The other, the last thing of all, that I wish to mention is the matter of children. Long ere this our children should have been freed from work of any kind. In a civilised nation a child’s playtime ought to be its best time. The driving of children to work half-time in mills and factories is acknowledged by all thinking persons as a great social evil. I suppose all my readers will have heard that the Bantam Battalions are mainly recruited from Lancashire, where women work in the factories and children work half-time. There must be some connection between the low standard of physique and conditions of child life. We must abolish the half-time system and tell the capitalists, and those who support the system, that any business which depends on the robbery of our children’s birthright is not worth preserving. We must insist that the age for leaving school shall be raised to sixteen, and that from sixteen to eighteen every child shall be trained for such work as he or she appears most fitted for, whether it be hand or brain work. What this will cost we need not stop to consider. The war has demonstrated our ability to raise and spend money for destruction; we must not be put off by any thought as to the money-cost of construction. The one chief thing to do is to insist that children shall not be used as machines for mere money-making, but shall be taken out of the competitive labour market, where so very often they are used to bring down the standard of life and destroy not only their own future but the whole standard of living for their parents.