee boys, compared with 38 per cent of
those in the present study, changed positions less than once a year;
33 per cent of the Milwaukee boys and 23 per cent of the subnormal
boys changed positions twice or more a year. The difference between
the Milwaukee girls and the subnormal girls was even more marked.32
The working children of Boston, none of whose work histories was
more than two years in length, also shifted positions more frequently
than the boys and girls of the present study.33 These differences
between the workers of unselected and of subnormal mentality were
probably not due to differences in industrial conditions in Milwaukee
and Boston and in the cities covered by the present study. At least
the subnormal boys from the various cities averaged about the same
number of positions and about the same length of work history, with
the exception of the small number from the California cities, whose
positions were fewer in number. The differences between the two
groups are no doubt explained partly by the differences in the length
of their work histories, as boys and girls change their positions more
frequently during their first years of work than subsequently.34 Boys
and girls of unselected mentality who had worked as many years as
the boys and girls of subnormal intelligence would be expected, there
fore, to shift their positions less than those whose work histories were
shorter. Unfortunately no comparable figures are available for young
persons with as long work histories as the mentally deficient boys and
girls included in this study. It can not be concluded, however, that
the subnormal workers were steadier workers than the young persons
employed in Milwaukee and in Boston just because they changed
positions less frequently, for, as has been shown, the subnormal workers
had more unemployment than the workers of normal intelligence.
F A C T O R S A F F E C T IN G C O N T IN U IT Y O F E M P L O Y M E N T

Intelligence Levels.

As former special-class pupils have more unemployment than other
young workers, it might be expected that those of the lower intelli
gence levels would be more irregular workers than those of the upper
levels. This, however, was not true. Little difference^ appeared in
the amount of unemployment and in the duration of positions among
those of different grades of intelligence. Forty-six per cent of the
boys with intelligence quotients between 50 and 60, and 37 per cent
of those with intelligence quotients of 70 or more, had been unem
ployed less than one-fifth of the time, not a marked difference. (Table
17.) The number of girls was too small to show whether or not the
amount of unemployment and the duration of their positions varied
32 Unpublished figures.
33 The Working Children of Boston, p. 187.
, .,
,
a* According to the study by Doctor Woolley of Cincinnati boys and girls who
four years, the number of positions held eacla year decreased among both boys and girls,
average number of positions a year for the successive years was 2.2, 1.9, 1.7, and 1.5. An
Study of Children, p. 565.

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, .
had worked
lo r boys tne
Experimental

FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

with intelligence levels, but for those whose intelligence quotients were
50 or more no trend was apparent. (Table 18.)
T able

17.— Percentage of unemployment a n d intelligence quotient of boys formerly
attending special classes in seven cities
Boys formerly attending special classes
Intelligence quotient
Total
Less 50, less than
than 50
60

Percentage of unemployment

60, less than
70

70 or more

Not
re
Per
Per
Per
Per
Num cent Num Num cent Num cent Num cent ported
ber distri ber1
ber distri ber distri ber distri
bution
bution
bution
bution
T o t a l...........................

603

Percentage of unemployment
reported..............................

568

Less than 10 per cent
10 per cent, less than 20__
20 per cent, less than 3 0 ...
30 per cent, less than 40__
40 per cent, less than 50 ...
50 per cent, less than 60__
60 per cent, less than 8 0 ...
80 per cent and more........

164
85
83
66
57
46
45
22

Percentage of unemployment
not reported__________

157

100

148

100

229

100

150

29
15
15
12
10
8
8
4

6
5
4
1
2
2
2
6

49
19
17
21
11
15
10
6

33
13
11
14
7
10

72
35
36
27
23

31
15
16
12
ID

^3
23

18
6

8
3

13
3

246

154

15
100

i Per cent distribution not shown because number of boys was less than 50.
T able

18.— Percentage of unemployment and intelligence quotient of girls (^un
married) formerly attending special classes in seven cities
Girls (unmarried) formerly attending special classes
Intelligence quotient

Percentage of unemployment
Total

Less than 50, less
50
than 60
Total____ __________
.Percentage of unemployment reported___
Less than 10 per cent_____
10 per cent, less than 20...........
20 per cent, less than 30..........
30 per cent, less than 40__
40 per cent, less than 50........
50 per cent, less than 60__
60 per cent, less than 80.
Percentage of unemployment not reported.

60, less
than 70

70 or
more

Not re
ported

178

176

7Ö"

29~

46
32
14
15
9
15
16

3
1
3
3

10
2

1
2

13
7

4
5
8

7
7
9

3
5

Individuals of the lower ^grades of intelligence, at least among the
boys, made fewer changes in position than those of the upper levels,
n rty? even per cent
b° y s with intelligence quotients between
50 and 60 as compared with 30 per cent of those with intelligence
quotients of 70 or more changed positions on an average of less than
100633— 32------ 3

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

once a year. No such difference was apparent among the girls.
(Table 19.) Very likely individuals with intelligence quotients of
less than 70 find it more difficult than those of higher grade to get
employment, but having once found suitable work they are as likely
as those of the upper levels to hold their positions.
Although the number of individuals, both boys and girls, with
intelligence quotients of less than 50 is too small to form any definite
conclusions as to whether the continuity of their employment was
related to their inferior intelligence, it should be noted that a rela
tively larger number of them than of those with greater intellectual
capacity (10 of 28 boys and 10 of 20 girls) had been unemployed at
least half the time, and that, on the other hand, a relatively smaller
number (11 boys and 4 girls) had been unemployed only 20 per cent
of the time or less. Twenty individuals whose intelligence quotients
were under 50 had stayed in one position for two years or more. A
number of individuals had intelligence quotients so low that one
might expect them to be unemployable. The two individuals whose
intelligence quotients were the lowest of any in the study (about 20
according to the Goddard Revision of the Binet test), however, had
found work that they could do, one of them having been employed
practically all the five years after he had left school and the other,
three out of six years. (See case 13, p. 46.) On the other hand, the
boy with the next lowest intelligence quotient (33) had worked only
six months out of five and a half years. A girl with an intelligence
quotient of 38 had been employed for only three weeks, and a boy
with an intelligence quotient of 37 had been employed for only seven
or eight weeks of a 5-year period. (See case 16, p. 47.)
T able 19.— Average number of changes in positions per year during possible work

ing period and intelligence quotient of boys and girls (unmarried) formerly attend
ing special classes in seven cities
Boys and girls (unmarried) formerly attending special classes
Average number of changes in posi
tions during possible working period
and sex

Intelligence quotient

Total

Per cent Less
50, less 60, less
Number distri than
50 than 60 than 70
bution
Boys........ ................... - ................
Changes reported...................................

70 and
more

Not re
ported

603

157

246

154

578

151

237

149

17
8
5

71
46

84
101
52

45
67
37
5

5
3
3
3

Group A, less than 1 change per year..
Group B, 1, less than 2 changes per year.
Group C, 2 or more changes per year...
Changes not reported...........................

222
225
131
25

Girls (unmarried)...................... .

178

100
38
39
23

Changes reported------------------------------

Ï7 5 "

100

Group A, less than 1 change per y ear...
Group B, 1, less than 2 changes per year.
Group C, 2 or more changes per year—

108
49
18

62
28
10

29~

14
6

32
17
6

45
14
9
3

15
11
3

A tendency for children with intelligence quotients of less than 70
to stay longer in their positions than those with intelligence quotients
of 70 or more was found in a study of former pupils of special classes

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

in the Cincinnati public schools.35 The intelligence quotients of
most of the children included in this study who had an employment
history were at least 50, as in the present study. It is possible that
the long periods of steady employment in one position of individuals
of the lower intelligence levels imply a willingness to stick to tasks
that are irksome and monotonous to those with more intelligence,
but no doubt the unfavorable personalities of some of those with
relatively good mental capacity also affected the duration of their
positions.
Delinquency and behavior.

The importance of conduct and character traits in relation to in
dustrial success is generally recognized and has been emphasized in
several studies concerning the mentally deficient.36 Doctor Anderson
in a study of the careers of 322 feeble-minded persons formerly in
special classes found that individuals handicapped by personality
difficulties held their positions for only short periods, whereas prac
tically all those holding positions for two or three years at a stretch
were in large measure free from serious personality difficulties. “ The
same qualities of character and personality makeup,” he says, “ and
the same factors in training that make for the successful career of a
normal child bear with equal force on the career of the feeble-minded
child.” 37
If pupils of special classes were entirely unselected so far as their
behavior is concerned, the findings concerning the relation between
their intelligence and their unemployment and stability would have
more significance. Probably, however, as has been said, more of the
subnormal boys and girls of the higher intelligence ratings had be
havior difficulties than those of the lower ratings. (See p. 8.)
The prevalence of character defects among the boys of the upper
intelligence levels may explain why they had as much unemployment
as those of relatively inferior intelligence. (See cases 6, 7, 8, 9, pp.
32, 33, and also cases 15 to 21, pp. 91 to 93, concerning the afterhis
tories of former patients from Illinois State institutions.)
Information obtained for this study from court records does not
bring out a clear relationship between delinquency and unemploy
ment; but the number of young workers, even of boys, whose behavior
resulted in court action, especially after they started work, is so
small that any differences in the amount of unemployment among
the delinquent and the nondelinquent boys are inconclusive. Ex
cluding boys who had been in institutions during part of the time
they might otherwise have worked between the date of leaving school
and the date of the study, only 72 boys had ever been on probation.
Of these boys 20 per cent, compared with 17 per cent of the nonde
linquent boys, had been out of work at least half of their possible work
history.
3* Woolley, Helen T., and Hornell Hart: Feeble-minded Ex-School Children; a study of children .who
have been students in Cincinnati special schools. Studies from the Helen S. Trounstine Foundation, vqL
1, No. 7 (April, 1921).
88 Fernald, Walter E.: Thirty Years’ Progress in the Care of the Feeble-minded (Proceedings and Ad
dresses of the Forty-Eighth Annual Session of the American Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded,
May, 1924, p. 206); Burr, Emily: Adjustment of the Feeble-minded in Industry, p. 6 (Reprint from the
Proceedings of the Fiftieth Annual Session of the American Association for the Feeble-minded, June, 1926);
Potter, H. W ., M . D., and Crystal L. McCollister: A Résumé of Parole Work at Letchworth Village,
N. Y. (Proceedings and Addresses of the Fiftieth Annual Session of the American Association for the
Study of the Feeble-minded, June, 1926, p. 176).
..................
88 Anderson, V. V., M. D., and Flora M . Fearing: A Study of the Careers of 322 Feeble-minded Persons,
pp. 17 and 30. National Committee for Mental Hygiene, New York, 1923.

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School progress.

Little or no relation was found between steadiness in bolding posi
tions and the school progress of the young persons in the special
classes. On the whole, those from the upper grades, both boys and
girls, kept their positions no longer than those from the lower grades,
excepting only those whose work was extremely poor. Young per
sons who had finished only first-grade work, or who had not succeeded
even in that, kept their positions for somewhat shorter periods than
those from grades above the first.
Special-class children of the lower as well as of the upper levels of
intelligence do satisfactory handwork in school. (See p. 11.) Ability
to do handwork was related to the amount of their unemployment and
to the length of time they kept their positions. The boys who had
done poor handwork while attending special classes were more likely
than those who had done good work to report a great deal of unem
ployment. For example, twice as many boys who had done poor
work as of those who had done good work (28 per cent compared with
15 per cent) had been unemployed at least half their possible work
histories. (Table 20.) Only 27 per cent of the boys who had done
poor work, compared with 44 per cent of those who had done good
work, had been employed in one position for two years or more. A
similar tendency to unemployment among girls who had done poor or
only fair handwork at school, compared with those who had done good
work, was also noted.
T able 20.— Percentage of unemployment and quality of handwork while in special

classes; boys and girls (unmarried!) formerly attending special classes in seven
cities
Boys and girls (unmarried) formerly attending special classes
Boys

Girls (unmarried)

Quality of handwork

100

124

100

58
33
34
21
18
12
11
5

30
17
18
11
9
6
6
3

31
19
17
15
17
12
12
1

25
15
14
12
14
10
10
1

27
10
8
5
13
9
7
8

Percentage of unemployment not
reported..___________________

*Includes 3 boys who did not receive industrial training.
*Includes 2 girls who did not receive industrial training.

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48
23
24
25
9
13
15
8

Not reported *

165

31
11
9
6
15
10
8
9

Per cent dis
tribution
100

Poor

192

164
85
83
66
57
46
45
22

Fair

568

Less than 10 per cent_______
10 per cent, less than 20_____
20 per cent, less than 30_____
30 per cent, less than 40_____
40 per cent, less than 50_____
60 per cent, less than 60_____
60 per cent, less than 80______
80 per cent or more............. .

175

Good

199

Total

603

Not reported 1

Total____________________
Percentage of unemployment re
ported............................. ............

134

Quality of handwork

Poor

Number

Fair

Number

Good

Per cent dis
tribution

Percentage of unemployment

178

176

46
32
14
15
9
15
16
29

21
16
8
7
7
3
9
3

8
6
3
3

6
3
1
2
1
1
4
9

11
7
2
3
1
6

5
3
12

FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

Physical defects.

. The amount of unemployment and the length of time worked con
tinuously in any one position was about the same for the young
persons with physical defects as it was for those without physical
detects, so that in most cases probably the defects that had not been
remedied by the time the child began work were not sufficiently serious
to interfere with his employment. Of course, in some individual cases
physical difficulties were obviously a cause of unemployment. For
example, among the 20 boys and girls who had been out of work most
ot the time and whose total employment amounted to less than three
months were 2 boys and 2 girls who were epileptic, 1 girl who was
seriously crippled, 1 girl whose speech was defective, and 1 girl and 1
boy who were extremely nervous.
CASES ILLUSTRATING CONTINUITY OF EMPLOYMENT

The following 12 case^histories are examples of the work experiences
of former pupils of special classes. In the first four cases the boys or
^ 0r^ed large proportion of their possible working periods
with few changes m positions. In the remaining cases they had worked
irregularly. The cases show the relation between the regularity of
work and the behavior of the individual— especially cases 5 to 12 in
which the work was unsatisfactory— but do not show any relation
between the regularity of work and the intelligence quotients.
Case 1 ( Detroit) .— Edith, a girl whose intelligence quotient was 66,88had proved
a s.ta° le worker, having been employed in one position for more than four
yeais out o fa n industrial history of five years. A prognosis made on the basis of
school reports might have been unfavorable. Her teachers considered her stubborn, quaneisome, selfish, and lazy, although she had sufficient intelligence to do
about fifth-grade work m some academic subjects, and had done good work in
m i « subjects. She spent most of the first year after leaving school at home.
■
h ke °btamed a position with a mailing and binding company which she
boidmg after four years. She began first by folding and counting pampfilets and at the end of two years became a stitching-machine feeder. When the
! ± : ^ ? A ? Ur! au age ^ e rv ie w e d her employer Edith was beginning her fifth
year with the firm, and she was considered an experienced and satisfactory em
ployee. When visited at her home the girl was neatly dressed and courteous in
manner and made a very good impression.
f (pelroti)r—Bertha, a girl whose intelligence quotient was 54 also
proved to be a stable worker. She had held two positions in the 6-year period
¡?ffw®en the time f h® le.ft school and the date of the study, and had been unema week dfinng tha,t time. In school she had done fourth-grade work
m academic subjects and had been rated as good in cooking and in laundrv
work. Her teachers said that she was able to concentrate on her work w S
neat in appearance, and had a likable personality. She was 16 years of aee
sch? ° ‘ 1
had done housework on part time for a private family
before leaving school and continued this work for some months after leaving
she%nm?i°yer Pons.lder®d ber a good steady worker. After leaving this position
ahe found work, almost at once, in the paper-box department of an establishvariou?kfnUrkCnfUwngvCfemiStS’ iSU? piies- She stayed with this company, doing
le e o f 2 2 w h in I X jd
^ve years and was stiff employed there at the
j*ob to be marSed t d‘ Sh Said’ however’ that she was planning to give up her
Tlo^ a,se, S {Detroit).- Charles, a boy whose intelligence quotient was 65 had
had but one position m six and a half years. He h id done fourth-grade w orkln
af ademiAc subjects and seventh-grade work in manual arts in the prevocational
of concentmtli,vgnn° h S teathei ’ I16, had a Phasing personality andPWas capable
of concentrating on his work, but he was easily led. He left school at the age

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

of 15 years and was idle for a whole year. Through a friend he finally found a
position in a slaughterhouse “ penning hogs.” He had been in this one place
for nearly five years at the time of the interview and was still employed. His
wages had been more than doubled during this time.
Case 4 (Newark).— Arthur’s intelligence quotient (Goddard revision) was only
51. He had worked practically all the period, nearly five years, since leaving
school and had had but three positions. He had done almost nothing in regular
school subjects, either in the regular grades or in the special class, which he had
attended more than six years, but he had done good work in woodworking, chair
caning, and brush making. When he was tested the examiner stated that he
was interested and able to concentrate. Immediately on leaving school at the
age of 15 years he obtained work painting trunk handles in a factory. He left
this at the end of two months for a better-paying position in a cocoa factory.He remained there for two years, working in a variety of occupations from shov
eling cocoa beans to testing the temperature of the hot chocolate with a ther
mometer. When a reduction in wages was about to be made he found another
position, this time as helper on a truck, which he was still holding at the age of
20 when he was visited at his home two years later. His mother said she depended
on the money he earned ($30 a week) as much as on her husband’s wages.
Case 5 (Detroit).— Gertrude, a girl with an intelligence quotient of 60, had
worked very irregularly, having been unemployed 71 per cent of the 2)4 years
between the date she left school and the date of her marriage. In this time
she had had 11 positions. When she left school at 16 years of age she was doing
about fourth-grade academic work in the special class. Her handwork was
rated as fair. Her personal appearance was good, but she was unable to con
centrate long on any particular piece of work. She was further handicapped
by her delinquent tendencies, having been in court after leaving school twice for
larceny, once for shoplifting. Most of her positions were in factories, but she
had also worked as waitress in a restaurant. Six of the 11 positions she kept
for less than a month, 1 of them for only two days; 1 position, however, she
managed to hold for six months. From only one of these positions was Gertrude
known to have been discharged; her excuses for leaving the others were various,
such as dislike of the foreman, dislike of her surroundings, “ unpleasant odors,”
and just because she “ wanted a change.”
Case 6 (Newark).— Theodore, a boy whose intelligence quotient was 57, had
had 14 different positions in 4)4 years, although he had been employed only
about one-fifth of the time. He had done an equivalent of third-grade work in
regular school subjects and sixth-grade work in industrial subjects. His work in
industrial subjects, however, was poor. His teachers said that his attention
was easily distracted, that he was easily led, stubborn, excitable, and irritable,
and that he had a violent temper. Soon after he left school he was brought to
court on a delinquency charge and was in jail for a few weeks. Theodore may
have developed a restless disposition by his early experiences. Before he was
old enough to leave school, between the ages of 6 and 13, he had lived at no less
than 15 different addresses, and between that time and the date of the study
he was reported to have lived in at least 10 other places. Most of his positions
he kept only a few months; his two longest positions lasted six and seven months
each. In the first year after leaving school he was employed less than three
months in all by three employers. He tried working as messenger for a telegraph
company and as helper to a mason. He then enlisted in the Navy but probably
deserted, for within four months’ time he enlisted in the Army under another
name. During the next two years he deserted and reenlisted in the Army three
times, after which he was dishonorably discharged. He returned home and for
the next year alternated between factory and farm work, then enlisting again in
the Army. Five months after this enlistment he was sentenced to be dishonor
ably discharged and to be confined at hard labor for five months, having been
convicted of concealing his previous dishonorable discharge from the Army.
Case 7 (Detroit) .— Martin was a Russian by birth. He had attended school in
Russia before coming to this country and had then spent about 3)4 years in
special classes here. His intelligence quotient (Goddard revision) was 64. At
the time he left school at the age of 15)4 years he was rated as a fourth-grade
student in regular-school sujects and as good in handwork. He had considerable
mechanical ability, and it was thought that he would be able to find suitable
employment in some factory. His afterhistory, however, was disappointing.
Of the five years that had elapsed after he left school he had spent two months

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

in a reformatory. He had held eight positions and had been unemployed for
about 24 months. Immediately on leaving school he obtained work on a machine
in a wheel-manufacturing establishment but after two months “ wanted a change”
and went to another factory where he remained only two weeks. He next
wandered off to Indiana, working during the fall months on any farm where he
could get a job. When work gave out he returned to Detroit and found a position
in a restaurant. He was discharged from this job for insubordination after a
month. He next joined the Army. After a year and three months he is thought
to have deserted. When next heard of he was in a State reformatory to which
he had been sentenced for breaking and entering a schoolhouse. About-a year
later he was paroled but immediately ran away. At the time of the survey his
whereabouts was unknown.
Case 8 (Detroit).— Richard had an intelligence quotient of 71 and had been
unemployed for 70 per cent of a 4-year period, having had 12 positions. When
transferred to the special class, a year before leaving school, he was in the fifth
grade. His special-class teacher said that he was an obedient boy and able to
concentrate but was suggestible, easily led, and quarrelsome. He had no court
record. He went to work at the age of 16 on a delivery wagon for a store, a posi
tion that he kept only two weeks. At one time he had a job as truck driver, and
several times he was employed as salesman in a store. He had also worked in
factories, and twice he had tried farm work. The longest time he ever stayed
with one employer was four months. M ost of his positions he left of his own
accord or was laid off because the work was temporary; only once had he been
discharged as incompetent. His mother told the bureau agent that his inability
to keep a job for “ more than a few weeks at a tim e” was due to “ lack of ambition.”
Case 9 (Rochester).— Raymond with an intelligence quotient of 77 (Goddard
revision), higher than that of most special-class pupils, was another unstable
worker. He had left school five years before the study was made but had spent
two years in an institution for delinquent boys. In the remaining 3-year period
he had had 12 positions. Raymond had been considered “ incorrigible” in regular
grades in school and had been a truant. He had been transferred to the Rochester
prevocational school, where he stayed for two years, doing the equivalent of fourthgrade work in regular-school subjects. His handwork was poor. His teachers
found him quarrelsome and untruthful. He had a long court record before and
after leaving school, having been taken to court for stealing, disorderly conduct,
and vagrancy. For parts of three winters he worked in shoe factories, at one time
for seven months, the longest time he ever stayed with any employer. His
summer positions, helping at stands in amusement parks, usually lasted between
one and three months.
Case 10 (Newark).— Philip was another boy whose intelligence quotient (78)
was relatively high as determined by the only test he had had (Goddard revision),
He had had 12 positions with 7 employers in the 65 months of his possible working
period, and he was unemployed two-thirds of the time. He was in the sixth
grade when he left school at 14% years of age. He had spent only a week in the
special classes, having been transferred from the regular grades only the week
before he decided to leave school. He had a court record for delinquency before
leaving school and had been on probation, but no details regarding his delinquency
history were available. The duration of his positions varied from 16 days to
4 months. Seven of his positions he had kept two months or less. He had worked
in factories, as helper on an ice wagon, as helper to a peddler, and as a bootblack.
He could give no reason for leaving some of his jobs but apparently left several
because “ work was slack.” One of his employers for whom he had worked at
two different times, once for more than three months, said the boy was a good
worker but “ did not stay long in a job .”
Case 11 (Rochester).— In the 5% years of his possible work history Frank was
unemployed 41 per cent of the time and had had 12 positions. His intelligence
quotient was 79 (Goddard revision). His teachers reported that he was indiffer
ent and lazy in school, had a domineering personality, and was a truant. He
had been taken to the juvenile court for “ shooting” craps and placed on proba
tion. When he left school at the age of 15 after 6% years in the prevocational
school he had completed only the equivalent of the third grade in academic
subjects. On leaving school he began to wander about from place to place.
Within the 5%-year period he visited many cities, working at any job he could find
for a few weeks or months until he had money enough to move on. Most of his
jobs lasted less than three months, but once he devoted more than a year and a
half irregularly to training and taking part in boxing matches. At the time of

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

the interview he had been home with his parents for seven weeks and had been
working most of that period.
Case 12 (Newark) .— Ned proved to be a hopelessly unstable worker. In the
four years after leaving school he had tried at least 27 jobs and had been out of
work at least two-thirds of the time. His intelligence quotient was 51 (Goddard
revision). When he was 14 years of age and attending the fifth grade he was
transferred to a special class where he remained for a year. His attendance was
irregular and his conduct poor, the teacher saying of him that he was stubborn,
quarrelsome, possessed of a violent temper, and noticeably unclean and slovenly
in appearance. He was a sex offender and had been arrested and put on probation
by the juvenile court.
At 15 he obtained his working papers. In his first year at work he had had 10
jobs which he or his mother remembered. His first employment was as sprayer
for a large electrical-equipment company, for which he received $12 a week.
He remained nearly three months in this position, the longest he ever stayed
with one employer. At the end of that time he was discharged because he was
insubordinate and “ absent from work too often.” He next worked as helper on
a wagon for a small furniture store. He kept this job about a month, receiving
$8.50 a week. He said he left because he “ wanted a change of w ork” ; his em
ployer said he was “ unreliable about coming to work.” In his third job as a
tester in the chemical department of a celluloid-manufacturing company he
remained three weeks. His fourth job, piling skins for a leather manufacturer,
he kept one day, leaving because the work was “ too wet.” Next he took a job
“ leading horses” for a blacksmith at $5.50 a week from which he was “ laid o ff”
after a couple of weeks. His sixth job was as teamster for a contractor, with
the comparatively high wage of $21 a week; however, he was discharged for
absenteeism after two weeks. He remained one day at his seventh job, as teamster
in a lumber yard; the work, he said, was “ too hard.” His eighth job was operating
a machine in the heating department of a factory manufacturing auto horns
where he remained a week, leaving because the work was “ too hot.” His ninth
job was as teamster for a trucking company from which he was discharged
without explanation. His tenth job also, which lasted for 12 days, was as team
ster. In his second year his work record was a repetition of the first year; he was
out of work a great deal and had six positions, one of which, as helper on an ice
wagon, he kept for 2% months, the others from a few days to two weeks. In the
next two years, the period before the time he was visited, he had 11 positions.
His mother said that during this period he did not work steadily for any one
employer, but she thought he averaged about one day’s work a week, just enough
to get his “ spending money.”
In all he had been discharged from seven of the positions he had held, usually
for unreliability and absenteeism. He gave a variety of reasons for leaving his
jobs besides the ones already mentioned, such as “ too long hours” or because he
was “ called down for being late.” At least three of his employers— an ice dealer,
a truckman, and the superintendent of a can company where he had shoveled
coal—‘reported that although he was lazy he was as satisfactory as most of their
employees at this type of casual labor. The boy was supported by his parents,
with whom he lived.
OCCUPATIONS

The cities included in the study offered a considerable variety of
work in manufacturing as well as in commercial occupations. The
eastern and midwestern cities, Cincinnati, Detroit, Newark, and
Rochester, are important manufacturing centers, Detroit being the
center of the automobile industries and the other cities having
widely diversified industries. The metal trades of Cincinnati, New
ark, and Rochester, as well as of Detroit, employ large numbers of
wage earners, and the clothing trades are important in each of the
three cities. The manufacture of electrical supplies is important in
Newark and Rochester; the manufacture of shoes and furniture in
Rochester and Cincinnati. Button, candy, and paper-box factories
in Rochester and candy and tobacco factories in Newark also offer
opportunities for work. The California cities, Los Angeles, Oakland,
and San Francisco, although not so important industrially, have

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

metal and lumber industries and food-packing establishments that
employ large numbers of persons.39
FIRST AND LAST OCCUPATIONS

Table 21 shows the occupational distribution of the mentally
deficient workers in their first and last jobs.40 The majority (55 per
cent of the boys and 62 per cent of the girls, including the girls who
had married by the time the study was made) started work in occu
pations classified by the census as manufacturing and mechanical,
principally as semiskilled factory operatives. A greater variety of
work was open to boys than to girls. Nineteen per cent of the boys
were in occupations classified under trade or transportation, including
10 per cent of the total number who were drivers or helpers to drivers
and 3 per cent who were employed as salesboys. About 16 per cent
were in clerical occupations, chiefly in errand and messenger work or
as helpers in stock or shipping rooms. Few of the boys, all of whom
were city children, did farm work, which is sometimes advised for
mentally subnormal boys. M ost of the girls who did not enter fac
tories found employment in personal and domestic service, chiefly
as servants in private families. Six per cent of the girls were in sales
or stock work in stores, and 6 per cent were in errand work or some
other clerical work, like bundle or cash work in stores.
T a b l e 2 1 . — Industry

and occupation of first and last jobs held by boys and girls
formerly attending special classes in seven cities
Boys and girls formerly attending
special classes

Industry and occupation

Boys

Girls

First job Last job

T o t a l ....................... ................ ..........................................

603

346

Agriculture.
Extraction of minerals ____
_ _ __
______ ...
Manufacturing and mechanical industries____ ________ _______

24
1
330

12
1
334

216

219

Learners___ _______ ____________________________________
Laborers....... ......... ................... ..............................................
Semiskilled operatives..................... ........................................
Button factories_______ ____________________________
Clothing factories........... ...... ........... ...............................
Electrical-supply factories............ ....................................
Food industries____________________________________
Lumber and furniture industries___________ ______ __
Metal trades and auto factories_______ ____ _____ ____
Paper-box factories_______________________ __________
Shoe factories________________ _____ _________ _______
Other industries___ ________ _________ ____ __________

9
68
244
5
10
8
19
31
105
5
18
43

28
57
208
4
22
12
17
20
87
1
13
32

7
3
204
9
43
4
35
2
17
20
10
64

2
5
210
9
54
15
25

Others— . ....... .......................................................... ................

