52
SEX IN INDUSTRY.
difference in sex, whether in mental or physical labor; has not defined with precision in the law itself, what shall be the interpretation of “ knowingly employ ; ” and has not made definite provision for its rigorous enforcement in every city and town in the Commonwealth. Not that the law is fully adequate to meet the evils pointed out, but that it would, if rightly enforced, go a long way toward the remedy of those evils. While the original error of the law is in admitting to employ at all, in such establishments, girls of such ages, and, as a rule, boys even, and while the change to school occupations — though an undoubted advantage over the hard grind of the factory or even shop life — is but a stepping from one form of concentrated effort to another, even the provisions that do exist in law would lessen, by much, the existing ills if duly recognized or enforced.
It is the disregard manifested for the future physical, mental, and moral condition of these important factors in the upbuilding