SOME PRESS OPINIONS Times. —“The problem already felt acutely in London and in large towns has now appeared even in the country town and village, and to those who still doubt its extent or seriousness we commend this most instructive work.” Morning Post. —“An important book on an important subject.” Daily News. —“Mr. Bray’s book is as full of counsel as of instruction, and it should be in the hands of every student of one of the most serious of social problems.” BOY LABOUR AND APPRENTICESHIP B

We are beginning to realize clearly that all is not well with the youth of this country. From all sides complaints of neglect, and the evils of neglect, are thronging in. Boys as they leave school are casting off the shackles of parental control, and, with no intervening period of youth, are assuming the full independence of the adult. The old apprenticeship system is falling into disuse, and methods of industrial training are at once unsatisfactory and, for the majority, difficult to obtain. Bo

THE ESSENTIALS OF APPRENTICESHIP Originally the term “apprenticeship” was employed to signify not merely the practical training in the mysteries of a trade, but also that wider training of character and intelligence on which depends the real efficiency of the craftsman. Apprenticeship was regarded as a preparation for life, and not only as a preparation for the workshop. It is in this sense that the word is used throughout the present volume. In a volume concerned with any branch of social refor

THE OLD APPRENTICESHIP Prior to the nineteenth century and the beginning of factory legislation the conditions of boy labour were determined in and through the industrial organization of the times. Of this organization, so far as the youthful worker was concerned, the indentured apprenticeship system formed the most characteristic feature. The history of the apprenticeship system falls into three periods. In the first the gilds were the predominant factor; in the second the State, by prescribing

THE AGE OF RECONSTRUCTION The last chapter closed on the darkest scene in the long history of child labour in this country. Of the three factors essential to a true apprenticeship, not one was found or its need even recognized in the wild riot of the industrial revolution. Of public or organized supervision of the youth of the land there was not a trace. The controlling influence of the gild system had long since disappeared; the powers of regulation that lay in the Statute of Apprentices and th

THE GUARDIANSHIP OF THE STATE The age of reconstruction is not complete, and for the moment we are left with the products of sentiment as revealed in the tangled and piecemeal legislation respecting boy labour. Before making new proposals, it is desirable to survey the existing laws on the subject, in order to discover to what extent the State acts as the guardian of the child by making provision for the three essential factors of a true apprenticeship system—supervision, training, opening. The

APPRENTICESHIP OF TO-DAY A true apprenticeship system, as already explained, must satisfy three conditions: It must guarantee the adequate supervision of the youth of the country as regards physical and moral development until the age of eighteen at least is reached; it must supply means of effective training, both general and specialized; and, finally, it must provide to those about to cross the threshold of manhood an opening in some form of occupation for which definite preparation has been g

THE NEW APPRENTICESHIP In the present chapter we must endeavour to find some remedy for the evils disclosed in the preceding pages. The old apprenticeship system has broken up, and there is nothing come to take its place. In consequence, the youth of the country is to a large and growing extent passing through the years of adolescence without supervision, without technical training, without prospects of an opening when manhood is reached. These are defects in the industrial organization so obvio

I PARLIAMENTARY AND MUNICIPAL PUBLICATIONS Elementary Schools (Children Working for Wages), Parts I. and II., Parliamentary Return. 1899. Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Employment of School-Children. 1901. Report of the Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children Act, 1903. 1910. Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and the Relief of Distress. 1909. Report by Mr. Cyril Jackson on Boy Labour. 1909. Report of the Commissioners of Prisons for the year ending Ma