346

18
13
16
60

Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, vol. 9, Manufactures, pp. 108-111, 1088-1090,1180-1181.
948-949, 706-708. Washington, 1923.
40 Among several studies that have been made of the possibilities of employing persons of subnormal
mentality in specific occupations are the following: Bigelow, Elizabeth B.: An Experiment to Determine
the Possibilities of Subnormal Girls in Factory Work (Mental Hygiene, vol. 5, No. 2 (April, 1921),
pp. 302-320); Ordahl, George: Industrial Efficiency of the Moron (Training School Bulletin, February,
1919, pp. 149-153); Unger, Edna W.: Vocational Training for Subnormal Girls; an experiment in the
garment-machine-operating trade (Journal of Personnel Research, October, 1926, pp. 243-255); Treat,
Catherine: Tests for Garment-Machine Operators (Personnel Journal, June, 1929, pp. 19-28); Burr, Emily:
Adjustment of the Feeble-minded in Industry.
n

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T able

21.— Industry and occupation of first and last jobs held by boys and girls
formerly attending special classes in seven cities— Continued
Boys and girls formerly attending
special classes
Industry and occupation

Girls

Boys

Last job

First job

Last job

First job

Transportation!____________________________

101

Teamsters-------- -----------------------------------Motor-truck and taxi drivers................... —
Helpers to drivers.........................................
Telegraph and special-delivery messengers.
Laborers_______________________________
Others......... ...............................................

13
8
8
17
3
1

12
55
13
2
12
7

Trade__________________________________________

Delivery men (drivers of horse-drawn vehicles).
Delivery men (truck drivers)________________
Helpers to drivers------- ------------- ------------------Sales boys and girls— .............. ............. ........—
Stock boys and girls................................- ...........
Newsboys.................................................. ...........
Others___________________________ _________

8
20
8
8
3

12
8

21
5

Public service__________________

Soldiers, sailors, and marines.
Others.................................—

17
3

Professional service___________________________

Attendants and helpers................................
Others (actors, showmen, e tc.)......................

5
1

3
6

Personal and domestic service....... ..........- ...........

Waiters and counter boys and girls...............
Household servants______________________
Laundry operatives______________________
Others------------- -------- ------------------------------

2
3
19

3
1
2
21

13
47
12
5

10
34
10
11

Clerical occupations__________________________

Messengers, errand and office boys and girls.
Bundle, cash, and check boys and girls____
Stock room and shipping room workers-----Others................... ............................. - .........

77
2
13
5

3
1
9
4

5
8

4
2

Occupation not reported.

18
8

1
r

The occupations in which the subnormal young persons were em
ployed at the time of the interview, when most of them were at least
20 years of age and had been working from three to seven years, may
be assumed to represent more nearly than their first occupations the
type of Work for which they were fitted. In the first year or so of
work more misfits are found than several years later, when some
adjustments have been made. The main occupational groups in
which the subnormal workers were employed when the study was
made or when they were last employed, however, did not differ
greatly from those into which they had drifted when they began to
work, although the boys, at least, appeared to have a somewhat
wider choice of occupations m their last than in their first jobs. A
slight trend was noticeable among the boys away from occupations
as factory operatives to occupations as learners and to miscellaneous
occupations, including laborers and helpers in the building and other

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

skilled trades. Also a larger number of boys (16 per cent of those
m their last jobs compared with 6 per cent of those in their first) were
truck or taxi drivers, teamsters, or delivery men, and a larger number
were in the Army and Navy and in other occupations classified as
public service, an increase that may also be accounted for by the
difference in their ages. The number of boys who did clerical work
or sales or stock work in stores was about as small in their last as in
their first jobs. Less than 1 per cent in their last jobs as compared
with 13 per cent in their first jobs were errand or messenger boys, a
type of occupation open only to juvenile workers. The proportion
of girls in factories and in the other occupational groups was practi
cally the same in their last as in their first jobs except salesgirls (whose
number increased from 12 to 21) and household servants (whose
number decreased from 47 to 34).
ALL OCCUPATIONS DURING WORK HISTORY

The occupational distribution of all the jobs in which the boys and
girls had been employed was about the same as in their last jobs;
that is, about the same proportions were in manufacturing and
mechanical industries and in occupations grouped under trade and
transportation. (Tables 22 and 23.) About three-fifths of the jobs
of the boys and girls were in factories or in other mechanical occupa
tions. They were employed in the chief industries of the cities in
which they lived— in the metal industries of Detroit and the other
cities, in the clothing factories of Cincinnati, Newark, and Rochester,
in the shoe industry of Cincinnati and Rochester, in the paper-box,
button, and candy factories of Rochester, in the tobacco factories of
Newark, Detroit, and Cincinnati, and in the furniture and wood
working establishments of Rochester, Cincinnati, and Detroit. Little
variation was found in the proportions of boys employed in factories
in the different cities. Not so many girls were employed in factories
in Detroit and the California cities as in the other cities, probably
owing to the fact that, to judge from census figures for girls under 17
in gainful occupations, less opportunity exists for factory work for
girls in Detroit, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.41 Nearly half the
boys’ factory jobs were in the automobile and other metal industries.
The preponderance of the boys in the automobile and other metal in
dustries is partly due to the fact that more than two-fifths of all the
boys included in the study lived in Detroit. Occupations in these in
dustries are no more suitable for persons of subnormal intelligence than
occupations in the other industries in which they were found in smaller
numbers. In all the manufacturing industries they were employed,
as are young workers of un selected mentality, in a great variety of
hand and machine operations. (See Tabular Summary A, p. 101.)
In the principal industries in which the boys were employed— the metal,
clothing, electrical, lumber and furniture, paper-box, and shoe fac
tories and printing establishments— a third of the semiskilled factory
occupations were on or in connection with machines.
“ According to the 1920 census, the number of girls 14,15, and 16 years of age employed in manufacturing
and mechanical industries was 59 per cent in Newark and Rochester, 41 per cent in Cincinnati, 37 per cent
in Oakland, 31 per cent in San Francisco and Detroit, and 26 per cent in Los Angeles. Figures computed
from the Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. vol. 4, Population, pp. 615-664.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T able

22.— Industry and occupation of all jobs held by boys formerly attending
special classes in seven specified cities
Jobs held by boys formerly attending special classes
Cincin
nati

California
cities

Per cent distribution

Number

Per cent distribution

Number

100

1,914

100

869

100

895

100

494

100

338

100

153
9

3
0)

38
3

55
5

6
1

14
1

Manufacturing and mechanical
industries__________________ 2,677

Number

Number
Agriculture........... .....................

494

897

869

1,915

Total boys............................... 4,515

Per cent distribution

Number

Jobs reported-___________________ 4,510

Industry and occupation

Per cent distribution

Newark

Per cent distribution

Roches
ter

Detroit

All cities

340

1,186

528

515

252

196

121
537
1,850
35
95

3
12
41
1
2

48
225
820
1
17

3
12
43
(!)
1

35
90
377
18
41

4
10
43
2
5

16
105
362
15
29

2
12
40
2
3

7
52
185
1
8

15
65
106

4
19
31

91
157

2
3

40
42

2
2

15
39

2
4

30
34

3
4

6
30

1
6

196

19
1
2
6

556
3

29
0

132
1
10
103

15
0
1
12

44
1
33
32

7
2
8
7

7
6

69
1
1
16

57
19
67
62

Other industries............

858
25
111
282

Others...................................

169

Transportation...........................

557
114

12
3

235
38

12
2

83
34

10
4

128
30

14
3

72
12

15
2

194
73

4
2

117
14

6
1

6
13

1
1

36
40

4
4

15
5

3
1

20
1

67
75
34

1
2
1

13
36
17

1
2
1

11
15
4

1
2

1
17
4

0)
2

31
5
4

6
1
1

11
2
5

3
1
1

467

198

108

Learners................... ...........
Laborers and helpers....... -Semiskilled operatives........
Electrical-supply

fac-

Food industries.............
Lumber and furniture
industries...................
Metal trades and auto
factories-----------------Paper-box factories____

Motor-truck and taxi drivers.................................. —
Helpers to drivers..- ...........
Telegraph and special-delivery messengers_______
Laborers_________________
Others......... ................... .
Trade_______________________
Delivery men (drivers of
horse-drawn vehicles)----Delivery men (truck drivers)....................................
Helpers to drivers................

(9
(9

86
97
62
10
23
133

2
2
1
(1)
“l
3

50
34
30
8
8
51

3
2
2
(!)
0
3

9
14
11
1
3
31

1
2
1

15
32
11

2
4
1

l
3
2

6
2

2
1

4
24

6
15
10
1
6
16

1
3

2
11

1
3

Public service________________
Soldiers, sailors, marines___

103
77
26

2
2
1

34
28
6

2
1

16
16

2
2

38
24
14

4
3
2

11
7
4

2
1
1

4,
2
2

1
1
1

Professional service....................
Attendants and helpers----Others (actors, showmen,

46
25

1
1

10
7

11
3

14
5

2
1

6
6

1
1

5
4

1
1

Personal and domestic service..
Waiters and counter boys..

177
14
3
10
150

48
6

29
1
1
5
22

Newsboys___________ ____
■Others..................................

Laundry operatives---------Others______________ ____
iLess than 1 per cent.

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(i)
4

to
(i)
0

0
3 0

1
41

0
0

40
3

47
4
2
2
39

1
36 1

0
0

(9
(9
0

1 (9
(9
(9

'l
4

1
12

FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS
T able 22 .—

I n d u s t r y a n d o cc u p a tio n o f all jo b s held b y b o y s fo r m e r ly a tten d in g
sp ecia l classes i n seven sp ecified cities — Continued

T able 23 .—

I n d u s t r y and o ccu p a tion o f all jo b s held b y girls f o r m e r ly a tten d in g
sp ecia l classes i n seven sp ecified cities

Jobs held by girls formerly attending special classes

1,729
1,728
8
1

100

645
645

100

1,062
17
1,010
27
205

61
1
58
2
12

276
7
259

62
177

4
10

25
36

4
6

4
69

(»)

86
85
74
287

5
5
4
17

56
13

9
2

110

4
44
54
72

1
8
10
13

20
15
9
61

Sewers, millinery shops___
Others___________________

3
32

0)
2

3
7

(0
1

ÏÔ

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43 410
1
4
40 396
21
3 127

100

125
125

76
1
74
4
24

184
1
180
6
34

102

0)
68
2
13

1
13

25
10

5
22

Number

263
263

Percent distribution

Number

100
1

California
cities

Per cent distribution

538
538
7

Cincin
nati

Number

Number
i Less than 1 per cent.

0)
Ó)

Per cent distribution

Percent distribution

Total girls................................
Jobs reported____________________
Agriculture__________________
Extraction of minerals________
Manufacturing and mechanical industries______________
Learners____ _____ _____
Semiskilled operatives____
Button factories.......... .
Clothing factories_____
Electrical-supply factories...........................
Food industries............
Lumber and furniture
industries...................
Metal trades and auto
factories____________
Paper-box factories.......
Shoe factories_________
Other industries............

Industry and occupation

Number

Newark

Per cent distribution

Roches
ter

Detroit

Per cent distribution

All cities

158
100 "Ï57"
1

100
J

10
4

8
6
3
23

4
7
11
23

3
6
9
18

2
6

I
4

EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T able 23.— Industry and occupation of all jobs held by girls formerly attending

special classes in seven specified cities— Continued
Jobs held by girls formerly attending special classes

(0
0)
0

1
1

0)
0)

Trade__________ ___ ____ ___

1
3

4
10
10

Percent distribution

3
3
1

Number

California
cities

Per cent distribution

Cincin
nati

Number

Per cent distribution

Telegraph and special-delivery messengers...........
Telephone operators............
Others..................................

Per cent distribution

Number

(>>

Jobs reported—Continued.
Transportation___ ___________

Newark

Number

Percent distribution!

Number

Industry and occupation

Roches
ter

Detroit

Number

Per cent distribution

All cities

160

116

Salesgirls.________________
Stock”girls............. ...............
Others____ ___ ____ ______

88
29
43

5
2
2

61
19
36

9
3
6

13
5
5

Professional service....................

Attendants and helpers____
Others..................................

13
4

1
(i)

4
1

1
(!)

391

205

67
184
84
56

4
11
5
3

50
79
41
35

8
12
6
5

7
45
15
7

1
8
3

3
38
8

1
14*
3

1
6
5

1
¿n
4

16
15

4
6
28

0)
(0
2

Domestic service___________
Waitresses and counter
girls...................................
Household servants.........
Laundry operatives_______
Others..................................
Clerical service
Messenger and errand girls.
Bundle, cash, and check
girls..................................
Shipping and stock room
workers.............................
T y p ists..._______________
Others_______________
Jobs not reported_____________

2
0)
3

(J)

2
1
4

(l)
m
1

1 Less than 1 per cent.

That boys of inferior mentality are sometimes employed as car
penters, painters; and in other skilled trades was noted in a study of
patients who had been discharged from the Waverly institution for
the feeble-minded.42 Relatively few of the boys in this study, how
ever, were in occupations of this nature, perhaps because the boys
from the special classes were somewhat younger than those in the
Waverly study. Only 3 per cent of the boys’ jobs were as learners in
the skilled trades. Some of the boys, most of them 20 years of age
or over at the time of the study, had been earning the wages of skilled
mechanics in their last jobs \ two were carpenters and a few were
employed in occupations such as welding, toolmaking, and topbuilding
** Femald, Walter E., M . D.: Aftercare Study of the Patients Discharged from Waverly for a Period of
Twenty-five Years, p. 6. Reprinted from Ungraded, vol. 5, No. 2 (November. 1919).

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

and trimming in the upholstery trade. (See cases 31, 33-35, pp. 58 to
60, illustrating wages in skilled trades.)
More than three-fifths of the boys’ jobs in trade and transportation
were as drivers or helpers to drivers; others were as newsboys, ped
dlers, and general helpers in stores or markets. Boys from 14 to 20
helped on trucks and wagons; the drivers were sometimes as young as
16. Clerical occupations, other than errand work, consisted chiefly
o f stock and shipping room work. Boys in personal and domestic
service were janitors and porters, dishwashers, elevator boys, boot
blacks, and pinboys in bowling alleys. A few boys had been public
performers, boxers, and drummer boys in bands; a number had been
theater ushers and doormen. After they were 16 or 17 years of age
some had enlisted in the Army, the Navy, or the Marines.
The practicability of employing girls of subnormal intelligence in
factory work has been demonstrated in several other studies. (See
footnote 40, p. 35.) Operating power machines used in the garment
trades, according to a study made by the New York Vocational Ad
justment Bureau, was found to be suitable work for some girls whose
intelligence quotients, like those of the girls in the present inquiry,
ranged from 40 to 70. Three-fifths of the jobs of the girls included in
this study were in the various manufacturing industries of the differ
ent cities. (Table 25.) The largest number were in clothing factories
and the next largest in the various food industries, such as candy fac
tories and canneries. Like girls of unselected mentality, these girls
were employed in innumerable hand operations in factories and also
in machine work. (See Tabular Summary B,p. 103.) Thirty-three per
cent of their jobs in button, chemical, clothing, metal, paper-box,
shoe, furniture, and printing establishments were in connection with
machinery, the most important numerically being machines in the
clothing trades.
Occupations in personal and domestic service were, after factory
occupations, the most important numerically for girls. M ost of them
were as maids in private families, doing general housework or caring
for children, but others were in steam laundries and in restaurants, or
as elevator girls, dishwashers in hotels, and hospital employees. Only
7 per cent of the girls’ jobs were in sales or stock work in stores, and
only 5 per cent were in any kind of work classified as clerical— usually
bundle and cash work in stores and stock work in factories. The
number of girls who had been employed as file clerks, cashiers, time
keepers, typists, or telephone operators was negligible; no girl had
tried stenography or bookkeeping. A few girls had been theater
ushers, three had been chorus girls, and one a dancer.
In a study made by the vocational-education department of the
University of Michigan of subnormal girls who had formerly been
pupils in the special classes of Detroit public schools,*3 housework,
lunchroom, and other jobs in personal and domestic service, and work
in stores were found to be more common than among the subnormal
girls in the present study whose homes were also in Detroit.
The young workers of subnormal intelligence in the different cities
were employed in factory and other mechanical occupations to a
greater extent, and in clerical occupations to a lesser extent, than
« Carpenter, Mary S.: A Study of the Occupations of 207 Subnormal Girls after Leaving School. Voca
tional Education Department, University of Michigan, Special Studies No. 2 (June, 1925).

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

children of 14, 15, and 16 years of age of unselected mentality whose
occupations were reported in the 1920 census. In each of the three
cities in which the number of former special-class pupils is large
enough for comparison, relatively more of the special-class pupils had
entered factories as semiskilled operatives or laborers than of all chil
dren between 14 and 17 years employed in the same cities, and cor
respondingly fewer than of other children were employed in clerical
work. The difference in the occupational distribution of girls from
the special classes and girls as a whole was more marked than for the
boys. The proportion of special-class girls doing clerical work in their
first jobs was 3 per cent in Rochester, 4 per cent in Newark, and 8
per cent in Detroit; from 26 per cent to 32 per cent of all girl workers
in the three cities were in clerical occupations. As compared with
about 3 per cent of the special-class boys in each city who did any
kind of clerical work (except messenger work, which is classified as
clerical), from 11 per cent of the Rochester boys to 17 per cent of the
Detroit boys were in clerical occupations other than messenger work.44
Similar differences in the occupational distribution of unselected
and subnormal children were found in Newark, where the Children's
Bureau made a study of the employment of children under 16 who
attended continuation school. A considerably smaller proportion of
these children entered factories and a larger proportion entered
clerical or sales work than of the children of subnormal mentality
who lived in Newark.45 In their last jobs a much smaller proportion
of the boys of subnormal mentality in the seven cities, most of whom
were 20 years and over at the time of the study, were employed in
sales, stock, or clerical work of some kind (excluding messenger work)
than the proportion of boys of unselected mentality between the ages
of 16 and 18 years included in a study which the Children's Bureau
made of employed young workers in Milwaukee.46 About the same
proportions of the Milwaukee girls and of the subnormal girls were
employed as factory operatives in their last jobs; but the majority of
the Milwaukee girls not in factories were in clerical or sales work,
whereas the majority of the subnormal girls not in factories were in
personal and domestic service.
According to tabulations made in 1923 and 1924 by the Cincinnati
Vocation Bureau of occupations of minors 16 and 17 years of age
to whom regular and retarded employment certificates were issued,
the occupations of the normal and the retarded group differed mark
edly.47 A much larger proportion of the normal than of the retarded
boys (48 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively) went into clerical and
sales work. An even greater difference was found in the type of
occupations entered by the normal and the retarded girls.48
44 Fourteenth Census of the United States. 1920, vol. 4, Population, Occupations. Figures compiled from
pp. 621-622, 648-649, 669.
45 The Working Children of Newark and Paterson, p. 16.
46 Unpublished figures.
47 According to a law passed in Ohio in 1921, after most of the minors in the present study had left school,
“ retarded” certificates might be issued to children who were mentally incapable of meeting the require
ments for regular certificates if they were able to meet the other legal requirements. (Laws of 1921, pp. 376,,
384..)
44 Vocational Guidance and Junior Placement, pp. 199-200. U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication N o.
149. Washington, 1926.

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INTELLIGENCE LEVELS AND OCCUPATIONS

A relationship between mental ability as measured by various tests
and kind of work performed has been brought out in various studies.49
A correlation between intelligence and success in learning certain
trades has also been found.50 In the study of Cincinnati children it
was concluded that “ unskilled labor in some form ” was the only field
of work open to those who had completed only the fifth or sixth grade
in school.51
The young workers of relatively inferior mentality, both boys and
girls, were more restricted in their choice of occupations than those
of greater mental capacity.52 (See Appendix, Tables I and II.) A
larger proportion of the jobs of boys whose intelligence quotients
were under 50 than of those whose intelligence quotients were 70 or
more (66 per cent and 48 per cent, respectively) were found to be as
laborers or semiskilled operatives in manufacturing and mechanical
industries. Most of the occupations of the girls whose intelligence
quotients were less than 50 were in factory work and domestic service.
Only 17 of 96 boys with intelligence quotients under 50, compared
with slightly more than one-fourth of the boys with higher intelli
gence quotients, had had jobs in connection with power machines in
the principal manufacturing and mechanical industries. Approxi
mately the same proportions of girls with intelligence quotients of
less than 60 and of 60 and more had been employed on power ma
chines. Employment in sales or stock work in stores or in clerical work
other than errands was generally confined to boys and girls whose
intelligence quotients were at least 60. Relatively fewer of the boys
with intelligence quotients of less than 60 than of those with higher
intelligence quotients had been truck or taxi drivers; only one boy
whose intelligence quotient was less than 50 had been employed to
drive a motor vehicle, and he had lost his job in less than two months,
being arrested and fined for reckless driving. (For the intelligence
quotients and occupations of boys and girls who earned relatively
high wages in their last jobs, see Appendix, pp. 101-103.)
TRAINING REQUIRED FOR OCCUPATION

The work done by the subnormal workers required little education
or training. Their employers were questioned regarding the academic
training needed for each job and the amount of time required to learn
it. The majority of both boys and girls had reached only an academic
equivalent in the special class of the third or fourth grade, and only a
small proportion had attained the fifth or a higher grade. According
to the employers who were interviewed, however, education beyond
the fourth grade was needed for only 5 per cent of the jobs, chiefly
those in the telegraph and special-delivery messenger service, clerical

±VJLVf p p » o a - ~ x v j,

m Cowdery, Karl M .: Measures of General Intelligence as Indices of Success in Trade Learning (Journal
of Applied Psychology, vol. 6, No. 4 (December, 1922), p. 311).
11 An Experimental Study of Children, p. 663.
52 A H o t r \ f ft* o f A
t»T
TA
A
/m
nnl'iA
'nn
„V.
i 1 - _ * J • _____ X
.1 .
» • j m
i
•
.
ts A. list' of factory occupations in which girls of different levels of intelligence have been successfully
placed is found on pp. 10 and 11 of Dr. Emily Burr’s article entitled "Adjustment of the Feeble-Minded
m Industry.1
In
Industry.”

100633— 32------ 4

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

work other than errands, selling occupations, and apprenticeships and
other work in skilled trades. To judge from their first and last occu
pations, few of the boys and girls employed in these occupations,
except those who were learning a trade, had failed to attain an
academic grade equivalent to at least the fourth grade.
Only a short time (from a few days to a few weeks) was required to
learn most of the occupations in which the boys and girls found
employment. A learning period of more than one month was needed
for only 7 per cent of the jobs about which employers gave their
opinions. The outstanding occupations among these were the skilled
trades, certain factory operations, selling occupations, and occupations
such as actors, boxers, and other public performers, classified by the
census as professional.
Probably the habits of work that the boys and girls may have
acquired while in the special classes (see p. 6) helped them to adjust
themselves to their jobs even if the kind of work they did in school,
such as woodworking and weaving, was quite different from that in
which they were afterwards employed. Only 7 of the 59 Rochester
prevocational-school boys who had been trained in printing, wood
work, or cobbling entered occupations for which they had been
trained. (See cases 29 and 30 on p. 51.) One Rochester girl who
had learned machine stitching at continuation school was employed
for about five months in a clothing factory in various stitching opera
tions, and she said that this training had helped her get the position.
DURATION OF W ORK IN ALL OCCUPATIONS

If the length of time an individual stays in an occupation may be
taken as an indication of his success in that work, it would appear
that many o f these subnormal young persons did not find employment
in occupations for which they were fitted when they started work.
The duration of their first positions was very short, in many cases less
than three months. (See p. 21.) The length of time these young
workers remained in the first occupation in which they were employed
was but little shorter than the time spent in their first positions, as
only a small proportion (7 per cent of the boys and 11 per cent of the
girls) changed from one occupation to another while working for the
same employer.
It might be expected that the subnormal boys and girls would keep
their second and third and successive occupations longer than their
first. A large proportion of all the jobs that they had had to the date
of the study, however, were of short duration. Three-fourths of the
terminated jobs that the boys had held ended in less than six months,
and more than one-half lasted less than three months. (Table 24.)
The'duration of the girls’ jobs was about the same as that of the boys.
That many children of unselected as well as of subnormal intelligence
keep their first positions for very short periods has already been
shown (see p. 21), but no figures are available to show whether or not
children as a whole keep their subsequent positions longer than these
subnormal young workers.

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'T a b l e

24.— Duration of all terminated jobs held by boys and girls formerly attending
special classes in seven cities
Terminated jobs held by boys and girls
formerly attending special classes
Duration of all terminated jobs

Boys

Girls

Per cent
Per cent
Number distribu Number distribu
tion
tion
Total_____ ___________

4,090

1,580

Duration reported__________
Less than 1 month______
1 month, less than 3......... .
3 months, less than 6____
6 months, less than 1 year.
1 year, less than 2_______
2 years, less than 3_______
3 years and more________
Duration not reported.

1,164
1,078
769
516
314
101
46

29
27
19
13
8
3
1

102

1,538

100

445
421
258
215
137
40
22

29
27
17
14
9
3

When the mentally deficient workers did manage to find work that
they could do, however, they held on to it for long periods; the ma
jority, both those of the upper and those of the lower intelligence
levels, had been employed in at least one occupation in their work
history for a considerable period of time. Employment in the same
kind of work for one to three years at some time during their work
history for the boys and girls of different levels of intelligence was a
common experience. (See cases 13-15, pp. 46, 47, and 18-22, pp. 4849.) At the time of the study 35 per cent of the boys and 45 per
cent of the girls had been employed in the same job in which they
were then employed for one year or longer. (Table 25.)
T able

25.— Length of time employed in job held at date of interview by boys and
girls formerly attending special classes in seven cities
Boys and girls formerly attending special
classes

Length of time employed in job held at date of interview

Boys

Girls

Per cent
Per cent
Number distribu Number distribu
tion
tion
603

346

Employed at date of interview______________________________

425

149

Length of time reported....... . . ............................... ..............

419

100

147

100

Less than 1 month__________________________________
1 month, less than 3________________________________
3 months, less than 6 .._____ _______ ____ ____________
6 months, less than 1 year.......................................... ......
1 year, less than 2...................................... ..................
2 years, less than 3__________________________________
3 years and more................................................................

68
69
57
78
73
32
42

16
16
14
19
17
8
10

10
30
21
20
32
12
22

7
20
14
14
22
8
15

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178

197

EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

Among the boys little difference was found in the duration of em
ployment in the different kinds of occupations. Among the girls,
however, some relation appeared to exist between the kind of work
they did and the duration of their jobs. For example, 25 per cent of
their jobs in factories, compared with 35 per cent of those in personal
and domestic service and 40 per cent of those in saleswork, lasted less
than a month.
CASES ILLUSTRATING OCCUPATIONS

The following 17 cases illustrate the occupations of the subnormal
workers. They show the relation between occupation and intelli
gence and other characteristics and the need of these boys and girls
for vocational guidance. Cases 13 to 16 are examples of occupations
of boys and girls with intelligence quotients of less than 50. The
first three are examples of individuals who had found work that they
could do in spite of some peculiarities of temperament in addition to
mental inferiority; the fourth is an example of a boy who was appar
ently unemployable.
Cases 17 to 24 illustrate occupations in which individuals with
intelligence quotients of 50 or more had been employed for long
periods at a time. In case 23 a girl with an intelligence quotient of
72 was doing clerical work at the time of the inquiry and had been
employed for two years as a typist.
Cases 25 to 30 show the need for special training and placement
in occupations suitable for persons of defective mentality. Cases
25 to 28 illustrate the experience of boys who suffered from the wrong
kind of advice or from none at all; cases 29 and 30 show the work
experience of two boys who took advantage of their training in the
Rochester Prevocational School, one of them having been assisted by
the school in getting employment in work in which he had been trained.
Case 18 (Newark).—'Norman, a boy of very inferior mentality, whose intelli
gence quotient was not definitely ascertained but was less than 50 (Goddard'
revision) and who was said by one of his teachers to be “ too low grade to test,”
was employed for long periods at a time in two simple factory operations. He
had accomplished little in school; he had done nothing at all along academic lines and only poor work in manual training. According to his special-class s
teacher, he was large and strong physically, was inclined to be moody and sullen,
and was deaf and talked scarcely at all. In spite of these handicaps he succeeded
when 14 years of age in finding, through a friend, a job with a can-manufacturing company, which he kept for more than nine months. His work consisted merely
of putting cardboard caps in the covers, an extremely simple operation, which he could do satisfactorily. But the tin blistered his hands, and he gave up his job
and was out of work for a number of months. Again through a friend, he found *
a job in a wire factory putting rubber insulation on wires. The job involved a
machine process but was so simple that he was able to learn it in a week, about
the usual time required for learning it. He had been working at this job for
three years and four months. His employer said that the only necessary quali
fication for the work was patience and that he was a steady worker and very
satisfactory. A normally alert person would probably have tired quickly of so monotonous a job.
Case 14 (Newark).— Otto had an intelligence quotient of 38 (Goddard revision)
according to the last test given him before he left school, but one of 47 (Goddard
revision) according to a test given him a year earlier. He had been employed
successfully in several different kinds of occupations in factories and in the Army.
He had done only an equivalent of first-grade work in regular school and had been
nine years in the special class, having been placed there almost immediately on
entering school. His teachers said that he was lazy, stubborn, and excitable,.
with a violent temper. Yet in his first five years out of school not one of his
five employers had had any fault to find with him. On leaving school at 16 *
years of age he helped in his stepfather’s saloon for four months. He then.

