Mother Jones, a prominent labor leader in the early 20th century, wrote a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905 regarding the issue of child labor. In her letter, Jones expressed her concern about the exploitation of children in the workforce and demanded that the government take action to end this practice. Jones’ letter to Roosevelt was a powerful statement against the abuses of child labor and a call to action for the government to protect the welfare of working children. At the time Jones wrote her letter, child labor was prevalent in the United States. Children were often forced to work long hours in dangerous conditions for very little pay. Many children worked in factories and mines, where they were exposed to hazardous chemicals and machinery. The use of child labor was especially prevalent in the coal mines, where young boys were …show more content…
She argued that children were being robbed of their childhood and that their physical and emotional well-being was being compromised by the demands of their jobs. Jones wrote that children as young as five years old were being put to work in factories and mines, and that many of these children were being maimed or killed on the job. She argued that child labor was not only immoral, but also economically unsound, as it contributed to the cycle of poverty and illiteracy that plagued many working-class families. Jones’ letter was a call to action for Roosevelt and the government. She demanded that the government take action to end the practice of child labor, arguing that it was the government’s responsibility to protect the welfare of its citizens. Jones called for stricter laws to regulate child labor and for the establishment of a government agency to monitor working conditions and enforce the laws. She also called for a national day of protest against child labor, which she hoped would bring attention to the issue and spur
July 22nd, 1905 Florence Kelly delivered a speech about the unfairness of child labor at a National American Women Suffrage Association conference. Throughout this speech Kelly uses rhetorical strategies such as repetition, sarcasm, and an appeal to the audiences emotions to express the issue of child labor in America. Kelley uses repetition in this piece to emphasize the importance of her argument about child labor. In paragraph two, talking about the rapid increase in the amount of fourteen to twenty year old women who are working, she says, “ Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase.”
Florence Kelley was a social worker who fought against child labor and to better working conditions. On July 22, 1905 she delivered a speech, in Philadelphia, to members of the Nation American Women Suffrage Association before their convention was held. Through her speech she is informing people about the dangers and encouraging others to support regulations that will end child labor. Another message she was sending through the speech is that along with their support they can also better the conditions that women work in. The people she delivered the speech to contains mothers who have their own children, elder females that have siblings who may be working, and females that work.
Mary Jones’ strikes were very effective because she had children from the mills and a marching band (Tonn 314). She got lots of attention from people with her speeches and protests (Ford 265). In the Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics, Ford says, “In 1903, she organized a march of more than 100 child mill workers to President Theodore Roosevelt’s residence in New York.” Also, she worked undercover in some mills to uncover abusive child labor (Ford 265). Mary Harris Jones put her life at risk to help these children in the mills.
Near the end of Kelley’s speech, she states, “For the sake of the children, for the Republic in which these children will vote after we are dead, and for the sake of our cause, we should enlist the workingmen voters, with us, in this task of freeing the children from toil!” Kelley’s use of the word “toil” demonstrates the agony children have undergone due to a lack of child labor laws and is supposed to leave a memorable mark on her audience. Additionally, when Kelley discusses the adult’s perspective on the issues of these child labor laws, Kelley states that “we do not wish this. We prefer to have our work done by men and women. But we are almost powerless.”
Florence Kelley, a women’s rights and child labor activist, delivered a speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association in July 1905 in which she condemns and details the cruel practices of child labor in the United States. Following the industrial revolution, factories had an increase in job openings and a necessity for small hands to work their machines, and consequently, there was a surge of children in the workforce working the same if not more hours than their adult counterparts. The increase in youth exploitation without restrictions on working time prompted Kelley to speak to the women of NAWSA in an attempt to encourage them to vote against child labor and persuade the workingmen voters to vote against unrestricted child
In the speech, given at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention, a United States social worker and reformer who successfully fought for child labor laws, Florence Kelley identifies how the working ages vary throughout States, compares different states and their child labor laws, and details the power that they have as american citizens, in order to prove that laws and restrictions need to be put in place for child labor, ultimately moving the people attending the convention to stand up to child labor and fight the government to put new laws in place. To convey her message about child labor, Florence Kelley identifies how the working ages vary throughout the States in order to show that the laws are inconsistent throughout the states. She wanted to have fair ages throughout all of the states because “they vary in age from six and seven years (in the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine and ten years (in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania).” She goes on to say that kids aging from six to sixteen are working dangerous, dirty jobs at such a young age.
