CHAPTER XXVI 



OVERWORK FOR CHILDREN ONE HUNDRED 

 YEARS AGO AND NOW 



In England one hundred years ago certain groups of 

 children were living under appalling conditions. Cotton mills 

 had been established, and the small fingers of little children 

 were large enough to move this rod here, that rod there ; to 

 tie broken threads ; to attend to the looms and the flying 

 shuttles. They could indeed do part of the work quite as 

 well as older people with stiffer fingers. So the children 

 were in the mills, not because they liked it, not because their 

 parents wished it, but because there was so little money in the 

 family that even the youngest member of it had to earn what 

 he could. Hunger and misery had joined hands. They had 

 forced the children into the factories and the mills. 



The ages of these children ranged from five to fifteen years, 

 and even in the best of the places the youngest workers 

 were kept busy from six in the morning until seven at night. 

 They were supposed to do their studying (if they did any) in 

 the evening after working hours were over. No one gave 

 attention to the fact that minds cannot work when bodies 

 are overtired. 



But this was not the worst. There were still pauper chil- 

 dren from the workhouse. Mill owners wished all the cheap 

 service they could get. At the same time the managers of 

 the poorhouse were only too glad to rid themselves of depend- 

 ent children, regardless of consequences. So it came about 



189 



