Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/61

54 nothing tends toward disrupting and undermining the family so perniciously as the premature independence of its immature members." It is not customary to intrust to a child loaded, dangerous weapons, yet no weapons could be more dangerous than the independence of home control which comes with helping to earn the family living.

In addition to coming prematurely into a state of independence from family control, the child worker is surrounded by none of the influences which are ordinarily associated with home life. Ten or eleven hours in a factory, with a half hour to come and go, leaves little of the day that is not taken up with eating and sleeping; and a place in which one eats and sleeps is a lodging-house, not a home.

Not only is the child cut off during its working-hours from any uplifting influence, but it is often surrounded by unbearable monotony, bad air, unlovely companions, and every other