means of safety to be provided in all branches of industry where they are needed.

Massachusetts prohibits the employment of children under ten years of age in manufacturing or mercantile establishments. No child under fourteen years of age shall be so employed except during the vacation of the public school, unless during the year next preceding such employment he has attended at least for twenty weeks some public or private school under teachers approved according to law, nor shall such employment continue unless such child in each and every year attend school for twenty weeks, which time may be divided into two terms of ten consecutive weeks each. Neither shall any child under fourteen years of age who cannot read and write be employed in such establishments while the public schools of the town are in session. Minors under eighteen and women may not be employed in factories for more than ten hours per day, nor sixty hours per week. A law, approved April 12, 1882, provides that every person or corporation employing females in any manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment shall provide suitable seats for the use of the females so employed, and shall permit the use of such seats when they are not necessarily engaged in the active duties for which they are employed.

The provisions in reference to ventilation, cleaning, etc., of factories are similar to those of the English law. That State has gone farther than any other commonwealth in the class of protected persons. In addition to factories, mercantile and mechanical establishments are included by the law.

Other States have similar laws, but we cannot take the space here to give even an outline of them. All that have enacted such laws have also passed kindred and similar acts relating to those employed in mines, etc.

Following is a copy of the New Jersey "Minor and woman employment law."

CHAPTER LVII..

AN ACT to limit the age and employment hours of labor of children, minors and women, and to appoint an inspector for the enforcement of the same.

1. Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey: That after the fourth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three, no boy under the age of twelve years, nor any girl under fourteen years of age, shall be employed in any factory, workshop, mine or establishment where the manufacture of any goods whatever is carried on.

2. And be it enacted, That on and after the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four, no child between the ages of twelve and fifteen years shall be employed in any factory, workshop, mine or establishment where the manufao

ture of any kind of goods whatever is carried on, unless such child shall have attended within twelve months immediately preceding such employment, some public day or night school, or some well recognized private school; such attendance to be for five days or evenings every week during a period of at least twelve consecutive weeks, which may be divided into two terms of six consecutive weeks each, so far as the arrangement of school terms will permit, and unless such child, or his parents or guardian, shall have presented to the manufacturer, merchant or other employer seeking to employ such child, a certificate giving the name of his parents or guardian, the name and number of the schools attended, and the number of weeks in attendance, such certificate to be signed by the teacher or teachers of such child; provided, that in case the age of the child be not known, such teacher shall certify that the age given is the true age to the best of his or her knowledge and belief; provided, that in case of orphan children, where necessity may seem to require, the guardian or others having charge of the same may, upon application to the inspector provided for in this act, receive from him a permit for the employment of such child or children, under such regulations as the said inspector may provide.

3. And be it enacted, That no child or children under the age of fourteen years shall be employed in any factory, workshop, mill or establishment where the manufacture of any kind of goods is carried on, for a longer period than an average of ten hours in a day, or sixty hours in a week.

4. And be it enacted, That every manufacturer, merchant or other employer employing any person contrary to the provisions of this act, or who shall be guilty of any violation hereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction be fined for each offense in a sum of not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars, and in default of payment of the same, shall be imprisoned in the county jail for not less than thirty nor more than ninety days; and that every head of a family, parent or guardian, who knowingly permits the employment of such children, shall be likewise subject to a fine of not more than twenty-five nor less than ten dollars for every child so employed, and for each offense, and in default of such payment, shall be imprisoned in the county jail for a period not less than ten days nor more than twenty days; a certificate of the age of the minor made by him or her, and by his or her parent or guardian at the time of employment, shall be conclusive evidence of the age of such minor upon any trial for the violation of this act; provided, that the provisions in this act in relation to the hours of employment saall not apply to or affect any person engaged in preserving perishable goods in fruit-canning establishments.

5. And be it enacted, That the Governor shall, immediately after the passage of this bill, appoint, with the advice and consent of the Senate, some suitable person, who shall be a resident and citizen of this State, as inspector, at a salary of twelve hundred dollars per year, to be paid monthly, whose term of office shall be for three years; the said inspector shall be empowered to visit and inspect, at all reasonable hours and as often as practicable, the factories, workshops, mines and other establishments in the State where the manufacture or sale of any kind of goods is carried on, and to report to the Governor of this State on or before the thirty-first day of October, in each year. It shall also be the duty of said inspector to enforce the provisions of this act and prosecute all yiolations of the same in any recorder's courts of cities and justices of the peace, or other courts of competent jurisdiction in the State.

