Seven Years of Child Labor Reform

Abstract

At the completion of seven years of work for the improvement of child labor conditions in America, it is fitting that the National Child Labor Committee should present a concrete statement of its record. This is important, not so much in justification of the policies and expenditures of the committee, in order that the public may judge whether we are worthy further support and co-operation, but especially that we may estimate the extent to which the American people have awakened in opposition to this national vice, in order more accurately to judge the possibilities that lie ahead. When this Committee was formed seven years ago, there was no accepted national standard of protection against the abuses of child exploitation. The trade unions were committed to an eighthour-day; some of the woman's clubs, to the general abolition of child labor; and the Socialist Party to the elimination of all children under sixteen from wage-earning industries. But the trade union was accused of selfishness; the woman's clubs were charged with feminine sentiment, and the Socialist Party was ignored as without power and influence. The general public, indeed, had not awakened to a realization that such an evil existed, and except for the Consumers' League and a respectable number of enlightened individuals, child labor in America may be said to have been without an enemy. We were chiefly interested in the subject as an academic theme, enabling the eloquent portrayal of the greed and cruelty of European civilizations. Then rapidly, as public intelligence and interest are wont to grow, there swept over the face of the country the exciting news that child labor existed in America, that the coal mines, glass factories, cotton and silk mills, cigar and cigarette factories, and even our public streets were the scenes of hardship, danger and oppression to the tender bodies and souls of little boys and girls. At this point a group of the more calm and discerning of those who were