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Period: to
Progressive Era
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How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis
In 1890, early muckraker Jacob Riis publishes his book How the Other Half Lives, exposing the terrible tenement housing conditions of the New York poor. -
National Consumers League
The National Consumers League was chartered in 1899 by progressive reformers Jane Addams and Josephine Lowell. The league sought to reform worker conditions in sweatshops, including ending child labor, shorter workdays, and other protections against exploitation. -
Children's Crusades
March led by Mother Jones started from Pennsylviania to New York. Banner reading the following like "We Want Time to Play" or "We Want to go to School" while this event had no legisative impact, it was a people's demonstration against child labor. Please Note: All years on this timeline are accurate; the exact date and month if not verified will be noted as 1 Jan. -
Department of Commerce and Labor
The Department of Commerce and Labor was established in 1903 to ease tensions between management and workers. The department included a Bureau of Corporations, which regulated corporations. -
Square Deal Policy
The Squre Deal Policy, established by President Roosevelt, was based on conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection. Roosevelt believed in the use of government to fix social problems and continued to extend his application of the Square Deal throughout his time in office. -
The National Child Labor Committee
The National Child Labor Committee was established to eradicate child labor in factories and sweatshops in the US. -
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
In 1906, muckraker Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a piece of investigative journalism in the form of a novel, exposing the mistreatment and unsafe production practices of meat factories in Chicago. -
Lewis Hines!
Lewis Hines was hired as a investigative photographer to bring out the darknss the dangers of child labor. NCLC needed a powerful method to convince rationale citizens against child labor. -
Pure Food and Drug Act and Federal Meat Inspection Act
In response to Sinclair's reporting in The Jungle, President Roosevelt immediately passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act to insure safer production and quality of American meat. -
John Spargo, "The Bitter Cry of the Children"
Muckraker John Spargo published "The Bitter Cry of Children," exposing child labor conditions in the coal mines. -
Congressional Union
Suffrage leader Alice Paul forms the Congressional Union, a more radical faction of the Suffrage Movement. -
US Children Bureau created
Headed by Julia Lathrop whose appointmen was supported by NCLC. The event is significant because this is the first federal governemnt intervention regarding child labor. In 1913 this bureau was moved into the US Department of Labor. -
NCLC Child Labor Bulletin 3 'Making Human Junk'
The project demonstrate a single notion that child labor was not a function of industrailization, but a product for the United States. Parents were promised high wages for the employment of their children, but instead they got uneducated and unhappy citizens who would run the affairs of the United States. -
The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act was an attempt to regulate child labor, limiting the number of hours children could work and prohibiting interstate commerce of goods produced by children under a certain age. -
Child Labor Tax Law
This law regulated child employment by imposing a 10% tax on net annual profits. This law was legitmatize because Congress held their power to tax within the borders of the United States and define a child under the age of 16 years. -
Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co
For more information on Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. US Supreme Court ruled 1919 Child Labor Tax Law unconsitutional. The court upheld the notion that federal government had no authority to interefere with the labor contract (a relationship between empolyer and employee) because both parties are equal figures. -
The Walsh-Healy Act of 1936
This law prohibted the use of child labor with companies that adhired to a government contract. This event is significant because it shows that the federal government is taking action against child labor through law. -
Fair Labor Standards Act
Signed by President Roosevelt this act placed limits on many forms of child labor. Also ratified in 1949 ends child labor in the industrial sector.
