[4] Quoted from correspondence of the Board of Education to the Local Education Authority in Northamptonshire.
Events moved very rapidly in the spring of 1917. We were called upon by national and state governments, by chambers of commerce and boards of trade, by bankers and railroads, to raise crops. We were told that America must be the pantry for all Europe and that, do the best that we might, we should not do overmuch. Obviously, with such authority back of a movement for increased agricultural production, it did not take very long for state boards of agriculture and state departments of education to respond, to say nothing about the propaganda set forth by settlements, women's clubs, the Y.M.C.A., the Boy Scouts, the National Security League, the Women's Patriotic Service League, and a score of other organizations, that put a psychological persuasion into the situation which was hard for school authorities and school children to resist.
The following data relative to the action of a number of the states were compiled by the National Child Labor Committee. In general the data showed no provision made for supervision, for physical examination, for wages, or for definition of "passing grade." In some instances there were even no age limitations.
_California._ During continuance of state of war, state board of education with approval of governor may reduce school term to six months when necessary "for the planting or harvesting of crops or for other agricultural or horticultural purposes."
_Indiana._ Letter from state superintendent of public instruction to county superintendents, April 10, 1917, saying in part: "It is my wish and order that you permit such high-school girls and boys, and also such eighth-grade girls and boys as may care to engage in Home Projects work looking toward the increase of our agricultural output, to engage in such work and to receive therefor full credit on the school records, provided this work is done to the satisfaction of the county agent and the county superintendent."
Plan formulated later by principals and state superintendents for supervising, certifying, and accrediting such work did something to stop a general exodus, but came too late to do much good.
