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Factual Questions:

1. What type of organizations fought for labor reform?

2. When was the Keating-Owen Act?

Inference Questions:

1. Explain the significance of the verdict of the Muller v. Oregon case and how it affected women.

2. Why did Lewis Hine quit his job to join the AFL? Name another person who share similar ideals.

Skill Based-Question:

1. Evaluate the extent in which their was continuity and change in child labor from the 1890s to 1930s?

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A young girl working in the factories to help support her family.

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"There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work." - Lewis Hine

This image advocates for the reforms of child labor in the early 20th century. The image showcases two girls working long hours in factories without any safety equipment. Lewis Hine highlights the lack of wealth in the US as many children are forced to work at a young age to compensate for the rise in costs. Furthermore, he says the quote to emphasize that factories hired children in order to scam them of work as their percent of work to pay is significantly less than those of adults. Children are losing a fundamental part of their life when working all day and night during their childhood, instead of going to school and learning to get a more professional jobs.

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Workers risk their lives for little pay even though the working conditions aren't safe.

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“As she told the committee, one day, near the end of her shift, her hair became entangled in a machine and a portion of her scalp had been torn off. She spent 7 months in the hospital and was still undergoing medical treatment.” - Monthly Labor Review

The image by Lewis Hine shows many men sitting on a beam of steel thousands of feet above the city. Furthermore, they have zero safety equipment and any wrong move will lead to their death. The quote highlights how girls are also facing a dangerous predicament, as the machinery could kill them or send them to the hospital. This is why labor reforms strike for safer working conditions. Lewis Hine wants to change his society for the better as he wants safer working conditions and a more free nation, as many immigrants, citizens, or children, are practically abused and are slaves.

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A newspaper heading advocating for better hours and working conditions for women.

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"SEC. 1. That no female [shall] be employed in any mechanical establishment, or factory, or laundry in this State more than ten hours during any one day. The hours of work may be so arranged as to permit the employment of females at any time so that they shall not work more than ten hours during the twenty-four hours of any one day." - Mr. Justice Brewer of the Supreme Court

The Muller v. Oregon case was one of the most important U.S. Supreme Court cases of the Progressive Era. It upheld an Oregon law limiting the workday for female wage earners to ten hours. This relates to the image above because the newspaper was trying to spread the word, hoping to gain support for fewer hours of labor for women. This decision led to an increase in other state laws related to wages, work hours, and work conditions.

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“I think it is a wise course for laborers to unite to defend their interests.  I think the employer who declines to deal with organized labor, and to recognize it, as a proper element in the settlement of wage controversies is behind the times…” - William Howard Taft

The video explains the creation of the US Department of Labor during the Progressive Era in 1913. It mentions that the main purpose of the US Department of Labor is to promote and develop the welfare of working people, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment. This relates to the quote by President Taft. For one, he was the one who signed off on the passing of the US Department of Labor. Also, it shows that a prominent political figure supports this organization and how it will benefit laborer interests.

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History of the US Department of Labor, Part 1: 1913 to 1929

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The National Childs Labor Committee fighting to keep the innocence of young children and put a stop to child labor in the U.S.

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“It is a fact that children employed in these heartless factories, if they live at all are broken, absolutely crippled, and unable to work and support themselves after they have reached years of manhood and womanhood, and must be supported in the public asylums and hospitals. Children are commercially most advantageous between fourteen and eighteen years for most employments.”

- Jane Addams

This image depicts a map of the United States, the image contains a serious of child workers, with some photos being darker than others possibly expressing which states contain the most child labor workers. Americans had been expressing their concern for the children caught in child labor. Parents and adults were noticing the extent of how many kids were giving up their childhoods to work. The poster states that there were 2 million children under the age of 16 working in child labor at the time. This was meant to show the people’s concern for the children having to work long hours. They claim that they should be “normal” men and women when they grow up. This isn’t possible because they are always working and have no time to be a kid. Messed-up kids become messed-up adults. These children who have been exposed to such harsh environments, and were hurt and struggled, won’t grow up to be “normal”, they’ll have to live, if they make it to adulthood, with health problems, trauma, and more.

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An entire family having to work for long hours in extreme environments whilst receiving little to no pay. 

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“I could not do that work and live, but there were boys of ten and twelve years of age doing it for fifty and sixty cents a day. Some of them had never been inside of a school; few of them could read a child’s primer. True, some of them attended the night schools, but after working ten hours in the breaker the educational results from attending school were practically nil. “We goes fer a good time, an‘ we keeps de guys wot’s dere hoppin’ all de time,” said little Owen Jones, whose work I had been trying to do. . . .” - John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of Children

The gif shown above depicts a family of three, a mother, a father, and their small son. They seem to be farming what looks like potatoes. The family is sad because all they get is a sole coin from the big hand. This demonstrates the disparity of families, they have to resort to sending their small children to work just like they do as adults. They work hard and don’t get to grow up like the average kid. Yet even with all of this suffrage they still don’t make enough money to support themselves.

