I had been struggling with the problem of child-labor in
some East Side factories, and was not making any headway. The children
had certificates, one and all, declaring them to be "fourteen," and
therefore fit to be employed. It was perfectly evident that they
were not ten in scores of cases, but the employer shrugged his
shoulders and pointed to the certificate. The father, usually a
tailor, would not listen at all, but went right on ironing. There
was no birth registry to fall back on; that end of it was neglected.
There seemed to be no way of proving the fact, yet the fact was
there and must be proven. My own children were teething at the time,
and it gave me an idea. I got Dr. Tracy to write out that table
for me, showing at what age the dog-teeth should appear, when the
molars, etc. Armed with that I went into the factories and pried
open the little workers' mouths. The girls objected: their teeth
were quite generally bad; but I saw enough to enable me to speak
positively. Even allowing for the backwardness of the slum, it
was clear that a child that had not yet grown its dog-teeth was not
"fourteen," for they should have been cut at twelve at the latest.
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