Upon the Altar of Work by Wood Betsy;

Author:Wood, Betsy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2020-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

The Congress shall have the power to limit or prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age, and power is also reserved to the several states to limit or prohibit such labor in any way which does not lessen any limitation of such labor or the extent of any prohibition thereof of Congress. The power vested in the Congress by this article shall be additional to and not a limitation on the powers elsewhere vested in the Congress by the Constitution with respect to such labor.98

The wording of the amendment generated much debate. Using the word “labor” instead of “employment” was a sticking point. Reformers wanted “labor,” as they thought “employment” would leave too many loopholes. Children who worked on family farms would not be included nor would children who “helped” their parents in factories or tenements. The age limit of eighteen was also controversial, but reformers wanted it at eighteen since many sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds were recruited into hazardous jobs in mines and fields. Neither the word “child” nor “children” appeared anywhere in the amendment, as its framers noted that these categories were prone to uncertainty. Since the amendment was meant to grant a new power to Congress rather than to specify a new prohibition, reformers felt the wording of the amendment should be as broad as possible. They did make a point to safeguard the rights of states to set child labor standards as long as they were stricter than federal standards.99

By the fall of 1922 some journalists were inaccurately reporting that the amendment would prohibit the labor of children and youth. The New York Times ran a piece in October asserting that “a misconception with regard to the proposed child labor amendment to the Federal Constitution needs to be cleared up. The NCLC has noted that there is a misapprehension current, arising from the belief that the child labor amendment is a bill before Congress designed to limit or prohibit the employment of children under 18 years of age.”100 The Child Labor Amendment was not the equivalent of a legislative act. It merely empowered Congress to pass such legislation: “Thus, even though the amendment [can] be incorporated into the Constitution, no change in the status of child labor … is possible until legislation based on the amendment is passed by Congress.”101 Early opposition raised questions about how much power the amendment would grant to Congress and mounted familiar states’ rights arguments, mostly from Southerners. But this initial opposition was relatively mild.102 Representatives from the Permanent Conference for the Abolition of Child Labor testified on behalf of the amendment—known as the McCormick-Foster measure—in January 1923 and, for the most part, dominated the debate. On February 19, 1923, they won the first stage of their fight when the Senate Judiciary Committee reported favorably on the resolution. Accounting for several resolutions debated by the Judiciary Committee, the final wording of the amendment would read, “That Congress shall have power, concurrent with the several States, to limit or prohibit the labor of persons under the age of 18 years.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.