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■obtained work in a candy factory as helper on a candy-cutting machine. He
stayed m this occupation for nearly two years, leaving because he wanted better
w&^*6s«
is employer was satisfied, with his work and twice reemployed him for
periods of several months at a time. On leaving the candy factory the first time,
he enlisted in the Army where he remained about seven months, receiving an
honorable discharge. He had also helped on a truck for a few weeks and had
worked for a wire-manufacturing company, helping on a machine. The exact
nature of this work was not learned, but his employer described him as "fast,
careful, willing, and quiet” and said he would rehire him. At the time of the
study he was operating a lathe in a furnace-manufacturing company at $25 a
week, an occupation that he had had for two months.
Case 15 (Newark).— Rose, a girl with an intelligence quotient of 44 (Goddard
revision), apparently succeeded in finding work that she could do because o f the
close supervision which a forewoman in a factory gave her. In school she had
never been able to do any academic work and so had been kept in the manualtraining classes, in which she learned a little about sewing and laundry work.
Her teachers reported that she was emotional and excitable and unable to con
centrate long on any given task, that laundry work was the only thing she could
do, and that she responded quickly to kindness. They recommended that she
do housework under close supervision. On leaving school at 16 years of age
however, the girl first attempted work as wrapper in a candy factory. How she
obtained the job was not learned; she left the first day because she “ didn’t
get along with the boss.” She was more fortunate in her second job, which she
obtained through an advertisement. Here she aroused the interest of a foreW01?iarb who obtained the employer’s cooperation in giving the girl work that she
could do, such as running ribbons in underwear, putting marks on articles, and
running errands. The forewoman not only supervised her work but looked after
her during the lunch hour. Rose had been in this position for 3}£ years at the
time of the interview and was earning $10 a week. The superintendent said the
girl was a steady worker but had no ability. He was keeping her because she
was a "ch an ty case.”
Case 16 (San Francisco).-—John, a boy of very inferior mentality, had personraits that made him difficult to deal with. Accoiding to one test
(Goddard revision) given him several years before he left school his intelligence
quotient was 37, and according to another given him about the same time it
was 46. In school he had been considered stubborn, moody, and possessed of
& v*0l®1?t temper. He had tried several different occupations but had not succf d e d m keeping any o f them foi more than a few weeks, being unemployed most
ot the time. He had helped in his father’s grocery store at times but had never
received any wages for this work. Soon after leaving school he tried helping on
a milk wagon but left after a week’s trial. Soon after this he had a job in a
bleachery, but lnsjde of two weeks burned his hands in the lime and left. The
nf XA year , w ° ^ ed a week f ° r a basket maker, having acquired some knowledge
o f J'*1®. work in his special-class course. His employer accused him of stealing
and discharged him within a week. A few months later he obtained a job as
laborer m a coal yard, filling sacks and loading wagons. His employer, when
interviewed by the Children s Bureau agent, said that the boy was a hard worker
if one knew how to get along with him. "H e liked to be around horses, and that
kept him satisfied.
After five weeks, however, his employer discharged him
work186* a^ er ^ls Parents had insisted on taking all his wages, he would not
had been out of work about three years at the time
tnis Jime he had been helping his parents in the store, running
wood, and doing other choies but not waiting on customers.
employers had no patience with him, and she thought it best to
where she could look after him.

of the study. In
errands, chopping
His mother said
keep him at home

Case 17 (San Francisco). Dan, a boy whose intelligence quotient was 54
according to a test (Goddard revision) given him several years before he left
school, had been a planer s helper in a box factory. He was a strong, fine-looking
boy of athletic build, and was very particular not only about his personal appear
ance but about everything he did. His handwork in school had been rated as
excellent, though he had been unable to pass even the first grade in his other
studies. He was 17 when he left school and applied for a job at the box factory.
His employer said that he was perfectly satisfactory as planer’s helper but that
he was not qualified for a higher-grade job.

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Case 18 {Newark).— Victor, a boy of Italian parentage, with an intelligencequotient of 43 (Goddard revision), also had had but one occupation, that of
helper in a hat factory, carrying, sorting, and hanging hats. He had worked in
the hat factory for four years, beginning at the age of 16. Although out of work,
occasionally on account of the seasonal nature of the industry he always returned
to the same employer to do the same kind of work and was still employed at the"
time of the study, earning only $12 a week. Victor had accomplished scarcely
anything in school. He had not finished first-grade work in regular-school sub
jects, and his handwork was poor. He had been out of school only a few months
when he found employment, through the efforts of a friend who worked there,,
in the hat factory.
Case 19 {Rochester).— Fred had worked for long periods at a time in shoe
factories. His intelligence quotient was 57, and he had reached only the secondgrade in regular-school subjects but had done good work in industrial subjects.
In school he was “ a faithful and untiring worker,” according to his teachers.
When he left school at the age of 16, he first found work feeding a dipping machine
in a candy factory. After six weeks he left this place to take a better-paying job
in a metal-manufacturing concern. Here he was employed for seven weeks as a
brushing-machine helper in the plating department but was unsuccessful, his
employer saying that he was “ lazy and stupid and could not be taught. ” Almost
immediately, however, he found work in a shoe factory cleaning the linings of
shoes by hand. He remained at this task for two years and was a satisfactory
employee. When laid off during a slack period, he applied for work at another
shoe factory and was employed as a trimmer of insoles. He had been working at
this job for more than three years at the time of the interview, and although he
was slow and unable to earn much on piecework (about $12 a week) he was able
to keep his job.
Case 20 {Rochester).— Henry had been employed to sort and bale rags for
different junk dealers since he left school at the age of 15. His intelligence
quotient was 57 (Goddard revision), and he was further handicapped by a speech;
defect and poor muscular control. Although he had done fourth-grade work in
regular-school subjects he was poor in handwork, having been in the second grade
in industrial subjects. He was, however, an obedient boy of a cheerful disposi
tion. His father, of Russian-Jewish nationality, was a junk dealer and had
helped .him get work. The boy had stayed with one junk dealer for two years
and at the time of the study had been almost three years with another junk
dealer.
Case 21 {Newark).— Catharine, a girl whose intelligence quotient was 61
(Goddard revision), had found work in a shoe factory in which she was success
fully employed. She had done fourth-grade work in regular-school subjects and
seventh-grade work in handwork. She was 15 years of age when she left school.
Her teachers said that she had an unfortunate disposition, being stubborn,
irritable, moody, and untruthful. They thought that she was best fitted for
housework. Catharine, however, through a friend who worked there, first
obtained work in a shoe factory as packer. She stayed in this factory about six
months, leaving because she was needed at home. After nearly a year at home,
she obtained employment in a clothing factory cutting threads. After a month
in this position, she again found work in a shoe factory. She performed several
different hand operations in three shoe factories, taping and labeling in the fitting
room and fitting linings to the insides of shoes. Except for a three months’ lay-off
due to a slack season, during which she obtained temporary work in another
factory, she had continued in this last occupation for more than two years and
was still employed at the time of the interview. Her employer remarked that
she did good work and that he did not want to lose her.
Case 22 {Newark).— Dora, another girl whose intelligence quotient was 61
(Goddard revision), had spent most of her industrial life in machine work in a
paper-box factory. Her teachers said that she was a sensitive, emotional type of
girl but had the ability to concentrate on her work. She had done good work in
her manual-training courses but only second-grade work in her other studies.
Her mother was a widow, and Dora left school before her fourteenth birthday at
the close of the school year to go to work. She obtained employment almost at
once in a clothing factory, snipping threads off finished garments at $6 a week.
She did this work but a few weeks, however, and then found work in a paper-box
factory as a stripper, operating the machine that feeds the glue and covers the

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sides of boxes. She did the same kind of work for more than four years, when
she had to give up working for six months on account of ill health. When she was
able to work, she returned to the same job and was still employed in it at the time
of the study, earning $18 a week. Her employer said that she was one of his
oldest and best workers.
Case 28 (Newark).— Roland, with an intelligence quotient of 63 (Goddard re
vision), helped his father, a stonecutter by trade. Although the boy was char
acterized by his special-class teachers as irritable, stubborn, lazy, unable to settle
down to anything, sex offender, and delinquent, the mental examiner declared
that in spite of his intellectual inferiority he was in certain ways alert, energetic,
and active, but in a haphazard fashion. He was rated as poor in handwork in
school, his teacher reporting that he would not “ settle down to any kind of work.”
He stayed in school until he was nearly 16 years of age. His father then took
him into his business and taught him how to shape-out rough stones for monu
ments and to chisel letters after the design had been drawn. He had worked at
this for 4% years at the time of the survey. His father was pleased with his
work, saying that he was very accurate and could cut 120 letters a day, and that
the work he did was worth $50 a week. However, he gave the boy only spending
money and not regular wages.
Case 24 (Newark).— Grace’s mental ability was superior to that of the majority
of special-class girls, her intelligence quotient being 72. At the age of 13 she had
reached only the fourth grade in school and was transferred to a special class, in
which she remained more than two years. She had many unfavorable character
traits; her teacher said she was stubborn, quarrelsome, and irritable. She was
emotional, and her attention was easily distracted. In appearance she was un
clean and slovenly. However, she did good manual work. She was one of the
few girls in the study to attempt clerical and store work, but she had also worked
in factories.
She went to work at 16. In the following five years she was employed about
three-fourths of the time, at least part of her unemployment being due to the fact
that she was needed at home. Her first position was as a packer with a manu
facturer of surgical dressings. After nine months she lost this position because
the firm went out of business. She next obtained work as salesgirl in a small
retail dry goods store. Here she worked only two months, leaving because a
teacher from the special class came to the store and the girl was afraid her em
ployers would discover that she had been in a class for defectives in school. She
next found work in a commercial laboratory as typist. She remained here for a
year and four months, the longest time she ever remained in any position. After
several months at factory work, she returned to the same commercial laboratory
as typist, staying this time for eight months. Why she left and what her em
ployer thought of her work could not be learned. After a period of unemploy
ment she obtained a position as packer of samples in a manufacturing company;
she kept this about two months. She was then employed at machine work,
straightening wires in a horn-manufacturing company. She left this position
after two months because, according to the employer, she did not get on with the
other girls. At the time of the study she was doing clerical work. She was
earning only $14 a week but had earned $17 a week during the two years of her
typing experience.
Case 25 (Newark).— Robert, with an intelligence quotient of 76 (Goddard
revision), had tried unsuccessfully to learn a trade. He had done only thirdgrade work in his academic studies but sixth-grade work in manual training.
His teachers said that he was an obedient, truthful boy of good personal appear
ance, and able to concentrate on his work. When he first left school at 14 years of
age, he found a job as bus boy in a restaurant. He did this work satisfactorily,
remaining with his employer nine months. He also worked a few weeks as
assembler in a toy factory. After he had been out of work for some time, he
answered an advertisement for an apprentice engraver in a small engraving com
pany. The firm drew up a contract with the boy’s mother agreeing to teach him
the trade in three years and to pay him such wages as he earned. After three
months Robert’s employer called his mother in and told her that it was a waste
of time for her son to stay as he had made no progress in the trade up to that time.
The employer said that the boy was honest and willing, and would be satisfactory
at unskilled work. Unconvinced that her son could not become an engraver
the mother tried persistently to locate him in a jeweler’s shop. In the next two

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

years he was tried out in three different places. He was laid off from the first
of these after two months. He managed to hold his next job for a year and then
was discharged. His employer remarked that he was willing to work and a good
boy, but that he could not be taught to be a ring engraver. In the year he was
there he had been able to learn nothing beyond the simplest processes. Rather
than take another kind of job, however, he loafed, as on previous occasions, for
several months until he was able to obtain another position as engraver, this
time on watch cases. He had been employed in this position for four months
at the time of the study, not long enough to judge as to whether or not he could
continue to hold it. Obviously, however, the boy needed other vocational advice
than that which his mother was able to give him.
Case 26 (Oakland).— Hugh was another boy whose experience illustrates the
need of vocational advice for special-class boys. He had an intelligence quotient
of 74. He wished to learn the plumber’s trade and for 3% years, almost all the
time between the date he left school and the date of the study, he had worked as
apprentice to a plumber, a position that he had found through the help of a friend.
Hugh was large and strong and besides having relatively good mental capacity
for a special-class boy was well spoken of by his teachers. He had done the
equivalent of fifth-grade work in regular-school subjects, had done good work
in carpentry and basketry, was “ able to mend anything,” and had some powers
of concentration. In spite of these points in his favor two weeks before the
date of the study his employer told him that he could keep him no longer and
that he should look for another kind of work because he could never qualify as a
first-class plumber. When the employer was visited by the Children’s Bureau
agent he said that Hugh did not have the mental caliber for an independent
plumber, that though he was trustworthy and a good worker, he was very slow
and needed constant direction. At the time he was interviewed, Hugh had been
unable to get any other kind of work.
Case 27 (Rochester).— Tony had done fourth-grade work in a parochial school
before he entered the special class. When assigned to the special class, he had an
intelligence quotient of 55 (Goddard revision). The mental examiner said he was
capable of self-support if employed under supervision. After he left the special
class at the age of 15, he got along very well so long as he worked under the super
vision of his father, an Italian who kept a fruit store, helping in the store in the
winter and peddling bananas from a wagon in the summer. His father gave him
only small wages, however, and at the age of 20 Tony had married and needed
money. Through the efforts of a social agency and a police officer who did not
understand Tony’s limitations a loan was raised to set him up in business. Tony
chose the site of his new store and bought his stock, but within two weeks he
showed himself totally incapable of managing his stand. He would not open up
until late in the morning and would often stay away all the afternoon. The
officer took charge of the shop one day and demonstrated that it could be run on a
profitable basis. Tony, however, lost money in all his transactions by unwise
buying and selling. At the end of the third week he closed up his business with a
debt of $175.
Case 28 (Rochester).— Morris had an intelligence quotient of 78 (Goddard
revision), but he had other handicaps. His experience illustrates the need for
assistance in getting the right kind of work. He was a shy boy, so sensitive over
his lack of ability to read and write well that he was afraid to apply for work
at the larger factories where he would have to fill out application blanks. He
was almost blind in one eye and had done only fair work in furniture assembling in
prevocational school. He had been brought to court for automobile stealing before
leaving school and had been placed on probation. In the first year after leaving
school at the age of 16, he picked up any job he could through a public employ
ment bureau, but he was so slow in learning even the simple processes required of
him that he became discouraged and quit his first three jobs in less than three
weeks. He tried wrapping in a bakery, gluing and doweling in a furniture factory,
and cleaning the nuts from which buttons are made in a button factory. At
length, 10 months after he left school, a friend found him a position in a type
writer-supply factory, his job being to wrap typewriter ribbons in tin foil and
place them in a box. The superintendent of the factory said that Morris was very
slow in learning the work, but having once acquired the ability to do this simple
process, he worked on very steadily. For three years he was content; then the
question of a raise came up, but as he was receiving the maximum for his job and

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FORMEE SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

as he was incapable of doing any higher-grade work, the raise was refused.
Morris left and for six months was without a job of any kind. Finally a friend
employed in a pretzel bakery helped him get a position there as pretzel twister.
Although at this work only a month at the time the employer was interviewed
he was said to be doing well.
’
Case 29 (Rochester).— The special training that Ferdinand, whose intelligence
quotient was 71 (Goddard revision), received while in the Rochester prevocational
school apparently helped him to succeed later. He had done only second-grade
work in the usual school subjects but seventh-grade work in prevocational school,
naving been in the cabinetmaking department for nearly two years. Here he had
received instruction on various woodworking machines. The first winter after
leaving school he continued working part time as helper on a milk wagon, as he
S ” » n_*
kis last year in school. The following summer, however, through
the efforts of his friends, he obtained work in a chair factory. He worked in the
assembling department for seven months; he left because the factory was too far
from home. With his fathers help he obtained employment in another wood
working factory at the same wage, $15 a week, that he had had in his other job.
* ° r 1Hi years he was employed “ taking off from the saws,” and he was then pro
moted to operator of the ripsaw machine. After another 1 years at this job, he
was transferred to the sanding machine as operator. At the time of the interview
ne nad been employed m this occupation for six months.
Case 80 (Rochester).— George was one of the few boys in the study who obtained
work with the help of his school. According to several tests given him (Goddard
hls ^teUjgence quotient varied from 65 to 73. He was a prevocationalschool boy and had had training for 1% years in woodworking and cabinetmaking
f f d ,y ?s, a’ conscientious worker. In regular-school subjects he had reached only
the third grade. When he was ready to leave school at the age of 16, his school
principal placed him with a furniture-manufacturing company. George stayed
here for nearly three years. He worked for more than a month taking away from
the Planing machine; he was then promoted to operator of the boring machine, a
+ira*
f ° r ®lx weeks. At the end of this time he was transferred to
another occupation. In the next two years he operated four kinds of sanding
machines. He was considered a satisfactory worker. Exactly why he left this
job is not known. His employer said he asked for a raise in wages and when this
was refused he left; the boy said the sawdust made him ill. At all events he next
found work as helper m a chemical-products factory, in which he had been em
ployed steadily for two years at the time of the inquiry.
WAGES
FIRST AND LAST WAGES

The wages received by the young workers varied considerably from
city to city. The median cash wage received on beginning work
ranged from $9.50 a week for Cincinnati boys to $17.50 for Detroit
boys, and from $9 for Cincinnati girls to $12 for Detroit and Rochester
girls. (1 able 26.) A few young persons in each city earned less
than $4 a week, and a number (19 per cent of the boys and 2 per cent
o the girls) $20 and more. Most of the boys (79 of 99) who earned
the relatively large amount of $20 or more a week lived in Detroit.
In addition to the workers who received only cash wages a small pro
portion (10 per cent of the boys and 16 per cent of the girls) received
some form of maintenance, meals, lodging, or clothing in place of or
m addition to money wages. (Table 27.) Half of the boys (34 of
62) who received maintenance were employed by their relatives in
such jobs as helpers in stores or on trucks or wagons. Two children
received no wages; one was an usher in a motion-picture theater and
got presents, the other was a learner in a beauty shop.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T able 26.— Median wage received for first and last job by boys and girls formerly

attending special classes in specified cities who received cash wage only and reported
the amount
Boys and girls formerly attending special classes
Girls

Boys

Last job

First job

Last job

First job

City

Total re
Total re
Total re
Total re
ceiving
ceiving
ceiving
ceiving
cash wage Medi cash wage Medi cash wage Medi cash wage Medi
an 1
an 1 only and
only and
an 1 only and
an 1 only and
reporting
reporting
reporting
reporting
amount
amount
amount
amount

Detroit________________

514

$13.50

524

$24.00

284

$11.50

303

$15.00

221
97
102
52
42

17.50
12.00
10.00
9.50
12.50

230
98
101
49
46

27.00
22.00
21.00
19.00
19.50

104
89
42
21
28

12.00
12.00
10.00
9.00
12.00

116
93
43
21
30

15.50
15.50
13.50
12.50
16.50

1 Medians are shown to the nearest 50 cents.

T able 27.— Initial wage and intelligence quotient of boys and girls formerly

attending special classes in seven cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes
Intelligence quotient

Total
Initial wage and sex

Percent Less than 50,less 60,less
Number distri
than 60 than 70
50
bution
Boys................................
Receiving cash wages only___
Amount reported_______
Less than $4_________
$4, less than $6............
$6, less than $8______
$8, less than $10_____
$10, less than $12____
$12, less than $14.........
$14, less than $16____
$16, less than $18____
$18, less than $20........
$20 and more________
Amount not reported____
Cash and other compensation.
Other compensation only____
No wages___________________
Not reported as to wages........
Girls........ ......................
Receiving cash wages only___
Amount reported_______
Less than $4________
$4, less than $6______
$6, less than $8______
$8, less than $10..........
$10, less than $12____
$12, less than $14____
$14, less than $16........
$16, less than $18.........
$18, less than $20.........
$20 and more...............
Amount not reported____
Cash and other compensation.
Other compensation only____
No wages__________________
Not reported as to wages____

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603
539
514
17
23
43
65
60
77
60
30
40
99
25
41
21
1
1
346
288
284
4
15
39
41
59
73
26
14
7
6
4
53
2
1
2

100
3
4
8
13
12
15
12
6
8
19

31
28
26
3
2
3
4
2
2
3
1
1
5
2
2
1

100
1
5
14
14
21
26
9
5
2
2

40
31
31
3
6
1
7
7
2
1
1
3
8
1

157
140
134
5
7
9
18
11
24
15
8
11
26
6
12
5
109
95
93
3
3
15
14
20
23
7
4
3
1
2
14

246
216
203
7
7
14
26
26
28
21
13
18
43
13
23
7
133
109
108
1
6
14
20
19
27
11
6
3
1
1
20
2
1
1

70 and
more
154
141
137
2
6
12
15
19
21
20
8
9
25
4
6
6
1
59
49
48
2
4
5
12
15
6
3
1
1
10

Not re
ported

15
14
14
1
5
2
2
2
1
1

1
5
4
4
1
1
1
1

FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

It has generally been found in studies of young workers of un
selected mentality that the initial wages of boys are higher than those
of girls.® The wages of the boys of subnormal intelligence, however,
were but little higher than those of the girls except in Detroit, where
the boys’ wages greatly exceeded those of the girls.
Wages of the boys in manufacturing industries were higher in
Detroit than in the other cities, especially in the metal industries.
For boys employed as semiskilled operatives in the Detroit metai
industries the median initial weekly wage (cash) was $20 a week,
but for those employed as semiskilled operatives in other manufac
turing industries of that city it was only $18.50. In the other groups
of cities the median wage of semiskilled operatives was $12 a week.
The boys employed in clerical occupations in Detroit had a median
weekly wage of $13.50, compared with $8 in the other cities.
The higher wages of the Detroit boys may be partly explained by
the fact that they were slightly older when they went to work than
the boys in any other city except Rochester, just as the low initial
wages for both sexes in Newark and Cincinnati may be partly ex
plained by the fact that the boys and girls from the special classes
went to work at somewhat earlier ages than those in the other cities.
{See p. 15.) Probably, however, the chief reason for the difference
is m the wages customarily paid in the respective cities.
In considering the wages of workers of subnormal mentality, it
must be borne in mind that the study covered a period between 1916
and 1924, during which wages, affected by the war, were rapidly in
creasing throughout the country. The change was especially rapid 54
between 1916 and 1920, when the subnormal individuals were entering
employment, and thus the wages of children beginning work in 1916
would be likely to be lower than those of children beginning work in
1920. As the young^ workers went to work during a. 3-year period
and as figures for initial wages of children of unselected groups in
the corresponding cities in any one year are not available it is not
possible to compare the initial wages of the children of this study with
the wages of children in general.
In 1923 and 1924 the young workers were receiving considerably
higher wages than when they entered industry from three to seven
years earlier. Wages of young workers in general increase as they
grow older; in the study of Cincinnati children made in the years
before wages were affected by the war a steady increase from year to
year was noted for both boys and girls; in the fourth year of work
wages were more than double those of the first year for both sexes.56
T o what extent the increase in wages of the young persons of the
present study indicates their success in adjusting themselves to their
jobs and to what extent it merely reflects the general rise in wages
between 1917 and 1924 are questions that can not be answered. At
least a part of the increase in the wages of those included in the study,
as in the increase in the wages of normal children as a whole, can be
? hildf e-i ? f Boston, p. 194; An Experimental Study of Children, p. 602; The Working
emiried11'‘ Girls Earn Less^Than°B oys. ’
Stat®Education Department, statement July 1,1929,
° f Lab?r’ M ?y 1?’ 1928' p‘ 14 <u - s - Bureau of Labor Statistics
119 ¡^ 1 0 1 7 a^^ao
192?L -T,? e mde* numbers of union wage rates (1913 being 100) were 106 in 1916,
112 m 1917, and 189 in 1920. The index number in 1924 was 214; that is, wages were almost twice as large in
1r 7, ^ S£ e a k o in d e x n ^ b e rs for these years for factory pay rolls in New York State which
show a similar trend (Industrial Bulletin, issued by the Industrial Commissioner of New York State,
voi. 6, JNo. 5 (February, 1927), p. 140).
85 An Experimental Study of Children, p. 602.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

attributed to the fact that they were no longer children in physical
development at least, more than two-thirds having reached at least
20 years of age.
The weekly cash wages of boys in the jobs at which they were em
ployed at the time of the study or in their last previous job if unem
ployed, ranged from less than $4 to $40 and more. (Table 28.) The
wages of the girls varied from less than $4 to $32. The median
weekly wage of the boys ranged from $19 in Cincinnati to $27 in
Detroit, that of the girls from $12.50 in Cincinnati to $15.50 in Detroit
and Rochester and $16.50 in the three California cities. The
median wage of Detroit boys employed as laborers or semiskilled
operatives in the metal industries was $27.50. Wages common
to workers in machine shops and foundries in 1925, the year after
the present study was made, when the general level of wages was
about the same, are indicated in a bulletin of the United States
Bureau of Labor Statistics; the average weekly wages in Michigan
machine shops were $22.64 for laborers and $30.96 for all employees.66
T able 28.— Last wage and intelligence quotient of boys and girls formerly attending

special classes in seven cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes
Last wage and sex

Total

Intelligence quotient

Per cent
Less
50,less 60, less
Number distri than
50 than 60 than 70
bution

70 and
more

Not re
ported

Boys..............................................

603

157

246

154

Receiving cash wages only___________

536

140

216

136

Amount reported___________ ____

524

139

209

135

Less than $4.............................
$4, less than $8...........................
$8, less than $12.........................
812, less than $16.......................
$16, less than $20.......................
$20, less than $24______ ______
$24, less than $28.......................
$28, less than $32.......................
$32, less than $36_____________
$36, less than $40......................
$40 and more..............................
Amount not reported......................
Cash and other compensation...............
Other compensation only____________
No wages............... ........ '.......................
Not reported as to wages.......................
Girls...............................................

2
6
14
48
92
106
126
57
28
28
17
12
52

346

Receiving cash wages only___________

308

Amount reported________________

303

100

Less than $4____________ ____
$4, less than $8.........................
$8, less than $12______________
$12, less than $16.......................
$16, less than $20........................
$20, less than $24.................... .
$24, less than $28.......................
$28, less than $32_____________
Amount not reported____________

4
13
50
114
72
34
11
5
5
30
4
4

1
4
17
38
24
11
4
2

Other compensation*only____________
Not reported as to wages_____________

100
(»)

1
3
9
18
20
24
11
5
5
3

3
4
5
5
5
3
3

1
3
16
32
37
57
31
10
13
9
7
25
1

2
4
7
24
26
31
13
12
10
6
1

2
18
26
35
34
10
5
5
2
1
13
2
1
1
109

4
133

2
59

119

116

1
3
15
37
23
10
3
2
2
10
2
1

2
4
16
45
27
14
7
1
3
11
1
2

2
]

6
11
8
5
3
1

5
1

13
3

5
22
17
7

1
2
5
3
1
1
t

3
2-

2
4
1

° Less than 1 per cent.
6« Wages and Hours of Labor in Foundries and Machine Shops, 1925, pp. 5,145. United States Bureau
of Labor Statistics Bulletin No. 422. Washington, 1927.

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FORM ER

S P E C I A L -C L A S S

P U P IL S

Older boys and girls received, on the whole, higher wages than those
who were younger. For example, 40 per cent of the boys who were
19 years of age or less at the time of the study, compared with 26 per
cent of those who were 21 years of age or over, were earning less than
$20 a week, whereas only 18 per cent of the younger boys, compared
with 29 per cent of those who were 21 years of age or over, were earn
ing as much as $28 a week.
In several recent studies 57 of persons discharged or paroled from
institutions for the feeble-minded the evidence presented as to whether
or not their male patients are self-supporting after they leave the insti
tutions indicates that many of them do not support themselves. (See Part 2, p. 82.) That many special-class boys, though possibly
not the majority, are self-supporting is indicated by the fact that of
495 boys for whom information as to wages and proportion of time
employed was available, 204 (more than two-fifths) had been em
ployed at least 70 per cent of the time after leaving school and were
earning at the date of the inquiry or in their last jobs at least $20 a
week; the 204 included a number who were earning $40 a week.
There were 141 other boys who reported wages of $20 or more in their
last jobs, but these had not been employed so regularly, 82 of them
having been employed between 50 and 70 per cent of the time and the
remainder even less. Of 152 unmarried girls for whom similar infor
mation was obtained, only 61 had received $16 or more a week; 48
of the latter had been employed at least 70 per cent of the tim e/
The boys’ wages in every city had increased much more than the
girls’ wages. The wages of the great majority of both sexes (85 per
cent of the boys and 72 per cent of the girls) had increased to some
extent, but 47 per cent of the boys’ wages and only 16 per cent of the
girls’ wages had increased $10 or more.
Although it would be expected that the wages of mentally sub
normal boys of 20 years of age and more, like those of boys of unselected mentality, would be greater than the wages of subnormal girls
of the same ages, the greater increase in the boys’ wages after they
started work is at least partly explained by the fact that proportion
ately more boys than girls were employed at the time of the survey in
1? 2? - u4, wllen tiie gentTal level of wages was high. About two-thirds
of the boys, compared with two-fifths of the girls, were employed at the
time of the study, and many of the boys who were not employed had
been out of work but a short time, whereas many of the girls had
-stopped work some time before in order to get married or for some
other reason. Most of the girls who were employed at the time of
the study were unmarried.
.. Another reason why the girls’ wages were so much lower and their
increases so much less than those of the boys is that they had been at
work for shorter periods than the boys, and the wages and the in
creases received were larger for the individuals, both boys and girls,
who were employed the longer periods. For example, 38 per cent of
the boys who were employed at the date of the interview and who had
worked less than three years, compared with 64 per cent of those who
had worked four years or more, had received increases amounting to
$10 or more.
c > M . p .: A Report on an Investigation Made of Cases Discharged from Letchworth
^
^
d
<r>e
0
Fifty-third Annual Session of the American Association for the
study or the ieeDle-minded, p. 224), Town, Clara Harrison, and Grace E. Hill: How the Feeble-minded
¡from S e R o m r S^
of the Erie County feeble-minded discharged

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EM PLOYM ENT

OF M EN TA LLY

D E F IC IE N T

BOYS

AND

G IR L S

Although the boys and girls were earning more than when theystarted work, the wages of the great majority indicate that they were
employed in tasks requiring but little skill.58 The boys who received
in their last job, either at the time of the study or when last employed,
weekly cash wages of $28 and more, were engaged in a great variety
of occupations. In the manufacturing and mechanical industries
27 per cent of the workers earned $28 or more a week, the same pro
portion as in all other industries. Few did clerical or messenger work,
in which initial wages are low, in their last job. Among the 73
boy?' receiving $32 or more a week were 50 in manufacturing and
mechanical industries; 31 were semiskilled factory operatives, princi
pally employed in Detroit metal industries, a few were skilled workers
in the building trades, a few were laborers, and 2 were learners or
helpers in various trades. Among the remaining 23 boys were 15
truck or taxi drivers and 1 teamster. (For the occupation, intelligence
quotient, and age of boys earning $30 a week, see Appendix, p. 101.)
Among the 50 girls whose wages were $20 or more a week at the
time of the study were 38 factory operatives. Of the 5 operatives who
earned the highest wages, between $28 and $30 a week, 3 were machine
sewers in clothing factories, 1 was a machine stitcher in a shoe factory,
and 1 was a core maker in the automobile industry. (For the occupa
tion, intelligence quotient, and age of these girls see Appendix, p. 103.)’
INTELLIGENCE LEVELS AND WAGES

The relatively high wages of Detroit boys as compared with Roches
ter boys can not be explained by any superiority in intelligence of the
special-class population of Detroit, as a larger proportion of Rochester
than of Detroit boys had intelligence quotients of 70 or more. Neither
can the relatively low wages of Newark boys be explained on the basis
of intelligence, as the proportions of boys in the different intelligence
groups were similar to those in Detroit.
Moreover, no relation can be seen between the level of general
intelligence and the first wage of boys and girls whose intelligence
quotients were as high as 50. The median wage of boys whose intelli
gence quotients were between 50 and 70 and of those whose intelligence
quotients were 70 and more was the same, $13.50. (Table 27,
p . 52.) Similar proportions of boys with intelligence quotients between
50 and 70 and with intelligence quotients of 70 and more earned
$20 or more a week— high wages for beginners. This lack of relation
between initial wage and intelligence quotient was not peculiar to any
one city but was evident both in Detroit and in the other cities where
the number of young persons included in the study was large enough
to make this comparison significant.
The number of individuals whose intelligence quotients were lessthan 50 is too small to warrant conclusions, but it should be noted
that a number of them (8 of 28 boys and 9 of 31 girls) earned less
than $8 a week. On the other hand, 5 boys and 3 girls earned as
much as $20 a week.
The boys who were relatively superior in general intelligence earned
slightly better wages in their last jobs and had slightly greater in
creases in wages than boys of relatively inferior intelligence. Although
MSee Union Scales of Wages and Hours of Labor for union wage rates in the building and other skilled
trades. Union wage rates for workers in the building trades for Cincinnati, for example, the city in which
the workers of subnormal mentality reported the lowest wages, ranged from $40.50 a week for hodcarriers •
and plasterers’ laborers, to $47 for painters, $51 for carpenters, and $66.75 for plasterers (pp. 39, 41).

