Portrait Gallery

Child Labor

About People

A great deal has been said about child labor: much more needs to be said as long as children drudge to live. But no one has ever penned a more forceful indictment against child labor than did Charlotte Perkins Gilman in these words: “No fledgling feeds the bird, no father chicken feeds the hen, no kitten mouses for the cat, this glory is for men. We are the wisest, strongest race, long may our praise be sung, the only animal alive that lives upon its young.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, About People, The Day Book, Chicago, Ill., Vol. 1, No. 121, February 15, 1912, Page 20. (PDF)

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