Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/78

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71
CHILD LABOUR—INDUSTRIAL WASTE.

bodies, deprives them of needed education, and often places them in questionable moral surroundings. Child labor is a social waste, and as such should be summarily dealt with; but what of its relations to industry? Society looks upon the destruction of its working material with comparative indifference, because society has not a "business view-point; "but what must be the viewpoint of industry? Would it not be a discovery fraught with the most far-reaching significance for American industry if the statement made by the Treasurer of the Alabama City Cotton Mill proved to be correct? What a waste would be involved in the employment of thousands of "small help" in the various branches of American industry!

The members of any social group are, under present conditions, liable to emphasize the individual problems much more than the social ones. "Let us abolish child labor," cries the social reformer. "Wait," warns the manufacturer, "you will drive me out of business."

Is that true?