Seven Years of Child Labor Reform 



Owen R. Love joy, 

 General Secretary, National Child Labor Committee. 



When this Committee was formed seven years ago, there 

 was no accepted national standard of protection against the abuses 

 of child exploitation. The general public, indeed, had not awak- 

 ened to a realization that such an evil existed, and except for the 

 Consumers' League and a respectable number of enlightened in- 

 dividuals, child labor in America may be said to have been without 

 an enemy. 



Then rapidly, as public intelligence and interest are wont to 

 grow, there swept over the face of the country the exciting news 

 that child labor existed in America, that the coal mines, glass fac- 

 tories, cotton and silk mills, cigar and cigarette factories, and 

 even our public streets were the scenes of hardship, danger and 

 oppression to the tender bodies and souls of little boys and girls. 

 At this point a group of the more calm and discerning of those 

 who were horrified by the evil decided to band themselves to- 

 gether for the purpose of conserving this public interest and seek- 

 ing to direct it into definite channels of activity, in order that the 

 sentiment against child labor should not spend its force in futile 

 denunciation, but should realize improvement through definite 

 results. 



From a membership of less than fifty people, the Committee 

 has grown, in seven years, to a contributing membership of more 

 than 5,000, who cover an annual budget of nearly $60,000. Twen- 

 ty-seven state and local committees are affiliated and the Com- 

 mittee is in definite co-operation with educators, medical experts, 

 jurists, reform agencies, relief societies, woman's clubs, trade 

 unions, manufacturers' organizations, churches, and all agencies 

 working for the protection of child life. 



While we do not look upon the enactment of child labor laws 

 as more important than their enforcement, or than the constructive 

 policies which seek to provide the child, excluded from prohibited 

 industries, the physical, mental and moral opportunities needed 

 to develop efficient citizenship, yet the changes secured in child 

 labor laws within the past seven years will perhaps measure more 

 accurately than anything else the extent to which the public is 

 awake to the importance of safeguarding the child. 



1. During seven years five states passed their first law upon 



264 



