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Child labor laws during the industrial era
Child labor's negative effects
Child labor laws during the industrial era
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Child Labor
What if your young son or daughter was working in a big factory, breathing in bad chemicals, and losing fingers in the machinery? Would you be okay with that? I highly doubt you would be. The conditions of factories can be terrible, unsafe, and unhealthy for children to work in for extended periods of time. These children can get respiratory problems, diseases, and many other conditions, just because they are working there. These things would be happening if the government never stepped in and made rules. I therefore believe the government should be allowed to restrict child labor, including the hours, the pay, education requirements,
Without the government restrictions, one event that would occur would be that our children would be working very long ours, getting paid less than everyone else. Our children could be doing the same jobs adults do or should do, but get paid significantly less. “Nearby, nine-year-old Cristina works alongside five family members, including siblings and cousins. This is her second week- end in the fields and she struggles to keep up with the others. Together, the six hope to earn $100 for a full day’s work, which averages out to around $2 per hour worked. More than a dozen other children are working in the same field. They lean over to snip and gather onions. Exhaustion paints their faces as they carry heavy buckets to burlap sacks stationed around the field. The children earn about a penny for every pound of onions picked” (Child Labour Stories). This implies that the children are doing labor that is significantly harder than the average middle-class jobs, and getting paid as if it is worth nothing. These children should get paid as equal as adults, because they are working even harder tha...
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...because they are working long, hard hours of labor, they wouldn’t be very educated, which would therefore make it hard to work at a non-labor job in the future, and they would of spent almost all the money earned just to feed themselves. This means that if they want to help with household income, they may have to go without a meal to get by. If we have restrictions, we wouldn’t have to deal with these, and would therefore make life a lot easier, and safer, for us all.
Works Cited
"Thomas Jefferson quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasjeff130495.html
"Child Labour Stories." Digital Commons. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
"Lack of Education…the Root of Children's Rights Violations?" Foreign Policy Blogs Lack of Education the Root of Childrens Rights Violations Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
The owners of these factories had no incentive to look out for the child’s safety or health. The workers also followed a very strict schedule. All workers had to be at the same place at the same time allotted to them. If a worker was injured, he was easily replaced. Another negative was the working conditions.
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...
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.
In 1900, there were 1.75 million child workers in the United States alone, that was 18 percent of all American workers at the time. In southern cotton mills 25 percent of the employees were below the age of fifteen, with half of them being below the age of 3 (History.com). Child Labor is the the use of children in industry or business when considered illegal or inhumane. Child Labor is a social issue that was at its peak during the Industrial Revolution and still occurs today, but has declined drastically over the years due to the unions against it and laws put in affect.
...l of rights were enacted, everyone would be employed but there would be very little growth within the country. The country would be a very different place.
Throughout time children have worked myriad hours in hazardous workplaces in order to make a few cents to a few dollars. This is known as child labor, where children are risking their lives daily for money. Today child labor continues to exist all over the world and even in the United States where children pick fruits and vegetables in difficult conditions. According to the article, “What is Child Labor”; it states that roughly 215 million children around the world are working between the ages of 5 and 17 in harmful workplaces. Child labor continues to exist because many families live in poverty and with more working hands there is an increase in income. Other families take their children to work in the fields because they have no access to childcare and extra money is beneficial to buy basic needs. Although there are laws and regulations that protect children from child labor, stronger enforcement is required because child labor not only exploits children but also has detrimental effects on a child’s health, education, and the people of the nation.
Throughout history, children have always worked, either as apprentices or servants. However, child labor reached a whole new scale during the time period of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the time frame of late 1800s-early 1900s, children worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little wages. They were considered useful as laborers because their small stature allowed them to be cramped into smaller spaces, and they could be paid less for their services. Many worked to help support their families, and by doing so, they forwent their education. Numerous nineteenth century reformers and labor groups sought to restrict child labor and to improve working conditions.
...them to move in crowded spaces in factories or mines where adults would not fit. Children were easier to manage and control and most importantly paid less than adults. Although child labor has been substantially eliminated it still causes a problem in a few areas of the economy. The United States has yet to eliminate all abuse and violations. United States has come to meet the intentions of child labor reform byhelping to determine the laws and general practice andchildren should not be full time workers like adults. Meaning children should be in schooling programs getting their education instead of working in hazardous areas and putting themselves in harms way.
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.
When child labor is examined, individuals and societies feel moral and emotional tugs. The Freudian super ego is appalled that, especially in the modern world, there would be such a preposterous issue. The Freudian id would rationalize numerous reasons, even justifications, of why child labor exists and would be necessary. Every corner of the earth has known this conflict to one degree or another. In the United States, the conflict is activated or denied with the purchase of an expensive sneaker. The child who is exploited on the other side of the world rarely receives a nod of concern for the slavery he endures. Countless items are similarly purchased with similar child working conditions. The children of note are under fifteen years of age and economically active. There are 120 million of these exploited human beings who work full time, often ten hours per day.
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.
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.
This film was very fascinating and I was intrigued by the progression of the labor history pertaining to immigrants in the United States. A large chunk of this documentary was dedicated to the various labor organizations, unions, and strikes throughout the early 1990’s, however, what struck me most, was fairly early on in the film (about 10 minutes) pertaining to child labor. There was a statistic that over 2 million kids were employed, but over 6 million adults were unemployed. A voiceover suggested that so many grown-ups were in this state because why would someone “hire an adult for $1, when you could hire a kid for a dime” (Mayer, 1964).
They would at least need breaks or be able to volunteer for it. What do you think of children being forced into labor, having to work without them wanting to? I think its super bad and unfair. Another bad thing about it is they are not rewarded. They don’t receive housing, food or even money from doing this work, they work harder than most people and they get payed nothing?
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.