Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/85

78 Commission above quoted reports that eighty per cent. of the children at work between the ages of fourteen and sixteen are in mills and unskilled industries. "For the great majority of children who leave school and enter employments at the age of fourteen or fifteen, the first three or four years are practically waste years so far as the actual productive value of the child is concerned, and so far as increasing his industrial or productive efficiency." From the standpoint of the industry it is clearly a waste of industrial efficiency and future producing capacity to have children begin work at an early age. The problem of securing efficient workers to-day is only one of the problems of industry. Quite as important, if not more so, is the problem of securing efficient workers in the future.

Before the Industrial Commission, Chief Factory Inspector Campbell of Pennsylvania was asked:—

"Question. What effect has the employment of children on the wages of adult labor?

"Answer. There is no doubt it has some effect.