National Child Labor Committee facts for kids
The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) was a special group in the United States. It was a non-profit organization, meaning it didn't work for money. Its main goal was to lead the fight against child labor across the country. The NCLC wanted to make sure children and young people had their rights protected, were educated, and were treated with dignity.
The NCLC had its main office in New York City. It was run by a group of leaders called a board of directors.
Contents
How the NCLC Started
The idea for the National Child Labor Committee came from Edgar Gardner Murphy, a clergyman and writer from America. He suggested it after a meeting in New York City on April 25, 1904. Many people who cared about working children gathered at Carnegie Hall. They strongly supported forming a national group to help these children. Felix Adler was chosen as the first leader.
The new organization quickly gained support from important Americans. By November 1904, just a few months after it began, the NCLC included famous politicians, generous helpers, religious leaders, and thinkers. These included former president Grover Cleveland, Senator Benjamin Tillman, and the president of Harvard University, Charles W. Eliot.
In 1907, the NCLC officially became a group through an act of Congress. Its first board of directors included well-known reformers like Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, and Lillian Wald. With such strong leaders, the NCLC quickly grew and started working to make changes.
Showing the Problem of Child Labor
In 1900, the US Census showed that over 1.7 million children under 16 were working for money. This was a big increase from 1880. Many Americans were worried. While they understood children helping on farms, they were shocked by young people working long hours for very little pay in factories. From 1909 to 1921, the NCLC used this strong feeling to push its campaign against child labor.
Lewis Hine: Photographer for Change
In 1908, the National Child Labor Committee hired Lewis Hine. He was a teacher and a professional photographer who studied sociology. Hine believed that photographs could teach people important lessons. His job was to take pictures of child labor in American industries. Over the next ten years, Hine took thousands of photos that were meant to make people feel strongly about the issue.
Hine photographed both boys and girls working in mills, factories, and other jobs across the United States. His pictures showed average Americans the sad and difficult working conditions faced by young people. Hine simply said he "wanted to show things that had to be corrected." His work helped create a lot of public support for new federal laws against child labor, which the NCLC was pushing for. Hine's photographs became the public face of the National Child Labor Committee. They are also some of the first examples of documentary photography in America.
During the early 1900s, the American economy was growing fast, and businesses needed a lot of workers. Cheap labor was important, and companies looked for both immigrant workers and children. Factory jobs were often specific, and children's small hands and energy were useful on assembly lines.
However, thinking began to change. Reformers argued that child labor trapped children in a cycle of poverty. They believed that long hours stole children's education and their childhoods.
Lewis Hine became an investigative photojournalist for the NCLC. He took many pictures of workers under 16. His photos often appear in books about the history of child labor. He took risks to capture the harsh reality of child labor. His photographs helped the NCLC investigate factories across America. Hine was very clever, sometimes bluffing his way into plants where he wasn't welcome. He took pictures of scenes that managers wanted to hide. He even risked physical harm to show the truth about working children.
Today, there is a Lewis Hine Award that honors people for their amazing work helping young people.
Fighting for Child Labor Laws
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Right after it started in 1904, the NCLC began working for child labor reform in different states. Two NCLC leaders, Owen Reed Lovejoy in the North and Alexander McKelway in the South, organized campaigns. They investigated child labor conditions and tried to convince state lawmakers to create new rules.
By 1907, the NCLC had made some progress in the North. However, McKelway and the NCLC had less success in the South, especially in states with many mills. Because of this, the NCLC decided to change its approach. It began to support a national anti-child labor bill. Senator Albert J. Beveridge introduced this bill to Congress in 1907. Even though the bill didn't pass, it showed many people that states needed to work together to solve the problem.
The NCLC then asked for a federal children's bureau. This bureau would investigate and report on the lives of all American children. In 1912, the NCLC succeeded! An act was passed to create the United States Children's Bureau within the Department of Commerce and Labor. On April 9, President William Howard Taft signed it into law. For the next 30 years, the Children's Bureau worked closely with the NCLC to improve child labor laws.
In 1915, the NCLC decided to focus its efforts on the federal level. Pennsylvania Congressman Alexander Mitchell Palmer introduced a bill to stop child labor in most American mines and factories. President Woodrow Wilson thought it was against the Constitution. Even though the House of Representatives voted for it, the bill did not pass in the Senate.
In 1916, Senator Robert L. Owen and Representative Edward Keating introduced the Keating–Owen Act. This act, supported by the NCLC, stopped goods made by child labor from being shipped between states. President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law. However, in 1918, the Supreme Court said the law was unconstitutional. The Court agreed that child labor was bad, but felt the act went beyond Congress's power to control trade.
The NCLC then tried a new plan: passing a federal constitutional amendment. In 1924, Congress passed the Child Labor Amendment. However, by 1932, only six states had approved it. Today, the amendment is still technically waiting, but it needs more states to approve it to become part of the Constitution.
In 1938, the National Child Labor Committee strongly supported the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This act included rules against child labor that the NCLC helped design. It stops any goods made by "oppressive child labor" from being shipped between states. "Oppressive child labor" means any job for children under 16, and dangerous jobs for those 16 to 18. This rule does not include farm work or children working for their own parents. On June 25, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law. The FLSA is still the main federal law against child labor today.
During World War II, the NCLC worked hard to make sure that the need for workers during the war did not weaken the new child labor laws. They wanted to prevent children from being forced back into mines, mills, and streets.
Promoting Skills and Education
After World War II, the NCLC started focusing on new areas. They emphasized teaching children about the working world. They also supported programs to improve the education and health of children whose families worked as migrant farmworkers across America. Today, the NCLC's main goals include:
- Educating children about different jobs and careers.
- Stopping the unfair use of children and young people in the workplace.
- Improving health and education for children of migrant farmworkers.
- Making more people aware of the important work done for children.
In the 1950s and 60s, the NCLC helped create and support laws like the Manpower Development and Training Act and the Economic Opportunity Act.
In 1979, the NCLC worked with another group to create the National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC). This group helps organizations that prepare young people to be successful citizens.
In 1985, the NCLC started the Lewis Hine Awards for Service to Children and Youth. These awards honor everyday Americans who do great work with young people. They also give special awards to well-known leaders for their amazing efforts. These awards have become a national event. Past winners include Gene Bowen, who co-founded a program for teens recovering from substance misuse, and Stacy Maciuk, who helped foster children by collecting suitcases for them.
From 1991 until today, the NCLC created and grew the Kids and the Power of Work (KAPOW) program. KAPOW connects businesses with elementary schools. Volunteers from businesses teach students about the world of work. Today, KAPOW is a model for similar programs. It operates in over 30 communities and helps more than 50,000 students.
The End of the NCLC
In its final years, the NCLC struggled to raise enough money. The problem it was created to fight, child labor, had largely been solved. The NCLC is a rare example of an organization that succeeded so well in its mission that it was no longer needed. After more than a century of fighting child labor, it closed down in 2017. There was no big announcement. Jeffrey Newman, the last president, said the NCLC decided to "declare victory and just move out."
Images for kids
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"Addie Card, 12 years. Spinner in Cotton Mill. Vt." by Lewis Hine.
See also
In Spanish: Comité Nacional del Trabajo Infantil (Estados Unidos) para niños
- Seebert Lane Colored School
- Timeline of children's rights in the United States
