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1842: Massachusetts and Connecticut limited
the maximum workday for children under the age of 12 to ten hours.
(See: page 30, The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008. See also page 14, "A Right to Childhood" The U.S. Children's Bureau and Child Welfare, 1912-46, Kriste Linenmeyer)
1901: The Alabama Child Labor Committee
formed.
(See: page 54, The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008.)
November 1902: The New York Child Labor
Committee formed.
(See: page 56, The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008.)
April 15, 1904: Following discussions between
the Alabama Child Labor Committee and the New York Child Labor Committee, the
National Child Labor Committee convened its first general meeting in New
York’s Carnegie Hall.
(See: page 58, The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008.)
1904: "As one of its earliest activities, the
Committee drew up a model bill based on the best features of the Massachusetts,
New York, and Illinois child labor statutes. The bill prescribed a minimum
working age of fourteen in manufacturing and sixteen in mining; a maximum
working day of eight hours; no night work (from 7 p.m to 6 a.m.) for children
under sixteen; and documentary proof of age. In 1904 not a single state met all
those standards."
(See: page 70, The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008.)
March 31, 1905: During a meeting at the White
House Lillian D. Wald (Henry Street Settlement in New York City), Edward T.
Devine (General Secretary of the New York Charity Organization Society), Jane
Addams (Cofounder of Hull House in Chicago), and Mary McDowell (founder of the
University of Chicago Settlement in 1894) presented their proposal for a
federal Children's Bureau to President Theodore Roosevelt, who gave them his
private endorsement.
(See: page 15, A right to childhood : the U.S. Children's Bureau and child welfare, 1912-46 / Kriste Lindenmeyer. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1997.)
January 10, 1906: Senator Murray Crane of
Massachusetts introduced a bill (S. 2962) "...to establish in the Department of
the Interior a bureau to be known as the Children's Bureau;". On May 9, 1906,
Representative John J. Gardner (R-NJ) introduced an identical bill (H. R.
19115) in the House of Representatives.
(See: page 17, A right to childhood : the U.S. Children's Bureau and child welfare, 1912-46 / Kriste Lindenmeyer. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1997..)
May 9, 1906: Congressman John James Gardner (R-NJ) introduced H. R. 19115, to establish a bureau to be known as the Children's Bureau in the Department of the Interior. The bill was referred to the Committee on Labor.
By Mr. GARDNER of New Jersey : A bill (H. R. 19115) to establish in the Department of the Interior a burearu to be known as the Children's Bureau—to the Committee on Labor.
(See: page 6601 of the Congressional Record, of the Fifty-Ninth Congress, First Session, Volume 40, Part 7, available at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb/_crecb/Volume%20040%20(1906))
December 5, 1906: Senator Albert J.
Beveridge, Indiana, introduced "A Bill to Prevent the Employment of Children in
Factories and Mines" (S. 6562) that
would ban 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. On December 6, 1906,
Representative Herbert Parsons of New York introduced the bill in the House of
Representatives (H.R. 21404).
(See: page 50 of the Congressional Record, of the Fifty-Ninth Congress, First Session, Volume 48, Part 2, available at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb/_crecb/Volume%20048%20(1912))
February 8, 1907: The National Child Labor
Committee was incorporated through a special act of Congress (S. 6364).
(See: page 75, The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008.)
January 25 and 26, 1909: President Theodore
Roosevelt hosted a White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children.
(See: page 19, A right to childhood : the U.S. Children's Bureau and child welfare, 1912-46 / Kriste Lindenmeyer. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1997..)
January 1, 1910: The Special Committee on a
Uniform Child Labor Law submitted their Report to the Conference of
Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.
(See: Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (U.S.). Special Committee on a Uniform Child Labor Law. Boston : Wright & Potter, 1910.)
August 25 and 26, 1911: During their 1911
Annual Conference the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws adopted a Uniform Child Labor Law
developed by the National Child Labor Committeee and the American Bar
Assocition Special Committee on a Uniform Child Labor Law.
1911: The American Bar Association adopted a
recommended Child Labor Law.
January 13, 1912: A bill to establish a
federal Children's Bureau passed the Senate by a vote of 54-19. It was signed
by President William Howard Taft on April 9, 1912.
(See: page 98, A right to childhood : the U.S. Children's Bureau and child welfare, 1912-46 / Kriste Lindenmeyer. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1997..)
1912: A bill limiting the hours of work for
women and children in New York factories to 54 hours a week was passed through
the efforts of Frances Perkins, at that time a lobbyist for the National
Consumer's League.
