The objection has been raised that such legal provisions as have been suggested would be directed principally against the lower classes, that they would often lead to the unjust infliction of punishment, that no one can be compelled to love another, and that it would be difficult to determine the precise point at which the proper limits of parental authority had been exceeded. But all these objections are invalid, if only the gross cases that have been mentioned are made punishable, and provided that wherever necessary the child is removed from the care of the offender.
With regard to (b), it is altogether disproportionate that the most trifling bodily injury to a child should be legally punishable through the instrumentality of the criminal courts, whilst one who inflicts a far more severe injury upon a child by forcing it to perform excessive and unsuitable work is liable to nothing more effectual than a reprimand on the part of the local authority. The local authority is seldom in an independent position, but is commonly subject to the influence of large employers of labour. The maximum punishment which can be inflicted for a breach of the laws regulating child-labour is so trifling, that the risk of this punishment is far more than counterbalanced by the profits the employer can make by the illegal exploitation of child-labour—especially when the fact is borne in mind that not one instance in ten of a breach of these laws is ever the subject of a prosecution. The gross injustices and miseries which occur daily and everywhere from the improper exploitation of child-labour will not disappear until the punishments inflicted are such as the employers will seriously fear to incur, and which they will be unable to avoid. The employer laughs at a fine, for he pays it out of his surplus profits; but he will think twice before incurring the risk of imprisonment.
With regard to (d), since alcohol affects children more powerfully than it affects adults, it is necessary that it should be a legally punishable offence to expose children to the dangerous influences of this intoxicant.
With regard to (e), for the young, the use of tobacco is hardly less harmful than the use of alcohol.
With regard to (f), it sometimes happens that the parents fail to take the steps absolutely essential to the preservation of the child’s health, and in this way the public health may be seriously endangered.
The proposals mentioned under these last three headings, (d), (e), and (f), are as yet hardly realised anywhere; but there are good grounds for hoping that they will soon be adopted in more countries than one.