LAD # 27 The Keating-Owen Child, Labor Act

The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 "limited the working hours of children and forbade the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor." The 1900 census showed that two million children were working all across America, all ranging from small child to teen. This census caused a movement that fought for the end of child labor. Lewis Hines and other muckrakers took pictures of children laboring in factories where they were forced to fix dangerous machinery and do back-breaking work in coal mines for long hours. Many influential men joined the fight against child labor, including Carl Marx and Charles Dickens. Dickens wrote many books, including Oliver Twist, that portrayed young orphans working in factories and living in poorhouses in London. Albert Leveridge first proposed the bill in 1906 and "used the government's ability to regulate interstate commerce to regulate child labor. The act banned the sale of products from any factory, shop, or cannery that employed children under the age of 14, from any mine that employed children under the age of 16, and from any facility that had children under the age of 16 work at night or for more than 8 hours during the day." This law was eventually passed by Congress and signed by Woodrow Wilson, however, was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Hammer vs. Dagenhart Case. This was because "it overstepped the purpose of the government's power to regulate production and commerce." Another law, the Child Labor Tax Law of 1919 was proposed, but soon ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Not until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was there a successful law enforcing child labor regulations, which is still upheld today.