1939: Child Labor

The year 1939 was notable for progress in the field of child labor in the United States. Not only was it the first full year of administration of the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, but it witnessed also the clearing of the way for ratification of the child-labor amendments as the result of decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Some of the outstanding events of the year are as follows:

Federal Child-Labor Legislation.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was approved June 25, 1938, and went into operation on Oct. 24, 1938. The child-labor provisions of this act have the effect of excluding children under 16 years of age from employment in establishments producing goods for interstate commerce, except the employment of children 14 and 15 years of age at work other than manufacturing and mining if, and to the extent that, the Chief of the Children's Bureau determines that such employment is confined to periods that do not interfere with their schooling and to conditions that do not interfere with their health and well-being. In addition, minors 16 and 17 years of age may not be employed in establishments covered by the act in such occupations as are found and declared by the Chief of the Children's Bureau to be hazardous or detrimental to their health and well-being. Goods produced in establishments in the United States in which children have been employed contrary to these standards within 30 days prior to the removal of such goods from the establishment are prohibited from shipment across state lines or to any foreign country. Child actors in motion pictures or theatrical productions and children employed in agriculture during periods when they are not legally required to attend school are exempted from these provisions.

Although the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act do not affect the whole field of child labor, they do set standards which should effectively remove children under 16 from employment in practically all factories and mines. It is estimated, however, that three-fourths of the working children under 16, exclusive of those in agriculture, domestic service, and street trades, are in local industries that for the most part do not cross state lines and are therefore outside the protection of the child-labor provisions of the Act.

Responsibility for administering the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was placed in the Children's Bureau, while the wage and hour provisions are administered by the Wage and Hour Division established for the purpose in the Department of Labor. Definite provision is made for cooperation between the Federal administrative agencies and state and local officials dealing with state labor-law administration.

The outstanding achievement of the first year of administration of the child-labor provisions of the act was the establishment of cooperative relationships with state agencies issuing employment certificates for children going to work. The Children's Bureau has endeavored to obtain voluntary compliance of employers with the child-labor provisions of the act by publicizing them widely and by making certificates of age available for their protection. State certificates of age are accepted as proof of age under the child-labor provisions of the act in 41 states and the District of Columbia; in 3 states Federal certificates are being issued; in 4 states employers may protect themselves from unintentional violation of the act by having on file birth certificates or baptismal records for minor employees pending establishment of a system for issuing age certificates.

Inspections to Detect Violation of Law.

In order to avoid duplication, inspectors of the Wage and Hour Division of the Department make general inspections for child labor also and report to the Children's Bureau. Agents of the Children's Bureau have made child-labor inspections on complaint, have conducted inspections in child-employing industries exempted from the wage and hour provisions of the act, and have made spot inspections in certain localities to check on the availability of certificates of age. By the end of October the Bureau's inspectors in these scattered industries or localities had found more than 700 children under 16 years of age illegally employed in establishments producing goods for interstate commerce. One-third of these children were under 14 years of age. When violations were brought to their attention, employers were prompt to dismiss underage children and to avail themselves of the protection of certificates of age for minor workers. Only 5 court cases for child-labor violations were initiated during the year. Three were civil cases resulting in the issuance of perpetual injunctions against shipment of goods in interstate commerce by the firms concerned if they employed children under 16 in the future. The other two cases were criminal prosecutions in which the defendants pleaded guilty and fines were imposed.

Hazardous Occupations.

The first order issued by the Chief of the Children's Bureau under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 relating to hazardous occupations of minors between 16 and 18 years of age became effective July 1, 1939. The order has the effect of prohibiting shipment or delivery for shipment in interstate commerce of explosives or articles containing explosive components manufactured in any plant in or about which any minor under 18 years of age was employed within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The order was issued after an investigation and a public hearing on the proposed finding and order. Hearings were held also during the year on a proposed finding and order to become effective Jan. 1, 1940, declaring the occupations of motor-vehicle driver and helper on motor vehicles to be particularly hazardous for employment of minors under 18. A study of the hazards of coal-mining occupations was begun during the year.

Acting on the recommendation of the Chief of the Children's Bureau, the Secretary of Labor appointed an Advisory Committee on Occupations Hazardous for Minors to advise with the Bureau concerning development of policy in this field. A meeting of the committee was held at the Children's Bureau October 13, 1939.

Children in Industrialized Agriculture.

The Jones-Costigan Act of 1934, amending the Agricultural Adjustment Act, was the first Federal law to offer opportunity for bettering labor conditions in the beet fields, where children have long been used for hand processes in sugar-beet culture. This amendment made sugar beets and sugar cane basic commodities under the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and the production-control contracts entered into by the Government with sugar-beet growers provided that the producer should not employ any child under 14 years of age and limited working hours of children between 14 and 16 to 8 a day, children on their parents farms being exempted. The AAA production-control contracts were invalidated by the United States Supreme Court in 1935.

