THE UNIVERSITY wOF ILLINOIS • - LIBRARY h+, Un3p no. U-2.0 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/infantmortalitym1120unit U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR CHILDREN’S BUREAU JULIA C. LATHROP. Chief «24}J: 2-cr INFANT MORTALITY MONTCLAIR, N. J. A STUDY OF INFANT MORTALITY IN A SUBURBAN COMMUNITY INFANT MORTALITY SERIES No. 4 Bureau Publication No. 1 1 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1915 CONTENTS. Page. Letter of transmittal 5 Introduction 7, 8 General characteristics of Montclair 9, 10 Location 9 History 9 Population 9 Wealth 9 Industries 10 Liquor licenses 10 Hospitals 10 Social agencies 10 Analysis of infant mortality, Montclair, 1912 11-23 Infant mortality rate 11, 12 Environment -. . 13-15 Neighborhood incidence 13 Housing 14, 15 Nativity, nationality, and color of mother A 16 Age at death and direct cause of death 17, 18 Sex 18 Illegitimacy 18 Attendant at birth 18,19 Economic status of the family 19, 30 Mothers 21,22 Occupation 21 Literacy 21,22 Feeding 22,23 Civic factors tending to reduce infant mortality 23-29 Expenditures for health and sanitation 23 Activities of the board of health 24-26 Birth registration : 24 Supervision of the milk supply 25, 26 Laboratory analysis 25 Dairy inspection 25 Supervision of the water supply 26 Activities of the engineering department 27, 28 Sewage disposal 27 Disposal of ashes and garbage 27 Paving 28 The baby clinic 28,29 APPENDIX. Milk regulations * 31-36 3 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. U. S. Department of Labor, Children’s Bureau, Washington , March 8, 1915 . Sir: I transmit herewith a study of infant mortality in the town of Montclair, N. J In this study the Children’s Bureau cooperated with the health authorities of Montclair. The schedules were furnished by the Chil- dren’s Bureau and the data were collected by nurses of the town health department under the direction of Mr. C. H. Wells, health officer. Miss Sophia A. Vogt, of the Children’s Bureau, visited Mont- clair and started the inquiry. The material was tabulated in the bureau and the text written by Miss Margaretta A. Williamson, of the bureau staff. This description of the life of babies in Montclair during one calen- dar year is of interest because it shows the facts regarding a particu- larly favored suburban community in charge of a notably efficient health officer. It is seen that the general infant death rate of Mont- clair was 84.6 as against an estimated rate of 124 for the birth- registration area of the United States for 1910. A reading of the report shows the variations above and below the average rate in the different localities of the town and their accompanying characteristic factors. Respectfully submitted. Julia C. Lathrop, Chief. Hon. William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor. 5 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. INTRODUCTION. The Montclair Board of Health in 1913 determined to conduct an inquiry into infant mortality in Montclair, basing its inquiry upon all the births which occurred in the town during the calendar year 1912 and proceeding according to the plan adopted by the Federal Children’s Bureau for its series of infant mortality studies. Schedule forms, such as had been used by the Children’s Bureau in its field study in Johnstown, Pa., were furnished to the board of health, and a field agent of the bureau was sent to Montclair to explain to the local investigators the schedule questions and the bureau’s methods of collecting statistical information. Two Montclair nurses visited the homes of the babies, interviewed the mothers, and filled out for each baby a schedule covering the first year of its life or as much of the first year as it survived. The fourth-ward mothers were visited by the board of health nurse. The other nurse was engaged to make the investigations in the rest of the town. Believing that a report of the results of this inquiry into infant mortality in a suburban community would be of interest, the scheduled information has been tabulated by the Children’s Bureau. In the report have been included a brief description of the town, an analysis of infant mortality in Montclair in 1912, and a discussion of the various social and civic factors which in Montclair seem to have been closely related to the problem of infant mortality. The chief sources of information were as follows: Interviews with the Montclair mothers, who by their interest and cooperation made the inquiry possible; interviews with public officials and with doctors, nurses, and others who had been closely connected with infant- welfare work; annual reports of the town departments, particularly the full and detailed reports of the board of health; reports of social and charitable agencies; and personal observation of conditions. In view of the decision to include in this inquiry all babies born in Montclair in 1912, and to study the conditions surrounding them dur- ing their first year of life, the birth certificates were copied from the records of the health officer for all babies born in that year, and a 12-months’ lapse of time from the date of birth was allowed in each 7 8 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. case before the baby was visited; i. e., a baby born in November, 1912, was not visited until after November, 1913, in order that the first 12 months of life might have been completed. Births (num- bering 53) to nonresident parents at the Mountainside Hospital and stillbirths (20) were excluded from the study. 1 The mothers of the babies, located from the addresses on the birth certificates, were interviewed and questioned as to the care and home environment of the babies during the first year. The investigation was entirely democratic. All mothers who could be found, whether rich or poor, native or foreign, were visited. Notwithstanding the personal nature of the schedule questions only 8 mothers refused to give the information. From the 518 birth certificates, complete schedules relating to 402 babies were secured and are included in the statistics of this report. Information relating to 116 births could not be obtained for the following reasons : Seventy- three mothers had moved away from Montclair; 20 could not be located; 8 refused to give the information; 1 mother had died; 3 were ill; 1 baby was found to have been born outside of Montclair; 6 mothers were not visited; and in 4 cases the information was not used because it had not been obtained from the mother. The infant mortality rate in this study is obtained by comparing the number of babies born alive in Montclair in 1912 and included in this study with the number of these same babies who died before they were a year old. The number of such deaths per 1,000 live births gives an exact infant mortality rate for the limited group con- sidered. This method, which has been worked out for the infant mortality series of the Children’s Bureau, differs from the usual method of computing the infant mortality rate. The usual method is to compare the live births in a given area during a single calendar year with the deaths under 1 year occurring during the same year, regardless of the possibility that some of the babies who died during the year may have been born in a different area and that not all who die under 12 months of age die in the calendar year of their birth. i The following summary of the number of stillbirths and the number per hundred live births from 1908 to 1912 has been prepared from the Annual Report of the Board of Health for 1912: Year. The town. Colored. Italian. Other white. Number. Per hun- dred live births. Number. Per hun- dred live births. Number. Per hun- dred live births. Number. Per hun- dred live births. 1908 20 4.7 5 7.6 2 2.3 13 4.8 1909 24 5.6 7 12.1 4 5.8 13 4.4 1910 20 4.7 5 8.6 3 2.8 12 4.7 1911 15 3.2 4 6.4 5 5.1 6 2 1912 20 3.9 4 4.9 6 4.5 1C 3.3 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 9 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MONTCLAIR. Location . — Montclair lies 13 miles to the northwest of New York City, in Essex County, N. J., and is served by the Erie and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroads and by an interurban trolley. Located in a well-wooded, country-like section of New Jersey, it occupies a long rectangular area comprising 6.1 square miles and extending along the slope of the first range of the Orange Mountains. With an average altitude of 300 feet, it has become noted for its healthful climate. History . — Montclair had its origin over two centuries ago in the little settlement “Cranetown,” then an outlying plantation of Newark. The early settlers were English, who came to Key Jersey from the colony of New Haven. In 1812 Bloomfield, including Cranetown, then known as West Bloomfield, was organized as a separate township. In 1860 the name of Montclair was substituted for West Bloomfield, and in 1868 Montclair, together with the Dutch settlement Speertown — the nucleus of Upper Montclair — was incorporated as a separate township. In 1894 Montclair became a town. 1 Population . — In 1910, according to the Federal census, Montclair had a population of 21,550, of which, after the native white group, the next largest factors were the Negroes (11.5 per cent) and the Italians (7 per cent) with an additional 2.8 per cent native-born of Italian parentage. The estimated population for 1912, the year which this infant mortality study covers, was approximately 24,000. 2 Wealth . — Due partly to its healthful climate and attractive loca- tion and partly to the efforts which have been made to add to the natural beauty of the town, Montclair has become one of the most pleasing of the New York suburbs. Many New York business and professional men have recognized its desirability and have built there comfortable suburban homes. That Montclair is a town of exceptional wealth is shown by the comparison of the assessed valuation of property in towns of approximately the same size — i. e., 20,000 to 30,000 population. In 1912 it had an assessed prop- erty valuation of $40,319,062, which was considerably higher than that of any other New Jersey city or town of the same population group and higher than that of any city or town of the United States in the same group with the exception of Brookline, Mass., and Newport, R. I. 3 1 Whittemore, History of Montclair, N. J. 2 Annual Report of the Board of Health, 1913; estimate based on arithmetic method of U. S. Bureau of the Census for approximating population for intercensal years. s U. S. Bureau of the Census Report on Assessed Valuation of Property and Amounts and Rates of Levy, 1860-1912. . 85978°— 15 2 10 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. Industries . — Montclair is preeminently a town of homes. The resi- dents have apparently discouraged the location of industrial enter- prises. In 1912 an electrical establishment employing 12 persons and a coated-paper factory employing 200 persons constituted the only industrial establishments in the town. 1 Liquor licenses . — Liquor licenses are granted in Montclair by a majority vote of the town council. In 1912 licenses were held by 8 inns and taverns and 3 wholesale houses. 2 Hospitals . — Mountainside Hospital is supported by citizens of the following seven towns: Bloomfield, Caldwell, Cedar Grove, Essex Falls, Glen Ridge, Montclair, and Verona. In 1912 there were ad- mitted to the hospital 1,363 cases, of which 158 were maternity cases. One hundred and thirty-one infants were born and 5 infants died at the hospital during the same year. 3 St. Vincent Nursery and Babies Hospital is maintained by the Sisters of Charity for babies under 2 years. During 1912 only 2 of the 112 inmates entered from Montclair. Social agencies . — The social agencies of Montclair are organized in a council of philanthropy to promote cooperation and prevent dupli- cation of effort. The following agencies are registered with the Coun- cil of Philanthropy and send representatives to the monthly meetings: Altruist Society. Board of Education. Board of Health. Children’s Home Association. Committee of the Federation of Women’s Organizations. Day Nursery. Daughters of American Revolution. Fresh Air and Convalescent Home. Homeopathic Society.. Montclair Civic Association. Mountainside Hospital. New England Society. Tuberculosis Prevention and Relief Association. Poor master. Sons of American Revolution. The Altruist Society corresponds to the charity-organization soci- eties of other communities. It acts as a sort of clearing house and maintains at its headquarters a card index in which are registered all cases receiving help from any of the agencies represented in the Council of Philanthropy. 1 Industrial Directory of New Jersey, compiled and published by the New Jersey Bureau of Statistics, 1912. 2 Annual Report of Town Council, Montclair, N. J., 1912. 3 Annual report of Mountainside Hospital, 1912. INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 11 ANALYSIS OF INFANT MORTALITY, MONTCLAIR, 1912. Although the group of babies found in a city the size of Montclair is necessarily small, and there are manifest limitations to an analysis of the information concerning the 402 births and 34 infant deaths included in the Montclair inquiry, it is interesting to find that the data collected in this study agree in general with the findings of the more comprehensive inquiries into infant mortality which have been made in this and foreign countries. INFANT MORTALITY RATE. The results of the study in Montclair show that of the 402 babies included in the investigation 34 died before they were 1 year old, giving an infant mortality rate for this selected group of 1912 babies of 84.6 per 1,000 live births. This rate is slightly less than the rate (89) for the same year computed according to the usual method 1 and published in the board of health report for that year. The aver- age rate for the five years from 1909 to 1913, computed according to the usual method, was 84.8, which was but slightly lower than the rate (89) for 1912. In 1913 the rate dropped to 64. Because of this country’s inadequate system of birth registration it is impossible to show the infant mortality of any one city as com- pared with that of other cities throughout the United States. The following table, however, shows the infant mortality rates for 1912 in cities of approximately the size of Montclair (i. e., 20,000 to 30,000 population) within the so-called area of birth registration : 2 Live births , deaths under 1 year , and infant mortality rate in 1912 for cities and towns of 20,000 to 30,000 population (1910) within the area of birth registration. Live births. City. Deaths under 1 year. Total. Number. 3 Infant mortality rate. Maine: Lewiston 631 110 174.3 Bangor 371 53 142.9 New Hampshire: 4 Nashua 616 82 133.1 Concord 378 43 113.8 Vermont: Burlington 554 95 171.5 Massachusetts: Chicopee 953 169 177 North Adams 548 62 113. 1 Gloucester 476 52 109.2 Medford 551 55 99.8 Waltham 634 55 86.8 Brookline 418 23 55 1 For explanation of usual method of computing infant mortality rate, see page 8. 2 Comprising the New England States, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, New York City, and Washing- ton, D. C. 3 From State report. 4 Figures for New Hampshire by correspondence^ State report not yet available. 12 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J, Live births, deaths under 1 year , and infant mortalitg rate in 1912 for cities and towns of 20,000 to 30,000 population (1910) within the area of birth registration — Continued. Live births. Connecticut: Norwich Danbury Middletown . . . Norwalk Meriden Stamford Rhode Island: 1 Central Falls . . Warwick Cranston Newport Michigan: Battle Creek... Muskegon City Pennsylvania: 1 Shenandoah. . . Pottsville Hazleton Norristown Easton Butler Total. Deaths under 1 year. Number. Infant mortality rate. 641 90 140.4 540 72 133.3 575 75 130.4 509 48 94.3 747 81 108.4 799 105 131.4 691 120 173.7 653 87 133.1 485 56 115.5 541 42 77.6 477 65 136.3 682 59 86.5 870 217 249.4 457 69 151 758 93 122.7 630 78 123.8 619 60 96.9 597 63 105.5 1 Figures for Rhode Island and Pennsylvania by correspondence, as State reports not yet available. The census report on mortality statistics for 1911 gives the esti- mated infant mortality rate for the birth registration area of the United States for 1910 as 124. This estimated rate may be com- pared with the rates for foreign countries in the following table, in which the 1912 figures have been given wherever possible, and in all other cases the year indicated is the latest year for which statistics are available. Deaths of infants under 1 year of age per 1,000 live births in foreign countries for the latest year for which statistics are available } Country. Year. Deaths under 1 year per 1,000 live births. Country. Year. Deaths under 1 year per 1,000 live births. Chile 1911 332 Servia 1911 146 Russia 1909 248 Switzerland 1911 123 Ceylon 1912 215 Scotland 1911 112 Jamaica 1912 193 Ontario 1912 110 German Empire 1911 192 Finland 1912 109 Roumania 1912 186 England and Wales 1912 95 Hungary 1912 186 Denmark 1912 93 Austria 1912 180 Netherlands 1912 87 Bulgaria 1909 171 Ireland 1912 86 Belgium 1911 167 France 1912 78 Japan 1910 160 Australia 1912 72 Spain 1907 158 Sweden 1911 72 Italy . . . 1911 153 Norway 1911 65 Prussia. 1912 146 New Zealand . 1912 51 1 Compiled from statistics contained i:i the Seventy-fifth Annual Report of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England and Wales, 1912. INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 13 ENVIRONMENT. Neighborhood incidence . — The fourth ward is the most congested section of Montclair, and in it is found most of the negro and foreign population of the town, the Italian being the predominating na- tionality. Moreover in 1912, according to the report of the board of health, the tenement-house population of ward 4 was 1,476, or 27.3 per cent of the population of the ward, and 268 children under 5 years of age, or 38.4 per cent of the children of that age in the ward, were living in tenements. In this ward were located 80 of the 113 tene- ment houses of Montclair. 1 The other wards, except for a few scattered gi cups of shabby- looking cottages, are almost uniformly attractive residential sections with well-kept shaded streets, comfortable one-family dwellings, and plenty of open space. The finest residences are to be found on the mountain in the section extending across the upper portions of the second, third, and fifth wards. The business district of Montclair is almost exclusively confined to Bloomfield Avenue, which is the main street of the town. The variation in the infant mortality rate in different sections of the town is shown in the following table : Table 1 . — Population, births, deaths under 1 year, arid infant mortaltity rate, by wards. Ward. Population, 1912 (esti- mated).! Live births. Deaths under 1 year. Infant mortality rate. The town 23, 896 402 34 84.6 Ward 1 3,848 4,831 5,050 5,406 4, 761 44 3 68.2 Ward 2 78 4 51.3 Ward ‘6 i. 43 3 Ward 4 161 21 m4 Ward 5 76 3 39.5 1 Annual Report of the Board of Health of the Town of Montclair, N. J., p. 21. 1912. The highest rate as well as the greatest number of infant deaths was found in the fourth ward, which also had the highest birth rate. In 1912 almost twice as many babies died in the fourth ward as in all the other wards combined. The rate for this ward (130.4) was more than one and one-half times as high as the rate (84.6) for the town as a whole. In 1913, however, the infant mortality rate for the fourth ward was lower than the rate for the second and third wards, while in 1914 its rate was lower than the average for the entire town. This grati- fying decrease in the infant death rate of the most congested sec- tion of the town should probably be ascribed largely to the develop- ment of the baby clinic, 2 with the “ follow-up ’ ’ visits of the nurse to the mothers in their homes and to the careful supervision by the board of health of the housing and sanitation of this section. 1 For definition of tenement house, see p. 14. 2 For baby clinic, see page 28. 14 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. Table 2 shows the distribution of births and of deaths of infants under 1 year of native white, foreign white, and negro mothers in the various wards. By far the greatest number of births to foreign and negro mothers occurred in the fourth ward. * Table 2. — Births and deaths under 1 year, according to nativity and color of mother, by wards. Ward. | All mothers. Native white mothers. Foreign-born white mothers. Negro mothers. Births. Dealns under 1 year. Births. Deaths under 1 year. Births. Deaths under 1 year. Births. Deaths under 1 year. The town 402 34 143 7 193 17 66 10 Ward 1 44 3 33 2 9 2 1 Ward 2 78 4 40 2 26 1 12 1 Ward 3 43 3 22 11 1 10 2 Ward 4 161 21 30 2 103 13 28 6 Ward 5 76 3 18 1 44 2 14 Housing . — Generally speaking, the housing in Montclair is good. The most common type of house is the two story and attic frame cottage for one family, with a yard of good size. The town’s hous- ing problem resolves itself for the most part into that of improving conditions in the fourth ward, where one finds the greatest con- gestion and overcrowding, where one notices the greatest number of houses of unkempt appearance and in bad repair, and where one occasionally finds basement tenements and constantly sees dirty yards. The fourth ward in 1912 filed with the board of health more com- plaints against nuisances than any other ward. There were 26 com- plaints about plumbing from this ward, or 56 per cent of the plumbing complaints for the entire town. According to the definition of a “tenement house” which appears in the State tenement-house act 1 there were in the town, December 31, 1912, 133 tenement houses, 20 of which would be ordinarily classed as apartment houses. The Annual Report of the Board of Health for 1912 gives the following interesting statistics as to certain living conditions of the tenement-house population: The entire tenement-house population averages 1.26 persons per room, or 5 persons to every four rooms; the colored population averages 1.01 persons per room, the Italian 1.67, and the other white population 0.86. Over half of the tenement-house popula- lation lives in three-room tenements, with an average of 1.4 persons per room. There are 95 families in two-room tenements and 3 in one-room tenements. All of the tene- ment houses are provided with sewer connection for water-closets and sinks. 1 A tenement house is any house or building or portion thereof which is rented, leased, let, or hired out to be occupied or is occupied as the home or residence of three families or more living independently of each other and doing their cooking upon the premises, or by more than two families upon any floor so living and cooking but having a common right in the halls, stairways, yards, water-closets, or privies, or some of them. INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 15 As will be shown in the discussion of sewage disposal, Montclair is well sewered. In 1912 there remained in the town 76 privies on un- sewered streets and 26 privies on streets in which there were sewers. It should be said, however, that the board of health has passed an ordinance providing that all privy vaults which for lack of a public sewer in the street can not be abolished must be made water-tight and provided with a fly- tight superstructure and self-closing covers. Although it is recognized that it would be impossible to determine the relative importance of any particular housing defect in its relation to infant mortality, nevertheless a classification of babies visited according to the type of home in which they were found may be of interest. Babies who died during the first week have been excluded from the following summary because it was felt that in a considerable number of these cases prenatal influences must have been largely responsible for their deaths. Nor have illegitimate babies been included, since their home conditions were abnormal. The figures are too small to be conclusive, but they show a tendency toward an increase of infant deaths where poor housing conditions were found. Although in Montclair was found a large group of babies whose parents owned their homes and an additional group whose parents paid over $30 a month rent, over one-third of the babies lived in homes where the rental was less than $15 a month. It will be seen that 23 of the babies visited lived in homes where the toilet was a yard privy and 129 in homes in which was no bathtub. A large number of homes were reported as dirty or only moderately clean, and a still larger number of yards were reported as dirty. The means for ventilation of the baby’s room was in most cases good. The actual ventilation, however, which is shown in the sum- mary, depended on the custom of the mother or attendant. Table 3. — Babies surviving at least one week and deaths under 1 year of age , according to specified housing conditions. Housing conditions. Num- ber. Deaths under 1 year. Housing conditions. Num- ber. Deaths under 1 year. Total 384 19 Yard: Clean 199 Q Monthly rental: Unclean 181 o 11 Under $15 135 8 No yard 4 $15 to $30 76 5 $30 and over ! 32 1 Toilet: Free rent 9 1 W ater-closet 361 15 Home owned 119 2 Yard privy 23 4 Not reported 13 2 Ventilation of baby’s room: Cleanliness of home: Good 186 7 Clean 226 9 Fair 115 4 Moderately clean; dirty 158 10 Poor 82 8 Not reported 1 Bath: Bathtub 255 3 No bathtub 129 16 i 16 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. NATIVITY, NATIONALITY, AND COLOR OF MOTHER. Table 4 shows the variation in the infant mortality rate of Mont_ clair according to the nativity, nationality, and color of mother. The death rate for babies of native white mothers (49 per 1,000 live births) is very low; the rate for babies of foreign-born mothers (88.1) is slightly higher than for the town as a whole, while the rate among negro babies (151.5) is more than three times as high as among babies of native white mothers. More foreign-born white mothers were interviewed than native white mothers, which fact, considering the small proportion of foreign- born population in Montclair, appears to indicate a higher birth rate among the foreign-born women. The Italians formed by far the largest group of the foreign-born mothers, only small groups of mothers of British, Scandinavian, German, and other nationalities being represented among the births in 1913. Nearly all the negro mothers were native. Table 4. — Births , deaths under 1 year , and infant mortality rate , according to nativity , nationality, and color of mother. Nativity, nationality, and color of mother. Births. Deaths under 1 year. Infant mortality rate. All mothers 402 34 84.6 49 88.1 89.3 Native white 143 7 Foreign-born white 193 17 10 Italian 112 Others 81 7 86.4 British 33 2 0) 0) 0) 0) 151.5 Scandinavian 21 2 German 9 2 All others 2 18 1 Negro 66 10 Native 59 10 169.5 Foreign 3 7 1 Total number of births less than 40; base therefore considered too small for use in computing an infant mortality rate. 2 Includes 2 Swiss, 6 Canadian, 4 Russian, 2 Polish, 2 Hebrew, 1 Greek, and 1 Armenian, s Includes 6 West Indians and 1 Bermudian. Because of the small numbers in each group it is impossible to show a comparison of infant mortality rates among the various foreign nationalities represented in the inquiry. Table 4 shows, however, that in the largest single nationality group (the Italian) the infant mortality rate was somewhat higher than in the others. The Italians and Negroes, the two largest population groups after the native white, seem to have been attracted to Montclair by the opportunities offered for unskilled labor and domestic service. The fathers of the negro babies visited during the inquiry were for the most part servants, chauffeurs, janitors, and laborers, and the fathers of the Italian babies were generally small tradesmen, teamsters, and laborers. INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 17 AGE AT DEATH AND DIRECT CAUSE OF DEATH. The first 3 months of a baby’s life are generally admitted to be the most critical of the first year. Of the 34 infant deaths, 24, or 70.6 per cent, occurred during the first quarter. Ten of the 34 babies died when 1 day or less than 1 day old. Table 5. — Number and per cent of deaths under 1 year occuring in each specified period . Period. Number. Per cent. Deaths in first year 34 100.0 Deaths in first 3 quarters 32 94.1 Deaths in first 2 quarters 28 82.4 Deaths in first quarter 24 70.6 Deaths in first month 13 38.2 Deaths in first day 10 29.4 The next table shows the infant deaths classified according to the immediate cause, or the disease directly responsible for death, as certified by the attending physician. Table 6 . — Deaths under 1 year , according to cause of death of infant and nativity and color of mother. Deaths of babies of— Cause of death. All mothers. Native white mothers. Foreign- born white mothers. Negro mothers. All causes 34 7 17 10 Diseases of digestive tract 11 1 6 4 Premature birth or congenital debility 9 3 6 Diseases of respiratory tract 7 1 2 4 Malnutrition 3 1 1 I All other causes 4 i 1 2 2 31 i Peritonitis. 2 Includes 1 case of asphyxia neonatorum and 1 case of diphtheria. 3 Acute nephritis. Eleven babies of the group studied died from digestive diseases. Eight of these 11 deaths occurred in the fourth ward. It is signifi- cant that only 1 of the 11 was being exclusively breast fed at the time of death, 4 were partly breast fed, and 6 were bottle fed. The fatality from diarrheal diseases is always found to be higher during the summer months. Eight of the 11 infant deaths in Montclair from these diseases occurred in July and August. In 1913 special efforts were made to lower the deaths from diarrhea. The baby clinic was by this time established on a sound basis, with a physician in consultation and the board of health nurse to follow up the doctor’s instructions and to give the mothers directions in their own homes as to infant hygiene and the preparation of feedings. In 1913 there was not a single infant death from diarrhea. 1 Although the 1913 record is, of course, abnormal, such a decided decrease seems 1 Annual Report of the Board of Health of the Town of Montclair, N. J., p. 51. 1913. 85978°— 15 3 18 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. to indicate that definite efforts have been put forth to check the infant deaths from this disease. Of the 34 deaths of Montclair babies 9 were from prematurity or congenital debility. As a large proportion of these deaths is usually ascribed to prenatal causes, it would seem that in Montclair further care of the mothers is needed during their period of pregnancy. In Montclair some few prospective mothers are reached during their pregnancy by the women’s clinic which since 1904 has been held twice a week at the Mountainside Hospital. Obstetrical cases coming to the hospital for advice have been referred to this clinic. The number of mothers who have the advantage of clinical advice, however, is small, and it would seem either that the existence of the clinic should be more widely advertised or that the prenatal work should be reorganized to include regular visits of a nurse to the prospective mother in her own home. Syphilis has long been recognized as a factor among the causes of fetal deaths and deaths .of early infancy. Venereal diseases were made reportable in Montclair in March, 1913. During the remainder of that year 14 cases of syphilis and 4 of gonorrhea were reported. A recent ordinance of the board of health (Dec. 8, 1914) provides that treatment of persons found to be affected with venereal disease shall be compulsory. There were 7 deaths from respiratory diseases, of which 6 occurred in February and 1 in March. Three babies died of malnutrition and 1 from each of the following causes : Asphyxia neonatorum, diphthe- ria, peritonitis, and acute nephritis. SEX. It is generally found that infant mortality is higher among males than among females. The mortality rate of male infants in Mont- clair was found to be 88.2 and of female infants 80.8. ILLEGITIMACY. Only 7 of the 402 babies included in this investigation, or 1.7 per cent, were born out of wedlock. Four of the 7 were in the fourth ward, 2 in the first ward, and 1 in the second. One was of native white parentage, 2 of Polish, 1 of Italian, 1 of Swedish, and 2 of negro. Four of the 7 died— 3 of enterocolitis and 1 of inanition. ATTENDANT AT BIRTH. It is perhaps of some interest to know to what extent mothers are attended at birth by midwives. Montclair has a considerable group of midwife cases, mostly among the Italian mothers. There are two possible explanations for this condition— one, the national custom among the Italians; the other, the lower fee demanded by the midwife, who in addition will render certain little household INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 19 services. Seventy-four of the 402 births included in this study were attended by midwives; of this number 65 were births to foreign-born white mothers. Only 5 native white mothers and 4 negro mothers were attended by midwives. The midwives of New Jersey are licensed by the State board of medical examiners after an examination before the board and are required to register at the office of the county clerk. The law provides that they shall always secure the services of a reputable physician upon the appearance of any abnormal symptoms in either mother or child. Whenever a midwife files a birth certificate with the Montclair Board of Health the nurse calls on the following day at the address given to verify the information on the certificate. In this way she can determine incidentally whether the mother and child received proper attention at the hands of the midwife. A recent amendment of the sanitary code of Montclair provides that a midwife when called to a case shall report immediately to the board of health the name and address of the patient. This provi- sion will enable the board of health nurse to be present at the deliv- ery when it is considered advisable and will be a means of further supervision of midwives. ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE FAMILY. It is obvious that even the care given the baby by its mother often must be offset by the evils resulting from an income insuffi- cient for the family’s needs, since a low income frequently must involve undesirable housing accommodations, an overworked mother, insufficient nourishment for mother and child, and lack of competent medical advice. Sir Arthur Newsholme has found in his English studies that u infant mortality is higher among the poor than among the well to do, although natural feeding of infants is probably more general among the former.” 1 Table 7 shows that in Montclair the infant mortality rate was approximately two and one-half times as high among families where the income was less than $12 a week as among families where the income was $23 a week or more. Table 7. — Births , deaths under 1 year , and infant mortality rate , according to total family income. Total family income. Births. Deaths under 1 year. Infant mortality rate. Total 2 395 30 75.9 Under *025 95 * 11 115.8 $625 to $1,199 111 9 81. 1 $1,200 ana over 128 6 46.9 Not reported 61 4 65.6 1 Report on Infant and Child Mortality, by the medical officer of the local government board, 1909-10. London, 1910. 2 Exclusive of illegitimate births. 20 INFANT MORTALITY.* MONTCLAIR, N. J. The following table shows that of the 95 babies living in families where the income was less than $625 only 5 were babies of native white mothers, 66 were babies of foreign-born white mothers, and 24 babies of negro mothers. Of the 128 babies in the group with an income of $1,200 and over, 100, or 78.1 per cent, were babies of native white mothers. Table 8. — Number of births , according to total family income and nativity and color of mother. Total family income. All mothers. Native white mothers. Foreign- born white mothers. Negro mothers. Total i 395 142 189 64 Under $625 95 5 66 24 $625 to $1,199 111 24 54 33 $1,200 and over 128 100 26 2 Not reported 61 13 43 5 1 Exclusive of illegitimate births. The father’s occupation gives some indication of the economic and social position of the family and the standard of living which they must undertake to maintain. Table 9. — Births , deaths under 1 year , and infant mortality rate, according to occupation of father and nativity and color of mother. Occupation of father. All mothers. Native white mothers. Foreign-born white mothers. Negro mothers. Births. Deaths un- der 1 year. Births. Deaths un- der 1 year. Births. Deaths un- der 1 year. Births. Deaths un- der 1 year. Number. Infant mortal- ity rate. Number. Infant mortal- ity rate. Number. Infant mortal- ity rate. Number. Infant mortal- ity rate. All occupations 1395 30 75.9 142 7 49.3 189 15 79.4 64 8 125 Professional and business... 120 5 41. 7 88 4 45.5 31 1 ( 2 ) 1 ! Skilled trades 121 9 74. 4 41 3 73.2 66 6 90.9 14 Semiskilled and unskilled trades, domestic service.. 148 15 101.4 12 89 8 89. 9 47 7 148.9 Not reported 6 1 ( 2 ) 1 3 2 1 ( 2 ) 1 Exclusive of illegitimate births. 2 Total number of live births less than 40; base therefore considered too small for use in computing an infant mortality rate. The group of babies whose fathers were professional or business men shows the extremely low infant mortality rate of 41.7. In the “skilled trades” group the rate has risen to 74.4, while among babies whose fathers are engaged in semiskilled trades, unskilled trades, and domestic service the rate is 101.4 — more than double the rate for the first group. It will be seen that unskilled workers form a large group among the foreigners and Negroes, while few professional or business men are found in these population groups. INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 21 MOTHERS. Occupation . — The mother’s occupation bears a very close relation to the welfare of the baby. If the mother’s employment during pregnancy involves the strain of long hours and hard work, the result is that she is less fit to bear the child or care for it after its birth. Her employment outside the home after the birth of the child means that the baby during her absence must depend for its care upon a relative, neighbor, or paid attendant; it means also the cessation of breast feeding. Table 10 shows that only 45 Montclair mothers were engaged in any occupation other than that of housekeeping for their own families. Of the 45 mothers who were gainfully employed, about three-fourths (34) were engaged in domestic or personal serv- ice, including the mothers who were living out in service, those who went out by the day, those who did laundry work either in their own homes or elsewhere, and those who kept lodgers. One mother was employed in a jam factory and 10 were helping either regularly or occasionally in their husbands’ stores. A comparison of the infant deaths among babies of working and of non working mothers shows that a much larger proportion of babies of working mothers failed to survive their first year; there were 10 deaths among the 45 babies of working mothers as contrasted with 24 deaths among the 357 babies of nonworking mothers. Table 10. — Births and deaths under 1 year , according to occupation , nativity , and color of mother. All mothers. Native white mothers. Foreign-bom white mothers. Negro mothers. Occupation of mother. Births. Deaths under 1 year. Births. Deaths under 1 year. Births. Deaths under 1 year. Births. Deaths under 1 year. All occupations 402 34 143 7 193 17 66 10 Mothers not gainfully em- ployed 357 24 141 7 178 15 38 2 Mothers gainfully employed. . 45 10 2 15 2 28 8 Domestic or personal service 34 10 1 6 2 27 8 Retail trade 10 1 8 1 Factory employment 1 1 Literacy . — Comparisons are shown in the following table between the infant mortality of babies of literate and of illiterate mothers, and of babies of mothers who can speak English and of those who must depend on a foreign language. Only babies of foreign-born white mothers have been included in these computations. The presence in the community of comparatively large groups of illiterate mothers and of mothers who can not speak English increases the problem presented to the agencies interested in infant-welfare work, for the illiterate mothers are generally less careful in following instructions than the more intelligent mothers, while the mothers who do not 22 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. speak English must explain their difficulties through an interpreter. The rate of infant mortality in Montclair is found to be relatively high among babies of illiterate mothers and of mothers who can not speak English. Table 11. — Births , deaths under 1 year , and infant mortality rate, according to the mother's literacy and ability to speak English, for all babies of foreign-born white mothers. Mother’s literacy and ability to speak English. Births. Deaths under 1 year. Infant mortality rate. All mothers 193 17 88.1 Literacy: Literate 104 83 6 121 70 2 8 9 76.9 108.4 Illiterate 1 . . Not reported Ability to speak English: Can speak English 9 8 74.4 114.3 Can not speak English Not reported 1 Unable to read and write in any language. FEEDING. Authorities agree that the breast milk of the mother is the best possible food for the baby, particularly during the early months of its life. It is significant that of the 23 babies who died within the first year but after the first week only 5 were exclusively breast fed at the time of their death, 6 were partly breast fed, and 12 were arti- ficially fed. Table 12 shows the type of feeding prevailing among Montclair babies at different ages. “ Breast fed” as used in this report means that the baby was nursed and had no artificial food whatever; “ partly breast fed” means that the baby was nursed but was being given artificial food as well; “artificially fed” means that the baby had been completely weaned. Table 12. — Number and per cent of babies receiving specified type of feeding at 3, 6, and 9 months, respectively, according to nativity and color of mother. Age of baby and nativity and color of mother. Alive at age indi- cated. Breast fed. Partly breast fed. Artificially fed. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Babies of all mothers: Aged 3 months 378 290 76.7 14 3.7 74 19.6 Aged 6 months 374 196 52.4 36 9.6 142 38 Aged 9 months 370 92 24.9 91 24.6 187 50.5 Babies of native white mothers: Aged 3 months 137 85 62 5 3.6 47 34.3 Aged 6 months 137 55 40.1 12 8.8 70 51.1 Aged 9 months 136 22 16.2 25 18.4 89 65.4 Babies of foreign-bom white mothers: Aged 3 months 179 159 88.8 5 2.8 15 8.4 Aged 6 months 178 112 62.9 20 11.2 46 25.8 Aged 9 months 177 54 30.5 56 31.6 67 37.9 Babies of negro mothers: Aged 3 months 62 46 74.2 4 6.5 12 19.4 Aged 6 months 59 29 49.2 4 6.8 26 44.1 Aged 9 months 57 16 28.1 10 17.5 31 54.4 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 23 Over three-fourths of the Montclair babies living at the end of their first quarter were breast fed at that age; over one-half were breast fed at the end of their first 6 months; and over one-half had been completely weaned at the end of their first 9 months. Foreign-born white mothers nursed their babies longer than either the native white or negro mothers. Only one-twelfth of the foreign- born white mothers were feeding their babies artificially at the end of the first three months as contrasted with approximately one-fifth of the negro mothers and one-third of the native white mothers. At the end of nine months almost two-thirds of the native white mothers, slightly over one-half of the negro mothers, and little more than one-third of the foreign-born mothers were feeding their babies artificially. From Table 13, showing the variations in the type of feeding according to the father’s earnings, it is apparent that, generally speaking, as the income increased maternal nursing decreased. That a high infant mortality rate accompanied a low income has already been shown. 1 It would seem, then, tUat the disadvantages of a low income were sufficient to offset the greater prevalence of breast feeding among the babies of the poorer families. Table 13 . — Distribution of babies of specified age by earnings of father and number and per cent of such babies completely weaned from breast. Annual earnings of father. Babies living at specified age. Total. Under $625. $625 to $899. $900 and over. Not reported. 3 months 372 118 55 169 30 Completely weaned from breast 73 15 7 45 6 Per cent 19.6 12.7 12.7 26.6 20 6 months 371 118 55 169 29 Completely weaned from breast 138 35 11 76 16 Per cent 37.2 29.7 20 45 55.2 9 months 367 117 53 168 29 Completely weaned from breast 183 42 22 98 21 Per cent 49.9 35.9 41.5 58.3 72.4 CIVIC FACTORS TENDING TO REDUCE INFANT MORTALITY. EXPENDITURES FOR HEALTH AND SANITATION. Of the 110 cities in the United States with a population approxi- mating that of Montclair, i. e., 20,000 to 30,000, Montclair in 1913 ranked fourth in its per capita expenditure for health and sanita- tion; of the five New Jersey cities within the same population group, Montclair ranks first. The following figures are taken from the See Table 7, p. 19. 24 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. bulletin of the Bureau of the Census on “ Municipal revenue, expen- ditures, and public properties, 1913”: Cities in 20,000 to 30,000 population group. Expenditures 1 for health and sanita- tion. Total. Per capita. United States: Newport, R. I $79, 135 58,344 51. 132 43,675 47, 466 46,884 45, 157 34,380 32,933 31,209 43,675 30. 132 19,663 12,050 10, 749 $2. 76 2.14 2.04 1.82 1.62 1.62 1.57 1.46 1.44 1.43 1.82 1.35 .80 .57 .47 Wilmington, N. C Stockton, Cal Montclair, N. J Waltham, Mass Madison, Wis Newburgh, N. Y Richmond, Ind Long Beach, Cal Winston-Salem, N. C New Jersey: Montclair Plainfield New Brunswick Kearney Union 1 Including expenditures for board of health, collection of ashes and garbage, sewer connections, main- tenance and repair, and street cleaning. ACTIVITIES OF BOARD OF HEALTH. BIRTH REGISTRATION. In Montclair the health officer is also the registrar of vital statis- tics. The law provides that births shall be registered within five days. Various methods are in use to make the registration of births as full and accurate as possible. All death records of children are checked back upon the birth returns. When a birth certificate is filed by a midwife or by any other person than a physician the board of health nurse visits the mother on the following day to see that the certificate has been filled out correctly. This practice provides a check on the midwives who are apt to be careless in their returns. In 1912 one physician was fined $200 for failure to register 10 births. Three canvasses from house to house for the purpose of securing unreported births have been made during the past eight years in sections of the city where mothers are attended by midwives. Since January 1, 1914, a very interesting plan for furthering regis- tration has been in use. As soon as the attending physician or mid- wife files a certificate of birth a transcript is made by the board of health on an attractive form bearing the official seal of the board of health and is mailed to the mother, together with the following circular explaining the importance of birth registration, and asking her to correct any errors on the certificate: IMPORTANT NOTICE. The accompanying certificate of birth is an exact copy of the original certificate that is on file at this office. As this is a permanent record, a record by which a child INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 25 may be admitted to school; a record by which he (or she) may prove that he is of sufficient age to leave school and go to work; a record by which he may prove his right to vote, or to marry, or to come into possession of money that has been left to him; a record by which he may prove his place of birth or age as a prerequisite to holding certain public offices, it is imperative for the future good of the infant that all facts recorded at the time of his birth shall be accurate, and you are therefore requested to return this certificate for correction if any inaccuracy is noted. It is of particular importance that the names of the infant and of both parents shall be spelled correctly. If the name of the infant is changed, the certificate should be returned at once for correction. A certificate similar to the inclosed form has been sent to the parents of every child born in Montclair since January 1, 1914, and you will confer a favor upon your friends by urging them to secure such a certificate if they have a child for which a certificate has not been received, for there may be some infants whose births have not been recorded at this office and who may thereby be put to great inconvenience in later years. Parents who desire may obtain, free of charge, certificates for children whose births occurred in Montclair prior to January 1, 1914, by making application at the office of the board of health, Municipal Building, Montclair, N. J. Montclair Board or Health. The mothers are beginning to learn that they should receive one of the official certificates and to ask for it in case it fails to come. Thus unreported births are brought to light. SUPERVISION OF THE MILK SUPPLY. For several years Montclair has had the advantage of an excellent milk supply, and Montclair mothers, whether rich or poor, have been able to secure pure milk for their babies. The board of health recognizes that one of its most important functions is the supervision of the town milk. Stringent regulations have been adopted and are rigidly enforced. 1 The system worked out consists of two checks upon impure milk — laboratory analysis and dairy inspection. Mont- clair is one of the few towns of its size with a bacteriological labora- tory. The laboratory of the board of health is completely equipped with standard apparatus. The milk tests are made by a trained bacteriologist, who examines the milk for bacteria count, butter fats, solids, and sediment. Laboratory analysis . — During 1912, 307 samples of milk were ana- lyzed, averaging over 2 samples a month for each supply, since there were in that year 11 supplies for the town. The bacteria limit fixed by ordinance is 100,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter. In 1912 one supply averaged above this limit. The average count of all supplies weighted according to the quantity delivered by each dealer was 50,000 for raw milk and 8,500 for the pasteurized supply. Only one sample collected during the year contained less than the 11.5 per cent of solids required by law for normal milk. Dairy inspection . — All the dairies supplying Montclair with milk are inspected at intervals during the. year. These dairies numbered For milk regulations, see p. 31. 26 INFANT MORTALITY I MONTCLAIR, N. J. 99 at the end of 1912. They are scored according to the United States Bureau of Animal Industry score card, the possible score of 100 being subdivided as follows: Equipment. Total. Method. 40 Total 60 Cows 8 Stable 18 Utensils 10 Milk room 4 Cleanliness of cows 8 Cleanliness of stable and yard 16 Cleanliness of milk room 3 Cleanliness of utensils 8 Cleanliness of milking 9 Handling and cooling of milk 16 The following summary 1 of dairy scores for 1911, 1912, and 1913 shows an improvement each year. All dairies from which cream and pasteurized milk are obtained are included, as well as those supplying raw milk: Score. Number of Per cent distribution of dairies. dairies, 1913. 1913 1912 1911 Total 113 100.0 100.0 100.0 90 to 100 9 8.0 7.1 6.5 80 to 90 - 9 8.0 10.1 10.7 70 to 80 83 73.4 72.7 33.4 60 to 70 11 9.7 10.1 41.9 Below 60 1 .9 7.5 The scores of each individual dairyman, showing equipment, methods, and total score, are published in the board of health report, so that the housewife of Montclair may intelligently choose her milk dealer. The reports also publish detailed descriptions of the individ- ual milk supplies of Montclair with reference to average bacteria count, richness of milk, dairies from which the supply is derived, etc. SUPERVISION OF THE WATER SUPPLY. The board of health makes a bacterial analysis of the town water every other day and a complete analysis once a month. The typhoid- fever record of a town is generally taken as some indication of the purity of the water supply. In 1912 there were 15 cases of typhoid fever, but no fatalities. 1 The source of the water supply is the Passaic Biver above Little Falls. The Montclair Water Co. operates a filtration plant at Little Falls, supplying filtered water to the following municipalities: Pater- son, Passaic, part of the township of Acquackanonk, Prospect Park, Little Falls, Montclair, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, West Orange, Nutley, Kearney, Harrison, East Newark, and Bayonne. The system con- sists of a mechanical filtration plant with a large settling and coagu- lating basin and a sterilization plant. Annual Report of the Board of Health of the Town of Montclair, N. J., 1913. INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 27 ACTIVITIES OF THE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. Newsholme recognizes municipal sanitation as one of the chief means for a low infant mortality. Sewage disposal . — According to the report of the committee on dis- posal of sewage of Orange, Montclair, and East Orange, 1912, “it may be said that each of the municipalities is quite well sewered in so far as the removal of sewage alone is concerned.” In 1912 Montclair had about 63 miles of sanitary sewers, which compared very favor- ably with its 67 miles of town streets. The sewage leaves Montclair from the southwest corner of the town and passes through Glen Ridge and into Bloomfield; here the Orange branch sewer and the Montclair branch sewer join, forming the Union outlet sewer. This sewer follows the Second River to a point in North Newark on the west bank of the Passaic River, where the sewage is discharged into the river. A new system of sewage disposal has been proposed for Orange, Montclair, and East Orange combined. The new plan provides for carrying the sewage of the three towns in new sewers by gravity to a point in Belleville, to be reached at such an elevation that the sewage can pass from there by gravity through sewage-disposal works and discharge, clarified and purified, into the Third River, a tributary of the Passaic. The recommended sewage-disposal works consist of a coarse screen, grit chambers, main settling tanks of the Imhoff type, sludge drying beds, sprinkling filters, chemical house with disinfection equipment, and final settling tanks. The total estimated cost is $1,080,000, to be shared by the three municipalities. 1 Disposal of ashes and garbage . — The method of disposal of ashes and garbage is as follows : One collection of ashes a week is made in the summer season and two a week during the winter months, three teams being employed in the summer and six in the winter. The material collected is used for filling low areas wherever practicable and in building roadways on dirt streets. The remainder is hauled to the dump on Wildwood Avenue. Two collections of garbage a week are made from all the house- holds and during the summer months three a week in the business section. The material collected is taken to the north end of the town, where it is dumped into zinc-lined receptacles, which are protected from the weather and provided with means for flushing. The water used in flushing is carried away to a cesspool. The wagon, after dumping, is also flushed. From the tanks the garbage is taken away by farmers of the adjoining country. This method of disposing of the town’s ashes and garbage falls short of the present-day stand- ards for this branch of municipal sanitation. The town engineer, 1 Report on the Disposal of Sewage of Orange. Montclair, and East Orange, N. J., by Rudolph Ilering and John E. Gregory, March, 1912. 28 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. in his annual report for 1913, advocates a properly designed incin- erator and presents the following argument in its favor: The time is not far away when the lowlands will have become filled and dumps can not be found except with long hauls and with resulting high hauling cost. The garbage dump as at present operated requires constant attention to avoid it becoming a nuisance and at best is insanitary. A properly designed incinerator plant would be a great improvement over the present method and would provide as well a place for the disposal of other wastes for which no provision is at present made. An incin- erator plant would also make possible the collection of ashes and garbage by the same wagons and greatly reduce the cost of collections. Paving . — In the town of Montclair in 1913 1 there were 83.3 miles of streets, of which 8 miles were private streets, 8.2 miles country roads, and 67 miles town streets. Of the 67 miles of town streets 58.9 miles were macadamized, less than a mile (the main business street of the town) was permanently improved or paved, and 7.6 miles were unimproved dirt roads. THE BABY CLINIC. The consensus of opinion in Montclair seems to be that the con- sultations at the baby clinic and the visits of the nurse, who shows the mother in her home how to prepare feedings, have been of the utmost importance in saving the lives of Montclair babies. The baby clinic, reorganized under its present system in March, 1912, is an instance of a cooperation of social, civic, and private agencies in an effort to save the babies of the community. A weekly clinic for consultation as to feedings and infant hygiene and for medical advice is held at the Montclair Day Nursery under the joint charge of a Montclair physician, who has given her services, and the board of health nurse. Two dairies furnish the clinic babies with certified milk at 10 cents a quart, and the board of health furnishes milk, sugar, barley water, and limewater for modifying the milk to mothers who are unable to pay. The major part of the work con- sists of the visits of the nurse to teach the mother in her own home how to prepare feedings in accordance with the formula worked out for her baby at the clinic. A card containing the following announce- ment of the clinic is mailed to the mother of every baby for whom a birth certificate is filed: SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT. The attention of parents is called to the fact that a clinic for babies is held at the day nursery, Glen Ridge Avenue and Grove Street, Montclair, N. J., at 3 o’clock every Thursday afternoon. If your baby is sick, or if its food does not agree with it, you may obtain medical advice free by taking the infant to the clinic at the hour mentioned . If your baby needs attention on some other day of the week, and you have no physician, telephone to the board of health office (Montclair 2700) and ask to have the nurse call at your home. There is no charge for her service. Montclair Board of Health. 1 First Annual Report of Town Engineer, Montclair, N. J. INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 29 The clinic urges breast feeding wherever possible, with supple- mentary feedings of modified milk where the mother’s milk is found to be insufficient. In the discussion of infant deaths from diarrhea the fact has been noted that while in 1912 diarrhea was the leading cause (disease) of infant mortality, not a single baby died from this disease in 1913. Practically all the clinic babies come from the fourth ward, in which, as has been seen, the infant mortality rate has greatly decreased. The influence of the clinic is felt by a large proportion of the fourth- ward babies, since 83 of the 187 babies born in this ward in 1913 were brought to the clinic, and many more were visited in their homes. 1 i Report of Dr. Mercelis to the Montclair (N. J.) Board of Health, on the “Babies milk clinic,” March, 1914. APPENDIX. MILK REGULATIONS. [Extracts from an ordinance establishing a sanitary code for the town of Montclair. Passed Apr. 9, 1907, and as amended to Jan. 1, 1915.] Article 8. MILK AND ITS PRODUCTION. Section 1. Any person desiring to engage, either as principal or agent, in the pro- duction, sale, or distribution of milk or cream within the town of Montclair may make application therefor to the board of health, upon blanks to be furnished by the board, setting forth the locality from which such person or persons procure the milk or cream; also a full and complete list of the names and addresses of those from whom he pur- chases milk or cream, and also the place at or from which he desires to sell milk or cream, and whether he desires to sell raw or pasteurized milk or cream, or both. Said application shall also state whether the applicant desires to sell as principal or agent, and if as agent, give the name of his principal. It shall be signed by the applicant, and if granted by the said board a license shall be issued to him signed by the president and secretary of the board in the following form: [“Board of health, Montclair, N. J. Milk license No. .] “ , of , is hereby licensed to engage in the business of selling and distributing in the town of Montclair (raw or pasteurized) milk and cream from (store or wagons) for a period of one year from the date hereof: Provided , That if such person or any of his employees, servants, or agents shall violate any ordinance of the said board in conducting said business, or any of the provisions of an act entitled ‘An act to regulate the production, distribution, and sale of milk or cream,’ approved March 30, 1914, or other statutory regulations of such sales, this license may, in the discre- tion of the board, be revoked by the board. “Dated at Montclair, N. J., this day of , 191 — .” The annual license fee shall be $1 for each place at or from which milk is sold and for each wagon or vehicle used in the distribution thereof. All persons engaged in the business of selling milk or cream in the town of Montclair at the date when this ordinance takes effect, who desire to continue the same, must file their applications for a license not later than the Monday before the second Tues- day of January of each year. Licenses when granted shall be for a period of one year from the time of granting the same: Provided , That any licenses so granted may be vacated by the board in case the licensee or any of his employees, servants, or agents shall violate any of the provisions of the ordinance regulating the production, sale, and distribution of milk and cream or any of the provisions of the act of the Legislature of the State of New Jersey entitled “An act to regulate the production, distribution, and sale of milk and cream,” approved March 30, 1914, or other statutory regulations of such sales. Persons desiring hereafter to commence the business of selling milk or cream in Montclair may make their application at any meeting of the board, but in every such case new applications must be made on the Monday before the second Tuesday of January of each year, as above provided. LICENSE REQUIRED No person shall sell or offer for sale in the town of Montclair any milk or cream unless such person has obtained a license from the board of health authorizing him to make such sale. All persons having a license as required by this section shall at all times display such license in a conspicuous manner in the place where the milk and cream is kept for sale or distribution: Provided , That when such sale or distribution is 31 32 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. made from a wagon or other vehicle such vehicles shall have displayed on both sides thereof either a metal license tag that will be furnished by the board of health upon application by the proper parties or a painted sign similar in lettering to the license tags furnished by the board and with the proper license number. No person who is licensed by the board to sell milk or cream in the town of Montclair shall add any dairy to his source of supply without the written permission of the board. 