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M.37. 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF JUVENILE 
 EMPLOYMENT AFTER THE WAR. 
 
 The problem can best be discussed in four sections. In the first I 
 I endeavour to state the elements of the problem. In the second I make 
 proposals for securing a general control over the forces from whose inter- 
 play the problem arises. In the third I deal with the question of limiting 
 the supply of new entrants to the labour market; while in the last 1 
 outline a method of providing for the discharged juveniles, whether by 
 finding them employment or providing them with occupation of an educa- 
 tional character. 
 
 I. THE ELEMENTS OF THE PROBLEM. 
 
 The most detailed statement of the effects exercised by the war on 
 'juvenile employment is contained in a report entitled " Summary of 
 Information Received by the Board of Trade from Advisory Committees 
 for Juvenile Employment for the use of the Departmental Committee in 
 relation to Employment after the War." This report also contains an 
 I extract from a report by the Board of Trade based on the results of a 
 statistical enquiry into the trade distribution of workpeople in July, 1916, 
 as compared with that immediately before the outbreak of the war. The 
 Juvenile Advisory Committees are distributed widely over the country 
 and over areas with a total population of about 10,000,000. From this 
 report and other evidence the following conclusions may be drawn : 
 
 (1) With industry mobilised for war, there has been a great change 
 in the distribution of occupations among juveniles. Boys in large 
 numbers, and in a less degree girls, have taken up work in Govern- 
 ment factories or in factories dealing with Government contracts. 
 Girls to a considerable extent have replaced boys in office and 
 messenger work, and have forsaken the ordinary women's occupa- 
 tions such as dressmaking, millinery and domestic service. It is 
 difficult to arrive at quantitive figures indicating the extent of 
 this abnormal distribution. Some attempt to do this is made in 
 the Board of Trade Report already mentioned. In London it 
 is shown that, taking the Labour Exchange statistics for two 
 months, of 4,851 boys placed during the period, 2,273, or 46 per 
 cent., were abnormally placed, and of 4,351 girls placed, 1,874, 
 or 43 per cent., were in a similar position. The term " abnormal 
 employment" was defined to include only occupations in which 
 boys and girls were engaged on Government work or munition 
 work, or work in which girls were employed locally in place of 
 boys. Figures of this kind can only be regarded as constituting a 
 very rough estimate; but when industry returns to its normal 
 channels it is certain that boys and girls in large numbers will 
 be compelled to seek other employment. 
 
 (10711 Ha.) 
 
 Wt. 25053813. 
 
 / ^V A 
 
 2500. 4/18. D & S. G.4. 
 
(2) There M,mftiui wkolfe^ b4eii."some decrease in the opportunity 
 for training hi*' thV" workshop. ' With all industry aiming at a 
 maximum of output, and resorting to repetition work on a 
 phenomenal scale, no other result could be anticipated. Boys 
 and girls who would before have entered an occupation with good 
 prospects of learning a trade are taking up employment altogether 
 uneducative. On the other hand, boys who would have become 
 messengers and office youths are now engaged on work which, 
 from the standpoint of education, is certainly not less, and 
 possibly more, valuable than their normal employment. 
 
 (3) It will probably be found that in the long run the health of the 
 juvenile worker has suffered. Apart from the unsuitability of 
 many of the new occupations, the long hours and the frequent 
 night work of those engaged on munitions are a serious strain 
 on the boy and girl. The effect is to some extent masked by the 
 better food which a larger family income now enables them to 
 obtain : but conditions such as now exist, continued over a period 
 not of days but of months, are leaving their mark and will 
 later be revealed either in definite disease or impaired physical 
 vigour. Cases of actual breakdown are not infrequent, and the 
 frequency with which juveniles leave the munition factories is 
 in part due to their inability to stand the strain. 
 
 (4) The war has made life very difficult for the youthful workers and 
 their character has suffered. The lack of discipline in the new or 
 enlarged factories; the absence of proper female supervision in 
 the case of much work .on which girls are replacing boys; the 
 high wages earned; the large demand for juvenile labour rendering 
 work too easy to drop and too easy to find; the tendency to dis- 
 charge juveniles .between contracts and so to produce spells of 
 temporary unemployment ; the absence of the f atlier on military 
 service; the weakening of the club and other social organisa- 
 tions; all these forces acting often together have made not for 
 but against the moral well-being of the boy and the girl. 
 
 It must not be supposed that all these effects of Avar conditions are 
 found uniformly throughout the country. Some, indeed, are general, but 
 as regards others they are concentrated about munition districts. In 
 some areas there may be no serious difficulty after the war, and in others 
 it will be acute and urgent. But where the problem arises it will take 
 a clearly defined form. On the one hand a large number of juveniles, 
 perhaps a third of the total, will be discharged and compelled to seek 
 employment: on the other hand, because of their lack of training their 
 general tendency to resist discipline and their unwillingness to accept 
 lower wages than those to which they have been accustomed they will 
 not be easy to place. Apart altogether from a possible depression in trade, 
 and, even if the demand for juvenile labour remained unimpaired, there 
 would still be need for redistribution of occupations on a large sca.le. 
 On the method in which this re-distribution is carried out depends greatly 
 the future w ell-being of the boys and girls affected. They, will require 
 advice and assistance in regard to employment, and the machinery for 
 furnishing such help must be ready. The task of gauging the capabilities 
 of what may in parts of the country amount to a third of the juvenile 
 population, "and of finding so far as possible the occupation best suited 
 to each, is a work that cannot be hurriedly taken up when the need arises. 
 The need will certainly come, and preparation to deal with it must be 
 made well in advance of the event. 
 
 But it is unlikely that the problem will be merely one of redistribution 
 of occupations in a labour market where the demand, though changed 
 
in kind, remains constant in amount. We must face the possibility of at 
 least a temporary depression in trade with consequent unemployment. 
 If the daily war expenditure be put at six millions a day, we may, perhaps, 
 assume that Government work in this country to the value of at least- 
 three millions daily is being carried out. It is not easy to see how new 
 orders to that value can automatically appear at the right time to take 
 the place of the war orders. It is necessary to remember that before orders 
 can be placed, tenders must be asked for ; that many months must elapse 
 before an employer will have sufficient knowledge of the price of labour 
 and materials to be able to tender. In the meantime he must dismiss 
 a large part of his staff. Further, in the argument frequently advanced 
 that trade will be busy after the war because so many people will want 
 so many things that orders will come in too thickly to be even attended 
 to in this argument there is a fallacy. It is the fallacy which confuses 
 a desire for goods with a demand for goods in the economic sense; a 
 demand backed by purchasing power. That a temporary depression can, 
 by proper organisation, be avoided we may well believe ; that it will be 
 prevented we may, perhaps, hope; but unless we follow the rash course 
 of adapting our precautionary measures to the extreme limit of our 
 wildest hopes, we must take account of the fact that there may be a 
 depression, and prepare to meet it. The problem then of redistribution 
 of occupations, which will certainly present itself, is complicated by the 
 probability that the number of new occupations will be inadequate to 
 secure complete redistribution : some persons must be left unemployed. 
 
 II. THE CONTROL OF THE PROBLEM. 
 
 The problem of dealing with the juvenile worker after the war is 
 necessarily bound up with the whole problem of demobilisation, and the 
 redistribution of all engaged on munitions. In spite of this fact there 
 is a danger that he may be overlooked. The country will see that the 
 returning soldier is not forgotten; the Trade Unions will insist that their 
 members receive adequate attention ; but there is no one in particular 
 responsible for the boys and girls. It becomes necessary, therefore, to 
 discuss questions which belong to the general problem of employment after 
 the war and to indicate in what direction special provision must be made 
 for juveniles. 
 
 (i) The Government work must not suddenly be brought to an end. 
 An abrupt termination, without previous warning, of all contracts 
 would flood the Employment Exchanges and render the question 
 of guided redistribution impossible from the start. Look at the 
 problem as it might then present itself in London. There are in 
 London some 200,000 juveniles between the ages of 14 and 17. 
 The possibility of the discharge of, say, a third of this number, 
 must at least be contemplated when the 21 Exchanges would be 
 asked to deal with anything up to 60,000 boys and girls. Even 
 a tenth part of this number 011 the Live Register would, with 
 existing staff and premises, clog the whole machinery. In the 
 weeks following the outbreak of war when the lave Register 
 contained 5,000 names, it was clear that the limits of effective 
 work had been reached. A control of the rate of discharge 
 becomes therefore essential. 
 
