Everyone all over America saw Hine’s child labor photos. Many people wanted reform. The Senate met and talked about a child labor bill to end child labor in America. Oberlin Smith, a New Jersey Industrialist, felt that something needed to speed up the process. He sent a letter to Senator John Kern of Indiana urging him to take action on the bill.
Smith, Oberlin. Received by John W. Kern, July 20, 1916, Visit the Capitol.
Congress took action and passed the Keating Owens Act of 1916. This act banned the interstate sale of products made by children, under 14 years of age, in shops, canneries, and factories.
Keating Owens Act, 1916, Our Documents.
“I appreciate the heated halls in Washington and the desirability of closing the session as soon as practicable. I also appreciate, however, the hot furnaces and the cotton-mills where poor children are sweltering who should be by the woods and water. Therefore please do not delay this matter until another session.”
- Oberlin Smith, 1916
The Keatings Owens Act was later deemed "unconstitutional" in Hammer v. Dagenhart, 1918 because production was not commerce. Dagenhart, North Carolina cotton mill worker with his two sons, claimed that Congress violated his sons' freedom to work. The Supreme Court left no room for federal regulation.
Hammer v. Dagenhart, 1918, U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1924, the Child Labor Committee successfully worked with Congress to pass the Child Labor Amendment, but it was not ratified by enough states.
Proposed amendment to the United States Constitution empowering the federal government to regulate child labor, June 2, 1924, National Archives.
The Child Labor Committee did not fail because its mission was to promote the rights, awareness, dignity, well-being, and education of children and youth related to work and working, and they were doing just that.
Header Photo Credit: Ten Year Old Spinner in N. Carolina Cotton Mill, 1908, National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.