Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/62

55 form of undesirable influence that may be developed where indiscriminate grouping of men and women occurs. Working under such conditions, and becoming gradually accustomed to such low standard surroundings, the child laborer adopts and accepts a low standard as a matter of course. Accustomed to a low standard of work as a child, the worker fails to demand a high standard as a man. The standards of child work are very low, as anyone who has visited industrial establishments will have observed. Generally, the greater the proportion of women and children in an establishment, the worse the conditions of the light, the air, and the sanitation. Men rebel. Women and children seldom complain except to one another. Thus the child laborer is generally educated as a low standard laborer.

Low standards are imposed upon child labor industries. The child, growing to man-hood, and accepting these low standards, imposes them upon his family, and the gradual acceptance of such low standards lowers the standard of the entire community.