In addition to the great increase in the number of employed adult women, war conditions led also to a large growth in the number of employed young boys and girls. The demands of industry, economic necessity and patriotic motives undoubtedly all played a part in the movement. During the unemployment crisis of the autumn of 1914 it was, for a few months, difficult to find places for young workers. In the month ending September 11, 1914, 22,000 boys and 23,000 girls registered at the employment exchanges as against 14,500 boys and 12,700 girls in the corresponding month of 1913. The problem was serious enough in London to cause the establishment of recreation clubs, workrooms and classes for unemployed boys and girls. Children who had recently left school were urged to return.
But on account of the acute need for labor as more and more men were taken into military service, a strong demand for boys and girls at rising wages soon succeeded the depression. By December, 1914, the number of boys registering at the employment exchanges was lower than before the war, and in the first six months of 1915 there were more vacancies than applicants. The increase in the employment of boys was not as steady as that of women, however. Coincident with the spread of substitution by women from 1917 on, the rate of increase fell off, especially in the metal trades, where there was an actual decline of 9,000 between April and October, 1917. The check to employment was so serious as to come to the attention of the Ministry of Munitions, which asked dilution officers to bring to the attention of the Juvenile Employment Committees cases where considerable numbers of boys were to be discharged. Beginning with October, 1917, the Royal Air Force relieved the situation to some extent by using boys from fifteen to eighteen years of age as mechanics, hiring about 5,000 up to April, 1918.
On the whole juvenile employment increased during the war. As was the case with many married women, the rising cost of living and the inadequate separation allowances received by soldiers’ families frequently made it imperative for boys and girls to seek gainful occupation at the earliest possible opportunity. Notably on munitions work patriotic motives proved a strong incentive to attract many young people. Moreover, the natural desire of not a few children to be through with school restraints and to enter adult life was reinforced by the excitement of war time and by the taking over of numerous school buildings for military purposes.
The only set of statistics covering the increase in juvenile workers, comparable with the quarterly reports on the increase in the employment of women, was published by the Ministry of Reconstruction’s committee on “Juvenile Employment during the War and After” and compared October, 1917, and January, 1918, with conditions in July, 1914.[218] It showed that between July, 1914, and January, 1918, in the various occupations outside domestic service the number of working boys and girls under eighteen had risen from 1,936,000 to 2,278,000, or 17.6 per cent. The number of boys increased by 94,000, or 7.4 per cent, and of girls 248,000, or 36.6 per cent, the greater increase in the number of girls being ascribed to the large numbers who turned from domestic service or home duties to the munition factory. It is interesting to note that in contrast to the steady increase in the number of women workers throughout the war, the total number of working boys and girls declined by 9,000 between October, 1917, and January, 1918.
Analyzing the movement of boys and girls between various occupations, among the various kinds of manufacturing by far the largest increase for both sexes was found in the metal trades, that is to say, munitions. Ten thousand boys were employed in Woolwich Arsenal alone before the end of the war. The number of boys in the building trades, wood trades and miscellaneous trades decreased, as well as the number of both sexes in the nonwar industries of textiles, clothing and paper and printing. The increase over the whole group of “industries,” was not, especially with girls, as large as in nonindustrial occupations. In the latter, boys moved away from “finance and commerce,” “agriculture” and “postoffice” into “transport” and “government establishment,” while the increase in the number of girls, though occurring in every occupation, was especially large in “finance and commerce.”
Unfortunately the statistics fail to separate the three classes of juvenile employment which should be considered. These are employment which would have been permitted previous to the war, that involving the relaxation of child labor and compulsory education laws and that which remained entirely illegal. In all three classes, the war apparently produced an increase in numbers.
