Radical Solution of the Problem.—A radical solution of this problem is to be expected only from an increase in the wages of the adult male workers. Not until the earnings of the father of the family suffice to provide adequately for all the needs of the family, will it become unnecessary for mother and children to work for wages. It is a fact of general experience that those workmen who earn adequate wages do not let their wives and children go out to work; and also that in the case of men occupied in the so-called seasonal trades, it is only during the husbands’ slack season that the wives and children contribute by their earnings to the family income (for instance, the wives and children of bricklayers go out to work during the winter only). If women and children did not undertake wage-labour, the supply of labour in general would be much smaller, and as a result of this the wages of the adult male workers would necessarily rise. It is most probable that in course of time the adult male workers will succeed in obtaining considerably higher wages than they receive on the average to-day. Wage-labour on the part of women and children will then for the most part cease, and this will result in yet further increase in the wages of the men. The adult male workers should not lose sight of the fact that by allowing their wives and children to work for wages they merely succeed in making their own condition worse. For a short time after the wives and children first begin to work there may, indeed, be an increase in the family income; but the ultimate result is to make life harder, not merely for themselves, but for other workmen in general. If, on the other hand, they do not allow their wives and children to engage in wage-labour, they may sometimes suffer for the moment, by a temporary diminution in income; but they enter upon a path which cannot fail ultimately to lead to benefit both for their own family and for the other workers.
The Tendency of Evolution.—The tendency of evolution is towards the disappearance of child-labour. It is statistically proved that the larger any industrial undertaking, the smaller proportionately is the number of children employed in that undertaking. But the tendency of evolution is unquestionably in the direction of the development of gigantic commercial enterprises through the absorption or competitive destruction of a much larger number of comparatively small enterprises. In the future we shall attain a condition in which no one will be allowed to undertake work of any kind which is injurious either to himself or to his offspring in any way whatever. Much of the work of women and children for wages such as goes on to-day will unquestionably be prohibited. No doubt, wage work for women will exist in the future, and some of it perhaps will be more intensive even than to-day; but, unquestionably, whatever wage work women do will be in a form which can do no harm to the present or to future generations. Children will be properly educated, and until the years of their education are finished will engage in such work only as is educative in its influence and character. Technical manual instruction will be one of the principal methods of education. As co-operative housekeeping spreads, women will have much less domestic work to do than at present. In this department of work also, the principle of the division of labour will be applied, and the individual details of the domestic economy of to-day will then be entrusted to the hands of professional specialists. Adult women will engage in much the same sort of work as men, with the exception of those occupations which experience shows to be injurious, for sexual reasons, either to themselves or to their offspring. In the regulation of women’s work, consideration will of course have to be paid to the physiological disturbances which periodically recur in women.
[CHAPTER V]
THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST DISEASE
Introductory.—The objects of this department of child-protection are, first, to prevent the child becoming ill; secondly, if it has become ill, to cure it. The hygiene of childhood deals with the former question, and pediatrics with the latter. In this chapter we shall consider those problems only which concern the health of children of the poorer classes.
The Health of Proletarian Children.—Owing to the lesser resisting power of children, the factors of ill-health operate much more powerfully in the case of youthful than in the case of adult proletarians. But other factors are in operation in addition to this inferior power of resistance. Unfavourable conditions act upon proletarian women during pregnancy, and affect proletarian children at the time of birth. The circumstance which more than all others is injurious to the health of these children, and which contributes to produce the result that a larger percentage of working-class than of upper-class children are feeble-minded, is quantitative and qualitative insufficiency of nutriment. Studies of the relationship between the prices of food-stuffs and the average working-class income have shown that the majority of working men have an income too small to provide for themselves and their children the minimum quantity of nutritive materials (of the proper quality) which physiological science has proved to be indispensable to the daily renewal of the bodily forces. Statistical data prove beyond question that the height and the body-weight of proletarian children are less than those of children of the well-to-do. Rickets is principally a disease of children of the poorer classes. Among upper-class children the severer forms of this disease is hardly ever seen. Rickets arises chiefly as a sequel of digestive disturbances; and these, in their turn, are referable to the deficiencies of artificial feeding. Among the poor we find many more blind children and many more deaf mutes than among the rich, the reason being that among the poor, in so many instances, when the defect is first noticed, no attempt is made to seek medical advice. According to trustworthy statistical data, 95 per cent. of the occupants of blind asylums belong to the poorer classes.
Causes of the Movement for the Protection of Proletarian Children.—To-day great stress is laid upon attention to the health not only of the general population, but in especial to the health of children. During the nineteenth century the view became general that in the interests of the health of the children, society ought to be prepared to make any sacrifices. In the domain of social hygiene—that is, of the science which occupies the borderland between the science of public health and the science of sociology—neither the men of theory nor the men of practice can venture to adopt a one-sided class outlook. During recent years, upon the groundwork of these sound conceptions, a number of new institutions have been founded, by means of which the general condition of public health and the hygiene of childhood (including that of proletarian childhood) have been considerably improved. In many directions the advances in medical science tend to counteract with success the disorders consequent upon the development of capitalism. The technique of artificial feeding has been greatly improved, and this has led to a reduction in infantile mortality; ophthalmia of the new-born can now be efficiently prevented, and this has led to a decrease in the number of blind persons.
To the upper classes of society the health of the lower classes is of importance for two reasons—(a) the former have need of the working powers of the latter, and in bad hygienic conditions these working powers are impaired; (b) if the health of the lower classes is neglected, it is not these classes alone which suffer, but the rich suffer as well. For example, the well-to-do are endangered when nothing is done to check the spread of infectious diseases among the poor, and when poor persons attacked by these diseases are left without proper treatment. If the health of poor children be neglected, the results are extremely serious, not for these children alone, but for the children of the well-to-do and for adults.
Institutions.—Institutions are of great importance. A larger proportion of the children of the poor than of the children of the well-to-do are dealt with in institutions, for well-to-do parents live in commodious houses, in which their children can be properly cared for, they are able to summon the doctor whenever necessary, and so on. The most important institutions in this connection are hospitals for infants and young children. Children’s hospitals are not as yet very numerous; hospitals for infants are still fewer. The majority of these institutions are maintained, not by the State or by the local authority, but by the community at large. It is owing to the fact that children’s and infants’ hospitals are so few in number that medical practitioners are so inadequately trained in respect of the hygiene of childhood and pediatrics, and in especial in the hygiene and therapy of infant life. The need for such hospitals is not satisfied by the foundation of children’s clinics. A combination of hospitals for infants with lying-in hospitals or foundling hospitals is unquestionably along the proper course of development.