1 Any person who is licensed to sell milk or cream in the town of Montclair shall immediately withdraw from the town any supply upon notification from the board that the producer of such supply has failed or refused to comply with any of the requirements that are or hereafter may be required of milk producers. No milk shall hereafter be produced, sold, exposed for sale, or delivered within the town of Montclair unless it is produced and handled in accordance with the require- ments of this article. Sec. 2. No person shall hereafter engage in the sale or exposure for sale of milk within the town of Montclair without first having filed with the board of health a true and complete statement of the locality from which all the milk they handle is produced, a complete list of the persons from whom the said milk is purchased, and a complete list of the localities from which ice for cooling purposes is obtained; and if at any time the place at which said milk is produced or the persons from whom the said milk is purchased or the locality from which said ice is obtained be changed the said board shall be notified immediately. On or before the 15th day of June and of December of each year, and at any other time within three days of the receipt of a request therefor, any person engaged in the sale of milk in Montclair shall furnish said board with a complete list of all persons to whom milk is regularly sold. Sec. 3. All premises whereon milk is produced or handled for sale or distribution in the town of Montclair shall be open to this board for inspection at any time, and owners of cows from which said milk is produced shall permit a veterinarian in the employ of this board to examine said cows at any time. Such examination shall consist of any efficient and reasonable method that may be used by the said veterinarian to determine whether or not the cows are diseased. STABLES. Sec. 4. Cows shall be stabled under light, dry, and well-ventilated conditions, and the stables shall conform in all respects to the requirements hereinafter set forth, viz: (a) Any portion of a barn used as a cow stable shall be tightly ceiled overhead, shall be entirely partitioned off from the rest of the barn, and shall not be used for the storage of farm utensils nor for any other purpose. (b) The walls and ceilings of said stables, not otherwise treated in a manner ap- proved by this board, shall be whitewashed at least every six months. (c) Stables shall have at least 2 square feet of unobstructed window glass per 500 cubic feet of air space, the windows to be arranged so as to light all portions of the stable effectively. (d) Each cow shall have at least 3 feet in width of floor space when fastened in stanchions, and in all cases where no adequate artificial means of ventilation is pro- vided each animal shall have air space of at least 600 cubic feet. All cow stables shall be well ventilated at all times. (e) All stables shall be provided with a tight, dry floor, and the manure drops or urine gutters shall be water-tight and shall be thoroughly cleaned at least twice each day. (f ) No manure, garbage, nor other putrescible matter shall be allowed within 100 feet of any cow stable, milk house, or cooling room; and the drainage from said build- ings shall be such that no liquid wastes can collect within this distance. (g) No raw milk or cream shall be sold in the town of Montclair unless it is produced and handled at a farm or dairy that scores at least 80 on the official score card of the United States Bureau of Animal Industry, and no pasteurized milk or cream shall be sold unless it is produced and handled at a farm or dairy that scores at least 70 on said score card. cows. Sec. 5 (a). No milk shall be sold or offered for sale or distributed in the town of Montclair except from cows in good health nor unless the cows from which it is obtained have, within one year, been examined by a veterinarian whose competency is vouched for by the State veterinary association of the State in which the herd is located and a certificate signed by such veterinarian has been filed with the board of health stating the number of cows in each herd that are free from disease. This 1 Art. 8, see. 5 (a). INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 33 examination shall include the tuberculin test, 1 and charts showing the reaction of each individual cow shall be filed with this board. All cows which react shall be removed from the premises at once if the sale of milk is to continue, and no cows shall be added to a herd until certificates of satisfactory tuberculin tests of said cows have been filed with this board. Every cow that is tested as required by the provisions of this section and found to be free from disease shall, immediately after such test is completed, be tagged in the following manner by the veterinarian who made the test: Provided, That if a cow is already tagged in compliance with this section no retagging will be required if the tag contains a proper serial number. The tag shall be attached to one ear of the cow so that it will be plainly visible and so that it can not be removed unless the ear be torn. The tags shall be serially numbered in a manner approved by the board and shall be of such construction that when once removed they can not be reused. [The board furnishes ear tags without cost to the dairyman.] Each certificate that is filed as required by the provisions of this section shall state clearly how each cow is tagged, so that any such cow may be identified. Any person who at any time, whether temporarily or otherwise, has in his herd or on his premises a cow or cows that have not been tagged as outlined above shall be considered as having willfully violated this ordinance and shall be liable to a penalty of $25 for each cow not so tagged. The owner of every cow that reacts to the tuberculin test shall notify this board in writing within 72 hours after the test is completed of the disposition that has been made of such reacting cow. The said notification shall also contain the name and address of the person to whom the reacting cow was sold or the name and address of the person by whom said cow was slaughtered. Every herd in which more than one reactor is found to every 15 cows shall be retested at the end of six months in the manner hereinbefore provided for making tuberculin tests, and the records of such tests shall be filed with the board of health as required in the case of annual tests. Every person who is licensed by the board to sell milk or cream in the town of Montclair shall file, or cause to be filed, with the board of health, within 72 hours after the completion of a tuberculin test of any cow in a herd from which his supply is obtained, a chart showing full details of such tuberculin test, and such chart, to be accepted by the board, must show that temperature readings were made at least every two hours from the tenth to the twentieth hour after the cow was injected with tuberculin; and whenever at the twentieth hour a rising temperature is being recorded, additional temperatures must be taken and recorded until a definite reac- tion is established or the temperature of the cow drops to normal. The chart must also state the name of the manufacturer of the tuberculin used, the amount used, and the hour of injection. If the cow has been previously tested within a period of four months, or if the herd on the previous test showed a large percentage of tuberculous animals or of animals with a suspicious temperature, the amount of tuberculin used and the hours of reading temperatures shall conform to the best practice in such cases. Every cow that has been admitted to the State of New Jersey within three months and added to a herd from which milk is produced for sale in Montclair must be retested not less than 60 days and not more than 90 days after such admission to the State, and no cow shall be added to a herd unless such cow has been tested to the satisfaction of the board within 3 months. In addition to the tuberculin tests already required by this section the board may, when in its opinion the number of tuberculous cows found in a herd or the extent of the lesions found in said cows warrants such action, require by resolution that a herd shall be retested, and no raw milk or cream from such a herd shall be sold in the town of Montclair until such a retest is made to the satisfaction of the board: Pro- vided, That a five-day notice to make such a retest must be served by the board upon the person who is licensed to sell such milk or cream. The board may also require that any cow that shows an irregular temperature at the time of a tuberculin test, or that, in the opinion of the board, has not been prop- erly tested, shall be removed from the herd, and no person shall sell in the town of Montclair any raw milk or cream from any such cow until a retest has been made to the satisfaction of the board. All tuberculin tests required by this section may be made by any regularly qualified veterinarian, unless the board can show cause why tests made by such veterinarian should not be accepted. 1 The tuberculin test will not be required whenever the board by resolution permits or requires tha pasteurization of a supply. 34 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. All tuberculin-test charts that are filed with the board must have appended thereto a veterinarian’s certificate as to the general health of all nonreacting cows. No diseased cow or any cow that is in a condition to impair the healthfulness of the milk shall be allowed to remain in any herd from which milk is produced for sale in the town of Montclair. Every person who is licensed by the board to sell raw milk or raw cream in the town of Montclair shall notify the board, or cause it to be notified, at once of the removal for any reason of any cow from any herd from which his supply is obtained. Such notification shall give the ear-tag number and the reason for the removal from the herd of any such cow, together with the name and address of the person who has just secured possession of the cow, in case such cow did not die or was not slaughtered on the premises. No Montclair board of health ear tag shall be removed for any reason from any cow while such cow remains in the possession of a dairyman who produces milk or cream that is sold in Montclair, and no cow that has been removed from a herd shall be returned to the herd without the knowledge of the board. When a cow is returned to a herd after calving, the board shall be notified of the date of parturition. No person shall sell any pasteurized milk or cream within the town of Montclair unless a certificate signed by a regularly qualified veterinarian has been filed with the board within six months for every herd from which such supply is obtained. Such certificate must state that the said veterinarian has personally examined every cow in the herd, and it must also state the number of healthy cows found and the number of diseased cows found, with the nature and extent of the disease in each case and the disposition that has been made of such diseased cows. (b) Cows shall at all times be kept in a clean condition, and the udders shall be washed or wiped with a clean, damp cloth immediately before milking. (c) No milk shall be obtained from any cow which has calved within 10 days or from any cow within 30 days before the normal time of calving. (d) All milk shall be obtained from cows fed and watered under the following conditions: All food given to such cows shall be sweet and wholesome. The use of either distillery slops or fermented brewery grains is prohibited, and their presence on any dairy premises will be considered sufficient cause for the exclusion of the milk from such dairies from sale or delivery in said town. Water supplied to cows shall be pure and free from all contamination from stable or household wastes, and no spring or shallow well in or adjoining any stable yard shall be used for watering said cows. EMPLOYEES. Sec. 6. (a) All milkers and all other attendants handling milk in any dairy shall be personally clean. When entering upon their duties connected with the dairy their hands and outer garments must be clean. If at any time any person or persons having any connection with a dairy, or with the handling of milk, or any resident member of the family of any person so connected, shall be stricken with cholera, smallpox, diphtheria, membranous croup, typhus, typhoid or scarlet fever, measles, tuberculosis, syphilis, or any other communicable disease that may hereafter be declared by this board to be dangerous to the public health, notice shall be given to said board immediately by the owner or owners of such dairies, and said board may order the sale of such milk discontinued for such time as it deems necessary. No milk produced from the dairy of any person failing to give notice shall hereafter be sold or exposed for sale or delivered in the town of Montclair until special permission therefor has been granted by said board. All persons, including milkers, who come in contact with milk or cream before it is sealed in the final container must be free from all communicable diseases as shown by a medical examination made every three months, and no person shall sell any milk or cream in the town of Montclair until a certificate, signed by a regularly licensed physi- cian, who is approved by the board, that such persons have been examined by the said physician within 30 days and show no evidence of any communicable disease, has been filed with the board of health. Such examinations shall include any tests that the board may by resolution prescribe. Like certificates shall be filed with the board of health on the 1st day of January, April, July, and October of each year based upon examinations that have been made of all such persons during the previous month: Provided , That such certificates will not be required for those persons who handle milk and cream that are to be pasteurized. Additional certificates must be filed for new employees as soon as they begin their duties. All certificates must be on forms furnished by the board and must give the name of every person examined. INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. 35 UTENSILS AND METHODS. (b) Utensils used for the collection and transportation of milk shall, before being used, be thoroughly washed with pure water and soda or soap, or by some other approved means, and then sterilized by steam. (c) As soon as milk is drawn from a cow, and before straining, it must be removed from the stable to a separate room, where it shall be strained immediately. It shall then, within 45 minutes of the time of milking, and in a building separate from the said stable, be cooled to 50° F., or below, by some method approved by this board. The above-mentioned cooling room shall be properly ventilated and lighted, shall be used for no other purpose than that indicated above, shall at all times be kept in a clean condition, and shall not be connected with any stable, barn, or dwelling. (d) All milk shall be delivered in bottles, but no milk in partially filled bottles shall be sold or offered for sale. No tickets shall be used in connection with the sale or delivery of milk. No bottles shall be filled, capped, or recapped outside the dairy building regularly used for this purpose, and said bottling room shall at all times be kept in a clean and sanitary condition. Milk bottles shall be used for no other purpose than as receptacles for milk. No person shall remove milk bottles from a building wherein a disease dangerous to the public health exists, or has existed, until he has first obtained permission in writing from the board of health. 1 All rooms in which milk or cream is pasteurized or bottled and all rooms in which milk utensils are washed or sterilized shall be provided with a smooth, well-drained, nonabsorbent floor. Such rooms shall at all times be clean and light and shall be effectively screened between the 1st day of April and November of each year. MILK. Sec. 7. (a) Samples of milk shall be furnished this board by any producer or dealer at any time upon proper payment therefor. (b) No raw milk shall be sold, offered for sale, or delivered in the town of Montclair unless at least 80 per cent of the samples, as shown by analyses made by or for the board, contain less than 100,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter: Provided, That no action will be taken to exclude any supply unless at least two samples taken on different days are found to contain more than 100,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter. No pasteurized milk that contains over 10,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter shall be sold or offered for sale or delivered in the town of Montclair. No milk or cream that contains any appreciable amount of sediment or foreign matter shall be sold, offered for sale, or delivered in the town of Montclair, regardless of whether or not the bacteria count exceeds the limit set by this section. ‘ ‘ Appreciable amount of sediment” shall be construed to mean anything more than a few minute particles in a quart of milk. (c) The board of health may, from time to time, When in its opinion the public interest may require, permit by resolution the sale of milk that is produced under conditions other than as herein specified: Provided, That such milk is pasteurized by subjecting it to a temperature of 150° F. for 20 minutes, or by an equivalent process. The board of health may, when in its opinion the public health requires such action, require by resolution that any milk or cream supply shall be pasteurized under the supervision of the board, and no person shall sell any such supply after he has been notified by the board to pasteurize it unless such supply is pasteurized under the supervision of the board: Provided , That such supply may be sold without pasteuri- zation after the board by resolution decides that the necessity for such pasteurization no longer exists. 2 No person [who is licensed by the board to sell milk or cream] shall at any time pasteurize his supply or permit any part of it to be pasteurized without the written permission of the board, nor shall any dealer at any time sell as raw milk or cream, without the written permission of the board, any supply that he has been authorized or directed by the board to pasteurize. 2 No pasteurized milk shall be sold in the town of Montclair unless it is conspicuously labeled “Pasteurized.” Said label shall also state the degree (temperature and length of exposure at that temperature) and date of pasteurization. (d) No substance or compound shall be added to any milk which is to be exposed or offered for sale, and no substance shall be subtracted therefrom. Art. 10, sec. 4. 2 Art. 8, sec. 5 (a). 36 INFANT MORTALITY: MONTCLAIR, N. J. (e) No milk shall be sold in Montclair which is obtained from a dealer who handles in part a supply not approved by this board ; and no person shall deliver or offer for sale in the town of Montclair any milk unless the entire supply which he handles complies with the requirements hereinbefore set forth, unless satisfactory evidence is given this board that the two supplies are kept separate. No milk or cream shall be sold in the town of Montclair if it is handled or stored at a milk station, dairy, or distributing station at which a milk or cream supply not approved by the board and not contained in a final container which is plainly labeled with the source of the supply is handled or stored. No milk or cream shall be sold in the town of Montclair unless the container in which it is delivered has plainly marked thereon the name of either the producer or the vender of the milk or cream, and in case a license to sell milk or cream is granted to a dealer who handles separately more than one supply, such container shall in addi- tion have marked thereon the source of the supply. No false or misleading statement or mark shall appear upon any container or be attached thereto. (f) No milk shall be delivered, stored, or transported at a temperature exceeding 50° F. No milk shall be sold from any store unless said store has adequate facilities for keeping said milk at a temperature below 50° F., and no milk shall be stored or sold at a temperature higher than 50° F. All milk shall be kept and delivered in the original bottles. 1 * * * 5 (g) No ice which is obtained from a source which is contaminated or which is so situated that it may become contaminated shall be used for cooling milk. Any person who violates any of the regulations above set forth shall, upon con- viction thereof, forfeit and pay a penalty of $25 for each offense. 1 Art. 7, sec. 8. ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 5 CENTS PER COPY V U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR CHILDREN’S BUREAU JULIA C. LATHROP. Chief ADMINISTRATION OF CHILD LABOR LAWS PART I EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM CONNECTICUT By HELEN L. SUMNER and ETHEL E. HANKS o \) ■ Page. Letter of transmittal . . . ; 5 Administrative agencies and their functions (chart) Follows page 5 Introduction 7-12 Method of securing employment certificates (chart) Faces page 12 Method of securing certificates 12-19 Original regular certificates 13-17 Subsequent regular certificates 17 Summer-vacation certificates 18 Lost certificates 19 Statements of age 19 Evidence of age 19-21 Physical requirements 21 Educational requirements 22-25 Evening-school attendance 25 Enforcement 25-26 Keeping children in school 26 School census 27-30 Applicants for certificates 30 Unemployed children 31-33 Inspection 34, 35 Summary 36 Records 36-38 State records 37 Hartford district records 37 Local records kept by State agents outside of Hartford district 37 Conclusion 38-52 Method of securing certificates 39 Evidence of age 39 Educational requirements 40 Physical requirements 41 Enforcement 42-46 Unemployed children 46-48 Relation to other child labor laws 48-50 Centralization and records 50-52 Appendix 53-69 Laws relating to employment certificates 53-56 Forms used in the administration of employment certificate laws 56-68 3 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. U. S. Department of Labor, Children’s Bureau, Washington , March 8, 1915. Sir: I transmit herewith the first of a series of studies of the administration of child labor laws with reference to the method of issuing employment certificates. The effective value of a child labor law is measured by the equity, economy, and facility with which it can be enforced. In the enforcement of child labor laws the employment certificate may be treated as the key, since no law for the protection of children or young persons can be enforced unless there is some ready method of determining exactly what persons in a given establishment are subject to that law. This method the employment certificate should provide. This first report covers a study of the employment certificate sys- tem in the State of Connecticut. It is intended to make similar studies in at least half a dozen States, selected so as to show how various types of laws and various methods of enforcement actually work out in practice. Legal requirements and legal limitations differ widely in the various States of the Union, and proper protection of youthful workers may well be secured without uniformity in nonessentials. This study is designed to bring out those common essentials in the use of the cer- tificate without which the rights of the child can not be preserved. It is plainly a comparative study in administration, designed to bring out a standard method. Acknowledgment should be made of the cooperation of the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations, which contributed a portion of the cost of the field work. The series of studies is under the direc- tion of Miss Helen L. Sumner, head of the industrial division of the bureau. The field studies have been made by Miss Ethel E. Hanks, except as to the questions relating to the school census, which were investigated by Mr. A. V. Parsons. Respectfully submitted. Julia C. Lathrop, Chief. Hon. W. B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor. 5 ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES AND THEIR FUNCTIONS TORY INSPECTORS No duties or powers relating to enforce- ment of certificate law; inspectors sometimes report to State board of edu- Temporary special agents ISSUE CERTIFIC VTES, El Regular employment [ certificates to chil- dren 14-16 on pro- duction of Vacation certificates to children 14-16 on production of Statements of age to children over 16 on product ion of i 1 i- i 1 1 i 1 School record or satisfactory examination paper in edu- ployment signed by employer (1 lie presence of the parent is also required) EMPLOYERS ^ailing to send com mencement or termina- tion notices CHILDREN 14-16 A. With uvular employ- ment. certificates — To see that unemployed children return to school or to work B. With vacation employ- ment certificates — To see that such childreu return to school in September CHILDREN 7-16 To enforce school attend- ance— (a) of children not located by attendance officers in large towns: (b) of all children in small towns Reported to at- tendance offi- cer or State agent Employer may be reported to State’s dis- trict attorney for prosecu- fr j LOCAL BOARDS OF EDUCATION | V -- — 1 ! In large towns attendance officers follow up In small towns teachers, ! Superintendents, principals, etc., report to State agents and teachers 1 Children leaving Children ou census ! Childreu leaving Issue school records records but not on school (monthly) to children wishing school registers (an- 1 to apply for em- 1 p a 1 t ^ vmen ADMINISTRATION OF THE EMPLOYMENT CERTIFI- CATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. INTRODUCTION. In Connecticut the administration of the employment certificate system is centralized in the State board of education. Agents of the State board not only issue all certificates but perform all the work of inspection of establishments for violation of the law. The factory inspection department — which in most States inspects establish- ments for children under age or working without certificates, and which even in Connecticut is charged with the duty of enforcing all laws relating to hours, labor conditions, and employments prohibited for children — has no legal authority whatever in regard to the minimum age and employment certificate law. This act, indeed, is considered almost solely as a provision of the compulsory education law, under which children from 14 to 16 years of age who have already received a certain degree of education may leave school on condition that they go to work. A law which went into effect in September, 191 1, 1 2 provides that no child under 14 years of age shall be employed in a manufacturing, mechanical, or mercantile establishment, and that no child under 16 years of age shall be so employed unless the employer has obtained a certificate signed by the secretary or an agent of the State board of education or by some other school officer “ designated by said board.” This certificate must give the date of the child’s birth, must show that he is over 14 years of age, and must state that he is “able to read with facility, to legibly write simple sentences, and to perform operations of the fundamental rules of arithmetic with relation both to whole numbers and to fractions,” and that he does not appear to be physically unfit for employment. In addition to this regular employment certificate a temporary or vacation certificate permitting employment during summer vacation is authorized by an act of 1913 2 for “any child in good physical con- dition, between 14 and 16 years of age, on application in person to the secretary or an agent of the State board of education.” No educational qualifications are requisite to obtain this vacation certificate. 1 Acts of 1911, ch. 119. For the text of this act see p. 56. 2 Acts of 1913, ch. 211. For the text of this act see p. 56. 7 8 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. These acts are supplemented by the compulsory school-attendance law, which provides that children over 7 and under 16 years of age must attend regularly a public day school or receive regularly during the hours the public school is in session thorough instruction in the studies taught in the public schools, except that children over 14 years of age are exempt from school attendance “ while lawfully employed at labor at home or elsewhere.” 1 In a study of the employment certificate system these laws of 1911 and 1913 and the compulsory school laws are the only legislative enactments which are of importance. Connecticut has, however, other laws relating to child labor which are enforced by the State factory inspector. Most conspicuous among these are the law prohibiting employment under 16 years of age in certain dangerous trades 2 and the law limiting the hours of labor of minors under 16 to 10 a day and 55 a week in manufacturing establishments and to 58 a week, except at Christmas time, in mercantile establishments and prohibiting employment of minors under 16 in manufacturing or mercantile establishments after 6 p. m. or in mercantile establish- ments after 6 p. m. on more than one day a week, except at Christmas time, or after 10 p. m. at any time. 3 But as the only connection between these laws and the employment certificate system lies in the fact that employment certificates constitute evidence of age, they are not considered in this study, which relates exclusively to the adminis- tration of the employment certificate system. As for the application of the employment certificate act, though the law mentions only manufacturing, mechanical, and mercantile establishments, the State board of education has interpreted it broadly and requires employment certificates of children employed in all sorts of establishments, in offices and bowling alleys, or with wagons, or by telegraph or other messenger companies — in fact, of practically all child laborers except newsboys and children employed in agricultural pursuits and in domestic service. Though this inter- pretation has never been subjected to legal test, the State board of education has had the favorable opinion of attorneys upon this broad interpretation of the law. It should be noted that this interpretation is not based entirely upon the wording of the employment certificate act, for the requirement that children working during school hours in any occupation shall have certificates may be considered as an administrative regulation in the enforcement of the compulsory edu- cation law, which exempts children between 14 and 16 years of age from school attendance if they are “ lawfully” employed, regardless of occupation. 1 General Statutes, revised edition, 1902, sec. 2116. For the text of this section and others relating to its enforcement see pp. 53, 54. 2 Acts of 1911, ch. 123. 3 Acts of 1909, ch. 220, as amended by Acts of 1913, ch. 179. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 9 Employment certificates are made out to a particular employer and are good only in his hands. They can not be obtained, therefore, until the child has a position promised, and they must be renewed whenever the child changes employers. Certificates must be signed, according to law, “by the secretary or an agent of the State board of education or by a school supervisor, school superintendent, or supervising principal or acting school visitor designated by such board.” The State board has exercised this power by designating only its own agents to issue certificates. In the smaller towns and villages, however, there are 34 school supervisors, also appointed by the State board of education though their functions are similar to those of county superintendents in other States, who assist by passing upon documents presented by children and parents in application for certificates and by filling out “ information cards” and sending them to the nearest agent, who makes out the certificates and mails them back to the parents and employers. But these super- visors assist in issuing only a few certificates, and none of the other persons mentioned in the law have, in fact, any part in the procedure except as they furnish transcripts of school records to children. The law further provides that employers must keep certificates on file and must show them with lists of the children under 16 employed “to the secretary or an agent of the State board of education when demanded during the usual business hours.” Thus the inspection as well as the issuing of certificates is placed in the hands of these agents. The secretary of the State board of education and six agents bear the main burden of administering the law. Two State attendance officers, however, assist the agents as needed during busy seasons, and from time to time additional persons are employed for periods of from one to six months in special canvasses of the larger towns and cities. The two State attendance officers when assigned to the duty of issuing certificates and of enforcing the certificate law have exactly the same powers and duties as the State agents appointed for that purpose. The secretary of the State board has also an assistant, who has the power of an agent, and there are two clerks, one of whom performs the actual work of issuing certificates in the Hartford office while the other spends half of each day in Bridgeport assisting one agent and the other half in New Haven assisting another agent. In other towns school employees often help the agents in looking up school records and in making out certificates, but not in interviewing parents or children. All clerical assistance of this nature needed by the agents is paid for by the State board of education. The force concerned with the administration of the employment certificate law, then, consists of the secretary of the State board of education, his assistant, six agents, two clerks, two State attendance officers, temporary canvassers as needed, school supervisors in the 88399°— 15 2 10 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. • smaller towns and villages, and other school employees for clerical work. None of these persons, however, except the two clerks, are regularly employed exclusively in the administration of the employ- ment certificate law. The secretary and his assistant are concerned with the entire school system of the State and can give only a small part of their time to the subject of employment certificates. The agents, moreover, in addition to their duties in connection with child labor have certain other duties, to be described later, in the enforce- ment of the compulsory education law. The secretary of the State board of education and his assistant are in charge of the central office in the capitol building at Hartford, where the records for the entire State are kept, where the corre- spondence centers, and where uniform instructions to the other agents are formulated. There, too, employment certificates are issued to Hartford children by the clerk assigned to that branch of the work. The inspection of establishments in the Hartford district is usually done by one of the other six agents. Of these six agents one is in Bridgeport five days and in New Milford one day a week; another is in New Haven two whole days and three hah days a week, having office hours also at certain hours in half a dozen other near-by places; and the other four have office hours once a week or once a fortnight in a number of different towns. Each agent has a certain district assigned to him and maintains headquarters in some town of his district. The districts are changed from time to time as experience may prove desirable. All forms used in the administration of the laws are prepared by the State board of education, are uniform throughout the State, and are distributed only by the agents of the State board. All except the blank employment certificates are freely distributed to the children and to the persons who must fill them out. Blank employment cer- tificates, however, are handled only by the agents and their clerks and are not even intrusted to school supervisors. During the year ended August 1, 1914, there were issued in the State of Connecticut 6,965 original and 6,312 subsequent certificates. Of the originals 658 were vacation certificates. It therefore appears that during this single year an average of two certificates were issued for each child. Assuming that about one-half of the 8,308 children who received certificates during the previous year were not yet 16 at the end of this year, there were probably in force on August 1, 1914, in addition to some 600 or more vacation certificates, about 10,500 regular certificates. The number of applications rejected is nearly as large as the num- ber of certificates issued. This does not mean, however, that as many children were refused as received certificates, for in the figures relating to applications one child may appear as many times as he EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 11 applied during the year. Many of the children, moreover, whose first applications were refused may later have received certificates and so be counted both as having been refused and as having been granted certificates. During the year ended August 1, 1914, 13,051 applications, but probably a considerably smaller number of appli- cants, were handled, of which 5,458 were rejected. Of the remainder 628 cases were continued into the next year. The following were the causes of rejection, in the order of their importance: 1 Failed on educational test 1, 910 No evidence of age 1, 547 No employment 1,159 Under 14 years of age 598 Over 16 years of age 168 Other reasons (housework, farm work, etc.) 40 Physical condition 30 Parent did not appear 6 Total 5,458 The children who received employment certificates during the year ended August 1, 1914, were distributed as follows: Counties. Certifi- cates issued. Cities and towns in which over 75 certificates were issued. Certifi- cates issued. New Haven 2,065 New Haven 1,053 Water bury 402 Meriden 201 Fairfield 1,736 Bridgeport 924 Norwalk 275 Stamford 192 Hartford 1,438 Danbury Hartford 126 637 New Britain 297 Manchester 156 Bristol 88 New London 621 Norwich 267 Stonington 95 Windham 484 Plainfield 134 W indham ( W ill imantic ) 114 Putnam 84 Litchfield 282 Torrington 113 Middlesex 172 Middletown 97 Tolland 167 Vernon 92 