Idleness Worse than Labor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 25, 1910

Idleness Worse than Labor

The principal of a Chicago public school expresses the opinion that the agitation against child labor—taking “child” to mean a person of any age up to 14 or 16—should be more discriminative. He says:

“Four hours of school and four of work alternating will make every child self-sustaining after the age of 10 years. Society and the law have prevented the boy from getting work that really is work. Every child ought to work every day of his life. He is born into a world which requires work, and he ought not to be permitted to form habits of idleness and shirking. Child idleness is worse than child labor.”—Detroit News Tribune.