=The Unfinished Task.= When the Federal Child Labor Law was passed which prohibited the shipping of any goods in interstate commerce that had been manufactured by child labor, a great many people foolishly thought that the last trench was taken and the final victory won in behalf of the children. Now that this law has been declared unconstitutional we will have to begin the fight for its reenactment in terms that will be in accord with the constitution of the United States. This law was a great advance over anything we have ever had before. While it held, it released thousands of children from toil, but there were still employed in small towns, in villages, and in the rural communities boys and girls in domestic service, as bootblacks, as newsboys, as messenger boys, and at work in stores and local shops. According to the last census in the United States, 1,990,225 children under fifteen years of age are at work at some gainful occupation and 895,976 of these children are thirteen or under. Advanced legislation has been taken in most of the states, but as the standards of such legislation rise in the different states it becomes clear that with the reenactment of the child labor law further steps must be taken for the protection of children against exploitation. For instance, the child labor law can be administered effectively and for the best good of the child only in connection with compulsory education laws. It is futile, and dangerous as well, to take the children out of the mills and leave them in idleness upon the streets. Higher and better health standards must be raised and safeguards thrown about the home and school life of the children. Owen Lovejoy says, “The physical development of children securing employment is quite as important as their age.” [Illustration: Photo from National Child Labor Committee. We have thousands of children in America doing work which they ought not to do.]