Page:Labour and childhood.djvu/106

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80
LABOUR AND CHILDHOOD

non-wage-earning child is compared with the wageearner, the percentage is as follows:

Hours worked weekly. Number
of Boys.
Fatigue. Anæmia. Severe
Nerve Signs.
Deformities. Severe
Heart Signs.
All schoolboys of districts
(workers and non-workers)
3,700 25 24  8  8
Working 20 or less hours   163 50 34 28 15 11
Working 20-30 hours   86 81 47 44 21 15
Working over 30 hours   95 83 45 50 22 20


These figures show the rapid deterioration of health that follow hard and monotonous labour in childhood. But as we are now concerned more especially with one effect of this labour—to wit, the mental effect of it—we will not linger over the general question. The interesting point in the Report to us at present is what follows.

"It may be suggested that these children are, to begin with, of an inferior type mentally and physically. But it was found that in two schools where the physique of the boys had been accurately noted, the children who went to do this kind of work were as follows: