Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/77

 CHAPTER IV

CHILD LABOR—AN INDUSTRIAL WASTE

I. The Newer View of Industry

Treasurer of the Alabama City Cotton Mill, Alabama, wrote to his agent:—"Every time I visit this mill, I am impressed with the fact that it is a great mistake to employ small help in the spinning-room. Not only is it wrong from a humanitarian standpoint, but it entails an absolute loss to the mill." In a letter to the Boston Transcript the same gentleman writes:—"I have never been South without protesting to the agent … against allowing children under twelve years of age to come into the mill, as I did not consider them intelligent enough to do good work."

There can be little question that child labor is a social waste. It hurts the children's 70