Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/87

80. That they are displaced, at least temporarily, is evident.

But the problem has an even more serious side. Child labor results in lowering the wage standard of the entire group in which it exists. The argument is well put by Carroll D. Wright in the following words:—"There seems, in recent times, to have occurred a change in the relation of wages to support, so that, more and more, the labor of the whole family is necessary to the support of the family; that, in the majority of cases, working men in the commonwealth do not support their families by their individual earnings alone. The fathers rely or are forced to depend upon their children under fifteen years of age, who supply, by their labor, from one-eighth to one-sixth of the total family earnings."

Looking at the matter from the standpoint of practical experience in the mines, John Mitchell gave the following testimony before the Industrial Commission:—