Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/280

 274 TEE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

a girl may attain the maximimi wage in two months; but under such circumstances the maximum is always low. The thousands of boys and girls who leave school to go to work every year receive an initial wage averaging about $2.50.* The majoriiy of those who receive con- siderably more than this enter occupations in which there is absolutely no training for higher efificiency and for higher income. In other words, a high initial wage means, in general, a low ultimate wage; for what is a high wage for a boy or a girl is a low wage for a man or woman, and in many industries a few years of work render the worker incapable of acquiring higher earning power.

Finally, how are the wages regulated? Does each worker come in and bargain for the best terms he can get, or are there standard schedules of pay, such as sliding scales or the like? Or is there a system of collective bargaining, such as has been recently adopted in a number of the clothing trades, and in part of the book-binding trade? What are the personal relations between the workers and the manage- ment, or employers? Can one maintain his self-respect, or must one sacrifice it in one of a hundred ways to hold his job? For example, does one have to "jolly the boss,*' or contribute for a present to the superintendent on special occasions? Or is there favoritism in giving out the "faf tasks; or is there nepotism in promotions? Or would you have to suspect that each of the workers near you might be a spy?

There are many other questions that one might ask about each occu- pation in turn; and very few indeed of the occupations that have been studied can give a frank and satisfactory answer to each question.

Every normal girl and boy is entitled to an opportunity to acquire a vocational training that will assure a competence under decent con- ditions later in life — to all who are willing to work. The basis for this claim is an economic one, as well as a moral or humanitarian one. Indeed, it is a morally just claim because it is economically sound.

Nearly four fifths of the girls and boys leave school between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years, quite unprepared to do work of a kind that will support them. The only kind of work that they can find to •do is the kind that is "easy to learn '* but, oh, so hard to do, day after •day, and year after year. For the employer has neither the facilities nor the interest to train them. In a survey made in New York City of the jobs taken by children on leaving school, it was found that in over 77 per cent, there was no training whatever; in ten per cent, there was a " chance to pick up " ; in 7.5 per cent, they were put at learning one process ; and in five per cent, there was " some supervision.*' Similar results were obtained by investigators in other cities. Children in these jobs become in a very few years fixed in their habits of work, in their

iWithiD two jearSy that is, since the beginning of the European War, this figure probably represents the minimum rather than the average.

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