“The objection that is offered most frequently, and perhaps with most effect, to further restriction of child labor, is the _alleged fact_ that in a great many instances the _earnings of these little children are needed to supplement the incomes of widows_, of families in which the husband and wage-earner may be either temporarily or permanently or partially disabled, and that without the small addition which the earnings of these little boys and girls can bring in, there would be suffering and distress. It would be easy, I think, to overestimate the extent to which that is true.... So we should not admit that that side is more serious than it is, but do let us cheerfully, frankly, gladly add that there would be many cases in which the proposed legislation (for the restriction of child labor) would deprive many families of earnings from their children, and that _we propose ourselves to step into the breach and provide that relief in good hard cash that passes in the market_.... If larger means are necessary to support these children so that they need not depend on their own labor, by all means let us put up the money and not push the children for a part of their support before the time when they should naturally furnish a part of their support.... In the long run it is never cheap to be cruel or hard. _It is never wise to drive a hard bargain with childhood._”—Extract from an address by Homer Folks, Commissioner of Charities, New York. NOTES AND AUTHORITIES I. THE BLIGHTING OF THE BABIES Footnote 1: The Theory and Practice of Infant Feeding, by Henry Dwight Chapin, A.M., M.D. Footnote 2: Registrar General’s Report, 1886, pp. 32–126. Footnote 3: Population Française, Levasseur, vol. ii, p. 403. Footnote 4: Tenement Conditions in Chicago, by Robert Hunter, pp. 154–157. Footnote 5: Poverty, by Robert Hunter, p. 144. Footnote 6: The Diseases of Children, by Henry Ashby, M.D., Lond., and G. A. Wright, B.A., M.B., Oxon., p. 12. Footnote 7: Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1882, p. 388. Footnote 8: Mulhall’s Dictionary of Statistics, p. 133. Footnote 9: Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration. Evidence. Footnote 10: _Idem._ Evidence of Dr. Eichholz and Others. Footnote 11: Parliamentary Paper [Cd. 1501] containing a Memorandum by Sir William Taylor, the Director-General, Army Medical Service. See also a letter to the _London Times_, February 2, 1903, by General F. Maurice. Footnote 12: Tenement Conditions in Chicago, p. 157. Footnote 13: Information received from the Commissioner of Health. Footnote 14: Trans. Nat. Ass’n for the Promotion of Social Science, 1882, p. 387. Footnote 15: The Nutrition of the Infant, by Ralph M. Vincent, M.D., p. 246. Footnote 16: Diseases of Children, Ashby and Wright, p. 228. Footnote 17: _Idem._, pp. 44–45.