All the evil effects of street work upon children observed by students of the problem have been here divided into three groups, under the headings of physical, moral, and material deterioration. It must be understood that this is a summary of such effects and that while the influences of the street are unquestionably bad, any one child exposed to them is not likely to suffer to the full extent suggested below. However, deterioration in one form or another is invariably noted in children who have been engaged in street work for any length of time, and this is sufficient proof of the undesirability of such employment for our boys and girls. EFFECTS OF STREET WORK ON CHILDREN Material { Form distaste for regular employment. Deterioration { Small chance of acquiring a trade. { Drift into large class of casual workers. { Night work. { Excessive fatigue. { Exposure to bad weather. Physical { Irregularity of sleep and meals. Deterioration { Use of stimulants--cigarettes, coffee, liquor. { Disease through contact with vices. { Encouragement to truancy. { Independence and defiance of parental control. Moral { Weakness cultivated by formation of bad habits. Deterioration { Form liking for petty excitements of street. { Opportunities to become delinquent. { Large percentage of recruits to criminal population. These are the insidious influences permeating street work and rampant in all our cities. They are minimized and even denied by certain ignorant or interested parties who base their assertions upon the fact that prominent men of to-day were once newsboys or bootblacks, and therefore jump to the conclusion that their success is due to the training received in this way when young. The truth is more likely to be that such individuals have succeeded, not because of this early training, but in spite of it. Boys of exceptionally strong character will force themselves out of such an environment unscathed, but the great majority of children have not sufficient mental and moral stamina to withstand these influences. The minority will take care of itself under any circumstances,--it is with the weaker majority that we must deal. The problem is an urgent one, but generally ignored, for, as Myron E. Adams says, the public sees the street worker at his best and neglects him at his worst. The charge that in street work a child has small chance of acquiring a suitable trade is one of the worst counts in the indictment. Street work leads to nothing else; the various occupations are so many industrial pitfalls, and the children who get into them must sooner or later struggle out and begin over again at some other line of work, if they would succeed.