With regard to the first class, boys and girls legally entitled to work under ordinary circumstances, the British Board of Education estimated that in 1915 the number of children leaving the elementary schools at the age of fourteen or thereabouts was increased by about 10 per cent, or 45,000. For 1916, Mrs. Sidney Webb put the increase in the number leaving in this way at 50,000 to 60,000.[219] On the other hand, Mr. Herbert Fisher, president of the Board of Education, stated in the House of Commons in April, 1917, that, with the greater prosperity of the working classes since the war, the enrolment in secondary schools had increased.[220]
The Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education also noted a large increase in the number of children employed outside school hours. In June, 1916, twenty “Juvenile Advisory Committees” on vocational guidance for boys and girls leaving school reported an increase in the number of employed school children and only one a decrease. In November, 1917, forty-five out of fifty-seven committees reported an increase. “With a few exceptions,” it was said, “those in close touch with the children express the opinion that the consequences to their health and education have been wholly bad.”[221] In one town 9 per cent, in another 19 per cent and in another 40 per cent of the schoolboys were working outside school hours. The number of “half times,” or children over twelve who alternated between school and work, rose from 69,555 in 1914-1915 to 73,596 in 1916-1917.
Although definite totals are not obtainable, a deplorable increase seems to have taken place during the war in the number of working children between eleven and fourteen who, prior to the war, would have been protected by child labor and compulsory school laws. “The growth in the number of children obtaining complete exemption before fourteen cannot be stated with equal precision,” said the Committee on Juvenile Employment during the War and After, “but evidence drawn from various sources shows that with the increase in the entrants for Labour Certificate Examinations and the general relaxation of local by-laws it has been considerable.”
In 1911, according to official figures, only 148,000 children under fourteen were employed in all Great Britain. In August, 1917, Mr. Fisher said in the House of Commons that “in three years of war some 600,000 children have been withdrawn prematurely from school and become immersed in industry. They are working on munitions, in the fields, and in the mines.”[222] But in October, 1917, the Industrial (War Inquiries) Branch of the Board of Trade, stated that 90,000 boys under fourteen had left school during the war, a figure serious enough, but much smaller than Mr. Fisher’s.
Probably the great majority of the exemptions were for agricultural work. “In this district we are again producing a race of illiterates,” reported one rural area. The exemptions were largely the result of the activity of the farmers’ associations, which had always opposed compulsory education for the children of their farm laborers and which in most cases controlled the local school boards.[223] Farmers of North Wilts recommended that eleven year old children be released from school for work for which women “were not strong enough.” Though probably extra-legal, the exemptions were sanctioned under specified conditions in a circular of the Board of Education to local authorities issued in March, 1915.[224] Children of school age were to be exempted for “light” and “suitable” agricultural employment in cases of special emergency, when no other labor was available. There was to be no general relaxation of standards, and exemptions were to be made in individual cases and for limited periods only.
Even before the publication of this circular, between September 1, 1914, and January 31, 1915, 1,413 children under fourteen, some of them as young as eleven years, were released from school for farm work. Between February 1 and April 30, 1915, 3,811 children were exempted for this purpose. The number holding excuses on January 31. 1916, was 8,026; on May 31 was 15,753, and on October 31 was 14,915. These figures, moreover, showed only the number of children formally excused by special exemption, not the number actually at work. About half the counties made special by-laws lowering the standard of compulsory attendance required before the war. In Wiltshire, for instance, all children of eleven who had reached the fourth standard were not required to attend school, and only those below that grade who were specially excused appeared in the official lists.[225] Then, too, in some places schools were closed at noon or altogether at times of special stress, and in others headmasters were directed to let children of eleven and over leave without record when needed for farm work.[226]
It is noteworthy that the policy of granting exemptions was not uniformly followed throughout the country, since some local authorities refused to relax the attendance laws. Twenty-five county councils reported that no children had been excused between February 1 and April 30, 1915. The policy of exemption was strongly opposed by the agricultural laborers’ union, and by the whole labor party which brought the matter up in the House of Commons in the spring of 1915, but to little effect. It was charged that the farmers were making use of child labor in order to keep down wages, and that the supply of adult labor would be sufficient if proper wages were paid.
