THE ILLINOIS CHILD-LABOR LAW. 1
IT is one of the objects of the International Association of Factory Inspectors to promote uniformity of factory legislation throughout the states and provinces. Yet, after the lapse of eleven years since the formation of the society, we have today to con- template an international hodgepodge of provisions governing the employment of children; some of the laws in states with highly developed manufacture represented in this association dating back, unchanged and unimproved, no less than fourteen years. The New Jersey law, according to which boys may be employed at twelve years of age and orphan boys even younger, dates back to 1885 ; and the Ohio law permitting the employ- ment of boys of twelve seems to go back to a time such that no man knoweth to the contrary.
The following meager list is believed to contain all the states in which the lowest age of work is fourteen years for both boys and girls : New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. Yet fifteen states and two provinces have factory inspectors, all publishing official reports with recommendations, and all having a respectful hearing from lawmaking bodies in regard to legislation.
No one knows, as the factory inspector knows them, the needs of the working children ; no one sees, as he sees them, the evils attending their work. If he does not take the initiative in this matter, who shall do so ? If he leaves it to the trades unions, there is danger that each may think only of the need of its own membership ; then the laws will, indeed, be special legislation, and the precedent of annulling them will be strengthened. Or, if union men employ children, or use their labor supplied by the corporation, then may the public wait long, but the initiative
1 Paper read before the Eleventh Annual Convention of the International Associa- tion of Factory Inspectors at Detroit, September I, 1897.
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