 To paraphrase an illustration used by the Webbs, the factories say to the community; you have educated the children in the public schools, now please give them to me for my factory. I will use them until they begin to demand an adult's wages and then I will turn them out again. If I have broken them down, the community will take care of them in the poorhouse and hospitals. The community which allows this allows itself to be most unfairly treated. Child Labor And Pauperism, May 9, 1903 The advent of industrialization in the early to mid 1800's introduced brand new conflicts in regards to the labor force. When industrialization began in the United States, labor conditions were dangerous and low-paying. Child labor became so commonplace that in 1900, 18% of all American workers were under the age of 16. Part of this was because children were able to fit in tight spaces and operate small machinery. Employers also were keen to pay the lowest wages possible, and they could pay a child less than an adult. Young children, many below the age of seven, would work twelve hour shifts for usually a dollar or less a day. These children were often injured or maimed in the factories. Many suffered from permanent injuries, losing fingers or limbs. Working class men, women and children had little choice but to accept these dangerous industrial jobs. In some cases, adults were unable to find work, and poor and immigrant families needed the income from child workers to survive. Some adults argued that child labor was 'good' for their kids, because they thought it would teach them responsibility, but in reality, children who worked did so at the expense of an education that might lift them out of factory work. The rise of labor activism in the Progressive Era was a reaction to the worsening working conditions. In creating Hull-House, Addams and the other residents lived and worked among the poor and gained a better understanding of the challenges they faced. Addams fought for better labor conditions for all adults, and protection for women and children in the factories or doing piecework. Addams recognized that though children had always worked, the nature of the work had changed from agricultural work, which while physically hard, was usually in a healthful environment and had natural rhythms and pace, to factory work, which was dangerous, speeded up, and in unsanitary and unhealthful conditions. She believed that child labor laws had to be changed. The laws that did exist had exploitable loopholes, were not enforced, or were too lenient. One example, was in 1911 when theater managers sought an exemption from the law for child actors. They argued that stage work was artistic and creative and served as an apprenticeship, but Addams demonstrated that child actors were uneducated, worked late hours in immoral conditions, and that they were not taught the trade, just replaced by a smaller child when they grew too old. She argued that this lack of education and opportunity was exploitative and no different than the exploitation of the factory. Addams wanted to establish a federal bureau to protect the needs of children. She woprked with the National Child Labor Committee, a group of activists, judges, and city officials who exposed the problem of child labor to a national audience. One of the ways they brought more attention to the topic was by hiring photographer Lewis Hine to really capture the horrific working conditions in which boys and girls toiled. In 1912, President Taft established the United States Children Bureau, an agency that gathered information, and advocated for the rights of children, including limiting child labor. In 1916 Congress passed the tough Keating-Owens Act, which prohibited the sale of goods from factories or companies that employed children under the age of fourteen. Although this was a win for child labor reformists, it was deemed unconstitutional just a year later. Despite years of setbacks, the Fair Labor Standards Act finally passed in 1938, a law that prohibited the employment of minors, established a minimum wage, and introduced the 40-hour work week structure that is still in place. Recommended primary sources:Addams, Jane, "Child Labor and Pauperism, May 9, 1903," Jane Addams Digital Edition. Addams, Jane, "Child Labor Legislation: A Requisite for Industrial Efficiency, May 1905," Jane Addams Digital Edition. Addams, Jane, "Testimony Before State Judicial Committee on Child Labor," April 13, 1905 (excerpts), Jane Addams Digital Edition.> Additional resources:National Child Labor Committee Collection Harvard University Library Open Collections Program National Child Labor Committee - Social Welfare History Project Bureau of Labor Statistics- History of child labor in the United States—part 1: little children working Suggested subjects:Addams, Jane, and child labor Addams, Jane, and the labor movement Addams, Jane, views on labor child labor child protection laws child welfare labor movement People associated with the issue of child labor Organizations associated with the issue of child labor Events associated with the issue of child labor Photo creditLewis Hine, 9 p.m. in an Indiana Glass Works, 1912, National Child Labor Committee Collection, Library of Congress. The Creation of the Children's Bureau The Children's Bureau was formally created in 1912 when President William Howard Taft signed into law a bill creating the new federal government organization. The stated purpose of the new Bureau was to investigate and report "upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people." The signing of this law culminated a grass-roots process started in 1903 by two early social reformers, Lillian Wald, of New York's Henry Street Settlement House, and Florence Kelly, of the National Consumer's League. Along the way, their efforts picked up support from President Theodore Roosevelt, among other prominent supporters, before finally becoming law nine years after they launched the initiative. After several false starts in Congress, the successful bill was sponsored by Senator William E. Borah. The bill authorized the creation of a 16-person organization, with a first-year budget of $25,640. Initially part of the Department of Commerce, the Children's Bureau was transferred to the Department of Labor in 1913. The law also called for the Bureau to be headed by a Chief, who would be a Presidential appointee, subject to Senate confirmation. The first Chief of the Children's Bureau was Julia Lathrop. Julia C. Lathrop, first Chief of the Children's Bureau. The Social Security Act of 1935 A large part of the Social Security Act of 1935 was intended to support and address the programs of the Children's Bureau. Staff from the Bureau, especially Katherine Lenroot and Martha Eliot, worked with the President's Committee on Economic Security which designed and drafted the Social Security Act. Title V of the Act, Grants to the States for Maternal and Child Welfare, was assigned to the Children's Bureau and gave the Bureau equal status with the unemployment compensation and old-age provisions of the Social Security Act. Indeed, Title IV of the Act, the Aid to Dependent Children program, was also in furtherance of the general mission of the Bureau, although formal oversight responsibility for the ADC program was assigned to the Social Security Board.
The Children's Bureau continued to be part of the Department of Labor until 1946. As part of the same reorganization that created the Social Security Administration, the Children's Bureau was transferred to SSA, effective July 1946. This was done, according to President Truman's executive order, because "The transfer of the Children's Bureau . . . will strengthen the child-care programs by bringing them in closer association with the health, welfare, and educational activities with which they are inextricably bound up." This transfer was deeply significant in terms of the Bureau's mission. The Children's Bureau began life in an era when child labor was commonplace, and one of its core initial missions was to work to relieve the misery caused by exploitative child labor. It was natural, therefore, to think of the Children's Bureau as aligned with the labor-related agencies, first Commerce and then Labor. Over time, as child labor was outlawed, the focus of the Bureau had shifted more to health and welfare issues--a shift which was, in many respects, an expression of the Bureau's success. The year 1962 saw both the 50th anniversary of the Children's Bureau and the end of its placement within SSA. The Public Welfare Amendments of 1962 expanded the role of the Bureau in the welfare area, and increased the emphasis on the Bureau's work. One result was a reorganization of the Department of Health Education and Welfare, in which both SSA and the Bureau were components. This reorganization created a new Welfare Administration and the Children's Bureau become a component in the new organization. Over time, the organizational placement and role of the Children's Bureau continued to evolve. In 1968 the Children's Bureau became part of the Social and Rehabilitation Service; in 1970 it was submerged in a new Office of Child Development; later in the 1970s it became part of the Public Health Service; it is currently part of the Department of Health & Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. Brief History of the Children's Bureau (1962) Extended History of the Children's Bureau (in Adobe pdf format) |
What social welfare activist served as the first head of the new federal childrens bureau in 1912?
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