Mother Jones: The Photos That Helped End Child Labor in the United States

[Omaha Steve]

Breaker boys who worked in Ewen Breaker of Pennsylvania Coal Company, South Pittston, Pennsylvania

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/10/kids-coal-mines-lewis-hines-photos

Lewis Hine sometimes went undercover to capture images of kids at work.
—By Mark Murrmann | Sat Oct. 3, 2015 6:00 AM EDT

In the early 1900s, Lewis Hine left his job as a schoolteacher to work as a photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, investigating and documenting child labor in the United States. As a sociologist, Hine was an early believer in the power of photography to document work conditions and help bring about change. He traveled the country, going to fields, factories, and mines—sometimes working undercover—to take pictures of kids as young as four years old being put to work.

Partly as a result of Hine's work (as well as that of Mary Harris Jones, who Mother Jones is named after), Congress passed the Keating-Owens Child Labor Act in 1916. It established child labor standards, including a a minimum age (14 years old for factories, and 16 years old for mines) and an eight-hour workday. It also barred kids under the age of 16 from working overnight. However, the Keating-Owens Act was later ruled unconstitutional, and lasting reform to federal child labor laws didn't come until the New Deal.

In 2004, retired social worker Joe Manning set out to see what had happened to as many of the kids in Hine's photos as he could find. He's documented his findings—showing the lives of hundreds of subjects—on his website, MorningsOnMapleStreet.com.

Many more great photos at link!

[LiberalArkie]

1. Excellant article.. A must read.

[Malraiders]

2. My father worked in saw mill at age 15. Before that my grandfather

would hire him out to plow people's farm land. For this work he did not get paid. Of course he learned to work a mule pulled plow on my grandfather's farm. I remeber being 13 years old at seeing a friend (same age as me) of mine plowing with a mule. And he was good at it, He used the Hee And Haw shouts to make the mule drift left and right.

I was raised in East Texas. Timber and farming area.

[appalachiablue]

3. K & R. Excellent. A period in American history that deserves much respect and remembrance.

~ Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living. ~ Mother Jones, The Miners Angel.

[rhett o rick]

4. One reason children were used in mining is that they could go into holes too small for adults. Yikes

[Omaha Steve]

5. My dad was 11 when he placed the dynamite in the rock quarry

From 2008: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x11906

http://blogs.denverpost.com/lewis/2008/06/15/unions-mak...

Mr. Lewis,

This is in response to your article today “Grinding axes over unions”.
I’m witting from Nebraska. We are a right to work state. I’m the son of
a scab. My father was 11 years old in 1931 and quit school to support
his family during the depression. He was one of fourteen children. My
grandfather was in jail for bootlegging. (He was also a bigamist). My
dad crossed the picket line. He was working a quarry in Southern
Indiana. The company used young children to place explosive charges deep
in small holes from a drill. On his way home one night, several out of
work men taught a young boy why he should have stayed in school and
shouldn’t cross the line.

Although after W.W.II my father worked in a union shop in Omaha for 32
years, he never joined. He had good pay and benefits for a third grade
education. He didn’t like it when in 1980 I started organizing for the
GAU in a non-union print shop. I was fired once the company felt I had
the votes to get the union in. While my case wound through the system
for over three and a half years, my wife’s union wages at US West keep
us from starving. The best work a union trouble maker could find during
that time was a paid picket for ten weeks in the Omaha area Hinky Dinky
stores strike.

My case file:
http://www.nlrb.gov/shared_files/Board%20Decisions/261/...

My story doesn’t end here. On February 20th last year I was fired in
blatant retaliation for filing an ADA complaint against my employer.
Because a contract was in force, my case moved much faster this time.
Five days before a scheduled arbitration hearing, I was offered
reinstatement with back pay and wages on June twentieth. Four months. My
union paid all the legal fees (approximately $5,000) and asked nothing
in return.

I can’t understand people not wanting to pay union dues. When your
outside looking in, things are much different. I don’t feel what my
father did all those years was right. He did earn a retirement, decent
wage, and more. His experience from 1931 had nothing to do with his
career in Omaha. The right to work law weakens unions. Just as it was
designed to do in 1947. Nebraska was one of the first states to use
right to work in 1947.

Regards,

Steven L Dawes
Shop Steward AFSCME local 251

See these also,

Where are the victims of unions?: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Grinding axes over unions: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[rhett o rick]

7. I am a strong union supporter. Thanks for the story Steve. nm

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. This guy's website is incredible! His compassion shines thru the pages.

MorningsOnMapleStreet.com

i am appalled that so much of our offshore production is being done by sweatshops not much different than what we had to overcome in this country ( and still have not entirely eradicated).

Sadly, the history so marvelously captured and reported by Hines and others in the US, and others in Britain, is not being taught, and most people find it only via the internet.
Thus many voters today do not understand the dangers of right work states, or the steady push of the Corpocracy against fair wages and working conditions.
Let us not forget that it was the Northern mill owners who moved their fabric production to the Southern states so they could save much money by paying very low wages after a movement for better working conditions was begun in the North.