In a mountain-side quarry in Huazhou, many men, women, young and old were scattered everywhere, smashing stones with hammers. The young and strong swung big hammers to smash stones the size of wine jars, and women and children held small hammers to smash stones the size of fists.

The broken stones are placed in a basket and handed to the foreman. The money can be calculated by weight. This kind of work is not difficult and is also a "piece-based" one. Although the wages are meager, it is always a job to make money. Therefore, villagers in nearby villages take their families to the quarry to smash stones when they have time.

Yuwen Wen, dressed in casual clothes, inspected the quarry accompanied by casual guards. He looked at two small figures not far away and had to stop.

This is a young brother, who is about eight or nine years old, and his younger brother is about five or six years old. He has a dish-colored face. He is wearing straw sandals and patched clothes. He squats on the ground, smashes stones with a small hammer, and a basket is placed next to it.

When smashing a stone the size of a fist, in order to prevent the stone from being smashed when the hammer is hit, long objects need to be circled, then put the stone in the middle of the belt circle and smashed with a hammer.

Like many others, the siblings used straw circles, dirty hands and feet, and thin figures, which made people feel sad when they saw it.

Yuwen Wen knew that he was not a god, and he could not let the people of the world live a good life in just twenty years, and could not let everyone have enough food. He wore socks and cloth shoes, changed into new clothes every ten days, and had a meal of meat every month.

In Huazhou in Guanzhong, there are a lot of people with short living conditions. In order to earn a meager salary, they find ways to work and earn money. This includes going to a quarry to smash stones. Then, the living standards of ordinary people in other places can be imagined.

It's probably just a matter of food and clothing.

The prosperous Chang'an, Luoyang, Yecheng, Jinyang and other metropolises are the face of the court and the bright and beautiful fur. The steamships that blew thick smoke in the rivers and the trains that rush by the railway are shocking and wonderful scenes.

However, there are still many people who cannot eat enough for two meals a day, so it is difficult for a family to change into new clothes a year.

It is not an exaggeration to say that it is because of the smell of wine and meat in the rich, and it is not an exaggeration to have frozen bones on the road.

Therefore, Yuwen Wen often reminds himself not to immerse himself in the so-called "prosperous age", so that he is so proud, feels good about himself, and forgets his true intentions: no matter what, he must make as much benefit as possible from social development.

Yuwen Wen moved his gaze away from the brothers and looked around.

Many thin figures swaying in the quarry. These are children who make money by smashing stones at the quarry. They can be said to be disguised child labor.

In later generations, hiring child labor was illegal and employers would be condemned by public opinion.

Yuwen Wen coughed dryly and turned his gaze to a running steam crusher in a corner of the quarry.

This is a new jaw crusher, which consists of two jaw plates, dynamic jaw and static jaw, simulates the movement of the two jaws of animals and "bite and chew" the large stones put into the machine. The efficiency of gravel is much higher than that of human gravel.

The quarry where Yuwen Wen is located supplies a large amount of gravel for the under construction of Guanzhong Railway. Because the railway subgrade requires a large amount of gravel, there is a great demand for gravel. A quarry with a steam jaw crusher can only meet this huge demand.

In terms of production efficiency, quarries that use mechanical gravel have the highest output, but the government has deliberately limited the number of jaw crushers in each quarry along the line, so that the quarries have to hire people to crush the stone.

As much as possible, the construction of Guanzhong Railway will create more "employment opportunities" and give people the opportunity to be hired. It is better to sell labor for wages even if the wages are meager than not.

Therefore, advanced machinery needs to be used, but it cannot completely replace manpower.

Taking the opportunity of building railways, more people can make profits from it. Even if the "profit" is just a meager salary, it will be better than it is. This is Yuwen Wen's idea and decision.

Although there are many children among the people who smash stones in various quarries, namely child labor, which seems a bit sad, but it is okay to use child labor, which is not very dangerous for crushing stones.

As for industries with poor working conditions such as mines, the government explicitly prohibits the use of child labor. Regardless of the actual implementation, at least the attitude is very clear.

Yuwen Wen will not pretend to shout slogans for the sake of moral integrity, but will not solve practical problems.

This kind of behavior that only looks at morality and ignores reality will only do bad things with good intentions.

He read the report "then" that sweatshops in a South Asian country hired a large number of boys and girls' laborers. These child laborers worked more than ten hours a day and six and a half days a week in workplaces with no safety measures and extremely harsh conditions, but their wages were very small.

Countless child laborers were destroyed by sweatshops, many of whom were even five or six years old. These children failed to enjoy a wonderful childhood, but had to work in factories to earn money to subsidize their families.

Such cruel behavior was exposed by reporters, which attracted public condemnation. In the end, some sweatshops were under pressure to dismiss child labor and hire adults.

People from all over the world, after seeing this news, were happy that some children in the country were freed from slavery, and those who defended the interests of children cheered for this, and humanitarianism shone brightly at this moment.

Hiring child labor is an evil of human nature (capital). It is natural to crack down on the phenomenon and behavior of hiring child labor.

So, what will happen to the next life of the boys and girls who left the factory?

Many children have not returned to school or studied in bright classrooms. This is because their families are poor, not to mention paying tuition fees, even their own existence is a burden to the family, so...

Many girls become young prostitutes, or like boys, become beggars begging along the streets. The situation of these children is even worse than before.

Why is this happening?

The reason is simple. It is indeed wrong to hire child labor in sweatshops, but working as child labor in sweatshops is the only opportunity for many children from poor families to make money "just" if this opportunity is gone, and they can only become young prostitutes and beggars.

Instead of what many people think, they can go back to school.

The reporter exposed the tragic experiences of child labor. His behavior was correct, and public opinion was not wrong to denounce sweatshops. However, the consequence of the evolution of the matter was that the situation of these child laborers was even worse.

There are many different opinions on which one is right or wrong in this matter. Yu Wen Wen feels that when solving a matter, you cannot just be "mouthed" from a moral point of view, otherwise you will only do bad things with kindness.

For parents with poor families, having too many children is a burden, but their son is good, but it is useful when they grow up, and their daughter is a loss of money. So once they are nervous, the first one is unlucky is their daughter.

There are even some places where there are drowning babies, and once parents are unable to turn around, it is not impossible to sell their sons.

At this time, it is useless to say anything big, because poverty is the root of the problem. Simply banning child labor will only make children more likely to fall into a larger fire pit.

Yuwen Wen thinks that what the ruling rulings can do is to create job opportunities as much as possible, at least to allow these children who cannot support them to have an opportunity to prove that they are "worthy" to their parents, which can reduce the burden on the family.

For this reason, what are the ridicule of some literati and poets?
Chapter completed!