 (ii) Staff and premises must be adjusted to the estimated rate of 
 discharge in each locality. In this connection it is important 
 
to remember that juvenile staff require special qualifications. It 
 is not enough to place emergency clerks in emergency buildings. 
 As a supply of new and, at the same time, trained staff cannot be 
 obtained, the work must be so organised, the staff so distributed 
 and the premises so provided, that the responsible officer for 
 juveniles in the Exchange can exercise adequate supervision over 
 the whole and insure an effective and uniform carrying out of 
 some already determined plan. Such control is essential to the 
 proposals made later. 
 
 (iii) Due control of the problem requires a control not only of rate 
 of discharges but also of individuals discharged. The Employment 
 Exchanges should have early information that on a certain day 
 certain individuals will be discharged from a certain factory. It 
 will then be possible for the officer, prior to the date of discharge, 
 to visit the firm and register on the spot the juveniles about to 
 leave, or to arrange for them to call at the Exchanges. Questions 
 of future occupation could then be discussed and determined before 
 the juvenile was actually out of employment. The work of advice 
 and replacement would be carried out with a greatly increased 
 efficiency if employers would send to the Exchange, in respect 
 of each juvenile about to leave, a discharge note specifying the 
 exact nature of the work on which he had been engaged. Cards 
 and franked envelopes could be furnished for the purpose. This 
 information would, by the Exchange, be regarded as confidential 
 and used only as a guide in deciding for what kind of occupation 
 the juvenile was best suited. 
 
 (iv) Finally, control of the problem requires a knowledge of the 
 demand for juvenile labour. It is important that during the time 
 of dislocation, employers should make use of the Exchanges as 
 the medium for obtaining any additional staff required. By no 
 other means can even approximately exact knowledge be obtained 
 of the extent, if any, of the actual unemployment. There can 
 be 110 question of compelling employers to adopt this course; 
 compulsion is as undesirable as it is unnecessary. I am convinced 
 that if employers realise fully the need of any particular action 
 on their part they will be found eager to co-operate in the work 
 of carrying the youth of the nation safely through a period of 
 stress and difficulty. 
 
 (v) Control of the problem requires the co-operation of employers; 
 co-operation in turn demands a full realisation on their part of the 
 need for action. The Government should call attention to the 
 gravity of the question, appeal to employers for assistance along 
 clearly defined lines, and take such steps as a Government know 
 well how to take, to give the fullest publicity to the appeal. It 
 will then remain for Employment Exchanges and Juvenile 
 Advisory Committees to take up the matter locally and ^im- 
 practical effect to the proposals. Exchange officers will use tin- 
 many opportunities they have of seeing individual employers to 
 discuss the matter; they should immediately following the sug- 
 gested appeal on the part of the Government make special canvass 
 of the principal employers, with the view of securing their assist- 
 ance. Juvenile Advisory Committees should organise meetings 
 of employers and trade unionists to consider the problem and 
 the special form it may assume in the district. In certain parts 
 ,such meetings have already been held and with considerable 
 measure of success. 
 
III. THE LIMITATION OF THE SUPPLY OF NEW ENTRANTS TO THE LABOUR 
 
 MARKET. 
 
 The question of finding employment for juveniles who have left school 
 is always complicated by the continual appearance of new entrants to the 
 ^bour market in the shape of the children leaving school. This competi- 
 tion between the new entrants and those juveniles already in employment 
 will be exceptionally acute after the war. There is in normal times a 
 tendency on the part of employers to prefer the child fresh from school 
 to the boy or girl who has been out at work for a year or more and lost 
 in the process much of the bright intelligence, and some of the orderly 
 habits of the school child. This tendency will be the more pronounced 
 after the war because employers fully appreciate the difficulty of con- 
 trolling the juvenile who has been engaged on munitions. Any steps that 
 will limit the number of new entrants will render easier the task of finding 
 employment for the displaced juvenile. Further, much work is carried 
 out by children still at school. Evidence shows that during the war such 
 forms of employment have become more common in a marked degree. 
 Hours of work and the number of those engaged have alike increased 
 rapidly ; any new regulations limiting the number of hours of such children 
 would throw into the labour market a considerable amount of additional 
 work. 
 
 In considering problems of unemployment, excluding the possibility of 
 creating new work, there is a certain demand for labour. This cannot 
 artificially be divided up into work that can only be done by children 
 and work that must be left exclusively to adults. If the children are 
 wholly or partially prevented from taking employment, the work would 
 still need to be carried out. It might not be carried out precisely in the 
 same way as was the case when children were available ; some reorganisa- 
 tion of the business might be necessary ; but, none the less, the actual 
 service rendered or tasks performed would continue, but juveniles and 
 adults would replace children. The removal of children from the labour 
 market increases the demand for other forms of labour. 
 
