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The Child Labor Amendment

Child Labor Amendment
During the Progressive Era, between the turn of the century and outbreak of WWI, there was tremendous growth in industrialization that required more workers. Many of the workers were poor people—including children—all of whom worked for little wages, long hours, and in hazardous working conditions. On April 26, 1924, a Republican Congressman of Ohio, Israel M. Foster, introduced the “Child Labor Amendment. This amendment was proposed which granted Congress the power to regulate the labor of children under the age of 18. Foster’s bill, House Joint Resolution No. 184, passed quickly through the House on April 26, survived the Senate on June 2, 1924 (Dredge). However, to add an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, 75 percent of the states must ratify it. Congressional research shows that the amendment was ratified by only 28 states, the last being Kansas in 1937. It still has not been ratified by the required and it still can be.1

Text
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 State laws shall be suspended to the extent necessary to give effect to legislation enacted by the Congress. Article V does not require Congress to broadcast the amendment process. According to ERA Congress has promulgated only two amendments, the 14th and the 27th, following the final state ratification. In addition, the requirement for ratification within a "sufficiently contemporaneous" time frame and the chronological definition of "contemporaneous" are now open to question in light of the Madison Amendment experience. This Amendment on “Child Labor” has not been ratified by the requisite number of States and continues to be subject to ratification. It was proposed in the first session of the sixty-eighth Congress, by a Joint Resolution (H. J. Res. 184) on June 2, 1924, when it passed the Senate by a vote of 62 to 23. It had previously passed the House of Representatives on April 26, 1924, by a vote of 297 to 69. Following its passage, Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes certified as proposed, and transmitted this proposed Amendment to the forty-eight States for ratification consideration, on June 6, 1924. According to Equal Rights Amendment, the proposed Child Labor Amendment was sent to the states in 1924 with no time limit. Therefore, it can still be ratified as an Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Article V text states: “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article, and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of it's equal Suffrage in the Senate” (Unfinished Business).

Background
Child labor was common at the turn of the century, primarily because of the boom of industrial mechanization. These jobs were low paying jobs and many poor white people and immigrants needed the income of their children to survive. The U. S Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in an article by Donald M. Fisk that the 1900 census counted 1.75 million individuals aged 10 to 15 who were gainful workers. Fisk also stated that there were no national laws that governed child labor, and while some States enacted and enforced such laws, most did not.

A report from the Department of Labor prepared by Historian/Industrial Relations Specialist, Henry P. Guzda, titled, “Danger: Children at Work--A Bibliographic Time Capsule” affirms that as the U.S. embarked on the age of industrial capitalism, beginning in the 1890s, an unwholesome byproduct was child labor. (Guzda). From the end of the nineteenth century, poor people and child labor has been a concern to socialists and progressives. [Muckrakers] exposed the public to unfair business practices in the work industry, which included [child labor]. In the Journal of Legal History, "Historicizing the Figure of The Child In Legal Discourse: The Battle Over The Regulation of Child Labor,” author Julia Novkov expressed that the pattern of ratification was unsurprisingly. The explanation was that the pattern “was fairly coherent geographically: the West and Midwest largely ratified and the South (except for Kentucky and Arkansas) did not, but geography and its economic implications alone could not explain the nature of the battle. ” In addition, she also conveyed that David Kyvig, author of Explicit and Authentic Acts: Amending The Us Constitution, 1776-1995, and other scholars of the amendment process point out correctly that the child labor amendment should not be seen in isolation from constitutional politics during these years. Between 1913 and 1933, the nation amended the Constitution six times, a pace unmatched by any other period in US history since the founding.

The opponents of child labor sought a constitutional amendment authorizing federal child labor legislation. The Amendment that Congress passed in 1924, was halted by conservative political climate of the 1920s, together with opposition from some church groups and farm organizations that feared a possible increase of federal power in areas related to children, prevented many states from ratifying it, according to Bart Dredge’s article in the North Carolina Historical Review, titled “David Clark's ‘Campaign of Enlightenment’: Child Labor and the Farmers' States Rights League, 1911-1940.” David Clark played an intricate part in Child labor Amendment not being ratified. Clark was the publisher and editor of the influential Southern Textile Bulletin (STB), after his cotton mill failed in 1907. He was extremely conservative. Drudge related that on November 12, 1925,  Clark boasted that from June 1924 to February 1925, he had single-handedly   pursued a "campaign of enlightenment" through the Farmers' States Rights League (FSRL),  distributing  over  250,000 pieces of literature against the amendment.

Other factors also contributed in a major way to the decline of child labor. New types of machinery cut into the use of children in two ways. Many simple tasks done by children were mechanized, and semiskilled adults became necessary for the most efficient use of the equipment. In addition, jobs of all sorts increasingly required higher educational levels. The states responded by increasing the number of years of schooling required, lengthening the school year, and enforcing truancy laws more effectively. The need for education was so clear that Congress in 1949 amended the child labor law to include businesses not covered in 1938, principally commercial agriculture, transportation, communications, and public utilities.

