AMER.LABOR: \'From an Early Age\': Ethnic Differences in

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                ABSTRACTS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
                    (c) 2000 EH.Net
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Name: Philip M. Holleran
Email: phhollp@ph.cc.va.us
Institution: Patrick Henry Community College

Co-author: none

Title: 'From an Early Age': Ethnic Differences in Child Labor in 1907

Internet Address of abstracted work: not available

By mail:
Patrick Henry Community College

Language: English

Abstract:
Many working class families at the turn of the twentieth century
supplemented the wages of household heads with the earnings of their
children. Social historians have argued that a family's decision to use
child labor entailed a cultural as well as a financial component and that
child labor was more common among immigrant groups who viewed children as
an economic resource to be deployed "from an early age" than it was among
groups without such values.

This paper extends previous empirical research by examining ethnic
differences in three aspects of child labor: children's contributions to
family income; the age at which children began work; and the number of days
children worked, controlling for family income and composition. The data
come from a 1907 United States Senate investigation of children working in
New England cotton textile mills and Pennsylvania silk mills.

These data show, contrary to the claims of contemporary observers and
historians, little ethnic variation in the use of child labor in New
England cotton mills, at least by 1907. Differences in family income and
composition fully account for the slight differences among various New
England ethnic groups in the use of child labor. In sharp contrast,
Pennsylvania silk mill families displayed clear and consistent ethnic
differences in children's contributions to family income, in the age at
which children began work, and in the number of days that children worked;
these differences among ethnic groups remained even after controlling for
family income and composition.

The difference between New England and Pennsylvania apparently lies in the
impact of assimilation. Regression analysis indicates that in New England,
children whose immigrant father had resided in the U.S. a relatively long
time worked fewer days than children whose father had resided in the U.S. a
relatively short time. In Pennsylvania, however, a father's length of
residence in the U.S. had no impact on the number of days that children
worked.

Bibliography: Holleran, Philip M. "'From an early Age': Ethnic Differences
in Child Labor in 1907." Working Paper, May 2000.

Subject: T
Geographical Area: 7
Country/Region: USA
Time Period: 8

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