Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/33

26 boys of fifteen years receiving permission to work averaged nearly a foot taller, and about four pounds heavier than the boys of fourteen; and the girls of fifteen years averaged nearly one-half foot taller, and about fifteen pounds heavier than the girls whose ages averaged fourteen years."

The statement that children develop physically between their thirteenth and their fifteenth birthdays seems almost obvious, and the figures are cited only to prove beyond cavil the existence of the development and to show its extent. It might be well to consider carefully, when a boy is sent into the factory, whether the wheels of progress will shape his growing body into a man or a machine. If the body develops in response to the factory environment it will be a machine. In animals, we respect this period of growth. What farmer is there who would hitch a colt to the plow and compel it to work ten hours a day? "Assuredly not," you exclaim, "that would be such folly."