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Show I Child Labor Is Being Reduced in li United States No figures have been compiled to warrant the report that child 'nbor in the United States has been reduced 40 i per cent since the child labor tax law went into effect, according to latest advices from the internal revenue office. of-fice. While a marked decrease has been reported in those industries affected af-fected by the law, the revenue bureau says that no statistical statement can yet be made. That the number of children lffect-ed lffect-ed by the federal law will not ap- 1 j proach the estimate of 40 per tent, ii the opinion of Owen R. Lovejov . general gen-eral secretary of the national child la bor committee. Commenting on tin recent report, Mr. Lovejoy Bays: "The federal law prohibiting the employment em-ployment of children under li In lac torles, mills, canneries and workshops, and children under 16 in mines and quarries, applies to only a Bme.l number num-ber of the occupations in which ch'd- i !j dren are gainfully employed in the United States. By far the ireatest number of child workers under 16 years of age are listed in other cccu pations. The federal census of 1910 placed the number of children 10 to 15 years of hk employed ,n :,ir, work at 1,119,098 and those employed in all other occupations, xeiuvc oi mines and manufacturing establishments establish-ments at 338,420. Reliable reports tend to show that this number of chll dren gainfully employed as greatly augmented during the war period, and no evidence has been found mat tbe children who, cither because cf eco-uomic eco-uomic pressure or the increasc-d de- j mand for labor, left school to cuter in- I dustry, havo returned to the schools in great numbers." , There has been a strong movement in many stateis to increase the school ase. and nineteen states strenathm d their compulsory school attejdance laus in their legislative sessions last year. In several states, too- notably North Carolina and West Virginia child labor laws were amended to bni'K them up to the standard set by 1 the federal law. Many siat.?s, how ever, still fail to provide adequate pro-lection pro-lection for their children, and efforts j will be made this winter 10 strengthen compulsory attendance and child labor la-bor laws to reach those children who ' io not come within the scone of the federal law, and to provide tor their I -uict enforcement. |