General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsApril 26, 1924
http://nhlabornews.com/2014/04/april-26-1924/
House Joint Resolution No. 184 (the Child Labor Amendment) is adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives, later to be adopted by the Senate on June 2. The amendment which would grant Congress the power to regulate the labor of children under the age of 18 is still pending, not having been ratified by the requisite ¾ of the states.
If you liked this post consider subscribing to the NH Labor News via email. There are more great articles to come.
About Today In Labor History
The NHLN has joined with multiple other websites to help highlight some of the struggles that workers have faced throughout our history. We want everyone to know what the workers of the past had to endure for the rights we take for granted now. If you do not learn from the past, you are doomed to repeat it.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)former9thward
(32,136 posts)Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 regulating the employment of those under 18 years of age. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of that law in United States v. Darby Lumber Co. (1941)
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)ANY law can be repealed and this particular SCOTUS will uphold ANY exploitative law that benefits business, no matter how much it shafts the people.
Making it part of the US Constitution will make it MUCH harder to upend.
former9thward
(32,136 posts)Congress can regulate any commerce which goes beyond state lines. That is in the Constitution. Due to our modern economy pretty much any economic activity now will fall under this clause and Congress can regulate it.
Overseas
(12,121 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)liberalhistorian
(20,822 posts)(Gears, I'm getting old!), and how great to see this date have such a momentous historic significance! I always tried to teach him real labor history, since he didn't get it in school.
One of my college American history books had a real eye-opening, powerful juxtaposition of pictures when discussing the populist and labor movements and history, and the gilded robber baron age that sparked the populist movement. On the top part of the page, it showed a young child toiling away in a factory, surrounded by other young children doing the same. They are no more than seven and they are exhausted. Below that is a picture of the young Rockefeller children on their estate, rising their custom-made child autos. That pic pretty much says it all. And to think that it was actually a hard-fought battle to get child labor laws enacted, and it took decades. As incredible as it sounds, the majority of politicians were laissez-faire social Darwinist assholes who thought that businesses should be left alone entirely no matter how badly they hurt people and who considered the lower classes to be worthless scum. No other than a young Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt were heavily involved in the battle for the enactment of such laws. There's a reason why he was called a "traitor to his class"!
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)I just wish that more people who do not know labor history would subscribe. Too many people don't know what things were like before that god-damned government regulation shit ruined this country.