(See: pages 80-84 and 91-100, in Madam Secretary, Frances Perkins, by George Martin. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1976.)
April 9, 1912: President William Howard Taft
signed the bill creating a federal Children's Bureau.
(See: page 26, A right to childhood : the U.S. Children's Bureau and child welfare, 1912-46 / Kriste Lindenmeyer. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1997..)
1912: Four measures addressing child labor
were introduced during a Special Session of Congress, called by President
Woodrow Wilson to consider the Federal Reserve Act and tariff reduction.
(See: page 26, Constitutional politics in the progressive era; child labor and the law, by Stephen B. Wood. Chicago, University of Chicago Press [1968]. See also page 122, The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008.)
January 6, 1914: The National Child Labor
Committee announced support for the passage of a federal law regulating child
labor.
December 24, 1914: Representative A. Mitchell
Palmer (D-Pa.) and Senator Robert L. Owen (D-Okla.) introduced a child labor
bill (S. 4571 and H.R. 12292).
(See: page 2356 of the Congressional Record, Second Session of the Fifty-Ninth Congress, Second Session, Volume 51, Part 3, available at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb/_crecb/Volume%20048%20(1912))
January 7, 1916: Senator Keating introduced
the Keating–Owen Child Labor
Act of 1916, "H.R. 8234, A Bill for an Act to Prevent Interstate Commerce
in the Products of Child Labor, January 17, 1916." Based on the 1906 child
labor bill proposed by Senator Albert J. Beveridge, the bill 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 where children under the age of 16 work at night or for more than
8 hours during the day. The Keating-Owen Act was passed by Congress and signed
into law by President Woodrow Wilson.
February 2, 1916: The Keating-Owen Act (H.R. 8234) bill to prevent interstate commerce in
the products of child labor was approved by the House of Representatives by a
vote of 337 to 46.
June 3, 1918: Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U.S.
251. The Supreme Court declared the Keating-Owen Child Labor bill
unconstitutional. This decision was overruled by the United States Supreme
Court on February 3, 1941 in United States v. Darby Lumber Co. (312 US
100)
September 19, 1918: Congress approved the
District of Columbia minimum-wage
law (40 Stat. 960) guaranteeing a minimum wage to women and children
employed in the District of Columbia. The bill included the definition that
"The term "minor" means a person of either sex under the age of eighteen
years;"
December 1918: The Child Labor Tax
Law, (H.R. 12863, Revenue Act of 1919) passed as part of the Revenue Act of
1919, imposed a federal excise tax of 10% on annual net profits of those
employers who used child labor in certain businesses.
May 15, 1922: Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co., 259
U.S. 20. The Supreme Court ruled the 1919 Child Labor Tax Law
unconstitutional as an improper attempt by Congress to penalize employers using
child labor.
(See: volume I, pages 520-525, The child and the state ... select documents, with introductory notes by Grace Abbott ... Chicago, Ill., The University of Chicago press [1938])
"When the Supreme Court handed down its decision against the constitutionality of the child-labor law of 1916, the United States was at the height of war production. The task of enforcing the new provisions for the protection of working children had been performed with success under trying conditions, and it was felt that a misfortune to the children would be caused if the decision of the Supreme Court destroyed all Federal protection. Accordingly the War Labor Policies Board gave instructions that the provisions of the former law as to ages, hours, and working conditions should be incorporated in all war contracts, and the Children's Bureau was asked to make inspections in order to learn how far employers were comping with the terms of their contracts. Certain investigations for the purpose of learning the effect of the decision upon the employment of children were also made under the bureau's general powers.
(See: page 8, Administration of the First Federal Child-Labor Law, Childrens Bureau, Department of Labor. Washington, Government Printing Office., 1921.)
May 16, 1922: In reponse to the Supreme Court
decision in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co., the board of trustees of the
National Child Labor Committee Board of Trustees "…created a special
subcommittee to study the situation and recommend a course of action."
(See: page 164, The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008.)
June 1, 1922: At the invitation of Samuel
Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), a conference was
held in Washington to consider a course of action following the the Supreme
Court decision in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co.. Participating were
representatives of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, the
Catholic University and the National Catholic Welfare Council, the National
Consumers’ League; and the National Women’s Trade Union League, the
U.S.Children’s Bureau, the National Council of Jewish Women, the National
Education Association, the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher
Associations, the National Federation of Teachers, the General Federation of
Women’s Clubs, the National League of Women Voters, the YWCA, the
American Association of University Women, and the National Women’s
Christian Temperance Union. "Out of this gathering emerged the Permanent
Conference for the Abolition of Child Labor, representing some twenty-five
national groups with a variety of political and social views. The Conference
decided that the only way to eliminate child labor was by amending the
Constitution."
