Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/103

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96
CHILD LABOUR PROBLEM.

and unfair. The employer may, as in the case of industrial evolution, make child labor possible, but he does not actively cause it. There is still another factor—the greedy public. "Give us dividends," cry the stock-holders, "give us dividends, and big ones!" and the president of the company, with his salary at stake, turns in the children. "Give us bargains," cry the consumers, " give us bargains, and cheap ones," and the retailer, his business at stake, turns to the sweat shop and child labor.

A demand for cheap finery, for bargains, for cheap goods of all kinds, is a demand on the sweat shop and on child labor. Child labor goods are cheap goods. The South has found this true to her cost. It requires skill to produce quality as much as it ever did before the invention of the machinery which is doing the heavy and mechanical work of the world.

But the public, by its insatiable demand for cheapness, furnishes the manufacturer with the incentive for cheap production. He, in turn, advertises for child labor. One factor