tions concerning programs for unemployed youth during the depression were made.

During the war period special attention has been given to the development of policies and standards for wartime employment of youth. This work has been done in cooperation with other Federal agencies, including the War Manpower Commission, the United States Office of Education, the Department of Agriculture, the War Department, the Navy Department, and the Civil Service Commission. These standards have related to minimum-age limits for employment of youth in Government work, advisory standards for wartime employment in industries in which some of the occupations are relatively hazardous, suggesting the types of jobs most suitable for young workers; farm-labor programs; and combined programs of school and work. In general, these standards call for

Observance of State and Federal labor standards; a minimum age of 14 for either full-time or part-time employment, of 16 for manufacturing occupations, and of 18 for hazardous work; a maximum 8-hour day, 48-hour week and 6-day week with certain safeguarded exceptions; special limitations on part-time employment of youth between 14 and 18 attending school, particularly as to hours of work; wages the same as those paid adult workers for similar job performance; and safeguards for children in agricultural employment with special reference to those living away from home.

Advisory standards indicating which jobs are safe for young workers have been found helpful by employers, counselors, and placement officers throughout the country. They cover employment in shipbuilding; the aircraft industry; lead and lead-using industries; welding occupations; operation of metal-working machines; employment involving exposure to carbon disulfide or to chlorinated solvents; and work in pulp, paper, and paper-products industries. Work on standards for other occupations is under way or planned.

The Children's Bureau and the Office of Education, with the approval of the War Manpower Commission and the cooperation of the Office of War Information, are carrying on an extensive go-to-school drive in the late summer of 1944, with the object of getting as many young workers of high-school age as possible back to school on a full-time or part-time basis. A similar campaign was carried on in 1943.

Adeninistration of Federal child-labor laws

Four years after the establishment of the Children's Bureau, the first Federal child-labor law was passed, with the Children's Bureau given responsibility for its administration. Based on the power of Congress to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, the law prohibited shipment of goods from establishments in which children had been employed within a specified period in violation of standards specified in the act. Nine months after the law became effective the Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision later explicitly reversed, declared it unconstitutional.

During the period when the law was in effect the Children's Bureau planned and put into effect the first attempt at Nation-wide regulation of child labor. Basic to the procedures which were followed were two principles: First, that the successful enforcement of any child-labor law depends primarily upon the existence of a well-administered system of certifying the ages of employed children; and, second, that the enforcement of a Federal law could not succeed except with the genuine cooperation of State and local officials.

The Children's Buearu since 1938 has had responsibility for administration of the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. These provisions apply to all establishments producing goods for shipment in interstate or foreign commerce. The basic minimum age for employment in or about such establishments is 16 years; for employment found and declared by the Chief of the Children's Bureau to be particularly hazardous the minimum age is 18 years. In occupations other than manufacturing and mining children 14 and 15 years may be employed outside school hours and during vacations under conditions defined in regulations issued by the Chief of the Children's Bureau as not being detrimental to their health, education, or general welfare. Employment-certificate systems developed by the States under State child-labor laws have been strengthened and extended to serve Federal as well as State purposes, under agreements between the State agency and the Children's Bureau. In four States, where no State systems were in effect, Federal certificates are issued.

Child-labor inspections are carried on under policies adopted by the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions and the Children's Bureau, which

insure that no duplication of effort exists. In general, inspections of establishments for violations of both child-labor and wage-and-hour provisions are made by wage-and-hour inspectors, under authority with respect to child labor delegated by the Chief of the Children's Bureau. Child-labor consultants on the Bureau staff, assigned to wage-and-hour regional offices to assist in developing policies concerning child-labor enforcement, train inspectors in this phase of their work, answer inquiries concerning the child-labor provisions of the act, and cooperate in handling especially difficult cases.

Six hazardous-occupations orders have been issued under authority of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The orders, developed after investigation, consultation with industrial experts, physicians, management, and labor, aud after pubiic hearings, apply to employment in the manufacture of explosives, in coal mining, as drivers or helpers on motor vehicles, in logging and sawmilling, in the operation of power-driven woodworking machines, and in work involving exposure to radioactive substances.