 In a time of emergency, therefore, every effort should be used to limit 
 the volume of the work now carried on 03* children. Some of the limita- 
 tions might be regarded as temporary, others as permanent. An industrial 
 dislocation, such as will follow the war, offers conditions very favourable 
 for carrying out various reforms long desired by educationalists. 
 
 Among such reforms may be mentioned the following : 
 
 (1) A further limitation of the amount of work which may legally 
 be performed by children still liable to attend school. 
 
 (2) The raising of the age of compulsory school attendance to 14 with 
 the abolition of all exemptions, whole or partial, below that age. 
 
 (3) The adoption of three fixed dates in the year on which alone 
 children shall be permitted to leave school. 
 
 (4) The institution of a system of compulsory continuation schools tor 
 young persons under the age of 18. 
 
 (5) The limitation by law of the hours of employment for young per- 
 sons under the age of 18. 
 
 These reforms have a large body of public support behind them. Each, 
 if carried out, would have an effect on the labour market; and collectively 
 this influence would be very significant. Local conditions, such ns ques- 
 tions of accommodation, might prevent the adoption of some of the pro- 
 posals, but this would not be the case with all. To the adoption of (1), 
 
 16711 A 2 
 
(3) and (5), there is no obstacle. A word may be said of the peculiar 
 advantages, during a time of industrial dislocation, of three fixed leaving 
 dates in the school year. In effect it raises the school age by a sixth of 
 a year, and so for that time holds up a store of labour. But in addition 
 it renders possible a careful consideration of the best means of dealing 
 with this labour when set free at the end of the school term. 
 
 While these proposals must be regarded as proposals for permanent 
 reforms, there are other measures which might well be adopted to deal 
 with the special difficulties which may occur in different parts of the 
 country after the war : 
 
 (1) The three fixed dates of leaving school involve a third of the 
 children over the age of 14 leaving at the end of each term. 
 In certain districts the problem of unemployment may have 
 become so serious that the discharge into the labour market of 
 new entrants, amounting to a third of the year's supply, could 
 only be regarded as a disaster, both to the children leaving school 
 and to those already unemployed. Measures must be taken to 
 deal with such an emergency, and the Board of Education should 
 obtain powers to allow a Local Education Authority to retain the 
 children in school for an additional term. This would in general 
 entail refusal of admission to school of fresh children. But it 
 will be more advantageous for the older children to be safely in 
 school than it will be injurious to the younger children to be 
 temporarily excluded. These powers would only be used in cases 
 which called for the most extreme measures. 
 
 (2) Every effort should be used to induce children free to leave school, 
 to continue in attendance. Leaflets should be issued to teachers 
 explaining the consequences following a dislocation of labour on a 
 large scale, the difficulty of children obtaining suitable employ- 
 ment, and the uncertainty of obtaining employment at all. They 
 should be asked to impress this fact on children free to leave 
 school, and on their parents, and to urge attendance at school 
 for at least another term. Juvenile Advisory Committees and 
 After-Care Workers should drive home the same lesson. If a 
 campaign on these lines, backed by the teachers and other persons 
 in whom children and parents have confidence, were carried on in 
 the schools well in advance of the need, and vigorously continued 
 throughout the term, there can be little doubt that no incon- 
 siderable number of children would be induced to prolong their 
 school life. 
 
 In suitable cases special inducements should be offered to 
 children to continue in attendance at school. Bursaries with 
 maintenance grants can now be awarded in Elementary Schools. 
 The power, during the period of dislocation, should be freely used. 
 Children in Central Schools should be offered liberal maintenance 
 grants to enable them to complete the full course ; under present 
 conditions less than half are able to do so. Picked children in 
 the ordinary Elementary Schools should also be offered bursaries on 
 condition that they continued in attendance. Maintenance grants 
 to pupils in Secondary Schools should be increased in number. 
 It is not unusual for more than half the pupils to leave about the 
 age of 15; a little financial assistance might easily raise this age 
 by at least a year. 
 
 (3) All school children should be informed that preference in the way 
 of employment will be given by the Exchanges to those who remain 
 at school. They may register, but must return to school if they 
 desire the assistance of the Exchange. This preference would be 
 
a preference over children who left school after a given date and 
 not over those who had already left. 
 