6,965 The census statistics of child labor in Connecticut in 1910 2 show 6,141 boys and 4,548 girls, in all 10,689 children 14 and 15 years of age engaged in gainful occupations. There were also 679 children from 10 to 13 years of age at work; of these 254 were newsboys, 84 servants, and about 150 engaged in agricultural pursuits. But nearly 200 appear to have been engaged in occupations which now are and appear then to have been prohibited for children under 14 years of age. Many of these children, however, were probably em- ployed out of school hours. Moreover, the present law was not in 1 Report of the State Board of Education, 1913-14. * Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Vol. IV, Population, Occupation Statistics, pp. 442-445 » 12 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. effect at that time. Of the 10,689 children from 14 to 15 years of age, inclusive, engaged in gainful occupations in Connecticut in 1910, about 1,500 were newsboys or servants or were engaged in agricul- tural pursuits, leaving only about 9,000 in occupations for which certificates are now required. If these census figures are even roughly comparable with the fig- ures relating to employment certificates in force, it appears that in 1914 somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 more children were at work in Connecticut than in 1910. It should be noted, however, that the statistics of the certificated children in 1914 include some children who work only on Saturdays and before or after school hours. METHOD OF SECURING CERTIFICATES. Four different kinds of employment certificates are issued in Con- necticut: (1) Original regular certificates, (2) subsequent regular cer- tificates, (3) original summer-vacation certificates, and (4) subsequent summer-vacation certificates. A subsequent certificate is merely a copy of an original certificate made out to a new employer. Vaca- tion certificates are good for employment only during the long sum- mer vacations. For work before or after school hours or on Saturdays during the months when the schools are in session, regular employ- ment certificates must be secured exactly as if the children were employed all day and did not attend school. To children over 16 “ Statements of age,” as they are called, certifying to the fact that such children are past the age when certificates are required are also issued, on request, by the State board of education. When the present law went into effect, in September, 1911, printed instructions for obtaining employment certificates were issued; but when the edition of these instructions was exhausted it was not con- sidered necessary to reprint them, and for some time none were used. Recently new instructions 1 have been printed and distributed. In Hartford the office in the State capitol building is open every day from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. In Bridgeport and in New Haven the offices are in buildings near the business centers, the hours being from 8 a. m. to 12 m. in Bridgeport and from 2 to 4 p. m. in New Haven. In the smaller places the office is usually in a school or a public room, as, for example, the town clerk’s office, and the hours are on certain fixed days and may be either inclusive, as from 9 to 11 a. m., or at a set time, as 2 p. m. As the agents are employed throughout the year and are not entitled to even a day’s vacation without loss of pay, the hours are the same throughout the year and there is no difficulty in securing certificates when the schools are closed. Form 27, p. 69. METHOD OF SECURING EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES - ! EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 13 ORIGINAL REGULAR CERTIFICATES. In order to obtain an original regular certificate, a child must (1) appear in person, (2) be accompanied by one of his parents or his guardian, (3) bring an “ Employment ticket” or other form of prom- ise of employment signed by an employer, (4) present evidence to show the date of his birth, (5) appear to be physically fit for work, and (6) prove either by a school record or by an examination that he meets the educational requirements of the law. Of these requisites, those directly required by law are the evidence of age and the educational and physical requirements. That the child shall apply in person is indirectly made essential, however, by the provision that he shall not “ appear to be physically unfit for employment,” as well as by the provision that the issuing officer shall certify to his education. As for the presence of the parent, the law requires that one copy of the certificate shall be “ delivered to the parent or guardian,” and in order that it may be so delivered the State board of education holds that the parent or guardian must be present. The word guardian is interpreted to mean legal guardian, a ruling which is said to have been effective in preventing boarding- house keepers and other alleged friends or relatives from exploiting children for their wages. If a child under 16 has no parent or legal guardian in this country, he can not get a certificate to work. The requirement that one copy must be “ delivered to the employer” is held to imply that the issuing officer must know the name of the employer, and therefore that the child must bring a promise of em- ployment. This ruling resulted from experience of a few cases in which employers returned certificates sent them, stating that they never employed or wished to employ the children named. In the Hartford office the parents and children are interviewed only by the clerk and in the other offices only by the agent or his clerk. When the child first comes in, whether or not he has with him the requisites for obtaining a certificate, his name and address and all other facts not dependent upon later proceedings are entered on what is called an “Information card.” 1 Whether the application for a certificate is granted or refused, the results of the entire proceeding, including the disposition of the case, must ultimately be recorded on this card, which is a permanent office record. No child who applies, therefore, goes away without leaving in the office his name and address, the name of his father and mother, a physical description of himself, and usually other valuable information, such as the name of the school he has been attending and his teacher’s name, which can be used by school-attendance officers in following him up to see that he goes to school if he is not granted a certificate to work. This Form 1, p. 56. 14 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. information card serves as a device to assist in the enforcement of the compulsory education law. If a child appears to be physically unfit for work he may be sent to a physician for examination as soon as the information card is made out or at any later stage of the proceedings. In such case he is given a note to the physician and nothing further is done unless he returns with a signed statement that he is in good physical condition. In case he brings an unfavorable report or fails to return, his applica- tion is counted as rejected on account of physical condition. If not sent to a doctor or hospital for treatment he is obliged to return to school. During the year 1913-14 there were 30 such rejections. A child who has not brought a transcript from a school register 1 showing sufficient schooling to exempt him from further examination on that score is given an educational test., 2 The amount of schooling required and the character of the educational test will be described later in considering the educational requirements for obtaining cer- tificates. If the child fails to pass the educational test the word “Ref used,” with the reason for refusal, is written in red ink on the face of his information card, which is filed for future reference. He is then followed up, by a process which will be described later, to see that he returns to school. Failure to pass the educational test is the most common of all causes for the refusal of certificates. As has been seen, the applications of nearly 2,000 children were rejected for this cause alone during the year which ended August 1, 1914. If, on the other hand, the child fulfills the educational requirements but has failed to bring one of his parents or his guardian, an employment ticket, or evidence of his age, he is sent away with the blank forms which he must have filled out and with exact instructions as to what he must bring before he can get his certificate. A child is not usually sent away for additional papers or for his parent or guardian until he has passed his educational test. The only exception to this rule is in the case of a child who claims to have completed a grade which would exempt him from the test. Such a child, instead of being examined at his first appearance, may be sent away with instruc- tions and with a blank form for the transcript of his school record, together with any other forms which he may need. A child who, after having received such instructions, fails to appear again, like the child who fails to pass the educational test, is followed up to see that he returns to school. An application that is not completed by the child’s bringing the parent and producing all necessary docu- ments automatically becomes a refused case at the end of the suc- ceeding month. The parent or guardian, whether he appears at the first visit oi later, is questioned as to his willingness to have the child go to work, i Form 2, p. 56. 2 Form 3a, p. 5S. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 15 and is urged to allow the child to remain in school. If the parent is unwilling, the certificate is refused; but as unwilling parents nat- urally do not come to the office, such cases are practically eliminated by the requirement that parents or guardians must be present. When the law went into effect the presence of the parent was not required, and there is therefore no blank space on the information card for this point, but a notation is made at the bottom of the card stating who appeared with the child. There are no exceptions to this requirement. 1 In six cases during the year ended August 1, 1914, applications were rejected because the parents did not appear. The parent or guardian, however, is never obliged to come to the office more than once, even if the child must come back with additional papers. The board of education provides a blank form, called an employ- ment ticket, 2 for the employer’s statement that if a certain child obtains a legal certificate before a certain date he intends to employ that child. These employment tickets are distributed among em- ployers, and if a child appears at the issuing office without a promise of employment he is given one of the blanks to take to his prospec- tive employer. The use of these forms, however, is not essential. Any similar written statement signed by an employer is accepted. Moreover, if a child appears claiming to have procured work at a certain establishment, but bears no written evidence of the fact, the employer often is called up by telephone. If he confirms the child’s statement and if everything else is satisfactory, the certificate is made out, but failure to bring a promise of employment is a frequent cause of failure to procure a certificate. In the year 1913-14, as has been seen, certificates were refused for this reason in 1,159 cases. It is not necessary in practice to question the authenticity of a promise of employment, as frauds are automatically checked up through the provision of the law, described more fully later on, which requires that employers shall send to the office of the State board at Hartford a notice of commencement of employment. If such a notice is not returned within a reasonable time after the certificate has been issued, the agents of the State board follow up the case. Thus it is impossible for a child by forging or inventing an employer’s name to escape from the network of the law. Lack of evidence of age 3 is an even more frequent cause of failure to secure a certificate than is lack of a promise of work. During the year ended August 1, 1914, 1,547 applications were rejected because 1 One girl, for example, who had appeared repeatedly at the New Haven office stating that her mother was ill in bed and that her father was at work, and who had tried bringing various other persons in their stead, was finally obliged to have her father appear, though he lost his own piece-rate wages while away from his work. 2 Form 4, p. 59. 3 Form 5 or 6 or other record, p. 59. 16 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. no evidence of age was produced. These figures include all cases in which the children, having been sent away to procure evidence of age, never returned. In 598 cases in which such evidence appears to have been produced the applications were rejected because the chil- dren were under 14, and in 168 cases because they were over 16 years of age and therefore needed no certificates. Second and later visits to the office of the State board of education or to an agent to procure an employment certificate are generally caused by failure to bring the parent or guardian, a promise of employment, or evidence of age. In a few cases, of course, the pro- cedure is delayed by sending the child to a physician for a physical examination, but this is rare. The educational test, given always at the first appearance in case the child does not present a school rec- ord from one of the higher grades, separates those who are educa- tionally qualified from those who are not and prevents, for a time at least, second visits to the office of children who are not able to pass the examination. The parent, as has been pointed out, is not obliged to be present more than once, but if he failed to come when the child made his first application he must appear with the child at some later time. If a child has actually secured a position he usually brings his promise of employment, for employers generally under- stand this requirement ; but many children still apply without know- ing that they must first secure work. The provisions of the law are becoming better known, however, and often children come to the office for the first time accompanied by their parents and bringing all the necessary documents. In any event the child, after his first appearance, is always sent away, either (1) with his certificate, (2) with a refusal to grant a certificate, (3) with a note to the physi- cian, (4) with all the blank forms necessary to be filled out in his case before a certificate can be granted, or (5) with the blank forms for all other documents and instructions as to securing a birth record. When a child who does not appear to be physically unfit to work has either passed the educational test or brought a satisfactory transcript of his school record, has produced his parent or guardian, and has brought some form of promise of employment signed by an employer and satisfactory evidence of his age, he is given his cer- tificate. 1 Certificates are issued in triplicate — one copy for the parent, one for the employer, and one for the State board of education. The employer’s copy and the State board copy are practically the same, and both contain the name of the employer for whom the child may work, with a caution on the employer’s copy that the child named can be lawfully employed only by the employer named. The parent’s copy does not contain the name of an employer, but states that it 1 Form 7, p. 60. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 17 is not good for employment for longer than one week. The text of the law is printed on the back of each copy. The certificate itself contains no description of the child, but the information card gives the color of the hair and eyes, the complexion, and a general state- ment as to height. The employer’s copy is usually sent by mail, but delay in the child’s going to work after he has received a certificate is prevented by allow- ing him to work for a week on the parent’s copy, which is handed directly to the parent or to the child with instructions not to lose it and to come back or notify the agent if he changes employers. In some cases, as in Bridgeport, where the office hours of the agent are in the morning and the child can go immediately to work, he is often given the employer’s copy as well as the parent’s copy, with instruc- tions to take the former to the employer. Any danger from this procedure is obviated, in the agent’s opinion, by the fact that the employer must notify the office of the State board of education in Hartford when the child begins work. When the employer’s copy of the certificate is sent it has attached to it a blank notice of commencement of employment, 1 a blank notice of termination of employment, 2 and a copy, labeled “ Important notice,” 3 of the section of the law which makes the employer liable to a fine of not more than $10 for failure to send these notices promptly to the State board of education. The notice of commencement of employment is yellow; the notice of termination is a vivid red; and in the copy of the legal provision relating to the return of these notices the word “ promptly” and the sentence relating to the penalty are underlined in red ink. Commencement and termination notices must be sent by the employer direct to the office of the State board of education at Hartford. If, however, the employment does not end until after the child is 16 years of age, a termination notice is not required. SUBSEQUENT REGULAR CERTIFICATES. When a child is discharged or quits work the employer retains his own copy of the certificate. The child, however, while hunting for a new position, may take his parent’s copy with him to serve as evidence that he can be legally employed. When he secures work he gives his parent’s copy to his employer and may then work a week without any other form of certificate. This gives him ample time in which to obtain a subsequent certificate made out to the new employer. 1 Form 8, p. 61. 2 Form 9, p. 61. 2 Form 10, p. 61. 88399°— 15 3 18 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT 1 . Application for a subsequent certificate may be made by the parent, by the child, or by the employer; it may be made in person or by mail; and it may be directed either to the agent from whom the original certificate was secured or to the State board of education at Hartford. A blank form 1 is provided for such application, but its use is not essential. Any similar form of application is as good. As the infor- mation cards of all children to whom certificates have been issued by each agent are kept by him, as the State board copies of all certificates issued in the State are on file in the Hartford office, and as instructions concerning cases to be followed up are all issued from Hartford, it makes no difference whether a subsequent certificate is issued by the agent or by the central office. No formality except a simple request is necessary in order to obtain a subsequent certificate , 2 which is merely a copy of the original certificate made out, in triplicate as before, to a new employer. Across the face of this certificate is stamped a form to be filled in with the number of the original certificate of which this one is a copy, with the date of issue and with the name of the secretary of the State board of education. It is not necessary that the previous employer shall have sent in a termination notice before a subsequent certificate is issued; nor is it necessary for the child to furnish proof, in the form of a promise of employment, that he has actually se- cured another position. If the application is made by the parent or child, however, the agent usually assures himself in some way, often by telephoning the employer, that the child really has a position. The employer’s copy of a subsequent certificate, like the employer’s copy of an original certificate, is sent to the employer by mail, with commencement and termination notices and a warning to send such notices to the State board of education. The State board copy is filed with the original State board copy in the central office at Hartford. The parent’s copy is not usually given to the parent but filed with the employment ticket. If, however, the child brings a much soiled and torn original parent’s copy, the new one is given to the child and the old one destroyed. Outside of Hartford the parent’s copy of a subsequent certificate, with the name of the employer added, is usually filed with the information card, which itself contains the name of the first employer, so that the agents can always tell where a child is working without applying to the Hartford office. SUMMER-VACATION CERTIFICATES. Original and subsequent summer-vacation certificates , 3 good for employment only during the long summer vacation of the public schools, are obtained in exactly the same way as original and sub- i Form 11, p. 61. 2 Form 12, p. 62. 3 Form 13, p. 63. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 19 sequent regular certificates except that transcripts from the school records are not required and no educational test is given. The certificate plainly states that the child must return to school at the beginning of the fall term. The act governing regular certificates is printed on the back of the summer-vacation certificate form. LOST CERTIFICATES. If a child loses his parent’s copy of his certificate, he is never given a new one until he changes employers and rarely even then; but the inconvenience caused the child is slight, as the employer for whom he is or has been working does not need a copy of his parent’s certificate, and to aid him in finding a new employer the agents usually give him a blank “ Employment ticket” which he presents to be filled out. As no proof of the loss of a parent’s copy is required, there is nothing to prevent a child from giving his parent’s copy to another child, but the other child could not work on it for more than a week unless the employer also was willing to violate the law. STATEMENTS OF AGE. For children who are over 16 years of age and therefore do not come under the provisions of the child labor law, the State board of education has undertaken to issue statements 1 which certify that evidence is on file in its office showing that these children are actually over 16 and which name the character of the evidence. These statements, like employment certificates, are issued in tripli- cate, one copy for the child or parent, one for the employer, and one for the records of the State board. Outside of Hartford the em- ployer’s copy is usually kept by the agents themselves. All that is necessary to obtain a statement of age is for the child to appear at the office with satisfactory evidence of the date of his birth. An information card, stating the character of the evidence, and the three copies of the statement are then made out and signed by the issuing officer. During the year ended August 1, 1914, 846 such statements of age were issued. EVIDENCE OF AGE. The law does not specify what may be received as evidence of age in support of an application for an employment certificate. It does specify, however, that the certificate must state the date of birth of the child and must show him to be over 14 years of age, and it pro- vides also that the secretary and the agents of the State board “ shall have power to require all statements of fact offered in support of such application to be made under oath” which they may themselves administer. 1 Form 14, p. 64. 20 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. The documents required in practice as evidence of age are as fol- lows: (1) For children born in Connecticut, town clerk’s certificates, if obtainable; (2) for children born in other States, copies of birth certificates, if obtainable; (3) for foreign-born children, passports or other documentary evidence of age at arrival in this country, or (4) if passports are not obtainable, foreign birth certificates; (5) for either native or foreign-born children unable to procure any one of the above- named documents, baptismal records; or (6) if no such record can be procured, affidavits of age sworn to by the parents or guardians. Most of the children now applying for certificates who were born in Connecticut are able to obtain town clerk’s certificates of age. 1 Since 1897, when several prosecutions occurred and special efforts were made by the registrars of the larger cities to arouse doctors and mid- wives to the importance of recording all births, over 90 per cent, it is believed, of the births in Connecticut have been recorded. A town clerk’s certificate costs 15 cents, a fee which may seem a hardship to the child who is going to work but is believed to be necessary in order to prevent constant demands from children for certificates to prove that they are old enough to go to moving-picture shows. If a foreign-born child has a passport or other similar paper, he is not obliged to send for other documentary proof of his age; but if he can not produce such a paper his parent is told to write to the place where he was born for a birth certificate. The agents do not state to whom the child or his parent should write; require no evidence such as a registry receipt that a letter has been written; and demand no proof later, when the child or parent returns claiming that the birth record can not be obtained, that such is actually the case. The Russian Jews particularly complain of the expense of obtaining birth records. Nevertheless, persistence in demanding documentary proof of age from foreigners has been rewarded with considerable succes*s. Foreign papers must be translated if the agent can not read them, but a trans- lation must always be accompanied by the original paper. In Hart- ford foreign documentary proof of age is usually retained and filed along with other evidence relating to the child. Outside of Hartford such documents are returned to the child or parent. When a foreign document is returned, in order to prevent its fraudulent use later for a younger child of the same family, it is stamped with the date when it was presented at the office of the State board of education or to one of the agents. While waiting the receipt of a foreign birth record or of a communi- cation stating that it can not be obtained, the child is not allowed to work but must go to school. Transcripts of school records and entries in family Bibles are not accepted as evidence of age, for such documents are considered to be i Form 5, p. 59. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 21 merely former statements of the parents. When presented they must be accompanied by affidavits of age sworn to by the parents. 1 These parents’ affidavits are believed to furnish, in case of need, a better basis of prosecution for false statements than do school or Bible records. PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS. The law provides not only that every employment certificate must state that the child “does not appear to be physically unfit for em- ployment” but that the secretary or an agent of the State board of education or one of the other school authorities authorized to issue certificates “may cause any child to be examined by a reputable physician for the purpose of aiding him in determining whether such child is physically fit for employment, and may charge the expense of such physical examination against the State as a part of his expenses.” Under this authority the agent, before granting certifi- cates, sends to a physician for examination such children as he has reason to believe are or may be in bad health. Under the same authority, moreover, children found at work who appear to the agents physically unfit are sometimes sent to a physician and not permitted to resume their employment until they have had a physical examina- tion and have been pronounced in good health. The physicians who handle all such cases are selected by the State board of education. In the vast majority of cases the physical fitness of a child to go to work is determined by the agent who issues the certificate, and except in extraordinary instances the agent’s judgment is based on the child’s answers to questions as to whether he has ever been seriously ill or is well at the time of making application. If the facts as stated by the child appear to make it advisable, or if the child looks ill even though he claims to be in good physical condition, he is sent to a physician. No record is kept of the number of children required to undergo physical examinations, but in 1911-12 only 9 were refused certificates at the Hartford office because of physical unfitness. Twenty-two were refused in 1912-13, all but one of them at the Hartford office, and 30 were refused in 1913-14 in the entire State for this reason. The physician to whom children are sent fills out no blank form describing the child’s condition, but merely writes to the agent that he finds such and such defects or that the child is in good health. If the physician finds any serious defect and states that he believes it would be harmful to the child to work, the child is refused a certifi- cate and, according to the seriousness of the case, is sent to a doctor or a hospital for treatment or back to school. But the agent, not the physician, is the ultimate authority in the disposition of all cases. 1 Form 6, p. 59. 22 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS. The burden of maintaining the educational standard for children who wish to go to work rests partly upon the State board of education and partly upon the local school visitors, town school committees, or local boards of education. The child labor law provides that in order to obtain an employment certificate a child must be able to read with facility, to write legibly simple sentences, and to perform the opera- tions of the fundamental rules of arithmetic with relation both to whole numbers and to fractions. No school record is required and no school grade which must have been attained is specified. An earlier act, 1 which is still in effect, provides that ‘‘whenever the school visitors, town school committee, or board of education of any town or dis- trict shall by vote decide or whenever the State board of education shall ascertain that a child over 14 and under 16 years of age has not schooling sufficient to warrant his leaving school to be employed, and shall so notify the parent or guardian in writing,” the child must at- tend school until the parent or guardian has obtained a “leaving certificate” stating that the education of the child is satisfactory either to the local school authorities or, if the notice has been given by the board, to the State board of education, or until the child is 16 years of age. Under this law a grade standard for leaving school to be employed has been established in many of the smaller towns of Connecticut — 25 towns in August, 1914 — but not in the larger cities where most of the employment certificates are obtained. Under the rules of the town school committee of Norwalk, for example, no child is permitted to leave school until he has completed the fifth grade. In the other places which have such a requirement children must usually have com- pleted the sixth grade, but in some towns they must have completed the seventh grade. In granting or refusing certificates, agents of the State board of education not only determine whether or not the child has sufficient education to go to work under the child labor law, but “ascertain” whether or not he has the amount of schooling which has been decided by vote of the local school authorities to warrant his leaving school to be employed. If the child is found lacking under either requirement, the agent notifies the parent and the child must go back to school. In issuing the certificate the agent satisfies himself as to the child’s educational qualifications in one of two ways. He either accepts a transcript from a school register, 2 signed by the superintendent, principal, or teacher of the school, or gives the child an examination. If a transcript from a school register is accepted in Hartford, it must show that the child has completed the ninth grade and in other 1 Acts of 1903, ch. 29, as amended by acts of 1905, ch. 36. For the text of this act, see p. 53. 2 Form 2, p. 56. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 23 places that he has completed the fifth grade; otherwise an examina- tion is given unless there is a grade requirement for leaving school, when the transcript must show that he has completed that grade. It is generally believed that when children have completed the fifth grade they have a thorough knowledge of fractions, and until the fall of 1913 the Hartford office, as well as the agents outside of Hartford, did not require the educational test for children whose school records showed completion of the fifth grade. At that time, however, it was learned that the mercantile establishments in Hartford wished the children they employed to be better prepared in arithmetic than they were. Thereafter all children in Hartford were given the test except those who had completed the ninth grade. The educational test is not given in towns which have a grade requirement for leav- ing school, for in all such towns the agents cooperate with the local school authorities by refusing to issue certificates to children who, even though they might satisfy the requirements of the State law, do not meet the local grade standard. Even in other towns chil- dren from the fourth and lower grades are usually refused without examination. Transcripts from school registers are taken in lieu of examination only from Connecticut schools or from approved schools outside of Connecticut. Records from parochial schools in Connecticut are accepted on the same basis as those from public schools. The com- pulsory education law provides that children attending a private or parochial school must be instructed during the hours and terms that the public schools are in session and in the studies taught in the public schools. The subjects definitely specified as those which children must be taught are reading, writing, spelling, English gram- mar, geography, arithmetic, and United States history. School records from foreign countries or even from many States of the Union are not accepted in place of the educational test. If from a school in Massachusetts or New York, however, a school record certifying to the grade completed, made out on the transcript form of the Connecticut State Board of Education and signed by the superintendent, principal, or teacher of the school which the child last attended, is accepted. It is the custom in Connecticut to promote children twice a year, and in many places the examinations for promotion are checked up in the office of the city superintendent of schools. This method makes it difficult, at least for principals or teachers of public schools^ to get rid of troublesome children by promoting them into a grade from which they can get certificates without examination. Under any circumstances, if an agent suspects that a transcript of a school record is fraudulent or has not been honestly issued he may require the child to take the educational test; and during the summer vaca- 24 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. tion, when the schools are not in session and children can not get transcripts from school registers, reliance in issuing regular certifi- cates is placed wholly upon office examinations. Until the fall of 1914 the educational test consisted simply of an examination in arithmetic. The child was required to write his name, his address, the name of the town, and the date at the top of a sheet of paper, and was given half a dozen problems in arithmetic, which he was required to work out on the sheet. These problems were the same for all children and involved, as will be seen by examination of the form 1 filled out by a child in the Hartford office, both common and decimal fractions. No test was made of the child’s ability to read, and the only evidence required of his ability to write was the writing of his name and address and the date at the head of his arithmetic test. The assumption was that if a child had been in school long enough to be able to pass this examination in arith- metic he must also have learned to read and write. During the fall of 1914 reading and writing tests 2 were added. These are much simpler than the test in arithmetic, which is practically the same as before. The reading and writing tests seem adapted to a child who has completed the work of the first grade, whereas the arithmetic examination could hardly be passed by a child who had not completed the work of the fifth grade. In the reading test there are only two words of more than one syllable, and the writing test consists merely of answers to questions as to age, when last at school and what grade, father’s name and business, where the child intends to work, the name of the State, and the names of the days of the week. An indefinite time is allowed for the educational test, and if, in the unfamiliar surroundings, the child appears to be nervous or unable to concentrate his attention, he is often allowed several trials. In order to secure uniformity throughout the State the entire edu- cational test is now printed for use by all agents, but it is changed every month or two. In this connection attention should be called to the fact that the child labor law does not require ability to read and write in the English language. Unless there is some local regulation to the contrary, children whose education has been entirely in a foreign tongue are entitled to receive employment certificates if they can pass the arithmetic test and can “read with facility” and “legibly write simple sentences” in any language. This fact doubtless accounts for the simplicity of the reading and writing tests as com- pared with the test given in arithmetic. Teachers in the regular graded classes often give special assistance to children who wish to pass the educational test and to children who have come back to school after failure to pass it. Agents of the State i Form 3, p. 57. 2 Form 3a, p. 58. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 25 board sometimes even tell the children to ask for such help. 1 In some towns, as New Britain and Meriden, the ungraded classes assist backward children to meet the educational test for employment certificates. In at least one instance an agent of the State board, on the advice of the superintendent of schools but much to the dis- appointment of the teacher, refused certificates to an entire group of backward and slightly defective children trained in an ungraded class, because they did not understand one minor process in arith- metic, though they successfully solved the more difficult problems in which they had been coached. But as the test is printed and the same one is used for some time, it would seem easy for a child to memorize the solutions to the particular problems given and to pass the test without a thorough knowledge of the principles involved. EVENING-SCHOOL ATTENDANCE. Until 1911 attendance at evening school was compulsory for all illiterates over 14 and under 16 years of age who were employed in towns where public evening schools were maintained. As this law applied only to children who, under the child labor act of 1911, can not obtain certificates, i. e., to children who are unable to read and write in any language, it was entirely superseded by the latter act so far as children who must have certificates are concerned. At present there is no compulsory evening school attendance in Con- necticut. Evening schools are maintained, however, in several towns and are largely attended by foreign-born children as well as by adults. ENFORCEMENT. The laws prohibiting the employment of children under 14 and providing that those from 14 to 16 years of age must have employ- ment certificates from the State board of education and be actually at work or attend school are enforced by two methods, first by an elaborate system of following up both children and employers, and second by the inspection of establishments where children are employed. A child between 14 and 16 years of age must be in school unless he is lawfully at work. This dovetailing of the child labor and compulsory education laws means in practice that, during school hours at least, one law is as well enforced as the other. The main element in the enforcement of the certificate law is an elaborate system of following up children in order to enforce the compulsory education law. In this system, as will be seen, the employer checks up violations by the child; the child checks up violations by the 1 A boy came to the Hartford office, for example, who claimed to have finished the seventh grade and who brought all the necessary papers to procure a certificate. He was exceedingly nervous and, after trying several times, was unable to pass the educational test and was refused a certificate. He was told to ask the teacher to explain to him the more difficult operations and to return and try again in a few weeks. 88399?— 15 4 26 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. employer; and the machinery devised for enforcing school attend- ance automatically and simultaneously enforces the employment certificate law. Inspection is used merely as a means of filling up the loopholes in the system of reports and counter reports which has been devised to keep all children under 14, and all under 16 who are not lawfully employed, in school during the hours and terms that the public schools are in session and to prevent violations during school vacations. In considering how the methods of enforcing school attendance of children from 14 to 16 years of age work out in practice, two classes of towns or cities and three classes of children must be considered. First, there are the larger towns which have school-attendance officers. In these towns all children except those who have employ- ment certificates are directly under the jurisdiction of the local attendance officers except that these officers may report to the agents or attendance officers of the State board children whom they are unable for any reason to locate — particularly if they suspect that such children may be illegally employed. Second, there are the smaller towns and villages which have no local attendance officers and where the agents and attendance officers of the State board enforce the school attendance of all children. As for the children, there are, first, children who have been in a pub- lic school in Connecticut and do not have employment certificates; second, children who have never been in a public school in Connecti- cut and do not have employment certificates; and third, children who, whether or not they have been in a public school in Connecticut, have already been given employment certificates. So far as the first two classes of children are concerned the problem is primarily one of the enforcement of the compulsory education law. KEEPING CHILDREN IN SCHOOL. In the larger towns children from 7 to 16 years of age who drop out of a public school or are irregular in their attendance are reported to the local attendance officers and are followed up by them. Regard- less of the ages of the children, all cases which can not be located are supposed to be reported weekly by these officers to an agent of the State board. This agent later reports back to the local attendance officers the results of his investigations. In the smaller places, where there are no local attendance officers, the superintendents, principals, or teachers send to the State agent in charge of their district monthly reports of unexcused absences and of irregular attendance, and the agent follows up all such cases regardless of the ages of the children. No child, then, can leave school without being reported to some official whose duty it is to see that he either returns to school or pro- duces some lawful excuse for his absence. The disappearance, EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 27 through the family’s moving to another town or district, of a child who has once been in a public school is rendered particularly difficult by the fact that the State agents, who are in charge of the unlocated cases of truancy reported by local attendance officers in the larger towns and cities as well as of all cases reported by school authorities in the smaller places, are in constant communication with one another. Thus if the State agents and the local truant officers have enough time and are conscientious enough to perform their duties thoroughly, it must be practically impossible for a child who has been in a public school in Connecticut to go to work under 14 years of age, or under 16 without an employment certificate. It should be noted, however, that there are only two local attendance officers in New Haven, two in Bridgeport, and one in Hartford. The agents of the State board of education see that children who have been employed on summer-vacation certificates return to school in the fall and that children of any age who have been placed in private homes by county officers attend school regularly. Children who have never been in a public school in Connecticut and do not have employment certificates, with whom may be classed the few children who disappear from the school system and can not be located, are of two classes — those who have attended parochial or private schools in Connecticut and those who have come into the State from the outside, either from another State or from abroad. Parochial schools are required by law to keep registers of attendance in the form prescribed by the State board of education for public schools, and these registers must be open during school hours for inspection by the secretary and the agents of the State board. These schools must also make to the State board annual reports 1 which, however, do not include reports of absences from school. In some places parochial schools are cooperating with the State and local authorities by reporting their truancy cases in the same way as pub- lic schools, but, in general, they are reluctant to ask for the assist- ance of public school attendance officers, and such cooperation is entirely voluntary. SCHOOL CENSUS. In the case of children who come into Connecticut, either from other States or from abroad, and who do not promptly report at a public school, the principal means of enforcement of the compulsory educa- tion law is the annual school census. The primary purpose of this census is to serve as a basis for the apportionment of school funds, though it serves also as a certain check upon parochial school chil- dren. Each town or district is entitled to $2.25 from the State for every child enumerated, and districts within towns are also entitled General Statutes, revised edition, 1902, sec. 2104. 28 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. to city funds, which in Hartford bring the total up to about $6 for every name listed. The law directs the enumerators, whenever they find children who are not in school, to “ ascertain the reason for such nonattendance and if such persons are employed at labor the names of their em- ployers or of the establishments where they are employed.” 1 In many places in the State the school registers are checked up by the enumeration lists to see that all children in school are counted in the enumeration and that all children enumerated are either in school or otherwise accounted for. It is in such places that the census is of the greatest assistance in enforcing the compulsory education and child labor laws; but even in other places, if the enumeration is carefully made, it brings to light the names of children who have come into the State from outside and are not enrolled in any school and tends to prevent such children from going to work illegally. The annual enumeration covers all children over 4 and under 16 years of age and is made in districts by the school district committee or, if they fail or are unable to do so, by the clerk, and in towns by one or more persons appointed by the town school committee. The law requires that the enumeration shall be made during September and shall show the names and ages of all children, together with the names of their parents or guardians, who belonged to the district or town on the first Tuesday of that month. 2 Returns are supposed to be made to the school visitors or the town school committee by Sep- tember 25, and the law provides that if the returns from any district are not in by that time “one of the school visitors or a person duly appointed by the board of school visitors shall make a complete enumeration before the 15th of October.” In practice the school census is taken as early as possible in September. It can hardly be begun, however, as early as the first Tuesday, for schools are not yet open at that time and parents and children are often away from home. No particular qualifications are required for school census enumer- ators. In districts where the clerk takes the census there is generally greater uniformity in methods from year to year than in towns where political considerations are apt to enter into the appointment of enumerators and where a new set of enumerators is appointed every year. In Hartford and Willimantic, for example, good results are said to be obtained by having the census taken each year by the same enumerators, while in Bridgeport it is stated that the change of enu- merators each year has proved a serious handicap in securing com- plete returns. Nevertheless, in the fact that enumerators are paid 1 General Statutes, revised edition, 1902, secs. 2252 and 2255, as amended by acts of 1913, ch. 182. For the text of these sections, see p. 54. 2 Until 1913 the school census was taken in October. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 29 from 3 to 5 cents for every name there is a strong incentive to secure all the names possible. In some districts enumerators are obliged to hire and pay their own interpreters. Enumerators are supposed to make a house-to-house canvass. They accept the parent’s statement for all information wanted, including whether or not the child is in school and if employed the name of his employer. There is a penalty of $3 for failure to give the information required, 1 but none for giving false information except a general penalty of $20 for making a false statement concern- ing the age of the child “with intent to deceive the town clerk or registrar of births, marriages, and deaths of any town or the teacher of any school.” 2 Blank forms for the census enumeration are furnished by the State board of education, 3 but their use is not obligatory. In most of the larger towns and cities, indeed, they have been found unsuitable because they have no spaces provided for the addresses of the parents or of the children. In many places local forms and methods have been devised. In Bridgeport, for example, the enumeration is first taken on a pad form, 4 a separate slip for each family, and the blanks call not only for the present residence but for the residence on October 1 of the previous year. This information is then transferred to a per- manent form, 5 which is filed in a card catalogue and which contains each child’s record in parallel columns year by year for the entire period of compulsory school attendance. This system makes it impossible for any child whose true age was recorded when he entered school to skip a year when he is nearing 14 in order to go to work earlier, for a misstatement of age is detected as soon as the information secured in the latest enumeration is transferred to the card containing the record of earlier enumerations. In most places, owing mainly to the financial incentives offered both to school districts and to enumerators, the school census is believed to be taken with a fair degree of accuracy. New Britain, however, reports that a double method of checking reveals the fact that from 400 to 600 names are omitted each year by the enumerators. In some towns an insufficient number of enumerators are employed. Thus New Britain with its population of about 44,000 can not secure as good results with two enumerators as Willimantic with its popu- lation of only 12,000 can secure with three enumerators. For with fewer enumerators either carefulness or rapidity in covering the city must be sacrificed, and both are factors in the accuracy of the census. 1 General Statutes, revised edition, 1902, sec. 2226. 2 General Statutes, revised edition, 1902, sec. 2120. For the text of this section see p. 54. 3 Form 15, p. 65. < Form 16, p. 66. 6 Form 17, p. 66. 30 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. Though not always done, it appears to be a general custom to compare the census records with the school registers. Out of the seven cities visited this is done in five — Hartford, Bridgeport, Water- bury, New Britain, and Willimantic. In Bridgeport, as has been seen, the census records of each year are compared with previous census records as well as with lists furnished by the schools. In New Britain, too, there is a double check, as the enumerators’ records are not only compared with the school registers but with cards made out in school by the children themselves. This latter method of checking is the one in use in Middletown, where it is considered better than a comparison with the school registers. In Middletown, just previous to the taking of the census, blank cards 1 are distributed in parochial as well as in public schools and are filled out by all the children enrolled. In addition to data concerning the child they ask for information in regard to the child’s brothers and sisters, their names and ages, and where they are at work or in school. This latter feature is an additional check, which is valuable to the State agents in discovering cases of illegal employment. New Haven is the only one of the seven cities visited where no effort is made to compare the school census returns with the names of the children enrolled in school. The superintendent of schools stated, however, that he believed the census, made annually by 10 men, to be practically complete and accurate. APPLICANTS FOR CERTIFICATES. Children who have once applied for certificates, whether or not they have been in school in Connecticut and whether or not they get the certificates for which they apply, find themselves caught in another network of reports and counter reports. Among these chil- dren are many newcomers in the State who might not otherwise be located until the next census, but who have been sent in to obtain certificates by employers to whom they have applied for work. Reports of the names of all children who have applied for certifi- cates, with the disposition of each case, are supposed to be made by the agent of the State board to the local school board, the attendance department, or the teacher in the town. Where office hours for issuing certificates are held more often than once a week, as in New Haven and Bridgeport, the reports are made weekly, and in other places they are made after each office period. Reports of pend- ing cases, i. e., of children who have applied but failed to produce their parents or guardians or one or more of the requisite documents, are made monthly. Where the agent’s office is in a school building the disposition of each case is checked up on the school records at the i Form 18, p. 66. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 3l time of the child’s application. In Hartford, where cooperation with the schools began later than in some of the other cities and is not as thoroughly worked out, the disposition of cases is reported to some of the schools only if the children have brought transcripts from school registers and not if their qualifications have been determined solely by the educational test; but in one school district, where the children are mainly foreign born, this report is made at once. The school authorities, after being notified that a child has been refused a certificate or has not returned to complete his records, are supposed to report to the agent within one week whether or not the child is in attendance, and within two weeks the agent is expected to inform the secretary of the State board as to the exact whereabouts of the child. In addition to this system of reporting, if a child is refused a cer- tificate on the ground of insufficient education, an “ attendance notice,” 1 which states that the child has not sufficient education to warrant his leaving school to be employed and names the school which he must attend, may be either given or sent to his parent. One of the stubs attached to this attendance-notice form is sent as a memorandum to the State board of education at Hartford and the other is retained by the agent for use in following up the case. Of these notices 559 were sent out by the State agents during the year ended August 1, 1914. There is a penalty of not exceeding $5 for each week’s failure on the part of the parent to send his child to school after having received such a notice. UNEMPLOYED CHILDREN. The agents of the State board of education are primarily responsible for the school attendance of children who have received employment certificates but are temporarily unemployed. They are sometimes assisted by local attendance officers. But as soon as a child is re- ported to the local school authorities as having been granted a certificate to work, his name is removed from the school register. Thereafter he is supposed to be in charge of the State board, and all reports concerning him are handled by the State agents. Whenever a certificated child is not actually at work he is supposed, under the compulsory education law, to be in school. In order to make it possible to enforce this provision the system of commence- ment and termination notices already mentioned was made part of the law. And in order to enforce the return of these notices the State board has devised a follow-up system by means of which the child automatically checks up the employer. Thus, if an employer to whom a child has had a certificate made out fails to send in a 1 Form 19, p. 67. 32 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. commencement notice he is sent a form letter 1 together with another blank commencement notice and another copy of the section of the law, with the penalty of $10 for failure to return commencement and termination notices underlined in red ink. If he does not respond to this notice, the case is sent to the nearest agent with instructions to investigate. In the same way, if a child applies for a subsequent cer- tificate or an agent of the State board hears in any way that a child has left a certain employer, and if the termination notice in either case has not been received, the previous employer is sent a form letter 2 requesting him to return at once the termination notice for that child. This also is followed up, if necessary, by an agent’s visit. An occasional prosecution, it is evident, would cause the children themselves automatically to force their employers to send in com- mencement and termination notices. There is said to be much diffi- culty, however, in persuading prosecuting attorneys to bring action in such cases. Up to August 1, 1914, only one such case had been prosecuted — a test case brought in Hartford, which was thrown out by the supreme court because the State agent had not kept his promise to allow the employer three weeks for the return of the notice. In regard to the return of termination notices, employers complain that it is often impossible to tell when a child has quit work and therefore impossible to avoid delay in sending the notice to the State board of education. As the child has no interest in the employer’s copy of his certificate he is not obliged to ask for its return and the employer can not know, when a child fails to appear, whether he is ill or has found other employment. For this reason some employers keep the parent’s copy, as well as their own copy, of each certificate on file, knowing that the child is likely to ask for his parent’s copy before leaving. Some of the agents even instruct children to leave their parents’ copies with their employers, a proce- dure which is a protection to the employer but perhaps a handicap to the child in seeking a better position. If a child does not apply for a new certificate within a short time after a termination notice has been received at the office of the State board in Hartford, a return postal card 3 is sent to his parent asking where he is employed, or, if not employed, where he is attending school. This postal card is intended to be sent a week after the termination notice is received, but in practice it is often not sent for several weeks. If no answer is received within two weeks, or if the child is reported to be out of work and not in school, an agent is notified. The agent may either turn the case over to a local attend- ance officer or go himself to the home and tell the parent that the 1 Form 20, p. 67. * Form 21, p. 67. a Form 22, p. 68. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 33 child, if not at work, must go to school. Agents are required to report to the State board upon such cases within two weeks after notification. After his first visit to the home the agent generally allows the child a week in which to secure another position. The provision that unemployed children must go back to school is the most difficult part of the law to enforce. In the first place it is entirely dependent upon the sending in by employers of termina- tion notices. If the employer fails to send this notice the child may be either unemployed and not in school or illegally employed for months unless he is accidentally discovered. In Hartford the voca- tional counselor employed by the vocational guidance committee, a private organization, assists in locating such cases and reporting them to the State board. At one time the counselor found in three months some 50 cases in which employers had failed to send in ter- mination notices. The offenders were warned, and since that time employers are said to have been much more careful about sending these notices promptly. A second reason for the difficulty in getting unemployed children back to school is that no provision is made in the schools for profitably utilizing their time. In some places these children are put in un- graded classes, but as they have already passed the educational test for a certificate this provision does not by any means fill their needs. Where in the absence of ungraded classes they are put back into the regular grades their condition is even more unsatisfactory, for they find themselves in a lower grade than they would have been if they had remained in school and at the same time in the company of children who are in many ways less mature than themselves. The difficulty involved in such association, as well as the difficulty of teaching these children in the regular grades, which they may enter or leave at any time of the year, serves to make unemployed children undesirable pupils from the teacher’s standpoint. Recognizing the lack of opportunity in the schools and the lack of welcome there, the agents of the State board of education, instead of attempting to send unemployed children back to school, often attempt to find new positions for them. Moreover, if a family is known to need a child’s earnings the agent may even help him to get his first position. In either case the agent usually calls up an employer and recommends the child or sends the child to an estab- lishment which he knows to be in need of help. A blank form 1 has recently been prepared for agents’ records of children who are in need of work. 88399°— 15 5 i Form 28, p. 69. 34 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. INSPECTION. The inspection of establishments for certificated children, like the issuing of certificates and the following up of unemployed children, is done by agents of the State hoard of education. The regular factory inspectors, as has been pointed out, have no duties in con- nection with the enforcement of the law relating to employment certificates, and any assistance they may render is purely voluntary. They do aid, to a limited extent, by reporting cases of “suspects” or of certificates on file in establishments where the children are not working. But they have no legal right to ask to see employment certificates and do not often see them. The agents of the State board of education, on the other hand, have the power to demand the production of certificates for children under 16, together with lists of such children, but have no legal power to go through an establishment to see whether the children at work there are all on the list. The employer is liable to a fine of not more than $100 for neglect to keep certificates and show them to the agents of the State hoard, hut he can, if he wishes, forbid the agents to enter his workrooms. In practice, it is said, this is not a serious limitation of power, as in only two cases have employers ever refused to allow agents to go through their establishments. A more serious limitation of power appears to lie in the fact that agents can not prosecute directly, but can only report violations of the law to the State’s attorney for the district, who uses his own judgment about bringing cases into court. Nevertheless, during the year ended August 1, 1914, there were 29 prosecutions for illegal em- ployment. The penalty in such cases is a fine of not more than $100. The only regular inspectors of the State board of education are the six agents who visit establishments in their districts whenever they are not occupied in keeping office hours to issue certificates or in work connected with the enforcement of the compulsory education law. In addition to inspections made by regular agents special canvasses are made at irregular intervals in the larger towns. During these canvasses all the regular agents and several additional ones are turned into a single district. During 1912-13 eight additional agents were employed, most of them for only a month or two, but some of them for three months. The number of towns canvassed during the year ended August 1, 1914, was 14, and the number of establishments inspected was 937. The State board, however, has a list of about 7,500 establishments in the State in which children under 16 years of age are employed. The procedure of inspection is very simple. In a small establish- ment the agent secures the certificates at the office and then goes through the workrooms. Whenever he sees a child who appears to be under 16 he asks his name and looks for his certificate. If it is EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 35 found, the agent makes no further inquiry; if not found, he asks the child’s age and address and the name of the school last attended. Later he ascertains the correct age of the child from the school or from the files in his own office. Whenever he finds a child who •appears to be certainly under 16 years of age working without a cer- tificate he instructs the foreman or employer to cease employing the child until the correct age is established and tells the child to come to his office with proof of age. If the agent does not find a child for every certificate on file, he makes inquiry at the office as to the missing children, and if he finds that a child has been dismissed and no termination notice sent to the State board he requires the employer to make out the termination notice before he leaves the premises. The agent also instructs employers to take no risks when in doubt as to the ages of children applying for work without em- ployment certificates, but to send them to his office for statements of age. The agent makes no inquiry as to hours, character of work, or labor conditions. In a large establishment the agent generally makes his tour of the workrooms without the certificates, but speaks to and writes down the names of all the children who appear to be under 16 years of age. Later he compares the names and the certificates in the main office. Sometimes the employer summons all the children together and the agent checks them up by the certificates. By this method, how- ever, it is impossible for the agent to detect the child who is not 16 years of age but who because claiming to be is not told by the employer to appear, and for this reason he usually makes a tour of the establishment. In all other respects the procedure, is exactly the same as in small establishments. Whenever an agent inspects an establishment he records the re- sults on a card, 1 which gives, in addition to the name and address of the firm, the business in which it is engaged, the name of the super- intendent, the number of hands employed, the number of girls and boys between 14 and 16 years of age, the number working without certificates, and the number employed under 14 years of age. The agent keeps this card, but the information is transferred to another blank, 2 which is sent to the State board at Hartford. This latter blank, it should be noted, is now filled out only in part, as its ques- tions were made to fit inspections under the old law and cover some questions, such as those relating to hours and wages, which the agent can not now legally ask. The agent also keeps a list of inspections as a guide to future work, and the State board makes up, from the reports which it receives, a record of the history of inspections 3 by establishments. This last form, it is said, has not proved entirely satisfactory, as it does not show on what date the information was gathered and has to be supplemented by notes on the back. 1 Form 23, p. 68. 