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Political cartoon published in the Seattle Union Record from 1913. 

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Organized Labor (American Federation of Labor)

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Organized Labor (American Federation of Labor)

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"Our movement is of the working people, for the working people, by the working people…There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish." - Samuel Gompers

Organized labor was at the forefront of the Progressive Era. The American Federation of Labor was the most known union during this time and its founder was Samuel Gompers. The AFL's main purpose was to advocate for higher wages and shorter hours. This connects to the political cartoon because it depicts organized labor moving forward towards progress for workers, while a shortsighted employer is trying to stop organized labor's march forward.

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“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That no producer, manufacturer, or dealer shall ship or deliver for shipment in interstate or foreign commerce, any article or commodity the product of any mine or quarry situated in the United States, in which within thirty days prior to the time of the removal of such product therefrom children under the age of sixteen years have been employed or permitted to work…” - Keaton Owens Act

The document above was what was which the Keating-Act was instituted on during 1916. It was an attempt to regulate interstate commerce by limiting children’s work hoursto 8 hours a day. This was the first child labor bill that was passed at the time, signed under Woodrow Wilson, but later, was found unconstitutional because it exceeded the government’s purpose to regulate trade.

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This act limited the working hours of children and forbade the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor. The Supreme Court later ruled it unconstitutional.

The 1900 census revealed that approximately 2 million children were working in mills, mines, fields, factories, stores, and on city streets across the United States. The census report helped spark a national movement to end child labor in the United States.

In 1908, the National Child Labor Committee hired Lewis Hine as its staff photographer and sent him across the country to photograph and report on child labor. Social reformers began to condemn child labor because of its detrimental effect on the health and welfare of children.

This act was the first child labor bill. It was based on a 1906 proposal by Senator Albert J. Beveridge and used the government's ability to regulate interstate commerce to regulate child labor. It banned the sale of products from any factory, shop, or cannery that employed children under the age of 14, from any mine that employed children under the age of 16, and from any facility that had children under the age of 16 work at night or for more than eight hours during the day.

Although Congress passed the Keating-Owen Act and President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart 247 U.S. 251 (1918) because it overstepped the purpose of the government's powers to regulate interstate commerce. In its opinion, the Court delineated between Congress's power to regulate production and commerce.

A second child labor bill was passed in December of 1918 as part of the Revenue Act of 1919 (also called the Child Labor Tax Law). It also took an indirect route to regulate child labor, this time by using the government's power to levy taxes. It too, was soon found to be unconstitutional in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Company 259 U.S. 20 (1922). The Court reasoned that "The power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce does not extend to curbing the power of the states to regulate local trade."

Despite the nation's apparent desire for federal laws against child labor, the Supreme Court's rulings left little room for federal legislation. A constitutional amendment was soon proposed to give Congress the power to regulate child labor. But the campaign for ratification of the Child Labor Amendment was stalled in the 1920s by an effective campaign to discredit it. Opponents' charges ranged from traditional states' rights arguments against increases in the 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, which was also challenged before the Supreme Court. This time, the movement to end child labor was victorious. In February of 1941, the Supreme Court reversed its opinion in Hammer v. Dagenhart and, in U. S. v. Darby (1941), upheld the constitutionality of the Fair Labor Standards Act. It is still in force today.

Transcript
Sixty-fourth Congress of the United States of America; At the First Session,
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, the sixth day of December, one thousand nine hundred and fifteen.
AN ACT To prevent interstate commerce in the products of child labor, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That no producer, manufacturer, or dealer shall ship or deliver for shipment in interstate or foreign commerce, any article or commodity the product of any mine or quarry situated in the United States, in which within thirty days prior to the time of the removal of such product therefrom children under the age of sixteen years have been employed or permitted to work, or any article or commodity the product of any mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment, situated in the United States, in which within thirty days prior to the removal of such product therefrom children under the age of fourteen years have been employed or permitted to work, or children between the ages of fourteen years and sixteen years have been employed or permitted to work more than eight hours in any day, or more than six days in any week, or after the hour of seven o'clock postmeridian, or before the hour of six o'clock antemeridian: Provided, That a prosecution and conviction of a defendant for the shipment or delivery for shipment of any article or commodity under the conditions herein prohibited shall be a bar to any further prosecution against the same defendant for shipments or deliveries for shipment of any such article or commodity before the beginning of said prosecution.

