Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/75

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
68
CHILD LABOUR PROBLEM.

training nor sufficient bodily vigor to sustain long periods of activity.

How far is child labor responsible for this class of paupers? "We have a municipal lodging house in Chicago filled with tramps.… It is surprising to find how many of them are tired to death of monotonous labor, and begin to tramp in order to get away from it, as a business man goes to the woods because he is worn out with the stress of business life. This desire to get away from work seems to be connected with the fact that the men have started to work very early, before they had physique to stand up to it, or the mental vigor with which to overcome its difficulties, or the moral stamina which makes a man stick to his work whether he likes it or not."[1]

Laying aside for the moment any humane considerations, both crime and pauperism are expensive. A ready method of doing away with one element in these expensive, inhuman maladjustments is to do away with child la-

  1. "Child Labor and Pauperism." By Jane Addams. Charities, vol. xi, p. 302.