Evening star., 1914-04-19
!" Just Children
CEcRETARY W. B. WILSON


MAGAZINE. which appears in the next iss
Naturally the phase in which he is parti|
larly interested officially is child labor.
tells of the effort of the government to
rive at the facts through unbiased invcs,
ton.
1t isn't SO simple. this problem of the lit
simple as it appears to those of us who res
them from purely sentimental viewpoint
course it shouldn't be necessary for child
to work; but then it should not be necass
for them to go without proper food clo
ing. and shelter. There are ever so nd
things that are wrong in this world that
haven't learned how to remedy yet; as
instance. how to reconcile unintelligent cha
with undeserved poverty. and saying thi
about our neighbors without understand
facts and conditions. But we are max
progress.
Sometimes what appears to be pertod
good remedy turns out to be something qlI
different. especially when it is made into a u
They have been struggling with the child laI
problem in England where conditions were 4
are much worse, longer than we have. I'll
passed child labor law designed to prot
the children. to make sure that more of th|
turity.
The earnest. unselfsh folk who secured
passage of that law were immensely surpri|
to find that it defeated the purpose they ha,
mind. Under it far fewer children have grid
to normal. healthy maturity, because th|
haven't been so many children-that is nor
children-to grow up.
The law was aimed chiefly at employers
oh -
has been effective in this regard. But the
feet upon the employers and upon their d
ployees has not been nearly so noticeable
upon the birth rate. This child labor law
proved to be the most effective weapon
race suicide ever devised in the factory
tricts of England.
1t has proved that thrifty parents look
bringing children into the world in a surp|
ingly con!ir ercial spirit. When a child co
be put to work at eight or nine. and the ,aro
could control the earnings for a dozen year.
SO, it paid to bring children into the vol
But when child could not be put to work
fore twelve or fourteen the parents figured
that it didn't pay to have children, and
thrifty folk cut down the birth rate amazing
On the other hand, the birth rate among 81
less, inefficient. morally delinquent folk has!
SlSdSSu
Which goes to show, not that child labo
fundamentally wrong, but that law restrict
the age at which a child may go to work is
in itself the solution of the problem.
Secretary Wilson doesn't go into the FL
lish phase of child labor. He is bent upon
curing all the facts here at home. The govt
ment put aside two hundred and fifty thous
dollars to get at them, and the things they hI
discovered are amazingly interesting.
you can turn from this serious and inn
tant exposition to Y-ON-TI
PULSE in our next number and smile ch |
fully. 1t is the third of the real adventure
the young woman bent upon securing mate
for fiction at first hand. She and Bob C
upon what appears to be wonderful love SC
in beautiful setting. ]. c. Coll. who can
more color in black and white than many ar
with the whole spectrum at their disposal. |
the story in picture and in text.
THE MEASURE OF MASTERY is $
that has ideas in it, as well as romance
powerful writing. 1t is a story by Jonat
Hadley which will give you new idea of
strong. rich man and of the forces that il