In the early 1900’s children from poor families did not go to school. They had to help support their family by going to work. But children were often mistreated at work. They were given dangerous jobs and paid very little money. Mother Jones, Jacob Riise, Lewis Hine and other adults helped children establish the children’s movement. They organized strikes and rallies for the cause.
Children who worked were paid very low wages and a lot of children worked sixty hours a week. Poor children couldn’t go to school, instead they worked street jobs and in factories. These jobs were very dangerous and if an accident occurred the children’s life could be permanently scarred and their employer would very easily replace them. The government tried to help protect young children from getting hurt by creating the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. It specified how old a person had to be in order to be able to work a specific job.
Children tried to resist these hard conditions by going on strikes and marches. These marches affected business production considerably. Because the children refused to work people lost a lot of money. Mother Jones led in the marches and rallies. She wrote an autobiography in 1925 describing her work with the children’s movement.
The children’s movement had to work hard to gain supporters. People didn’t believe that children were really being treated so cruelly in the workplace. Jacob Riise and Lewis Hine took pictures of the children working as proof of what was going on. The government could not ignore the children’s pleas any longer. The government passed a law that raised wages and forced employers to pay overtime.
This movement is a very important part in American history. Today we take our ability to get an education and have fun for granted. But after learning about this movement I have seen that life wasn’t always easy for children. I appreciate the things I took for granted much more now that I know how hard people had to fight to achieve this.
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