2 Form 24, p. 68. Form 25, p. 68. 36 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. SUMMARY. To sum up, the principal duties of the agents of the State board of education, who are primarily responsible for the enforcement of the employment certificate law, are (1) to issue certificates; (2) to inspect manufacturing, mechanical, and mercantile establishments in their own districts and see whether certificates are on file; (3) to assist from time to time in special canvasses of their own or other districts; (4) to report to the State’s attorney and to act as prosecuting wit- nesses in cases of violation of law, whether by employers or parents; (5) to follow up employers who fail to send in commencement or termination notices; (6) to follow up in large towns all children from 7 to 16 years of age who have dropped out of school' or who, having applied and not been given certificates, can not be located by the local attendance officers; (7) to follow up in small towns all children from 7 to 16 years of age who have dropped out of school or have applied and not been given certificates; (8) to follow up children of school age who are not in school but have been located by the annual school census; (9) to see that children who have been em- ployed on summer-vacation certificates return to school in the fall; (10) to report to school boards, superintendents, or teachers the names of children who have applied for certificates, with the dispo- sition of each case; and (11) to follow up children who have been employed but are out of work. The agents make monthly reports 1 of the number of towns visited, the number and kind of establishments inspected and the results, the number of special cases investigated, the number of applications for certificates, the number of certificates issued and refused, the number of notices to attend school and of statements of age issued, the number and the results of prosecutions, the number of copies of certificates (subsequent certificates) issued, the number of letters written, and the number of days occupied in issuing certificates. From these reports the State board can make out monthly statements for the entire State. The agents also have monthly meetings in Hartford, when they compare notes, discuss doubtful cases, and receive instructions. RECORDS. The records kept of the administration of the employment certificate law are of three classes — those relating ho the State as a whole, those relating to the Hartford district, and those relating to districts outside of Hartford. Both the State and the local Hartford records are kept in the State capitol building at Hartford, and the local records of other districts are kept in the offices of the State agents for those districts. These records are as follows: 1 Form 26, p 69. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 37 STATE RECORDS. 1. Alphabetical file of State board copies of all certificates in force in the State, each certificate accompanied by commencement and termination notices and subsequent certificates for that child. (Forms 7, 8, 9, 12, pp. 60, 61, 62.) 2. Similar file of expired certificates and of statements of age. (Form 14, p. 64.) 3. Similar file of vacation certificates. (Form 13, p. 63.) 4. Correspondence file of form letters to employers, parents, etc., and other correspondence. (Forms 20, 21, 22, pp. 67, 68.-) 5. Memoranda of attendance notices given parents of children refused certificates, pasted in books by months. (Form 19, p. 67.) 6. File of agents’ reports of inspections. (Form 24, p. 68.) 7. Historical records of inspections of each establishment. (Form 25, p. 68.) 8. Monthly reports of State agents. (Form 26, p. 69.) HARTFORD DISTRICT RECORDS. 1. Alphabetical file of information cards for all applicants, in- cluding both those refused and those granted certificates, and also information cards for children over 16 who have received statements of age. (Form 1, p. 56.) 2. Alphabetical file of evidence of all kinds warranting the refusal or the granting of certificates, including evidence of age, examination papers, transcripts of school records, and employment tickets. (Forms 2, 3, 3a, (back), 4, 5, pp. 56, 57, 58, 59.) 3. Information cards for continued or pending cases. (Form 1, p. 56.) 4. Memoranda of agents’ reports of inspections. (Form 23, p. 68). In Hartford the duplicate memoranda of attendance notices (Form 19) are sometimes destroyed and are sometimes given to a State agent or to the local attendance officer. Parents’ copies of subse- quent certificates (Form 12) are either destroyed or exchanged; in the latter case the old parent’s copy is destroyed. Employers’ copies of statements of age (Form 14) are sent to the employers. LOCAL RECORDS KEPT BY STATE AGENTS OUTSIDE OF HARTFORD DISTRICT. 1. Alphabetical file of information cards for children granted certificates, parents’ copies of subsequent certificates with the names of the employers inserted by the agents, and employers’ copies of statements of age for children over 16. together with information cards for such children. (Forms 1, 12, 14, pp. 56, 62, 64.) 2. Alphabetical file of information cards for children refused certificates. (Form 1, p. 56.) 38 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 3. Alphabetical file of all documents accepted as evidence of age, and of examination papers. (Forms 2, 3, 3a, 3a (back), pp. 56, 57, 58, 59.) Transcripts of school records and employment tickets are destroyed from time to time. 4. Duplicate memoranda of attendance notices. (Form 19, p. 67.) 5. Information cards for continued cases. (Form 1, p. 56.) 6. Memoranda of agents 7 reports of inspections. (Form 23, p. 68.) 7. List of inspections — kept in a book. 8. Teachers’ attendance reports for all children in small towns — kept until unexcused absences have been investigated. CONCLUSION. ' The most striking features of the administration of the employment certificate system in Connecticut are its centralization and its conse- quent uniformity in procedure. The law is short and on many points, such as the evidence of age to be accepted, specifies no details of pro- cedure; but it is so drafted as to give the State board of education power to make rules and regulations relating to these details. This is done not by any formal delegation of authority, but simply by plac- ing the whole matter in the hands of the secretary and agents of the State board who, though they can not issue certificates to children who do not meet the requirements laid down in the law, are alone responsible for determining whether or not these requirements are met. The law does not make the issuing of certificates mandatory upon the secretary and agents of the State board. In other words, the child is not given the right to demand a certificate upon produc- ing certain documents, but before issuing the certificate the agent must be satisfied of the truth of the facts to which he personally certifies. This shifting of emphasis from the child’s right to an employment certificate to the power of the secretary and agents of the State board to use their discretion under the law in issuing such certificates makes it possible to establish a uniform system of rules and regulations gov- erning details which in many States are specified in the law itself. Such rules and regulations could not be enforced if local officials issued the certificates without central control, and such a method of issuing them under a law of this kind would lead to wide differences in actual standards throughout the State; but this possible danger appears to be entirely obviated by the fact that the State board is able to keep the issuing of certificates entirely in the hands of its own agents, over whom it has complete control. Similar uniformity exists in most of the methods by which the law is enforced. The taking of the school census and the following up of the truants from school in places where there are local truant officers EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 39 are practically the only functions of the enforcement system which are not performed under the direct unifying supervision of the State board of education. METHOD OF SECURING CERTIFICATES. In spite of the fact that instead of definitely giving children the right to demand certificates the law gives the secretary and agents of the State board of education the power to issue them, the necessary pro- cedure for obtaining certificates seems to involve almost as little hard- ship to children as is consistent with the proper protection of their interests which is the main purpose of the law. Though there may seem to be some hardship in the rigid requirement that one of the parents must be present in person, his presence is required only once, and experience, it is claimed, has demonstrated that this is desirable. That the child shall bring a promise of employment is essential if an employment certificate is to be in reality what its name implies and not merely a permit to leave school for any purpose whatever. If a child has actually secured a position this requirement does not commonly make necessary a second trip to the agent’s office before getting a certificate, for employers generally understand that they must give the child such a promise, and any signed statement of the kind is accepted. On the other hand, if the child has no position promised this requirement prevents him from getting out of school merely to roam the streets. In any event the child goes away from the first interview with full instructions as to what he must bring next time in order to secure a certificate. The procedure of obtaining a subsequent certificate, or a copy of the original certificate for a new employer, is as simple as it could well be made. The child, the parent, or the employer may apply in person or by letter or postal card, and without further formalities the copy is sent. Inconvenience to the child in securing a new position and going to work at once is obviated by the fact that, pending receipt of a copy reading to his new employer, he may work for a week on the authority of the parent’s copy of his original certificate. EVIDENCE OF AGE. The evidence of age required seems fairly conclusive, though it might be improved in some cases if the agents knew and gave positive instructions as to the official from whom foreign-born children could secure copies of their birth records. If this were done and proof, such as a receipt for a registered letter, were produced at the office showing that the parent had actually attempted to obtain such a record, it might be possible in cases where the child appeared to be certainly over 14 years of age to relax somewhat the requirement that a child must wait weeks on foreign mails before getting his employment cer- 40 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. tificate. Whether or not it seemed best to relax this rule, birth reg- istration, it is well known, is more complete in most European countries than in the United States, and copies of birth certificates can very generally he obtained for foreign-born children, provided application is made to the proper official and the regular fee is sent. Often, how- ever, parents know neither to whom they should write nor the amount of money to send, and if left undirected they sometimes write to rela- tives and sometimes, even if they write to the proper official, fail to send the fee. As a result many children for whom transcripts of birth records could have been secured, if application accompanied by the requisite fee had been made to the proper official, must finally secure certificates with no better evidence of age than they first pro- duced. In these cases the effort of sending to the foreign country and the delay of waiting for a reply are so much labor and time lost. EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS. The educational standard required to obtain a certificate is prac- tically completion of the fifth grade — not a very high standard for 14-year-old children. Even this standard is lowered by three facts: First. The reading and the writing tests are so much simpler than the arithmetic test that special' coaching in the latter subject may enable a child who has not in other subjects a fifth-grade education to obtain a certificate. These children and perhaps others, if exam- ined a year later and after having been out of school for several months, might not be able to pass the test; but no such examina- tion is given. Second. Fifth-grade school records are accepted in lieu of the test in practically all cities and towns, except Hartford, where large num- bers of children are employed, and teachers or principals who wish to get rid of backward or troublesonfe children may therefore be able to promote them out of school into industry. In Hartford the ninth-grade requirement seems to make this kind of promotion dif- ficult, for in city schools the collusion of several teachers would be required to push a child who could not pass a fifth-grade examina- tion up through the ninth grade. In many other places this is prac- tically impossible, it is claimed, as promotions are made twice a year as the result of examinations which are checked up in the office of the superintendent of schools. No such check is placed upon private schools, and the State board of education itself uses no method of detecting unearned promotions. The records of appli- cants might be examined; but this would be a laborious process as compared with the simple expedient of requiring every child to take an educational test regardless of the grade in school — a procedure which is unquestionably authorized by the law. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 41 Third. Another fact which tends to lower the educational standard is the failure of the law itself to require ability to read and write English. The theory upon which it is attempted to justify this omission is that it must be made easy for a foreign-born child to obtain a certificate, or else he will go to work without any legal protec- tion whatever. However, the problem of registering the foreign-born child either in school or in the certificate office has to be met in any event, for probably a majority of these children have not received sufficient education in their own language to pass the arithmetic test. This test is said to keep many foreign-born children in school until they are 16 years of age, while American children, unless men- tally defective, can generally go to work at 14 if they wish. Cer- tainly an unenforceable provision of law is undesirable; but it does not seem impossible to devise methods of enforcing a law which would require a knowledge of the language of their adopted country by young wage earners. No provision is made in the law for the exemption of mentally defective children from the educational requirements. If unable to finish the grade requirement or pass the educational test these chil- dren must stay in school until they are 16 years of age, even though they may be unable to make any progress in the subjects taught. PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS. The physical standard, however, is in practice the weaKest feature of the employment certificate system. Just how many children are required to undergo a physical examination is not known, but dur- ing the year ended August 1, 1914, only 30 children out of over 13,000 applicants were refused certificates on account of their phys- ical condition. As no child is sent to a physician unless the agent has good reason to believe him physically unfit for work, it is safe to assume that the physician’s verdict is unfavorable in the great majority of such cases and that the number examined is not much greater than the number rejected by physicians. How many of the nearly 7,000 children who were given certificates might also have been refused if a physician had had a chance to examine them is, of course, problematical; but so many physical defects — for exam- ple, heart disease — are not obvious to the casual interviewer that it seems certain that a considerable number of children under 16 years of age who are not physically fit to go to work are annually granted employment certificates. This fact does not appear to be necessarily due to any defect in the law itself. The law does not make a physical examination an absolute requirement for a certificate, but it does provide that the agent who issues certificates may require any child to have a physi- cal examination made by a reputable physician and may charge the 42 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. expense of such examination to the State. The child need not appear to be nor need the agent have any reason to believe that he is in bad health. If the appropriation were sufficient to cover the cost, there seems no reason why the State board could not instruct its agents to require every child applying for an employment cer- tificate to bring a certificate of health from a reputable physician. By exercising their discretion in the matter of charging the expense of these examinations to the State the agents might even cause prac- tically all children applying for certificates to be examined by phy- sicians appointed by the State board for that purpose. There might be such opposition to this course that it would be better for the legislature to strengthen the hands of the State board of education by making a physical examination mandatory; but the board ap- pears already to have the necessary powers. ENFORCEMENT. The enforcement of the requirement that children must have cer- tificates before they can go to work, like the enforcement of the requirements for obtaining certificates, is in the hands of the State board of education and is therefore practically uniform thoughout the State. The principal methods are the same as those used in the enforcement of the compulsory education law. By means of reports and counter reports children who have been in school in Connecticut are caught both going and coming, for they are followed up if they leave school and they are followed up if they apply for employment certificates. The success of this system depends entirely upon the accuracy and promptness with which the various officials make their reports. Nevertheless, the method of following up children who have been in the public schools of Connecticut to see that they do not go to work without certificates is well devised and is probably, in general, well executed. But any system which is primarily intended to enforce school attendance is likely to insure only that children are not at work during school hours. What they may be doing outside of school hours only thorough and unexpected inspections of all estab- lishments, whether or not they are believed to employ children, could determine. Violations of the law, it is said, frequently occur in small establishments where work is somewhat irregular and children are employed before or after school or on Saturdays. A much more difficult problem is the prevention of illegal employ- ment of children who have never been in the public schools of Con- necticut, and in meeting this problem certain weaknesses in the system of enforcement are apparent. The duties, for example, both of local attendance officers and of agents of the State board of educa- tion are the same for private as for public school children. Private EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 43 schools, however, can not be required to report illegal absences, and they frequently fail to do so. The truant officers therefore are not armed with the information necessary to enforce the school attend- ance of children who belong in these schools. The power to pick up on the street or elsewhere the rare child who is not sufficiently “knowing” to avoid meeting such a well-known character as the truant officer is the most rudimentary form of administrative author- ity, and even this does not reach the working child unless the truant officer constitutes himself an industrial inspector. Lack of com- plete cooperation with parochial schools is one of the principal sources of weakness in the working out of the system through which the employment certificate law is enforced. Another method of detecting children who have not been in school is the annual school census, which is designed primarily to serve as a basis for the distribution of school funds and secondarily to assist in the enforcement of the compulsory education law, but is also of assist- ance in preventing illegal employment. The school census, however, is a local matter, and neither the best method of taking it nor the best method of utilizing it when taken have as yet been worked out for the State as a whole. In some places it is very inaccurate, and in others, even if accurate, it is never checked up with the names on the school registers. Often, indeed, the financial purpose of the enu- meration of school children is allowed to obscure the more distinctly human purpose. Though theoretically the school census fills a gap in the methods of enforcing the certificate law, in practice it fills that gap only in certain places where the enumeration is carefully taken and every child enumerated is accounted for as in school or legally at work. There is nothing except the comparatively weak inspection system to prevent children who have never been in school from being illegally employed for a part or even the whole year between school census periods, provided they can find work, but their chances of finding work are decidedly less than those of children with certificates, because in general if an employer has any children with certificates he usually has some simple method of handling his end of the certificate system, and as he usually can get plenty of children with certificates he does not care to run the risk of employing children without them. Some of the prominent manufacturers of the State complain that small employers are not prosecuted for such violations of law, but that if a single child working without a certificate is found in a large factory suit is immediately brought against the employer. One reason for this may be that the large employer is always presumed to be fully cognizant of the law, whereas the small employer is given the benefit of the doubt. However that may be, the fact that during the year ended August 1, 1914, 846 statements of age were issued to children 44 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. over 16 serves to show the care employers are taking to make certain that the law is obeyed. Nevertheless, children under 16 without certificates often find work in small establishments, such as bowling alleys, grocery stores, small bakeries, and other similar places, and occasionally by misrepresenting their ages they obtain work in large establishments. If these children become 16 years of age before the next school census they escape entirely the protection of the certifi- cate system. The fact that employers so generally insist that children secure either employment certificates or statements of age sets into opera- tion another method of following up children who have not been in school; for the name and address of every child who makes inquiry in regard to employment certificates are taken down, and thereafter that child is followed up to see that he is either in school or at work. Industrial inspection, which in most States is the principal method of enforcing employment certificate laws, in Connecticut is generally considered to be the least important part of the duties of the agents of the State board of education. As employment certificates are practically always sent by mail and as in other ways the agents deal directly with the employers and not indirectly through the children, each agent, if he were careful, could know in advance of an inspection exactly what children were working legally in an establishment; and as children have practically no chance to give away or sell certificates without being caught it is of little, if any, importance that the certifi- cate contains no means, such as a signature or a physical description, of identifying the child. These inspections are of value, however, in finding children who claim and may appear to be over 16 years of age and in educating employers to greater care in regard to such suspi- cious cases. But in order to accomplish this purpose the inspector must make a tour of the premises, and this, as has been seen, he does not always do. The fact that when a child stops work for an employer that em- ployer retains the employment certificate opens another possible loophole. It is difficult to see anything but respect for and fear of the law which could prevent an employer with a certificate on file for Rosie Jones, who has left his employ and is either idle or employed elsewhere, from rechristening some child whose name is not recorded among those to be followed up by the school authorities and em- ploying her on Rosie’s certificate. If Rosie is employed elsewhere she has doubtless obtained a copy of her certificate for her new em- ployer, but even then it is impossible for the agent to know every child in his district or to go over all his records before making an inspection. If he consulted his own records he would see at once that Rosie was no longer employed in that establishment, but if he trusts to the certificates handed him by the employer Rosie appears EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 45 to be there and he can not be expected to remember anything to the contrary. Such cases may happen rarely, but this loophole could easily be closed by requiring the employer to return his copy of the child’s certificate with his termination notice. The agents often do not have enough time left from their other duties for thorough inspections, and the special canvasses probably do comparatively little good in discovering willful violations, for, even if the time of such a canvass is not known in advance, the infor- mation that it is going on must be widely distributed within a few days after it has begun — in plenty of time for most of the children illegally employed either to go to the office and get certificates, or if they can not get certificates to be sent home until the canvass is over and they can return to work with impunity. Violations are found during these canvasses, but not in sufficient numbers to justify the expense and trouble. Even if the State agents made no effort to enforce the compulsory education law as it concerns unemployed children, they appear to be at present overburdened with work ; for wherever there are no local truant officers these agents must enforce the compulsory education law for all children, regardless of age, and in some places this duty throws a heavy burden upon the State agent. Middletown, for exam- ple, a city of about 12,000 population, has no local attendance officer, and most of the agent’s time is needed for work directly connected with the enforcement of the child labor law. The superintendent of schools can therefore expect little of him when he is notified of a case of truancy beyond a letter to the parent. In other places the local truant officers are even more overburdened than the State agents, but the system is so devised that the child labor law can not be well enforced unless the compulsory education law is well enforced. If children are allowed to drop out of school without being followed up, inspection to supplement the follow-up system is all the more needed, and usually lack of time to follow up the truant means also lack of time to inspect establishments. As for children who have received employment certificates, the follow-up system is supposed, first, to prevent a child who has a cer- tificate from working for a new employer without obtaining a new certificate, and, second, to send a child who is out of work back to school. The cooperation of a considerable number of persons is required, and that the system does not always accomplish the first purpose is illustrated by the following case: Early in the summer of 1913 a regular certificate was granted to a boy to work for a certain milkman. In July the milkman sent a termination notice to the State board of education. No application was made for a subsequent certificate, and a postal card sent to the parent was not answered. The agent in that district was notified, and he reported the case to a 46 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. local attendance officer. Thus far the system worked. But the attendance officer did not report back to the agent and the agent did not report back to the hoard, and it was January, 1914, before it was discovered, in going through the files of the main office at Hart- ford, that the boy had never been accounted for. A postal card was immediately sent to his father and the boy promptly appeared at the agent’s office and announced that he had been working at a local foundry for some six months on his parent’s certificate. The system had thus broken down because the local attendance officer had failed to make a report to the agent, the agent had failed to demand such a report, and the State office had failed to demand a report of the agent. UNEMPLOYED CHILDREN. The only point at which the system breaks down seriously, how- ever, appears to be in returning unemployed children to school. It is admitted practically everywhere that at best there is great delay about returning them, and that, in fact, it is not done to any con- siderable extent. The reasons are as follows: First, employers are careless about sending termination notices promptly. Sometimes they do not know whether the child has quit work or is sick, and some- times the first notification that the certificate office has that a child has left one employer is when he applies for a copy of his certificate for a new employer. Second, there is also delay while the State board of education sends a postal card to the parent asking what the child is doing, waits for a reply, and then if none comes notifies the agent in that district. Third, the State agents visit only once or twice a week many places where a considerable number of children are employed, and often when they come they have time to do little more than keep their office hours for the issuing of certificates and move on to the next town. If the children are really to be kept in school when not employed, it would seem that the procedure of getting them in school on termina- tion of employment must be simplified so as to avoid delay. Sup- posing the employer always sends the termination notice, he may not do so until perhaps a week after the child has quit work. Another week or 10 days must be allowed for transmission of the termination notice to the office of the State board and for preparing and sending out the postal card to the child’s parent. Two weeks are then allowed for a reply. Again the machinery is put in motion and the agent receives his notice to look up the case. If the agent is busy, as he generally must be under present conditions, or if he is not at the time in the city where the child lives, he could hardly visit the child’s home within less than another week. Unless the child, then, has meanwhile found another position, he is likely to have been out of EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 47 work for some five weeks before the agent finds him. If he then professes to be looking for work, as he is practically sure to do, the agent allows him a sixth week in which to continue his search. There are ways in which this delay might be greatly reduced. In the first place, employers of children might be required to send in termination notices more promptly, or perhaps whenever a child had been absent from work for two or three days without excuse. Then, instead of the slow process of writing the parent and waiting for a reply, the agent might be notified at once and be required to follow up the case immediately. This process, of course, would necessitate more agents to handle the cases, but more agents would make smaller districts possible, and these smaller districts would have a double advantage, for the agent would be able to visit each place in his district oftener and would become more thoroughly familiar with the children, the employers, and the general employment conditions. In some towns, where there are local truant officers, the suggestion has been made that in order to avoid delay in getting unemployed children back into school their names be sent to these local officers instead of to the State agent and that the termination notices be sent direct to the local school authorities. It is extremely doubtful, however, whether the truant officers would have any better success than the State agents in dealing with unemployed children, and in many ways more would be lost than gained by such