Arguments Against Child Labor Laws

858 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Descriptions of child labor

Child Labor Laws today are very strict on what children of certain ages are allowed to complete, and what they are not allowed to do. Labor laws have not always been around, and often children had to work hard jobs, for long hours of the day. Back in time you would catch children, black, with dirt on their face, and under their finger nails. Their clothes were poor for the conditions they were working in, and their pay was terrible for the type of work. The article that was provided above, explains first hand some of the issues that one these child workers had to endure. Along with the article that was written, pictures were provided along. The three pieces of evidence, mostly work together to explain the same message, but can be a little confusing, when looking at all the details. After reading the article about the conditions of the childs job, the pictures dont come anywhere close to describing the harms these …show more content…

In the article the little girl explains her poor pay amount, and how most of the pay she recieves goes to sleep quarters, and food. She then explains that with the rest of her money she had to buy herself a pair of shoes. The children are struggling to have proper clothing and being clean in these jobs. "Tuesday we were paid. In all I had six dollars and sixty cents [and] paid four dollars and sixty–eight cents for board (housing/food). With the rest I got me a pair of [rubber boots] and a pair of shoes." The pictures actually prove this statement in the article to be true. The picture of the little girl; For example, shows her without shoes in an area of work. Along with no shoes, she is wearing a dress, with legs showing, around machinery. The picture with the young boys, illustrates the boys in dirty shorts, with legs showing. The clothing of children in the work force are not properly clean, and do not meet regulations of todays

Show More
Related

  • Dbq Industrial Revolution

    688 Words  | 2 Pages

    Working conditions were described as dangerous, dirty, unhealthy, polluted, dark, dim and drafty. These workers who worked very hard with their strong muscles in these horrible conditions were not valued. If they were hurt and could not work, they were simply replaced. This was also stated in Document 4, with the same thing happening to children. In conclusion, both adult and child workers were not valued equally and treated like garbage.

    Read More

  • Gilded Age: Captains Of Industry

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    Often, children were forced to work due to money-related issues, and the conditions they worked in were terrible. Children worked in coal mining, such as at Woodward Coal Mining in Kingston, Pennsylvania (Doc. 7). Children were used to make the process of producing products cheaper, and they were paid low wages; the capitalists hired children just to keep the process of making products going and to make profit. One cause of child labor in harsh conditions was the unfateful fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City in 1911. Teenaged immigrant girls that were employed there worked under sweatshop-like conditions. The building they worked in was inadequately equipped in case of a fire, for the doors were locked, leaving no exit for the girls, and the single fire escape collapsed with the rescue effort; as a result, when the fire started, they were unable to escape. 145 workers were killed, but the company owners were not penalized harshly for this tragedy. This further demonstrates that capitalists were able to get away with the harsh conditions that they put their laborers, especially child laborers, through for their own benefit, which is making more money and using any means to get it, even if those means are low wages and harsh working

    Read More

  • Working Conditions And Laws In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

    1484 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...nd frankly an alien to these primitive working conditions. "And, for this, at the end of the week, he will carry home three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour-just about his proper share of the million and three quarters of children who are now engaged in earning their livings in the United States."(Sinclair pg. 85). I could not imagine myself being subjected to these ridiculous working conditions. I could not picture my kids at such young ages being forced to work like slaves in order to survive or to eat there next meal. In this day and age labor laws, health codes, and fire codes are so complex that this way of life are from the stone age and today are unheard of. Employers in modern times would not only be fined but they would possibly lose their business or be thrown in prison because as of today it is a crime rightfully so.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Women Miners In The English Coal Pits

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    They were forced to go out to work and make a rapid transition into adulthood. In these work places they, like any other adult, had a limited amount of time to eat. Patience Kershaw, a miner at the age of 17 recalls having cake for dinner- in inadequate dinner- and she does “not stop or rest at any time for the purpose” referring to her inability to eat throughout the day . She of course is not the only one, Elizabeth Bentley who works in the mills was asked whether she had the opportunity to eat in the factory. The 23 year old who began working at the age of 6 replied with a “no” saying how she had little to eat. The human rights were furthermore diminished as I read further on about the consequences there were if a child were to arrive late to work or became drowsy. Clearly the long hours and often times the long travel from home to work would severely tire anyone, to keep the kids under control and alert while working, the over lookers resorted to strapping them “when they became drowsy”. Matthew Crabtree explains the dread that these kids had of getting beaten, due to the fear they had we can infer that the means of physical abuse was prevalent in these factories. In the mines the young girls and women had to adapt to the conditions of their workplace. The vigorous lifting and loading was a strenuous activity done by both sexes, males worked naked to combat heat while females also worked

    Read More

  • Child Labor In The Late 1800's

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many times the factory owner could get away with paying them nothing at all. The children obviously got little to no education. Many orphans were treated as slaves, they would say that the

    Read More

  • Progressive Era and Working Conditions

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    Factories were utilizing children to do the hard work. They employed children as young as five or six to work as many as twenty hours a day. According to Document C, children worked in factories to build up muscles and having good intellect in working rather than getting an education. They became a different person rather than conventional children. There were additionally health issues due to child labor: rapid skeletal growth, greater risk of hearing loss, higher chemical absorption rates, and developing ability to assess risks. Progressive Era reformers believed that child labor was detrimental to children and to society. They believed that children should be protected from harmful environments, so they would become healthy and productive adults. In 1912, Congress created the Children’s Bureau to benefit children. The Keating-Owen Act was passed in 1916 to freed children from child labor only in industries that engaged in interstate commerce. However, it was declared unconstitutional sinc...