The Board of Agriculture advocated relieving the situation by an increased use of women instead of children. “The Board of Agriculture have expressed the opinion that if the women of the country districts and of England generally took the part they might take in agriculture, it would be unnecessary to sacrifice the children under twelve.”[227]
In the spring of 1916 the Board of Education itself admitted that in some areas exemptions had “been granted too freely and without sufficiently careful ascertainment that the conditions ... prescribed by the government ... were fulfilled.”[228] A circular of February 29, 1916, laid down additional restrictions on excusing children from school.[229]
An interesting clause of the circular “suggested that the urgency of the need for the labor of school children may, to a certain extent, be tested by the amount of wages offered, and as a general rule it may be taken that if the labor of a boy of school age is not worth at least six shillings a week to the farmer, the benefit derived from the boy’s employment is not sufficient to compensate for the loss involved by the interruption of the boy’s education.” In an earlier report the board had noted that only one of the twenty school children reported engaged in farm work by one county was receiving as much as 6s. ($1.44) weekly.[230]
However, the board had no direct power over the local authorities except to reduce its money grants when the number of children in attendance decreased. The number of children excused, according to the statistics just quoted, reached its highest point in May, 1916, which would indicate that the circular had little influence with local officials in reducing the number of country children deprived of schooling to work on the farms.
In 1917 the board again became more favorable to a modification of school requirements. On February 2, in answer to a question in the House of Commons, the president of the Board of Education stated that “greater elasticity” was to be allowed in the school vacations, so that boys over twelve might engage in farm work. For this purpose the Board of Education would give money grants for 320 school sessions annually instead of 400, as usual, provided vacation classes for the younger children were organized.
Fewer children seem to have been released from school for industry or miscellaneous work than for agriculture. Between September, 1914, and February, 1915, only thirty-one children were officially reported excused from school attendance for factory work and 147 for miscellaneous occupations. None of these was less than twelve years old. On account of the small numbers excused the Board of Education did not repeat the inquiry.
Efforts were made, indeed, as early as 1915 to secure exemptions for factory work similar to those in agriculture. Employers’ associations urged that children of twelve and thirteen be excused from school. The cotton spinners’ and employers’ associations sent a joint petition to the Home Secretary asking that children be allowed to begin work in the cotton mills at thirteen instead of fourteen years. The spinners’ union preferred such a lowering of child labor standards to allowing women to become “piecers.” Certain government contractors also asked the local education authorities for permission to employ boys of thirteen.
But at the time the official attitude was much less encouraging in regard to exemptions for factory work than for agriculture. The Home Office refused to consent to any relaxation unless the Admiralty or War Office certified that the observance of child labor laws was delaying work necessary to the war.[231] The annual report of the factory inspectors for 1915 mentioned an important prosecution for illegal child labor. The Board of Education was a little more lenient, allowing the local authorities to excuse boys of thirteen under certain prescribed conditions, which included the restriction that the work must be within the boys’ physical capacity.[232] But during at least the earlier months of war “generally in urban areas, the information furnished appears to show that there has been no great variation from the usual practice in the matter. At all times children have been granted exemption in very special circumstances, and the only effect of the war has been that such special circumstances have arisen a little more frequently than they did in normal times.”[233] The statements as to increases in the number of children under fourteen leaving school would suggest, however, that these comparatively rigid standards were not maintained in the later months of the war.
In addition, it is probable that there has been more than the usual amount of illegal child labor. A note in The Woman Worker of January, 1917,[234] said that the “attention of the Secretary of State has been directed to the prevalence of illegal employment, in factories ... of children under 12 ... and children who have not obtained exemption from school attendance.... It is not countenanced by any of the departments concerned, nor can it be justified by any pretext of war emergency.” It was stated that official action against these conditions had been secured. In several cases penalties had already been imposed. “The inspectors of factories are instructed to take rigorous action in respect of any similar offences in future, and without further warning.”
