Mother Jones's Impact On Child Labor Laws

How would you feel about your food sitting out all day? 3 abuses the Progressive Era fought to change we're working conditions, cites/environments and consumer protections. There were horrible working conditions like child labor; so they passed a law called National child labor law to prevent that from happening.

People who are willing to challenge society for their rights and accept any resulting consequences will more often than not, cause a change in

Throughout time there have been many people who have wanted to enact change or make a difference. Cesar Chavez helped migrant farmers with their unsafe work conditions and their lack workers’ rights. Mother Jones marched for children’s rights and to create child labor laws. Van Jones is fighting for human rights currently. These people all did amazing things and all fought for a singular purpose.Cesar Chavez, Mother Jones, and Van Jones all helped fight to enact change, by making people notice their cause and by having the perseverance to keep fighting for others to have better lives.

cause she believed in, Kelley moved up in society by serving as the head of the National

Have you ever wanted to make a change in the world we live in? Malala Yousafzai, Mother Jones, and Nelson Mandela all saw problems with the world they lived in, and they all enacted change to do something about it. Malala wanted to fight for women’s education rights, Mother Jones fought for better child labor laws, and Nelson Mandela fought for life without racial prejudice and oppression in South Africa. Although these three individuals faced opposition, they persisted to bring attention and enact change to the issue of human rights.

Throughout time there have been many people who have wanted to enact change or make a difference. Cesar Chavez helped migrant farmers with their unsafe work conditions and their lack workers rights. Mother Jones marched for children’s rights and to create child labor laws. Van Jones is fighting for human rights currently. These people all did amazing things and all fought for a singular purpose.Cesar Chavez, Mother Jones, and Van Jones all helped fight to enact change, by making people notice their cause and by having the perseverance to keep fighting for others to have better lives.

Since capitalism has existed, children have been able to work. These children have worked in the harshest conditions and the longest hours. With thousands of children working in the United States, social worker Florence Kelley decided something needed to be done about it. So on July 22, 1905, she delivered a speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), analyzing, and explaining the problems with children in the workplace. She uses the rhetorical strategy, cause and effect, to exemplify the pros and cons of child labor at the time. Kelley later explains how her thoughts can reflect on the future of child labor in the United States.

When one hears the term “Child Labor”, an image of children making low quality clothing in some dingy third world sweatshop inevitably comes to mind. While this imagery is unfortunately founded in fact, the third world is not the only area complicit with this heinous practice. Truthfully, we, as a nation are also guilty of propagating this heinous practice. For over a century, this nation’s youth were subjugated to exploitation and abuse at the hands of captains of industry in the hopes of extracting every ounce of profit they could. Fortunately, sympathetic individuals recognized the children’s need for advocacy and rose to their defense in the form of organized dissent that appealed to the highest powers of this country to fight for those who could not fight for themselves. In this paper, we will look at what exactly child labor is, the circumstances that gave rise to the widespread acceptance of child labor usage, what working condition these children experienced, and how the United States eventually made its use illegal.

According to Mother Jones, child labor is like slavery. It is incredibly tough and dangerous, especially for young children. Mother Jones begins by telling us how she heard “gruesome stories of little children working” in the factories. She wanted to see for herself if these terrible stories were true, unfortunately, she saw for herself how they were indeed true. Mother Jones first applied to a mill in Cottondale, that was the first encounter she had with the living conditions provided to the small children. She describes the house as a “sort of two-story plank shanty”, with broken windows and a sagging door. The place was small, and it offered no real protection. There were “cracks in the roof”, so when it rained it rotted the floors. She also talks about the downstairs’ “big open fireplace”, that had “holes big enough to drop a brick through”. This meant that if small children ran or played around the fireplace, they could fall and get injured. The living conditions alone were terrible and not adequate for children. The children also experienced harsh summers and winters. They were more prone to getting a disease and dying.

Mother Jones is also another individual who is extremely caring and important especially when it comes to Child Labor Laws. Mother Jones fought for child labor laws by “The March of the Mill Children” which was when herself and some of the mill children marched to the President. After seeing the mill children and the terrible working conditions, Mother Jones decided it was time to take a stand to prevent children from these awful conditions, since they were paid very little and not fed properly. “In countless shacks and shanties across the country, she had tied the shoes of

From the 1900’s through present day, equality and how to handle injustice situations have been hard. People all over the world struggle with being looked down upon or having rights that have been taken away because of racism, which can cause violence anywhere. In order for non-violence to be successful, the movement needs to have discipline, courage, and leadership because how you handle a situation is how you eliminate the problem. Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr have proven all of these steps to be true.

The decade of the 1910’s was one of many changes. Many changes that were decades in the making were finally fulfilled. These changes came from new governmental policies, increases in industry, and the rising incomes of Americans. Many new rights were given to Americans in the 10s, in particular, child labor laws were changed, and women were given more freedom. In 1910, children under 15 made up 18% of the nation's employment. Many of these jobs were very dangerous, had long shifts, and very low pay. Congress passed child labor laws in 1916 and 1918 as part of the progressive agenda. However, the Supreme Court declared these laws unconstitutional.Women could be considered second class citizens in the 10s. Women were given few options both educationally,

Mother Jones encouraged children to join her in a march to see the President and protest a lack of child labor laws. She saw, firsthand, the terrible working conditions that young children were sometimes forced into to provide money for their families, and she wanted to do something about it. This is further explored in the Studysync article, “Mother Jones: Fierce Fighter for Workers’ Rights”: “Images of the child workers Mother Jones had seen stayed with her- the torn, bleeding fingers of the breaker boys, the mill children living on coffee and stale bread”. It is obvious that Mother Jones was deeply affected by these painful images, and she felt compassion for the poor children. This is why she resolved to march to Sagamore Hill and speak with the president about putting in place stronger child labor laws. A few times, Jones was stopped by the police, who were trying to prevent her from seeing the president: “At first, police told the group they couldn’t enter (Trenton). Mill owners didn’t want any trouble”.

If one man never steps forward to show all the others that change is possible, nothing will ever change. When you look back at history of the American civil rights movement, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are still often two of the first names even someone of today’s society may think of. They were, and still are, some of the most influential men to ever live. As young African-American men living during a time of harsh global, but most importantly, national racism and prejudice; teaching effective techniques to achieve peace and equality to others was extremely difficult for Dr. King and Malcolm X.

Mother Jones believed that working children needed more pay and less harsh working conditions. Josephson says, “In countless shacks and shanties across the country, she had tied the shoes of children, wiped their noses, hugged them while they cried, scrambled to find food for them, fought for their rights” (Mother Jones: Fierce Fighter for Workers’ Rights). Jones may not have lived through the conditions Chavez or Watson had, but she was still just as passionate and devoted activist as any other. At one point, Mother Jones made an important decision, “She and the textile union leaders would stage their own tour. They would march the mill children all the way to the president of the United States—Theodore Roosevelt. Mother Jones wanted the president to get Congress to pass a law that would take children out of the mills,