|
|
Child Labor |
|
|
Home
Child Labor
|
"I trained in the sternest but most efficient of all schools - poverty." -Andrew Carnegie boast Once upon a time in America work was considered to be a good and necessary part of every child's education and not something they did only when they grew up. The Early American Dream took hard work, thrift, good moral behavior and started young. Whether it was working on a farm in the fields, learning a useful trade from a blacksmith or carpenter, or selling newspapers on a busy city street corner, boys and girls went to work as soon as they could stand up and walk. |
|
|
|
But greed took advantage of this enterprising spirit, which had become highly romanticized in dime novels. Families with lots of children were encouraged to come to work in the newly developed factories and mills that were rapidly replacing cottage industries. At first this seemed to be an ideal place of work with all kinds of enticing benefits including room and board for young farm women and parental child care (babies and toddlers could stay by their side on the job until they were big enough to work). |
|
|
As the nation's economy expanded, fierce competition made prices low and many manufacturers tried to pay as little as possible for labor. What they wanted was a cheap, docile, and unskilled labor pool that would not protest the increasingly dangerous and unsanitary conditions of the workplace. This quest for profits led to a heavy reliance on children. Some business owners rationalized that older workers were too slow and clumsy to perform the work. Many of the children were orphans who had no one to watch out for them. Those with parents were expected to bring home whatever they could to contribute to the rest of the family who needed the extra income in order to survive hard times. |
||
|
More than two million children, ages 8-15 (and some as young as 4) were a regular part of the workforce in the early 1900s. They were working as many as 12 to 15 hours per day, 6 or 7 days a week all across the country. Laws to protect children had been passed in many states but they were very hard to enforce because the public opinion was that an owner had the right to operate his business any way he wanted to. |
||
|
"Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead Reformers who wanted to right the social wrong of what was beginning to be called child slavery began sending photojournalists undercover into the questionable workplaces to document the abuse. Cameras captured tired and worn out children in mines, factories, sweatshops and mills. Outraged by the photos of the brutal work conditions and the sad faces of the children that this new journalistic art form revealed, the public could no longer ignore or rationalize child labor. They began to be aware that the enterprising, hard-working children they had admired and romanticized for so long also needed time to go to school, to play and to dream. In time, the new public opinion was that ALL children have the right to become productive adults without being condemmed to a life of endless misery and poverty. And it was no longer accepted that a business owner's fear of ruin and lust for profits was an excuse for inhumane treatment. |
||
|
The Depression of the 1930s, labor unions, and the growing need for a more educated workforce gradually diminished the role of child labor. It was a long battle to change the hearts and minds of the American public and workplace but in 1938, laws were passed that finally could be enforced. Today most American children go to school and when they work, it's part time in order to make extra money to buy video games or to save up for a future college education. No one minds this enterprising spirit but there are still pockets of serious child labor violations in parts of America and throughout the world. |
||
|
In the past, journalists played an important role in public awareness but today the media seems to be more focused on celebrity misconduct than on serious human rights issues. With so many American jobs being lured off shore by cheap labor and less than ideal working standards, it is becoming a real possibility that some of our favorite brand name products are also being supplied by third world working children. And in this new global economy, these foreign-made bargain products may have the look of Americana but they lack the hard-earned soul of a tempered nation. |
||
|
Kids At Work by Russell Freedman Written for young people, this book has many of the undercover photos taken by Lewis Hine in the early 1900s. Go to: www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor to see the photos. Free the Children by Criaig Kielburger with Kevin Major This book tells story of how 12 year old Craig organized a campaign with the help of his fellow classmates to stop current and very abusive Child Labor all over the world. To learn more about this organization, go to www.freethechildren.org |