Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/381

 ECCENTRIC OFFICIAL STATISTICS 367

Those under sixteen are reported by the inspector as chil- dren. The establishments inspected were undoubtedly, as a rule, those having the largest number of women and children, but it may be noticed that in 10,112 establishments the factory inspector found 43 percent, more children than census officials found in six and one-half times the number of establishments. Taking the city of Troy, which is one of the cities reported as showing a large decrease in the percentage of children, we find that while census officials were able to find but 190 children in 840 establishments, the factory inspector found 318 children (average number) in 67 establishments.

In the tobacco industry in New York city the factory inspec- tor found 7299 females and 401 children in 142 establishments though the census reports but 6772 females and 164 children in 1295 establishments. In 1892 the New York inspectors visited but 8959 establishments, and reported 14,105 children. With the period of depression the number of children decreased, although the number of establishments visited was greater. This fact seems to have led the New York inspector to believe that, as a result of the inspection law, child labor was rapidly decreasing. The factory inspector of Pennsylvania seems, how- ever, to furnish the most plausible explanation of the same thing in that state.

The census of 1890 reports 22,419 children in Pennsylvania, while the factory inspectors found 30,437 in the establishments inspected. It should be explained that the factory law of that state placed under the supervision of the inspector all establish- ments, both manufacturing and mercantile, employing ten or more women and children. In 1892 the inspectors found 33,217 children under sixteen, but in 1893 the number had fallen to to 27,181. This decrease the inspector, in his reports, attributed but in part to the act of 1893 prohibiting the employment of children under thirteen years of age, and stated that the business depression had resulted in a temporary suspension of children in certain lines of manufacturing, notably the cigar trade. He says : " During a dull season adults prefer to work for less wages