Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/147

140 ." The advantages of this experimental feeding were so manifest that a central kitchen was established and a regular system of feeding instituted.

The experience of Bradford has been duplicated in other towns where school feeding has been attempted. The children fill out, freshen up, and do better work on one square meal a day.

The provision of meals is an extremely temporary remedy. It puts off from day to day the hardships which the children see before them during the summer holidays. It is, however, of sufficient weight to make education possible for indigent children.

To these three methods for improving the conditions of indigent children may be added a fourth, which has been proposed on several occasions by American thinkers. Following this method, all children must attend school up to a certain age,—for example, fourteen years,—but at the point where the child has wage-earning power, perhaps ten years on the farm and twelve years in the city, the public authorities shall pay to the parents of such