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FORM ER

S P E C I A L -C L A S S

P U P IL S

boys of all levels of intelligence were found among those who earned
low as well as high wages in every city, twice as many of the boys with
intelligence quotients of 60 or more as of those with lower intelKgence quotients had earned weekly amounts of $28 or more.
(Table 28, p. 54.) Only 15 per cent of the boys in all cities whose
intelligence quotients were less than 60, 30 per cent of those whose
intelligence quotients were between 60 and 70, and the same percent®oo
^ o se with intelligence quotients of 70 and more were earning
$28 or more a week. Of the 17 boys who earned as much as $40 a
week, only 2 had intelligence quotients of less than 60 and none of
less than 50.
The boys of the higher intelligence levels had also had greater
increases m wages than boys of the lower levels. (Table 29 ) Al
though the great majority of the boys of all levels of intelligence
were earning larger amounts in their last than in their first jobs
g re a s e s of $10 and more a week were more common among boys with
the higher intelligence quotients; 36 per cent of the boys with intelli
gence quotients of less than 60, 49 per cent of those with intelligence
quotients between 60 and 70, and 57 per cent of those of higher levels
earned at least $10 more in their last than in their first jobs. Onlv
girls who were employed at the time of the study were receiving
considerably higher wages than when they started work. The girls
who were unemployed at the time of the study on the whole had not
worked long enough for differences in earning capacity to appear
. wenty-five of the 67 girls employed at the time of the study whose
intelligence quotients were less than 60 and 34 of the 80 whose intelli
gence quotients were higher were earning at least $5 more a week
than when they started work.
T able

29.— Difference in cash wage received for first and last job and intelligence
quotient of boys formerly attending special classes in seven cities
Boys formerly attending special classes
Intelligence quotient

Difference in cash wage for
first and last job

Total
50, less than
60
Per
Num cent
ber distri
bution

Total...............................

603

167

126

405

62
118
118
56
51

13
25
25
12
11

4
6
2
1
1

41
31

9
6

477

Increase___________

Decrease...
No change.
Difference not reported2.

126

70 and more

Not
Per
Per
Per report
ed
Num cent Num cent Num cent
ber distri ber distri ber distri
bution
bution
bution

100

Difference reported____

Less than $6____
$5, less than $10..
$10, less than $15.
$15, less than $20.
$20 and more____

Less
than
50i

60, less than
70

246

154

100

186

100

129

ïwT

104

163

113

21
33
31
11
8

17
26
25
9
6

24
47
45
25
22

13
25
24
13
12

11
29
36
18
19

9
22
28
14
16

2
3
4
1
i

7
3

12
10

10
8

10
13

5
7

11
5

9
4

—

\ ? er. e®af distribution not shown because the number of boys is less than 60.
las/wagewas not reported compensati(m other than cash only and boys for whom either or both first and

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EM PLOYM ENT

OF M E N TA LLY

D E F IC IE N T

BOYS AND

G IR L S

The fact that intelligence appeared to be associated with their last
but not with their first wages was no doubt largely due to the fact
that their last wage was for work that they were better able to do than
that which they happened to find when they first left school. That
this is so is indicated by the much greater duration of the last jobs,
both those terminated and those unterminated at the time of the
study, as compared with the duration of their first jobs.
A correlation between the intelligence levels and the wages of
mental defectives was found in a study of 100 institutionally trained
male defectives, most of whom had left the Massachusetts Training
School from two to three years before that study was made in 1922.
The greatest number of boys whose mental age was 8 years were
earning $18 a week; those whose mental age was 9 years were earning
$20 a week; those whose mental age was 10 years, $24 a week; and
those whose mental age was more than 10 years, $26 a week.69 On
the other hand, in a study of feeble-minded ex-school children made
by Doctor Woolley in Cincinnati, in 1918, “ the correlation between
intelligence and earnings was strikingly less than might have been
expected.” 60 The group of 96 children for whom earnings and
intelligence quotients were reported in this study was perhaps too
small to be conclusive.
SCHOOL ACCOMPLISHMENT AND WAGES

A larger proportion of the young persons who had done good work
in the industrial courses offered in the special classes than of those who
had done poor work had had their wages increased, and the increases
were larger. Ninety-three per cent of the boys who had done good
work, compared with 72 per cent of those who had done poor work,
had had increases in wages; 58 per cent of the former, compared with
28 per cent of the latter, had had increases of $10 a week or more.
Although the figures for girls are too small to be of much significance,
a relation between work m school and increase in wages was found for
the girls. The number of boys and girls for whom grade attained in
industrial work was reported was small, yet it is indicative that only
10 per cent of 86 boys who had not attained the sixth grade had had
wage increases of as much as $15, compared with 32 per cent of 130
boys who had reached the sixth or a higher grade or had had training
in the Rochester prevocational school.
CASES ILLUSTRATING RELATIVELY HIGH BOYS’ WAGES

The following histories show the steady increase in wages during
their work histories of seven boys whose intelligence quotients ranged
from 57 to 78 and who succeeded either in learning a skilled trade or in
getting employment in occupations that involved some skill or
responsibility.
Case 31 (Detroit).— Benjamin, a boy with an intelligence quotient of 57, started
work in 1920 at the age of 16, earning $12 a week; four years later, at the age of 20,
he was earning $32.50 a week in his trade of baker. He had been in the special
class only
months, having been in the regular grades practically all his school
life. From the time he left school to the date of the study he worked for the same
employer in a restaurant. For the first two years he was a bus boy getting $12 a
•» Matthews, Mabel A.: One Hundred Institutionally Trained Male Defectives in the Community under
Supervision, pp. 5 and 11. National Committee for Mental Hygiene, Reprint No. 145. New York, 1922.
•®Feeble-minded Ex-School Children, p. 255.

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

week and two meals a day. He wanted to be a baker, and his employer gave him
« o p p o r tu n ity to learn the trade in the restaurant bake shop, raising his wage to
$14 a week. During a 9-month period of learning the boy received increases in
wages every three months. At the end of this time he was promoted to the full
work of a pie and pastry baker, put on night duty, and given $25 a week and two
meals. Within the one year that he had been employed in this capacity he had
been given further increases amounting to $7.50 a week.
Case 32 {Detroit).— David had received steady increases in wages since starting
to work. In 1920, when nearly 16 years of age, he began at $12.50 a week; at the
time of the study, when 19 years of age, he got $36. David had an intelligence
quotient of only 61 at the time he left school, although according to a test given
him a year earlier it was 68. He was well spoken of by his school-teachers, who
described him as having “ all the qualities that would make a man of him. ” He
had done good work in manual training and had reached the sixth grade in some
of his school studies. His first job was in a brass foundry on a reaming machine,
but he was laid off twice during the first year of his employment there, and his
wages had not been increased. Through his father and brother, both of whom
were employed as foremen for a brick-manufacturing concern, he obtained work
there as a teamster at $24 a week, twice as much as he had earned in his previous
position. In six months he was promoted to a job in the brickyard setting
pallets at $27 a week. After about a year he was transferred to another job, for
which he received $30 a week. For one year he made about the same wages and
was then promoted to a job as clay temperer with a $6 weekly increase in pay.
At the time of the inquiry he had been earning $36 a week for more than a year.
Case 83 {Los Angeles).— Angelo started his industrial career at the age of 16,
earning $16.80 a week; five years later, in 1924, he was making $36 a week at
his trade of boilermaker. Of Italian parentage, he had been born in the United
States but had spent his early childhood in Italy, returning to the United States
and entering school when 12 years of age. When 14 he was transferred from
regular school to a special class, where he remained for two years. His intelli
gence quotient was 66 (Goddard revision). He had done fifth-grade work in
regular-school subjects and seventh-grade work in manual training. The
mental examiner noted that he was able to concentrate, and his teacher said
that he was conscientious and a careful worker, taking pride in doing his work
well. His first job on leaving school was as punch-press operator for a pipe
manufacturing company. When he was laid off from this job after five months,
on account of slack work, he returned to a meat market where he had worked
part time before leaving school. His wages on this job were only $6 a week for
cleaning and sweeping and other odd jobs. His father was employed in the
railroad shops of the city and when Angelo was 17 years of age he got work there
as apprentice boilermaker. He served the full four years of the apprenticeship,
becoming at the end of that time a journeyman boilermaker. During the
training period he attended the railroad-shop school for four hours a week. He
was paid according to the regular wage scale, starting at $14 a week. After
two months he received $20 a week and during the rest of his apprenticeship
received increases every six months. At the end of the apprenticeship period
he was earning $32 a week and when promoted to be a boilermaker, $36. After
he had been employed as boilermaker for only three weeks he was laid off and
was unemployed at the time of the study. His employer at the railroad shops
said that a temporary reduction in force had been made, the men being laid off
in order of seniority, and that the boy was a satisfactory worker and would be
taken back as soon as employment conditions warranted.
Case 34 {Los Angeles).— Elmer, with an intelligence quotient of 66 (Goddard
revision), was one of the few boys who was earning more than $40 a week at the
time of the survey. He was a welder by trade. In the special class he had done
fourth-grade work in academic subjects and had reached the sixth grade in in
dustrial subjects in which he was rated as good. He left school in 1919, when
he was nearly 16 years of age, and started work at $18 a week. Through a
relative he found employment with a pipe-manufacturing company with which
he had worked most of the time up to the date of the survey. He had left
several times but was always reemployed. His first job for this company was
as riveter’s helper. After six months he was transferred to another job, that of
apprentice welder. After a year’s training he was employed as welder, earning
$36 a week. At the time of the inquiry he was 20 years of age and earned $43
a week.
100633-32-

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

Case 35 (Rochester).— Julius earned $19. a week when he started work at the
age of 16: at the time of the inquiry he was 20 years of age and earned $30 a
week as apprentice floor layer. His intelligence quotient was 67 (Stanford
revision), and he had done excellent work in his manual-training courses in the
special class and fourth-grade work in regular-school subjects. He was said
by his teachers to be obedient, attentive, and eager to learn. On leaving school
he got a job as general helper in the shipping department of a factory, ih e
second year after leaving school, through a newspaper advertisement, he ob
tained a job with a hardwood-floor company as apprentice floor layer at $12 a
week, only about half what he had been receiving in his previous job. But
Julius did good work and received steady increases; in less than two years he
was receiving the maximum amount paid until the full apprenticeship of four
years had been served. His employer reported that he was a slow learner but
a satisfactory floor layer so long as he worked under supervision. Once when
he was sent out alone to lay a floor complaints came in about his work, and he
was not given as much responsibility again. Soon after this he met an mdependent floor layer who offered him $30 a week while still continuing his apprenticeship, and as this was a considerable increase over the wage he was receiving
at that time he accepted the offer. He had been working for this employer
seven months at the time of the Children’s Bureau agent’s visit and was reported
as doing very satisfactory work, although he was not allowed to go out on jobs
alone.
Case 36 (Newark).— Joseph, whose intelligence quotient varied from 57 to 67
according to several tests (Goddard revision) given him while attending the
special class, began work in 1919 earning $3 a week. At the time of the study
four years later, he received $35 a week. In school Joseph had been able to do
only third-grade work in most of the regular-school subjects, but he was con
sidered an excellent worker in the manual-training classes. According to his
teachers he was an obedient boy and able to concentrate. His father, a Russian
by birth, was a handle maker in a leather factory, and his brother was a foreman
in an establishment manufacturing traveling bags. Through the help of his
father, Joseph obtained work in the leather factory where the former was em
ployed, and started work at $3 a week. He was employed in various operations,
such as covering handles and lining trunks, and in less than two years was earn
ing $30 a week. His employer said that he was “ one of the quickest boys he
had ever had. When the firm went out of business, Joseph obtained work as
frame coverer in the factory in which his brother was foreman. Here he started
work at only $12 a week, but in the next year and a half his pay was steadily
increased until h.e was again earning $30 a week. At the end of this time he
left to work in another factory under his former foreman, who offered him a
job as box maker, work including several hand processes as well as operating a
sewing machine, at $35 a week.
Case 37 (Newark).— Pete, with a relatively high intelligence quotient of 78
(Goddard revision), also had the advantage of special musical ability. At the
time of the study he was 22 years of age and earned $40 a week as drummer in
a band in a cabaret restaurant. Not until some years after he left school was
Pete able to make use of his talent. In the special class he had done sixth-grade
work in industrial subjects and apparently had done well, but on leaving school
he was at first unable to find any work at all, possibly because of a shy and
timid personality. After a year’s idleness he got his first job, at the age of 17,
helping on a laundry wagon at $5 a week. He remained in this occupation for a
year with no raise in pay. At the end of this time a friend, who recognized his
musical ability, helped him obtain work as drummer in a band. Pete started
at $28 a week and was soon earning $30 a week. For three years he played m
the same band; afterwards he was continuously employed by different bands in
various restaurants, with increased wages.
SUCCESS IN

JOBS

Information on whether or not these mentally deficient young work
ers had been able to meet the requirements of their jobs was obtained
for 3,775 jobs, 60 per cent of the total number reported by those
interviewed. The boys were reported to have been unsatisfactory in
their work in 22 per cent, and the girls in 20 per cent, of these jobs.
These figures include jobs from which the young persons, according

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

to their own or relatives’ statements, had been discharged, but for
which no information could be obtained from employers. Although
most of the boys and girls were reported as unsatisfactory in some of
the jobs they had held, only 1 per cent of the boys and 7 per cent of
the girls had never been considered satisfactory in any job.
Unfavorable reports as to work were not confined to any particular
type or group of occupations. The boys and girls were about as
likely to prove unsatisfactory in one kind of work as another. For
example, the boys were said to have been unsatisfactory in 20 per
cent of their jobs as factory operatives, in 24 per cent of their jobs
in clerical work (chiefly errand work), and in 32 per cent of the jobs
they had as learners in manufacturing and mechanical industries.
The girls had not done well in 20 per cent of their jobs as factory
operatives, 21 per cent of their jobs in personal and domestic serv
ice, and 16 per cent of their jobs in sales or stock work. In this con
nection it may be noted that in a study of 500 sales clerks in a depart
ment store it was found that although sales clerks of normal intelli
gence were more likely to succeed than those of inferior intelligence,
nevertheless a small proportion of those with defective intelligence
(that is, those whose intelligence quotients were less than 70) also
proved successful in this work.61
E M P L O Y E R S ’ O P IN IO N S

In addition to the examples already given of individuals who had
been successful in their work (see cases illustrating occupations, 13, 14,
17, 23, 28, 29 (pp. 46-51)7 and cases illustrating wages, 31-37 (pp.
58-60), the opinions of some of the employers about individuals who
succeeded were as follows :
One boy (intelligence quotient 59) had been employed for more than a year
pushing a hand truck between the various buildings of a manufacturing estab
lishment. According to his employer he was “ faithful and reliable, and the
work does not require much else.”

A boy (intelligence quotient 57) at the time of the study had been errand boy
and upholsterer’s helper for nearly four years, his wage having increased from
$8 a week to $17 a week. According to his employer he was incapable of ever
becoming an upholsterer but was nevertheless very satisfactory as upholsterer’s
helper— “ a good, husky lad, honest and steady, always on the job .”

Another boy (intelligence quotient 57) was described as “ one of our best
employees.” His work was to assemble condensers in the radio department of a
metal-manufacturing establishment, a job that he kept, however, for only a
month, leaving to take a better-paying job.

.A girl (intelligence quotient 64) who had done assembling in a jewelry estab
lishment for nearly five years was “ one of our nicest girls.”

The special ability of one boy (intelligence quotient 61) in handling tools had
been noticed by the teacher of the special class. At the time of the study the
boy had been a toolmaker’s apprentice for more than three years. His employer
said that he was doing well and was a “ natural-born mechanic.”
61 Anderson, V. V., M . D.: Psychiatry in Industry, pp. 246,247. New York, 1929.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

Another boy (intelligence quotient 66) who was learning a skilled trade had
been employed by his father for nearly three years to reP.Jrnf ^ ° m^
Ser^
had also repaired cars on his own account. His family said of him, There is
nothing about an automobile he does not understand.

One boy (intelligence quotient 55) had had several jobs as helper on a truck
and at least three different jobs driving a horse and wagon. lastmg foam one to
five months. One of his employers said, “ He was a good b o y ibut was restless
and would not stay.” Another said, “ He was a very good worker, and I would
have kept him but he wanted more pay.”

Operating a freight elevator in a factory was another type of work m w h ich
a negro boy (intelligence quotient 59) had proved satisfactory up to the time of
the study.J He had been employed for nearly four years m this occupation for
the same establishment and was said to be ‘ better than any other boy m th s
job during the last 10 years.”
The intelligence quotient of one boy who had worked as bundle b a y . r e t a i l
store steadilv for more than four years was relatively high (71). His employer
told the bureau representative that he wished “ he had 50 more boys like him.

Other employers found the work of the subnormal individuals
unsatisfactory:
One hnv ("intelligence quotient 58) had worked as a laborer loading coal for
about a month for a coal company, but his employer ^
‘ ‘^ t a k f an vTesponS
anvbodv could do and he does it as well as other boys, he can t take any responsi
bilitv ” This boy had also been employed off and on for a few weeks or month
at a time as laborer doing odd jobs in an establishment manufacturing pij>es and
J e it e i? “ The boy is of no account as a worker,” this employer said, “ but I
take him back each time because I am sorry for his mother.
One of the girls (intelligence quotient 60) employed as a factory operative had
staved for more than three years in a drug-manufacturing establishment, labeling
in the finishing department. “ She was never quick but was taken on when
girls were hardto get and kept because we were sorry for her, her employer said.
Another employer said of one girl (intelligence quotient 57) who had worked
in a paper-box factory for three weeks before she was discharged as incompetent.
‘ “We^tried her on several things, on table work and m the packing room, but
she did not accomplish anything, and wb had to let her go.
A boy who did errand work had been employed in a vegetable and fruit store.
His intelligence quotient was 53. “ He was satisfactory as a delivery boy, but
we could not teach him to wait on customers.
A boy whose intelligence quotient was 52 tried to learn to be a baker and for
more than two years worked steadily in bakeries
One employer said
He
could not keep anything in his head. We would tell him the same thing eve y
day but he never would learn.” Another employer explained thatj he was
given every opportunity to learn the trade but was slow and indifferent and
never showed the least interest.
Another bov (intelligence quotient 64) was apprenticed to a barber. According
to his employer, “ He knew no more when he left than when he started work five
months before.”

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

One of the girls (intelligence quotient 66) wanted to become a hairdresser.
She paid a hairdresser $5 to teach her, but after two days her employer decided
the girl could not learn, refunded the money, and kept the girl to do cleaning.

The father of one boy was a carpenter and hoped to teach the boy that trade,
but finally gave up the idea. The father had the privilege of hiring any helper
he wished, and during a period of about a year’s time he took the boy with him
on his different jobs. The boy (intelligence quotient 65) was “ not a good
worker, fooled around, and was not competent,” and the father “ got the blame.”
A t the time of the study the boy was employed as a laborer in a factory.

_ A truck driver with an intelligence quotient of 69 had been discharged three
times— twice for damaging the cars and once for unreliability. A fourth em
ployer, although he did not actually discharge him, said that the boy could not
hold down a job as truck driver because he was not strong enough or sufficiently
reliable.
A boy (intelligence quotient 63) was discharged from two of his three jobs
driving automobiles. One job he kept two weeks and was then discharged for
“ smashing the truck” ; the other job he kept for a week, when he was arrested
for reckless driving and sentenced to 30 days in jail.
R E A S O N S F O R L E A V IN G J O B S

To get, if possible, more information on the success of the young
workers, they were asked why they left each job, and whenever
possible their reasons were verified and supplemented by statements
from their employers. Whether they left their jobs voluntarily,
were laid off, or were discharged is shown in Table 30.
T able

30.— Reason for terminating all jobs held by boys and girls formerly attending
special classes in seven cities
Terminated jobs held by boys and girls
formerly attending special classes
Reason for terminating job

Boys

Girls

Per cent
Per cent
Number distribu- Number distribution
tion
Total........ ......................

4,090

Reason reported........ _............

3,956

100

1,553

100

Left of own accord.._____
Laid off by employer____
Discharged by employer...

2,201
1,036
463

56
26
12

901
342
153

58
22
10

Inefficiency__. . ___
Undesirable employee.
Misconduct.................
Other........................ .
Not reported________

296
18
79
12
58

112
7
24
1
9

Change in occupation____

256

157

Promotion______ ____
Demotion....................
Transfer_____________

162
15
79

78
5
74

Reason not reported_________

134

* Less than 1 per cent.

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1,580

(')
(0

7
(!)
0)

2
1
10
5

(I)

EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

The majority of the jobs (56 per cent of the boys’ jobs and 58 per
cent of the girls’ ) were given up voluntarily. According to the young
workers’ statements, they usually left because they did not like the
work; some said they left because they wanted better wages, a better
job, or a “ change.” The boys left 4 per cent of their jobs and the
girls 5 per cent for what they believed to be a better job. Only 4 per
cent of the boys’ jobs and 8 per cent of the girls’ were ended because
of illness or injury. Eleven per cent of the girls’ jobs were ended
because of marriage or pregnancy.
„
Boys were laid off from 26 per cent of their jobs and girls from 22
per cent, some because of the fact that their jobs were temporary,
others because of a slack season in industry, and others because of a
change in the employer’s business. For example, some of the girls
who did saleswork in department stores were taken on only as
“ extras,” and some of the boys who were helpers to drivers were
employed off and on when additional help was needed. No doubt
during a slack season in industry the less desirable employees are
laid off first and are not reemployed, and this would account for
many of those who gave a “ lay-off” as the reason for losing their
jobs. No figures are available, however, to show whether as large a
proportion of workers of unselected mentality as of these young
people are laid off from their jobs.
Occasionally the young workers were transferred from one occupa
tion to another in the same establishment ; in 4 per cent of the boys’
jobs and in 5 per cent of the girls’ jobs these transfers were promotions.
Seldom were the young persons transferred to less desirable or more
poorly paid jobs.
. ■
¿
,.
In 12 per cent of their jobs the boys, and in 10 per cent of their
jobs the girls, had been so unsatisfactory that they were discharged.
Inefficiency was the most common reason for discharge— it was the
reason given in 73 per cent of the jobs from which the boys reported
the reason for discharge and in 78 per cent of the jobs from which the
girls reported the reason for discharge. Misconduct was the next
most important cause of discharge.
Whether these workers were discharged more frequently than
workers of unselected groups can not be determined in the absence
of comparable figures. Little, if any, relation was found between the
intelligence levels of the young workers in this study and the fre
quency with which they were discharged. Approximately the same
proportion of girls with intelligence quotients of 70 and more had
been discharged as of girls with intelligence quotients of less than 60 ;
and the difference in the proportions of discharged boys with intelli
gence quotients of 70 and more and of less than 60 (49 per cent and
39 per cent, respectively) was not large enough to be significant.
That the relation is not more evident between the degree of intelli
gence and the frequency with which the workers were discharged
may be due to personality, which, no doubt, is as important a factor
in the industrial success of workers of subnormal mentality as it is
in the success of persons of normal mentality. The behavior of
those included in the study apparently was closely related to lack
of success in the job. Seventeen per cent of the discharges were
for misconduct, and 4 per cent were because the employee was “ unde
sirable.” As has been said, a relatively small number of the individ
uals included in the study were actually put on probation or sent to

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

institutions as delinquents, but 52 per cent of the 93 delinquent boys
as compared with 41 per cent of the 453 not classified as delinquent
had been discharged from one or more of their jobs.
Discharges were as common from the jobs that the boys and girls
had had the longest time as from those that they had when they
first went to work; 8 per cent of the boys were discharged from their
first jobs and 10 per cent from the jobs that they had had for the
longest time. The young persons were usually discharged before
they had been employed more than a few months, but sometimes
they were discharged from the job they had had for a year or more.
Rarely were they discharged from all their jobs, but two-fifths of the
boys and about one-third of the girls had been discharged from at
least one of their jobs, and a small proportion of each sex had been
discharged from two or more jobs. (Table 31.)
T able 31.— Number of times discharged from jobs and intelligence quotient of boys

and girls formerly attending special classes in seven cities
Young persons formerly attending special classes
Intelligence quotient

Number of times discharged
from jobs and sex

Total

Less
than
50

50, less than
60

60, less than
70

70 and more

Not
re
ported

Per
Per
Per
Per
Num cent Num Num cent Num cent Num cent
ber distri ber 1 ber distri ber distri ber distri
bution
bution
bution
bution
603
Times discharged reported___

Times discharged not reported.

154

246

157

550

100

142

100

226

100

140

100

312
145
53
40

57
26
10
7

17
5
2
4

86
35
g
13

61
25
6
9

130
61
21
14

58
27
9
6

71
41
20
8

51
29
14
6

8
3
2
1

346

109

133

Times discharged reported___

332

100

104

100

127

100

69
23
5
4

28
9
1
2

74
24
4
2

71
23
4
2

87
29
6
6

69
23
4
5

40
11
5
2

69
19
9
3

1
2

Twice______ _____ ____ _
3 or more..... .......................

230
75
15
12

Times discharged not reported-

1 Per cent distribution not shown because number of boys and number of girls was less less than 50.

The proportion of discharges in the different occupational groups
into which the jobs were classified did not vary greatly, although
among the girls there were a few more discharges from domestic work
and sales and stock work than from factory work. Girls were dis
charged from 15 per cent of their jobs in domestic and personal
service, from 11 per cent of their jobs in sales or stock work, and
from 7 per cent of their factory jobs. Among the boys truck drivers
were discharged more frequently than those in other types of work,
24 per cent of such jobs ending in discharge as compared with 11 per
cent of the total number of jobs from which discharges were recorded.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

In a study of employees of a department store psychological tests
were given to 116 truck drivers; only 7 were border-line defectives or
definitely feeble-minded, but all 7 were in the group that had frequent
accidents while d r iv in g .62
Discharges from work on power machines were not more frequent
than from other types of factory work; the young persons were dis
charged from 17 per cent of their jobs on power machines in the
industries in which they were chiefly employed and from 15 per cent
of all their jobs as semiskilled operatives. Persons of subnormal
mentality are in especial danger of accidents in this type of work,
however, and in several cases boys and girls from the special classes
had been discharged because of injuries received or because the
employer was afraid they would be injured.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

As other studies of the histories of former special-class pupils have
done, this study demonstrates that most pupils of special classes enter
industry. More than nine-tenths of the boys and girls who had been
enrolled in special classes for mental defectives in the public schools
of seven cities in different parts of the country and who were selected
for investigation had been employed after leaving school.
The present study covers the employment histories of 949 boys and
girls who had been employed. Most of these boys and girls could be
roughly classified mentally as morons, but some were high-grade
imbeciles and others were only slightly subnormal; more than twothirds had intelligence quotients between 50 and 70 and more than
one-fifth of 70 or more. Fifteen per cent had been delinquent at some
time before the study was made and, as a consequence, put on pro
bation or committed to institutions for defectives or delinquents.
At the time of the inquiry, from three to seven years after the boys
and girls had left school, 61 per cent (71 per cent of the boys and 43
per cent of the girls) were gainfully employed. The small proportion
of girls employed is due to the fact that many had married; 58 per
cent of the unmarried girls, nearly as large a proportion as of the boys,
were employed when interviewed. Only 3 per cent of the former
special-class pupils were in institutions, either for defectives or for
delinquents, at the time of the study.
On the whole, young persons who have passed through special classes
are employed for the greater part of the time after they leave school,
but not so steadily as young persons of unselected mentality. In the
first years of their working lives covered by the present study the
majority of the boys and unmarried girls of defective mentality were
unemployed at least one-fifth of the time. The findings of several
studies of young workers in attendance at continuation schools showed
less unemployment for workers of unselected mentality. The con
tinuation-school pupils of Milwaukee are more nearly comparable in
age and length of work history to the mentally deficient young work
ers than other Continuation-school children about whom similar
studies have been made. Sixty-three per cent of the Milwaukee boys,
compared with 29 per cent of the boys from special classes, had been
out.of work as little as one-tenth of their possible work histories, and
similar differences in the amount of unemployment were found among
the Milwaukee girls and the girls from the special classes.
•* Psychiatry in Industry, p. 279.