Certain effects of the war on boys’ work were noted very early. By the end of 1914 it was observed that in factories strong boys, who had been apprentices or helpers, were being pushed ahead to the work of skilled men, while women and girls were taking their places. Such “indirect” substitution continued frequently to be the first change made when women were introduced into new lines of work.[235] The Ministry of Munitions made some effort to keep boys away from shell and fuse making and other forms of purely repetitive work, and to encourage them to take up lines which would make them skilled artisans.[236] But on the whole the number of boys entering skilled trades and starting apprenticeships greatly declined, for unskilled work at high wages was offered by munitions plants and other forms of war equipment, and many parents, under the unsettled conditions of war, were unwilling to have their sons bind themselves for a term of years.
Girls, like adult women, entered many new lines of work for the first time during the war, and there are but few facts to distinguish between the two groups of workers. The girls were used in boys’ places for running errands, on wagons and other forms of delivery work—which had been much complained of as a “blind alley” for boys—in banks, and in retail shops. The tendency to transfer boys to men’s work and girls to boys’ work was also noted in textile mills, boot and shoe and tobacco factories, iron foundries and some parts of the engineering trade. In nearly every instance such employment was uneducative. There appeared to be also a greatly increased demand for girls in some cities in clerical work. In the new openings on munitions work and other forms of army equipment their work has not been clearly marked off from that done by adult women. Complaints were made in March, 1917, that it was difficult to induce young girls to enter anything but the munitions industry.[237] The glamor and excitement of direct assistance to the war undoubtedly made its strongest appeal to girls of this impressionable age.
A feature almost unknown previous to the war was the movement of boys and girls under seventeen years of age from their homes to work at a distance. The Labour Gazette stated of the movement:
It has, to a limited extent, been found desirable to draft boys and girls from areas where their services are not much in demand to districts where there is a scanty supply of labor for essential industries or where opportunities for training in skilled employments are available. Where such migration has been carried out through the exchanges special arrangements have been made to secure the welfare of the boys and girls in their new sphere.[238]
Supervision of the boys and girls thus removed from home care and training, naturally a most serious responsibility, was carried out mainly by the advisory committees on juvenile employment, which had been formed in connection with many exchanges before the war for the vocational guidance of young workers. In the case of young girls the work also came under the duties of the local committees on “women’s war employment.” As “welfare supervision” was developed by the Ministry of Munitions, the supervisors, and later the “outside welfare officers,” were likewise instructed to give attention to the matter.
According to information from several sources the rise in wages during the war was perhaps more marked among boys and girls under eighteen than among any other class of workers. Boys and girls in munitions factories in certain parts of the country were often able to earn from £1 ($4.80) to £2 ($9.60) a week—the latter as much as many skilled men received previous to the war.[239]
The Ministry of Reconstruction’s Committee on Juvenile Employment reported that competition for workers drove boys’ wages up 50 per cent within a few months after the beginning of the war, and at the end of a year the rise was 75 to 100 per cent. At the repetition piece work with automatic machinery, common in munition factories, “many of the boys earned amounts that previously were associated with the earnings of men, while here and there cases could be found where their earnings were equivalent to, or even more than, those of the skilled foremen who supervised their work. Rumor naturally exaggerated the real position, but there was plenty of evidence available to justify many of the stories that were current as to boys’ earnings.” It was noted that “boys do not seem to mind monotonous work if they are well paid for it,” and rates for the older boys were at times actually higher for unskilled and semi-skilled than for skilled occupations. In one typical munitions district their wages averaged somewhat as follows:[240]
| Age | Unskilled | Semi-skilled | Skilled |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 3-3½d. an Hr. | 4-4½d. | 4-4½d. |
| 15 | —— | 4½d. | 5-6d. |
| 16 | 6d. | 6d. | 5d. |
| 17 | 7d. | 7d. | 6d. |
The rates fixed by the Ministry of Munitions for girls under eighteen indicated the high level reached in their wages also. For girls under sixteen they were roughly equivalent to the minima fixed by the trade boards for adult women, and were somewhat higher for girls between sixteen and eighteen. The increases granted up to the end of the war made the standard weekly time rate on “men’s work” 23s. 9d. ($5.70) for girls under sixteen, 25s. 9d. ($6.18) for girls of sixteen, and 27s. 9d. ($6.66) for those of seventeen. On piece work 30 per cent for girls under sixteen, 20 per cent at sixteen, and 10 per cent at seventeen was deducted from the rates of adult women.
