Florence Kelly's Speech On Child Labor

In Florence Kelly’s child labor speech she expresses her discontent with child labor, an and the lack of humanity our nations country have because it hasn’t ended. In her time period.

In the beginning of the essay she gives a vague image of the lifestyle american kids had: “We have in this country 2 million children under the age of sixteen years who’re earning their bread.” Not only does she inform us of the country’s status but she also uses the phrase “earning their bread to depict how the children are working for survival. “earning bread” is a symbol of survival. She introduces the problem at hand which is child labor. She then adds more information of who it affects more: “...but no contingent so doubles from census period to census period...as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty, years of age.” But of course doesn’t

only affect teenage girls but also many other people “men increase, women increase, youth increase.” She uses repetition to emphasize her point on how child labor affects all age groups.

“Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through…” She makes the reader and listeners feel guilty for sleeping nonchalantly as girls do rigorous work. By appealing to emotion, she hints how troublesome and inhumane child labor really is. Not only are the girls working rigorously but they’re working to make things that really aren’t needed: “...weaving cotton and wool silks and ribbons for us to buy.” The small detail also expounds at how unnecessary child labor really is. She continues to produce facts of how child labor is all over the country: “Alabama limit the children’s work at night to eight hours, .. . New Jersey permits [children working] all night long.” Despite the advantages children could have while

doing child labor, kelly uses an oxymoron to expound how meaningless the mercy is: “Now…. boys and girls after their 14th birthday enjoy the pitiful privilege of working all night long.”
Not only does she provide facts and guilt on the situation but she also provides a possible solution: “If the mothers and teachers in Georgia could vote, would the georgia legislature have refused at every session for the last three years to stop the work in the mill…?” She uses a Rhetorical question to offer a solution that would hit two birds with one stone. If women could vote, not only would it solve women’s suffrage but it could also solve the problem of child labor.
Nevertheless, until the problem is solved Kelly still blames all citizens of America for being a part of the inhumane development: “... We shall none of us be able to free our consciences from publication in this great evil.” Her diction in this sentence represents her discontent with the process and expounds on how everyone is a bystander as the government bullies the children.
To strengthen her view she adds more detail to what the children spend their prescious time doing: “... make our shoes… knit our stockings… knit our underwear… weave our cotton underwear… braid straw for our hats…” She adds detail to prove how tiring the work must be for the children. She keeps listing things people believe they need, and the constant repetition of objects proves how ridiculous the entire subject is.
She then begins to conclude her speech by talking about if women were to gain power, not only would it gain power over men but also power for the children. Even though they couldn’t vote they will still use every power they could, writing a petition, to help in any possible way to stop child labor: “For the sake of the children, for the republic in which these children will vote after we are dead, and for the sake of the cause…”