Fourteen - year - old Miners We are accustomed in this
country to pride ourselves upon the fact that the conditions governing work in factories and mines are .equal to the best in the world • and superior to those prevailing in backward countries ; and indeed one of the reasons why we have refused to accept the compulsory 48-hour week is that it might handicap this country as compared with countries where conditions of work are low. Yet the International Labour Office, reporting on " Children and Young Persons under Labour Law," has to show that we are behind many of the countries usually considered backward in allowing fourteen-year-old boys to work underground in mines. In China, Japan and Ecuador the minimum age is 16 or 17. In Bulgaria, Poland, Turkey and Russia it is 18. But boys straight from school are sent to work under- ground in this country. This is a case where ventilation of the facts should be sufficient to get the facts changed.
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