Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/13

6 as many obstacles as are encountered in an attempt to persuade savages to cease from worshiping their Sun God.

What is the purpose in setting an age limit for child labor and why was that limit set at fourteen?

An age limit seems necessary in child labor legislation, although it is extremely unsatisfactory. The real test of preparedness to work is not age but maturity. It must be perfectly evident, to even the casual thinker, that the years fourteen-sixteen have no relation to maturity, and therefore have no rational basis for their existence. They coincide but roughly with the period of puberty in children, and with nothing in the law. At fourteen the body is still so plastic that it may be injured temporarily or permanently by work. Fourteen does not in any way coincide with maturity, yet the constantly dropping water of agitation has worn away the stone of indifference and—"children under fourteen should not work"—represents