In addition I have thought it wise and proper to include in an appendix to this report a compilation of the labor laws of this State and those of all other States in the Union, affecting the employment of children, as also those of England; a report made by the several Commissioners of Bureaus of Statistics of Labor of the United States on Pullman city; and other statistical information bearing upon the subject of child labor.

According to the last report of the Hon. Wm. B. Ruggles, State Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction, we have the following statistics:

Number of children in the State between five and

twenty one years of age, meaning the legal school

age...

Number of children attending the common schools..
Average daily attendance....

1,685, 100

1, 041, 089

583, 142

This means on its face that 644,011 of the children of the State of New York, whose expenses for a common school education are paid by the State, were not found in the school-rooms during the official year upon which this report is founded.

It means that the average daily absence from these school-rooms was 1,101,958.

As says another, "It is impossible for the mind to contemplate the terrible import of these figures. They are so astounding as to seem almost incredible." And yet these are the official figures, gathered in the same manner for thirty years past.

Nor do the percentages for these years, considering increasing population and school facilities, differ materially from these before us.

The Superintendent remarks as follows upon this surprising state [Assem. Doc. No. 26.]

8

of things: "It is not to be inferred, however, that this large excess (644,011) represents the number of children in the State growing up in ignorance, without any of the advantages of common or other school instruction. It includes a large class of persons in attendance in the various universities, colleges, incorporated and private academies and seminaries, under instruction in select schools, in families and in many classes of art, commercial trades and other technical and industrial schools. It also includes the large number of persons of both sexes under twenty years of age, who, having in previous years gone through a complete or partial course in the common schools or higher institutions of learning, have already engaged in some kind of business, and many others who are only temporarily out of school and whose names will hereafter reappear on the school registers.

"What may be the relative proportion of such persons and of those who are in fact growing up to maturity without having attended the schools at all, there are no means within the reach of this department for making even an approximate estimate.”

It is well to give the best coloring possible to this state of things, very bad at the best. But it is proper to remark that teachers and school officers usually endeavor to put the best side out; and that, inadvertently it may be, very likely many reported among those in attendance are counted more than once as they leave school and reenter, or remove to other districts or towns, or are registered on new registers in different terms, all in the same year.

It appears that the actual expense of maintaining the common schools of the State during the year ending September 30, 1883, equals $11,858,594.09, not including what is paid for school commissioners' services, for normal schools, for teachers' institutes and teachers' classes, for the Department of Public Instruction, and other expenses that belong to our public school machinery.

The youth of the State are a precious and serious charge upon the State. The responsibility of caring for them rests upon the adult citizens.

The State, for its security and advancement, needs the service of its youth as soon as they are ready to perform it. It demands this service, and this oftentimes under exacting laws accompanied by pains and penalties for non-performance.

During this minority, they are supposed to be preparing for the duties and activities of the future under the protection and encouragement of the State. They are to be trained by their parents or

by teachers who are provided by the State to do what parents cannot or will not do otherwise..

If parents have been properly educated, and are living and in suitable condition of body and mind, it is presumed that their natural affection will prompt them to provide for the proper training and care of their children. If by reason of death or any incompetency or neglect of parents, these children need care and protection, it is the duty of the State to step in and provide for them.

Unless the State attends to the duty, it will soon be called upon to provide for these neglected boys and girls in alms-houses, hospitals, asylums, reform schools and penitentiaries. They often drift about for a season, the dread and terror of society, among beggars, tramps, and other filthy and dangerous classes; or prematurely broken down, they early go down to the grave, a loss to the State of all the wisdom, grace and strength they might have given to it.

These remarks are naturally suggested by the statistics before us, and they ought to be suggestive of our duties as citizens and lawmakers.

Does any one call in doubt these statistics? They are the best authority we have for investigation. They are made up by our trusted public officials; and they will be sustained by the observation of the intelligent.

"That an immense army of uneducated and undisciplined children is growing up among us is shown, not only by the State and United States statistics, but by the general observation of men interested in the welfare of children, the widest diffusion of education and the perpetuity of our free institutions. The terrible fact is further revealed by the incontrovertible evidence of the organization and condition of our schools."