(See: pages 163-164, and chapter 7, footnote 2, on page 279 of The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008.)
June, 1922: In early June, the Permanent
Conference for the Abolition of Child Labor established a committee of ten to
draft a child labor amendment. In preparing the draft the special committee
consulted several noted constitutional lawyers, including Roscoe Pound, former
Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, Professor Ernst Freund of the University of
Chicago Law School, and Joseph P. Chamberlain of Columbia University Law
School. The final version, written by Edward P. Costigan, a member of the
United States Tariff Commission (later U.S. Senator from Colorado) would be
introduced in the Senate on July 26 by Medill McCormick of Illinois and in the
House by Israel M. Foster of Ohio.
(See: page 164, and chapter 7, footnote 5, on page 280 of The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008. See also: "Federal Regulation of Child Labor, 1906-38,” Grace Abbott. Social Service Review, XIII, (September 1939), 419.)
"The Child Labor Amendment was submitted as follows: Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution:
Article........
Section 1. The Congress shall have power to limit, regulate, and prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age.
Section 2. The power of the several States is unimpaired by this article except that the operation of the State laws shall be suspended to the extent necessary to give effect to legislatin enacted by the Congress [U.S. Statutes, XLIII, Part 1, 670]."
(See: "Federal Regulation of Child Labor, 1906-38,” Grace Abbott. Social Service Review, XIII, (September 1939), 419.)
July 26, 1922: Committee on Public Lands
and Surveys. By Mr. McCORMICK: A joint resolution (S.J. Res. 232) proposing an
amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to child labor; to
the Committee on the Judiciary.
(See: page 10642 of the Congressional Record,of the Sixty-Seventh Congress, Second Session, Volume 62, Part 10, available at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb/_crecb/Volume%20062%20(1922))
February 19, 1923: The Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reported a proposed amendment that had been submitted
by the National Child Labor Committee, which granted Congress power concurrent with the several states, to limit or prohibit the labor of persons under the age of 18
years.
However, Congress adjourned without approving the amendment. (See New York Times article FOR CHILD LABOR CONTROL
)
April 9, 1923: Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261
U.S. 525. The Supreme Court ruled that the 1918 District of Columbia
Minimum Wage Act, establishing a federal minimum wage for women and children
employed in the District of Columbia, was an unconstitutional infringement of
liberty of contract.
April 26, 1924: The House of Representatives
approved the Child Labor Amendment to the Constitution (H. J. Res. 184) by a vote of 297 to 69.
(See: "Unratified Amendments: Regulating
Child Labor" in Pieces of History, National Archives and Records
Administration, at
https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2020/03/24/unratified-amendments-regulating-child-labor/. See also: Child Labor Amendment Submitted by Congress, 1924,
43 United States Statutes, Part I, p. 670, in volume 1, pages 536 to 537, The child and the state ... select documents, with introductory notesby Grace Abbott ...Chicago, Ill., The University of Chicago press [1938]. See also: Pages 525-526, The Child Labor Amendment, The House Judiciary Committee Report on the Proposed Amendment in 1924
. In The child and the state; select documents, with introductory notes. Grace Abbott. New York, Greenwood Press [1968, c1938])
June 2, 1924: The United States Senate
approved the Child Labor Amendment to the Constitution (H. J. Res. 184) by a vote of 61 to 23, with
12 not voting.
September 4, 1924: In an article opposing the Child Labor Amendment, the National Association of Manufacturers warned that If adopted, this amendment would be the greatest thing ever done in America on behalf of the activities of Hell. It would make millions of young people under 18 years of age idlers in brain and body, and thus make them the devil's best workshop. It would destroy initiative and self-reliance and manhood and womanhood of all the coming generations.
(See: "What the Child Labor Amendment Means," Manufacturer's Record (Baltimore, MD., September 4, 1924" in The child and the state ... select documents, with introductory notes by Grace Abbott ...Chicago, Ill., The University of Chicago press [1938]), Pages 557 to 559.)
November 1924: In the "The Child Labor Amendment, Fact Sheet No. IV" the National League of Women Voters reviewed how the age limit for child labor was fixed at 18 years or higher.