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

Like young workers in general, these boys and girls had a number of
positions in the first years of their working lives; the boys averaged
six positions and the unmarried girls four, the number, at least in the
case of the boys, varying somewhat with the number of years that had
elapsed since they left school.
The duration of the first positions of the young workers was short;
40 per cent, about the same proportions of boys and girls, stayed with
their first employers less than three months. But this experience of
keeping their first positions only a short time is common to all young
workers; it is not peculiar to those of subnormal mentality. The
individuals from the special classes kept their first positions somewhat
longer than the children of unselected mentality included in studies
made by the Children’s Bureau in Boston, Newark (N. J.), and Mil
waukee. (See p. 22.)
Most of the boys and girls included in this study had held one
position for a long time; 74 per cent of the boys and 69 per cent of
the unmarried girls had worked continuously for one employer for at
least a year, and 37 per cent of the boys and the same proportion of
the girls for at least two years. Many of those employed at the time
of the study had been working continuously for the same employer
for two or three years.
The occupations in which the boys and girls found employment
were mostly of the unskilled and semiskilled types, requiring little
if any industrial training or academic education. The many simple
hand and machine operations of the modern factory provide opportun
ities for work that mentally deficient persons are capable of doing.
As has been brought out in other studies, many mentally defective
city children find work in factories. About three-fifths of the occu
pations in which the boys and girls were employed after leaving
school were in the manufacturing and mechanical industries, most
of the girls being factory operatives, the boys both factory operatives
and laborers. Both boys and girls were employed in the chief indus
tries of the cities in which they lived. Only a few boys had been
successful in learning a skilled trade; a few others had attempted or
were still trying at the time of the study to learn a trade. The work
of the boys who were not in manufacturing and mechanical industries
was varied and included such occupations as truck drivers or teamsters,
helpers to drivers, farm laborers, general helpers in stores or markets,
and privates in the Army or Navy. Most of the girls who were not
in factories were in personal and domestic service. Only a relatively
small number of either sex had attempted office work or saleswork,
types of work that considerable proportions of young persons of normal
mentality enter; but they had done errand and messenger work and
bundle and cash work in stores and had helped in the stock and ship
ping rooms of factories and stores.
The wages of the boys and girls included in the study were appar
ently limited to those paid for unskilled and semiskilled work and were
relatively low in comparison with the wages of skilled mechanics.
The median cash wage for the boys in their last jobs, which in most
cases meant wages received in 1923 or 1924, ranged from $19 a week
in Cincinnati to $27 in Detroit, where many boys were employed as
laborers or semiskilled operatives in the metal and automobile indus
tries in which wages were relatively high. About 14 per cent of the
boys, some in each city, were earning $32 or more a week. The girls’

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

median cash wage in their last job ranged from $12.50 a week in
Cincinnati to $16.50 in the California cities and was slightly higher
for those who were employed at the time of the study than for those
who had stopped work some time before. To judge from their wages
and the regularity with which they worked, it would appear that the
annual earnings of a large proportion of the former special-class pupils
would enable them at least to support themselves. Two hundred
and four of 495 boys for whom the information was obtained had
been employed at least 70 per cent of the time after they left school
and had earned at least $20 a week in their last jobs; the 204 included
a number who earned at least $40 a week.
Both the boys and the girls studied were unsatisfactory in about
a fifth of their jobs; the boys were reported to be unsatisfactory
in 22 per cent, and the girls in 20 per cent, of the jobs about which
information was obtained. Only 12 per cent of the boys' jobs and
10 per cent of the girls’ jobs had actually ended in discharge. Unfor
tunately no comparable figures are available for workers of unselected
mentality to show whether or not individuals from special classes were
discharged more often than other workers.
The present study does not show any relation between the intelli
gence ratings of the individuals and the steadiness with which they
had worked or the number of times they had been discharged from
their jobs. To what extent other factors, such as delinquency, may
have affected the employment of those of the higher intelligence
levels can not be ascertained from the facts found in this study.
In addition to the small number who had been placed on probation
or committed to institutions for delinquents by the courts, however,
no doubt there were many whose conduct in school at least had been
troublesome, especially as some of relatively high mental capacity
had been transferred from the regular grades to the special class on
account of their behavior.
The importance of traits other than general intelligence, such as
character and personality, in relation to success has been emphasized
by psychiatrists and others who have dealt with the mentally defi
cient. Dr. Walter Femald has said that the behavior and conduct of
a mental defective is just as important as his intelligence quotient. 63
One psychologist in studying the work experiences of mentally defec
tive girls concluded that those of the steady, lethargic type can be
absorbed into industry but that the restless, unstable type can rarely
qualify.64 A definite relation between industrial adjustment and
personality defects was brought out in a study of the employment
histories of individuals from special classes.66 Further intensive
study of the relation between the personality of mental defectives and
their industrial adjustment should be made, and, so far as possible,
a practical scale of measurement for social behavior to supplement
intelligence tests should be worked out.
The boys and girls who could be roughly classified as in the upper
or middle moron groups or as border-line cases (that is, those whose
intelligence quotients were 60 or higher) had a wider choice of occu
pations and received higher wages than those of relatively inferior
mentality. Both the boys and the girls whose intelligence quotients
MProceedings and Addresses of the Forty-eighth Annual Session of the American Association for the Study
of the Feeble-Minded, 1924, p. 215.
«< Adjustment of the Feeble-minded in Industry, p. 9.
•« A Study of the Careers of 322 Feeble-minded Persons, p. 30.

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FORMER SPECIAL-CLASS PUPILS

were less than 50 were the most restricted in their choice of occupa
tions. The wages of boys in the upper intelligence groups, at least
at the time of the study or when they had last been employed, were
somewhat higher than the wages of boys in the lower intelligence
groups. Conclusions in regard to the relation between the girls’
wages and their levels of intelligence could not be made, as the number
of employed girls was too small to serve as a basis. No relationship
appeared between the initial wages and the intelligence quotients of
either boys or girls.
The importance of special aptitude for handwork in industrial
success is indicated by the fact that boys and girls who had done well
and had been in the upper grades in manual training and other kinds
of handwork taught in the special classes were more likely to be suc
cessful in their jobs after they left school than those who had done
poor work and had been in the lower grades. Both boys and girls who
had done good work in industrial subjects had had less unemployment
on the whole, had held their positions longer, were earning better
wages in their last jobs, and had had greater increases in pay after
they entered industry than those who had done poor work in specialclass subjects.
In view of tlie lack of occupational training and vocational guidance
given most of the young persons included in the present study, it is
perhaps surprising that by the trial-and-error method they had suc
ceeded as well as they did in getting and keeping employment. The
need of further development of special training for mentally deficient
children can not be questioned. Since the present study was made,
experiments have been carried on in training mentally subnormal per
sons incapable of learning a skilled trade, in one process or operation,
with the idea that they may become operators in simple repetitive
processes. Girls of less than average mentality in New York City are
admitted to the extension classes of the Manhattan Trade School for
Girls. The Vocational Adjustment Bureau of New York maintains a
workshop in which subnormal and maladjusted girls are trained in
simple machine and hand processes, and this bureau has worked out
occupational tests for particular occupations to which mentally defi
cient girls are adapted.66 The attempt is made to coordinate the
training given with such opportunities for employment as are actually
available and to place the girls after they are trained.
The need for the development of a system of placement and super
vision for pupils from special classes is indicated by the fact that only
5 per cent of the individuals in the present study had had any help
from the school or from placement offices in getting work for which
they were fitted or in which any special ability that they might have
had could be utilized. The special committee organized in Cincinnati
in 1920 to give advice and supervision to mentally defective children
was a start in this direction. Since this study was made, the public
schools of two of the California cities have employed a special worker
who is in charge of advising and placing special-class children in suit
able work after they leave school.
M For a description of the work of this organization see Adapting the Feeble-minded to Industry, by
Emily Thorp Burr (Vocational Adjustment Bureau Bulletin No. 3,1927) and Vocational Training for Sub
normal Girls, an experiment in the garment-machine operating trade, by Edna W. Unger (reprint from the
Journal of Personnel Research, vol. 5, No. 6 (October, 1926)).

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PART 2.— BOYS AND GIRLS FOR M ERLY IN ILLINOIS STATE
IN STITU TIO N S FOR TH E FEEBLE-M IND ED
M ETH OD AND SCOPE OF STUDY

This report of the employment histories of boys and girls who had
been in the two Illinois State institutions for the feeble-minded, the
Lincoln State School and Colony and the Dixon State Colony, was
based on a study of young persons leaving these two institutions be
tween January 1, 1918, and April 30, 1925.1 All boys and girls leav
ing the institutions in the selected period who had been residents of
Cook County before admission and who were under 21 years of age at
the time they left were included in the study except those who were
classified at the institutions as idiots or low-grade imbeciles. The
last date selected, one year before the date of the study, was decided
upon so that each individual would have had at least one year during
which he might have been employed. Two hundred and thirteen
young persons under 21, former Cook County residents, classified as
morons or imbeciles of the higher grades, had left the institutions
between the dates selected. Information concerning the history of
167 of these after leaving the institutions was ascertained; the re
mainder could not be located or had moved too far away to visit.
Sixteen of the 167 had been placed in institutions, had died, or had
moved and could not be located before the year had passed; 151, how
ever, had been in the community outside institutions for at least one
year. Of this number 134 had had some employment, and facts were
obtained about their work experience.
The intelligence ratings, schooling, physical defects, delinquency
records, and some facts about the families of the young persons
studied were obtained from institutional records. For the history of
their employment and for additional social facts, home visits were
made and interviews held with the parents or other relatives of the
young persons and, wherever possible, with the boys and girls them
selves. Visits were also made to employers, and court and socialagency records were consulted. Satisfactory information concerning
the amount of time the young persons had actually been employed and
the number of positions they had held was not obtained for all the
boys and girls included in the study. Information on these points
was difficult to get, as the statements of the young persons and of
their relatives were sometimes unreliable and employers’ records
were not always available.
THE GROUP STUDIED

According to the mental tests given the young persons at the insti
tutions,2 the majority of them would be classified as middle-grade
1 At the time of the inquiry in June, 1926, the two institutions had a population of about 3,500 feeble
minded persons of both sexes and of all ages and of varying degrees of mental defect, from idiots to border
line eases. Two hundred and seventy-five persons had been discharged from the two institutions in 1926.
In addition to these, 496 persons had been released and 170 had escaped. (Ninth Annual Report of the Illi
nois Department of Public Welfare, July 1, 1925, to June 30, 1926, p. 398. Springfield, 1927.)
aThe Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon test was used wherever available; for some of the earlier cases
the Goddard revision, although not exactly comparable, was accepted for this study. In computing in
telligence quotients for persons over 16 years of age, 16 years was considered as the adult age level.

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BOYS AND GIRLS FORMERLY IN INSTITUTIONS

morons, some as high-grade imbeciles, and a few as only slightly sub
normal. One hundred and thirteen (69 per cent) of the 167 boys and
girls included in the study had intelligence quotients between 50 and
70, 28 (17 per cent) had intelligence quotients of less than 50, and 23,
nearly as large a proportion, had intelligence quotients of at least 70,
usually considered as the border line of feeble-mindedness. (Table
32.) The proportion of boys and girls with intelligence quotients
between 50 and 70 was the same as that reported for the submormal
boys and girls who had been enrolled in special classes in the public
schools. (See p. 7.)
32.— Length of possible working period outside institutions, employment
history, and intelligence quotient of boys and girls formerly in two Illinois State
institutions for the feeble-minded

T able

Young persons formerly in 2 Illinois State
institutions for the feeble-minded
Possible working period out
side institutions
Intelligence quotient and sex
Total

1 year or more
Em
ployed

Total_______ ____ _____________ ___________________ —
Intelligence quotient:

Intelligence quotient:

Girls........................................................................................
Intelligence quotient:

Never
employed

Less than
1 year

167

134

28
113
23
3

18
95
19
2

7
7
2
1

3
11
2

118

18
79
19
2

12
68
16
2

4
1
1

2
10
2

10
34
4
1

6
27
3

3
6
1
1

1
1

More boys than girls (118 boys and 49 girls) were included in the
study. This was not because there were more males than females in
the institutions, but because the institutions discharged relatively
fewer girls than boys and because girls do not succeed in running
away so easily as boys. Most of the young persons were at least 16
years of age, and the majority were 18 when they left the institutions;
most of them were in their early twenties at the time of the inquiry.
(Table 33.)

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T able

33.— Age at time of leaving the institution of boys and girls formerly in
two Illinois State institutions for the feeble-minded
Young persons formerly in 2 Illinois State institutions for the
feeble-minded
Age at time of leaving institution

Age at time of study and sex
Total

Total____________________________

20 years, under 22----------------------------------

Boys....................................................

Under 14 14 years, 16 years, 18 years, 20 years
under 16 under 18 under 20 and over
years
19

167

6
6
32
44
76
6

4
4
9
3

1
1
7
7
5
3

14
15
21
1

2
18
32
i

118

4
4
7
2

1
1
7
6
2
3

11
11
11
1

2
12
21
1

Ï
10

1
3

3
4
10

6
11

20 years! under 22_______________________

5
27
32
44
5

Girls______________________ ______

5
12
32

2
1

22 years and over_______________________

The great majority of the boys and girls were delinquents as well as
mental defectives and were thus doubly handicapped in any attempt
to earn their living; 89 (77 per cent) of the boys and 34 (70 per cent)
of the girls had been brought to court on delinquency charges and
either placed on probation or committed to institutions for the delin
quent or to institutions for the feeble-minded at some time in their
lives before the study was made.3 (Table 34.) Although the State
institutions for the feeble-minded are intended only for the care of
mental defectives, among the higher-grade defectives it is apparently
chiefly those who are difficult to control that are committed to these
institutions. Others of the same degree of mental defect who give no
trouble remain with their families in the community. The chief
difference between the boys and girls who had been in institutions and
those who had been enrolled in special classes in the public schools
(see Part 1, p. 12) is the much higher proportion of delinquents among
the institution group; 76 per cent of the former, compared with 15 per
cent of the latter, had had court records for delinquency at some time
in their lives and as a consequence had been put on probation or com
mitted to institutions for defectives or delinquents.
« All the young persons recorded as delinquent when brought to court on delinquency charges either had
been committed by the court to correctional institutions or to institutions for the feeble-minded or had been
placed on probation. As in Part 1 of this study, which relates to former special-class pupils, the young
persons classified as delinquent did not include those who had been merely fined or whose cases had been
dismissed by the court.

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BOYS AND GIRLS FORMERLY IN INSTITUTIONS
T able

34.— Court delinquency record and intelligence quotient of boys and girls
formerly in two Illinois State institutions for the feeble-minded
Young persons formerly in 2 Illinois State institu
tions for the feeble-minded
Intelligence quotient

Court delinquency record and sex
Total

Less
than 50

50,less
than 70

70 or
more

Not re
ported

Total_________________________________

167

113

No delinquency record______________________
Delinquency record before entering institution.
Delinquency record after leaving institution—
Delinquencies at both times-------------------------Delinquency record not reported-------------------

39
87
3
36

12
14

19
60
2
30
2

6
12
1
4

2
1

Boys............................- ..............................

118

No delinquency record.................................
Delinquency record before entering institution.
Delinquency record after leaving institution—
Delinquencies at both times------------------------Delinquency record not reported--------- ---------

25
58
2
31
2

9
7

12
39
1
25
2

3
11
1
4

1
1

G irls................................. - ..................... -

No delinquency record.................................
Delinquency record before entering institution.
Delinquency record after leaving institution...
Delinquencies at both times-------------------------

14
29

3
7

7
21
1
5

3
1

Practically all the individuals with delinquency records had been in
court, some of the boys several times, before their admission to the
State institutions for the feeble-minded. Thirty-seven had been
committed to institutions for delinquents. Thirty-three (28 per cent)
of the boys also had court records after leaving the institution. (Table
34.) The degree of intelligence seemed to have little to do with their
behavior; boys and girls of all levels of intelligence, those with intel
ligence quotients of less than 50 and those with intelligence quotients
of 70 or more, had had court records for delinquency. As is true of
delinquents of juvenile-court age in general, stealing was the most com
mon offense among the defective boys before their commitment and
sex offenses among the girls. After returning from the institution,
some of the boys were charged with serious offenses, including bur
glary and robbery; one was brought in on a charge of murder but
was later acquitted. Ten girls were brought to court after leaving the
institutions, four of them for sex offenses. Others who were not
actually brought to court may have been sex delinquents. Girls
over juvenile-court age are frequently not brought to the courts for
this offense. At the time of the study 13 of the boys and 1 of the
girls were in institutions for delinquents, including 5 boys in State
reformatories and 2 in State prisons.
.
.
According to the records of the physical examinations given them at
the time of admission to the institution, the majority of the feeble
minded boys and girls studied had no physical defects, but a few were
epileptics, others were crippled in some way, and others had defective
vision, speech, or hearing. (Table 35.) The extent of the difficulty
of those who were crippled varied from that of a boy whose left arm
was paralyzed to that of a boy who walked with a slight limp.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T able 35.— Physical handicaps of boys and girls formerly in two Illinois State

institutions for the feeble-minded

Physical handicaps

Young persons formerly
in 2 Illinois State in
stitutions for the fee
ble-minded
Total

Boys

Girls

Total............................................

167

118

No defects recorded............................
Defective vision____ ________ ______
Defective speech__________________
Crippled..*.______________________
Defective hearing_________________
E pilep sy............................................
Defective speech and vision...............
Defective speech and hearing_______

123
12
8
5
3
6
3
2
1
2
1
1

86
8
8
3
2
4
2
2
1
1
1

37
4

Defective speech and epilepsy...........
Defective hearing and epilepsy_____
Defective vision and epilepsy............

2
1
2
1
1
1

M ost of the young persons included in the study had foreign-born
parents of low economic status. Practically all the boys and girls were
born in the United States, but the fathers of more than four-fifths of
the white were foreign born. Poles, Germans or Austrians, Italians,
and Russian Jews were among the varied nationalities represented.
Ten boys and six girls were colored. Many of the fathers were in
unskilled or semiskilled occupations; some were skilled mechanics,
and a few were in clerical or professional occupations. A background
of poverty, immorality, and disease was common. More than seveneighths of the families were known to social agencies, and 28 per cent
were known to relief agencies. A considerable number of the boys and
girls at one time had been declared dependent by the court or had been
placed by the juvenile court or children’s agencies in foster homes or
institutions for dependent children. According to institution records,
mental defect, insanity, or epilepsy was recorded for a parent, brother
or sister in 59 of the 106 families for which the information was
obtained.
A great many of the boys and girls had left the institutions against
the advice of the institutional officials. The majority had been in
State institutions for the feeble-minded at least one year, a few seven
or eight years. Nearly one-third, however, had stayed less than a year.
Only 29 of the 167 individuals had been discharged either informally
by the institution or officially by court order;4 64 had run away;
and 74 were classified as paroled.6 A number of those discharged by
court order had been released contrary to the recommendation of the
institutional authorities, and also a number of those on parole or
* Since the commitment law of July 1,1915, discharge from the institution may be obtained only by order
of the court of commitment (for persons committed to the institution) or through habeas corpus proceed
ings. (111., Smith-Hurd Rev. Stat. 1925, ch. 23, sec. 359.) Up to 1926 (that is, during the period covered b y
the present study), the superintendent made a practice of discharging without court order persons ad
mitted to the institution by application before the act of 1915 became effective. Since September, 1926,
when the attorney general ruled against this procedure, the institution management has required a court
order for the discharge of all inmates.
5 No specific legal provision has been made for parole. The law allows an annual leave of absence of not
more than 2 weeks. (111., Smith-Hurd Rev. Stat. 1925, ch. 23, 23c. 360.) According to information re
ceived from the institution in August, 1930, many of the courts have adopted the method of issuing what is
called a “ variation order” paroling a patient either for a definite period or for an indefinite period or until
further order of the court. Some courts, however, rule that there is no legal justification for this procedure
and do not issue such orders.

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BOYS AND

G IR L S

FORM ERLY

IN S T IT U T IO N S

vacation had remained outside the institution against advice. None
of those included in the study had received any supervision from the
institution after leaving. Up to the spring of 1926, when the study
was made, neither institution had any means of supervising patients
who had left the institutions on vacation; at that time a social
worker was added to the staff of the Lincoln State School and Colony.
Twenty-one of those included in the study were supervised to some
extent by the probation staff of the juvenile court or by other socialagency workers; the majority were dependent on what supervision
their relatives and friends could give them. With a few exceptions
they had no assistance from any agency or employment office in find
ing suitable work; they were left either to their own resources or to
the help of their relatives in getting employment.
In view of the fact that the officials of the institutions did not con
sider it desirable for many of the young persons to live outside these
institutions, it is not suprising that, although many of them found
work which they could do, a considerable number had drifted back
into institutions or had been seriously delinquent by the time the
study was made. (See cases 15, 16, 17, 21.) Of the 167 who were
investigated, 69 were employed at the time of inquiry, 49 were unem
ployed (including a number of girls who had married), 26 were in
institutions, and 23 had died or could not be located.
EMPLOYMENT AFTER LEAVING THE INSTITUTIONS

One hundred and thirty-four boys and girls (89 per cent of those
who had been out of institutions for as long as one year and were of
working age) had had some employment. Only a few had been em
ployed by relatives or friends. Those who worked for relatives but
received no compensation were not regarded as employed in this
study.
The few boys and girls who had been out of institutions for at least
a year and had not been gainfully employed were not necessarily the
most defective mentally, although several had intelligence quotients
of less than 45. Several epileptics with relatively high intelligence
quotients were found among those who had never worked. Rela
tively more girls than boys had no employment, probably because
some of the girls were kept at home to help with the housework or
had married soon after leaving the institutions.
L E N G T H O F W O R K H IS T O R Y A N D N U M B E R O F P O S IT IO N S

Table 36 shows the length of time that the boys and girls had been
outside institutions and had had an opportunity to work. The girls
who had married after leaving the institutions are not included in
the table because their work history may have been subject to inter
ruptions not experienced by girls who remained unmarried. The
average length of the possible working period was nearly four years
(45 months) and was about the same for boys and for girls. During
this time the boys reported an average of five positions, the girls an
average of three positions.6 Twelve boys with a possible working period
• The term “ position” as distinguished from the term “ jo b ” is used in this report to mean a period of
continuous employment with one employer regardless of the number of changes in occupation. Little
difference appeared, however, between the number of positions and the number of jobs or occupations that
these boys and girls held as few changes of occupation with one employer had been made.

100633— 32------- 6

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

of one year but less than two years averaged 3 positions, 27 boys with
a possible working period of two years but less than four years aver
aged 5 positions, and 32 boys with a possible working period of four
years or more averaged 6.2 positions. Some boys had had but one
position; one boy in the Q% years since he left the institution had held
30 positions. (See case 19). The boys in the present study averaged
somewhat fewer positions (5) than the boys from the special classes
(6). The difference in the length of the work histories of the two
groups— an average of not quite four years for the boys from the
institutions, compared with 4% years for the boys from the special
classes— partly accounts for the difference in the number of positions.
36.— Length of possible working period of one year or more outside institu
tions and number of positions held during this period by boys and girls (unmarried)
formerly in two Illinois State institutions for the feeble-minded

T able

Boys and girls (unmarried) formerly in 2 Illinois State institutions for the
feeble-minded
Length of possible working
period of 1 year or more
outside institutions and
sex

Number of positions
Total
2

Boys..............................

Girls (unmarried)........
l year.----------

10 or
4, less 6 ,less 8, less
than 6 than 8 than 10 more

15
28
9
18
5
6
10
7

5
3
1
3
2

2
4
1
2

2
1

3
4
2
6
1
1
1

16
4
3
3
1
3
1
i

2
2

3
1
1

2
1

1
2
4
1
2
4

27
3
10
1
2
4
7
1

2
1

i
i

Not re
ported

i
i

1
1

1
i

—

U NEM PLOYM ENT

Unemployment was an important factor in the work experience of
boys and girls of subnormal mentality, among those who had been in
institutions as well as among those who had been pupils in special
classes. Information as to the amount of unemployment was ob
tained for about three-fifths of the boys and girls who had been in
institutions. About one-fourth of these boys reporting on unem
ployment had been out of work as little as one-tenth of the time.
(Table 37.) The amount of unemployment reported for these
institution boys is similar to that reported for the boys who had been
in special classes, 29 per cent of whom had been unemployed for less
than one-tenth of their possible work histories. About one-third
of the boys who had been in institutions and 30 per cent of those from
special classes had been out of work between 10 and 30 per cent of
the time. As many of the 39 institution boys for whom unemploy
ment was not reported are believed to have been irregular workers,
it is probable, however, although it can not be proved from the avail
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BOYS AND GIRLS FORMERLY IN INSTITUTIONS

able figures, that boys from the institutions had had more unemploy
ment than those from the special classes.
37.— Percentage of unemployment and intelligence quotient of boys and girls
{unmarried) employed one year or more outside institutions formerly in two
Illinois State institutions for the feeble-minded

T able

Boys and girls (unmarried) formerly in 2 Illinois
State institutions for the feeble-minded
Percentage of unemployment and sex

Intelligence quotient
Total

Boys.

Less
than 50

50,less
than 70

70 or
more

Not re
ported

None___ _____ ________
Less than 10 per cent__
10 per cent, less than 30.
30 per cent, less than 50.
50 per cent and more___
Not reported..._______
Girls (unmarried).
None_________________
Less than 10 per cen t...
10 per cent, less than 30.
30 per cent, less than 50.
50 per cent and m ore...
Not reported.............. .

In several studies that the Children’s Bureau has made of employed
minors of unselected mentality and in a similar study made in Cin
cinnati, it has been found that unemployment is not a very important
problem among young industrial workers.7 It was also found in
some of these studies that the amount of unemployment tends to
decrease with the length of the working period.8 Although the men
tally deficient boys and girls were, on the whole, older and had had
a longer working period, 63 per cent of 861 boys included in the
study of employed minors attending the Milwaukee continuation
school, who were at least 16 years of age and had a work history of a
year or more, and 77 per cent of the 711 boys attending the continua
tion school in Newark, N. J., all of whom were under 16 and some of
whom had work histories of less than one year, had been unemployed
less than one-tenth of the time.9
Some of the boys and girls in the present study had had great
difficulty in finding work and several, failing to succeed at the one or
two jobs they did find, did not attempt to work any more, but either
stayed at home or were placed in institutions. For example, a boy
who had proved unsatisfactory in the one job he had found worked
for only six weeks in five years; a girl who had been employed by
friends just seven weeks was thereafter kept at home by her mother;
i The Working Children of Boston—A study of child labor under a modern system of legal regulation,
b y Helen Sumner W o°d b m y ,p h. D .,p. 191 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 89, Washington, 1922)
Industrial Instability of Child Workers—A study of employment-certificate records in Connecticut, by
R o ^ rt Morse Woodbury, Ph. D., pp. 26-35 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 74, Washington,1920) ; Child Labor in New Jersey—Part 3, The Working Children of Newark and Paterson, N. J.#
by Nettie P. McGill, p. 36 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 199, Washington, 1931): An Experi
mental Study of Children at Work and in School Between the Ages of 14 and 18 Years, by Helen Woolley
Ph. D., pp. 558-562 (New York, 1926); Employed Minors in Milwaukee—Unpublished figures.
8 Ibid, except the Working Children of Boston not included.
•The Working Children of Newark and Paterson, Table VIII, p. 83.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

another girl who had held a job soon after she came out of the institu
tion had had an accident and did not attempt to find another job in
the 10 months between this time and the date she was married.
Others, however, had worked steadily since they first found work up
to the date of the study; 11 boys and 4 girls who were employed when
the study was made had worked steadily for the same employer since
they had first found employment. (See cases 2, 5, 9-.)
To judge from the greater amount of unemployment among the
workers of subnormal intelligence than among workers of unselected
intelligence it would appear that mental defect is closely associated
with unemployment. Yet variations in mental ability ^within the
group of subnormal boys and girls in the present study, as in the study
of work histories of young persons from the special classes, appeared
to bear little relation to the regularity with which they worked.
(Table 37.) Young persons of the lower mental levels were represented
both among those who had been employed for short and for long periods
of time, and, on the other hand, persons of the higher mental levels
were also found both among the steady and the unsteady workers.
(For case histories of young persons with low intelligence quotients
see cases 1, 2, 3, 13, 22, 23, 24, and 25; for histories of those with rela
tively high intelligence quotients see cases 9, 10, 17, and 21.)
Behavior difficulties were, no doubt, one of the principal factors in
the unemployment of the boys and girls in the present study and out
weighed slight differences in mental ability. (Cases 15, 16,17,19, and
21.) Other personal characteristics and physical handicaps were
probably also closely related to unemployment, but complete informa
tion on these subjects was not available. The only way of measuring
behavior in this study was through court records. Only 3 of the 38
boys and none of the 7 girls who had worked as much as 70 per cent
of their possible working time had court records for delinquency after
leaving the institutions. Only 1 of the 14 boys and none of the 6
girls who had worked as long as a year in the position that they held
at the time of the inquiry had been delinquent. On the other hand,
most of those who had been brought to court after leaving the institu
tions had been out of work for long periods or did not report the length
of time they had worked. In a study of 321 former pupils of special
classes made by the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, in
dividuals who were handicapped by personality difficulties held their
positions only short periods, whereas those holding positions for two
or three years were in large measure free from serious personality
difficulties.10 In a study of the parole work of the State institution
for the feeble-minded at Letchworth Village, N. Y., a close relation
was found between personality make-up and maladaptation in the
community.11
In an investigation of 136 men and women whose homes were in
Erie County, N. Y ., and who had been discharged from the Rome
State school between 1905 and 1924, in which only a small number
were found to have been successfully employed, personality difficulties
i» Anderson, V .V .,M . D,: A Study of the Careers of 321 Feeble-minded Persons Who Have Been in the
’Special Classes and Are Now Out in the Community. Published in Proceedings of the Forty-sixth Session
of the American Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded, pp. 138-149. St. Louis, 1922.
ii
Potter, H. W., M . D., and Crystal L. McCollister: A RSsum6 of Parole Work at Letchworth Village.
Published in Proceedings of the Fiftieth Session of the American Association for the Study of the Feeble
minded, pp. 165-186. Toronto, 1926.

