nsist also that children shall not be deprived of education, but
there is often inadequate provision made for inspection and proper
enforcement of laws.

The friends of the children are desirous of a uniform child-labor law
which, if adopted and enforced by competent inspectors, would prevent
factory work for all under fourteen years of age, and for weak
children under sixteen would prescribe a limited number of hours and
allow no night-work, would require certain certificates of age and
health before employment is given, and would compel school attendance
and the attainment of a limited education before permission is granted
to go into the factory. Without doubt, it is a hardship to families in
poverty that strong, growing children should not be permitted to go to
work and help support those in need, but it is better for the social
body to take care of its weak members in some other way, and for its
own sake, as well as for the sake of the child, to make sure that he
is physically and mentally equipped before he takes a regular place in
the ranks of the wage-earners.

57. =The Right to Play.=--The play group is the first social
training-ground for the child outside of the home, and it continues to
be a desirable form of association, even into adult life, but it is
only in recent years that adults have recognized the legitimacy of
such a claim as the right to play. It was thought desirable that a boy
should work off his restlessness, but the wood-pile provided the usual
safety-valve for surplus energy. Play was a waste of time. Now it is
more clearly understood that play has a distinct value. It is
physically beneficial, expanding the lungs, strengthening muscle and
nerve, and giving poise and elasticity to the whole body. It is
mentally educational in developing qualities of quickness, skill, and
leadership. It is socially valuable, for it requires honesty, fair
play, mutual consideration, and self-control. Co-operation of effort
is developed as well in team-play as in team-work, and the child
becomes accustomed to act with thought of the group. The play group is
a temporary form of association, varying in size and content as the
whim of the child or the attraction of the moment moves its members.
It is an example of primitive groupings swayed by instinctive
impulses. Children turn quickly from one game to another, but for the
time are absorbed in the particular play that is going on. No
achievement results from the