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This article concentrates on youngsters between the ages of seven and fourteen who worked outside of the industrial and commercial mainstream of late nineteenth-century urban Ontario, usually for no wages, but who still contributed in important ways to the day-to-day survival of their families. The latter part of the paper includes a brief examination of the special circumstances of foster children. The article will describe the various types of work children performed, evaluate the contribution youngsters made to the family or household economy, determine the extent to which economic responsibilities affected a child's opportunities for personal development and social mobility, and judge the reaction working children elicited from middle- and upper-class members of society. Such an examination illuminates the social and economic structure of urban-industrial Ontario in the late nineteenth century, and casts light into the shadowy corners of urban poverty, business practices, reform mentality, and class structure. [Eight reproductions of black-and-white photos of children working are included.] --From author's introduction
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This article reviews the book, "Culture and Adult Education: A Study of Alberta and Quebec", by Hayden Roberts.
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This article reviews the book, "Sweethearts: The Builders, the Mob and the Men," by Catherine Wismer.
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The article reviews the book, "Children of the City: At Work and At Play," by David Nasaw.
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...This study describes and analyzes the extent to which work, as a philosophical concept and as an economic reality, influenced the lives of working-class children in late nineteenth-century urban Ontario. Chapter I examines the impact of industrialization and urbanization on the working-class family and describes how the concepts of work and social control intersected to feed the development of welfare programmes based on middle-class objectives. Chapter II examines the conditions and experiences of children in the paid labour force, focussing particularly on the family economy, labour legislation, and the response of reformers and trade unionists. In addition, chapter II discusses the link between a child's economic responsibilities and his or her opportunities for personal development and social mobility. Chapter III applies the themes of chapter II to youngsters who worked in the home and on the street. Chapter IV describes the work experiences of children who spent part of their early lives in orphanages or foster homes and analyzes the reform impulse behind this style of welfare. Chapter V applies the themes of chapter IV to youngsters committed to reformatories, refuges, and industrial schools. Chapter VI examines the treatment, work experiences, and social development of needy British children who filled the roles of agricultural labourers and domestic servants in Canadian homes and discusses the motivations behind this programme. Chapter VII examines the connection between youngsters' work responsibilities and school attendance and analyzes the education system's approach to the issue of children and work. Throughout the text, the thesis argues that child labour composed a critical element of a complex social culture, deeply rooted in a capitalist economy, that defined work in both a material and philosophical sense. At the material level, working children made essential contributions to families that could not survive in the city on parental wages alone. Simultaneously children provided cheap labour for self-serving employers in industrial, commercial, and domestic settings. At the philosophical level, most members of nineteenth-century society believed that hard, honest work held the key to life-long success and happiness. This view prevailed among middle-class reformers who additionally believed that child labour under proper supervision would preserve social order and avoid future welfare costs by creating a class of efficient and compliant workers. The failure of this culture of work to balance its social and economic motivations, however, led to suffering and exploitation for youngsters more often than it created personal opportunity and social harmony. As the poorest, most powerless, and least secure members of industrial society, children of the working class most visibly bore the scars inflicted by a social system designed to serve middle- and upper-class interests.
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Introduced by Don Wells, the article discusses the unionization and "strike" (in reality, a boycott) of teachers at the Canadian Labour Congress's Canadian Labour College in 1983. Examines the dichotomy of militant trade unionists who become labour bureaucrats, the clash between academics and the CLC, and the pivotal role of students (who were also trade unionists) that mobilized to join the teachers' side in the dispute. Media coverage and the reaction of unions are also discussed. Concludes that the right to organize was the central issue of the conflict, and that, going forward, the college will continue to embody the best and the worst features of Canadian trade unionism. The article was authored by the union's chief negotiator for its first collective agreement.
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