 Taken together, these proposals for limiting the supply of labour will 
 render available a by no means negligible volume of employment. They 
 are made not merely in the interests of the displaced juveniles : they are 
 recommended also in the interests of the new entrants themselves. The 
 period of dislocation will be a time of confusion and unrest in the indus- 
 trial world, and till things move to a stable settlement, those boys and 
 girls, secure till now under the protection of the school, are best retained 
 in that place of safety. 
 
 IV. THE PROVISION FOR DISCHARGED JUVENILES. 
 
 If the recommendations in the preceding sections are carried out, certain 
 results will have been achieved. There will be knowledge at least in part 
 of the extent of the problem, both in regard to the number of juveniles 
 discharged and the possible demand of the labour market for j-uveniles. 
 There will also be knoAvledge of these juveniles as individuals and possi- 
 bilities of interviewing them in advance of their discharge. Further, 
 certain steps will have been taken to limit the supply of new entrants and 
 so in effect temporarily to enlarge the facilities of employment. It remains 
 to consider how best to provide for those likely to be thrown on the labour 
 market. The problem may be considered in stages. 
 
 Attention has already been directed to the difficulty that will be experi- 
 enced in inducing juveniles, who have long been in receipt of large wages 
 and trained to believe that the demand for their services is unlimited, to 
 take and keep employment where earnings are small compared with those 
 to which they have been accustomed. This difficulty will only be overcome 
 by a long spell of unemployment unless, before the period of dislocation 
 begins, they have learned to expect and tolerate the changes which will 
 follow the termination of the war. Their minds must be prepared in 
 advance; they must be tuned to accord with the new conditions. This 
 delicate task of preparation must devolve on the After-Care visitors ami 
 the members and staff of Juvenile Advisory Committees. Already in 
 certain parts much attention has been given to the subject. The cards 
 of all juveniles placed in abnormal employment are specially marked to 
 enable them to be picked out without trouble; the After-Care visitors, 
 who are in touch with the juvenile and the home, are informed of the 
 nature of the employment and are asked to lose no opportunity of 
 impressing on child and parents its temporary character and to prepare 
 the mind to accept change. At intervals certain groups of abnormally 
 employed juveniles are invited to attend at the Exchange and talk over 
 their work with a feAV members of the Committee and its Secretary, when 
 the same note of warning is given. Two results are achieved. First, the 
 lesson is taught whether it is fully learned is more doubtful; secondly, 
 the confidence of parents and children is won. When in the time of stress 
 the lesson must be applied, those who point the application will not appear 
 as strangers but as trusted friends. 
 
 In certain factories welfare workers have been appointed. They will 
 
 naturally play an important part in this task of " preparation." Advisory 
 
 Committees should get into touch with these welfare workers and conu 
 to an early agreement with them on schemes of co-operation. 
 
 This work of " preparation," of knowing the juveniles likely to be dis- 
 placed as individuals, each with their own characteristics and aptitudes. 
 
8 
 
 is essential to any scheme of replacement. It serves not only to prepare 
 the minds of the juveniles for change; it enables those concerned to pick 
 out in advance certain children in whose cases the offer of some special 
 educational advantages appears desirable. It alone renders effective and 
 possible the task of finding some occupation for all the discharged juveniles. 
 In view of the demoralisation connected with juvenile unemployment we 
 must recognise the need of making provision for the whole number dis- 
 placed. Where work cannot immediately be offered, occupation of an 
 educational character must be available. 
 
 The juveniles will reach the Employment Exchanges through various 
 channels. They may come through the medium of employers who have 
 forwarded discharge notes. They may come as a result of the home 
 visiting or club work of after-care visitors who have discussed the cer- 
 tainty of early discharge, or they may come on their own account. But, 
 however, they come, they will be seen by the Secretary and, possibly, one 
 or two members of the Advisory Committee, who will give careful con- 
 sideration to each case and decide the best means of dealing with the 
 individual concerned. Various alternatives can be offered: 
 
 (1) Among those who have been employed under war conditions many 
 would, under normal circumstances, have entered a skilled trade 
 but now find entrance difficult on account of defective training. 
 Some have deliberately sacrificed their career from patriotic 
 motives and have entered munition factories, or, like the Boy 
 Scouts, have gone as messengers to the War Office. It would 
 seem right that the opportunity to obtain a training, designed 
 to prepare for skilled work, should be offered to those who are 
 suitable. Such opportunity would take the form of scholarships 
 with maintenance grants. 
 
