"FOR DISTURBING THE PUBLIC PEACE."'

With the death in London of Phil May and in New York of Woolf, the street waif-and city children generally-have lost two friends whose kindly pencils, more than those of any others, traced the whimsicalities and the pathos of neglected childhood.

"For Disturbing the Public Peace" is the work of B. Cory Kilvert, and the quaint satire of this picture of the old-time "grown-ups justice" will prove to those who are interested in the juvenile movement that the little folk are not without an artist friend at court. The picture is typical of several in a field which Mr. Kilvert Is making his own. It is published here through the courtesy of the Metropolitan Magazine.

A number of points of attack were made upon the Missouri law. The act was vigorously attacked on the ground that it was class legislation and defeated those provisions of the constitution and laws which required that in all cases where a general law could be made applicable no local or special law could be enacted. It was contended that the act permitted one species of punishment in one locality and a different and more heavy punishment in other localities of the state, for the Missouri law unlike the juvenile laws of Colorado and Illinois applies only to cities having a population of over 150,000.

The court learnedly and at great length discussed this objection as well as all others and came to the conclusion that the act, when rightly construed, does not violate any provision of the constitution. referred to.

The doctrine of reasonable doubt in dealing with constitutional questions was resorted to where there appeared to be excellent reasons on both sides of the question, and the court sustained the act rather on the broad principle that, it was "in perfect harmony with the important duty of the public in the promotion of good citizenship. It is," ably declares Judge Fox, "not only a duty that the law-making power owes the public to provide for the application of certain remedies which will tend to reform and at the same time protect the neglected and delinquent children, but it is a clear right which that branch of the government can and should exercise." The necessity and legality of such laws even if applicable only to cities is firmly established.

The court further declares that the law is one "going out into a comparatively new field of legislation, and it can not and must not be expected that it would be complete in all minor details, for its enforcement, but these imperfections cannot be made the basis of attack on its constitutionality. . . We cannot," declares the court, "be unmindful that the perpetuity of good government must depend upon the care and attention given. those into whose hands it must eventually fall. . . We have reached the conclusion that the juvenile court act before. us is a valid exercise of the valid legislative power under the constitution of this state; every reasonable doubt must be reserved in favor of the validity of this act. This we have done in this case."

The opinion covers some twenty pages and is one of the ablest ever handed down upon the important subject of child saving. warmly congratulated that the Supreme The people of the entire nation are to be Court of Missouri could take the sensible view of this important question and brush aside the technicalities involved in the rather difficult question of class legislation and hold broadly that the children. of the state are to a certain extent wards of the state, differently situated from. adults in being dealt with by the law, and that when such laws are intended for their benefit and for the promotion of good citizenship, such technicalities become absurd rather than serve any useful purpose, as was really their intention, in protecting the rights and liberties of the people.

No violence has, by this able opinion, been done to any well settled principle in dealing with the subject of class legisla

tion.

On the contrary, a way has been blazed out by which other courts can follow the magnificent precedent set in Missouri and give effect to the more sensible and common-sense legislation now being adopted to care for the children of the great cities, in this country especially, where a problem is being presented that exists nowhere else and requires all the

care, intelligence and earnest thought of our reformers and good citizens to solve intelligently in the interest of the child, and therefore in the interest of the state. The decision of the Supreme Court of Missouri is being hailed with delight all

over the Union by every one interested in child saving. From a legal standpoint it meets with the approval of the best informed writers and students of the law upon the important subject of the child and its relation to the state.

The National Consumers League awards the use of its label, in the narrow field of production devoted to white muslin underwear for women and children, to manufacturers who meet four very modest requirements, viz.-that all goods are made on the premises, that children under the age of sixteen are not employed, that overtime is not worked, and that the state factory law is obeyed.

After five years of work, the league now embraces in its list of factories recommended on these grounds, sixty establishments in eleven states. Of these, however, only four are in the city of New York.

Since New York is the great center of manufacture of stitched underwear for this hemisphere, the question is often asked "Why so few manufacturers in the city of New York are embraced in the recommended list ?"

