America Had No Child Labor Law Until 1938, So Who Protected the Kids?

In 1900, census takers counted about 1.75 million American children aged ten to fifteen at work, roughly one in six, and there was no federal law to stop any of it. This is how America lived without a child labor law. Breaker boys in the Pennsylvania coal country, girls in Southern cotton mills, oyster shuckers, glass-factory boys on the night shift and newsboys in the cities. Mother Jones and the 1903 March of the Mill Children, the National Child Labor Committee and Lewis Hine's photographs, the Keating-Owen Act and Hammer v. Dagenhart, the child labor tax and Bailey v. Drexel Furniture, the Child Labor Amendment that never passed, the Blue Eagle codes, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of June 25, 1938, upheld in United States v. Darby in 1941. And the farm exception we still live with. Chapters 0:00 A mill town in 1916 1:42 One child in six at work 3:34 Breaker boys, oysters and glass 5:02 The cotton mills 6:07 Mother Jones marches 7:01 Lewis Hine's camera 9:20 Forty-eight different rules 11:31 The Keating-Owen Act 13:00 Hammer v. Dagenhart 13:50 The child labor tax 15:11 The amendment that failed 16:08 The Depression and the Blue Eagle 18:02 The Fair Labor Standards Act 19:20 United States v. Darby 20:17 School instead of work 21:08 What we still live with In collaboration with Surviving Old America and Why It Stopped. Fact sources: U.S. Department of Labor (history of the Fair Labor Standards Act; child labor rules), National Archives (Teaching With Documents: photographs of Lewis Hine), Library of Congress (National Child Labor Committee collection), Wikipedia: Child labor in the United States, Hammer v. Dagenhart, Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co., Child Labor Amendment, Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, United States v. Darby Lumber Co., Mother Jones, Children's Crusade (1903). Archive film (Internet Archive, Prelinger Archives and U.S. government films, public domain): 1890s VIEWS OF NEW YORK CITY, SAN FRANCISCO & FAMED PERSONALITIES INCLUDING TEDDY ROOSEVELT 40384 (https://archive.org/details/40384TheGay90s) Children Must Learn, The (https://archive.org/details/Children1940) How Textile Mills Are Modernizing (https://archive.org/details/HowTexti1948) Newspaper Story (https://archive.org/details/NewspaperSto) Steel: A Symphony of Industry (https://archive.org/details/0525_Steel_A_S...) The Truck Farmer (https://archive.org/details/200372_The_Tru...) Universal Newsreel Volume 2, Release 29 (https://archive.org/details/un-un-v2-r29-s2) We Work Again (https://archive.org/details/WeWorkAg1930) [California Cotton Mills] (https://archive.org/details/Californ1924) Photographs and documents: Library of Congress, U.S. National Archives and other public-domain collections via Wikimedia Commons. Used under Creative Commons (attribution): "A poster highlighting situation of child labor in " by J.D. Thomas from Philadelphia, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) "A poster highlighting situation of child labor in " by J.D. Thomas from Philadelphia, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) "A poster to campaign against child labor practice " by J.D. Thomas from Philadelphia, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) "A poster to campaign against child labor practice " by J.D. Thomas from Philadelphia, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) "A poster to campaign against child labor practice " by J.D. Thomas from Philadelphia, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) "A poster to campaign against child labor practice " by J.D. Thomas from Philadelphia, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) "A poster to campaign against child labor practice " by J.D. Thomas from Philadelphia, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) "An ad for child workers in United States in early " by J.D. Thomas from Philadelphia, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) "Cannon Mills - Concord, NC (1912)" by Lewis Hine (CC BY-SA 4.0) "Child Labor in United States 1908, 12 hour night s" by Preus museum (CC BY 2.0) "Child labor in United States, 11 year old" by Preus museum (CC BY 2.0) "Imposing entrance to Supreme Court Building, Washi" by Ken Lund (CC BY-SA 2.0) "Lewis Hine - Addie Card, 12 years. Spinner in Nort" by Lewis Hine (CC0) "Mill Children -440, South Carolina MET DP262028" by Lewis Hine (CC0) "The Great Hall, Supreme Court Building, Washington" by Ken Lund (CC BY-SA 2.0) "The Supreme Court (3212490506)" by FaceMePLS from The Hague, The Netherland (CC BY 2.0) Archive film and photographs: Prelinger Archives, U.S. National Archives, Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons (public domain unless noted). Full credits above. Life Without It, how Americans lived before the systems we rely on. #history #americanhistory #documentary #LifeWithoutIt