Wherever possible, compliance of employers with the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act has been sought through educational measures, bur legal action is resorted to whenever deliberate and repeated violations are found. Legal action was taken in 182 cases in the first 5 years of the act's operation-157 civil, 25 criminal and criminal contempt cases; in all but 2 cases the decisions were favorable to the Children's Bureau.

Trends in child-labor and youth employment

From 1910 to 1940 there was a steady decline in numbers of children employed, brought about in part by industrial trends and technological developments, and in part by higher legislative standards. Fifteen States now have laws setting a minimum age of 16 years for employment in manufacturing establishments and a variety of other occupations. The Supreme Court in the case of United States v. F. W. Darby Lumber Company and Fred W. Darby, February 3, 1941, reversed the old Hammer v. Dagenhart decision which had made the first Federal child-labor law inoperative, and upheld the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, establishing a basic minimum age (16) which was 2 years higher than the minimum age incorporated in the first Federal child-labor law in 1916. Improved methods of State and local administration of child labor and school attendance strengthened greatly the effectiveness of the statutes.

Wartime conditions have reversed the trend of two decades toward less employment of children and higher child-labor and school-attendance standards. In April 1940 the number of young workers 14 through 17 years of age had fallen to less than 900,000. By the summer of 1943 the number of employed youth of these ages rose to a peak of 5,000,000, and remained between 2,750,000 and 3,000,000 during the following winter. The number of students enrolled in public and private high schools dropped from 7,244,312 in 1940-41, to 6,216,119 in 1943-44. a loss of 14 percent. Pressure to relax child-labor laws during the emergency was partly successful in many States, and the amount of illegal child labor, as indicated by inspections under the Fair Labor Standards Act, increased nearly five times.

WORK RELATED TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND SOCIAL SERVICES

Discovery of the facts

In its early studies of infant mortality, the Children's Bureau found that the babies of unmarried mothers had a mortality rate about three times as high as the rate for babies of legitimate birth. In Baltimore in 1915 almost one-third of the babies of unmarried mothers died before the age of 1 year. The most important single reason was found to be early separation from the mother. Another reason was the high rate of mortality of babies cared for in institutions. To the Bureau, it became clear that the baby's first need was for his mother and his chance for life depended to a large extent on the meeting of this need. This knowledge led directly to a long series of studies of conditions surrounding children of illegitimate birth, the experience of agencies dealing with this problem in a number of cities, and legal provisions for establishing paternity and obtaining support for the child.

As part of its study of the welfare of children in waring countries made before the United States entered the First World War, the Children's Bureau issued a report summarizing information on delinquency in certain countries at war, showing increased delinquency growing out of abnormal family situations and special conditions, and turned to studies of juvenile delinquency in the United

States. Through inquiries addressed to courts throughout the country the Bureau tried to measure progress made in establishing juvenile-court principles in the 20 years since the first juvenile court had been established. This study was followed by intensive studies of selected juvenile courts and later by studies of courts with jurisdiction over family cases. Institutions caring for delinquent children were also studied, and information concerning the after careers of boys who had been cared for at these institutions was obtained.

Then the Bureau turned its attention to the ways in which communities could be organized to deal with conditions leading to juvenile delinquency and give understanding treatment to children in the early stages of development of behavior problems. Demonstration projects were set up, first in a district in Chicago and later in a district in St. Paul. Through these studies valuable experience was obtained as to the most effective ways of bringing closer together the schools, the police, the courts, recreational and social agencies so as to afford the best possible means of understanding and dealing with children's problems.

Studies of legal and social measures for the protection and care of children without adequate care and protection in their own homes were also made, including adoption, licensing, and supervision of child-care agencies and institutions, and administration of mothers' aid. These measures are closely related to the organization and administration of State and local services for children, and administration studies were made by the Children's Bureau to learn the best methods of organizing social services and making them available to children in rural areas as well as in cities.

