Compared to now, the early 1900s can be seen as an assault to the basic rights we are familiar with in the United States. From the horrid meat standards, to women’s disenfranchisement and child labor, it would take the Progressive Era to end these practices, bringing the United States closer to the one known today. In 1905, more than a decade before women were granted the right to vote, Florence Kelley spoke before the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Speaking on behalf of child and female workers, she passionately opposes the exploitation of children. Using various rhetorical strategies, Kelley crafts an argument on her insight on child labor and her true goal of women’s suffrage.
From the onset of her speech Kelley uses emotional appeal to give her audience a sense of the scale of child labor in the United States. When she states “We have, in this country, two million children under the age of sixteen ears who are earning their bread” she tries to instill
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Those listening, already rather infatuated and fervent, would grow even more enraged with the current state. She then applies her outrage at specific states and compares their laws to more liberal legislatures. She mentions, “In Georgia there is no restriction whatever,” but Alabama, “ . . . limits the children’s work to eight hours . . .”. This contrast shows change can happen, albeit small. Later, Kelley attacks the legislature of Georgia and New Jersey, splitting them from her audience, “ . . . the mothers and the teachers,”. In these lines, Kelley demonizes the governments and voters of these two states, presenting an adversary to the push for equal rights. The politicians refusing to terminate the practice of child labor are most likely the same limiting women’s right of suffrage. Displaying a troublesome problem and then producing an enemy allows for a more concentrated