Child Labor in the Coal Mines

The first field investigation conducted by the National Child Labor Committee was among the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania. Facts revealed in the hearings before the commission appointed by President Roosevelt to seek a settlement of the great strike of I902 led the committee to believe that conditions existed there which would serve not only to illustrate prominent evils of premature child labor in other sections of our country, but also that, once known, would arouse public opinion to give such expression in legislative action as would bring about a higher plane of life in the anthracite region itself. The committee believed a proper educational preparation for American life was possible for the children of the mining district, and this without bringing undue hardship upon the families, and without in any way hampering the legitimate processes of the coal industry. This investigation, carried on extensively and at different seasons during the past eighteen months, has demonstrated the wisdom of the committee's action. In every part of the region visited child labor was found to exist. No colliery has been visited in which children have not been found employed at ages prohibited by the law of the State. Various estimates have been given of the number of boys under fourteen and under sixteen years employed in and about the hard coal mines of Pennsylvania. The figures have ranged from 6,000 to 12,000 under fourteen years. All of these estimates are generalizations, based upon specific data which may, and may not, be sufficient. Our own estimates are based on the study of a number of boroughs believed to be typical of the region, and have been gathered in co-operation with school officials, mine officers, 1 Address at the Philadelphia session and at the Second Session of the Second Annual Meeting of the National Child Labor Committee, Washington, D. C., December 8, 1905. (293)

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