(3) Cf. U. S. Department of Labor. Children's Bureau:
Infant Mortality
Series, No. 11. p. 36.

(4) Havelock Ellis, Sex in Relation to Society, p. 31.



CHAPTER III: "Children Troop Down From Heaven...."

Failure of emotional, sentimental and so-called idealistic efforts,
based on hysterical enthusiasm, to improve social conditions, is nowhere
better exemplified than in the undervaluation of child-life. A few years
ago, the scandal of children under fourteen working in cotton mills was
exposed. There was muckraking and agitation. A wave of moral indignation
swept over America. There arose a loud cry for immediate action. Then,
having more or less successfully settled this particular matter, the
American people heaved a sigh of relief, settled back, and complacently
congratulated itself that the problem of child labor had been settled
once and for all.

Conditions are worse to-day than before. Not only is there child labor
in practically every State in the Union, but we are now forced to
realize the evils that result from child labor, of child laborers
now grown into manhood and womanhood. But we wish here to point out a
neglected aspect of this problem. Child labor shows us how cheaply we
value childhood. And moreover, it shows us that cheap childhood is the
inevitable result of chance parenthood. Child labor is organically bound
up with the problem of uncontrolled breeding and the large family.