Violations of the child labor laws continue among economically impoverished migrant agricultural workers. Employers in the garment industry in New York City have turned to the children of illegal immigrants in an effort to compete with imports from low-wage nations. The recent liberalization of the federal government’s rules concerning work done at home also increases the likelihood of illegal child labor. Some children continue to labor an excessive number of hours or hold prohibited jobs. Effectiveness in enforcement varies from state to state. Clearly, the United States has not yet eliminated all the abuses and violations, but it has met the objective of the child labor reformers and determined by law and general practice that children shall not be full-time workers (Foner and Garraty, Editors).

Legislative History
Through 1900, there were no federal and only a few State laws that regulated and restricted the use of child labor. Many middle-class progressives fought against the abuse and exploitation of child labor. One of the first formal, public organizations in support of restricting child labor and improving working conditions was the [National Child Labor Committee]. At the national level, the first major legislation to regulate child labor was the Keating-Owens Child Labor Act in 1916. Supposedly justified under the commerce clause in Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution, it severely restricted the interstate transportation or foreign shipment of any products from mines, quarries, mills, canneries, workshops, factories or manufactures that did not otherwise adhere to certain minimum hiring ages and other requirements of the Act. However it was short-lived, being found unconstitutional in the Supreme Court case of Hammer v. Dagenhart the “Child Labor” case. According to David Woods of “Our Constitution,” the court ruled on June 3, 1918 that this Act was beyond Congress’ power to regulate commerce and that it infringed upon constitutional powers reserved to the States under Article of Amendment X.

In 1919, Congress passed the [Child Labor Tax Act], which was also short lived, because it was found to be unconstitutional. In the 1922 Supreme Court case of Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co., the “Child Labor Tax” case, the Court ruled that the purpose of the Act was not taxation, an otherwise legitimate congressional power, but rather was to federally regulate child labor. In response, the opponents of child labor then sought a constitutional amendment authorizing federal child labor legislation. Congress passed the Child Labor Amendment in 1924, but the conservatives, some church groups and farm organizations that feared a possible increase of federal power in areas related to children, were instrumental in convincing many states from ratifying it, thus preventing it from becoming a ratified amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It was not until 1938, during the Great Depression that more people could see the benefit in having laws to govern child labor. The Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, was ratified. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 is also known as Child Labor Laws. The federal child labor provisions, authorized (FLSA), were authorized to ensure that when young people work, the work is safe and does not jeopardize their health, well-being or educational opportunities. This Act also incorporated which, among other items, including the regulation of the interstate transportation of goods made by businesses employing children under certain ages. “This effectively overruled both Hammer v. Dagenhart and Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co., and affirmatively established the power of Congress to regulate and restrict the use of child labor” (Wood, LOC).

Detailed information on the occupations determined to be hazardous by the Secretary is available from a local Wage and Hour Division office and in 29 CFR Part 570.

Child Labor Requirements in Nonagricultural Occupations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 has some exceptions that are explained in this Child Labor Bulletin 101. According to the Department of Labor, this provides information on who is covered by the FLSA, youth provisions and who are exempt, minimum age and wage standards, and the hazardous occupations in which youth under 18 cannot be employed.

Other Laws That Impact Child Labor
Unless otherwise exempt, a covered minor employee is entitled to receive the same minimum wage, overtime, safety and health, and nondiscrimination protections as adult workers. http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/childlabor101_text.htm

Child Labor Amendments of 1991 – Title I: Child Labor Provisions is a bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which is proposed to improve enforcement of the child labor provisions of such Act, as well as other purposes, including directing the Secretary to issue regulations to carry out this Act. This bill has not been passed.

Child Labor Amendments of 1993 – Title II: Child Labor Provisions - Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It is the same as Title I, and it also directs the Secretary to issue regulations to carry out this Act. This has not been passed.

Photograph
Title: Mrs. H.T. Upton, prominent Rep. leader and Secy. Davis conferring on New Child Labor Amendment Creator(s): Harris & Ewing, Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

(November 1908) by Lewis Hine, who wrote: "Ivey Mill Company, Hickory, N .C. Some doffers and sweepers. Plenty of them." National Child Labor Committee Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Young worker in merchants mill Boy taking boards away from "double cut-off" machine. #0223				Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940, photographer Date Created/Published: 1908 October.

1930s Oyster shuckers, Children of The Great Depression

"Addie Card, 12 years. Spinner in Cotton Mill. Vt." by Lewis Hine

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Reference List
page text"Child Labor Provisions for Nonagricultural Occupations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act." U.S. Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Division (WHD). Accessed November 23, 2014.

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Hazelr1 (talk)Hazel Reed Hazelr1 (talk) 14:03, 16 December 2014 (UTC)Hazel Reed Hazelr1 (talk) 14:00, 16 December 2014 (UTC)Hazel Reed