Final Project, History 2100, Spring 2017, William Paterson University

1. NATIONAL CHILD LABOR COMMITTEE
“BE THE CATALYST OF CHANGE”
By: Dontel Green

2. Teaser/Thesis
Although people have rallied behind numerous anti child labor groups, the
creation of the National Child Labor Committee was the most successful because it
served as a foundation for future legislatives acts to help reduce the abuse of child
labor in communities!

3. Reason For Existence
With an increasing number of reports about how children were being abused;
the NCLC sought to end the physical and mental injuries of children and bring smiles
back to their faces. Some children who were being abused suffered from exhaustion
(working 8 plus hours) or starvation because they were mining or on the factory line
too long. If the abuse of these children continued, then they would have a look of
distain and resentment not only in the workplace, but possible towards other areas of
society that could have dramatically altered the life for the worse.

4. Where’s the Smile?

5. REFORMERS AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

6. Lewis Hines (Photographer)
Worked as an investigative
photographer for the National Child Labor
Committee. He would often take the
disguise of a salesmen or fire inspector to
gain access to mills or factories. His
photos were published in local newspapers
as well as the New York Times; which
helped bring awareness to the people
about child abuse.

7. Florence Kelley (Politician)
Kelley built a network that was
comprised of the National Consumers
league, NAACP and other organizations.
She traveled from rally to rally informing
citizens on raising wages, 8 hour workdays
and children’s rights, while offering her
solutions on how to deal with them. Her
network eventually led to the culmination
of the NCLC.

8. Legislative Acts
The goal of the Fair Labor Standards Act provided a cushion or extra layer of
protection for young workers. The act stated that work environments must be is safe
and does not jeopardize their health and most encourage well-being or educational
opportunities. These requirements were put into place because education and safety
seemed to be the less of worries for business owners.
Owens-Keating Act banned certain commerce products made by the hands of
children. Essentially business were losing profits and was forced to adhere to child
labor rules or hire adults again. However, it was eventually deemed unconstitutional
by the U.S Supreme Court.
Congress passed a constitutional amendment which would allow states to
regulate child labor, but the “ball never got rolling”. States never implemented it
because businesses tended to find loopholes around some acts. States needed to
find a more stable way of bringing business owners to justice.

9. Legislative Acts: Dates
Act/Law Start Date End Date
Fair Labor Standards
Act
1938 Still in effect
Owens-Keating Act 1916 1918
Congress passes
constitutional
amendment (states
have power to regulate
child labor)
Never took effect Never took effect

10. CHILD LABOR BACKLASH

11. March of the Mill Children Strike
The March of the Mill Children occurred on July, 7 1903 which was led by Mary
Harris aka Mother Hones. The purpose of the 3-week strike from Philadelphia to New
York was to put attention on striking child and adult textile workers. These workers
demanded a reduced work week of 55 hours and a ban on night work by women and
children. The line had to be drawn at some point and now was the time. Businesses
were destroying the seeds of the future by forcing children to work in unsanitary
conditions. Only by banding together can, change become a fruition.

12. Working Conditions

13. Parents & Children Fight Back
Parents were furious that their kids were working in the hot sun or dangerous
machinery instead of hitting the books. Children go to school to learn the basic skills
mathematics and how to write. By keeping them at work longer than they attend
school, businesses are deliberately decreasing the efficiency of those skills. With low
efficiency on how to write or calculating formulas, jobs will not hire them. Also as a
young kid it is important for them to have some time to themselves. At school, kids
are suppose to mingle with each other and form relationships. Working 8 plus hours
will deprive them of that life skill.

14. We Want An Education

15. Injury But No Compensation
Compensation packages today, are
nothing like back then because a few
businesses offered to pay workers for their
injuries or give any other incentive that
they could. If a business is going to treat
kids like their full grown adults, then they
should pay them like adults. Labor unions
were not particularly strong back then, but
businesses should do something. I can
not even begin to fathom the pain that
families felt when seeing their kids with
broken limbs or none at all.

16. SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

17. Summary
No matter what time period we are living in, child labor will always be a serious
dilemma, but the first and most important step in fighting child labor is to raise civic
engagement. In this presentation, I defined civic engagement in the form of providing
photographs of what kids endured, going to rallies to voice your opinions and creating
laws to minimize the amount of children getting hurt. Businesses mostly use children
just show they could pay them lower than what they give adults. In return they save
money to invest in something else or spend on themselves.

18. Conclusion
Do you think the NCLC accomplished its goal?
I do believe the NCLC accomplished its goal because as more and more
people joined the organization, there was an increase in factory inspections, strikes
and politicians trying to create laws that would ban child abuse. Even though some
laws/acts were deemed unconstitutional, but some matured and still exist today.
Child labor is very much still an issue today, but it contained better now then back in
the early and late 1900’s.

19. Sources
“CHILD LABOR BULLETIN ”, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4974041;
retrieved on 4.24.17
CHUMAN, MICHAEL. "HISTORY OF CHILD LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES--PART 2: THE
REFORM MOVEMENT.
" MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW (JANUARY 2017): 1-23. BUSINESS SOURCE PREMIER,
EBSCOHOST (ACCESSED APRIL 17, 2017)