Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/66

59 of home life. The high standard of home life depends for its existence and maintenance upon the standard of the father and the mother. The father must have the capacity to earn for his children a good living. He must likewise have the mental development and the development of character which will enable him to set for them a high standard of example. The absence of these qualities in the father almost inevitably disrupts the home.

Judge Lindsay relates a story of an exceedingly "tough" kid who was brought into his Juvenile Court. After being questioned for some time the boy admitted that the whole trouble lay with his father, who constantly beat and abused him, until in self-defense the boy ran away from home, became a tramp, and, never having learned to work, he stole in order to live. Such cases are common in the Juvenile Court. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, and unless proper fathers are provided, proper children are an impossibility.

The influence of the father upon family life