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BOYS AND GIRLS FORMERLY IN INSTITUTIONS

and character defects were numerous.12 Thirty-three of 88 men and
10 of 48 women had had criminal records after leaving the institution,
a larger proportion than of young persons in the present study who
had been brought to court since leaving the institutions.13 In
comparing the findings of the Rome and the present studies it should
be noted that some persons of very inferior intelligence— with mental
ages as low as three years— were included in the Rome study; in the
present study, on the contrary, both idiots and low-grade imbeciles
were excluded. (See p. 70.)
O C C U P A T IO N S

At the time the boys and girls first obtained work after leaving the
institutions, most of them were at least 16 years of age, and the
majority were at least 18 years. (Table 38.) Most of them, there
fore, were physically able to do the work of adults. Errand and
messenger work, in which many juvenile workers are employed, was
not open to many of them.
T able 38.— Age at beginning first job after leaving institution of boys and girls

employed one year or more outside institutions formerly in two Illinois State
institutions for the feeble-minded
Young persons formerly in 2 Illinois
Age at beginning first job after leaving
institution

for the feebl e-minded
Total

Boys

Girls

Total..........................................

134

Under 16 years.....................................
16 years, under 18...............................
18 years, under 20...............................
20 years and over......................... ......
Not reported______________________

15
39
51
21
8

14
30
35
12
7

1
9
16
9
1

Like the former pupils of special classes and as has been found in
other studies 14 of boys and girls of defective mentality, these boys
and girls were employed not only in the simplest kinds of manual
work but in semiskilled factory work; a few boys were apprentices or
learners in the skilled trades. Forty-seven (about one-half) of the
boys who gave information about their first jobs after leaving the
institutions were in occupations classified by the Census Bureau as
manufacturing and mechanical; most of these were semiskilled
operatives in factories or were laborers. A few were helpers to skilled
mechanics, 3 were apprentices, and 2 were learning a trade. One
boy, an apprentice to a lather, afterwards became a journeyman
(case 8); the other two apprentices remained but a short time in their
12
Town, Clara H., and Grace E. Hill: How the Feeble-minded Live in the Community—A report of a
social investigation of the Erie County feeble-minded discharged from the Rome State school, 1905-1924,
pp. 44-46.
18 Ibid.; figures computed from tables, pp. 70-77.
14 A Study of the Careers of 321 Feeble-minded persons, pp. 138-149; Fernald, Walter E.: After-care
Study of Patients Discharged from Waverly for a Period of 25 years, p. 6; Matthews, Mabel A.: One
Hundred Institutionally Trained Male Defectives in the Community under Supervision, pp. 3-6 (New
Y ork, 1922) ; Carpenter, Mary S. : A Study of the Occupations of 207 Subnormal Girls after Leaving School,
pp. 23-27 (Vocational Education Department, School of Education, University of Michigan Special Studies
No. 2, Ann Arbor, 1925); Woolley, Helen T., and Hornell Hart: Feeble-minded Ex-School Children.
(Helen S. Trounstine Foundation Studies, vol. 1, No. 7 (April, 1921), p. 256).

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

jobs. One boy was employed by a relative to help paint a house, and
another was learning to repair automobiles in a garage (case 5).
Among the rest of the boys were a few automobile truck drivers, some
helpers on trucks or teams, and a few delivery boys. Others were
laborers of various kinds or were in personal and domestic service,
such as washing dishes in restaurants, cleaning floors, or doing chores
for private families (cases 1,19, 23). Only 1 did sales work, selling gas
and oil in a filling station, and only 1 did clerical work— a shipping
clerk (case 9). The study of working minors of unselected mentality
in Milwaukee showed that although a large proportion of boys who
entered employment after they were 16 were also employed in manu
facturing and mechanical industries in their first jobs one-fifth, a
considerable proportion, were in sales work or in clerical work (other
than errand and messenger work).18
The type of work in which the boys were employed at the time of
the study or when they last worked was much the same as at the time
when they first left the institutions, from one to eight years before.
Eight were still employed at the same occupations that they had
entered when leaving the institutions. The occupations in which
they were last employed are shown in the Tabular summary of work
histories, p. 104, and illustrated in the case histories. The occupa
tions in which the institution boys and the special-class boys were
employed differed little; 52 per cent of the former and 55 per cent of
the latter were employed in manufacturing and mechanical industries
in their last positions, chiefly as semiskilled factory operatives or as
laborers, though a small number in both groups were occupied in
skilled trades. A considerable proportion of the boys, both those
from institutions and those from special classes, were teamsters, motor
car drivers, or helpers on trucks and delivery wagons, but less than 5
per cent of either group were in clerical or sales work.
Most of the girls were operatives in factories or did housework for
private families, both at the tune they left the institutions and at the
time of the study. Twenty-one of the 35 for whom the occupations
were reported were employed at the time of the study or had been
last employed in factories, usually at such simple jobs as folding and
stacking paper boxes, wrapping candy, packing biscuits, and stoning
dates; a few did more difficult work, such as operating power ma
chines. (See Tabular summary of work histories, p. 104.) None was
employed in clerical work at the time of the study and only 3 were in
stores— 1 as a salesgirl in a 5-and-10 cent store and 1 running errands
for her mother in the family grocery store ; the kind of work the other
did was not learned.
The number of boys and girls included in the study is too small and
the range of their occupations too varied to show whether or not the
young persons of relatively high intelligence held the more skilled
jobs. A number of boys with intelligence quotients of 70 or more,
however, were employed at the time of the study in occupations that
required a degree of skill, such as boilermaker’s apprentice, punchpress operator, truck or taxi drivers, and shipping clerk. On the other
hand, several boys with intelligence quotients between 50 and 70
were operatives of power machines, skilled mechanics, or motor-car
drivers, and had held their jobs for several months or even years at a
time. (See Tabular summary of work histories, p . 104, and cases 5,6,8.)
i® Unpublished figures.

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BOYS AND GIRLS FORMERLY IN INSTITUTIONS

The industrial training given some of the boys and girls in the
institutions apparently had helped them but little in their work.
About one-third had been in industrial classes or shops at the Lincoln
or Dixon institution. Some of the boys had worked on various jobs
in the carpentry, paint, rug, brush, shoe, or machine shops, or in the
bakery; the girls, in the laundry or in the sewing or dressmaking room.
All had been employed in various chores about the institution.
Although many of them had had no vocational training it may be
that the habit of work formed in the institution helped them in their
work after their return home. Only three boys were reported to have
found work in which they had been trained. One of the boys (intel
ligence quotient 53) who had been in the paint shop at the insti
tution had had various jobs at painting after he left, but so far as was
known he had not worked more than three weeks at a time for any
employer and was apparently an unsatisfactory worker. Another
boy (intelligence quotient 69) who had worked with the tinner at the
institution doing gutter and roofing work had been employed for
seven months at the time of the study as a helper in sheet-metal work
and was doing well. Another boy (intelligence quotient 62) who had
played the comet in the institution band was reported to have ob
tained work in this occupation after leaving the institution.
D U R A T IO N O F JO B S

The majority of the jobs were of short duration— from a few days
or weeks to a few months. The time that a boy or girl stayed in one
job or occupation in most cases also represents the length of time they
worked consecutively for one employer, because transferring from
one occupation to another while working with the same employer was
not common. The boys reported the length of time they had been
employed in 390 jobs which had terminated before the date of the
study and the girls (including both girls who were single and those
who had married) reported the duration of 98 jobs. (Table 39.)
The median duration of the boys’ jobs was 2.3 months, that of the
girls 2.4 months. The median duration of the 3,988 terminated jobs
of boys who had been pupils in the special classes of the public schools
was 2.5 months, very nearly the same as the duration of jobs of boys
who had been in institutions.
T able 39.— Duration of terminated and unterminated jobs held by boys and girls

formerly in two Illinois State institutions for the feeble-minded
Jobs held by boys and girls formerly in 2 Illinois State insti
tutions for the feeble-minded
Duration of job

Boys
Termi
nated

Untermi
nated

501

443

133
119
86
50
32
15
7
59

124
107
76
43
26
10
4
53

9
12
10
7
6
5
3
6

Total
Total________________________ .
Less than 1 month.................................
1 month, less than 3....................................
3 months, less than 6....... ...................
6 months, less than 12..................................
12 months, less than 2 years........................
2 years, less than 3______________________
3 years or more......................................... .
Not reported.................................................

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Girls
Termi
nated

Untermi
nated

124

113

31
29
18
9
15
3
3
16

29
29
17
8
14

2
1
1
1

1
15

2
1

Total

EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

Twenty-nine of 63 boys who reported the longest time they had
ever worked at one job had held that job for at least a year. Nine
girls had also worked at least a year in one occupation. Eleven other
boys and 5 girls had been employed at least a year and were still
employed at the time the study was made. The proportion of boys
included in this study who held one job for at least a year was some
what smaller, however, than the proportion of boys in the study of
former students of special classes, more than two-thirds of whom had
kept their longest job at least a year. Most of those who had worked a
year at one job were numbered among the steady workers with little
unemployment and among those who had not been brought to court
for delinquency after leaving the institutions (see cases 1-3, 5-13), but
a few had been out of work a good deal of the time or the length of
their unemployment was not known and a few had delinquency rec
ords. (See case 4.) Several were working for employers who were
interested in them (see cases 3, 5, 9); but so far as was known most of
those who had worked at least a year in one occupation had no especial
assistance or supervision in their work. For the varied kind of work
they did and the wide range of their intelligence quotients, see Tabu
lar summary, p. 104.
W AGES

At the time of the study many of the boys were earning wages
common to unskilled and semiskilled occupations, wages adequate in
many cases to enable them to be self-supporting provided they worked
steadily. A few boys were earning the relatively high wages of skilled
mechanics. The median weekly wage for the 70 boys who reported
cash wages, most of whom were employed in Chicago, was $25.
(Table 40.) This was not very different from the median weeldy wage
of former special-class boys, which ranged from $19 for Cincinnati
boys to $27 for Detroit boys. Several boys who worked for relatives or
friends or were in the Army or the Coast Guard received maintenance
as well as cash wages. Among the highest wages reported were those
of a lather (intelligence quotient 60) who earned $52 a week, and a
painter (intelligence quotient 60) who earned $43 a week. The girls,
as would be expected, earned much lower wages than the boys.
Of the 55 boys who reported wages of $20 or more a week only 26
were known to have worked the greater part of the time (that is, as
much as 70 per cent of the period since leaving the institutions);
16 had worked less than this, and for 13 the amount of time worked
was not reported. (See Tabular summary of work histories, Appen
dix, p. 104.) In a study made of persons discharged from the Rome
State School for the Feeble-minded, who on the whole had been out of
the institution longer and were older than those in the present study,
27 of 88 men from Erie County were regarded as self-supporting,
although not necessarily as successful in their social adjustment.16
According to a study of cases discharged from the Letchworth Village
State Institution 186 (48 per cent) of 387 males were reported to be
self-supporting.17 In both these studies some persons of very inferior
mentality were included, although those classified as idiots are excluded
is How the Feeble-minded Live in the Community; a report of a social investigation of the Erie County
feeble-minded discharged from the Rome State School, 1905-1924, p. 33.
n storrs, Harry C., M. D.: A Report on an Investigation made of Cases Discharged from Letchworth
Village, published in Proceedings of the Fifty-third Session of the American Association for the Study of the
Feeble-minded, pp. 220-232. Atlanta, 1929.

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BOYS AND GIRLS FORMERLY IN INSTITUTIONS

from the Letchworth Village figures. However, the persons from these
institutions can not be compared with the individuals included in the
present study, as the wages and length of time employed of those
classified as self-supporting are not given.
40.-—Wage in last 'position of boys and girls employed one year or more out
side institutions formerly in two Illinois State institutions for the feeble-minded

T able

Wage in last position

Young persons formerly in 2 Illinois
State i n s t i t u t i o n s
for the feeble-minded
Total

Boys

Girls

Total..........................................

134

Receiving cash wage only...................

Less than $10................................
$10, less than $12...........................
$12, less than $14.................._
$14, less than $16...........................
$16, less than $18.......... ............
$18, less than $20_________ _____
$20, less than $24....................
$24, less than $28...........................
$28, less than $32_____________
$32 and more__________________

4
2
7
10
7
6
19
17

Cash and other compensation...........
Other compensation only..................
Not reported_____ _____ ____

4
2
4
8
3
2

3
2
4
6
17
17
7
14

12
3
26

4
2
22

8
1
4

The majority of the boys and girls of the present study earned
more in their last jobs than when they first started to work. Fortyeight of 59 boys, and 12 of 24 girls, for whom information on this
point was obtained reported an increase; the wages of 22 boys had
been raised as much as $10 a week. An increase in the boys’ wages,
however, does not necessarily indicate that they were successful,
because some of the boys were under 18 years of age when they
entered employment and would be expected to earn more when they
were older. The increase in wages also reflects to some extent the
general increase in wages in the afterwar period, 1919-1925,18 which
was covered by the study.
A C C ID E N T S W H IL E E M P L O Y E D

Some of the boys and girls had been injured in the course of their
employment. Several of these worked on power machines. Among
eight young persons who at one time or another operated punch
presses, two met with accidents while working on them. Employ
ment on these machines is prohibited for minors under 16 under the
Illinois child labor law.19 A 17-year-old girl (intelligence quotient 61),
after working for six months, cut her finger on the machine and was
incapacitated for work for a month; a 19-year-old boy (intelligence
quotient 66) cut off his right index finger on the first day of his
employment. A 15-year-old boy (intelligence quotient 72) was em
ployed on an emery wheel in violation of the Illinois child labor law,
« For figures showing increases in union wage rates in Chicago during this period, see Union Scale of
Wages and Hours of Labor, pp. 15,35-38 (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin No. 482. Washington,
iil., Laws of 1917, p. 111.

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

and his fingers were slightly injured. Still another boy (intelligence
quotient 57) who had worked on a power press in a cardboard fac
tory— the nature of the machine could not be ascertained— had
severely injured the fingers of both hands and was incapacitated for
work for two months. A girl (intelligence quotient 42) ran a punch
press by hand power, and after working about three weeks cut her
index finger and received three days’ compensation. Two of the 11
boys who at some time had driven trucks or taxicabs had a record of
accidents while driving and were consequently discharged.
S U C C E S S IN J O B S

An attempt was made to learn through the employers whether or
not the boys and girls had done satisfactory work. Complete infor
mation as to all jobs held by a boy or girl could be obtained for only a
few of those included in the study, but information was obtained con
cerning at least some of the jobs most of them held. The boys were
said to have been satisfactory in 143 of 201 jobs about which reports
were obtained and the girls in 32 of 45 jobs. The length of time that
some of the boys and girls had held at least one of their jobs and the
quite general increase in wages between first and last jobs would also
indicate that they had been successful in some jobs.
They were reported as satisfactory in a wide variety of occupations.
The boys were successful workers not only as laborers on farms and
in such work as loading freight, shoveling coal, pushing trucks (in a
factory), cleaning floors, and as helpers to skilled mechanics, but also
in various kinds of repetitive factory occupations, such as packing
canned goods and other articles, clamping wires to shades in a lamp
factory, assembling parts in electrical-supply and metal manufac
turing establishments, and cleaning heels in a shoe factory. Several
boys successfully operated punch and drill presses and other metal
working machines, although others of approximately the same intelli
gence levels were unsuccessful in this work. One boy who had
enlisted in the Coast Guard had a good record; two boys who were
learning trades, an auto mechanic and a carpenter, were also success
ful. (See cases 5 and 8, pp. 87-88.) The girls were found to be
satisfactory not only in domestic service in private families and in
restaurants but also in miscellaneous factory occupations, such as
assembling parts of toys, inspecting jar covers, cutting and packing
sausages, pasting labels on cans of paint, and stacking leaves of books.
Several had operated simple machines satisfactorily; one had oper
ated a machine that made leather cups and another had operated a
tag-cutting machine. Another girl fed a mangle in a laundry.
From employers’ statements and from the statements of the young
persons themselves or of their relatives, it was learned that 31 boys
and 7 girls had been discharged from at least one of their jobs. The
proportion of boys who had been discharged was similar to that
reported for boys from special classes, two-fifths of whom had been
discharged at least once. Some of the boys and girls had been dis
charged because of behavior difficulties, absenteeism, loafing on the
job, intoxication, or other reasons not necessarily arising from mental
defect. One boy, who drove a taxicab, was discharged because it
was discovered that he had been an inmate of an institution for the
feeble-minded; another boy, also a taxicab driver, was discharged

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because he had refused to take passengers, and it was found that he
had a police record.
Four girls and 15 boys had been discharged from at least one of
their jobs for incompetency or slowness. A girl (intelligence quotient
61) who tried to learn telephone operating was discharged after 2
weeks for inefficiency (case 27); another girl (intelligence quotient 56)
was found to be unable to sort and mark sizes on Efts in a shoe fac
tory and was discharged. Several of the boys had been employed on
power machines. One boy (intelhgence quotient 65) had held two
jobs operating a drill press; the first time he kept the job for two
months before he was discharged for carelessness; the second time,
after three weeks, he was discharged for incompetency. Another boy
(intelligence quotient 63) was discharged after a month's trial grinding
valves (case 26); still another boy (with the relatively high intelli
gence quotient of 77) had twice been employed as punch-press oper
ator, each time being discharged in about a month because he was
too slow. Other types of semiskilled jobs from which boys were dis
missed for incompetency or slowness were rivet heating, painting, and
assembling work. Several boys employed in comparatively simple
jobs were discharged for incompetency. One boy (intelligence quo
tient 61), who had also been unsatisfactory at painting, was discharged
after three months in a bakery where he had been employed to clean
pans, because “ he could not learn anything"; another boy (intelli
gence quotient 58) was let go after a few days’ trial as dehvery boy
because he could not find addresses and was slow. Still another boy
(intelhgence quotient 62), employed to clean floors in a large depart
ment store, was discharged after only two days’ trial. Other boys,
however, of similar intelligence levels, were found satisfactory in such
work as cleaning floors. (See cases 1 and 19.)
C A SE S IL L U S T R A T IN G W O R K E X P E R IE N C E S

The following case histories illustrate the work experiences of the
institution boys and girls.
Cases 1 to 14 illustrate the great variety of work in which subnormal
persons may be successfully employed, especially when they are care
fully supervised, in spite of some behavior difficulties and sometimes
in spite of an unfavorable social background. These work experi
ences also show that among the most steady and reliable workers
were some of those whose intelligence quotients were relatively low.
All but 2 of these 14 young persons had been employed at least 80
per cent of the time and had worked steadily in a few positions; one
boy (case 6) had worked between 70 and 80 per cent of the time and
may also be regarded as a steady worker. The length of time that
the remaining boy (case 14) had worked is not known, but his history
shows that under the influence of supervisory care of relatives he had
made a good adjustment. The results of supervision by relatives
and interested employers are also illustrated in cases 2, 3, 5, and 9.
Cases 15 to 27 illustrate unsuccessful work experiences. The failure
of boys and girls with delinquent tendencies and other defects in
character to get and keep regular employment is brought out in cases
15 to 21. In cases 22 to 27 mental defect was apparently the chief
cause of unemployment, although personal peculiarities, lack of
supervision, and industrial conditions were other factors. The desir
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ability of vocational advice and assistance in getting work suitable
for mentally defective persons is brought out in cases 25, 26, and 27.
Most of these cases show the need either of custodial care or of close
follow-up and supervision for these children after they leave the insti
tutions for the feeble-minded.
Case 1.— Jack, one of the five boys with a history of employment whose intel
ligence quotient was less than 50 (Goddard revision), was a steady worker. He
had been employed in four different kinds of unskilled and semiskilled work
between 80 and 90 per cent of a 6-year period.
Jack’s home conditions had been far from satisfactory before his admission to
the institution at the age of 16. Both his parents were neavy drinkers; his
father finally had committed suicide, and his mother had been sentenced to the
house of correction for drunkenness. Jack had no court record for delinquency,
but the teacher of a special class in which he had been enrolled had complained
of his violent outbursts of temper. When 19 years of age, after nearly 3% years
in the institution, he left on vacation and from that time on lived with nis step
sister, with whom his mother, apparently reformed, made her home. The insti
tution officials were opposed to his release.
Shortly after leaving the institution, he obtained work through the 'efforts of
relatives as a laborer in a candy factory, cleaning floors and washing windows in
the packing department. He remained in this position for five years, beginning
at $18 a week and receiving $21 a week at the time he left. After a year’s period
he had saved $300. His employer said that he was a satisfactory and dependable
worker and left because of illness. Jack was out of work about six months. A
friend of the family, who managed an office building, then employed him for
three months during the summer to run elevators as substitute for those on
vacation. The following winter he was employed steadily as helper, handling
tools, in a plate-glass factory, a job found for him by his brother. The next
summer he left the plate-glass factory to return to his job as elevator operator.
Although running an elevator can not be considered suitable work for one of his
low mentality, apparently his employer found him satisfactory. At the tinm of
the study he had been employed at this job for two months and was receiving
$28 a week.
Case 2.— Edward, another boy whose intelligence quotient20 was less than 50,
had been steadily employed. When he left the institution, with the approval of
the authorities after a stay of five years, he was 19 yeais of age. He had never
been a behavior problem but was dull in appearance and could mutter only a few
syllables and grin when interviewed by the Children’s Bureau representative.
At least partly through the efforts of his relatives, his industrial adjustment had
been successful and he had given no trouble at home. He had had a great deal of
difficulty in finding work when he first returned home. The employment bureau
to which a social agency had sent him said it could find nothing for him because
of his mental defect. Finally, five months after he left the institution, his brotherin-law obtained a job for him at a large meat-packing plant in which he was
employed. Edward’s mother took him to work for the first few days, and his
brother-in-law looked after him in the shop. After leaving work in the afternoons,
the boy went directly home and stayed in the house until his mother returned from
her work. Outside of working hours he went nowhere unless accompanied by
his mother. From the day he first went to work to the day he was visited, nearly
3% years later, the boy had held the same job, that of laborer, opening and shut
ting refrigerator doors. He was said by his employer to be a very regular worker,
never missing a day. His wages had been raised at the time of a general raise in
the plant, from $15 to $20 a week.
Case 3.— Albert, whose intelligence quotient was also less than 50, had worked
most of the four years after leaving the State institution as helper on a coal truck.
He came from a comfortable home; his father, who was dead at the time of the
boy’s commitment to the institution, had been a policeman. Albert had been
enrolled in a special class in the public school but had left school when 10 years of
age, and for the seven following years had stayed at home. When he was 17
years of age he was brought into court for “ bumming” and shortly afterward was
committed to the Lincoln State Institution. Here he remained two years.
At the time of his return from the institution he was 19 years of age. He was
large and strong physically, but he talked indistinctly and unless carefully
20 Unless otherwise stated, the test used was the Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon test.

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watched was slovenly in appearance. He found work almost immediately with a
coal and building-material dealer, which he kept until within three weeks of the
date of the study, in spite of a habit of disappearing for several days at a time.
His employer, who had become interested in him, said that he could find his way
about the city alone and that, although he worked slowly, he was capable of
acting as helper to the driver of the truck delivering coal. After the death of his
mother his employer allowed him to sleep in a room belonging to the company,
bought his clothes, and saw to it that they were washed and mended. He paid
him at the rate of $3 a day, but gave him only $1 a day for meals and tobacco.
Case 4.— Donald (intelligence quotient 53), one of several negro boys included
in the study, worked regularly at various kinds of factory work during the 4}i
years after his discharge from the State institution. He had come to Chicago
with his parents from Alabama, where he had attended school until he was 14
years of age, reaching, according to his statement, the fifth grade. When 17
years of age, he was picked up by police in a Chicago poolroom, arrested for carry
ing a gun, and finally committed to the Lincoln State Institution for the Feeble
minded. He stayed at the institution only a few months before he was discharged.
After his return he continued to be delinquent and was brought before the boys’
court several times. Arrested for implication in a holdup in which a man had
been killed, he was kept in jail for six months before he was brought to trial and
acquitted.
In spite of these delinquencies, Donald lost practically no time from work
except the period during which he was in jail. On his release from Lincoln he
obtained a job immediately, returning to the woodworking concern where he had
been employed before going to the institution. He remained with this concern
for more than three years, until he was put into jail. He was employed for about
a year at the ripsaw machine, taking away boards, and for another year fed a
picture-frame-molding machine. He was then tried out operating a ripsaw ma
chine. The foreman said that he had tried Donald on various jobs in the factory
and that the boy had not made much progress in learning to operate the ripsaw—
a job in which considerable time is required to become proficient— before he left.
Donald’s wages in this concern had been raised from $20 to $25 a week. After
his acquittal and return home he found another job in a lamp factory. Here he
painted and sprayed lamps. At the time of the interview he had been employed
in the same factory for more than a year and was earning $24 a week.
Case 5.— Chester (intelligence quotient 54) was an automobile mechanic, one
of the few skilled workers found. He had had but one position and had been
employed practically the whole time since he ran away from the institution.
Before his commitment to the State institution for the feeble-minded, Chester’s
home surroundings had not been favorable. His parents and other members of
the family quarreled frequently, and his father had finally died in an institution
for the insane. His mother, according to the records of a relief agency that had
formerly aided the family, was crippled and at one time used to sit in a big chair
with a whip to discipline the children. When Chester was 17 years of age he was
brought to court on a charge of raping an 8-year-old girl, fie was sent to the
Lincoln institution and remained there two years.
Chester had had two positions before going to the institution, driving a wagon
for a junk collector and working in a stable caring for horses. About two weeks
after his return a friend of his brother employed him in a small automobile repair
shop and taught him to clean and repair cars. At the time of the study, about
2 years later, Chester had become a skilled automobile mechanic, and his pay
had been raised from $22 to $30 a week. His employer stated that he was slow
but never forgot what he learned and had deft fingers. He apparently had no
behavior difficulties after returning from the institution. He had left his own
home several times on account of the family quarrels and stayed at his employer’s
home. At the time of the study, his mother having died and his home having
broken up, he had lived with his employer six months. His employer said that he
was as fond of Chester as of his own children, and that on account of his mental
defect he supervised him more carefully than his own boys.
Case 6.— During the four years and two months after Jacob (intelligence
quotient 57) escaped from the Dixon institution at the age of 18, he worked for
three employers and was employed about 70 per cent of the time; the jobs were
either in garages or driving automobiles.
Jacob was of Russian Jewish parentage. His father was a salesman, and his
mother, after obtaining a divorce about the time of the boy’s commitment,
supported herself and a daughter by working in a factory. Jacob had been in

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

the juvenile court and was regarded as a serious sex delinquent before he was
committed to Lincoln at the age of 16. After a few months there he was trans
ferred to the Dixon State institution, and a vacation home was refused him on
the ground that he was “ dangerous.” After a year at Dixon he ran away and
returned home to live with his mother. As far as could be learned he was not
delinquent after his return.
Jacob’s first job, which he got through his own efforts, was night man, receiving
cars in a garage; occasionally he drove the cars about the city on errands. He
worked in the same garage at three different times three or four months at a time.
He earned $19 a week, and his employer considered him a satisfactory worker.
After he had been out of the institution about two years he found a better job
as night man in another garage at $30 a week; his employer said that he was
doing well. Here he sold gas and oil as well as parked cars. He remained at
this job a year and a half and then found a position as a chauffeur. His employer
was not visited, but to judge from the fact that the boy had held the position for
five months at the time of the inquiry and was still employed he had proved
capable of doing the work. He received $25 a week.
Case 7.— Stanley, a Polish boy (intelligence quotient 60, Goddard revision),
came to the United States when 9 years of age and was committed to the insti
tution for the feeble-minded at the age of 11. When 17 years of age, after six
years in the institution, he ran away and returned to his mother’s and step
father’s home. In the following four years he worked fairly regularly, as laborer
or in simple factory work, being unemployed only eight months in all. His
first position, which he held for nine months, consisted in taking tin sheets from
a lithograph press and putting them in a rack, according to the employer a
simple job requiring about an hour to learn. The boy was considered a good
worker and left the job of his own accord. After a few months of unemploy
ment he found a position loading and pushing a truck in a pottery. In nine
months he left this work, saying the work was too dusty. He found another
position in a gas plant shoveling coke. His fourth position, in which he was
employed at the time of the interview, was in a cold-storage plant putting peanuts
and vegetables into a refrigerator and unloading cars. He had done this work
for about a year and a half. In his first position he made $18 a week, in the
last one, $28.50. Before going to the institution the boy had a court record for
incorrigibility, running away, and larceny of small sums of money from parents
and neighbors. After his return he had had no court record. He was still
living with his parents at the time of the study and helping toward the family
support.
Case 8.— Thomas was one of the few boys to succeed in a skilled trade.
According to a mental test given him shortly before leaving the institution his
intelligence quotient was 60; two years before, soon after entering the institution,
he had been rated with an intelligence quotient of 67. He had reached the third
grade in school. His family had received relief from a social agency because his
father, although a skilled worker, a lather, earned but little. His mother was
insane, kept a very dirty house, and before his return from the institution was
committed to a State institution for the insane. Thomas had been difficult to
manage before he was sent to Lincoln at the age of 14; he had a court record for
truancy and was thought to be a sex delinquent.
As soon as Thomas was discharged from the institution at the age of 18, his
father got him a position as lather’ s apprentice for the same contractor for whom
he worked. The boy worked regularly for this contractor for 2)4 years. At
the end of this time his father became ill, and Thomas refused to go to work
without him. As he would not work regularly, he was discharged. Thomas’s
uncle then found him work as lather with another contractor; after he started
work with this contractor he gave no more trouble. At the time of the inter
view he had been working steadily for 5)4 months and was still employed. He
had been out of work less than 10 per cent of the time since he left the institution.
He received $16.50 as an apprentice when he started work; at the time of the
inquiry, according to his father, he was earning $52 a week, the union rate of
pay for lathers.
Case 9.— Sam (intelligence quotient 70) was one of the few boys included in
the study who did clerical work. His father, a Russian Jew, was a prosperous
tailor. Sam had held several jobs before being sent to the institution. When
he was 18 years of age and a member of a gang of boys he was brought before the
municipal court on a charge of stealing milk and was committed to the State
institution for the feeble-minded. After a year in the institution he was allowed

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to go home on a vacation, and he did not return. His uncle, who was the man
ager and owner of a wholesale grocery store, had employed him as a shipping
clerk for 2J4 years before he .was sent to the institution and took him back upon
his return. His duties were to check and fill orders and occasionally to figure
bills. The orders were rechecked by another worker before they were sent out.
During the 4J4 years that he had been out of the institution his wages had been
raised from $20 to $35 a week, and his uncle’s partner in the business considered
him a good, steady worker.
Case 10.— Jesse (intelligence quotient 72) had worked for three employers at
various kinds of factory work and had been employed for more than 90 per cent
of a 4-year period.
Jesse’s home surroundings at the time of commitment were undesirable.
His mother, who had been deserted by his father, was reported to have lived
with six men. Jesse was brought to the juvenile court at the age of 9 for steal
ing milk; when he was 13 years of age the social agencies that were aiding the
family thought that he needed supervision, and he was committed to the State
institution for the feeble-minded. After six months there he left and returned
home. There he attended regular school until after he was 14 years of age,
reaching the fifth grade.
When 15 Jesse went to work. He held his first two positions for compara
tively short periods, six and three months, respectively. His first work was
nailing frames in a factory making reed furniture. He left after six months
because of the unpleasant smells of paints, glue, and varnish. He was next
employed, illegally, as he was not yet 16, on an emery wheel, grinding rough
edges of iron decorations in a chandelier factory. Three months later he cut
his fingers on the machine and left. He then worked for nearly three years as
a crater in the shipping department of a factory in which electrical appliances
were made. His wages were gradually raised from $10 to $17 a week. He had
to stop work because of a serious illness. Three months later he returned to the
same job, and a month later his wages were raised to $19 a week. At the time
of the interview he was filling orders, picking out the appliances and placing
them in crates. His employer was enthusiastic about his work, saying that he
did his work thoroughly and well and that there was no reason why he should
not become a shipping clerk, earning from $30 to $35 a week. At this time
the boy’s mother had been sent to an institution for the insane, and the boy
was making his home with a married sister.
Case 11.— Walter had worked for five employers in about seven years and had
been employed between 80 and 90 per cent of that time. No mental test was
given him at the institution, but the psychiatrist who examined him before his
admission pronounced him feeble-minded. He had been brought into the
juvenile court when 13 years of age because he had killed a little girl by striking
her on the head with a broom. His father, a Hungarian laborer, had deserted
his family, and his mother was living with another man. Investigation showed
that the supervision given the boy in the home was utterly inadequate, and he
was committed to a State institution for the feeble-minded. After he had been
there nearly three years and was nearly 16 years of age he was placed on pro
bation to the juvenile court to live at home.
After returning he was a factory operative, a private in the Army, and a
stevedore. His first work, doing odd jobs in a hardware factory, lasted only a
few days. He then obtained a position in a lock factory, where he worked for
nearly a year, first as polisher, then as grinder of the knobs on the locks at $15
a week. After four months he was promoted to assembler at $17 and later
transferred to a job cleaning machines. After two months at this job he was
promoted to drill-press operator at $21 a week. Having worked in this capacity
for nearly five months he resigned because the work was dirty. His employer
reported that he had done satisfactory work. His next position was in a black
smith’s shop, where he made $21 a week. He was laid off when work became
slack. Several months later he enlisted in the United States Cavalry. After
five months’ service he was honorably discharged with his character recorded
as very good. His fifth position was loading freight for a railroad company.
He was responsible in this job for planning the order of packing the cars and for
the arrangement of cars. He had to read and write orders. At the time of the
interview he had held this job for nearly four years and was earning $24.50 a
week. His employer reported him to be one of his best men. He was still
living with his mother and stepfather and younger brothers and sisters.