There may be many replies to this inquiry, but I wish to deal with one only, i. e., that the established policy of the city of New York, acting in its municipal capacity, places an insuperable obstacle in the way of the rapid extension of the use of the label of the Consumers' League by local manufacturers at this time.

This obstacle is the long-established usage of subsidizing the needle trades out of the public treasury. The subsidy takes the form of support paid for long periods, at the expense of the city, for hundreds of women, girls and children, detained in institutions, who are then obliged to sew under contract for merchants and manufacturers, who send work to the institutions. No other employers receive any similar subsidy from the city so far as it has been possible to ascertain.

This policy was abandoned some years ago, so far as it ever applied to state

and city institutions, contract labor being absent from all such institutions which can, therefore, properly devote themselves to the task of educating and reforming their inmates. But what was formerly done openly by the city and the state. is now done secretly and deviously by the city, on a large scale through the agency of private institutions.

The attention of the National Consumer's League has been contiuously directed, for several years, to the manufacture of stitched garments for the market, conducted on a large scale in places of detention for women, girls and children, and a serious and persistent effort has been made to secure official information covering the subject.

Inertia Met by the League.

The annual report for the year ending March 3, 1903 contained the following brief statement of the vain effort to elicit information alike from the controller of New York city and through attempted co-operation with the National Prison Association.

In March, 1902, a letter was addressed to Controller Edward M. Grout, asking to what extent the city pays maintenance allowances to sectarian institutions for incarcerated persons who are employed in sewing garments for the market. The following letter was received in reply:

DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE.
CITY OF NEW YORK.

EDWARD M. GROUT,
Comptroller.

Mrs. Florence Kelley,

March 26, 1902.

Corresponding Secretary, National Consumers' League.

DEAR MADAM: The Comptroller directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of March 25 relative to the matter of manufacturing in public institutions, and to say that an investigation will be

Secretary, National Consumers' League. DEAR MADAM: In reply to your inquiry of November 18 to the Comptroller let me say that the investigation promised by the Comptroller last spring has not been lost sight of. Our bureau, that of the examiners, is a small one, and we became entangled in an investigation last March which should have lasted no more than a week or ten days, but which, as a matter of fact, strained our resources through many months, which, together with the normal work of the office, has prevented our giving this inquiry of yours full attention.

The matter, however, is under way, and we hope to be able to make a satisfactory report in a little while.

Trusting that your patience will be equal to the necessities of the case, and assuring you of a full inquiry into the matter, I am, Very truly yours,

(Signed) D. C. POTTER, Chief Examiner of Accounts of Institutions.

No further information having been received, it appears that the controller's office of the city of New York is still ignorant of the occupations of the persons for whom it is paying maintenance during their incarceration. A single one of the institutions under consideration received during the past year from the city of New York the sum of $19,631.17.

A communication was addressed to the president of the Prison Congress at the time of its meeting at Philadelphia suggesting that the congress appoint a committee to co-operate with the National Consumers' League to investigate the following points:

(1) How many women and girls are detained in the custody of private institutions? (2) To what extent are these women and girls maintained at the cost of the public treasury?

(3) What provision is made for their education in the branches commonly taught in the public schools in their respective localities?

(4) How nearly is their equipment identical with that of the public schools of their respective localities?

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(5) To what extent is it true that such institutions are exempt from school inspection, though detaining children within the years of compulsory attendance at school?

(6) What provision is made for instruction in domestic science and the care of children?

(7) To what extent is it true that such institutions manufacture goods for the market while exempt from taxation, from the inspection of the departments of factory inspection of their respective localities, and from the registration required of manufacturers who are their competitors?

No formal reply to this letter was ever received, but several months later it was learned that the letter had never been submitted to the congress, but had been informally discussed in the executive committee, which had decided to take no steps in the matter.

In spite of these failures to secure the help of the local municipal officer and the national volunteer association presumably most vitally interested in the cost, the education, and the occupations of women and children incarcerated, it remained the task of the league to endeavor to secure satisfactory replies to the questions formulated in the letter to the Prison Congress.