 I do not pretend to possess the expert knowledge required to indicate 
 the precise form that such training should take, or the length of the 
 training necessary. These scholarships might be tenable at existing trade 
 schools, or they might provide for admission to a specially devised, course 
 of instruction. But it cannot be beyond th range of educational in- 
 genuity to draw up schemes adapted to the need. In deciding on such 
 schemes it would be necessary to work in close co-operation with repre- 
 sentatives of the trade affected. The Trade Advisory Committees attached 
 to certain Technical Institutes would doubtless be able to offer valuable 
 assistance. The Scholarships would be made known through the Juvenile 
 Advisory Committees, After-Care workers and Welfare workers who are 
 already in touch with the juveniles from whom the applicants would be 
 drawn. It is possible, perhaps probable, that few will be found to accept 
 such scholarships, but they will at least have been given the opportunity 
 to make up the loss in the way of training which they have suffered 
 through the war. 
 
 (2) To some, and these it is hoped will prove the greater number, it 
 will be possible to offer immediate employment. These will l>e 
 provided for. 
 
 (3) For the remainder some alternative occupation to employment 
 must be found. They cannot be turned into the streets with the 
 recommendation to call again at the Exchange in a few days, when 
 in all probability it will be necessary to repeat the same advice. 
 They will soon grow weary of fruitless calling, and all hold over 
 them, with its possibilities of satisfactory placing at a later date, 
 will have gone. The experience of certain experiments parried 
 
out at the beginning of the war indicate the direction in which 
 * we believe success lies. An account of these experiments will be 
 found in the report of the London Juvenile Advisory Committee 
 submitted by the Board of Trade. 
 
 The experiments were carried out by the London Education 
 Authority, the London Juvenile Advisory Committee, the various 
 Club Managers, and the Committee on Women's Work, acting in 
 close co-operation. They aimed at providing occupation in certain 
 centres for those juveniles who could not obtain employment. 
 The centres were usually situated in club premises. The most 
 successful operations took the form of classes organised by the 
 Education Authority, or of employment in workrooms carried 
 on in clubs. 
 
 It is important that some similar organisation should be prepared and 
 held ready to begin work in case of need. There must be certain centres 
 to which juveniles unable to obtain employment can be referred; juveniles 
 attending such centres will be informed that they will receive preference 
 in the way of employment. These centres will be visited periodically by 
 the Exchange officers. At these centres suitable occupation of an educa- 
 tional character must be provided. Next, maintenance grants, con- 
 ditional on attendance must be forthcoming from public funds. These 
 last are essential to success; in their absence it is impossible to expect 
 regular attendance in the case of those from poor homes where earnings 
 of a kind are essential. Such juveniles will regard it as their duty to 
 roam the streets in the vain search after employment. Such an organisa- 
 tion of centres will secure certain definite results : 
 
 First, occupation will be provided for the juveniles where employ- 
 ment is impossible. 
 
 Secondly, the grave evils of juvenile unemployment, with its neces- 
 sary demoralisation, will be avoided. 
 
 Thirdly, though the educational value of the classes may be small, 
 the children will be placed among healthy surroundings, and friendly 
 contact with the teachers may lead on later to attendance at Continua- 
 tion Schools. 
 
 Finally, such centres are essential to successful redistribution of 
 juveniles among the various occupations. They serve as reservoirs 
 which can be drawn on as the demand for labour increases; they 
 enable children to wait till the employment most suitable to their need 
 appears, instead of taking the first work that offers. Such advantages 
 cannot be despised, and the organisation must be regarded as an 
 essential part of any scheme which seeks to carry the children through 
 the period of dislocation with a minimum of harm. 
 
 I offer these suggestions deeply conscious of their defects and their 
 difficulties. Others may be able to propose additions and improvements; 
 but so long as some definite and coherent scheme for dealing with the 
 problem of juvenile employment after the. war is drawn up, and the 
 organisation created prior to the need, I shall rest well content. If the 
 need arises, as in my opinion it will arise, in many parts of the country 
 
10 
 
 the scheme can be put in operation without delay. If it does not arise 
 there will be some little thought and labour lost, but little money. .Where 
 preparation is inexpensive, and where the issues at stake are large, neglect 
 to prepare is without excuse. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 I. It is desirable that: 
 
 (1) Some control should be exercised over the rate of discharge of 
 juveniles during the period of industrial dislocation after the war. 
 