a change, for the advantages of uniformity of administration, particularly those which depend on the close cooperation of the State agents, would be thrown away. At present, however, the idea is so well established that unem- ployed children can not be put back into school, that efforts in that direction are generally rather perfunctory, except when the child has been employed only a short time and other conditions are favorable. Even when the agent follows up an unemployed child or meets one idling on the street the child will say that he is looking for a job or that he applies at the factory every morning hoping that he will be taken back. As the agent knows that the child will not go to school if he can possibly help it, that the teachers would find him a nuisance if he did, that he would be given very little if any instruc- tion of practical benefit to him, and that he would escape at the earliest possible moment, he is likely to tell the child to try to find work as soon as possible, and then leave him to his own devices. As a result, unemployed children are on the streets in every part of the State, their numbers varying with the importance of child-employing industries and with the degree of conscientious vigilance exercised by the different agents. Until some provision is made for giving unemployed children suitable instruction in school, indeed, it is difficult to see how the 48 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. problem of getting tbem into school can be successfully handled either by local truant officers or by agents of the State board of edu- cation. The ordinary schools throughout the State are not adapted either to hold the interest of children who have been at work but are temporarily unemployed or to give them the kind of instruction which they need. The child, in short, has every reason for not wishing to go back to school, and little or no chance of deriving any benefit from compliance with the law, while the teacher has every reason for not wishing to have him come back. The main purpose of the legal requirement that the school authori- ties shall be notified when a child leaves his employer is to enable the school authorities to enforce the compulsory education law; but, even if unemployed children could in fact be required to attend school, the justice of such a requirement to these children, to the others with whom they must be placed, or to the community is extremely doubtful until some provision has been made for util- izing their time to advantage. Vocational training should doubtless be given them at least part of the time, and compulsory continua- tion schools which would keep them under some form of instruction every week while they were employed would make the problem easier. But neither vocational nor continuation schools that fail to provide courses which can be begun or ended any day without losing their value can hope to meet the problem of compulsory school attendance for unemployed children. RELATION TO OTHER CHILD LABOR LAWS. There are certain obvious disadvantages in having the different child labor laws administered by two entirely separate and distinct departments — the factory-inspection department and the State board of education — and in having two sets of inspectors. Apart from the inconvenience to employers and the expense, this double system compels the factory inspectors, who enforce the laws regulating the hours of labor and prohibiting the employment in dangerous occupa- tions of children under 16, but who have nothing to do with the law providing that such children must have employment certificates, to depend — in determining what persons in a given establishment are subject to the laws which they enforce — upon the wall list of children prepared by the employer. The factory inspector might of course obtain from the State board of education a fist of the children em- ployed in the establishment, but this is not done, and even if it were such a list would be no more accurate than the employer’s list, for the employer has no reason to omit the name of any child who has a certificate EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 49 The result is that whenever the certificate law is violated the hours- of-labor and dangerous-trades laws are or easily may be violated without detection; for when a child under age claims to be over 16 years and secures employment without a certificate the factory in- spector as well as the employer is apt to consider that child exempt from the other laws. The inspector may of course demand proof of age in a very suspicious case or report such a case to the State board of education; but by the time an inspector can report a suspected violation of the certificate law to an agent, or an agent a suspected violation under the jurisdiction of the factory-inspection department to the inspector and the proper person can get to the establishment to investigate, the violation may no longer exist. Therefore the tend- ency created by this divided responsibility is for the factory inspector to rest his work back upon that of the agents of the State board of education and for the latter to shut their eyes to all conditions of labor not under their immediate jurisdiction. Another result of having these laws administered by different de- partments is that the opportunity offered by the requirement of a certificate for each separate position to aid in the enforcement of the dangerous-occupations law is lost. In some States the employer must name in his promise of employment the exact occupation in which the child is to be engaged. The office which issues the certificate then approves this occupation, refusing certificates for work which it may consider to come under the prohibition of the dangerous-occupation law. But in Connecticut the State board of education takes no offi- cial cognizance whatever of laws which are supposed to be enforced by the department of factory inspection. The employer in his prom- ise of employment does not even name the industry in which the child is to be engaged. The State board may, and probably some- times does, issue certificates to children upon the basis of a promise of employment in an occupation — unstated but none the less definite in the employer’s mind and later in the child’s experience — in which the employment of children is illegal. This latter result of divided responsibility is not, however, essential under the present law, for the provision of the compulsory education law that children from 14 to 16 years of age are exempt from school attendance “ while lawfully employed at labor at home or else- where” would seem amply to justify the State board of education in requiring that the employer should state in his promise of employ- ment the exact occupation in which the child is to be engaged. Employers do not always know what occupations are legal and what illegal, but if they were required to name the occupation the agent would, if it were illegal, refuse to grant the certificate. f 50 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. Under the same authority the State board of education might readily extend its work in the direction of ascertaining whether children are in fact “ lawfully employ ed” as regards hours and dan- gerous occupations; for, though the certificate law gives the board no power over these matters, a child who is working illegal hours or at a prohibited machine is certainly not “lawfully employed” and therefore is not exempt from the compulsory education law, which the State board of education is directed to enforce. If the board is right in its ruling that messenger boys, for example, must have employment certificates, though the law directly requires such cer- tificates only for children in “mechanical, mercantile, or manufac- turing establishments,” why could it not do more than it does at present to see that children whom it exempts by the certificate system from school attendance are “lawfully employed” as regards both their hours of labor and the character of the occupations in which they are engaged ? As for the lack of power of the factory-inspection department as regards the minimum age and certificate laws, there seems to be no reason why, without lessening the powers or duties of the school authorities, the factory inspector should not have the power and duty of enforcing all child labor laws, those relating to minimum age and certificates as well as those relating to hours and to dan- gerous occupations. If the factory inspectors were given this ad- ditional power, however, they should be required to report the results of their inspections in detail — that is, all children found legally em- ployed as well as those found illegally employed — to the State board of education; for if the State board is to enforce the compulsory education law it must have all available information as to the children who are or may be subject to that law. The factory inspectors would then be much better equipped to enforce the laws relating to hours and to dangerous occupations. At the same time the State board would be better equipped to enforce the compulsory education law. And the inconvenience caused employers by double inspection would certainly be no greater if both State agencies had the power to inspect for all purposes than it is under the present system of inspection by both, each for a different purpose. Indeed it would probably be less, for double inspection would no longer be essential as it is at present. CENTRALIZATION AND RECORDS. The two most important points, however, which appear to be clearly indicated by this study of the Connecticut system of adminis- tering the employment certificate system are, first, . that industrial inspection is only one method of enforcing the law and is probably EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 51 destined to decrease in importance as methods of locating and fol- lowing up children are improved, and, second, that centralization of control over the issuing and the refusing of certificates as well as over inspection tends to efficiency in enforcement as well as to uniformity in standards. Industrial inspection seems to be essential in the absence of a complete and permanent census of all children subject to legal regulation. But it can never be an efficient method of en- forcing a child labor law, for children may be here to-day and there to-morrow, and the cost of inspecting all industrial establishments often enough to locate such unstable elements is prohibitory. There- fore the problem of enforcing a child labor law must, like the problem of enforcing a compulsory education law, be approached from the side of the individual child, and school-attendance officers must be authorized to go, at their discretion, wherever children go, even if this power means a certain amount of double inspection of industrial establishments. If a State child labor law is to be thoroughly enforced, some State agency must keep a record of the whereabouts of every child in the State, whether at school or at work. At present the State Board of Education of Connecticut has, at least theoretically, such a record of all children who are not in school. There are, however, two glaring sources of incompleteness in these records, first, that children engaged in agricultural and domestic pursuits are not included, and, second, that there is no efficient method of registering newcomers to the State. Children are not obliged to have employment certificates to engage in farm and domestic labor. This means not only that children leaving school to go to work in these occupations pass no educational test and are not obliged to fulfill any educational re- quirements, but also that the names of such children are not in the records of the State board of education. Even if this loophole in the law is not generally known or made use of except in country districts, some record of these children should be kept, it would seem, by the State board in order to prevent their drifting into industrial labor without certificates. As for the registration of newcomers to the State, the school census, even if thoroughly and efficiently handled for that end — which in the absence of any central control is not by any means always the case — is not taken often enough to accom- plish the purpose. The strongest single feature of the Connecticut system and, indeed, the source of most of its other strong features, seems to be the cen- tralization of control over the entire procedure relating to certificates throughout the State in the hands of the State board of education. This centralization is doubtless more necessary as well as easier to attain in Connecticut than it would be in a larger and less densely 52 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. populated State; for in Connecticut many towns are so close together that children as well as adults may easily live in one town and work in another, and this is commonly the case. Moving from town to town is also comparatively easy. Local officials, therefore, would have great difficulty in keeping track of children. Through cen- tralized administration, however, substantial uniformity is main- tained both in standards and in their enforcement. Every child who obtains an employment certificate in Connecticut passes substantially the same tests of his qualifications, and every child has substantially the same chance of receiving the actual protection of the law. APPENDIX. LAWS RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES. EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS. COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE. Children from 7 to 16; exemptions from 14 to 16 if lawfully employed. — All parents and those who have the care of children shall bring them up in some lawful and honest employment, and instruct them or cause them to be instructed in reading, writing, spelling, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and United States history. Every parent or other person having control of a child over seven and under sixteen years of age shall cause such child to attend a public day school regularly during the hours and terms the public school in the district wherein such child resides is in session, or while the school is in session where provision for the instruction of such child is made according to law, unless the parent or person ha zing control of such child can show that the child is elsewhere receiving regularly thorough instruction during said hours and terms in the studies taught in the public schools. Children over fourteen years of age shall not be subject to the requirements of this section while lawfully employed at labor at home or elsewhere; but this provision shall not permit such children to be irregular in attendance at school while they are enrolled as scholars, nor exempt any child who is enrolled as a member of a school from any rule concerning irregularity of attendance which has been enacted or may be enacted by the town school committee, board of school visitors, or board of education, having control of the school. [General Statutes, revision of 1902, section 2116] Certain children from 14 to 16; penalty. — Whenever the school visitors, town school committee, or board of education of any town, or district shall by vote decide, or whenever the State board of education shall ascertain that a child over fourteen and under sixteen years of age has not schooling sufficient to warrant his leaving school to be employed, and shall so notify the parent or guardian of said child in writing, the parent or guardian of said child, shall cause him to attend school regularly during the days and hours that the public school in the district in which said parent or guardian resides is in session, and until the parent or guardian of said child has obtained from said board of school visitors, town school committee, or board of education, or from the State board of education, if the notice shall have been given by the said State board of education, a leaving certificate stating that the education of said child is satisfactory to said visitors, town school committee, or board of education, or to said State board of education, as the case may be: Provided , That said parent or guardian shall not be required to cause his child to attend school after the child is sixteen years of age. Each week’s failure on the part of a person to comply with the provisions of this section shall be a distinct offense, punishable with a fine not exceeding five dollars, and the provisions of section 2117 [G S r 1902 s 2117] shall be applicable to all proceedings under this act. [Acts of 1903 Chapter 29, as amended by Acts of 1905 Chapter 36] COMPULSORY EVENING SCHOOL ATTENDANCE. Illiterate children employed in towns where evening schools exist. — No person over fourteen and under sixteen years of age, who can not read and write, shall be employed in any town where public evening schools are established unless he can produce every school month of twenty days a certificate from the teacher of an evening school showing that he has attended such school eighteen consecutive evenings in the current school month, and is a regular attendant. Every person who shall employ a child contrary to the provisions of this section shall be fined not more than fifty dollars, and the State board of education shall enforce the provisions of this section as provided in section 4707. [G S r 1902 s 2147] 53 54 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. PENALTIES. Parent, guardian, etc.; exceptions. — Each week’s failure on the part of a person to comply with any provision of * * * [section 2116] shall be a distinct offense, punishable with a fine not exceeding five dollars. Said penalty shall not be incurred when it appears that the child is destitute of clothing suitable for attending school, and the parent or person having control of such child is unable to provide such clothing, or its mental or physical condition is such as to render its instruction inexpedient or impracticable. * * * [G S r 1902 s 2117] Employer. — Every person who shall employ a child under fourteen years of age during the hours while the school which such child should attend is in session, and every person who shall authorize or permit on premises under his control any such child to be so employed, shall be fined not more than twenty dollars for every week in which such child is so employed. [G S r 1902 s 2119] False statements. — Every parent or other person, having control of a child, who shall make any false statements concerning the age of such child with intent to deceive the town clerk or registrar of births, marriages, and deaths of any town, or the teacher of any school, or shall instruct a child to make any such false statement, shall be fined not more than twenty dollars. [G S r 1902 s 2120] ENFORCEMENT. Appointment and duties of agents. — It shall be the duty of the State board of educa- tion, and the school visitors, boards of education, and the town school committees to enforce sections 4704, 4705, and 4706 [said sections are superseded by 1911 C 119]; and for that purpose the State board of education may appoint agents, under its supervision and control, for terms of not more than one year, who shall be paid not to exceed five dollars a day for time actually employed and necessary expenses, and whose accounts shall be approved by said board and audited by the comptroller. The agents so appointed may be directed by said board to enforce the provisions of the law requiring the attendance of children at school and to perform any duties necessarv or proper for the due execution of the duties and powers of the board. [G S r 1902 s 4707] Duties of school visitors, etc. — The school visitors or the town school committee in every town shall, once or more in every year, examine into the situation of the children employed in all manufacturing establishments, and ascertain whether all the provisions of this chapter [s 2116-2129] are duly observed, and report all violations thereof to the proper prosecuting authority. [G Sr 1902 s 2121] Regulations of cities and towns concerning truants. — Each city and town may make regulations concerning habitual truants from school and children between the ages of seven and sixteen years wandering about its streets or public places, having no lawful occupation, nor attending school, and growing up in ignorance; and may make such by-laws, respecting such children, as shall conduce to their welfare and to public order, imposing penalties, not exceeding twenty dollars for any one breach thereof. [G S r 1902 s 2122] Appointment of truant officers ; prosecutions. — Every town, and the mayor and aider- man of every city, having such by-laws, shall annually appoint three or more persons, who alone shall be authorized to prosecute for violations thereof. All warrants issued upon such prosecutions shall be returnable before any justice of the peace, or judge of the city or police court of the town or city. [G S r 1902 s 2123] SCHOOL CENSUS. Enumeration of children in districts ; names of employers. — The committee of each school district or, if they fail or are unable to do so, the clerk shall annually in Septem- ber ascertain the name and age of every person over four and under sixteen years of age who shall belong to such district, on the first Tuesday of said month, with the names of the parents or guardians of such persons. If any such persons are not attending school during said month of September, then the person making the enumeration shall ascer- tain the reason for such nonattendance and, if such persons are employed at labor, the names of their employers or of the establishments where they are employed. Returns shall be made to the school visitors of the town to which such district belongs, on or before the twenty-fifth of September; children temporarily residing in one district but having parents or guardians residing in another shall be enumerated only as belonging to the latter district. For making such enumeration the committee or clerk of the dis- trict shall receive one dollar, and in addition thereto three cents for each child enu- merated in excess of fifty, and the cost of said enumeration shall be paid from the EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 55 amount appropriated by the town for the support of schools in said district. If the return of enumeration is not made to the board of school visitors on or before said twenty- fifth of September, one of the school visitors or a person duly appointed by the board of school visitors shall make a complete enumeration before the fifteenth of October next following and return it to said school visitors, and shall receive therefor a sum not to exceed five cents for each child so enumerated. [G S r 1902 s 2252 as amended by 1913 C 182] Enumeration of children in towns ; names of employers . — Town school committees shall annually appoint one or more persons who shall, in September of each year, ascertain the name and age of every person over four and under sixteen years of age who shall belong to such town on the first Tuesday of said month. If any such persons are not attending school during said month of September, then the person making the enu- meration shall ascertain the reason for such nonattendance and, if such persons are employed at labor, the names of their employers or of the establishments where they are employed. Returns shall be made to the town school committee on or before the twenty-fifth of September. Said person so appointed shall receive a sum not exceeding five cents for each child so enumerated. Such return shall be signed by the person making it and sworn to substantially according to the form prescribed in section 2253. The town school committee shall examine and correct the returns made to it so that no person shall be enumerated twice or be improperly returned, and lodge them, as cor- rected, with the town treasurer, and shall transmit to the comptroller, on or before the fifth of December annually, a certificate in which the number of persons shall be inserted in words at full length, which shall be sworn to substantially according to the form prescribed in section 2254. [G S r 1902 s 2255 as amended by 1913 C 182] MANUFACTURING, MECHANICAL, AND MERCANTILE ESTABLISHMENTS. MINIMUM AGE. Employment under 14 prohibited; penalty. — No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in any mechanical, mercantile, or manufacturing establishment. Every person, whether acting for himself or as agent for another, who shall employ or authorize or permit to be employed any child in violation of the provisions of this sec- tion shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars. [1911 C 119 s 1] EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES. Certificates required from 14 to 16; issued by school authorities; age , school , and health records required; records of issuing office; penalty. — No child under sixteen years of age shall be employed in any mechanical, mercantile, or manufacturing establishment unless the employer of such child shall have first obtained a certificate, signed by the secretary or an agent of the State board of education, or by a school supervisor, school superintendent, supervising principal, or acting school visitor designated by said board, stating the date of the birth of such child, showing that such child is over four- teen years of age, and stating that such child is able to read with facility, to legibly write simple sentences, and to perform the operations of the fundamental rules of arithmetic with relation both to whole numbers and to fractions, and does not appear to be physically unfit for employment. Such certificate shall be in the form prescribed and upon a blank furnished by the State board of education, and shall be issued in triplicate; and one copy thereof shall be delivered to the parent or guardian of such child, one copy shall be delivered to the employer, and one copy shall be deposited in the office of the State board of education. Copies of such certificate shall be obtain- able from the State board of education, upon application, at any time. The copy of such certificate delivered to the parent or guardian of the child may be accepted" by the employer as a temporary certificate, good for one week, after which time it shall be returned to the parent or guardian of such child. Every person, whether acting for himself or as agent for another, who shall employ or shall authorize or permit to be employed any child in violation of the provisions of this section, shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars. The secretary or the agent of the State board of education or the school supervisor, school superintendent, supervising principal, or acting school visitor to whom application shall be made for a certificate as provided in this section, shall have power to require all statements of fact offered in support of such application to be made under oath, and such oath may be administered by said secretary, or such agent, school supervisor, school superintendent, supervising princi- pal, or acting school visitor, and said secretary, or any such agent, school supervisor, school superintendent, supervising principal, or acting school visitor may cause any child to be examined by a reputable physician, for the purpose of aiding him in 56 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. determining whether such child is physically fit for employment, and may charge the expense of such physical examination against the State as a part of his expenses. [1911 C 119 s 2] Employer to notify State board of education of commencement and termination oj employment; penalty. — Every employer receiving a certificate issued under the pro- visions of this act shall promptly notify the State board of education, in writing, in the form prescribed and upon a blank furnished by said board, of the time of commence- ment of the employment of any child thereunder and, whenever such employment terminates before such child attains the age of sixteen years, of the time of the termina- tion of such employment. Every person violating any provision of this section shall be fined not more than ten dollars. [1911 C 119 s 3] Employer to keep certificates and list open to inspection; penalty. — Every employer or other person having control of any establishment or premises where children under sixteen years of age are employed who shall neglect to have and keep on file the cer- tificate described in section 2 of this act or to show the same, with a list of the names of such children so employed, to the secretary or an agent of the State board of education, when demanded during the usual business hours, shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars. [1911 C 119 s 5] ENFORCEMENT. Duties and powers of school authorities. — The provisions of section 4707 of the General Statutes [G S r 1902 s 4707] shall be applicable to sections one, two, and three of this act. * * * [1911 C 119 s 6] VACATION EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES. Vacation certificates may be granted children from 14 to 16; physical requirements. — Any child in good physical condition, between fourteen and sixteen years of age, on appli- cation in person to the secretary or an agent of the State board of education for a cer- tificate of employment, shall be granted a temporary or vacation certificate, permitting the employment of said child during the summer vacation. [1913 C 211] FORMS USED IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE LAW. [The words in italics are as entered by hand on the blank forms, but all names and addresses, except that of the secretary of the State board of education, are fictitious. Linesi nclosed in brackets [ ] are inter- polated and do not appear in the forms as used.] [Form 1 . See p. 13.] INFORMATION CARD Town, Hartford; date, December 1, 1913. Name of child, Mary Rausman. Post-office address, Grove Street, No. 94. Place of birth, Russia; date of birth, November 17 , 1899. Name of father, William; name of mother, Sara. Evidence of age, passport and sworn statement of mother. Evidence of education, transcript— passed legal test. School, Henry Barnard; grade, V; teacher, Miss Mason. (Finished fifth grade also in Rochester.) Physical condition, good. Hair, dark brown; eyes, brown; complexion, medium; height, small. Certificate , series F, No. 3262; notice to attend No. . Name of employer, Brown, Smith & Co.; address, Grand Street. Mother appeared. [Form 2. See p. 14.] TRANSCRIPT FROM REGISTER. From the register of the Henry Barnard School. It appears that Mary Rausman (1) attended the Henry Barnard School from January 6, 1913, to November 27, 19 IS; (2) has completed the studies required in said school for the V grade; (3) was born in Russia on the 17th day of November, 1899; (4) the father’s name is William, and resides at Grove (Street), 94 (No.). Dated at Hartford, November 27, 19/S. HENRY D. GRAHA M, Superintendent, principal, or teacher. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 57 [Form 3. Seep. 14.] EMPLOYMENT. Name, Mary Rausman. Address, 94 Grove Street. 1.— 324. 5 1.24 12980 6490 3245 402.380 3 .— 12 4 5 — X 3— X 5- 17 10 6 M H 35 — X — X — = 14 & W 6 5 Town, Hartford, Conn Date, Dec. 1, 1913. 2.— 107. 663+ 3. 21\345. 60 ) 321 2460 2247 2130 1926 H — 2040 GO 1926 W 1140 H 963 \177 0 1 59 2 / 821 107 O 4-- 60 < CJ P w 2 3- 8 40 2 1 - 5 24 5 3- 6 50 9 g m _ 10 60 1.892 12.45 124.1 .0287 139. 4507 58 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. [Form 3a. See p. 14.] EMPLOYMENT. Name, Peter H. Regan. Address, 3500 Main Street. 1— Add 2345 1684 7321 9999 8008 29357 Town, New Haven. Date, September 17, 1914' 71 916 — U 2— Divide 74 \ 67855 125 U 515 m 4 3 5 3.— Add-, 3-, 2- 5 7 8 2 14 4. — Subtract 16 - = — 3 21 4 224 224 • 3 9 - = — 5\280 120 4 - = — 5 280 ) — 175 7 21 56 CO 3 120 4 280' \519 / 1 5 3- = — J > 280 \ W 12 — 7 280 224 — 21 239 H 5 175 ~ 8 280 , 280 S 519 239 j 1 O 5 === 6 8\ 280 40 280 280 ) — 3 hH 35 5 120 175 < 1 O -Multiply 12 - 6.— Arrange and add: 2 28 ' \ 125 ( 4 1.324 374.5 .0267 ! 4 .3- )112\ Q and multiply by 7 13 W 15- 2 25 — X 2 td 125 28 13 4~ 7.— Multiply 7.001 .01 .07001 5 X 9 + 20 - 5 -i- 20 = 3 5 X 9 = 45 + 20 =* 65 3 1 MX-- 20 1.324 374. 5 .0267 32. 38 408. 2307 15.5 20411535 20411535 4082307 6327. 57585 7001 8— Divide .10)700.1 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT, 59 [Form 3a, Tt>aclc. See p. 14.] 10. How many pints in a quart? Two. 11. How many feet in three yards? Nine. 12. How many quarts in three pecks? Twenty-four. 13. Write- Age, 14 years 2 months. When last at school and what grade? Last J une; in high fifth. What is your father’s name? Louis Regan. What is your father’s business? Teamster. Where do you intend to work? A t Beck & J ones, boi factory. What is the name of this State? Connecticut. Write the names of the days of the week. Sunday. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday. Saturday. 14. Read: I have a little shadow That goes in and out with me And what can be the use of him Is more than I can see. [Form 4. Seep. 15.] To the Secretary State Board of Education. Dear sir: If Mary Rausman obtains a legal certificate before Hartford, Conn., November SO, 19 IS. December 1 , I intend to employ him her. (date) BROWN, SMITH & CO. (Signature of person or company intending to employ.) [Form 5. See p. 15.] [SEAL.] Approved by the State board of education. town clerk’s certificate of age. THIS CERTIFIES That it appears on record in this office that Peter H. Regan was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on the 9th day of July, 1900, and (name) (town) (State or country) that his parents’ names were Louis Regan and Jane Peterson. (his or her) Attest: FLORENCE SOPRIS, A ssistant Registrar. Dated at New Haven this 16th day of September, 1914. [Form 6. See p. 15.] EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN. Sara Rausman Makes the following statement: 1. That she was born in Russia. 2. That she is a resident of the United States and of the State of Connecticut. 3. That she resides at 94 Grove Street, in the city of Hartford. 4. That she is the mother of Mary Rausman, and that the said Mary is here present. 