Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/84

77 It is evident, then, that even in an industry as intimately dependent on child labor as the glass bottle industry is said to be, the child labor is only incidental to the supply of fuel; that for the average manufacturer, machinery and adults are cheaper in the long run than children, and that the existence of child labor in an industry lowers the value of the product. Not only does child labor play havoc with the industry of the present, but it detracts materially from the industrial possibilities of the future.

"It may be stated as a safe proposition that for every dollar earned by a child under fourteen years of age, tenfold will be taken from their earning capacity in later years." Children are inefficient as child workers, and become inefficient adults because of their work as children.

These statements hold true under many different conditions. The Massachusetts