Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/126

119 and pocket money. In view of these facts, it is small wonder that the boy chooses employment. The choices presented by employment to the girl are not so overwhelmingly attractive, but they are, nevertheless, sufficient, and becoming more so every day, to win multitudes of girls away from the school.

The failure of the school to reach the child is clearly indicated by the astounding degree of illiteracy in the United States. Dr. Andrew S. Draper, New York's Commissioner of Education, says:—

"In Chicago or New York there is a much larger percentage of people ten years old and more who can neither read nor write than there is in London, or Paris, or Berlin, or Zurich, or Copenhagen, or even Tokio.… The immigration is an inadequate explanation. There is a larger percentage of illiterate children of native born than of foreign born parents in the state of New York. This statement is also true of Illinois."

The presence of this group of illiterates indicates clearly that the schools are failing to fulfill their allotted sphere in the community; but why? Dr. Draper indicates clearly:—