Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/52

45 All factory life is not immoral, and immorality is not an essential element in factory life, but under present conditions, factory life and immorality too often go hand in hand, and it behooves society to look carefully to these things and see that they be reduced to the veriest minimum.

Play is the accompaniment of youth. Man has his play time: it is childhood. Man has his work time: it is adult life. The child cannot hope to escape all work, but the greater part of its life must be devoted to play if the functions of the adult life of work are to be well fulfilled. The child who works loses the opportunity for the spontaneous expression of the new life that can come only through play. The child's body is forming at fourteen, and its growth should not be hampered or marred by imposing upon it the restrictions that come with factory life.

As the body of the developing child is denied its complete development by work, so its mental development is curtailed and its moral sensibilities are often stunted by work. Child