There was no further opportunity for Federal action in this sphere until the enactment of the Sugar Act of 1937, which contains practically the same child-labor standards as those incorporated in the production-control contracts under the Jones-Costigan Act. The Secretary of Labor recommended to the Secretary of Agriculture that some program be worked out to provide for certificates of age as an administrative method of checking on compliance with the child-labor provisions. The services of the Children's Bureau were offered, and in the spring of 1939 a demonstration program for making certificates of age available for children employed by beet growers in Michigan and Ohio was worked out in cooperation with the State departments of education and labor in these states. The issuance procedure follows in general that set up under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

State Child-Labor Legislation.

During 1939, real advances in child-labor standards were made in a few jurisdictions. The most important of these consisted in the further extension of the basic minimum age of 16 years for general employment, in extending protection to minors from employment in hazardous occupations and in strengthening provisions relating to employment certificates, hours of labor, and compulsory-school-attendance standards. Two states, West Virginia and Massachusetts, adopted a basic minimum age of 16 for employment bringing to 12 the number of states with this standard. Hawaii and Alaska also adopted minimum age legislation, the Hawaii Act providing a basic minimum age of 16 for employment, while the Alaska law, although applying only to girls, set a 16-year minimum age in mercantile and industrial business. West Virginia strengthened the protection afforded minors from employment in hazardous occupations by raising the minimum age from 16 to 18 and by extending the list of prohibited occupations. It also prohibited employment under 18, instead of 16 as formerly, in any occupation determined after hearing to be injurious or dangerous. Laws strengthening or clarifying existing provisions for the issuance of employment or age certificates were passed in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Florida, and West Virginia, and Hawaii provided for the first time for the issuance of employment certificates for minors under 16 years of age. Certain advances were made also in regulation of hours of work of minors, the most important being the adoption by West Virginia and Hawaii of a maximum 40-hour week for minors under 16 years of age. In the field of compulsory school attendance, Florida and West Virginia materially strengthened their compulsory-school-attendance standards, and North Carolina raised the upper age for compulsory school attendance in Buncombe County from 14 to 16.

Child-Labor Amendment to the Constitution.

Twenty-eight states have ratified the child-labor amendment, which would empower Congress to limit, regulate, and prohibit the labor of persons under 18 years of age. The amendment was submitted by Congress to the states for ratification in 1924 after two Federal child-labor laws had been declared unconstitutional.

On June 5, 1939, the United States Supreme Court decided two cases dealing with the present status of the amendment: Coleman v. Miller (59 Sup. Ct. 972) and Chandler v. Wise (59 Sup. Ct. 992). These cases involved ratification of the amendment by the Kansas and Kentucky legislatures. In both these cases the ratification had been questioned on two grounds: (1) that the amendment had lost its vitality by reason of the lapse of time between its submission in 1924 and ratification by the State in 1938; and (2) that the legislature of each of these States had previously rejected the amendment. These arguments were not sustained by the United States Supreme Court, which held that these were political questions not subject to court review. As a result, the Kansas and Kentucky ratifications stand, and the amendment is still open for ratification. See also UNITED STATES: Supreme Court Decisions.

Trend of Employment.

Reports on employment certificates issued to children have been collected by the Children's Bureau from state and local officials since 1920. Because of the importance of the employment-certificate system in the administration of the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 arrangements were made for expanding the reporting areas, especially those reporting on minors 16 and 17 years of age. By Oct. 30, 1939, reports were being received from 9 states. Although reports of employment certificates do not give a complete count of children entering into gainful employment they constitute a significant index of extent and trend of such employment.

During 1938, the latest calendar year for which figures are available, two factors which in the past have resulted in a decrease in the employment of children — declining industrial activity and legal regulation — were operative. The index of employment in manufacturing industries in the reporting area dropped from 105.8 in 1937 to 86.8 in 1938. The basic 16-year minimum-age provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act became effective Oct. 24, 1938, and this tended during the latter half of the year to discourage the employment of children under 16 in industries producing goods for interstate commerce. In both years there was a decrease of approximately 37 per cent in the number of first certificates issued for children 14 and 15 years of age in the states and cities reporting to the Bureau, the number dropping from 11,701 in 1937 to 7,431 in 1938.

International Child-Labor Standards.

The International Labor Conference held in Geneva in June 1939 unanimously approved recommendations concerning vocational and technical education and apprenticeship. All countries indicated a real desire to reorganize vocational training on a basis of principles better adapted to present industrial requirements.

In Great Britain the Education Act of 1936, providing for raising the school-leaving age from 14 to 15 years, with exemptions for 'beneficial employment' and which was to have become operative Sept. 1, 1939, was suspended by an emergency bill passed by Parliament, Oct. 10, 1939. In an effort to counteract to some extent what was admitted to be a backward step, the Board of Education set up a new body called the National Youth Committee to safeguard the educational and recreational interests of young workers between the ages of 14 and 18 years.

The Second Conference of American States Members of the International Labor Organization, held in Havana, Cuba, in 1939, included in its agenda the examination of the effect given to resolutions of the First Conference at Santiago regarding work of women and children. The Director of the Industrial Division of the Children's Bureau was appointed technical adviser to the United States delegation to the Havana Conference. The Conference adopted a report setting 15 years as the minimum age at which children should be permitted to work.