Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/64

57 agreeable industries." 1 In cities particularly this wage means very little, because of the great demands made upon it for car fare, lunches, and better clothes. "The wage value of the years from fourteen to sixteen is hardly more than the educational value … that he [the child] contributes to the family more than $1.50 is extremely doubtful." Child workers' wages are very low and, as a rule, add little to family income. Not only is this true, but the child who goes to work at fourteen probably deprives the family of earning capacity. There is little definite information on this point, but the Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and Technical Education concludes:—"The most important fact in the consideration of wages is that the child commencing at sixteen overtakes his brother beginning at fourteen in less than two years. That his total income in four years would equal that of his brother for six years we cannot prove, but the slight data at hand so indicates."