Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/48

41 hand and body the modern industrial mill. Premature work and premature decay of moral fiber are kindred forces running hand in hand toward the almshouse.

The child who gets no chance to play loses the opportunity for moral development which play affords; the child who goes to work almost inevitably gains a positive code of immorality which could not be duplicated elsewhere.

Entering the workroom with adults, young and old, people of all types of morality and immorality, the child ceases to be a child in knowledge while he is still a child in ideas. There is no home influence or school influence to ward off the dangers, no mother or teacher to point out the hidden rocks. The child is pilot and captain, but how easily influenced and misguided!

In a great many cases, the nervous strain of the workroom is very great. The children are "speeded up" with the adults. When an outside opportunity offers any change, any