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  4. Document 172

No. 885.
Mr. Bell to Mr. Bayard.

Legation of the United States,
The Hague, Netherlands, December 21, 1887.
(Received January 3, 1888.)
No. 288.]

Sir: Referring to my No. 261 of August 23 last, I now have the honor to report that conformably to the views expressed by the parliamentary commission the Government has submitted to the Second Chamber a project of law regulating the work of children.

The following are the principal provisions:

(1)
Children under thirteen years of age are prohibited from working in manufactories.
(2)
They may be employed in agricultural work when over twelve.
(3)
The surveillance of the factories devolves not upon special functionaries but upon medical inspectors.
(4)
Under sixteen years of age the working day is fixed at ten hours, and no night or Sunday work is permitted until after the eighteenth year.

The project will probably become a law.

I have, etc.,

Isaac Bell, Jr.