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Case 12.— Fanny (intelligence quotient 61, Goddard revision) was one of
several girls who had been employed at least 90 per cent of the time after leav
ing the institution. In the six years she had been out of the institution she had
held three positions. She had never been a behavior problem, but her home
conditions had been very undesirable. Her father, formerly an inmate of a
State institution for the insane, was a heavy drinker and at one time had made
a criminal assault upon her. When she was 15 and in the sixth grade at school,
her feeble-minded mother died. Soon after this Fanny and her brothers and
sisters were brought to the juvenile court on a dependency petition, and Fanny,
after first being placed in a foster home, was sent to one of the State institu
tions for the feeble-minded.
After more than four years in the institution Fanny left to live with an aunt
whose husband kept a small store and who had a comfortable home. For the
first six months the aunt kept Fanny at home but later allowed her to go to
work. Her first position was in a candy factory, carrying trays of chocolate to
the dippers and trays of finished chocolates to the packers. She stayed here
nearly two years. Her next work was in a tailor’s shop, where an uncle was
employed, writing prices on orders. Although this job required accuracy and
some simple arithmetic, Fanny’s work was satisfactory. She remained at the
shop for nearly six months. She was not satisfied with her pay of $15 a week
and left to find a better-paying position. Her next position, which she ob
tained after a few weeks of unemployment, was operating a tag-cutting machine
in a factory. At the time of the study she had done this work for nearly three
years and was earning $16.80 a week. She was apparently contented with her
job and with her aunt’s home.
Case IS.— Anna’s intelligence quotient was 47 (Goddard revision) about the
time she left the institution but was 57 according to an earlier test. She had
worked steadily between 80 and 90 per cent of the seven years since she had left
the institution. Her parents had come from Poland when she was a small
child; both parents were illiterate and unable to speak English. Her father was
a laborer. Anna came to the attention of the juvenile court because of sex
delinquency when she was 12 years of age and in the third grade at school, and
she was sent to the State institution for the feeble-minded. Here she remained
2)4 years, until she was 15 years of age.
Upon returning home Anna found a position almost at once in a paint-manu
facturing establishment through a forewoman who knew her family. At first
she pasted labels on bags of plaster and later labeled paint cans, work that in
volved picking out the right kind of label for the different kinds of paint. She
stayed in this place nearly four years; her wage was raised from $13 to' $17 a
week. The superintendent of the factory said that she had been a regular and
careful worker until about two months before he finally discharged her, when
she began to stay out so late at night that she was unable to do her work prop
erly the next day. Anna then got a position in a candy factory wrapping candy,
which she kept for more than a year. At the end of this time she married, but
she continued to live with her parents and to work. Her next position was in
an establishment that manufactured felt products. She was employed to
string felt washers for gaskets at $12 a week, later being advanced to $15. She
left this position after six months because she was pregnant. A few months
before the girl was visited by the bureau agent her husband had been killed,
while robbing a store, by a police officer. At the time of the interview Anna
was staying at home keeping house for her father and her sisters and making
clothes for the baby she was expecting.
Case 1^.— The supervision given Victor in his married sister’s home appar
ently was an important factor in his successful adjustment. His intelligence
quotient was 62 according to a test given him about the time he left the institu
tion, but according to the results of an earlier test (both Goddard revision) was 71,
and his release was recommended by institutional authorities. Before commit
ment to the institution he had been difficult to control. His parents were dead,
and he lived first with one of his three married sisters, then with another. He
had a court record for running away and had once stolen $10. When nearly 19
years of age he left the institution after remaining there for nearly five years.
He could not give a clear account of his employment history in the four years
since then, but he had had several positions before the one in which he was em
ployed when interviewed. These positions he had held for several months at a
time. From one of these positions— as laborer in a machine shop— he had been
discharged according to his account for “ fooling.” Aside from that there was
no indication of any behavior difficulty. At the time of the study he had been

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employed for 10 months as helper on a delivery truck, earning $18 a week. He
paid his sister $10 a week for room and board, and, in spite of several periods of
unemployment, he was able to buy good clothes, go to the ‘ ‘ m ovies” once a week
and save $200. He had offered this money to his sister to pay for hospital care
for her child.
I d like to go back to Dixon some day, ’ ’ he said to his sister,
and show myself to the fellows. Fine clothes and bank account: they w on’t
believe I did it by myself. ”
Case 15. -The delinquencies of Jean (intelligence quotient 66) were closely
associated with his failure to hold a position for any length of time during the
three years since he had run away from the institution. Though he had had seven
positions he was out of work nearly 70 per cent of the time. Jean’s parents
were both born m the United States. His father was a heavy drinker and at the
time of the study was in a hospital for the insane. The boy had been in the
juvenile court at least five times for stealing before his commitment to Lincoln
He was 17 years of age at the time he ran away from that institution after a stay
there of only three months. After his return he continued to be delinquent
and after several months, during which he did no work, he was arrested and
sentenced to jail. After his release he worked irregularly; he was employed for
one week as a laborer by a railroad company and for another week as helper by
an express company. While at this job he was again arrested and sentenced to
jail for three months. After leaving jail he was idle for some time and was then
employed by a coke company as laborer. He was discharged in two weeks for
neglect of duty. He was later taken back by the same firm, however, and kept
r°r seven months until he was again arrested for stealing and sentenced to
jail, lh e company took him back after his release but after six weeks discharged
him for going to sleep on the night shift. He later found two more positions as
laborer but kept them only a week and four days, respectively. At the time of
the interview he was living with his mother and brother and had been out of work
only a few days.
Case 16.— William’s long delinquency record was at least one cause of his fail
ure to work steadily. His intelligence quotient was 61, and he was 18 years of
age when he left Lincoln.
William came to the United States with his parents from Austria when he was
6 years of age. His mother died of alcoholism soon after her arrival, and the bov
was brought up by his father, a packer in the stockyards, and a stepmother.
At the age of 13, after he had been brought into court repeatedly for stealing
incorrigibihty, and “ bumming,” he was involved in a hold-up and was sent to
tne ot. Charles Institution for Boys, where he remained for three years
After
his return he was again arrested and brought into court, and this time he was
committed to the State institution for the feeble-minded. He twice ran away
from that institution, and after his second escape, less than four months after his
commitment, was arrested for stealing and was sentenced to the State reformatory
for a year. On his release from the reformatory, William applied for work at a
social agency. Temporary work as errand boy was found for him with two other
social agencies; the secretary of one of these stated that he did not need an errand
boy but thought that William should be kept busy. During the several months
that followed this job William could find no work; he then was arrested for burgiary and sentenced to the house of correction for six months. After his release
r? t&med two positions; he spent a week in one factory spraying paint on lamp
shades and three weeks in another cutting and carrying candy. He claimed to
have been laid off from both these positions on account of slack work; his emplovment record could not be found. The day after he left the last position he was
again arrested, this time for trespassing on railroad property, and again sen
tenced to jail. At the time of the interview he was living in a rooming horse
havmg been released from jail 10 days previously, and said he was looking for a
job. He had been outside penal institutions for 12 months and had been em
ployed 11 weeks.
Case 17. Carl was another boy whose antisocial traits made it impossible for
™ 7 . stay long out of institutions for the delinquent and seriously interfered
with his working. His intelligence quotient was 73 according to one test and 67
according to another. His father was dead, and his mother, a hard-working
Polish womans laid Carl’ s misconduct to the fact that she had always been
obliged to work to support her children and had never been able to stay at home
to look after him. Before the boy had finally been committed to Lincoln at the
age of 17, he had been arrested and brought to court four times, once for bur100633— 32------ 7

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

clary, and had been in two institutions for delinquent boys. The authorities at
Lincoln found him quarrelsome, destructive of property, at times vicious, and
lacking in self control, and they said that he should not be released. When Uari,
fafter three years, ran away from the institution for the second time, however,
Jhe was not returned.
, ,,
_ ,
. , , ,, ,
Between the date he left the institution and the date of the inquiry he had had
a possible working period outside institutions of two years and three months and
had been in various institutions for 14 months. He had worked m all approxi
mately 13 months. He had had several positions but kept none of them for more
‘than a few months except once when he lived with his uncle and worked for
iiim . During the first year he had had two positions, one in a machine shop tor
seven weeks and the other as waiter in a restaurant for three months. Whether
or not he was discharged from these positions could not be learned} he said he
left of his own accord. About the time he left the second position he was arrested
for burglary and sentenced to the State reformatory. There he remained for 12
months. After his return home his relatives gave him some work to do; first_tie
did odd jobs for his brother-in-law, such as watering the garden and washing
windows, and then his uncle, a building contractor, who lived m a small town,
took him into his home. For eight months he did odd jobs for his uncle in
exchange for his board. He then returned to Chicago and almost immediately
was arrested for stopping a girl on the street while intoxicated. After a tew
weeks in jail he was released, only to be brought into court for robbery and again
sentenced to jail. At the time of the bureau inquiry he had been out of ja il for
several weeks and had been employed at odd jobs as laborer, one or two days at
a place, unloading coal, lumber, or freight.
Case 18.— Louis (intelligence quotient 62, Goddard revision) had had 16 positions with eight employers in a period of 7J4 years and had been out of work much
of the time. The exact amount of time he had worked was not ascertained, but
none of his positions except when working for his father lasted more than a'few
months and most of them not more than a few days. The boy was difficult to
control, though he had no court record for delinquency, either before or after
leaving the institution. Before he went to Lincoln he played truant from school,
and his father and stepmother could not manage him. According to his brother,
he was still uncontrollable after he came back; sometimes he would live at home
and sometimes “ bum around,” and he would work only occasionally. After his
discharge, at the age of 13, from the institution where he had been for two years,
he worked very irregularly for his father, a junk dealer, over a period of more
than four years. Since then he had been employed 13 different times as helper
on wagons with six neighborhood retail ice and coal dealers, one of whom employed
him on five occasions for a few days at a time, laying him off when the need for
an extra worker was over. Not long before the interview he had obtained a jo b
as porter in the dining room of a large department store, but he had been dis
charged within three days.
Case 19.— Ralph, a negro boy with an intelligence quotient of 68 (Goddard
revision), reported more jobs than any other boy included in the study. In a
period of approximately 6)4 years he had had 30 positions with 28 employers.
He said that these were all that he remembered but he might have had others.
He was employed only about one-third of the time, obtaining his first work at the
age of 18. He held most of his positions between one and three weeks but several
times worked for two months, and once for three months, with one employer.
Most of his jobs were in domestic and personal service, such as dishwasher,
porter, and bus boy. He had also been a laborer in a factory, washed carsi in a
garage, helped on a delivery wagon, and once ran an elevator in a hotel for three
days. He earned $10 a week when he started work and, at the time of the study,
claimed to be making $30 a week shining shoes.
.
....
Ralph’s inability to hold a position appeared to be due not to any inability to
do the work but to his desire for a change. One of his employers for whom he
had washed dishes and mopped floors said that he worked well and quickly
when on the job but could not be counted on to appear at work. His mother
said he was “ a good boy at home, mild, obliging, obedient” and that his worst
habit was “ running away.” He had a delinquency record before commitment to
Lincoln at 14 years of age and after his return four years later was arrested several
times for disorderly conduct and once for soliciting women on the streets. 1 or
one of these offenses he was sentenced to a month in jail.

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Case 20.— Bernard (intelligence quotient 69, Goddard revision) was also
unable to hold a position, having been out of work more than 80 per cent of 4^6
years that he might have worked.
Bernard’s home environment before commitment to the institution for the feeble
minded was unfavorable. According to one social-agency record both his parents,
o f Polish nationality, were alcoholic; the father was abusive, and the children
often went without food. Bernard’s parents could not control him; his attend
ance at school was irregular, and he often ran away after arrival at school. At
one time he was committed to the parental school and at the age of 10 to the
State institution for the feeble-minded. About two years later he was discharged
from the institution by the court against the advice of institution officials. He
returned to regular school for two years, reaching the sixth grade.
At the age of 14 he started to work. His father found him a position packing
pork in the meat-packing plant where he worked. After three months the boy
left the plant and also left home, giving as a reason that his father took all his
warnings. He found a job for himself washing bottles in a dairy. At this work,
he said, he earned room and board and $18 a week. He stayed at the work about
four months. For the following three years he lived at home off and on and loafed.
During this time he stole some money and a gold watch and was committed to jail
for nine months. In the next two years he had three positions which he kept
from three weeks to a month each. One of these positions was as a laborer,
trucking supplies in a packing house; another was packing peanut butter in jars;
and his last work, in which he was employed at the time of the study, was washing
bottles. He was earning $25 a week. One of his employers said that the boy
was unsatisfactory in his work, being careless and quarrelsome.
Case 21.— Lawrence was another boy with a relatively high intelligence quotient
o f 74 (Goddard revision) who did not succeed after he left the institution. Ac
cording to an earlier test (also the Goddard revision) his intelligence quotient
was 86. He had always been a difficult boy to manage, and institution officials
Believed he should not be released. He had been admitted to Lincoln at the age
of 10 at the request of his mother, who could not control him. When 12 years of
age, he was discharged to his married brother. After he had lived with his brother
for about a year, he relapsed into his old habit of running away from home, and
his brother returned him to the institution. Two years before the study was
made he ran away from the institution and his brother took him into his home
and tried to find work for him. Lawrence failed to keep the jobs found for him,
however, and his brother finally put him out of the house because he would not
work. After leaving his brother’s home, Lawrence was arrested several times
for hanging around a pool room and spent some time in jail. When his brother
was interviewed by the Children’s Bureau agent, he did not know where Lawrence
was nor what he was doing. Several months after the study was made it was
learned from the Lincoln school for the feeble-minded that the boy had recently
been readmitted to that institution.
Case 22.— Mental defect appeared to be the chief reason that Irene, a girl with
the low intelligence quotient of 35 (Goddard revision), was unemployed much of
the time. During a period of nearly six years she had worked 1)4 years with two
employers.
Her home surroundings were good. Her father, a Russian Jew, kept a pros
perous-looking grocery store, and her mother appeared to understand her limita
tions. When Irene was 15 years of age she was criminally assaulted and was
brought into the juvenile court. After a mental examination she was committed
to Lincoln, where she remained about a year and a half. The authorities there
considered her “ a quiet, well-behaved little girl.”
After her return home her parents kept her at home for a few months and then
through friends got her a position in a laundry. Her mother said Irene managed
to do the simple work of ironing collars successfully and found her way to the
laundry without difficulty, although it was necessary to take two street cars.
After six months the laundry burned down, and Irene lost her work. After several
months of unemployment her mother found a position for her in a paper-box
factory, folding boxes at $7 a week. Here Irene remained for a year, when, ac
cording to her mother, she was laid off on account of slack work. During the
following four years the family made no effort to get work for the girl; her parents
said that they were afraid she might get into some trouble away from home. At
"the time of the inquiry Irene was helping with the housework and occasionally
helped in her father’s grocery store, although she was not able to make change
and, according to her sister, “ could npt even sell candy.”

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

Case 28.— Melville (intelligence quotient 44, Goddard revision) had worked
intermittently since leaving the institution, apparently primarily because of his
mental defect. His father, a glass blower by trade, had always supported the
family, and the boy had a good home. When he was 17 years of age, however,
and his parents found that he could not get or keep any kind of work, they did
not know what to do with him and finally applied for his commitment to Lin
coln. After 2y% years there he went home on a vacation and did not return. At
the time of the inquiry he had been out of the institution and living at home
for seven years; he was occupied irregularly doing chores for neighbors, such as
chopping wood, cutting lawns, and shoveling snow, and was earning a few dollars
a week. He was apparently easy to manage and had never got into any trouble;
his mother said that he had no desire to be out with other young people but
was content to stay at home.
Case 24.— Russell (intelligence quotient 47) had had but one position, which
lasted about six weeks, in the five years since leaving the institution and had
apparently failed to find work that he could do, principally because he was
mentally defective. He was dull in appearance, physically undersized, and
unable to answer such simple questions as his birth date and his age when asked
by the bureau agent. Before he was sent to the institution at the age of 13 years,
he had been a behavior problem. He had stayed out at night, played truant
from school, and would yell and scream when his family reproved him. Then
he had been brought into the juvenile court on the charge of being ungovern
able. He had no- court record since his return, and as far a,s is known his mother
and sister with whom he lived had no trouble in controlling him. His mother
was a dressmaker and took roomers, and she said he did not have to work. He
was 14 years of age when he came home after a year and a half in the institu
tion, and he was 19 years of age before he found his first job, through an adver
tisement, as delivery boy for a paint shop. His employer said that he was not
a satisfactory worker. Though he was able to make deliveries, he was unreliable
and frequently failed to turn up in the mornings; sometimes the employer was
obliged to go to his house to get him to work.
Case 25.— Vincent’s instability as a worker no doubt was also largely due to
his mental defect. His intelligence quotient was 45; he had never been in court
for delinquency and was not difficult to manage except for an occasional out
burst of temper. He had been sent to the Lincoln institution at the request of
his mother, who said that the boy had run away from home because his father
had beaten him. His father was a steady worker but alcoholic. His parents
were not on good terms; his mother finally left her husband to live with another
man. Vincent was 14 when committed to Lincoln and 17 when he was sent
home to his father on a vacation. During the four years that followed his return
he had had 11 positions but had been unemployed only about six months in all.
Six times he had worked on a machine in the same paper-box factory but had
been laid off on account of slack work. The nature of the machine at which he
worked was not learned. Three times he had been employed in a piano factory,
varnishing piano backs. The foreman there stated that he had twice discharged
him because, although he was a good worker at times, he could not concentrate
on his work long and would stop to play, and it was not possible to supervise
him closely enough to keep him at work. The boy had also worked as laborer
for a coal company loading baskets of coal, but, according to that employer, was
unable to make deliveries even in the next block because he could not find
addresses. He left this job after an outburst of temper when his employer refused
to let him drive the horses. The longest time he had stayed in any one position
was six months. He had earned as much as $18 a week in the piano factory but
was getting only $12 a week, tying boxes in bundles at the box factory, at the
time of the study.
Case 26.— Hugh’ s failure to work steadily in one position appears to have been
due more to the fact that he attempted work beyond his mental capacity than to
any unwillingness to work or to his delinquent tendencies. Industrial conditions
also played a part in his unemployment. His intelligence quotient was 63. He
worked for four employers at seven kinds of work and was unemployed more than
half the time.
Hugh had been committed to the institution for the feeble-minded at the age
of 11 years, after having been brought into the juvenile court for stealing. He
did not attend school regularly, and his mother, a respectable-appearing Polish
woman, had difficulty in controlling him. He stayed at the institution about
two years; he was then discharged with the approval of the institutional author

ities
and went home to live with his parents. As he was too young to obtain
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BOYS AND GIRLS FORMERLY IN INSTITUTIONS

a work certificate, he went back to school and remained in the third grade until
he was 16 years of age.
No one who understood Hugh’s limitations helped him to find suitable work,
although for part of the time after leaving the institution he was on probation
at the juvenile court for automobile stealing. Through the efforts of his brotherin-law he first obtained work operating a power machine in a tack and nail
factory. He kept this position about three months and was then, according to his
statement, laid off on account of slack work. Whether or not his work was sat
isfactory could not be learned. His brother-in-law then found him a position in
a steel mill, in which he himself was employed, as door boy of an open-hearth
furnace. Hugh was said to be satisfactory in this work, but after four months,
the longest time he worked at any one job, the mill closed down, and he was
again idle. After some months he found’ temporary work of a few weeks as a
laborer, digging holes for lamp posts. Somewhat later he was tried out for a
month on a job in a metal-working establishment grinding valves, but he was
discharged as unsatisfactory. He also spent three days with the first firm that
had employed him, feeding a tack machine. Finally his brother-in-law procured
a job for him in the masonry department of the steel mill as helper to a brick
layer; after six weeks, work became slack in the bricklaying department, and the
boy was transferred to a job at rivet heating. According to his employer, Hugh
was unable to do this work and was discharged after two weeks. At the time of
the inquiry he was out of work.
Case 27.— Nellie’s work experience was unsuccessful, at least partly because
she tried to do work beyond her mental capacity but also because of her delinquent
tendencies. She was unemployed three-fourths of the time she was outside
institutions. Her intelligence quotient was 61.
When 16 years of age she ran
away from home and lived with a man in a rooming house until the police found
her and notified her father. The latter, a steam fitter by trade and apparently an
intelligent man, took the girl to a doctor who recommended that she be put in the
State institution for the feeble-minded. Here she remained nearly four years,
leaving at the age of 20.
On returning home Nellie at first lived with a married sister and helped with
the housework; after a few months, through the efforts of a relative, she went
into the telephone company to learn to be an operator. After two weeks she was
discharged for incompetence. Soon after this she obtained work in a factory
manufacturing electrical parts, “ winding wire,” a job at which she earned $14 a
week. No record was found as to whether or not she was able to do this work
satisfactorily; after 7 weeks she left because she wanted “ a change.” From her
next position, labeling cans in a factory, she was discharged as incompetent after
two months. Her only other position, which she kept two months, was as sales
girl in a store, earning $12 a week. While employed there she ran away with a
man and was arrested and sent to a private institution for delinquent girls.
After three years in that institution she returned to her sister’s home. She
again attempted to run away, however, so that her father took her back to the
institution, where she was living at the time of the inquiry.
CONCLUSIONS

Most of the young persons who had been in the Illinois State insti
tutions for the feeble-minded included in the present study, like the
former pupils of special classes, had been employed at some time after
leaving the institutions. Eighty-nine per cent of the 151 who had
been outside the institutions for at least a year, compared with 94 per
cent of the special-class pupils, had had some employment, and 45
per cent, compared with 57 per cent of the special-class pupils, were
employed when interviewed.
A considerable number of the boys had worked steadily; of the 36
girls who had a record of employment 20 had married, and their work
history was therefore interrupted. Among the 98 boys who had a
record of employment, 38 had worked the greater part of the time
(at least 70 per cent of the period) after leaving the institutions and
21 had been employed less regularly; for 39 the information was in
complete, but many of them are believed to have been irregular
workers. The intelligence levels of those who can be considered as

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EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

steady workers ranged all the way from those who would be classified
as imbeciles to border-line cases. Because of the considerable number
of boys for whom information as to time unemployed is incomplete,
it is not possible to state conclusively whether or not boys from the
institutions for the feeble-minded had more unemployment than boys
of about the same mentality from the special classes who had remained
outside institutions. The indications are, however, that the boys
from the institutions did not have as favorable work experiences as
those from the special classes. In comparison with boys of unselected
intelligence both the boys from the institutions and from the special
classes had a great deal of unemployment.
A much larger proportion of boys from the institutions than from the
special classes had had court records for delinquency serious enough
so that they were put on probation or placed in institutions. N o
doubt this difference had a great deal to do with the amount of unem
ployment among the two groups of boys. From the fact that few
boys from institutions who were known to have worked regularly
were delinquent after leaving the institutions, and from a study of
the case histories obtained for some of the boys and girls, it would
appear that personality difficulties were closely associated with failure
to work steadily. As far as could be judged from the small number
of individuals in the present study, all of whom were morons or
imbeciles of the higher grades, differences in intelligence levels as
measured by intelligence quotients, as among individuals from special
classes, had very little relation to steadiness or success at work.
No attempt was made in the present study, as has been done in a
number of other studies of persons discharged from institutions for
the feeble-minded, to ascertain whether the individuals studied were
succeeding or failing in their social adjustment. That a number of
the boys were able to support themselves is indicated by the median
wage in their last job ($24.71) and by the fact that 38 of the 118
whose afterhistories were studied are known to have worked the
greater part of the time (at least 70 per cent) after leaving the
institutions.
The failure of some of those who had left the institutions to adjust
themselves to either industrial or social conditions in the community,
which is brought out in some of the case histories and is shown by the
fact that 16 per cent of those included in the study had drifted into some
type of institution by the time the study was made, points to the great
need for follow-up work for those leaving the institutions. Individuals
who have pronounced antisocial or delinquent tendencies should be
given suitable custodial care. In some States, such as Massachusetts,
New York, and Michigan, the State department responsible for the
administration of State institutions for the mentally defective has
made plans for the supervision of paroled patients. The findings
of this study indicate that similar provision should be made for the
parole under supervision of patients from the Illinois State institu
tions for the feeble-minded.

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APPENDIX

A .— TABLES AND TABULAR
W O R K H ISTOR IES

SU M M A R IE S

TABLES
T able

I .— Industry and occupation of all jobs and intelligence quotient of boys
formerly attending special classes in seven cities
Jobs beld by boys formerly attending special
classes
Industry and occupation

Intelligence quotient of boy holding job
Total

Total.............. ................................ ................

Less 50,less 60, less
than 50 than 60 than 70

70 or
more

Not re
ported

4,515

187

1,104

1,883

1,228

113

Agriculture.........._.........................................
Extraction of minerals........... ..........
Manufacturing and mecbanical industries..................

153
g
2,677

2
129

28
2
684

73
4
1,103

46
3
684

Learners......... ...............................
Laborers and helpers............ ............
Semiskilled operatives................ ..........
Others in manufacturing and mechanical____

121
537
1,850
169

3
27
96
3

25
132
495
32

60
213
760
70

33
144
444
63

21
55
1

557

131

241

159

114
194
73
67
75
34

1
1
2
1
g

33
24
24
24
18
8

53
94
26
28
24
16

25
68
19
13
24
10

2
7
2
1

467

196

158

56
86
97
62
10
23
133

25
27
42
23
5
8
66

17
51
29
27
4
4
26

1
1
2
2

3
11

12
7
20
9
1
8
29

103

Soldiers, sailors, marines.........................................
Others........................................ ..............................

77
26

1
1

13
8

38
17

Professional service..........................................................

Attendants and helpers...........................................
Others (actors, showmen, e tc.)--.............................

25
21

12
5

4
3

9
13

Personal and domestic service........................................

177

Waiters and counter boys............................. ...........
Household servants........................ ................. ........
Laundry operatives............ ......................................
Others.......................................................................

14
3
10
150

6
4

2
1
7
55

6
2
3
42

Clerical occupations___________ ____ ___ _____ ______

321

135

Messengers, errand and office boys______________
Bundle, cash, and check b o y s ...________________
Stock-room and shipping-room workers__________
Others........................................................................

195
7
81
38

48
2

47
4
21
8

83
1
34
17

Transportation............„............................
Teamsters_______ ________ ________ ______ ' ........
Motor-truck and taxi drivers....... ...........................
Helpers to drivers....... .................................
Telegraph and special-delivery messengers.............
Laborers......... ..................... ..............................
Others.................................. . ..................
Trade.....................................................................
Delivery men (drivers of horse vehicles)...............
Delivery men (truck drivers)...................................
Helpers to drivers.......... ..........................................
Sales boys________________________ __________
Stock boys................................................................
Newsboys.______________________________ .....
Others...................... .................................... ............
Public service...................... .......................................

