Year: 1874

As person up to the age of fifteen has
done nothing to earn the cost of the pro-
lection which a civil government gives In
all its different branches, it Is evident
that, so far as he is concerned, the allquot
share expended on him is so much paid
out to rear and educate; a direct invest
ment which the community makes IN him
with the hope of a return, precisely as the
same community, or q part of it, invests
IN q canal or railroad, with the difference
that the return is apt to be higher one
and that the risk is also greater. This
investment amounts to at least $546. 1t
is direct, and easily computed. There is
another just as certain, but which can
not be 80 readily reekoned. The total
valuation of the country Is placed at
$30,068, SIS, ,507 in real and personal es-
tate, and all this accumulated wealth of
the parts work together to make life easier
for the young man, who TIL he is fifteen
years old is adding nothing to it. He
stands, too, the representative of another
expense as tangible, but even less easy to
give definitely. About half the popula-
tion die before they reach the fifteenth year
from birth. That is, to bring 500 persons
to this point requires the birth and sup
port for q longer or shorter time of, and
the cost to the community of each at the
age Just mentioned is enhanced by the ex-
pense of those who fail to reach 1t. There
are hundred thousand other influences
WEIGH are paid for IN the labor of others,
and which form part Of the great invest
ment lodged even IN the son of laborer,
one without the advantages or culture of
wealth. They cannot be reckoned in dol
lars and cents, but they exist none the
less, and should be taken into account
and kept in mind as part of the loss which
the community at large suffers when one
man fails to make any return for the tai
ent confded to his care. The gross, per-
ceptible, enumersble parts of his cost price
are, to his family in money, $2,979; to
his country and the community, $546
his share of the income from $40, 900 ,000, :
900 Of property, and the partially devel-
oped life wasted and cut off that his might
reach maturity. In all, the direct outlay
is 5000, an understatement In two di-
rections.


The estimate itself is very small one,
cut and pared to bring it far under the
truth and avoid the possibility Of exsg-
geration and it is taken in station o.
life where the conditions are as simple a
possible, and cheap in proportion as they
are simple. 1t is a comparatively easy
task to reckon up the cost price of boy
who lives in tenement house, has coarse
food and clothing and no education but
the teaching of q public school, whose
value is gwen In a dozen reports, because
/ 1t is limited to the small sum of SIS 600
/ 1t is large fraction, but after all, only 8
fraction of the community whose expen-
ses are restricted to food, clothing and
shelter: the fraction does not include more
than one fourth of those engaged in earn.
/ ing their livelihood. The children of tht
other three-fourths of the community
other words, three-fourths of the children
cost more than So, 900 apiece to raise, anC
are worth more when they are raised.


At fifteen years man may begin to bt
a producer-he very often does not begiI


to do so till years after-and he may sls'


begin to be druRkard. Neither are like


ly before this age, though either contin


gency may occur years earlier, as well e


after. Neither happen at once and Will


there are no tables accessible which de


termiRe the average training required, Z


gain proficiency in either direction it vii


be fair enough to consider the man 70


three years as neutral, whichever cours


he takes. He is not an actual burden o.


society or himself; neither does he pro


duce much, if anything, over and abov


his own sustenance. Whether the entir
cost of his production shall be capita
worse than wasted, so that received eco
| nonically it would have been altogethe
better for the community if he had bee
throttled at an early age, depends largely
, if not entirely, IN the absence of any ol
Eanic disease in his constitution, on b
r becoming addicted to the use of intoxica
ting liquors. Society has spent SON
. thousands of dollars directly on him, an


devoted some millions of capital to prov