Chapter 97: Guardianship in the Dark

These children had certain problems of their own. The Baler Federation had child protection laws, prohibiting the use of child labor under fourteen. Certain heavy physical labor, including work involving contact with dangerous goods, was prohibited for anyone under eighteen.

These newsboys looked about twelve, thirteen, or fourteen. Basically, they all belonged to the illegal kind of child labor.

Their previous working arrangement had been for orphanages to send them to the news bosses for “boarding.” Not adoption, but “boarding.” They would leave the orphanage at around sixteen, so they needed early contact with society and to learn some skills for making a living.

Then the news bosses would give the orphanages some financial return. Many people knew about this, but few were willing to expose these social problems.

When it was not exposed, the child-labor users and the orphanages could still rely on their connection with each other to create a win-win opportunity. The children’s lives were a little hard, but after all, they were laying a foundation for the future.

But once these matters were exposed, the entire illegal child-labor industry would come to a halt. The first ones unable to bear it would be the major orphanages. Once an orphanage’s finances collapsed, large numbers of old people and children would be left with no one to manage and care for them, and in the end, local City Hall would still have to clean up the mess.

Sometimes society’s turning a blind eye to certain forms of things was not inaction. It was only that, for the moment, this method was already the best choice.

But William was different from the news bosses. People could tolerate news bosses using child labor, but they would not tolerate a “big capitalist” using child labor. This probably had something to do with the fact that, in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of people, news bosses lived worse than ordinary people, while capitalists lived better than ordinary people.

People instinctively pitied groups weaker than themselves, while hating groups stronger than themselves. In the past, they had no good way to do anything for themselves. But now, at least, they could proclaim so-called justice in the media.