Not reported........... ............................................... .

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4
1

1
2

¿A

1
2
1

EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T a b l e I I .— Industry and occupation of all jobs and intelligence quotient of girls

formerly attending special classes in seven cities
Jobshel d by girl former] y attend ng speciiil classes
Intellig ence que tient of girl hole ing job

Industry and occupation
Total

Less 50, less 60, less
than 50 than 60 than 70

70 or
more

Not re
ported

Total_______________________________________

1,729

151

526

708

319

2
1
348

Manufacturing and mechanical industries____ ______

8
1
1,062

443

161

7
425

4
149

3
1

1
1

Others (includes those coded as laborers)............ .

3
3
1

Trade___________ _____________________ ________ ___

160

88
29
43

13
9
16

39
13
17

35
5
7

2
1

Semiskilled operatives_________________________

Sales girls__ _____ _____________ ____ ___ ____ _ _
Stock girls........................................................ ..........
Others......... ...............................................................

17
1,010
3
32

95
90
5

6
331
3
8

Professional service_______________ _______ _____ ___

Attendants and helpers....... .................................__
Others__________ .’_____________________ _______

13
4

3
2

7
1

3
1

Personal and domestic service........................... .............

391

112

159

Waitresses and counter girls...____ _____________
Household servants___ I______ _______ __________
Laundry operatives__________ _____ . . . , ..............
Others.... ..........................................

67
184
84
56

2
21
11
9

20
62
20
10

31
71
33
24

14
26
19
13

4
1

Clerical service______________ _____________ ________

Messenger and errand girls________ ____ ________
Bundle, cash, and check girls_____ _________ ____
Shipping and stock room workers............... ...........
Typists__ ______ __________________ __________
Others_____________________ _______________

19
25
4

3
3

3
5
2

4
12

9
4
2

1
7

Not reported____________ _____ ____________________

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APPENDIXES

II I .— Jobs held in manufacturing and mechanical industries as semiskilled
operatives, and intelligence quotient of boys formerly attending special classes in
seven cities

T able

Jobs held by boys formerly attending special
classes
Jobs as semiskilled operatives in manufacturing and
mechanical industries

Intelligence quotient of boy holding job
Total

Total

..................................................................

495

760

444

21
14

8
2

7
8

5
4

3
4

13
14

6
9

8
31

2
2

6
8

7
12
13

1,860

22
30

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20
27
48

5
9

13
10
24

36
65

4
6

14
17

9
12

9
20

157

56
63
12
18
19

3
3
2

34
18
4
9
6

9
10
5
5
11

2
7

7
15
1
1
1

196

47
149

2
8

11
51

18
60

15
26

1
4

858

247

353

206

67
40
227
103
67
18
15
22
299

2
1
8
10
2

23
8
74
26
19
10
4
5
78

29
26
77
38
22
6
10
9
136

13
4
66
23
24
1
1
7
67

8
4

2
6

3
2

10
20

2
4

7
14

13
12

Others......... '_____________________ ________________

Less 50, less 60, less 70 and Not re
than 50 than 60 than 70 more ported

1
2
6
1
1
2

1
1

111

8
15
88

4
2
24

3
7
34

2
15

4
10

4
6
8
33

9
54

13
34

19
9
31
132

5
1
2
9

1
1
2

100

EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T able IV .— Jobs held in manufacturing and mechanical industries as semiskilled
operatives, and intelligence quotient of girls formerly attending special classes m
seven cities
Jobs held by girls formerly attending special
classes
Jobs as semiskilled operators in manufacturing and
mechanical industries

Intelligence quotient of girl holding job
Total

Not re
ported

Less 50, less 60, less 70 or
than 50 than 60 than 70 more

Total.......................... - .........................

1,010

331

425

149

Button factories_________________________

Machine operators---------------------------Others........- ........................ ...................

9
18

3
2

2
9

1
7

Camera and optical factories......... .............
Chemical works and allied industries--------

35
49

1
2

4
19

15
19

15
8

Machine operators---------------------------Labelers, wrappers, packers..................
Others................................................. —

11
17

1
1

5
3
11

4
6
9

1
6
1

Clothing and cloth operating.......................

205

109

Hand sewers..................................... —
Machine sewers..................................... .
Trimmers and basting pullers-----------Others......... - ............................... ..........

32
75
27
71

2
4
1
6

10
15
7
14

19
34
13
43

1
13
6
8

Electrical supply factories...........................

Machine operators__________________
Others_____________________________

7
20

6
22

2
4

Food industries............................................

177

Bakeries___________________________
Wrappers and packers....................
Others_________________________

37
24
13

7
4
3

8
5
3

14
10
4

5
4
1

3
1
2

Candy factories_____________________
Wrappers and packers....................
Others......... - ....................- .............

58
35
23

6
4
2

19
10
9

23
15
8

8
5
3

9
13
13

20
1
6
1

Canneries, fruit and vegetable----------Slaughter and packing houses.............
Other food industries............................

Lumber and furniture industries....... ........
Machine operators.................................
Others_____________________________

4
1
3

1
1

Metal trades and automobile factories-----Machine operators-------------------- -----Inspectors____________ ____ _________
Others......... ...........................................

34
13
2
19

33
13
2
18

8
2

41
23
18

4
1
3

Paper-box factories-------------------------------Machine operators and press feeders...
Bench workers and others— ......... .

33
10
23

Printing and publishing-------------- -------Press feeders and machine operators ...
Bench workers and others-----------------

30
in

17
6
11

8
4
4

Shoe factories..................... - ..................... —
Stitchers and other machine operators.
Others....................................... - ...........

74
12

8
g

32
5
27

30
6
24

4
1
3

7
2
5

15
18
10
8

6
14
4
10

3
5

8
30

3
13

Textile mills....................................... .........
Tobacco factories---------------------------------Bunch makers and rollers----------------Others........... - .............. ........................
T oy and novelty manufacturing............. Others.............................................. - ...........

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

2
14

i
i

APPENDIXES
SUMMARIES OF W ORK HISTORIES
A.— Occupation and industry, duration, and wee)
boys formerly enrolled in special classes of the
res were $30 a week or more, by age at date of stud

Occupation of last job

Weekly
cash
wages

Carpenter, learning........... ...... $30.00
L aborer..I............. ................. 33.60
40.00
30.00
Operating machine_____ ____
36.00
Helper on machine__________
45.00
45.60
Laborer____________________
30.00
Operating punch press_______ 36.00
Trimmer_______________ ____ 32.50
Operating buffing machine___ 38.25
Operating drill press_________ 36.00
Operating grinding machine... 38.40
31.20
Operating gluing machine____ 36.00
Cutting leather_____________
50.00
Cutter, grinding machine____ 36.00
Paneler (hand)!!____________
33.80
Helper, carpenter shop............ 36.00
Helper, lathe machine_______
30.00
Millwright, foundry___ ____ _ 36.00
Operating tenoner machine___ 36.00
Carrying tools and material.. . 30.00
Core maker_________________ 40.80
Assembling (hand)__________
32.50
Top builder (hand).................. 48.0Q
Operating gear-cutting ma48.00
chine.
36.00
Operating boring machine___
30.72
Assembling body glass (hand). 39.60
Assembling chassis (hand)___ 30.00
Operating coil-winding ma36.00
chine.
Operating screw machine____
36.25
Trimmer (hand).... ................
35.00
Inspecting____ _____________
33.75
Assembling (hand).........
38.50
Finishing (hand).l................... 40.50
36.00
Sanding paint____"__________
34.00
Assembling (hand)................. . 30.00
C hippin g.I........ .............. ...... 32.00
Operating straightening ma33.00
chine.
Operating wire-bending ma30.00
chine.
Operating milling machine___ 46.75
Operating grinding machine... 40.00
Operating electric truck.......... 32.40
Helper to tile setter.................. 30.80
Tempering clay (machine)___ 36.00
Trimming sausage........ .
30.00
Shackling........ .~.............. ........ 31.63
Baker_______________ ______ _ 32.00
Butcher____________ ________ 34.00
Oil-bearer, and stenciling ma30.00
chine.
Filling sacks with salt..........
40.00
Helper on truck.......................
Truck driver...................... ......
Learning to take blue p iin ts...
Truck driver_______ ________
Peddler................... .................
Teamster........ .................. ........
Truck driver..... .......................
Laborer................ ...................
Stock boy..................................

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

30.00
30.00
32.50
32.40
30.00
36.00
36.00
31.50
35.00

Duration of last
job

1 day............. ........
5 months________

1 year 4 m onths...
1 year 7 months.. .
1 year.......... .........
7 years 7 m onths..
1 year 2 m onths...
1 year 8 m onths...

(!)
1 year 9 m onths...
3 months...............

li
le
ent

62
73
73
46
50
54
54'
56
57
59
59
60
61
61
61
61
63
63
63
63
64
64
65
66
66

3 years 5 m onths..
3 years 9 months..

69
69

2 years......... ..........
1 day______ _____
4 years 3 months..
10 months...........

70
70
70
71
72

4 years____ ______

73
74
78
79
79
80
82
55
58
64

1 year 2 m onths...

2 years 11 months.
3 months________
2 years 10 months.

73
74
78
73
61
60
65
65
76
54

4 months...............
6 months....... ........

2 months________

1 year____ ____ _
4 years 10 months.
8 months________
10 months..............
2 years 4 m onths..
1 year 5 months.. .
28 da vs
_ ___
5 years 1 m onth...
2 years 2 months..
1 year 4 months.. .

45
52
55
56
57
58
59
60
61

102

EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

A .— Occupation and industry, duration, and weekly cash wages
of last job of 114 boys formerly enrolled in special classes of the public schools
whose last cash wages were $30 a week or more, by age at date of study, intelligence
quotient, and city— Continued

T abu lar Sum m ary

City and industry of last
job

Occupation of last job

Weekly
cash
wages

Duration of last
job

Age at Intelli
date of gence
study quotient

deteoit—continued

21
20
20
22
22
22
22
20
20
19
20
20
21
19
22

62
62
62
63
63
63
64
64
64
64
65
65
66
67
67

20
21
20
20
21
21
20
21
20

70
72
74
76
76
76
76
79
82

(i)..........................
days..................

19
21
20
21
21
21
19
19
20

68
74
77
57
76
65
72
74
74

1 year 2 m onths...

19
19

70
74

30.00 2 months________
49.50 ____ do___________
30.00 5 years 11 months.
30.00 2 months________
30.00 8 months...............
35.00
33.50 2 years 5 months..
38.00

20
18
21
21
20
20
21
18

68
69
61
61
61
67
67
80

30.00
45.00
30.00
40.00

1 year 11 months..
4 years 2 m onths..
6 months________

19
21
21
22

51
67
70
78

43.20
36.00

2 months...............
26 days__________

20
21

66
66

35.00

2 months________

34.50

1 month.................

(!)
$30.00
30.00
30.00 1 year 7 months
30.00
Truck driver............................ 36.00 4 years 7 months..
Do .................................... 36.00
33.00
Do
30.00
Do
D o ..................................... 30.00 10 months..............
36.00
36.00
Do
................... ......... 36.00 2 months________
30.00
30.00
40.00 1 year 1 month___
Operating motion-picture machine.
30.00
Do
. ............................. 36.00 4 months...............
32.00
Do
......................
32.50 3 months________
Truck driver................... ......... 35.00 1 year 9 months...
Do
........................ 33.60
D o ..................................... 30.00 1 year 2 m onths...
Do....................................... 36.00 1 year 5 m onths...
D o....................................... 30.00 6 months________

Truck driver...........................

R O C H E STE R

Manufacturing and mechanical industries:
Lathing____: ..................... ......

Fireman on freight train_____

30.00
34.00
37.40
33.00
35.00
30.00
30.00
31.68
30.00
30.00
30.00

1 year 7 m onths...
1 year 5 m onths...
4 months...............

NEW ARK

Manufacturing and mechanical industries:

Liquor and beverages. Bottling (machine)---'.......... -

Truck driver...------ ------------D o..........
......................
LO S A N G E L E S

Manufacturing and mechanical industries:

OAKLAND

Other than manufacturing and mechanical inCINCINNATI

Manufacturing and mechanical industries:

1 Not reported.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

103

APPENDIXES

T a b u l a r S u m m a r y B .— Occupation and industry, duration, and weekly cash wages

of last job of 50 girls formerly enrolled in special classes of the public schools whose
last cash wages were $20 a week or more by age at date of study, intelligence quotient
and city
City and industry of
last job

Manufacturing and me
chanical industries:
Automobiles________

Tobacco.

Electrical supplies.. .
Printing and book
binding.
Other industries_______

Occupation of last job

Operating punch press.........
Operating sewing m achine...
Inspecting headlights_______
Sewing springs_____________
Washing glass.................. ......
Core maker.... ........................
Operating soldering machine.
Operating drill press..............
Coremaker_________________
Bunchmaker................ ..........
Packing tobacco (machine). ..
Bunchmaker_______
D o ............................
Do................................
Wrapper___________________
Feeding stitcher____________

Weekly
Age at Intelli
cash Duration of last job date oi gence
wage
study quotient

$25.00 1 year___________
20.00 1 year 11 months..
21.00 1 year 9 months__
20.00 7 days______ ____
24.00 6 months..............
25.00 2 years 2 months..
20.00 10 months_______
20.00 1 year 7 months__
30.00 ....... do___________
26.00 1 year 6 months___
21.00 2 years__________
25.00 4 years 5 months...
20.00 1 year 4 months___
21.00 1 year 8 months___
22.28 3 months________
21.00 2 years__________

20
21
21
19
18
22
20
21
20
20
19
20
20
19
21
20

54
55

60
62
63
64
64
66
49
49
55
63
64
58
66

Sorting tomatoes (hand)........
Bottling vinegar (warehouse)
General housework_________
Assistant manger___________
Elevator operator.............. .....
Maid in restroom........ .
Salesgirl...................................
Cleaning automobiles_______

21.00
20.00
21.30
20.50
20.00
21.00
25.00
23.50

2 months________
4 years 5 months.. _
25 days__________
1 year___________
6 days___________
2 days___________
1 year 3 months___
21 days__________

20
21
20
21
20
23
20
20

Felling sleeves (hand)_______
Sewing top collars (machine).
Lining pockets (machine)___
Basting canvas (hand)______
Serging sleeves (machine)___
Basting patches (hand)_____
Lining maker (machine)........
Basting canvas (hand)...........
Serging pants (machine)___ _
Sewing sleeves (machine)___
Padding collars (machine)___
Making vest backs (machine)
Making buttonholes (ma
chine).
Inspecting sheet film............
Shading and grading_____
Sorting buttons (hand).........
Sorting buttons_____________
Stitching cut-outs (machine)..
Inspector................................
Operating stripping machine.

20.24
30.00
22.00
22.00
25.00
26.50
20.00
24.00
22.00
28.00
22.00
30.00
23.50

1 year 8 months__
1 year 9 months___
(i)---------------------3 years 4 months...
1 year 2 months___
2 years 1month___
5 months________
1 year 5 months___
1 year 10 months...
10 months_______
4 months________
2 years 6 months...
11 days.................

19
20
20
20
19
21
20
20
20
16
19
21

21.00
21.50
20.00
21.00
28.63
21.00
20.00

3 months............. .
11 months........ .
1 year 2 months___
1 year___________
3 months________
26 days__________
2 months...............

20
20
19
19
20
21
19

Timekeeper.............................
Cashier____________ ____

25.00
20.00

2 years 3 months...
(>)........ - ...............-

57
70

Basting canvas (hand)..
Hemstitching (machine)
Assembling (hand)____

22.00
25.00
22.00

4 months________
1 year___________
3 years 2 months...

21
21
21

54
61
65'

Stripping .

22.50

4 months______ _

50
54
57

59
62
64
68

R O C H E STE R

Manufacturing and me
chanical industries:
Clothing.....................

Kodaks....................
Buttons........ ...........
Shoes............... ..........
Paper boxes....................
Other industries________
NEW ARK

Manufacturing and me
chanical industries:
Clothing___ ____ ___
Metal horns________

56
59

62
62
69
69
70
72
73

74
78
70

71
76

59
62
67

S A N FRANCISCO

Manufacturing and me
chanical industries:
Tobacco._____ _____

20 :
1 Not reported.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

104

EMPLOYMENT OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT BOYS AND GIRLS

T a b u l a r S u m m a r y C.— Occupation and industry, duration, and weekly cash wages

of last job of 881 boys who had been out of Illinois institutions for the feeble
minded for a year or more, by age at date of study and intelligence quotient

Occupation of last job

Industry of last job

Manufacturing and me
chanical industries:
Building trades_____

Laborer__________
Painter__________
Helper to plumber.
Lather___________
Hod carrier______
Truck loading____
Painter’s helper__
Electrical supplies___ Spraying................
Crating.............. .
Assembling dials.

Weekly
cash
wages

Duration of last
job

$35.30
16.00

22.50
27.50

15 days...................
21 d ays.................
7 months 14 days..
5 months 23 days..
7 days....................
l month........ ........
1 month 25 days...
1 year 3 months
26 days.
2 months.......... .....
2 years 5 months
14 days.
14 days.......... ........
15 days__________
5 months 12 days..
2 days....................
1 month 1 day.......
4 months 8 days...
3 years 5 months..
4 months...............
21 days..................
21 days...................
0 ........ ...............9 months 15 days..
9 months 18 days..
1 month 9 days....
8 months________
2 months_______
1 month_________
3 years 11 months..
2 months 4 days...
7 months....... ........
1 year 5 months
18 days.
2 months 10 days..
0 .......... — ...........
16 days__________
9 months________
2 years 9 months
15 days.
3 years 1 month
2 days.
7 months 21 days..
2 years 4 months..
2 months________
2 days___________
3 years 8 months
10 days.
1 year 6 months__
1 month 3 days___

28.00

2 months________

52.00
41.25
32.17
35.10
24.00
20.00
26.00

19.00
26.95
24.00
(3) ..............................
Useful boy__________________ 15.00
Mechanic’s helper....................I 21.60
Crating and selecting orders... 19.00
Laborer_____________________ 20.00
25.00
Oven helper________________
Helper to fryer.......................... 15.00
Cutting and carrying candy— 20.00
Laborer____________ ________
(3)
22.50
Machine operator___________
Trimmer................. - ................ 30.00
Washing bottles_____________ 4 25.00
33.00
Helper_____________________
22.50
Operating punch press---------Laborer........... ....................... 33.60
19.60
Feeding tack machine....... .
Rivet heater________________ 28.80
30.80
Helper_____________________
23.00
Operating punch press---------Assembling fuses____________
Assembling coils____________

Food products______

Iron and steel_______

Printing and publish Carrying pages..... ....................
ing.
( 3) ..............- ............................................................
Paper boxes............... Tying boxes in bundles--------Stone monument....... Helping carve monuments----Automobile repair___ Cleaning and repairing............

16.00
25.00
12.00
25.00
30.00

Helper.

22.00

Cardboard.
Cans............................
Wooden boxes_______
Tents..........................
Flour...........................
Locomotive repair___

Helper in shipping room-------Carrying and placing boxes—
(3) ......................... -

................................................

Filling cars_________ ____ ___
Apprentice boilermaker---------

Lamp-shade frame___ Clamping wire to frames
Oil burners................. Packer............................
Other industries.

Elevator boy...
Helper............
Chauffeur........
Laborer______
Delivering coal.
Delivery boy...
Cook_____ . . . .
Teamster--------

24.75
22.00
16.00
36.00
22.71

22.00

0
0

12.00

36.00

Peddler____________________
Handling mail, checking cars..
Digging graves..........................
Truck driver.............................

¡>2.00
24.00

Deck hand____________ ____ _
Setting up tents_____________
Delivering ice_______________
Chauffeur....... ..........................
Truck driver___________ ____
Laborer, city parks__________

0
0
0

20.00

28.50
25.00
24.00

0 ........... - ......................—

6 months________

0 ........... ............. ...................

5 months________
1 month 14 days...

0 ................... ........................

1 year 3 months
24 days.
4 days....................
24 days..................
3 months________
5 years 6 months
27 days.
1 month 15 days...
1 month___ _____
5 months 14 days..
4 months.............
5 months 29 days..
1 month..... .........

Age at Intelli
date of gence
quo
study
tient

28
26
18
21
18
21
20
22

47
53
59
60
63
76
79
53

20
19

56
57

20
24
17
21
22
19
23
18
19
21
18
17
17
19
21
18
23
19
18
25
20

58
65
66
70
71
72
43
57
61
61
65
66
68
69
51
52
58
60
63
69
73

19
22
20
18
22

52
68
45
54
54

22
25
17
20
22

57
58
61
66
76

17
22

78
78

26
23
23
26
22
19
22
20

43
44
44
44
47
47
48
49

19
20
21
22

50
51
51
51

18
22
26
20
19
21

54
54
55
55
55
56

110 boys whose occupation and ind ustry were not reported were excluded from this summary.
* Maintenance.
4 And meals.
4 Maintenance and wage.
4 Not reported.
1 And maintenance.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

APPENDIXES

105

C.— Occupation and industry, duration, and weekly cash wages
of last job of 88 boys who had been out of Illinois institutions for the feeble minded
for a year or more, by age at date of study and intelligence quotient— Continued

T abu lar Sum m ary

Industry of last job

Occupation of last job

Manufacturing and mecbanical industries—
Continued.

Weekly
cash
wage

$25.00

(•)

Soldier_______________ ____

(2)
Second-class fireman_________ 312.47
20.00
Load and unload cars.... .......... 28.50
Packing and wrapping............

Stevedore___________________

24.00
42.50
20.00
18.00
18.00
35.00
17.00
(3)
(3)
33.00
26.00
35.00
(3)
(3)
25.00
22.50
(3)
18.00
24.48

Chauffeur______ ____ _______

60.00

Delivery boy..................... ......
Helper_______________ ____

Shipping clerk.............. ..........

Laborer____________________

2 Maintenance.

3 Not reported.

Duration of last
job

1 year 9 months
16 days.
9 months 4 days...
1 year 5 months
14 days.
3 months 22 days..
10 months 29 days..
(3) ............. .............
i month 16 days...
(3) __________ ____

4 years 3 months..
(3)...........................
1 month 11 days...
(3) ...........................
4 years 3 months
21 days.
2 years 6 months..

Age at
date of
study

Intelli
gence
quo
tient

22
21

57
58

17
23
20
21

59
59
60
60

20
23
23
22
20
24
21
22
20
25
21
23
20
22
18
21
21
22
23

60
60
61
62
62
63
66
66
67
68
69
70
74
74
74
77
81
85

(3)
«

5 And maintenance.

D.— Occupation and industry, duration, and weekly cash wages
of last job of 16 unmarried girls who had been out of Illinois State institutions for
the feeble-minded for a year or more, by age at date of study and intelligence quotient

T abu lar Summary

Occupation of last job

Industry of last job

Weekly
cash
wage

Manufacturing and me
chanical industries:
Candy_____ ______

(i)............................................
(«)
Packing chocolates_______. . .
$14.00
0
7.00
Paper b o x .......... ........
Switchboard supplies. Operating punch press_______ 20.00
Meat packing_______
Tags_____ ______ ___

Other industries.

Casing sausage______________
Operating tag-cutting machine.

21.00
16.80

Housework_________________

2 5.77

Do...................................... 315.00
Do_____________________ 410.00
6 5.00
12.00
3 12.00
Wrapping..____ ____________
17.00
General helper______________
(')
3 5.77
1 Not reported.
2 And maintenance.

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

3 And 1 meal.
4 And 2 meals.

Duration of last
job

10 days_____ . . .
1 month, 14 days..
1 day____ _____ _
3 years, 1month, 4
days.
2 years, 17 days...
2 years, 11 months,
20 days.
2 years, 4 months,
5 days.
1 month, 23 days..

1 year, 6 months. .
6 years, 21 days__

Age at Intelli
date of gence
quo
study
tient

19
21
26
24
22

56
58
60
35
45

21
25

52
61

22
25
20
27
20
20
22
22

55
57
60
61
61
63
64
66

5 And board and room.
3 Maintenance.

APPENDIX B.— LIST OF REFERENCES
The following is a list, arranged chronologically, of studies and articles that
take up the industrial adjustment of persons of subnormal mentality who either
have been pupils in special classes (noted by *) for mental defectives or have
been patients in institutions for the feeble-minded:
F e r n a l d , W a l t e r E., M. D .: After-Care Study of the Patients Discharged from
Waverly for a Period of Twenty-five Years. Reprinted from Ungraded, vol.
5, No. 2 (November, 1919). 7 pp.
♦N e t e r e r , I n e z : Follow-up Study of Special-Class Pupils. Ungraded, vol. 5,
No. 5 (February, 1920), pp. 116-118, and vol. 5, Nos. 6-7 (March-April, 1920),
pp. 150-154.
♦ W o o l l e y , H e l e n T., and H o r n e l l H a r t : Feeble-Minded ex-School Children;
a study of children who have been students in Cincinnati special schools.
Studies from the Helen S. Trounstine Foundation, vol. 1, No. 7 (Apr. 1, 1921).
27 pp. Cincinnati.
W a l l a c e , G e o r g e L., M. D .: A Report of a Study of One Hundred Feeble
minded Girls with a Mental Rating of Eleven Years or Over. Reprint from
Proceedings and Addresses of the Forty-sixth Annual Session of the American
Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded, 1922.
M a t t h e w s , M a b e l A .: One Hundred Institutionally Trained Male Defectives
in the Community under Supervision. Reprint No. 145 of The National
Committee for Mental Hygiene, New York City, 1922. 11 pp.
♦ W a l l i n , J. E . W a l l a c e : A Study of the Industrial Record of Children Assigned
to Public-School Classes for Mental Defectives and Legislation in the Interest
of Defectives. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. 17, No. 2
(July-September, 1922), pp. 120-131.
♦A n d e r s o n , V. V., M . D., and F l o r a M a y F e a r i n g : A Study of the Careers of
322 Feeble-minded Persons. National Committee for Mental Hygiene, New
York City, 1923. 31 pp.
B e r n s t e in , C h a r l e s , M. D .: Colony and Parole Care for Dependents and
Defectives. Mental Hygiene, vol. 7, No. 3 (July, 1923), pp. 449-471.
S t e b b i n s , I n e z F .: The Institution in Relation to Community Supervision.
Proceedings and Addresses of the Forty-ninth Annual Session of the American
Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded, 1925, pp. 174r-190.
♦B y r n e , M a y E.: After-School Careers of Children Leaving Special Classes in
Minneapolis. Ungraded, vol. 5, No. 4 (January, 1925), pp. 75-86.
♦C a r p e n t e r , M a r y S.: A Study of the Occupations of 207 Subnormal Girls
after Leaving School. Vocational Education Department, School of Educa
tion, University of Michigan, Special Studies No. 2 (June, 1925). 40 pp.
♦ T a y l o r , M a r g a r e t t a : Aftercare Study. Ungraded, vol. 11, No. 2 (Novem
ber, 1925). 9 pp.
P o t t e r , H. W., and C r y s t a l L. M c C o l l is t e r : A R6sum6 of Parole Work at
Letchworth Village, New York. Proceedings and Addresses of the Fiftieth
Annual Session of the American Association for the Study of the Feeble
minded, 1926, pp. 165-186.
♦ W i n f o r d , C. A m e l i a : A Follow-up Study of Subnormal Pupils. Educational
Research Bulletin, Los Angeles City Schools, vol. 6, No. 2 (November, 1926),
pp. 2-10.
♦ T h o m a s , H a r o l d P.: The Employment History of Auxiliary Pupils between
Sixteen and Twenty-one Years of Age in Springfield, Mass. Proceedings and
Addresses of the Fifty-second Annual Session of the American Association for
the Study of the Feeble-minded, 1928, pp. 132-148.
S t o r r s , H a r r y C., M. D .: A Report on an Investigation made of Cases Dis
charged from Letchworth Village. Proceedings and Addresses of the Fiftythird Annual Session of the American Association for the Study of the Feeble
minded, 1929, pp. 220-232.
F o l e y , R o y W .: A Study of the Patients Discharged from the Rome State School
for the Twenty-year Period Ending December 31, 1924. Proceedings and
Addresses of the Fifty-third Annual Session of the American Association for
the Study of the Feeble-minded, 1929, pp. 180-207.
T o w n , C l a r a H a r r is o n , and G r a c e E. H i l l : H ow the Feeble-minded Live in
the Community; a report of a social investigation of the Erie County feeble
minded discharged from the Rome State School 1905-1924. 1929. 284 pp.

106
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APPENDIXES

107

S t a n l e y P o w e l l : Social Control of the Mentally Deficient, pp. 216Thomas Y . Crowell Co., New York, 1930.
P o w d e r m a k e r , F l o r e n c e : Social Adjustment of th e Feeble-Minded. Annals
of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 149, No. 238
(May, 1930), Part 3, Some Social Aspects of Mental Hygiene, pp. 59-69.
The following articles and report relate to the placement of feeble-minded
girls in industry:
B u r r , E m il y T .: Minimum Intellectual Levels of Accomplishment in Industry.
Journal of Personnel Research, vol. 3, No. 6 (October, 1924), pp. 207-212.
----------: Adjustment of the Feeble-minded in Industry. Reprinted from the
Proceedings and Addresses of the Fiftieth Annual Session of the American
Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded, June, 1926. 16 pp.
----------: Adapting the Feeble-minded to Industry. Bulletin No. 3 of the Voca
tional Adjustment Bureau for Girls, New York City, 1927.
M e c r e d y , M a r y F l o r e n c e : Preparing the Mentally Handicapped Child for
Wage Earning and Citizenship. Los Angeles Educational Research Bulletin,
vol. 10, No. 7 (March, 1930), pp. 6-8.
U n g e r , E d n a W., and E m il y T. B u r r : Minimum Mental Age Levels of Accom
plishment; a study of employed girls of low-grade intelligence. University of
the State of New Y ork, 1931.
D

a v ie s ,

292.

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Full text of Employment of Mentally Deficient Boys and Girls, Bureau Publication No. 210

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