Publication (Volume 2) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1905. Excerpt: ... Let us publish the revised version of the offerings dedicated to our modern temple of industrial prosperity, and as we sit over against the treasury and see the great and the wealthy cast in their stocks and gold and machinery, let us not fail to see the poor widow who comes, misguided it may be by the industrial superstitions of her day, and casts her two little children into the roaring temple of industry. As they fall, fall beyond recovery, well may we exclaim, as did the Master at that other temple, "I tell you she has cast in more than they all, for they of their abundance have cast in, but she of her want hath cast in all that she had, even her very life " Proper and systematic methods of relief will prevent the loss of a child's future value to society for the sake of the paltry ninety-three cents a week, the wages actually found to be paid to young children to-day in some of our prosperous northern mills. Another excuse is that expressed by one glass manufacturer who affirms that he employs young children partly for the purpose of teaching them a trade. The establishment of public trade schools will take away this excuse and will furnish a constructive program of the largest possibilities. The best way to make legislation effective is through the children themselves. They want to go to work. They prefer the factory to the school. There is a sense of personal independence in the young child who can look upon himself as an economic factor in the life of the family. We must so develop our educational system, not through detention schools, not through penal institutions; but through the regular public channels of education, as to feed this practical instinct and cause the child to feel that the training he receives is practical, that he is really gaining that which will advance ...