Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/45

38 he exchanges a mental life for a physical one. Henceforth he lives for the body,—neither knowing nor caring for those necessary higher things.

Play has a moral code of its own. Not only does the hard player make the hard worker, but he makes the good citizen as well. Boys seldom cheat once at marbles; never twice. Ostracism from the group is the penalty, one which the average boy dare not incur. The rules of top spinning are inviolable. It is decided for all time who shall "show the first shake" and who shall have the first shot. No one cares to take a shot out of turn. Thus in their play each group of boys forms its social organization, and formulates the rules by which it is to be governed.

The child who grows up as an a "only child" among older people lacks the development that comes from this group action and group morality of child plays. He is "different" from the other children, and when he goes to school for the first time he is in a new