V CHILD LABOR 97 



should feed them and look after them and 

 that was the only "way out of it. 



I am opposed to child-labor; I am op- 

 posed to the slum conditions in which chil- 

 dren of laboring classes often are raised 

 in our cities, towns, mining camps, and in 

 cabins and tenement houses throughout our 

 rural territory. What is the reason for 

 slum conditions in cities, town and coun- 

 try? The cause is due to the inherent nature 

 of the parents. They are content with mean 

 surroundings ; they are willing to have their 

 children grow up in the filth and noise of 

 the city. They little care, even if they are 

 hungry and naked. They are indifferent 

 to factory exactions, so long as the child can 

 earn money for beer or whiskey. 



There were assembled in a poorhouse of 

 New York State, some years ago, the in- 

 mates, for inspection by a party of field 

 workers led by a great scientist. Inmates 

 were examined whose ancestors for four 

 generations had been cared for in this same 

 institution. 



