TABS, FAGS AND THE BOY LABOR PROBLEM IN LATE-VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN BRITAIN

In 1908 the Liberal government introduced the Children's Act, part three of which dealt directly with the perceived problem of juvenile smoking. This article examines the causes of this legislation. The first section traces the increase in smoking amongst urban male youth stressing the need to look at the whole culture of the city child in order to understand fully the reasons for such a growth. The second part examines the reactions against the habit and how these were able to translate themselves into national law. It will be argued that specific health scares popularised by the anti-tobacco movement played a minor role here. Far more important were the notions of adolescence held by middle-class social commentators and reformers which were sharply at odds with what was practised in urban working-class districts, and that the widespread fears over national efficiency and physical deterioration provided a political atmosphere willing to legislate against what had only a few years before been seen as a minor social issue.