be stated as a general truth that the employer of to-day cannot afford to employ young children. Says the manager of a jute mill:—"We used to employ one hundred and thirty-seven kids, but we have cut the number down to eighty-seven this year, and we expect to go on reducing it. Our mill is turning out more stuff than it used to, and we find it cheaper to work with older help."
In all industries, and in all sections, thoughtful employers who have considered the matter have reached the same conclusion. They have decided that it is in the long run cheaper to invent machinery or to employ adult help and thus replace the children. The "kids" are "quick" and "cheap," but they are unreliable, wasteful, and expensive as accident causers.
Child labor is cheap labor, and the product of this cheap labor is a cheap, product. Miss Jane Addams tells of seeing a child of five in a Southern cotton mill helping to make sheeting for the Chinese Army. The product was poor and very cheap, but so was the market for which the product was destined.