Along with the relaxation of hour limitations on women’s work, the similar restrictions on “protected persons” under eighteen were modified. The result of the relaxation of standards was thus described by the Health of Munition Workers Committee:
The weekly hours have frequently been extended to sixty-seven, and in some instances even longer hours have been worked. The daily hours of employment have been extended to 14, and occasionally even to 15 hours; night work has been common; Sunday work has also been allowed, though latterly it has been largely discontinued.[241]
Working hours for boys under eighteen were given more specifically in an “inquiry into the health of male munition workers,” made for the committee between February and August, 1916. The investigation followed the same lines as its companion study on the health of female workers, including an examination of over 1,500 boys under eighteen and their working conditions. It was found that “large numbers of boys,” many of them just over fourteen, were “working a net average of sixty-eight and one-half hours per week.” In some cases boys under fourteen had a forty-eight hour week, “but in others boys of eighteen were found to be working an average of over eighty hours per week and it was ascertained that they had worked ninety and even a hundred hours per week.”[242] It is not surprising that the investigator concluded that “hours tend to be too long for the proper preservation of health and efficiency.”
In most cases the Home Office claimed that it had allowed Sunday work only under rather strict conditions. “The Home Office, as a rule, only authorizes Sunday work on condition that each boy or girl employed on Sunday shall be given a day in the same week, or as part of a system of 8 hour shifts in which provision is made for weekly or fortnightly periods of rest. Apart from this, permission for boys over 16 to be employed periodically on Sunday was on July 1 last [1916] only allowed in seven cases, and in three cases for boys under 16. In only one instance are boys employed every Sunday, but this is limited to boys over 16, and the total weekly hours are only about 56. In only one case are girls employed periodically on Sunday, and there the concession is confined to girls over 16.”[243] The employment of girls under 16 at night had been permitted only “in one or two cases ... through exceptional circumstances.” In March, 1916, it was stated that the cases were “under review with the object of arranging for the discontinuance of such employment at the earliest possible moment.”
The recommendations of the Health of Munition Workers Committee called for a considerable improvement in these standards. “The hours prescribed by the factory act [sixty] are to be regarded as the maximum ordinarily justifiable, and even exceed materially what many experienced employers regard as the longest period for which boys and girls can usefully be employed from the point of view of either health or output.” Nevertheless, “in view of the extent to which boys are employed to assist adult male workers and of limitation of supply, the committee, though with great hesitation, recommend that boys should be allowed to be employed on overtime up to the maximum suggested for men, but every effort should be made not to work boys under 16 more than sixty hours per week. Where overtime is allowed substantial relief should be insisted upon at the week ends, and should be so arranged as to permit of some outdoor recreation on Saturday afternoon.” But for girls “similar difficulties did not often arise,” and the committee advised weekly hours of sixty or less and brought forward the claims of the eight hour, three shift system. Under the exceptional circumstances existing, the committee believed that overtime might be continued on not more than three days a week for both boys and girls, provided the specified weekly total of hours was not exceeded.
The absolute discontinuance of Sunday work was strongly advised. “The arguments in favor of a weekly period of rest ... apply with special force in the case of boys and girls; they are less fitted to resist the strain of unrelieved toil, and are more quickly affected by monotony of work.... It is greatly to be hoped that all Sunday work will shortly be completely stopped.”
In regard to night work, an earlier report of the committee,[244] published in January, 1916, held that girls under eighteen should not be employed on a night shift “unless the need is urgent and the supply of women workers is insufficient. In such cases the employment should be restricted to girls over 16 years of age, carefully selected for the work.” But for boys, “it does not seem practical to suggest any change of system, but the committee hope that care will be taken to watch the effect of night work on individual boys and to limit it as far as possible to those over 16.” In the subsequent memorandum on “Juvenile Employment,” the committee “remained of the opinion that girls under eighteen and boys under sixteen should only be employed at night if other labor can not be obtained. Wherever possible it should be stopped.”
