The extent to which children worked in typewriter factories is not well researched, but child labor was a reality of industrial work through the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1902, Yost managing director Milton Bartholomew noted a dramatic increase in child labor (see here), and in one documented instance, teenagers could work as typewriter drillers at 15 years of age.
Typewriter factories required skill workers, so the use of child labor in this industry may well have been limited.
The headline in the article below, stating that “a half million small boys and girls are employed in unskilled labor” in New York City, is misleading, as the article counts far fewer. Still, the provided numbers are unsettling. Further, that a half million children lacked essential learning to access higher education illustrates crisis in public education in the early 20th century.
One proposed measure was to raise the age of compulsory education from 14 to 16, with an emphasis on vocational training. Such a proposal would have been glad news to typewriter manufacturers needing highly skilled workers.
The Typewriter World (New York), February 1912 –
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