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.

The selective draft of 1917--which was designed to choose for military
service only those fulfiling definite requirements of physical
and mental fitness--showed some of the results of child labor. It
established the fact that the majority of American children never got
beyond the sixth grade, because they were forced to leave school at that
time. Our over-advertised compulsory education does not compel--and does
not educate. The selective-draft, it is our duty to emphasize this fact,
revealed that 38 per cent. of the young men (more than a million) were
rejected because of physical ill-health and defects. And 25 per cent.
were illiterate.

These young men were the children of yesterday. Authorities tell us that
75 per cent. of the school-children are defective. This means that
no less than fifteen million schoolchildren, out of 22,000,000 in the
United States, are physically or mentally below par.

This is the soil in which all sorts of serious evils strike root. It is
a truism that children are the chief asset of a nation. Yet while the
United States government allotted 92.8 per cent. of its appropriations
for 1920 toward war expenses, three per cent. to public works, 3.2 per
cent. to "primary governmental functions," no more than one per cent.
is appropriated to education, research and development. Of this one
per cent., only a small proportion is devoted to public health. The
conservation of childhood is a minor consideration. While three cents
is spent for the more or less doubtful protection of women and
children, fifty cents is given to the Bureau of Animal Industry, for
the protection of domestic animals. In 1919, the State of Kansas
appropriated $25,000 to protect the health of pigs, and $4,000 to
protect the health of children. In four years our Federal Government
appropriated--roughly speaking--$81,000,000 for the improvement
of rivers; $13,000,000 for forest conservation; $8,000,000 for the
experimental plant industry; $7,000,000 for the experimental animal
industry; $4,000,000 to combat the foot and mouth disease; and less than
half a million for the protection of child life.

Competent authorities tel