Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1912-11-30

come OF his play ground, so essential
in his development. It has given
way to the yard. the yard to the ten
ement Nothing Is left but the street
He must play, it is his nature. What
has become OF the guiding influence
of his parents2 They are In the
factory. What is left Nothing but
the street and the gang. Play he will,
Tor play he must, and at every cor
ner he is met by policeman. Where
must he go? Into the dark alleys
to lead the mob or follow the leader I
So our industrial development has
given us two conditions. On the one
nand the child put into the shops,
deprived and robbed OF all that
belongs to child life. We no longer
eat each other, but there can be no
question, that some OF US live and
even win our pleasures and luxuries
by the ruin OF others. The bodies
and souls Of many men and women
are destroyed by the selfishness OF
our present day society. And yet
we tolerate the men who 60 to the
legislative halls in order to defeat
child labor laws, using the argument
that only by the toll of infants are
they enabled to make profits.
Did you ever stand on a crowded
street corner OF great city and
watch the train Of people go by and
wonder how many Of these Migrants,
crippled and deformed degenerates
Of the lodging houses We're robbed
Of something in childhood that they
have vainly tried to find again In
their vagrant and vicious womanhood
or manhood?
1t cannot be said that all of these
wasted lives are due to our modern
industrial system, but 1t must be
said that the child who Is robbed OF
his childhood and forced to become
the bearer of burdens while yet in
his infancy is the victim Of the brute
either in man or In society. Per-
haps this is what William Vaughn
Moody had In mind when he wrote
his poem the Brute:
And they fling him hour by hour, limbs
of men to give him power;
Brains OF men to give him cunning
and for dainties to devour,
Children's souls, the little worth;
hearts OF women, cheaply bought
He takes them and he breaks them
but he gives them little thot.
Put by the side Of the playing
child of the street, the working child
of the factory, and 1t seems at first
glance that there is no solution to
the problem. Play that Is so pre-
cious to the child OF the country, and
work that was In the home of the
olden days so educative and valuable
are now in our largest cities and fac
tory districts either dangerous or
When one has in mind
only the working child, ones first
thought is play. When one has IN
mind the playing child his thought is
occupation. We have on the one
hand the man interested in the street
gang, on the other the one interest
ed in the abolition of child labor.
But we are still in TRANSITIONAL
period, in which the old ideas Of in
are still strong, and the
social ones are yet vague and CROP
ing. We are demanding that the
state protect the little ones, but we
are not yet strong enough dn our
that the state replace
what the child has lost--nature, home,
sducative work, and noble recrea-
lion.
However alarming 1t Is reason
able to think we are only at the be-
ginning of this problem. Two solu-
lions are advocated. The Tolstoyan,
intense In their indiyidualism and
their love for the old order of things.
They would have us abandon the
city and the factory and go back to
the old order. The other solution
Is just the opposite. 1t has faith In
the wisdom OF our economic develop
ment. 1t would build up the school
and make known to 1t the necessity
Of providing for the child, whether
working, playing or learning. 1t
would provide social institutions for
his development, 1t would give him
gardens, Fairgrounds, workshops and
whatever else is necessary to replace
The loss of home workshops and fields
Of the old Industrial era. The devel-
of these and similar social
measures would soon solve many OF
he more serious problems of the
city child.