til it is
able to protect childhood from criminal exploitation, until it has made
possible a reasonable hope of life, liberty and growth for American
children, it should likewise recognize the wisdom of voluntary
restriction in the production of children.

Reports on child labor published by the National Child Labor Committee
only incidentally reveal the correlation of this evil with that of large
families. Yet this is evident throughout. The investigators are more
bent upon regarding child labor as a cause of illiteracy.

But it is no less a consequence of irresponsibility in breeding. A
sinister aspect of this is revealed by Theresa Wolfson's study of
child-labor in the beet-fields of Michigan.(2) As one weeder put it:
"Poor man make no money, make plenty children--plenty children good for
sugar-beet business." Further illuminating details are given by Miss
Wolfson:

"Why did they come to the beet-fields? Most frequently families with
large numbers of children said that they felt that the city was no place
to raise children--things too expensive and children ran wild--in the
country all the children could work." Living conditions are abominable
and unspeakably wretched. An old woodshed, a long-abandoned barn, and
occasionally a tottering, ramshackle farmer's house are the common
types. "One family of eleven, the youngest child two years, the oldest
sixteen years, lived in an old country store which had but one window;
the wind and rain came through the holes in the walls, the ceiling was
very low and the smoke from the stove filled the room. Here the family
ate, slept, cooked and washed."

"In Tuscola County a family of six was found living in a one-room shack
with no windows. Light and ventilation was secured through the open
doors. Little Charles, eight years of age, was left at home to take
care of Dan, Annie and Pete, whose ages were five years, four years, and
three months, respectively. In addition, he cooked the noonday meal and
brought it to his parents in the field. The filth and choking odors of
the shack made it almost unbearable, yet the baby was sleeping in a heap
of rags piled up in a corner."

Social philosophers of a certain school advocate the return to the
land--it is only in the overcrowded city, they claim, that the evils
resulting from the large family are possible. There is, according to
this philosophy, no overcrowding, no over-population in the country,
where in the open air and sunlight