6. And be it enacted, That all necessary expenses incurred by said inspector in the discharge of his duties shall be paid from the funds of the State upon the presen

tation of proper vouchers of the same; provided, that not more than five hundred dollars shall be expended by him in any one year.

7. And be it enacted, That all fines collected under this act shall inure to the benefit of the school fund of the district where the offense has been committed.

8. And be it enacted, That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed, and that this act shall take effect immediately. Approved March 5, 1883.

The discussion as to the wisdom of such legislation has been long and excited. Laws of this character have been opposed at every stage as being an unwarranted case of interference with the liberty of the individual. Many political economists have protested that the principles of economics forbid any such interference with the freedom of contract. Manufacturers objected that the cost of manufactured goods would be so increased that they could not compete in foreign markets. The laboring classes themselves were opposed to the movement, maintaining that, so far from raising their standard of life the law tended to lower it.

Nor can it be deemed that each and all of these objections have a certain force. Laws which prescribe the age at which labor may be begun, the duration of labor and the conditions under which it may be carried on, need special justification. They interfere with the liberty of the individual, which seems to be contrary to the course of modern development. In their endeavor to protect him, they limit his power over the very agency by which he becomes independent, viz., his own. labor, and so they seem to come in conflict with the principles of a sound economy. In their attempt to raise the standard of comfort of the laboring classes, they deprive them of certain sources of income, and by that their first result is a lowering of the standard of comfort, so that they are felt to be oppressive. They interfere, in a word, immediately in the life of the laboring classes, and undertake to counteract by force their tendency to degeneration. Yet they do nothing more than simply apply this force, letting the results take care of themselves.

However weighty these arguments are allowed to be, they are overcome by other considerations. In the first place, so far as those provisions relating to the labor of children are concerned, it may be maintained even by those who would limit the functions of the State to the simple one of protection, that such legislation is nothing more than a much needed interference by the State in behalf of the most helpless and oppressed portion of the community. If fathers and mothers become so deadened to every feeling of the obligation of parents to their offspring as to place their children under such conditions as to

make their normal development as human beings impossible; if they deprive them of all opportunities for mental, moral and physical education; if they employ them habitually in such branches of industry as lead to their mental, moral and physical deterioration and ruin; surely no more sacred duty rests upon the State than to interfere to protect these children—to protect them not only against their employer, but against their parents as well.

The State, then, may undertake to protect minors from the abuse of their parents or guardians. But the principle which justifies interference to protect one helpless and exploited class, justifies interference to protect all helpless and exploited classes. For a long time women were minors in the eyes of the law, and are in reality so yet in most of the great manufacturing centres of the world. Their labor was and is as mercilessly exploited as ever that of children was by their parents. Legislation has interfered to protect them from this abuse,. fixing the maximum period of labor within any one day or any one week. Such measures can be justified on essentially the same principle as those in behalf of children.

Legislation of this class may be justified not only as a fair response to a demand for protection on the part of helpless classes of the community, but as an essential movement in the interests of society as a whole. It goes without the saying that in a state of society in which the children from the age of five or six years are sent into the factories and mines from daylight till dark, in which the mothers, from the time of delivery, work all day and half the night in the same places, in which the fathers either do the same or idle away their time living on the proceeds of the labor of their wives and children-it goes without saying, I repeat, that in such a society there can be no home life, no care and nurture of children, no education, no morality, no health; in a word, none of the conditions necessary to the development of intelligent citizens and to the welfare of free States.

Practical statesmen and philanthropists of two generations ago saw clearly that something must be done to counteract the agencies which were sapping rapidly and surely the foundations of family life, reversing the relations of parent and child, of husband and wife, and reducing whole classes of the population to a condition but little, if any, removed from barbarism. They began the work and it has made good progress. But much, even in countries where such legislation has been enacted, remains to be done. It will not do to stop this movement and similar ones for the amelioration of the laboring classes. The spirit of the times demands that they go on. Wise statesmanship demands it. The preservation of society itself demands it. Govern the

laboring classes rightly and the reins of government may be held on one's little finger.

In Missouri our statutes are silent on this subject. In this respect we are far behind most of the other States whose manufacturing and mining industries bear comparison with ours. It should therefore be one of the first duties of the present General Assembly to consider this matter, and bring forward and enact such a law as will place Missouri abreast of the times in the general movement, everywhere apparent, for the elevation of labor and the improvement of the condition of the laboring classes.