The interest of the Children's Bureau was not confined to subjects affecting relatively small numbers of children, but was directed toward learning the effect of underlying social and economic factors upon a child's chance in life. Studies were made of the effect of the employment of the mother upon the well-being of her children. During the industrial depression of 1921 and 1922 the Children's Bureau undertook in two cities studies of the effects of unemployment upon children. In 1931 the Bureau turned its attention to the needs for unemployment relief and the damage to children represented by lack of a job for the family breadwinner-this time making studies in coal-mining communities in a number of States, areas which had been suffering from economic depression for several years before 1929. Material gained in these studies was used to encourage private child-feeding activities, carried on by the American Friends Service Committee, and as evidence for the entrance of the Federal Government into the administration of relief.

In the early years of the depression the Children's Bureau made studies of the plight of boys and girls riding the freights and hitchhiking across the country in search of work. It was the only Federal agency, in this period, collecting statistics of public and private relief, a project made possible by the Bureau's pioneer activities in collection of statistics of health and social services through the cooperation of a number of communities. The Children's Bureau also pioneered in the collection of statistics of employment certificates issued permitting children to leave school for gainful employment, and statistics of juvenile court

cases.

A study, made in 1933, in cooperation with the Women's Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor, was concerned with the effect of the depression on the standard of living of railroad employees and their families. Diets had been reduced to a level at which nutritional needs were not being met. Medical needs were not being met. Many children left high school because there was not money for books and clothes.

Warning that "neglect of the health, education, and general welfare of children will be permanently costly to the children and to the future of the country,” Miss Abbott in the Twentieth Annual Report of the Children's Bureau, issued in 1932, summarized some of the results of the depression on children, and asserted that these conditions carried "serious implications" which could be combated "only by increased vigilance on the part of health and social agencies and the determination of the public that permanent losses to children must be prevented." During the present war period studies of juvenile delinquency, special problems of Negro children in families migrating to war areas, and community programs for the care of children of working mothers have been made. Information has been obtained concerning recreation programs for teen-age youth. Development of standards

Early studies of the Children's Bureau of illegitimacy and juvenile delinquency led to conferences on legal standards for the protection of children

born out of wedlock and the adoption of a Uniform Illegitimacy Act, by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws; and conferences on juvenile court procedures and the adoption of standards which formed in large part the basis for a uniform Juvenile Court Act. Standards of care for institutions for dependent children were published in the form of a handbook. Extensive advisory service in regard to State child-welfare laws has given opportunity to help to translate into legislation standards and recommendations growing out of Children's Bureau studies and the crystallization of experience in various fields of social service.

During the war period standards for day care programs for children of working mothers and suggestions for community programs for controlling juvenile delinquency were developed and published.

Administration of grants-in-aid to the States for child-welfare services

Grants to State public welfare agencies are provided for in title V, part 3, of the Social Security Act, with the purpose of enabling the States to establish, extend, and strengthen child-welfare services, especially in rural areas and in areas of special need. The services are directed toward the needs of homeless, dependent, and neglected children and children in danger of becoming delinquent. The Federal funds, supplemented by State and local funds, are used to provide the services of child-welfare workers as special consultants on the staffs of State public-welfare agencies and for assignment to local communities, to develop local child-welfare programs and give case-work service to children, of whom about 70 percent are in their own homes, the remainder being in foster homes or institutions. The annual appropriation for this program is $1,510,000. On December 31, 1943, 243 workers were employed under this program on the staffs of State welfare departments, 325 workers were in rural areas, and 101 were in areas of special need, chiefly centers of war activity.

The regional child-welfare consultants of the Bureau's Social Service Division work with the State welfare agencies in the development of joint plans for childwelfare services, as required by title V, part 3, of the Social Security Act, obtain information and give consultant service concerning all aspects of social service for children, including day-care services for children of working mothers, licensing and supervision of child-caring agencies, and community programs for the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency.

Progress in providing social services for children

When the Children's Bureau was established only two States (one limited to one county) had laws providing public aid for needy children in their own homes. Mothers' aid laws spread over nearly the entire country, and standards of administration were improved. In 1935 Federal funds were made available under the Social Security Act administered by the Social Security Board, for an expanded program of aid to dependent children living in their own homes or with relatives.