SEC. 2. That the Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Labor shall constitute a board to make and publish from time to time uniform rules and regulations for carrying out the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 3. That for the purpose of securing proper enforcement of this Act the Secretary of Labor, or any person duly authorized by him, shall have authority to enter and inspect at any time mines quarries, mills, canneries, workshops, factories, manufacturing establishments, and other places in which goods are produced or held for interstate commerce; and the Secretary of Labor shall have authority to employ such assistance for the purposes of this Act as may from time to time be authorized by appropriation or other law.

SEC. 4. That it shall be the duty of each district attorney to whom the Secretary of Labor shall report any violation of this Act, or to whom any State factory or mining or quarry inspector, commissioner of labor, State medical inspector or school-attendance officer, or any other person shall present satisfactory evidence of any such violation to cause appropriate proceedings to be commenced and prosecuted in the proper courts of the United States without delay for the enforcement of the penalties in such cases herein provided: Provided, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to apply to bona fide boys' and girls' canning clubs recognized by the Agricultural Department of the several States and of the United States.

SEC. 5. That any person who violates any of the provisions of section one of this Act, or who refuses or obstructs entry or inspection authorized by section three of this Act, shall for each offense prior to the first conviction of such person under the provisions of this Act, be punished by a fine of not more than $200, and shall for each offense subsequent to such conviction be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000, nor less than $100, or by imprisonment for not more than three months, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court: Provided, That no dealer shall be prosecuted under the provisions of this Act for a shipment, delivery for shipment, or transportation who establishes a guaranty issued by the person by whom the goods shipped or delivered for shipment or transportation were manufactured or produced, resident in the United States, to the effect that such goods were produced or manufactured in a mine or quarry in which within thirty days prior to their removal therefrom no children under the age of sixteen years were employed or permitted to work, or in a mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment in which within thirty days prior to the removal of such goods therefrom no children under the ages of fourteen years were employed or permitted to work, nor children between the ages of fourteen years and sixteen years employed or permitted to work more than eight hours in any day or more than six days in any week or after the hour of seven o'clock postmeridian o before the hour of six o'clock antemeridian; and in such event, if the guaranty contains any false statement or a material fact the guarantor shall be amenable to prosecution and to the fine or imprisonment provided by this section for violation of the provisions of this Act. .Said guaranty, to afford the protection above provided, shall contain the name and address of the person giving the same: And provided further, That no producer, manufacturer, or dealer shall be prosecuted under this Act for the shipment, delivery for shipment, or transportation of a product of any mine, quarry , mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment, if the only employment therein within thirty days prior to the removal of such product therefrom, of a child under the age of sixteen years has been that of a child as to whom the producer, or manufacturer has in; good faith procured, at the time of employing such child, and has since in good faith relied upon and kept on file a certificate, issued in such form, under such conditions, any by such persons as may be prescribed by the board, showing the child to be of such an age that the shipment, delivery for shipment, or transportation was not prohibited by this Act. Any person who knowingly makes a false statement or presents false evidence in or in relation to any such certificate or application therefor shall be amenable to prosecution and to the fine or imprisonment provided by this section for violations of this Act. In any State designated by the board, an employment certificate or other similar paper as to the age of the child, issued under the laws of that State and not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, shall have the same force and effect as a certificate herein provided for.

SEC. 6. That the word "person" as used in this Act shall be construed to include any individual or corporation or the members of any partnership or other unincorporated association. The term "ship or deliver for shipment in interstate or foreign commerce" as used in this Act means to transport or to ship or deliver for shipment from any State or Territory or the District of Columbia to or through any other State or Territory or the District of Columbia or to any foreign country; and in the case of a dealer means only to transport or to ship or deliver for shipment from the State, Territory or district of manufacture or production.

SEC. 7. That this Act shall take effect from and after one year from the date of its passage.

Approved, September 1, 1916.

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EnlargeDownload Link Citation: An act to prevent interstate commerce in the products of child labor, and for other purposes, September 1, 1916; Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789-; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives View All Pages in the National Archives Catalog View Transcript This act limited the working hours of children and forbade the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor.

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Woodrow Wilson signing the Keating Owens act in 1916.

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"First, immediate provision for the enlargement and administrative reorganization of the Interstate Commerce Commission along the lines embodied in the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and now awaiting action by the Senate; in order that the Commission may be enabled to deal with the many great and various duties now devolving upon it with a promptness and thoroughness which are, with its present constitution and means of action, practically impossible.” - Woodrow Wilson

The picture above shows Woodrow Wilson signing he labor act back in 1916. He did this because he believed it to be Constitutional as he he also thought he had the right to regulate interstate commerce. This is was later deemed not the case by the Supreme Court in Hammer v. Dagenhart 247 U.S. 251 (1918) and was removed.

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President Wilson Signs Child Labor Act, 1916 - Science Source Images

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License this stock photo and more images of Stock photo Wilson signing child labor bill, 1916.