Children of the Poor

[The following eloquent plea for “The Children of the Poor” is a worthy statement of the position of the Socialist Party as the defender of outraged childhood. The evils of poverty bear most heavily upon the children. The years of infancy are, physically, the most important years of life. Lack of adequate care and nourishment in these years means physical weakness and failure in later life. No single fact in the Socialist indictment of capitalism is more terrible than the excessive mortality among children of the working class. In Boston, for example, the death-rate of babies of the poor is nearly two and a half times the death rate of the babies of the rich. At least 100,000 babies thus needlessly perish each year in the United States. The children of the working class are driven to body and soul destroying toil in factories, workshops and mines in order that the children of the rich parasites may play and enjoy the opportunities which a decent society would accord to every child born into the world.]