IS CHILD LABOR LAW
BEING VIOLATED HERE?
STATE FACTORY INSPECTOR TO
MAKE RIGID INVESTIGATION.
Hears Report Children Are Being
Unlawfully Employed in Stores,
Factories and Other Places -- De-
nied by Local Inspectors.
Is there illegal child labor in Kansas City? J. W. Sikes, state factory inspector, is going to find out. A letter was received at his office in St. Louis several days ago saying that there were boys under the age of 16 years working in Kansas City without a permit from the inspector. Under the law no child under the age of 14 is allowed to work in any factory, store, shop, mine or place of amusement or place where intoxicating liquors are sold, nor may any child over 14 and under 16 years do such wok without a permit from a local factory inspector.
In answer to the letter, M. Sikes came to Kansas City and brought with him Traveling Inspector James L. McQuie, who will remain here for at least a month to see if there is any truth in the report that underage children are working at the forbidden occupations.
"There is not a single child in Kansas City who is violating the law in this respect," said William Hicks, the local factory inspector. "I have issued about 200 permits to boys and girls under 14, permitting them to work this summer. About half of them were issued to girls, most of whom wished to be cash girls in department stores. The demand for children to work in the factories has ceased in this state because of the law which forbids the employment of children for more than nine hours a day. The factories wish to have a ten-hour day, so they are ceasing to employ children.
A fine of from $10 to $100 can be imposed upon any employer who has a child under the legal age working in his factory or workshop without a permit, and which can only be given in case the labor of a child is necessary for the support of the family. Mr. Hicks says that this law also proved a detriment to the factory owners.
"I think the letter describing the bad condition of child labor in Kansas City was written by some one who was dissatisfied with the workings of our office," said Mr. Hicks. "Several days ago a woman came in here and wanted to make trouble because she said a neighbor's boy was a messenger for the Western Union without having a permit, and I would not allow her son to work. Both boys were under 16. I afterwards found that he had a permit. I think it is she who wrote the letter to St. Louis."
