EXPLOITATION of AMERICA’S CHILDREN: CHILD LABOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

EXPLOITATION of AMERICA’S

CHILDREN:

CHILD LABOR LEGISLATIVE

HISTORY

In 1900, approximately two million children

were working in mills, mines, fields, factories,

stores, and on city streets across the

United States.

Lancaster Cotton Mill, North Carolina

The 1900 census, which counted workers aged

10 to 15, found that 18 percent of the country's children between those ages were working.

This report helped to spark a national movement to end

child labor in the United States.

It took organizational form in 1904

with the founding of the National Child Labor

Committee.

The movement combined moral outrage and new interpretations of the

value of childhood.

Equating child labor with slavery, some argued that

the country had not faced such a

serious moral problem since the Civil War.

Felix Adler, one of its co-founders, argued that

the treatment of children was an

"index of civilization."

Child labor was not only damaging to the children, but

was an obstacle to the progress of the nation

and civilization.

Oyster shuckers, Louisiana

Quickly learning that moral appeals would not be

enough to end child labor, the movement took pragmatic steps to

document the prevalence and conditions of child labor

in various industries throughout the country.

Coal breakers, West Virginia

In 1908, the National Child Labor Committee hired

Lewis Hine as its staff photographer

and sent him throughout the country to photograph and

report on child labor.

Documenting child labor in both photographs and

words, his state-by-state and industry-by-industry surveys

became one of the movement's most

powerful tools.

Shrimp-picker, Texas

Hine's photographs had a tremendous contemporary

impact and are the most enduring images produced

by the campaign to end child labor.

Young coal-miners, Pennsylvania

Among the related reforms championed by the

movement to end child labor were innovations in national

regulation of labor conditions, the minimum

wage, worker's compensation insurance...

...uniform standards for compulsory education, school food programs,

shorter work days, regulation of health and safety conditions in the

workplace, and many others.

Newsboys, Boston

Although federal legislation seemed to be a logical alternative to state

child labor laws, the federal government did not have a mandate to regulate child labor.

The establishment of a consensus in favor of

federal regulation and the passage of the first federal

child labor law in 1916 were major turning points

in the movement to end child labor in the

United States.

Although effective federal child labor laws would not

be in place until the late 1930s, it was during this

early period that Americans were won over from denial

of child labor to strong opposition to it...

...and from acquiescence in the status quo’s

addressing child labor abuse on a

state-by-state basis to lobbying for, writing, and gaining passage of

federal child labor laws.

The first federal child labor bill was introduced

by Senator Albert Beveridge in 1906.

Beveridge recognized that child labor fell outside the

federal government's traditional powers...

...but he proposed that the government's ability to

regulate interstate commerce could be used to

regulate child labor.

The first child labor bill that actually became law, the Keating-Owen bill of

1916, was based on Beveridge's proposal.

Although it was passed by Congress and signed

into law by President Woodrow Wilson,

the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional because it overstepped the

purpose of the government's powers to regulate

interstate commerce.

A second child labor bill was passed in

December, 1918.

It also took an indirect route to regulate child

labor, this time by using the government's power to

levy taxes.

Cotton-pickers, Arkansas

It imposed a ten percent tax on the net profits of

any manufacturing company, cannery,

or mine that employed child labor.

It, too, was found to be unconstitutional.

Supreme Court rulings erased important legislative victories, but the passage of the child labor bills clearly

demonstrated that there was a national consensus in favor

of federal laws prohibiting child labor.

A constitutional amendment was soon

proposed to give congress the power to regulate

child labor. However, the campaign for

ratification of the Child Labor Amendment was stalled in the 1920s by an effective campaign to

discredit it.

Mill sweepers, North Carolina

Opponents' charges ranged from traditional states' rights arguments against increased power

of the federal government

to accusations that the amendment was a

communist-inspired plot to subvert the constitution.

Federal protection of children would not be obtained until

passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act

in 1938.

Oyster shuckers, Mississippi

Like the first child labor bills, it prohibited

interstate commerce in the products of child labor,

and this use of the government's power to

regulate interstate commerce was challenged before the Supreme Court

once again.

This time, though, the movement to end child

labor was victorious. In February of 1941,

the Supreme Court reversed its opinion and upheld the

constitutionality of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is still in force today.

EXPLOITATION of AMERICA’S

CHILDREN:

CHILD LABOR LEGISLATIVE

HISTORY

Sources:

Zwick, Jim. "The Campaign to End Child Labor”,

Hines Photographic Collection, Library of Congress

Created for:

Edmond Public Schools