5. That said Mary was born at Russia, on the 17th day of November, 1899. (Signed :) SA RA RA USMA N. State of Connecticut, County of Hartford, ss: On this 1st day of December, 1913, personally appeared the above subscribed and made oath tha the above statement is true. LENORE M. JAMES, Notary Public. 60 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. [Form 7. See p. 16.] [The text of the law is printed on the back of each copy.] For parent ; not good for employer longer than one week. [seal.] Series No. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE . Chapter 119, Public Acts of 1911. Office of State Board of Education, Room 42, Capitol, Hartford, December 1, 1913. THIS CERTIFIES THAT Mary Rausman (name) of Hartford, Connecticut, (town) (State) (1) was born at Russia on the 17th day of November, 1899, and is over fourteen years of age; (2) can read with facility, write simple sentences legibly, and perform the operations of fundamental rules of arithmetic with relation both to whole numbers and fractions; (3) does not appear to be physically unfit for employment; (4) the address of father is William, 94 Grove Street. (If no father, mother or guardian.) Signed CHAS. D. HINE, (in triplicate.) (agent) Secretary. [Perforated.] The child named below can be lawfully employed only by the employer named in the certificate. For employer; good only for Brown, Smith & Co. (employer). EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE. [seal.] Chapter 119, Public Acts of 1911. Series No. Office of State Board of Education, Room 42, Capitol, Hartford, December 1, 1913. THIS CERTIFIES THAT Mary Rausman (name) of Hartford, Connecticut, (town) (State) (1) was born at Russia on the 17th day of November, 1899, and is over fourteen years of age; (2) can read with facility, write simple sentences legibly, and perform the operations of fundamental rules of arithmetic with relation both to whole numbers and fractions; (3) does not appear to be physically unfit for employment; (4) the address of father is William, 94 Grove Street. (If no father, mother or guardian.) Signed CHAS. D. HINE, (in triplicate.) (agent) Secretary. [Perforated.] - - Has obtained employment at Brown, Smith & Co. For the State board of education. [SEAL.] Series No. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE. Chapter 119, Public Acts of 1911. Office of State Board of Education, Room 42, Capitol, Hartford, December 1, 1913. THIS CERTIFIES THAT Mary Rausman (name) of Hartford, Connecticut, (town) (State) (1) was born at Russia on the 17th day of November , 1899 , and is over fourteen years of age; (2) can read with facility, write simple sentences legibly, and perform the operations of fundamental rules of arithmetic with relation both to whole numbers and fractions; (3) does not appear to be physically unfit for employment; (4) the address of father is William, 94 Grove Street. (If no father, mother or guardian.) Signed CHAS. D. HINE, (in triplicate.) (agent) Secretary. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT, 61 [Form 8. See p. 17.] Return at once to State Board of Education, Hartford, Connecticut. NOTICE OF COMMENCEMENT OF EMPLOYMENT. Reed. Dec. 2, 191S. Section 3, chapter 119, Public Acts 1911. Hartford, Conn., December 1. 1913. (town) (date) This notifies the State board of education that the employment of Mary Rausman, whose certificate number is F3262, signed by Secretary Hine, commenced on the 1st of December. (Signed) BROWN, SMITH & CO. (Firm name.) C. Y. A. [Form 9. See p. 17.] NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT. Section 3, chapter 119, Public Acts 1911. Hartford, Conn., January 3, 1914. (town) (date) This notifies the State board of education that the employment of Mary Rausman, whose certificate number is F3262, signed by Secretary Hine, terminated on the 3d of January. (Signed) BROWN, SMITH & CO ., ( Firm name. ) C. Y. A. [Form 10. See p. 17.] IMPORTANT NOTICE. Chapter 119, Public Acts of 1911. Sec. 3. Every employer receiving a certificate issued under the provisions of this act shall promptly notify the State board of education, in writing, in the form prescribed and upon a blank furnished by said board, of the time of commencement of the employment of any child thereunder and, whenever such employment terminates before such child attains the age of sixteen years, of the time of the termination of such employment. Every person violating any provision of this section shall be fined not more than ten dollars. Blanks are inclosed herewith. [Form 11. See p. 18.] January 7, 1914. Mr. Charles D. Hine, Hartford. Dear Sir: Mary Rausman, whose certificate is series F, No. 3262, asks that a copy be sent to Rankin & Co., where she is now employed. (Signed) WILLIAM RAUSMAN. (. Father .) 62 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. [Form 12. See p. 18.] [The text of the law is printed on the hack of each copy.] For parent; not good for employer longer than one week. [seal.] Series F, No. 3262. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE. Chapter 119, Public Acts of 1911. Office of State Board of Education, Room 42, Capitol, Hartford, December 1, 19 13. THIS CERTIFIES THAT Mary Rausman (name) of Hartford, Connecticut, (town) (State) (1) was born at Russia on the 17th day of November , 1899, and is over 14 years of age; (2) can read with facility, write simple sentences legibly, and perform the operations of fundamental rules of arithmetic with relation both to whole numbers and fractions ; (3) does not appear to be physically unfit for employment; (4) the address of father is William, 94- Grove Street. (If no father, mother or guardian.) Signed CHAS. D. HINE, (in triplicate) (agent) Secretary. [Across the face:] Copy of Series F, No. 3262, issued January 8, 1914. Secretary, Chas. D. Hine. [Perforated.] The child named below can be lawfully employed only by the employer named in the certificate. For employer; good only for Rankin & Co. (employer). [seal.] Series F, No. 3262. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE. Chapter 119, Public Acts of 1911. Office of State Board of Education, Room 42, Capitol, Hartford, December 1, 19 IS. THIS CERTIFIES THAT Mary Rausman (name) of Hartford, Connecticut, (town) (State) (1) was born at Russia on the 17th day of November, 1899, and is over 14 years of age; (2) can read with facility, write simple sentences legibly, and perform the operations of fundamental rules of arithmetic with relation both to whole numbers and fractions; (3) does not appear to be physically unfit for employment; (4) the address of father is William, 94 Grove Street. (If no father, mother or guardian.) Signed CHA S.D. HINE, (in triplicate) (agent) Secretary. [Across the face:] Copy of Series F, No. 3262, issued January 8, 1914. Secretary Chas. D. Hine. - [Perforated.] — Has obtained employment at Rankin & Co. For the State board of education. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE. [SEAL.] Series F, No. 3262. Chapter 119, Public Acts of 1911. Office of State Board of Education, Room 42, Capitol, Hartford, December 1, 1913. THIS CERTIFIES THAT Mary Rausman (name) of Hartford, Connecticut, (town) (State) (1) was born at Russia on the 17th day of November, 1899, and is over 14 years of age; (2) can read with facility, write simple sentences legibly, and perform the operations of fundamental rules of arithmetic with relation both to whole numbers and fractions; (3) does not appear to be physically unfit for employment; (4) the address of father is William, 94 Grove Street. (If no father, mother or guardian.) Signed CHAS. D. HINE, (in triplicate) (agent) Secretary. [Across the face:] Copy of Series F, No. 3262, issued January 8, 1914. Secretary, Chas. D. Hine, EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 63 [Form 13. See p. 18.] [The text of the law is printed on the back of each copy.] [SEAL.] Series F, No. 4954. SUMMER-VACATION CERTIFICATE— NOTICE TO PARENT. Chapter 211, Public Acts of 1913. Office of State Board of Education, Room 42, Capitol, Hartford, June 23, 19 13. To parent of Arthur Ayres. You are hereby notified that your child named above must return to school at the beginning of the fall term, September 3, 1913. The State Board of Education, By CHAS. D. HINE. (agent, secretary) [Perforated.] The holder of this certificate must return to school September 3, 19 13. The child named below can be lawfully employed only by the employer named in the certificate. For employer; good only for Farragut Foundry. (employer) [SEAL.] Series F, No. 4954. SUMMER-VACATION EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE. Chapter 211, Public Acts of 1913. Office of State Board of Education, Room 42, Capitol, Hartford, June 23, 19 13. THIS CERTIFIES THAT Arthur Ayres (name) of Waterbury, Connecticut, (town) (State) (1) was born at Naugatuck, on the 9th day of July, 1898, and is over 14 years of age (2) appears to be in good physical condition; (3) the address of father is Waterbury. (If no father, mother or guardian.) Signed (in duplicate) [Perforated.] Has obtained employment at Farragut Foundry. For the State board of education. CHAS. D. HINE. (agent, secretary) SUMMER-VACATION EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE. [SEAL.] Series F, No. 4954. Chapter 211, Public Acts of 1913. Office of State Board of Education, Room 42, Capitol, Hartford, June 23, 19 IS. THIS CERTIFIES THAT Arthur Ayres (name) of Waterbury, Connecticut , (town) (State) (1) was born at Naugatuck, on the 9th day of July, 1898, and is over 14 years of age; (2) appears to be in good physical condition; (3) the address of father is Waterbury. (If no father, mother or guardian.) Signed CHAS. D. HINE. (in duplicate) (agent, secretary) 64 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. [Form 14. See p. 19.] [One copy is for the child, one for the employer, and one for the State board of education.] [SEAL.] No. 920. June 11, 1914. THIS CERTIFIES That there is evidence on file in this office showing that Fannie Abbott (name) is over sixteen vears of age. CHAS. D. HINE, Agent. Name of father, Jaimes A bbott. Residence, 868 Highland Avenue. Character of evidence, town clerk’s certificate. [Perforated.] [SEAL.] No. 920. June 11, 1914. THIS CERTIFIES That there is evidence on file in this office showing that Fannie Abbott (name) is over sixteen years of age. CHAS. D. HINE, Agent. Name of father, James Abbott. Residence, 368 Highland Avenue. Character of evidence, town clerk’s certificate. [Perforated.] - [seal.] No. 920. June 11, 1914. THIS CERTIFIES That there is evidence on file in this office showing that Fannie Abbott (name) is over sixteen years of age. CHAS. D. HINE, Agent. Name of father, James A bbott. Residence, 368 Highland Avenue. Character of evidence, town clerk ’s certificate. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 65 [Form 15. See p. 29.] BLANK FORM FOR ENUMERATION. NB— As many copies as may be necessary are to be distributed to each enumerator by the school board of the town previous to the first day of September. (General Statutes of Connecticut, revision of 1902.) Amended by chapter 31, Public Acts of 1907, and chapter 182, Public Acts of 1913. Section2252. Enumeration of children in districts. SectionI. SECTION 2252 of the General Statutes as amended by section one of chapter 31 of the Public Acts of 1907 is hereby amended to read as follows: The committee of each school district or, if they fail or are unable to do so, the clerk, shall annually in September ascertain the name and age of every person over four and under sixteen years of age who shall belong to such district, on the first Tuesday of said month, with the names of the parents or guardians of such persons. If any such persons are not attending school during said month of September, then the person making the enumeration shall ascertain the reason for such nonattendance and, if such persons are employed at labor, the names,of their employers or of the establishments where they are employed. Returns shall be made to the school visitors of the town to which such district belongs, on or before the twenty-fifth of September; children temporarily residing in one district but having parents or guardians residing in another shall be enumerated only as belonging to the latter district. For making such enumeration the committee or clerk of the district shall receive one dollar, and in addition thereto three cents for each child enumerated in excess of fifty, and the cost of said enumeration shall be paid from the amount appropriated by the town for the support of schools in said district. If the return of enumeration is not made to the board of school visitors on or before the said twenty-fifth of September, one of the school visitors or a person duly appointed by the board of school visitors shall make a complete enumeration before the fifteenth of October next following and return it to said school visitors, and shall receive therefor a sum not to exceed five cents for each child so enumerated. Amended by chapter 64, Public Acts 1903; chapter 31, Public Acts of 1907; and chapter 182, Public Acts of 1913. Section 2255. Enumeration in consolidated districts. Sec. 2. Section 2255 of the General Statutes as amended by chapter 64 of the Public Acts of 1903 as amended by section two of chapter 31 of the Public Acts of 1907 is hereby amended to read as follows: Town school committees shall annually appoint one or more persons who shall, in September of each year, ascertain the name and age of every person over four and under sixteen years of age who shall belong to such town on the first Tuesday of said month. If any such persons are not attending school during said month of September, then the person making the enumer- ation shall ascertain the reason for such nonattendance and, if such persons are employed at labor, the names of their employers or of the establishments where they are employed. Returns shall be made to the town school committee on or before the twenty-fifth of September. Said persons so appointed shall receive a sum not exceeding five cents for each child so enumerated. Such return shall be signed by the person making it and sworn to substantially according to the form prescribed in section 2253. The town school committee shall examine and correct the returns made to it so that no person shall be enumerated twice or be improperly returned, and lodge them, as corrected, with the town treasurer, and shall transmit to the comptroller, on or before the fifth of December annually, a certificate in which the number of persons shall be inserted in words at full length, which shall be sworn to substantially according to the form pre- scribed in section 2254. Note.— Unless the enumeration is made in all respects according to law, the school board can not make the returns required by General Statutes, section 2167. Failure to make such returns will forfeit all money for the schools of the towns from the State treasury. Directions.— In column 1, place the full name of the parent or guardian; in column 2, the given name of child and the age of same; in column 3, where the child is now attending school; if not attending any school state in column 4 the name of employer or reason for nonattendance, if not employed indicating blindness or defective sight by letter “B” deaf or dumb by “D” and imbecile by “I.” List of persons over four and under sixteen years of age in school district, in the town of , on the first Tuesday of September, A. D. 19 1 2 3 4 Names of parents or guardians. Children. Attendance. Name of employer, or reason for non- attendance. Names. Age. Town. District. Private school. I hereby certify that I have carefully enumerated, according to law, all persons over four and under sixteen years of age within the school district, in the town of , and find that on the first Tuesday of September, A. D. 19 , there were of such persons, residing in and belonging to said district, the number of , Enumerator. On this day of , A. D. 19 — , personally appeared the above-named and made oath to the truth of the above return by him subscribed. Before me, , Notary Public. 66 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. [Form 16. See p. 29.] [BRIDGEPORT SCHOOL ENUMERATOR’S BLANK.] Residence Sept. 1. Names of parent or guardian and children. Age. When last in school. Employer. Reason for nonattend- ance. Name of school. Mo. Year. Residence Oct. 1, previous year. [Form 17. See p. 29.] [BRIDGEPORT OFFICE CENSUS RECORD.] [Form 18. See p. 30.] 1913. MIDDLETOWN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT. My name is My age is I am in Grade in the School. My father’s name is He lives at number , Street. I have brothers and sisters as follows: Names. Age. Where at work or at school. EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. 67 [Form 19. See p. 31.] D, No. 8. ! Date of notice, February 7, 1914. ! Town, Hartford. i Name of child, Concettina Savilla. r-L Age, 14. •o' Name of parent or guardian , Tony. 2 Address, 32 Warren Street. 2 Place of birth of child, Italy. ^ Date of birth of child, November 14, 1899. ® Investigated by E. M. Farm ell. tL Sent to St. Patrick’s School, Hartford. j CHAS. D. HINE, Secretary a gent - ! Final action ! D, No. 3. : Date of notice, February 7, 1914. I Town, Hartford. \ Name of child, Concettina Savilla. Age, 14. 'd Name of parent e r guardian , Tony. 2 Address, 32 Warren Street. 2 Place of birth of child, Italy. *2 Date of birth of child, November 14, 1899. ® Investigated by E. M. Farwell. c. Sent to St. Patrick’s School, Hartford. \ CHA S. D. HINE, Secretary ag e nt , i Final action ! §.2 _ 03 D, No. 3. attendance notice. Attendance blank 11. To Tony Savilla, parent or guardian , 32 Warren Street. Office of State Board of Education, Room 42, Capitol, Hartford. Under the provisions of chapter 36 of the Public Acts of 1905 the State board of education has ascertained that your child Concettina, whose age is said to be 14, has not sufficient education to warrant her leaving school to be employed. AND YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED to cause said Concettina to attend St. Patrick’s School regularly in the town of Hartford until you have obtained a certificate from the State board of education that the education of said Concettina is satisfactory to said board. Dated February 7, 1914. The State Board of Education. By CHAS. D. HINE, Secretary rt s agent . [Law on reverse.] [Form 20. See p. 32.] [SEAL.] Hartford, January 15, 191 4 . To Rankin & Co., Hartford, Conn. Dear Sir: On January 5 an employment certificate, No. 8262, Series F, was issued to Mary Rausman, who stated that she was to be employed by your firm. Kindly fill out the enclosed notice of commencement of employment and return same to this office at once. Please note section 3 of the enclosed copy of the law. Yours, truly, State Board of Education. By CHAS. D. HINE, Secretary. (Enc.) [Form 21. See p. 32.] [SEAL.] Hartford, April 19, 194. To Smart, Weeks & Co., Hartford, Conn. Dear Sir: On March 11 an employment certificate, No. 3262, Series F, was issued to Mary Rausman, who stated that she was to be employed by your firm. Mary Rausman has since applied for a copy of her certificate, stating that she has secured another position. Kindly fill out the enclosed notice of termination of employment and return same to this office at once. Please note section 3 of the enclosed copy of the law. Yours, truly, State Board of Education. By CHAS. D. HINE, (Enc.) Secretary. 68 EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. [Form 22. See p. 32. j Hartford, January 4, 1S14. Dear Sir: Please inform me on the attached postal where your child Mary Rausman is now employed. The certificate number is I f not employed, where is she attending school? Yours, truly. State Board of Education. CHAS. D. HINE . To the State board of education Room 42, Capitol. HARTFORD, ' Connecticut. [ Folded, j Secretary. (Form 22, Daclc. See p. 32.] {Reverse of lower half of above postal card, I reply on this side. Town Date Signature Address. . ... fForm 23. See p. 35.it Date. February i0. 19 ifa Town, Ansonia. Name of firm, J. W. C. Co. Post office, Ansonia, Conn. Business, manufacturing eyelets. Supt., James Leonard. No. hands employed, 175 . No. between 14 and 16, boys; 4 girls. No. certificates: Town clerk, : teacher, : agent, fa No. certificates required, none. No. employed under 14, ...... boys; ...... girls. (Names on reverse side.) [Form 24. See p. 35. j (The spaces left blank here are not usually filled out.} Connecticut State Board of Education Agent, Stephen Wise. Town, Ansonia. Date of visit, February 10, tSlfa 1. Name of firm, J. W. C. Co. 2. Business, manufacturers of eyelets. 3. Name of superintendent, J ames Leonard; P. O. address, Ansonia, Conn. 4. Number of hands employed, 175; number between 14 and 16, 8 boys; 4 girls, 5. Is record book used? 6. Certificates of age by town clerk, ; teacher, ; agents, 4. Certificates of age investigated, ; required, 7. Number under 14 employed; 0; boys, 0: girls, 0. Action taken by agent Result 8. Number between 14 and 16 unable to read : any language : English ...... 9. Does town maintain evening school? 10. Horns per week, Is evening work required? 11. Average wages per week, [Form 25, Seep. 35.) Establishments Employing Children 14 tc 1& Town, Ansonia, Date, June 18, 1918. Name of firm, J. W. C. Co. Address, Ansonia, Conn. Business, m’nf’g eyelets. Children 14-16 at last inspection, boys; 6 girls. Children 14-16 without legal certificates, 0 boys; 0 girls. Inspected (dates), February 10, 1914 . February 10, 1914, 4 girls. (OVER.) EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE SYSTEM IN CONNECTICUT. [Form 26. See p. 36.] 69 Stephen Wise, Jan'y , 191 4. agent’s report. Labor. Visitation. No. towns, 11. Employed. 1. Establishments: No. manufacturing, 7. No. mercantile No. mechanical Other occupations Under 14, 14 to 16. Having cert’s. 29 Not hav- ing cert’s. Illegally employed 2. Special cases investigated, 2. 3. Certificates of age . Con- tinued cases. New appli- cations. Total. Applications. Certifi- cates issued. Total. Notices to at- tend school. Re- jected. Con- tinued. 65 178 248 56* 100 87 243 10 State- ments of age. 86 4. Prosecutions: Number, Result in each, number of certificates refused on account of phyiscal disability, none; number of copies of certificates issued, 183. 5. Number of letters, 483. 6. Number of days occupied in issuing certificates. Town. Days. Number of appli- cants. [Form 27. See p. 12.] OFFICE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. EMPLOYMENT. When applying for an employment certificate the following are necessary conditions: 1. The parent must appear in person with the child. 2. Satisfactory evidence of child’s age must be presented. Town clerk’s or registrar’s certificate is satisfactory. 3. A transcript from register of school last attended giving age and grade must be furnished. 4. Assurance in writing of definite employment by firm or person must be presented. Application can be made to— [Form 28. See p. 33.] Town... Name Address Date of birth Certificate No School Grade. Description Last employed at Date of leaving Reason Date. Placed with — Nature of occupation. Left. Date. Reason. i 1 O U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR CHILDREN’S BUREAU JULIA C. LATHROP. Chief MENTAL DEFECTIVES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF LOCAL CONDITIONS AND THE NEED FOR CUSTODIAL CARE AND TRAINING DEPENDENT, DEFECTIVE, AND DELINQUENT CLASSES SERIES No. 2 Bureau Publication No. 1 3 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1915 CONTENTS. !p Page. Letter of transmittal 5 Introduction 7 Definition of “mental defectives” 8 Table showing distribution of mental defectives reported in the District of Columbia, by location, color, sex, and age 9-11 Sources of information and completeness of data 12-14 Situation in the District of Columbia 15-19 Provision for mental defectives 15 Number of mental defectives 15 Ages of mental defectives 15 Mental defectives in nonappropriate institutions 16-18 Mental defectives attending public schools and at home 18 Need of uniform standard of examination 18 Mental defectives needing institutional care 18, 19 Reasons for segregation and assumption by the State of care of mental defectives. 20-22 Burden on the family 20 Handicap to school system 20 Danger to society 20, 21 Possibility of training 22 Extent of State provision for mental defectives 23 Kind of institution adapted to the care and treatment of mental defectives 24, 25 Economic aspect of the problem 26-28 Investment in land, buildings, and equipment 26 Cost of maintenance 26-28 Economy of adequate provision 28 APPENDIX. Classified instances of mental defectives in the District of Columbia for whom institutional care is desirable ; 29-39 Mental defect as a cause of dependency 29-31 Mentally defective women who are morally delinquent 31-33 4 Children too defective to attend school 33 Children in special schools too defective to benefit by such training 34 Mental defectives whose families are unable to provide proper care 34, 35 Defective delinquents detrimental to the welfare of the community 36 Mental defectives who are also physically, defective 36, 37 S Mentally defective women likely to become victims of improper treatment- 37, 38 Adults who might have profited by institutional training 38 Cases indicating defective stock 38, 39 3 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. U. S. Department of Labor, Children’s Bureau, Washington , March 18, 1915. Sir: I transmit herewith a report on the needs of feeble-minded persons in the District of Columbia. The fact that there is at present no special provision for this unfor- tunate class is a matter of concern to many public-spirited citizens of the District. At the request of the Citizens’ Committee on the Care of the Feeble-minded, the Children’s Bureau undertook to secure a list of known cases of mentally defective persons resident in the Dis- trict who for their own protection and that of the community were in need of custodial care. The following report is based upon the information thus gathered. Also at the request of the committee, brief statements as to the problem of the feeble-minded in general and public provision therefor have been added. The report has been prepared by Miss Emma O. Lundberg, social service expert of the bureau, with the assistance of Miss Katharine F. Lenroot and Miss Nettie B. Browne. Very respectfully, Hon. Wm. B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor. Julia C. Lathrop, Chief. 5 MENTAL DEFECTIVES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, INTRODUCTION. The following study of the extent of the problem of mental defec- tiveness in the District of Columbia was undertaken at the request of a citizens’ committee. This committee of about 40 persons, organ- ized under the leadership of the Monday Evening Club, is composed of representatives of various philanthropic and social agencies and institutions of the District whose dealings with the problems of the community have made them realize the urgent need for secur- ing an institution for the proper care and treatment of mental defectives. Reports of organizations and institutions of the District of Columbia have repeatedly stated the necessity for proper custodial provision. The District Board of Charities in its annual report for 1914 presents the need as follows: We again urge the importance of providing proper facilities for the segregation and care of the feeble-minded. This is a question which is receiving active attention throughout the entire country. It is now generally realized that the only effective method of handling this problem is to provide permanent custodial care where this class may be safely segregated from the community and prevented from reproducing their kind. The District of Columbia has at present no provision within its confines for the care of this class. About 100 are cared for under contract in institutions located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia, and a few older persons are cared for in the hospital for the insane. The Board of Children’s Guardians reports as follows: Provision for the care of feeble-minded children remains in the same unsatisfactory condition as a year ago and for many years preceding. While bills have been pend- ing in the Congress for several years intended to establish a training school in the District of Columbia for feeble-minded children, none has been enacted. The need of such an institution is especially urgent, as no training school for the care of feeble- minded colored children of this District is available elsewhere. The superintendent of the Home for the Aged and Infirm, after describing cases of inmates who are in the institution, not because they are old but because of mental or physical infirmity, says: Under these conditions can this institution be made all that the public intends it shall be — all that the Board of Charities have constantly striven to make it — a home? But relief from these anomalous conditions is obviously only to be found in the exe- cution of the board’s plan to have a separate institution for each distinct class of its dependents. 7 8 MENTAL DEFECTIVES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. The trustees of the National Training School for (Colored) Girls reported to the Board of Charities: The attention of Congress should be invited to the necessity of caring for feeble- minded colored girls. In the past many such have been sent to this school because of the lack of an appropriate institution to care for them. Manifestly this is not the place; no progress is made with them, and their presence is a decided drawback. The superintendent of the same institution states in her report: I would advise legislation providing for the care of feeble-minded colored girls, whom we are reasonably sure, from direct knowledge of such cases, will become the helpless mothers of successive illegitimate children. The data gathered in regard to conditions in the District of Colum- bia furnish evidence bearing on the many phases of this problem — the individual suffering and degeneration, the burden to families, the handicap to the school system, and the danger to the whole com- munity resulting from the lack of proper provision for those suffering from mental defect. In view of the close relationship between mental defect and problems of child welfare, the library of the Children’s Bureau is collecting material pertaining to all phases of the subject of mental defect, including reports of institutions. This material is at the service of those interested in the care of mental defectives. DEFINITION OF “MENTAL DEFECTIVES.” The term “mental defect” implies congenital defect or defect occurring in early life as contrasted with “insanity,” implying a diseased condition developed in later life. The term “feeble-minded- ness” is now largely used in the United States as, a generic term applied to all persons who because of mental defect are incapable of normal development. The generally accepted classification divides feeble-mindedness into three grades: Idiots, the lowest type; imbeciles, the middle type; morons, the highest grade. The American Association for the Study of the Feeble-minded in 1910 adopted the following classification 1 of mental defectives: “ Idiots — Those so deeply defective that their mental develop- ment does not exceed that of a normal child of about 2 years. “ Imbeciles — Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about 7 years. “Morons — Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about 12 years.” Journal of Psycho-Asthenics, March and June, 1911, p. 134. Table showing distribution of mental defectives reported in District of Columbia, by location, color, sex, and age. MENTAL DEFECTIVES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 9 White. Females. "J9AO pun SJB9iC CO | il . • 00 • • CM CM ’ -l 50 II CO J •sjB9i£ gt- o; \f 00 • • iO iO CO CO j •s.n?9^ OF o; 92 o - rH * CO CO CO co j •sjne^C 98 ox is CO - rH • L- lOHH 00 t^rH •sjn9if 08 <4 gg CO (N CM • CO CM • CO LO 50 ■ •sinai: ye 0} xz o CM HIO CO TP T— 1 • - CO rH •sangi: OS o; 81 CM 05 CM CO tP ^ o - — 1 oo Tp S : •s-maA Ft o^l SI CO IO CM CO rH •> 00 CM O CO • CM CM ; •sjngiC n ot 6 - rH • TP - i-H 3 05 CO • CM •sjeaA 9 lapun CO : : - rH • LO • • • 8 CM 8 CM CO tP tP HH HCMNH lO CO l> CM rH CO CM CM CM CO 05 tP h CO Males. ’J9A0 pun sanoi? gf CO : : s s ; LO lo ! •sanaA gf o; it- iO ! ! ° 05 rH LO LO • •sanaA OF 0} 98 iO - • rH O I>- CM - - tP . •SJB9^C 98 o; 18 CO tP TP I CM CM TP CO •sana^ 08 ox 9S 05 00 t- r-l CO CO 10 1 TP rH •sana^C 9S ot is CM oo r-i eo-^ io lO 05 CM •sjea^C os o; 81 S3 - th to *o eo - CO 05 CM CO rH •sma^ 2,1 oi 91 05 CO TP •sinaA 9 japu/i 05 05 05 i 'mox lo o CO 8 tP lO 00 CO CM CO CO CO Tp CO CM CO TP H rH IO rH !>• 50 t-H o. C50 CO T-H COIN Total. •paiopo CO CM CM 2 107 CM CO 00 • rH • CM • CM C0 1—1 lO • rH • • LO TP CM O 00 rH CM CO rH CO CM Tp CO iO iO 05 CO O 05 CM 1 LO CO TP I TPlOt^r^ 'CM CO rH rH COO L- 05 ■ rH 05 • CM • O ?3 CO CO *mox 00 ff L- 05 CO CM 05 05 10 ” Si 176 11 7 7 11 2 8 11 3 6 7 452 TP C5 CO 00 00 CM CO CO 05 iO Location. Total In appropriate institutions Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble- minded Children (Elwyn) Virginia Training School (Falls Church) In other institutions Government Hospital for the Insane i 10 1 c ;i !| f| > t jX C 32 11 IPs j 11 II II :tr 5.2 ) S- II 5T \£ T c c | II ! b II ! £ !*5 il liz I c 5PC , fm > c II ! rC , c_ ice Ob 11 i £ '2.1 rf! jwj $0a £ \< s 3 J* 3 8 33c 3 b£-<- 3 .Sf i|l 5 h if j! g IS > *1 il 1*1 1 Not in institutions Boarded out by Board of Children’s Guar- a C c .c c 1 T. P cs 2 1 b— Not in school (6 to 15 years, inclusive, too rtflfsntiVft t.n At home (under 6 and over 15 years) Location not ascertained 88398°— 15 2 Table showing distribution of mental defectives reported in District of Columbia , by location, color, sex, and age— Continued. Colored. Females. tel 3 TAL DEFECTTV" •J 8 AO 1 2 put? siB 9 .£ 9J> | ES IN II i THE I 00 || 00 >1 STB ICT OF CO ! 1 ; Lin JLB • | CO rH • 00 ll ^ *o •SJB8iC 08 oi si s || IO • 10 l ^ Oi rH •SJB 9 ^ 2,1 01 91 jj *0 10 •