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Show CHILDREN IN WAR TIE I WORK WHICH DEVITALIZES - "Tho experience of war time has only demonstrated the necessity technical, tech-nical, economic, and even physiologicalof physiologi-calof the labor laws enacted before the war. In our legislation secured in time of peace we snail find the conditions for a better and more intense in-tense production during the war." These words of M. Albert Thomas, tho French minister of munitions, illustrate il-lustrate perfectly the official attitude of both France and England after two years of emergency exemptions for war industries, according to the Children's Chil-dren's Bureau of Ihe U. S. Department of Labor which has just completed a brief review of all available reports on child labor in the warring countries. coun-tries. In France and England, earlier standards of hours are bping restored, not only to protect the health of the workers but for the sheer sake of industrial in-dustrial efficiency, present and future. fu-ture. In Italy, the central committee on industrial mobilization has taken steps in the same direction. In Russia, Rus-sia, a year before the revolution, a movement was under way to raise the age limit for children in industry. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in spite of the great armies of men they have sent to the front, have maintained their labor standards with little or no variation. Victoria has slightly increased the amount of overtime over-time which may bo permitted to women wom-en and children in special cases. On tho other hand. Manitoba has reduced its legal overtime. No change whatever what-ever In restrictions on woman and child labor is reported from "New Zealand. Zea-land. The children's bureau sums up as follows tho child-labor situation in France and England: France, after almost two years of war time exemptions by which children chil-dren under 18 were allowed to work at night in spejclal cases, restored tho night-work prohibition for girls under 18 and provided that other night workers work-ers should be subject to medical -supervision. The reason for this is indicated indi-cated not only In the statement, by M. Thomas, quoted above, but again in the following extract from the French official Bulletin des Uslnes de Guerre for July 31. 1916: "With the continuance of the war it becomes necessary not only to find the best possible disposition of the forces available for our war Industries but also to avoid every cause for exhaustion ex-haustion or weakening of the labor employed in our factories. There is a close relation between the conditions in which we place our workers and tho improvement or the increase of our war products. For the very sake -of the national defense we must conserve all their physical strength for tho workers who are responsible for the manufacture of' arms and for tho output out-put of our factories." France has now under consideration an education bill which would in effect raise the standard of labor protection in war time. It was introduced in the chamber of deputies In March by M. Vivinni and closely resembles a bill passed by the French senato in June, 1916. This proposal to establish a system sys-tem of continuation schools nnd to require re-quire part-time school attendance during dur-ing working hours by all working children chil-dren under 17 years of age has tho endorsement en-dorsement of the minister of commerce com-merce and of business interests In all parts of the country. A similar advance has been recommended recom-mended in England by tho departmental depart-mental committee on education for juvenile ju-venile employment after the war. This committee also advises an effective 14-year ago limit for required school attendance without the , exemptions permitted by the present law. Supplementary Sup-plementary estimates for educational purposes bavo been presented to parliament par-liament by the government which look toward a strengthening of adolescent education along the lines suggested by the committee. In England as early as 1915 some employers returned to regular labor standards. The British chief inspector" inspec-tor" of factories and workships writes In May, 1916: "The tendency grew as the year passed to substitute a system of shifts for the long day followed by overtime, and this is particularly reported of munition factories In the Midlands and in Sheffield. . . . The number of days on which overtime was actually work- ed tended in many factories to de- m crease as experience grew of accumu- jft lating fatigue and lessened output. V. Probably for similar reasons Sunday V. labor also has tended latterly to de- W crease." S The reports of the British official committee on the health of munition ; workers on the waste involved in the long hours worked during the war are ' well known. They urge the restoring ' of restrictions and are full of such statements as tho following: ; "Even during the urgent claims of a war the problem must always be to obtain the maximum output from the individual worker which is compatible with the maintenance of his health. In war time the workmen will be willing, as they are showing in so many directions, direc-tions, to forego comfort and to work : nearer to the margin of accumulating fatigue than in times of peace, but the country can not afford the extravagance extrava-gance of paying for work done during Incapacity from fatigue Just because ; so many hours are spent upon it, or . the further extravagance of urging armies of workers towards rolatlve incapacity in-capacity by neglect of physiological law. "Conditions of work are accepted without question and without complaint com-plaint which, immediately detrimental j to output, would If continued be ultl- J mately disastrous to health. It is for 'i the nation to safeguard the devotion of its workers by its foresight and watchfulness watch-fulness lest irreparablo harm be dono to body and mind both in this gener- 3 ation and the next. "Very young girls show almost Immediate Im-mediate symptoms of lassitude, exhaustion, ex-haustion, and impaired vitality under ihp inf1nfTirr nf omnlnvment at nicht. A very similar Impression was mado by tho appearance of large numbers i of young boys who had been working 1 at munitions for a long timo on alternate alter-nate night and day shifts." In England tho war exemptions to i the factory laws have not included a j lowering of the age limits for factory work. And tho exemptions to the school-attendance laws permitted for I agriculture and "light employment"-are employment"-are now bitterly regretted by the general gen-eral education authority which has sanctioned them. A fuller memorandum on child labor in warring countries will be supplied by the Children's Bureau, Washington, Washing-ton, D. C, upon request |