    Read More

  • Child Labor In The 1800s Essay

    1934 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sadly, the children had no choice but to work for very little pay. Their mothers and fathers made so little money in the factory system that they couldn’t afford to let their children enjoy their childhood: “Other working children were indentured—their parents sold their labor to the mill owner for a period of years. Others lived with their families and worked for wages as adults did, for long hours and under hard conditions” (Cleland). The child had no other choice, but to work for these big businesses.

    Read More

  • Harvest Rich Factory Research Paper

    777 Words  | 2 Pages

    Subsequently, the children report being routinely slapped and beaten, sometimes falling down from exhaustion, forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, even some all night, 19 to 20 hour shifts, often seven days a week, for wages as low as 6 ½ cents an hour. The National Labor Committee declares that these children wake up at 5:00am and brush their teeth using just their finger and ashes from the fire due to them not being able to afford a toothbrush or toothpaste. The child workers state, “if they could earn just 36 cents an hour, they could climb out of misery and into poverty, where they could live with a modicum of decency.”

    Read More

  • Progressive Movement Dbq

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jacob Riis was a photographer and writer who portrayed the terrible conditions of the lower class through his book How the Other Half Lives. Riis in Document E writes, “the suffering and the sins of the other half.” He exposes what the life of the poor was like since most people were unaware. He publicized their terrible living conditions through his meaningful pictures. People were shocked when they discovered the truth just like the wealthy, older women from the video America: The Story of Us. When they saw children struggling and living in the streets, they were horrified of the scenes that were displayed. The National Child Labor Committee was also aimed and towards setting laws against child labor. Document L says, “The future of the family demands on education that child labor can not give,” and “The workers show a greater tendency than the non-workers to go wrong.” They address the false beliefs and misconceptions people may have about this wrongdoing. Children had to work in factories with terrible working conditions and were often injured or even killed on the job. Document V states, “The boys working in the breaker are bent double. He continues to cough up the black coal dust.” It also includes, “fell or were carried by coal down into the car below. One was badly burned and the other was smothered to death.” This is an outrage to see that the business

    Read More

  • Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine waking up at five in the morning to walk over a mile to a factory where you work until noon where you get a half hour break for lunch, then it’s back to work until nine or ten at night, when you are finally allowed to go home and you are only eight years old. Today that seems unimaginable, but during the early 19th century it was the everyday life of thousands of children whose ages range from as young as five until you died. During the Industrial Revolution many children were required to work dangerous jobs to help their families.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: The Legalization Of Child Labor

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    How would you feel if your child worked extreme hours trying to earn money for your family? Imagine yourself being in a situation where you are too scared to speak out for your own welfare-- afraid that your life will be in jeopardy? Labor rights ensure a worker’s safety, proper payment, reasonable working hours, and termination of child labor. In many areas of the world, labor rights are not even provided. Such disregard is a violation of human rights. Despite all the changes made through history, employers and manufacturing companies still do not have respect for laborers and their rights. In order to respect one’s human rights, employers must treat workers’ rights as essentials to human rights. Workers deserve the right to demand for decent working conditions.

    Read More

  • Child Labor In The 1800s

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many states were involved and enacted laws by the 1920s. Overall 36 states set laws against children, under the age of 16, working in factories at night or over eight hours. As a result, a lot people began to see the negative sides of child labor and advocated for children. More kids went to school for free and worked until they were 16. Thanks to the International Labor Organization, they’ve kept an eye out to regulate work since the twentieth century.

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    2143 Words  | 5 Pages

    The next time when you are out on your shopping trip, chances you may have support a business that exploits children. It is very disturbing and heartbreaking to learn many children are chained to looms for 12 hours a day because families need to have their child bringing home a small amount of moneys. Child labor has always been a difficult subject to address, the topic have become much more complicated and prolific.

    Read More

  • Industrial Revolution Essay

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    All over Britain new factories were being built and with them, the demand for workers increased. Even though the pay was low for adults, it was still too much for the factory owners to afford. They also needed workers who were small enough to fit into the tight spaces in the new machines. Child labour was the only option. There were many more dangerous jobs which children had to perform, some included crawling under the wool and cotton machines to fix threads. These children had to work for the majority of the day with little or no breaks. Some of them were as young as four. Children were made to work in mines as rushers and harriers. These jobs as well as many other jobs often meant very young children had to work long hours. “I am a harrier. I am fourteen years old and I have been employed ever since I was six. I come to work at seven o’clock, and sometimes leave at four, five or six in the evening in summer, and in the winter near seven.” (Speed and Speed, 1985). As stated in that quote, children had a hard life working in mines and other work places. The pay was also much lower than adult workers in the same factory. Injury was common in work places for kids; they ranged from broken bones to death. The factories had very poor sanitation, which led to...

    Read More

  • Child Labour: NOT Always Wrong

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    A young child dies from exhaustion, their limp body has been pushed to the very limit and they finally give in to death and another child has just become a statistic. This child was not even eleven years old. They had just completed their twenty hour day and then stumbled home 6 miles from where they were working. They saw their house in the distance which gave them hope to keep on walking. They dragged their feet towards the corner where they slept; their eyes are drooping not just from physical tiredness but from the pain of living this way. The last thing this little child saw was darkness, the last thing this weak child felt was coldness and the last thing this unfortunate child could do, was give up. At last this child is able to rest. This child was a victim of child labour. So, I ask you; is child labour morally right? I will argue that the exploitation of children is always wrong but that sometimes child labour is a necessary evil. I will also distinguish between child labour and child work.

    Read More

More about Arguments Against Child Labor Laws

Open Document