History of child labor in the United States—part 2: the reform movement

Abstract

I am glad to see there is going to be a meeting here for child labor. I am really tired of seeing so many big children ten years old playing in the streets.1 -Prominent lady citizen Don't take these boys away from us! We have just bought these uniforms, and they were made to order. - Shopkeeper in Cleveland, OhioThere is a street in Lawrence, MA, named Camella Teoli Way. To know the story of how that street came to be named is to know the story of a struggle. law, the maximum working hours in the mill were reduced from 56 to 54 per week for women and children. 6 Mill owners sped up the machines in order to make up for the shorter workweek. 7 In protest over the faster rate of production and the commensurate reduction in pay, mill workers-adults and children-walked out on strike.Violence between strikers, replacement workers, police, and soldiers grew as the strike, which became known as the Lawrence Textile Strike, went on. To create publicity for their cause and to ensure the safety of their children, many strikers sent their children out of town. While the children were accepted with open arms in cities like New York, embarrassed Lawrence officials demanded parents keep their children in Lawrence. When the next group of children prepared to depart the train station, they were met by police and soldiers. The police refused to let them board the trains and launched an attack on the group. A 7-year-old was given a black eye when she was picked up and thrown into a paddy wagon by police. Another witness testified to children being thrown around like rags. Citizens across the country were horrified by the events. 8As a result of the outcry over the confrontation in Lawrence, a federal investigation into the strike began at once.A delegation of adult and child strikers was sent to Washington, DC. President Taft asked to see the children.The strikers testified before a House of Representatives committee looking into the events. 9 While the testimony focused on the origins of the strike and subsequent violence, the most lasting impression was made by CamellaTeoli.Teoli explained to the committee that over a year earlier, a man came up to the house and spoke to her father.She had been attending school and the man asked her father why she didn't work. Her father explained that he U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW 3 was unsure whether she was 13 or 14 years old. The man replied that for $4 he could get papers similar to those from the "old country" that said she was 14. Her father paid the $4 and she was sent off to work. 10 A mere 2 weeks into her time at the mill, however, things went terribly wrong. 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. Her father was arrested for falsifying her age. The mill, though, was likely clear from liability because Camella was illegally working as an underage minor. 11

The household as a source of labor for entrepreneurs: Evidence from New York City during industrialization

“…In 1790, each additional white male under the age of 16 increased the odds of business proprietorship for the household head by 13%. By 1810, with declining rates of indenture, the effect of each additional male youth was negligible, before rising by the middle of the 19th century, when immigrant children again constituted a robust source of household labor (Schuman, ). These results support the thesis that the probability of business ownership was strongly tied to an individual's access to unfree or dependent labor during industrialization.…”

Resonanzfähigkeit: resonance capability in Luhmannian systems theory

“…In fact, for a long time, child labor was considered beneficial for the children, their families and businesses. It was thought to instill a work ethic, combat idleness and vagrancy and relieve family poverty (Schuman, 2017). For most of the nineteenth century, the general public in the USA was obviously aware of, or sensitive to, many social problems – or we might say, society treated certain facts as social problems – but child labor was not on the list of social problems.…”

“…As the Washington Post reported (Contrera, 2018), “In its final years, the threat of child labor didn’t have the fundraising power it once did.” It was “a rare instance in which an organization dedicated to a social ill had worked itself out of a job.” Although undoubtedly many factors contributed to the success and longevity of the NCLA, the complexity–sustainability principle suggests that this organization succeeded because it limited itself to one issue and, therefore, avoided overcomplexity. The National Consumers’ League (NCL), founded in 1899 by Jane Addams and Josephine Lowell, and The General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC), founded in 1890, also worked for the abolition of child labor, while simultaneously campaigning for compulsory education (Margolin, 1978; Schuman, 2017). Both the NLC and the GFWC remain in operation in 2019.…”

“…Young girls were burned alive, suffocated, or killed in a futile attempt to jump to safety. The story of the fire made headlines across the country (Schuman, 2017, p. 4).…”

Hired Latinx Child Farmworkers in North Carolina: Educational Status and Experience Through a Social Justice Lens

“…Concerns about child labor also reflected a new view of children, one that valued them for more than their economic contribution. 3 , 4 Lack of formal education was recognized as a social injustice by reformers, as it committed these children to a lifetime of limited employment, reduced opportunity, and poor health.…”