The interdepartmental committee on hours of labor, organized late in 1915, which based its action on the recommendations of the Health of Munition Workers Committee, was instrumental in securing improved regulations for protected persons in munition factories as well as for women. The general order of September 9, 1916, made special arrangements for boys and girls over and under sixteen, respectively. Sunday work was abolished for each of these classes of workers. The maximum working week for girls was to be sixty hours, as before the war. But girls between sixteen and eighteen, like adult women, might work overtime on three days a week, provided the weekly maximum was not exceeded. Boys over sixteen were permitted to work as much as sixty-five hours a week, on three days a week as long as twelve hours and a quarter, and twelve hours on other week days. Under this scheme work on Saturday must stop not later than 2 p.m. In “cases where the work was of a specially urgent character,” the twelve hour day and sixty-five hour week, but not the overtime, might be worked by boys of fourteen.[245] The committee had already forbidden the employment of girls under sixteen at night. The prohibition was extended by the general order to boys under fourteen and girls under eighteen, and boys under sixteen were allowed to do night work only in “urgent” cases.
Long as these hours seem according to American standards, they undoubtedly represented a considerable reduction from the hours worked by many munition plants during the early months of the war. But it is doubtful if these standards were completely reached even in the latter part of the struggle. An official report published shortly after the armistice admits that “boys and girls of fourteen and fifteen have been working for as much as twelve hours a day, sometimes more, and have been employed for considerable periods on night work.”[246] The Health of Munition Workers Committee, in its final report dated April, 1918, was still obliged to recommend the discontinuance of night work by girls between sixteen and eighteen and urged that it was “undesirable” for boys under sixteen, though in both cases it was decreasing. “Special concessions” allowing girls under sixteen to work at night had by that time been withdrawn.
The action of the Ministry of Munitions looking to the betterment of working conditions for women and girl munition workers, and the “welfare” movement which followed in other industrial occupations were described in the section on women workers.
The Ministry of Munitions urged the extension of “welfare supervision,” on which it laid much stress, to boys as well as to women and girls. Such action was among the recommendations of the Health of Munition Workers Committee:
In the past the need for the welfare supervision of boys has not been so widely recognized as in the case of women and girls; present conditions have, however, served to call attention to its urgency and it is receiving the attention of an increasing number of employers. Boys fresh from the discipline of a well-ordered school need help and friendly supervision in the unfamiliar turmoil of their new surroundings. They are not men and can not be treated as such. On the other hand, high wages and the absence of the father have frequently tended to relax home control. Long hours of work prevent attendance at clubs; healthy and organized recreation is seldom available. As might be anticipated under these circumstances, complaint is often made of boys leaving their work after a few days or playing truant; this may be the result of slackness and discontent, or the cause may be found in fatigue, sickness or perhaps home troubles. If smooth working is to be secured, the real causes of such discontent and trouble must be ascertained and appreciated. Experience, however, shows that the problems involved are outside and distinct from those of ordinary factory discipline, and they are likely to remain unsolved unless someone is specially deputed for the purpose.[247]
The Ministry’s instructions to the “investigating officers,” who visited munition plants for the labor regulation department, also drew attention to the need for “welfare supervision” of boys. “Since it is recognized on all hands that there is a danger of deterioration in the working boy between the ages of 14 and 18, it is of urgent national importance that the boy should be brought under careful supervision during these critical years of his life.” The duties of such a supervisor as outlined in this and other official circulars, were similar to those of the “welfare workers” for women and girls, with perhaps more emphasis on training and advancement. A “welfare supervisor of boys” or “boy visitor” should attend to their hiring, discipline, and dismissal, and should watch their progress and recommend for promotion, arrange opportunities for recreation, technical education and saving, and take charge of the health arrangements.