Great progress has been made in the understanding of juvenile delinquency and in methods of dealing with it. Child-guidance services have been developed. Foster-home care of children who cannot be provided for in their own homes has been greatly extended and improved. More adequate provisions are made for children born out of wedlock. Nearly every State public welfare department now has a child-welfare division or bureau.

The most significant developments in social services for children have been the acceptance of the principle that they must be directed primarily to work with children in their own homes whose problems require special attention: acceptance of the principle of public responsibility, to be expressed through State leadership and assistance and the development of local services; recognition of the importance of the school in the planning and development of community programs and provision of educational and vocational guidance, visiting-teacher service, extended school programs for children of working mothers, and other means of adapting school programs to individual needs; development of group-work programs for children; and emphasis upon utilization and coordination of all child-welfare resources of the community, both public and private. Underlying these developments have been the extension and improvement of professional training for social work, to which the grants-in-aid programs for child-welfare and public-assistance services have contributed through stimulation and provision of educational leave for workers on the staffs of State and local welfare agencies. The work of the Children's Bureau has been an important factor in these changes.

UTILIZATION OF ADVISORY SERVICES

From the beginning the Children's Bureau has had the benefit of advice from professional workers, public officials, private agencies, and citizens' organizations, and has carried on cooperative activities with other agencies and organizations, both public and private. Advisory committees review the bulletins for mothers prepared by the Children's Bureau before they are published, and assist in their preparation. Policies governing administration of grants-inaid under title V of the Social Security Act are developed after consultation with advisory committees and State administrators. Advisory committees help to work out policies regarding child labor and youth employment, and give assistance in special fields of study and advisory service. Among the national organizations with which the Children's Bureau maintains close working relationships are the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the national child welfare division of the American Legion, the Child Welfare League of America, the National Child Labor Committee, national youth-serving agencies, and farm and labor organizations.

SPECIAL CONFERENCES

Conferences on special subjects of Nation-wide interest are called from time to time. Among such conferences are the Child Health Recovery Conference, held October 6, 1933; the Confernce on Present Emergencies in the Care of Dependent and Neglected Children, held December 16, 1933; and the Conference on Better Care for Mothers and Babies, held January 17-18, 1938. The Conference on Better Care for Mothers and Babies was attended by 481 persons, and 46 organizations were represented on the planning committee.

The Children's Bureau through various members of the staff took an active part in the National Health Conference, July 18-20, 1938, and the National Nutrition Conference for Defense, May. 26-28, 1941.

WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCES

The Children's Bureau has taken an active part in the White House conferences held in 1919, 1930, and 1940, to consider the needs of children and how they may be met. The 1919 conference was held under the auspices of the Children's Bureau as the concluding activity of Children's Year, and adopted minimum standards for the public protection of the health of mothers and children, education, and children entering employment, and for protection of children in need of special care. The Chief of the Bureau served as secretary of the executive committee of the 1930 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, and members of the staff served on committees in all four major divisions. The 1940 White House Conference on Children in a Democracy was organized under the leadership of the Children's Bureau. The Secretary of Labor was chairman and the Chief of the Children's Bureau executive secretary of the conference. The recommendations of the conference constitute a statement of goals for children and youth in all aspects of life.

The Children's Bureau has taken an active part in the social-welfare and childwelfare work of the League of Nations, and in the work of the International Labor Organization. It assisted in preparations for the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture, and cooperates actively with the interim commission set up following that conference. It has been closely associated with the development of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

With appropriations made available through the the State Department under the program of the Interdepartmental Committee on Cooperation with the American Republics the Children's Bureau assigns specialists in child health and social services on the request of governments to assist official agencies in developing children's services, and cooperates in programs of study and observation in the United States for those engaged in services for children of the other Americas.

COMMISSION ON CHILDREN IN WARTIME

Soon after the United States entered the present war, a Commission on Children in Wartime was appointed by the Chief of the Children's Bureau, to review all aspects of the needs of children and young people under the impact of war. The chairmen of all the Bureau's standing advisory committees, and men and women associated with a wide range of national organizations