Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/323

 LAWS FOR PROTECTION OF CHILDREN 311

Underlying the effective legislation of Colorado for the pro- tection of the children is the fact that the voting constituency in that enlightened state has, for eleven years, included all the mothers, the teachers, and all the other interested women in the community. It is impossible to overstate the value to the children of this vast body of people in the electorate who are by nature, by training, and by the usages of our national life chiefly occupied with the bringing up of children and youth. It is a nobler form of the enforcement of the responsibility of all the adults for all the children in the community. Illinois has not, and cannot have, the. best laws for the protection of the children until all the mothers, teachers, and other women vote, and thus completely share the responsibility, as they have long done in Colorado. In order to have the best laws in the country for the protection of the children, Illinois would need to possess, in addition to its own truancy law, and that wider measure of Colorado for enforcing the responsibility of adults who contribute to the delinquency of children, the complete enfranchisement of the women.

The statutes of Illinois possess several points of unquestioned excellence, none of which are, however, peculiar to themselves. One of the best requirements is that children shall not work after 7 o'clock at night. This is excelled by the Michigan statute which prohibits the employment of children after 6 p. M. Another excellent point is the legal limit of eight hours imposed upon the working day of children under the age of sixteen years. This provision, however, is found in the laws of Colorado, Ari- zona, Montana, and Utah, as well as in those of Illinois. An admirable provision in the laws of Illinois is that which prohibits the employment of children in occupations dangerous to the health. This also is common to the laws of Massachusetts, Ohio, Colorado, and several other states.

Among the most important laws for the protection of children are those which deal with child-labor. No form of child-labor is more injurious than the street occupations. In five years of resi- dence in New York city the writer has not seen one girl under the age of sixteen years engaged in selling papers, or any other