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  • Thesis
  • Background
  • Workplace Struggles
  • Need for the NCLC
  • Formation of the NCLC
  • Exposing Child Labor
  • Changes To Sentiment
  • Failed Legislation
  • New Deal and Reform
  • Timeline
  • Conclusion
  • Paperwork
                   To Learn or to Earn?
    The National Child Labor Committee and the
             Fight to End Child Exploitation


Failed Legislation


Keating-Owen Act

"The first child labor bill, the Keating-Owen bill of 1916 used the government's ability to regulate interstate commerce to regulate child labor" -United States National Archives [1916]
The National Child Labor Committee fiercely advocated for the passage  of the Keating-Owen  Act,  which:
"...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 8 hours during the day" -United States National Archives [1916]
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In an effort to gain public support for the bill, the NCLC  condemned and reprimanded ineffective state legislation.
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State laws governing child labor  varied  immensely by  state,  and were  very easy to thwart.
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From "In the Shadow of the Coal Breaker" by Owen R. Lovejoy, Acting Secretary, National Child Labor Committee [1909]
"No child under thirteen years of age can, according to law, be regularly employed, but in every industrial center where children are to any extent employed...the law is evaded" 

-Peter Roberts, Child Labor in Eastern Pennsylvania, The Outlook [December 17, 1904]
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A woman representing state government stands idly by as child laborers are subject to the cruelty of the mill and its owner [Cornell University Library of Labor Relations, 1914]
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"Florence Kelly Speaks on Child Labor" [Library of Congress: Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897-1911]
"Well, I used to go to school, and then a man came up to my house and asked my father why I didn't go to work, so my father says I don’t know whether she is 13 or 14 years old. So, the man say you give me $4 and I will make the papers come from the old country saying you are 14. So, my father gave him the $4, and in one month came the papers that I was 14. I went to work, and about two weeks got hurt in my head" 
-Camella Teoli, testifying about the Lawrence Textile Strike [1912] 
Although the Keating-Owen Act was initially passed and signed into law, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in  Hammer v. Dagenhart  247 U.S. 251 (1918).
"It overstepped the purpose of the government's powers to regulate interstate commerce.  In its opinion the Court delineated between the Congress's power to regulate production and commerce" -United States National Archives [1918]
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"SECRETARY PERKINS PLEADS FOR CHILD LABOR AMENDMENT" [New York Times 1934]

Amendment to the Constitution

"A constitutional amendment was soon proposed to give Congress the power to regulate child labor" 
-United States National Archives [n.d.]
The NCLC understood the  potential strength of a  Child Labor Amendment, and supported it profusely. 
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Article from The New York Times regarding the child labor amendment [ProQuest Historical Newspapers, July 3, 1933]
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First page of the Joint Resolution containing the amendment to the Constitution that would have placed child labor regulation under federal jurisdiction [National Archives, 1924]
"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" 

-General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives [n.d.]
Ultimately, these  accusations  were  effective  and  the  amendment  did not receive enough votes to ratify it to the Constitution.

National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)

"The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was passed by Congress on June 16, 1933. The New Deal law was designed to promote recovery and reform, encourage collective bargaining for unions, set up maximum work hours and minimum wages, and forbid child labor in industry" -Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, General Records of the United States Government [2003]
However, the National Industrial Recovery Act  did not last long enough to implement its policies. 
"In May 1935, in the case of the Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the compulsory-code system on the grounds that the NIRA improperly delegated legislative powers to the executive branch"
-Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, General Records of the United States Government [2003]
The NCLC and many others  realized that the National Industrial Recovery Act  being declared unconstitutional  meant  a  return  to unregulated and oppressive  child  labor.
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The New York Times [ProQuest Historical Newspapers, May 30 1935]
"Figures from 129 cities in 29 states for the seven-month period after the NIRA expired show an increase of 58 percent in the number of employment certificates issued to children fourteen and fifteen years of age" 
-"Is Child Labor Abolished?" The Nation [April 1936]
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This cartoon depicts child laborers immediately returning to work after the NIRA was declared unconstitutional. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1935]

These failed  attempts  at  federal  legislation  demonstrated  that  eliminating  child  exploitation depended not only on garnering public sentiment against it,  but  also on the readiness  of  lawmakers  and  advocates for states' rights   to  increase  the power of the federal  government. 

Previous: Changes To sentiment
Next: New Deal And Reform
Thesis: 
The leadership of the National Child Labor Committee piloted the social reform movement against the exploitation of children. By harnessing the power of propaganda to influence public opinion, the NCLC changed society’s perception, thus allowing for the passage of national legislation prohibiting the labor of children. The legacy of the NCLC lies not only in ending child labor,  but also in establishing a  precedent for  future federal regulation of labor. 
Niharika Boinpally and Divya Pakianathan
Senior Group Website
Word Count (Student Composed): 1166
Process Paper Word Count: 484