counter-excitement, it is seized eagerly, no matter what its character may be, for the sake of the change. Very, very often it is of the wrong character. "Child labor is generally acknowledged to be an irreparable injury to the children and to society at large. Bodies and minds are stunted and deformed; crime, violence, and all of the social evils which spring from a brutalized population are fostered."[1]
To be making a living, associated with all classes of people at an early and immature age, to be contributing to the family fund, and hence to be more or less independent,—what unwholesome things for the average child! Independence, before the proper age of independence, often means ruin.
Those who do not believe that factory children are knowing far beyond their years, should spend a noon hour with a group of factory boys, fourteen or fifteen years of age, and listen to their conversation. It is usually a thousand times more foul than that
- ↑ Labor Problems. By Adams and Sumner. New York: Macmillan Co., 1905. P. 20.
