in Illinois, in decreasing the number of children employed from 19,225 in 1902, to 9,925 in 1908.[1] Are the children who were dismissed from work in a more advantageous position than they were before the law was passed? In the majority of cases, they are not.
Child labor laws penalize the employer. The employer dismisses the child. What follows? If the dismissed child dislikes the school, as children who have been at work almost invariably do, he turns to street life. If the family of the dismissed child is in need of his income, he, with the other members of the family, suffers from under-nutrition after that income ceases. In either case, the dismissed child is the loser. While the reformer goes into ecstasies over the statistics of decreasing child labor, the victims of the decrease either run the streets, go hungry, or suffer from both evils.
The statements in the last paragraph are
- ↑ "The Present Situation in Illinois." By E. T. Davies, Chief Factory Inspector of Illinois. Conference on Child Labor, National Child Labor Committee, 1909. P. 154.
