20
SEX IN INDUSTRY.
So far as purely economic and material interests are concerned, it also appears, that if, by the indiscretions of educational methods, the young female sacrifices life or health, the loss, though great, is hut that, so far as the state is concerned, of an unproductive unit, and its capacities for increase. If, however, the working-girl is destroyed by her labors, the commonwealth loses both herself as a present integer in the maintenance of society, and her creative possibilities and powers for the future of the race. The student was as yet, in the strict sense, a burden upon the community: the worker was a productive and helpful member of it. The one may have given promise of a life of usefulness: the other had begun it. If an account current, on a purely economic basis, were to be opened between society and these two girls, the student would stand debited with continual outgo, and with nothing to her credit in return: the worker’s page would exhibit the cost of maintenance and development to the point when her earning