Inquiries addressed to the state factory inspectors have proved more fruitful, inasmuch as their records show that eight, at least, of the great institutions of detention in the state of New York regularly work for the market. As these institutions are thus, officially as well as actually, factories, yet are exempt from all inspection by the state department of factory inspection. It is never possible to know with certainty from any official records. which manufacturers are sending goods away from their own premises to be made up in institutions.

Fortunately, however, the manufacturers share none of the secretiveness of the controller's office. Since the city of New York grants them a lavish subsidy, they see no reason to blush for accepting it. On the contrary, they are loud in praise of the advantages which the subsidized institution-factories afford them.

With

a single exception, every manufacturer in the city of New York to whom the use of the label has been refused has begun his conversation by describing the cleanliness of the institution-factories to which he

sends his work. In the course of five years, therefore, the league has acquired through this eminently first hand, though unofficial source, a mass of information concerning the extent of subsidized output which is thrown upon the market in competition with the output of ordinary factories.

It may be asked why the league should object to awarding its label for use upon garments made in places so clean and wholesome as the subsidized institutionfactories?

To this the reply is a threefold one.

The Stand Taken.

It is the principle and the settled policy of the league to guarantee only goods made on the premises of manufacturers who throw them open to the inspection of the league's own inspector, and of the state factory inspectors, the local health officers, and the truant officers or other attendance agents of the Board of Education.

The institution factories are open to none of this inspection except the health officers. The Consumers' League has, therefore, no means of guaranteeing that children are not employed in violation of the requirements of the state factory laws in regard to the age for beginning work, and the length of the working day.

Aside, however, from this objectionable exemption of the institution-factories from factory inspection, their work is, from the point of view of the league, disadvantageous in two other ways. By reason of the prices which they, being supported out of the public treasury, can afford to manufacturers who contract with them, other employers, humane and enlightened men, are obliged to abandon certain lines of manufacture in the needle trades, being unable to live up to the standard of the league (and their consciences) under the pressure of the subsidized competition. This may be illustrated by the experience of one such competing employer, as related by him to the writer. This manufacturer occupied an admirable building, paid the highest wages in the trade, obeyed the factory law, was subject to visitation and inspection by the factory inspectors and attendance agents of the Board of Education, as well as of the health officers

Enumerating the advantages enjoyed by his institutional competitor, he said: "The institution pays no taxes-it is exempt. Its machines are furnished it free of expense by the manufacturer or merchant for whom it does sewing, he bearing, also, all the commercial risk, since he must, under his contract, pay for all the stitching done, whether or not he subsequently succeeds in selling his goods at a profit. The institution pays no wagesthe machine hands are all undergoing detention and have no claim for wages. There can be no strikes-the inmates are all under discipline by the institution. And on top of all these advantages, the city of New York appropriates to that institution about $20,000 a year for the maintenance of the help who work every working day in the year without any wages.

A place of detention for sane persons exists primarily for the purpose of educating them if they are well-disposed, and of reforming them if they are ill-disposed; thoroughly, permanently, and as speedily as the requirements of thoroughness and permanence permit. For these purposes, and for these alone, can trades and occupations be legitimately taught in places of detention. Obviously, the trades and occupations selected should be adapted to the health of the inmates, calculated to afford complete self-maintenance after dismissal; and, so far as may be practicable and compatible with the purpose for which the institution exists, they should fill any conspicuous need of the community for any particular sort of skilled. workers of which there may be a dearth. Now, of all the skilled trades and occupations which can be taught at the present time to inmates of institutions, the needle trades are those which least meet these requirements. Work at a sewing-machine under modern conditions is one of the most disabling occupations open to women and girls. It is inconceivable that the health of any man, woman, or child should be benefited by work at a modern sewingmachine.

From the point of view of self-maintenance, the needle trades are the most undesirable for which to prepare women and girls. They are the most overcrowded, the most underpaid, and the most de