On this date in 1915, the Washburn Leader printed an extensive article about the state of child labor in North Dakota. The article summarized a presentation by Dr. J.M. Gillette of the University of North Dakota.
Besides being a sociology professor, Gillette was chairman of North Dakota’s Child Labor Committee and a member of the Advisory Committee on National Child Labor.
At the time, child labor was widely accepted in both cities and rural areas. Children worked in agricultural jobs, factories, and mines. Gillette said that Congress had been considering the matter of child labor for the past ten years, but had not addressed it in any comprehensive way. In 1910, almost two million children between the ages of ten and fifteen were working. This amounted to one out of every six children in the country. Almost half of them were under the age of fourteen.
Gillette argued that not all work was bad for children. It was good for them to do chores and learn to be industrious. But he noted that child labor kept children out of school. Working children who tried to stay in school often dropped out when they fell behind in their classes and became discouraged. States with the highest rate of child labor also had the highest rates of illiteracy. Children who worked had higher rates of criminal arrest, and were often repeat offenders. Children who worked unsupervised, such as newsboys and delivery boys, were the most likely to have criminal records. Children who worked had higher rates of disease and medical problems than those who did not.
When President Franklin Roosevelt was campaigning for reelection, a young girl passed him a note. She said that she and other girls were working in a sewing factory for five dollars a week. She pleaded for help. On June 25, 1938, Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act. It set a minimum wage of twenty-five cents per hour and a maximum work week of forty-four hours. It also banned child labor.
Today, North Dakota imposes some additional restrictions on child labor that are intended to protect children from being taken advantage of, and from performing dangerous jobs. The minimum age for employment is fourteen, and children 14 to 15 are prohibited from performing several types of jobs. A few examples are construction, door-to-door sales, and cooking.
Dakota Datebook written by Carole Butcher
Sources:
Washburn Leader. “Child Labor and North Dakota.” 12 February 1915. Washburn, ND. Page 1.
North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights. https://www.nd.gov/labor/ Accessed 25 December 2017.
United States Department of Labor. “Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.” https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/flsa1938.htm Accessed 25 December 2017.