Child Labor Analysis Child Labor was one of Florence Kelley’s main topics at a speech she gave in Philadelphia during a convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Kelley talks about all the horrors children were going through and the injustices they were suffering. She talks of the conditions children working in, the hours they were going in, and all in all, how wrong child labor was. Her purpose for this was to gain support of people to petition for the end of child labor. Kelley’s appeals to Ethos, Pathos and Logos through the use of great rhetoric is what allows her to achieve her purpose.
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was a reformer who fought for the rights of workers, including child laborers. She helped everybody, even children to fight against child labor. Finally in 1938, the 1938 federal regulation of child labor is passed in the Fair Labor Standards Act is which allows minimum ages of employment and hours of work for children to be regulated by federal law. The Social Gospel wanted to help the unfortunate get skills, job training, and get themselves the opportunity to get out of poverty. They used social surveys to find the income and employment information of a community.
In the mid 1800s industry was advancing and children of all ages were working in dangerous factories. People attempted to strike against these rules, while some decided not to. In the book ¨Lyddie¨ by Katherine Paterson, the main character Lyddie has a job in a factory with very poor conditions and long hours. Since this was only the 1800s, child labor laws were not yet established and Lyddie was recently introduced to her idea of rebelling against the rules for more rights.
Working conditions for children were frequently hazardous and unsanitary. As seen in document 2, the working conditions for these children in the factories were deplorable. They were filthy, dusty, and cramped, making them an unsuitable environment for children to spend so much time in every day. When forced to work in these factories, children faced numerous health issues, and some even died. Child labor began to decline as the labor and reform movements grew and labor standards in general improved, giving working people and other social reformers more political clout to demand legislation regulating child labor.
The New York Newsboys Strike of 1899 led to the recognition of the poor living conditions and life styles of young children in the urban cities. By the 1900’s, at least 18 percent of children were employed. 25 percent of the children working in the Southern cotton mills were below the age of fifteen and half of the 25 percent of the children were below the age of twelve years old. Up until the 20th century, child labor was an essential factor of the American economy and social life. In 1902, Florence Kelley, a founder the social work profession, and Lillian Wald, the founder of the Henry Street Settlement, persuaded the Association of Neighborhood Workers that they should take up the issue of child labor.
Children from as young as the age of 6 began working in factories, the beginning of their exploitation, to meet demands of items and financial need for families. In Florence Kelley’s speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia 1905, Kelley addresses the overwhelming problem of child labor in the United States. The imagery, appeal to logic, and the diction Kelley uses in her speech emphasizes the exploitation of children in the child labor crisis in twentieth century America. Kelley’s use of imagery assists her audience in visualizing the inhumanity of the practice.
From 1900 through 1925, Mary Harris Jones, sometimes known as "Mother Jones," was a reformer who pushed for improved working conditions and labor rights for employees through campaigning, organization, and lecturing. Background Information: Mary Harris Jones, sometimes known as "Mother Jones," was a labor and community organizer and an outspoken advocate for workers' rights in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. She was born in Ireland in 1830 and immigrated to the United States as a young woman. She devoted her life to bettering the lives of working-class people, particularly miners and factory workers. Jones used her personality, organizational abilities, and speeches throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era to mobilize
Many children began working before the age of 7, tending machines in spinning mills or hauling heavy loads. The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty. Some children worked underground,
Child labor was a great concern in the Industrial revolution but very few people did something to stop it. Women and Children were forced to work more than 10 hours a day with only forty minutes to have lunch. Elizabeth Bentley once said that they didn’t have any time to have breakfast or drink anything during the day. They worked standing up and if they didn’t do their work on time they were strapped (whipped). Children were treating like they were not important, like they didn’t deserve a better life.