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