 (2) Staff and premises at the Employment Exchanges should be 
 adjusted in advance to meet the estimated rate of Discharge and 
 the necessary changes should be carried out in such a way that 
 the secretary of the committee can exercise adequate supervision 
 over the whole juvenile work of the district. 
 
 (3) With the object of registering juveniles prior to discharge efforts 
 should be made to induce employers to send to the Exchange 
 discharge notes in respect of juveniles shortly to be discharged. 
 
 (4) Efforts should be made to induce employers during the period of 
 dislocation to take on any additional juvenile staff required 
 through the Employment Exchanges, and to secure this result the 
 Government should appeal to employers, and after the appeal has 
 been made an individual canvass of employers should be made 
 in each district, and local meetings of employers should be con- 
 vened by the Advisory Committee. 
 
 II. It is desirable to limit the supply of new entrants to the labour 
 market, and to secure this object, the following suggestions are made : 
 
 (1) A further limitation of the amount of work which may legally 
 be performed by children still liable to attend school; 
 
 (2) The raising of the age of compulsory school attendance to 14 with 
 the abolition of all exemptions, whole or partial, below that age. 
 
 (3) The adoption of three fixed dates in the year on which alone 
 children shall be permitted to leave school. 
 
 (4) The institution of a system of compulsory continued education for 
 young persons under the age of 18. 
 
 (5) The limitation by law of the hours of employment for young 
 persons under the age of 18. 
 
 As temporary expedients : 
 
 (6) The obtaining -of powers by the Board of Education enabling Local 
 Education Authorities in the event of a grave emergency to retain 
 in school for an additional term children otherwise free to leave. 
 
 (7) Efforts to induce children in school to continue their attendance 
 for a period, using as inducements 
 
 (a) the influence of the teachers and care committee workers; 
 
 (b) the offer in suitable cases of special scholarships with main- 
 tenance grants tenable at either the Elementary, the Central, the 
 Secondary or the Trade School ; 
 
 (c) preference in the 'way of employment obtainable through the 
 Exchange to be given to children remaining at .school. 
 

 11 
 
 III. It is desirable that provision for juveniles discharged should be 
 made in the following ways : 
 
 (1) Efforts be made in advance to prepare the minds of juveniles 
 and their parents for the coming change; 
 
 (2) Special scholarships be offered by the Education Authority to 
 enable specially selected juveniles to obtain a specialised training 
 which will compensate for the loss of training they have suffered 
 through uneducative employment; 
 
 (3) Employment; 
 
 (4) Occupation in the way of educational classes held on club premises 
 or in other suitable institutions, maintenance grants conditional 
 on attendance being provided out of public funds. 
 
 It remains to consider how best effect can he given to the recommenda- 
 tions contained in this report. 
 
 I recommend : 
 
 (1) That the Report be forwarded to the Ministry of Labour and that 
 special attention be called to the recommendations affecting staff 
 and premises. 
 
 (2) That the Ministry of Labour be advised to take steps to secure 
 forthwith the appointment of a special Committee to deal with 
 the question of the employment of juveniles after the war. 
 
 (3) That the London Juvenile Advisory Committee forward a copy of 
 this report to this Committee if formed, and offer to give evidence. 
 
 (4) That the Ministry of Labour be advised to print this report for 
 circulation among members of Local Advisory Committees. 
 
 (5) That a conference of two representatives of each Local Advisory 
 
 Committee be summoned to discuss the problems raised in the 
 report and consider how effect can best be given to the recom- 
 mendations in the various districts. 
 
 (6) That the report be forwarded to the Local Education Authority, 
 and that they be asked to co-operate. 
 
 R. A. BRAY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. 
 To be purchased through any Bookseller or directly from 
 HJkl STATIONARY OFFICE at the following addresses . 
 IMPERIAL HOUSE, KINQSWAY, LONDON, W.C.2, and 
 2o, ABINGDON STREET, LONDON. S.vv.1; 
 37 PETER STREET, MANCHESTER : 
 1 St. ANDREW'S CRESCENT, CARDIFF; 
 
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 1918. 
 Price Id. Net. 
 
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 By Darling & Son, Ltd., Bacon Street, E.2. 
 
Books not returned o" time are 
 
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 MA,T 181: 
 
 MAY 29 
 
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 PAT. JAM. 21, 1808 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY