WHY PERMITTING CHILD LABOUR IS A GRAVE ECONOMIC MISTAKE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 75

WHY PERMITTING CHILD LABOUR IS A GRAVE ECONOMIC MISTAKE.

(By John Coleman,.in an American paper.) Here is a conversational fragment frequently heard at the casual meeting of two friends and neighbours : '■SWTiere's that boy of yours these days? He and 1 niy boy used' to > be inseparable playmates, but we haven't seen Johnny for'an '-age." - % - "Oh, Johnny has no time to play now,'" is 'tier seemingly careless but really, pleased ' answer. "He's working afternoons and Saturdays, and it takes him all Sunday to get rested. I couldn't get him the wheel he -wanted> just now, I gave him permission to eanrit, provided, he keeps up his school" record J and he has. managed to do that, so far " , ' i.A great' worker is Johnny, too," the proud father usually adds. ' ' He does not add, perhaps does not know, . •that Johnny's ' chances of. being "a great worker" in his adult days are being materially lessened by_his present efforts. Ruskyl/wa^ of the/opiniori .fcliat let a man once oizierwork^ by ever so little,, arid he_ has for^ever diminished his 'ordinary working capacity. Recent scie.ntifi<i experiments, have proved this theory-t rue, at leasts in basis and > implication. When some years ago Jane * Addams, Florence Kelley, and other child-loving sociologists began an eai ; nest orusade against' the evil of Illinois child labour, their strongest plea and argument was\based on the knowledge -that the child worked too soon makes a poor • adult worker, the zest and freshness of his productive or creative energy, as the flower of his youthful strength, having been exhausted in, the period of premature toil. Slight observations will confirm- this knowledge. Watch the young people,- but recently child workers, pouring out of a large store or factory, and) note their thin faces, listless movements, air of general physical, if not mental and spiritual, depression. Child prodigies rarely attain to more than moderate success during adultship. The abnormally brilliant grammar school student carries cleverness up to' college but seldom. The high school genius frequently loses ground m his third year. — Growing is 'a. Task in Itself. — All these 'facts are well known, yet there are few economic mistakes more prevalent 1 than that of allowing ambitious children — particularly, -perhaps, ambitious boys — to go to -work too early. Not only is this true of the poor, whose children must become wage-earnens at the earliest possible moment,- but .numbers of boys quite comfortably situated work before and after school, on ' Saturday, sometimes even on Sunday, for the sake of a little money not sorely needed, the pleasure of the workers, the pride of the parents." ■ Such ill-advised toil almost inevitably must result 'in -decreased' working force a few years later, if not depletion of all the productive powers. Nature herself, in arranging for the boy's normal progress, has given him a"growing task" that needs all his energy, latent and seemingly superfluous, iio lees than .ordinary and apparent. To this task is superadded the necessary but non« the less artificial process of scholastic education. What folly, then, to tax this already heavily loaded human machine with still, a third burden of additional labour? Better, far better, that a boy should lack the wheel, the pony, the new suit of clothes desired, than that he should earn them by toil for which he is so little fitted. The fact that the boy himself wishes to do the extra work no more justifies allowing him to do it than tha fact of an inordinate love of sweets would justify the adoption of an entirely saccharine diet. If only for economic reasons the prematuie overwork of the bright and eager boy should be restrained. The raiser of fine horses, the trained horticulturist, would never allow the premature racing or fruitage of their cherished possessions. They know too well at what excessive cost too early honours are attained. Only the embryo man — creatiQfi'4 gUfierlaJtiYg efl&rt— m aUft^gd to 50

endanger future abilities and possibilities : of success. Mil other valuable-. animals "are held back- from excessive or too arduous, effort until the time for perfected "strength. - ' \ " ; ; — Boy Needs Vacation Time. — -, ,' The question^of vacation work is a littfeL* ..different, but even this is of doubtful value. Play" time — time in which to run wild and gather the abundant reserve energy sure to be needed in the combined tasks of growing and gathering knowledge — is an -absolute necessity for the successful development of fine physical manhood. If vacation work is allowed it -should be so regulated as to leave plenty of time, for sleep, for outdoor exercise, with /at least a reasonable margin of, absolutelyunoccupied hours. The clever fourteen-year-old son of a," "self-made" Chicago father lasi summer^ worked through the entire vacation season ; in , that father's office, replacing, in turn, " each clerk or other non-specialised ' employee who. went away on the brief holi* day not considered necessary for the boy. * I "Pshaw ! He likes it, au'd it won't hurt .him f I worked harder at his age, and I haven't stopped yet, and few mere of my age are more healthy! Besides, he's iloiv^ !" . / " , This was the * incredulous, obstinate-re-sponse that -.met the remonstrances of ; the anxious mother, and the boy, upheld '• by*' pi-ide and his father's- praises, strove willingly on until time for the resumption of his school duties. £ H.ere wjere two grave : economic blunders. 'The work, if requiring-, the sen-ices of men pVa rule, should aiot^ have been "eaivie<i,'' even during ilxxs "light" season^ by . a growing boy. U performed by boy ,at ;ijl a boy xvally 1 : needing the weekly pittance should have/ been chosen. As it , v/asj the haul-l;ook,r over which the proud fatljpr* gloat-'--? 'atiff chuckled with his friends was small, jgon^, solation to the jaded boy,' who presently^' found himself unwontedlv ' helpless when confronted by his ordinary class work, nor*' to the troubled teacher who must inboriously "pull up to grade" ths tired . brain that, revolting • from tasks for which ft "had been quite unfitted by the summer's unsuitable effort, was no longer ."doing fine." , .- • — Premature Work is Overlooked. — The theory that "a boy is better ab work than idle and getting into mischief" may contain some truth— espocially for the parents; but it is at best a dangerous doctrine, scarcely to be encouraged. The growing |x»y doing full school work lias small chance' of» much idle time, unless marked by the speciously brilliant - mentality that facilitates the absorption of surface knowledge. In such case he should. 1 "be especially guarded from the danger- off- 1 overwork in any direction, while durixig vacation season idleness — as meaning total release from . accustomed duties— is urgently- needed. , Extra work almost inevitably means a regrettable/ though perhaps imperceptible, decrease of the 'reserve vitality, a corresponding decrease in th© probable good work of the future. The boy may not at once grow^thin, nervous, or ill-tempered, but he will none the less pay the penalty sooner or later of the^still