By Juan Valdez

Child Labor: Thesis

Child Labor was a major problem during the Gilded Age, especially those working in the coal mines. It was a disgrace having these poor children working under such conditions and putting their lives at risk on everyday basis.

Child Labor: Unhappy FacesIt was an everyday struggle for these young men. Some of these children weren't even 16 years-old and they looked much older because of the lives they were living.

High Rate of Unemployment

A large number of people were unemployed during the Gilded Age. As a result of the high number of unemployment, businesses had the privilege of

hiring people for low wages. Many of the children working in coal mines were basically forced to work in coal

mines. In an effort to help provide for their families, they were forced to work. Businesses had the advantage of firing people as they pleased because of the high

rate of people without jobs during the time. Even though working conditions were terrible, people couldn’t complained

because of the fear of being fired.

Working Conditions

Working conditions were horrible in the coal mines. The conditions were worst than those in factories.

Many children were injured due to exhaustion of working long hours.

Children were basically being used to crawl through narrow tunnels where adults usually couldn’t fit.

Working Conditions (cont.)

Some of these children worked 10+ hours shift, six times a week for just a $1 a week.

Many children also developed diseases due to inhaling dust all day at the coal mines.

Children working at coal mines were constantly being watches by adults who acted almost as slave masters

Very Few Attended SchoolOne in six children between the ages of ten and fifteen years old help jobs during the last thirty years of the nineteenth century. Due to the fact that many of these children didn’t go to school, it basically meant that they would have very few opportunities in the future beyond factory workStates like New England did prohibit child labor and required school attendance by the laws werent strongly enforced and were ignored by the children’s desperate parents and greedy employers

Children Had No Other Choice

The number of Children working under the age of fifteen years-old rose from 750,000 to 2,000,000 during a 30 year span.

These poor children were treated as adults, even though some of them weren't even old enough to be in middle school.

Children as young as five years-old were working long hours in dangerous canneries and mills in New England.

The Role of Photographer Lewis W. Hine

The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) fought restlessly to try to put an end to child labor.

The committee sponsored investigations, and sent their staff photographer Lewis W. Hine around the country to photographs children working in mines, cotton mills, and canneries and on the city streets.

Laws that protected Child LaborThe congress did pass federal laws regulating labor in 1916 and 1918.

Those laws were declared unconstitutional by a conservative Supreme Court.

The NCLC wasn’t the only criticizing child labor. There were others organizations that protested against child labor and the dangerous conditions that these children were placed in.

Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 Even with the conditions

being as dangerous as they were, there weren't any laws to protect them.

It was established in order to help increase wage and limit the age of child laborer to 16 years old and 18 years old for those working under hazardous conditions

This act was passed two years before Mr. Hine passed away.

Fair Labor Standard Act (cont.)The Fair Labor Standard Act of 1938 came years to late for the unfortunate children who passed away due to injuries sustained in the coal mines and factories around the country.

It also helped established the first nationwide minimum wage and helped made the forty-hour workweek a national norm.

Child Labor Still Exists

Child Labor is still a major problem in the United States today

Even Though some children are not old enough to buy cigarettes, yet these children as young as seven are being allowed to work in the American tobacco fields and are exposed to acute nicotine poisoning.

Conclusion

There are numerous Labor organizations whom have played a major

role in helping reduced child labor around America and the World. I

do believe that in order to help solve this problem, it should start at

home with their parents. Some of the children didn’t/don’t know any

better, they were/are not old enough to know from right and wrong,

and at the end of the day they will do whatever is necessary to help

their parents.

Bibliography/Citations

"Child Labor in U.S. History." - The Child Labor Education Project. Accessed November 20, 2014. http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/us_history.html. "Child Labor." Reviewed by Milton Fried. The New Book of Knowledge. Grolier Online http://nbk.grolier.com/ncpage?tn=/encyc/article.html&id=a2005380-h&type=0ta (accessed October 26, 2014)LOVEJOY, OWEN R. 1906. Child labor in the coal mines. American Academy of Political and Social Science, Annals 27, : 293.Lovejoy, Owen. JSTOR. Accessed November 26, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1010416.Rosenzweig, Roy. <i>Who Built America ?: Working People and the Nation's History.</i> Third ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008.