Editing National Child Labor Committee (section)

==Fighting against child labor==
[[Image:Child coal miners (1908).jpg|thumb|Photo of child coal miners in [[West Virginia]] by Lewis Hine (1908)]]
Immediately after its conception in 1904, the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) began advocating for child labor reform on the state level. A number of state- centered campaigns were organized by the NCLC's two regional leaders, [[Owen Reed Lovejoy|Owen Lovejoy]] in the northern states and [[Alexander McKelway]] in the southern states. Both Lovejoy and McKelway actively organized investigations of child labor conditions and [[lobbied]] state legislatures for labor regulations.<ref name="National Child Labor Committee"/>

Although the NCLC made some strides in the north, by 1907, McKelway and the NCLC had achieved little success in enlisting the support of the southern people and had failed to pass any far-reaching reforms in the south's important mill states. Consequently, the NCLC decided to refocus its state-by-state attack on child labor and endorsed the first national anti-child labor bill, introduced to congress by Senator [[Albert J. Beveridge]] of Indiana in 1907.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Doherty, Jr. |first1=Herbert J. |title=Alexander J. McKelway: Preacher to Progressive |journal=The Journal of Southern History |date=1 May 1958 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=177–190 |doi=10.2307/2208872 |publisher=Southern Historical Association |language=en |jstor=2208872 }}</ref> Although the bill was later defeated, it convinced many opponents of child labor that a solution lay in the cooperation and solidarity between the states.

In response, the NCLC called for the establishment of a federal children's bureau that would investigate and report on the circumstances of all American children.<ref name="National Child Labor Committee"/> In 1912 the NCLC succeeded in passing an act establishing a [[United States Children's Bureau]] in the [[United States Department of Commerce and Labor|Department of Commerce and Labor]]. On April 9 President [[William Taft]] signed the act into law, and over the next thirty years the Children's Bureau would work closely with the NCLC to promote child labor reforms on both the state and national level.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalchildlabor.org/history.html |title=History of NCLC|access-date=2008-11-25|publisher=National Child Labor Committee|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080621055250/http://www.nationalchildlabor.org/history.html|archive-date=2008-06-21}}</ref>

In 1915, the NCLC, facing the varied success and inherent limitations of its efforts at the state level, decided to move its efforts to the federal level. On its behalf, Pennsylvania Congressman [[Alexander Mitchell Palmer|A Mitchell Palmer]] (later Attorney General) introduced a bill to end child labor in most American mines and factories.<ref>Stanley Coben, ''A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician'' (NY: Columbia University Press, 1963), 884-7</ref> President [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilson]] found it constitutionally unsound and after the House voted 232 to 44 in favor on February 15, 1915,<ref>''New York Times'': [https://www.nytimes.com/1915/02/16/archives/child-labor-bill-passed-house-republicans-help-defeat-a-southern.html "Child Labor Bill Passed," February 16, 1916], accessed January 20, 2010</ref> he allowed it to die in the Senate. Nevertheless, Arthur Link has called it "a turning point in American constitutional history" because it attempted to establish for the first time "the use of the [[Commerce Clause]] commerce power to justify almost any form of federal control over working conditions and wages."<ref>Arthur Link, ''Wilson: The New Freedom'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956), 255-7</ref>

In 1916, Senator [[Robert L. Owen]] of [[Oklahoma]] and Representative [[Edward Keating]] of [[Colorado]] introduced the NCLC backed [[Keating-Owen Act]] which prohibited shipment in interstate commerce of goods manufactured or processed by child labor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3468300486.html|title=Child Labor|access-date=2008-11-25|publisher=encyclopedia.com}}</ref> The bill passed by a margin of 337 to 46 in the House and 50 to 12 in the Senate and was signed into law by President [[Woodrow Wilson]] as the centerpiece of [[The New Freedom]] Program. However, in 1918 the law was deemed unconstitutional by the [[United States Supreme Court]] in a five-to-four decision in [[Hammer v. Dagenhart]]. The court, although acknowledging child labor as a social evil, felt that the Keating-Owen Act overstepped [[Commerce Clause|congress' power to regulate trade]]. The bill was immediately revised and again deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/keating-owen-act|title= Act of Congress: Keating-Owen Act of 1916|access-date=2008-11-25|publisher=answers.com}}</ref>

The NCLC then switched its strategy to passing of a federal [[constitutional amendment]]. In 1924 Congress passed the [[Child Labor Amendment]] with a vote of 297 to 69 (with 64 abstaining) in the house and 61 to 23 (12 abstaining) in the senate. However, by 1932 only six states had voted for ratification, while twenty-four had rejected the measure. Today, the amendment is technically still-pending and has been ratified by a total of twenty-eight states, requiring the ratification of ten more for its incorporation into the Constitution.

In 1938 the National Child Labor Committee threw its support behind the [[Fair Labor Standards Act]] (FLSA) which included child labor provisions designed by the NCLC. The act prohibits any interstate commerce of goods produced through oppressive child labor. The act defines "oppressive child labor" as any form of employment for children under age sixteen and any particularly hazardous occupation for children ages sixteen to eighteen. This definition excludes agricultural labor and instances in which the child is employed by his or her guardians.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.osha.gov/pls/epub/wageindex.download?p_file=F15794/FairLaborStandAct.pdf|title=The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as Amended|access-date=2008-11-25|publisher=US Department of Labor}}</ref> On June 25, 1938, after the approval of Congress, President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] signed the bill into law; the FLSA remains the primary federal child labor law to this day.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/us_history.html|title=Child Labor in U.S. History - The Child Labor Education Project|access-date=2012-08-28|publisher=Continue to Learn - University of Iowa|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120720045149/http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/us_history.html|archive-date=2012-07-20|url-status=dead}}</ref>

For the entirety of World War II, the NCLC served as a watchdog to ensure that employment shortages caused by the war did not weaken the newly passed and implemented child labor laws, and that children were not drawn back into the mines, mills and streets.<ref name="History of NCLC"/>