The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-12-25
CHILD LABOR AND PAUPERIsM
4 Fruitful Cause of Deterioration o,
the Individual and of
Society.

What connection do we find between
child labor and pauperism? In almost
every case, the men who first lose theiI
places and are most quickly thrown out
in All industrial crisis, who are the last
10 be taken on in times of industrial
prosperity, men who are inefficient and
not very strong, men who do not stand
well in the trades and whom the fore
man is glad to get rid of in any way;
are those who have never had sufficient
training, and who curiously lack
strength and vigor, writes Jane Adams,
in Charities. How far is child labor
responsible for this class of paupers?
We have municipal lodging-house in
Chicago largely filled with tramps. It
are tired to death of monotonous labor
and begin to tramp in order to get away
from it, as a business man goes to the
woods because he is worn out with the
stress of business life. This inordi-
nate desire to get away from work seems
10 be connected with the fact that the
men have started to work very early,
before they had the physique to stand
ZIP to it, or the mental vigor with which
20 overcome it's difficulties, or the moral
stamina which makes man stick to his
work whether he likes it or not
There is no doubt that child labor also
tends to pauperize the parents. We
have in Chicago great many European
immigrants, people who have come from
country life in the south of Italy or
Bohemia, hoping that their children will
have better chance here than at home.
In the old country these immigrants
worked on farms which gave very nor
NAL activity for a young boy or girl.
When they come to Chicago they see
no reason why their children should
not go to work, because they see no diff
ference between the normal activity of
their own youth and the grinding life
to which they subject their children.
1t is difficult for man who has grown
up in outdoor life to adapt himself to the
factory. So the parents drop out, and
the children making the adaptation, re-
main, and you get the curious result
of the head of the household being more
or less dependent upon the earnings of
| the child
The pauperism of society itself, how
| ever, is the most serious charge. What
| happens when an industry depends upon
| the labor of boys and girls? 1t takes
| these boys and girls at the time when
| they ought to be at school, when, if
they were the children of business men.
| they would be having their most expen-
sive education. The manufacturer
| gives them no real instruction, and
teaches them nothing beyond the hab-
| it's of promptness and obedience. In
almost all factories the work at which
the children are employed tends to no
| trade. By the time they are old enough
to receive adult wages they are often
sick of the whole businss.
! The gravest charge have to bring
against child labor is that it pauperizes
the consumers, all of those who use
| the product into which this labor has
entered. If l wear garment which has
| been made in sweat-shop, or a gar
ment for which the maker has not been
paid living wage, or wage so small
that his earnings had to be supple
mented by the earnings of his wife and
| children, then am in debt to the man
who made my cloak. am pauper if
permit myself to accept charity from
the poorest people in the community.