Page:Solution of the Child Labor Problem.djvu/92

85 those which are purely mechanical are performed by an unskilled laborer until a machine is invented to replace him.

Modern invention has gone so deeply into the details of mechanical operations, and division of labor has rendered the part which any one man performs so simple, that it is an easy matter to substitute the actions of a machine for the mechanical, standardized work of an unskilled or often of a semi-skilled laborer. Hence modern machinery; hence the opportunity for machine tending,—a purely mechanical task, possible even for a child; hence the opportunity for an unskilled child to become a part of the most intricate system of manufacturing, by performing one infinitely small operation in connection with many other operations, which, combined and unified, result in a substantial product.

Can this industrial evolution which has remade industry be described as a cause of child labor? If this view of the situation be accepted, it is apparent that the responsibility for the prevalence and increase of