Evening star., 1915-01-24

cost amounts to between $4,000. 900
and s25ooo.0o0 a year.
The vicious circle goes-child labor.
illiteracy. Industrial inefficIency, low
wages, long hours. low standards oc
living. bad housing. poor food. unem-
ployment. intemperance. disease. pow
erty, back to child labor again. etc.
The little child working at the manu-
facturer's machine is the one who be-
comes industrially inefficient. As an
adult he works for the lowest wages
He is the first to be unemployed when
business Is slack. and the last to he
taken on when business picks up. He
is the one who lives in the two-roorn
tenement.
His children, in turn, are the first
to be employed because he is too poor
to send them to school. They arc the
first to fall prey to disease because
they have not fit food TO eat. Living as
he does, he is the first to become tho
victim of intemperance. because OF
discouragement and physical depletion.
Enter the vicious circle at any point
and the victim is exposed to all tho
rest. Child labor is the one link in
this vicious circle that the American
people can cut right out and thereby
make the circle smaller. thereby re-
duce the number OF contributing
causes.
What are we going to do about itf
We must protect children from tho
kind of work that involves this tre-
mendous cost. The first step Is the pro-
hibition of child labor. The recognized
minimum provisions of good child
labor law are:
"A fourteen-year limit, at least, foe
all gainful occupations.
"A higher age limit for mines. quar-
ries and other dangerous trades. and .
twenty-one-year limit for night mes
SengerS.
An eight-hour day and no work foe
children over fourteen.
Requirement OF work permits fos
children over fourteen.
Scientific inspection OF factories AMI
other places of employment to insure
obedience to the law.
Hand in hand with the child labo'
law should go a compulsory educatlon
law, requiring school attendance OF All
children under sixteen years who have
not complied the eighth grade.
Work permits properly granted will
give full knowledge Of every working
chfld's mental and physical equipment.
and Intelligent vocational guidance
will see that the child's tasks arc
suitable Thorough inspection VIII
keep children from working IN
crowded, unsafe places. Industrial
training will help them to advance IN
their trade and to develop along prop
er, useful lines.
children who go to work at four.
teen have had too little education and
training to lift themselves out OF the
unskilled, poorly paid class OF work
era Night schools cannot help them.
for the child who works all day has
little strangth left to study at night.
hut attendance at day. part-time or
confirmation schools shold be required
~ his work time without reduclnS <
wears of age. The employer spares inc
child for a few hours each week oue
Of his worktime without reducths :
wages because the child becomes
more intelligent workman and a better
citizen. ,.,, rh.r
n develops the worker. But IT should not
be tolerated for children when 1t deaoeiis
the worker as the door boys task IN
coal mine must This consists in waiting
by the door in a damp. grimy corner
until "a trip comes along. with nothihs
to do and nothing to see but coal
IF the childs wofk does not give hiu
something he can use In later years, II
must be stopped. We must look TO ths
future-the future Of the nation as wen
as Of the individual child.
"Child labor wherever ii exists, from
the point of view Of civilization, or
national progress and humanity. is IN
tolerable."