October 7, 1926: The National Association of
Manufacturers Committee on Junior Education and Employment issued their report
titled "Answers to Thirteen Leading Question Regarding Employment and Education
of Children." The National Child Labor Committee review of that report, in
their November issue of The American Child, included the statement that
The general trend of their study is as follows: The majority of children who
leave school under sixteen are retarded; the retarded children are usually
mentally inferior and would not profit if they did remain in school. Therefore,
they seem to conclude, attendance should be compulsory only to the fourteenth
year, and these retarded children, at least, should be allowed to go to work at
that age.
(See: page 181 to 182, The crusade for children : the Children's Aid Society's early years to present, New York : Children's Aid Society, 2008. See also The American Child, aMonthly Bulletin of General Child Welfare, November, 1926. Vol. VIII. No. 11, Published Monthly by the National Child Labor Committee. See also: Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, on the Child-Labor Amendment to the Constitution of the United States To Accompany H. J. Res. 184 (House Report No. 395 [68th Cong., 1st sess.; Washington, D.C., 1924]) in Volume 1, Pages 525 to 526, in The child and the state ... select documents, with introductory notes by Grace Abbott ...Chicago, Ill., The University of Chicago press [1938])
August 10, 1933: President Franklin D.
Roosevelt issued Executive
Order 6246, requiring government contractors to comply with codes of fair
competition issued under the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). This
became moot when the Supreme Court struck down the NIRA in Schechter Poultry
Corp. v. United States (1935).
March, 1935: An analysis of several hundred industrial codes adopted under the National Industrial Recovery Act, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, found that in general the codes provided for 16 years as the minimum for employment of minors under
codes, although higher age limits were established for industries and occupations with peculiar hazards.
(See: Page 591 in "Analysis of the Labor Provisions of N. R. A. Codes" by Margaret H. Schoenfeld. Monthly Labor Review.Vol. 40, No. 3 (March 1935), pp. 574-603 (30 pages)
May 27, 1935: In Schechter Corp. v. United States, (295
U.S. 495), the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the National Recovery Act
was unconstitutional.
Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins wrote that "As
the Administration perpared the language of the Fair Labor Standards Act of
1937, "One last minute change was the insertion of a clause prohibiting the
labor of youngsters under sixteen in industries engaged in interstate commerce
or affecting interstate commerce, and providing for not more than eight hours
of work a day for children over sixteen. As Grace Abbott, Chief of the
Children’s Bureau, so eloquently pleaded, “You are hoping that you
have found a way around the Supreme Court. If you have, why not give the
children the benefit by attaching a child labor clause to this bill?” The
President readily agreed and was delighted that we might make this bill cover
child labor as well as low wages and long hours."
(See: page 256, Madam Secretary, Frances Perkins, by George Martin. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1976.)
December 1935: When the National Recovery Act was passed in 1933, a
16-year minimum was on the statute books of only four States, three of which were Western nonindustrial States. For the most part,
children were permitted to leave school for work at the age of 14. In contrast, practically all the codes, beginning with that for the cotton-textile industry, effective July 17, 1933, prohibited the employment of children under 16.
(See: "Recent Progress in Federal Regulation, 24. Child Labor under the N.R.A." by Ella Ar.villa Merritt. Monthly Labor Review, Vol. XLI (December, 1935). Pages 557 to 559 in The child and the state ... select documents, with introductory notes by Grace Abbott ...Chicago, Ill., The University of Chicago press [1938]))
January 4, 1937: The United States Supreme Court issued a decision in in the case of Kentucky Whip & Collar Co. v. Illinois Central R. Co., 299 U.S. 334 (1937). The decision included the finding that "Congress may prevent interstate transportation from being used to bring into a State articles which are innocuous in themselves, but the local traffic in which, because of its harmful consequences, has been constitutionally forbidden by the State."
May 24, 1937: The Fair Labor Standards Act of
1937 was introduced in Congress as S. 2475 in the Senate, and H.R. 7200 in the
House of Representatives.
(See: "May 24, 1937 to June 28, 1938: Introduction and Approval of The Fair Labor Standards Act" at http://vlibrary.info/FLSA/FLSA_IP.html)
June 25, 1938: The Fair Labor Standards Act
of 1938 (FLSA) was passed by Congress and signed by President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt
October 24, 1938: The Fair Labor Standards
Act went into effect.
February 3, 1941: In United States v.
Darby, 312 U.S. 100 (1941), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Fair Labor
Standards Act was "within the authority of Congress within the commerce power
and consistent with the Fifth and Tenth Amendments."
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