have more children and probably will, since the children soon become to some extent an asset rather than a liability. Child labor thus leads to a higher birth-rate of this class, abolition of child labor would lead to a lower birth-rate, since the parents could no longer afford to have so many
Karl Pearson has found reason to believe that this result can be statistically traced in the birth-rate of English working people,—that a considerable decline in their fecundity, due to voluntary restriction, began after the passage of each of the laws which restricted child labor and made children an expense from which no return could be expected.
If the abolition of child labor leads to the production of fewer children in a certain section of the population the value of the result to society, in this phase, will depend on whether or not society wants that strain proportionately increased. If