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THE CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR.
industry if one manufacturer adopts a cheap device, the others must do likewise or go bankrupt, and thus is created, out of the system of competitive industry, the condition which always permits and at times requires the employment of children. Two other factors enter prominently as causes of child labor. They are the moving causes that are actively operating to send children to work,—
1. The wages of the average workman are
so low as to preclude the possibility of his bringing up a family without some outside aid. This is often secured
by sending the children to work.2. The school system with its ancient
curriculum, rigorous discipline, and low-paid, inexperienced teachers, is heartily detested by the average boy, and probably by the average girl, who take the first opportunity to escape from its monotony and confinement to the
freedom of work.