In its final report, in April, 1918, the Health of Munition Workers Committee stated that about 150 supervisors had been appointed during the previous year from a panel established by the Ministry of Munitions. Most of them were wounded army officers who had been discharged from active service. In many cases until they were appointed proper use was not made of the health and comfort facilities installed at the suggestion of the Ministry’s “Welfare Section.”
Following the advice of these inspectors, employers often installed canteens, washing facilities, first aid arrangements and other improvements in the factory. However, these usually remained unused. Canteens were generally deserted, since boys preferred to carry their food from home; wash rooms were abused rather than used, for crumpled towels made excellent footballs and soap a convenient missile; while few boys would bother going to the first aid kit for what they regarded as a mere cut.
In spite, therefore, of the apparent opening for welfare supervision of working boys, it developed but slowly. The lack of suitable candidates, owing to the demands of military service, was a serious handicap, though at the time of its report the committee thought it had been “started on sound lines.”
The need for the welfare supervision of boys has not been so readily appreciated as in the case of women and girls, and time has been required for obtaining the support of the foremen and the local trades unions as well as of the employer. These initial difficulties have, however, not been without their advantages in preventing hasty or ill-considered schemes.
Other indications of the growth of the movement were the formation of a “Boys’ Welfare Association” by leading engineering firms, and of a “Royal Ordnance Factories Trade Lads’ Association” composed of the boys themselves, which drew its members principally from Woolwich Arsenal. To coordinate the various clubs, cadet corps and other organizations started by philanthropists, the Home Office established a “Juvenile Organizations Committee” in the latter part of 1916, to affiliate and coordinate all such clubs, and in some cases to arrange financial aid. The committee took steps to have local committees formed in all the larger cities. Some criticism was made of the action by the Home Office on the ground that the matter was within the province of the Board of Education. The latter body issued a circular in December, 1916, inviting the local authorities to allow the use of unoccupied schools in the evening for recreation purposes. In August, 1917, it allowed grants for evening play centers.
Nevertheless, in spite of the various “welfare” efforts evidence comes from many sources that war work had some most unfortunate effects on both the health and the character of a considerable number of boys and girls. “The view of those best competent to judge is that in the generation which entered industry between 1914 and 1918 vitality has been lowered, morale undermined and training neglected,” said the Committee on Juvenile Employment.
The high wages for unskilled work, absence of fathers in the army and of mothers in munitions work, excessive hours of labor and greater pressure of work, interruption of club and other recreational and educational provisions, the darkened streets and the general excitement of war time were among the principal factors blamed for the change.
A vivid summary of the situation was made in March, 1917, in the Final Report of the Departmental Committee on Juvenile Education with Special Reference to Employment after the War, which gave a depressing picture of the effect of the war on working boys and girls.
Upon this educational and industrial chaos has come the war to aggravate conditions that could hardly be made graver, and to emphasize a problem that needed no emphasis. Many children have been withdrawn at an even earlier age than usual from day schools, and the attendances at those evening schools which have not been closed show a lamentable shrinkage. We are not prepared to say that much of the work which is now being done by juveniles in munition factories and elsewhere is in itself inferior to the work which most of them would have been doing in normal times, but there can be no doubt that many of the tendencies adversely affecting the development of character and efficiency have incidentally been accentuated.... Parental control, so far as it formerly existed, has been relaxed, largely through the absence of fathers of families from their homes. Wages have been exceptionally high, and although this has led to an improved standard of living, it has also, in ill-regulated households, induced habits of foolish and mischievous extravagance. Even the ordinary discipline of the workshop has in varying degrees given way; while the withdrawal of influences making for the social improvement of boys and girls has in many districts been followed by noticeable deterioration in behavior and morality. Gambling has increased. Excessive hours of strenuous labor have overtaxed the powers of young people; while many have taken advantage of the extraordinary demand for juvenile labor to change even more rapidly than usual from one blind alley employment to another.
Among boy and girl munition workers evidences of a breakdown in health were perhaps not general, but in a good many cases children working at night or long hours were found to show signs of exhaustion. In the 1915 report of the chief inspector of factories the principal lady inspector stated:
Miss Constance Smith has been much impressed by the marked difference in outward effect produced by night employment on adult and adolescent workers. “Very young girls show almost immediately, in my experience, symptoms of lassitude, exhaustion and impaired vitality under the influence of employment at night.” A very strong similar impression was made on me by the appearance of large numbers of young boys who had been working at munitions for a long time on alternate day and night shifts.
The special investigator of the “health of male munition workers” noted that 51 per cent of the 900 boys in one large factory complained of sleepiness and weariness on the night shift. “It is contrary to the laws of nature for young children—for such many of these are—to be able to turn night into day without feeling an effect.... On the night shifts, boys do not tolerate well long hours. It has to be borne in mind that the average age of the boys examined would certainly not exceed 15 years, and it makes one consider very seriously the future of the rising generation.”
The same inquiry brought out the unfavorable effects of long daily hours of work on young boys. While among all the 1,500 boys examined “no very gross degree of ill health was prevalent,” 10.6 per cent of those working more than 60 hours weekly, and only 6.7 per cent of those working less than 60 hours, were not in “good” physical condition. “This difference is a serious one.” In the heavy trades “the effect upon the boys was commencing to show itself. Many though little more than fourteen were working twelve hour shifts and doing heavy work. The boys in these shops manipulate heavy pieces of steel at a temperature of 900° F. They struck me as being considerably overworked; they looked dull and spiritless, and conversation with them gave the impression that they were languid. In fact, all the boys in this group were working far too hard.”
The investigator contrasted with the poor condition of many boy munition workers the “healthy and intelligent appearance” of the boys in one factory where comparatively short hours, no night work and free Saturday afternoons and Sundays gave them time for outdoor play. “On the other hand, many of the boys I examined at other factories are showing definite signs of the wear and tear to which they are subjected. Pale, anemic, dull and expressionless, their conditions would excite great commiseration. Conditions outside the factory contribute their share and if the war is to continue for a long time and these boys remain subject to conditions such as described, the effect upon their general health will be difficult to remedy.”
As with women, long periods spent in transit, insufficient sleep and overcrowded homes, in addition to excessive hours of factory work, often affected the health of working boys and girls. “While engaged for twelve hours per day in the factory,” it was said of boy munition makers, “they spend in a large number of cases from two and one-half hours to four hours traveling to and from their homes.... These hours, added to the working hours, leave very little time for meals at home, recreation or sleep.”[248] Many boys and girls failed to get enough sleep because of “the temptations of the cinema and the amusements of the street.” In many cases, even when wages were high, the Health of Munition Workers Committee found that three persons occupied a single bed and four or five shared a room. The following cases were given as typical. A boy of fourteen, earning about 19s. ($4.56) weekly, slept in the same bed with two young men, while two young girls occupied another bed in the same room. A boy of sixteen, with wages averaging 22s. ($5.28) a week shared a bed with another boy, while another boy and a girl slept in the same room.
The deterioration in character among working boys was apparently even more marked than the decline in health. According to Mr. Leeson juvenile delinquency was 34 per cent greater during the three months ending February, 1916, than for a similar period in the previous year. In Manchester, the increase was 56 per cent; in Edinburgh it was 46 per cent. The delinquency of boys twelve and thirteen, the ages for which most of the school exemptions were issued, had increased in greater proportion than that of any other age group. In the London police district and ten large cities the number of children convicted by Juvenile Courts increased from 11,176 in 1914 to 16,283 in 1917.
“When every allowance has been made for the inclination of each generation to despair of the next,” said the special Committee on Juvenile Employment during the War, “it is difficult to resist the conclusion that a strain has been put upon the character of boys and girls between fourteen and eighteen which might have corrupted the integrity of Washington, and undermined the energy of Samuel Smiles. The story of a boy who met his father’s attempt to assert parental authority with the retort, ‘Wait to talk till you have earned as much as I have,’ is hardly a caricature of the immense accession both of earnings and of importance which has come, sometimes to their misfortune, to lads of sixteen and seventeen.”