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173 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM
children bolow tho school age. It is very desirable that
momeu who hnve no such domestic duties should have the
freest posvibls access to employment ; but where infants and
very young children arc in the case, the 8altispopu.li leads to a
totully different view. There aro no duties which are more
importnnt in every respect than those which a mother is bound
by with regard to hor young children. Tho very beasts of the
field tend and guard their whelps with instinctive affection. It
is only hurnan mothers which shut their infants up alone, or
systernnticnlly neglect to give them nourishmerlt.
It must bo evident, too, that the facility with which a
young n~arricd woman cart now set her children aside, and go
to earn good wnges in tho mills, forms tho strongest possible
incentive to improvident nnd wrongful marriages. There are
many stntclncnts in tho Reports of the factory inspectors to
thf3 affect that dissolute men allure capablo young women into
mnrriago with tho idea that the wives can earn wages, and
enable their husbnnds to idle away their time. Taking into
account tho practical infanticide which follows, it would be
impossible to imagine a more unsound, or, it may le said, a
more atrocious, stato of affairs.
It seems impossible, then, not to concede that the employment
of child-bearing women leads to great abuses; and
when these abuses reach n certain point, they may become all
that is needed to warrant legislation. As to the exact form
which such legislation should take, inquiry, if not esperiment,
must guido 11s. Tho lam of Switzerland and some foreign
countries, even if it could be carried out in our populous
t,owns, seems to be inadequate. Probably it would bo me11
to impose restrictions and penalties upon the negligent
treatment of infants, without waiting until the case ripens
for the coronerJa court. It ought to be a punishable offence
to shut very young children up in B house done, or otherwise
to abandon them for any considerable length of time, except,
of course, under the pressure of emergency. But I go so
far w to advocate the ultimate complete exclusion of mothers
of children under the age of three years fro?. factories and
workshops.