h cost him so
dear. It is only his ignorance which makes him remain inert until each
victim of the white slave traffic shall be avenged unto the third and
fourth generation of them that bought her. It is quite possible that the
tax-payer will himself contend that, as the state does not legalize a
marriage without a license officially recorded, that the status of
children may be clearly defined, so the state would need to go but one
step further in the same direction, to insist upon health certificates
from the applicant for a marriage license, that the health of future
children might in a certain measure, be guaranteed. Whether or not this
step may be predicted, the mere discussion of this matter in itself, is
an indication of the changing public opinion, as is the fact that such
legislation has already been enacted in two states, which are only now
putting into action the recommendation made centuries ago by such social
philosophers as Plato and Sir Thomas More. A sense of justice outraged
by the wanton destruction of new-born children, may in time unite with
that ardent tide of rising enthusiasm for the nurture of the young,
until the old barriers of silence and inaction, behind which the social
evil has so long intrenched itself, shall at last give way.

Certainly it will soon be found that the sentiment of pity, so recently
aroused throughout the country on behalf of the victims of the white
slave traffic, will be totally unable to afford them protection unless
it becomes incorporated in government. It is possible that we are on the
eve of a series of legislative enactments similar to those which
resulted from the attempts to regulate child labor. Through the entire
course of the last century, in that anticipation of coming changes which
does so much to bring changes about, the friends of the children were
steadily engaged in making a new state, from the first child labor law
passed in the English parliament in 1803 to the final passage of the
so-called children's charter in 1909. During the long century of
transforming pity into political action there was created that social
sympathy which has become one of the greatest forces in modern
legislation, and to which we may confidently appeal in this new crusade
against the social evil.

Another point of similarity to the child labor movement is obvious, for
the friends of the children early found that they needed much
statistical information and that the great problem