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49 social ideals, they must protect the children of to-day for the society of the future. There are those who deny that there is any obligation on the present generation to provide for the future. A certain member of the English Parliament is reported to have demanded,—"What should we do for posterity? What has posterity ever done for us?" Generally speaking, however, the whole matter resolves itself, for each individual, into one question, "Have you social ideals?"

What are social ideals?

When men speak of heaven they voice a social ideal; when they dream of prosperity they anticipate a social ideal; brotherhood is a social ideal, and so are education, art, literature, and every other great and good hope or prophecy for the future. No matter what the basis, no matter what the form of the ideal, its goal is a state of society in which every man, woman, and child will have rights, privileges, and opportunities, equal to those of every other man, woman, and child.

Child workers are debarred from this equality. Long hours of monotonous toil