A Brief for the Palmer-Owen Child Labor Bill, 1914

From Owen R. Lovejoy. The Federal Government and Child Labor. New York: National Child Labor Committee, 1914.

This memorandum is addressed to those who are opposed to child labor. The exploitation of the labor of little children, and the excessive burdens upon older children who might wisely be employed under reasonable limitations have been so generally condemned in a majority of our states as well as in older industrial civilizations that we here assume the need for legal restrictions. Those who do not accept this fundamental proposition are referred to the publication of the National Child Labor Committee in promoting its general education campaigns and to the improved laws in forty states enacted within the ten years we have been at work.

We here face two questions, first, whether any kind of federal law should be applied to this abuse; and second, whether the Palmer-Owen Bill is adapted to meet the needs.

The text of the bill is as follows:

A BILL

To prevent interstate commerce in the products of Child Labor and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.

On and after January 1, 1915, no person, partnership, association or corporation or any agent or employee thereof manufacturing, producing or dealing in the products of any mine or quarry in which children under sixteen years of age are employed or permitted to work at any time; or of any mill, cannery, workshop, factory or manufacturing establishment in which children under fourteen years of age are employed or permitted to work at any time or in which children between fourteen and sixteen years of age are employed or permitted to work more than eight hours in any day or more than six days in any week, or after the hour of 7 P.M. or before the hour of 7 A.M. of any day, shall ship or offer or deliver for shipment such products of interstate commerce.

Section 2. That the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor and the Attorney General shall constitute a Board to make, and from time to time to amend, rules and regulations for carrying out the provisions of this Act.

Section 3. That for the purpose of securing proper enforcement of this Act, the Secretary of Labor or any person duly authorized by him shall have authority to enter and inspect at any time mines, quarries, mills, canneries, workshops, factories, and manufacturing establishments in which goods are produced for interstate commerce.

Section 4. That it shall be the duty of each District Attorney to whom the Secretary of Labor shall report any violation of this Act or to whom any state factory inspector, commissioner of labor, state medical inspector, or school attendance officer or any other person shall present satisfactory evidence of any such violation, to cause appropriate proceedings to be commenced and prosecuted in the proper courts of the United States without delay for the enforcement of the penalties as in such cases herein provided.

Section 5. That any person, partnership, association, or corporation or any agent or employee thereof manufacturing, producing, or dealing in the products of any mine, quarry, mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment who shall violate any of the provisions of Section 1 of this Act, or any of the rules and regulations made in accordance with the authority contained in Section 2 of this Act, or who shall refuse or obstruct the entry or inspection authorized by Section 3 of this Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by imprisonment for not more than one year or less than one month, or by both fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court.

Section 6. In prosecutions under this Act each shipment or delivery for shipment shall constitute a separate offense.

The National Child Labor Committee urges the enactment of this law because we believe it presents the most effective and direct method of putting an end to this national abuse. After ten years experience in seeking improved legislation in the various states and attempts to harmonize state laws through general adoption of the Uniform Child Labor Law, we have reached the conclusion that Congress should forbid interstate commerce in the products of child labor because:

a) It is difficult in not impossible to secure uniform and effective laws in the different states. This difficulty arises from the fact that every proposition to enact an effective state law is opposed by the industries that would be affected on the ground that such a law would handicap them in competition with other states. We believe this objection is frequently unwarranted because we maintain that child labor is the most extravagant and wasteful kind of labor. Nevertheless the opposition is quite effective with legislative committees as though it were never founded on a fallacy.

b) The preponderant moral sentiment of the community is hostile to child labor, but the state which does not enact an effective law is helpless to protect itself or its citizens from purchasing goods produced by exploiters of young children in another state and shipped into local markets.

c) The states are therefore powerless except by joint and simultaneous action effectively to prohibit child labor. Therefore we believe if child labor is to be abolished we must invoke the power of the Federal Government in so far as Congress may act under its constitutional limitations.

Congress might act in one of three ways to control this situation.

1. By the power to regulate interstate commerce. This is the method proposed in the foregoing bill.

2. By the taxing power. Congress might tax all establishments employing child labor regardless of whether the goods were shipped in interstate commerce. The tax, to be effective, should be: a) Heavy enough to make child labor very expensive as in the case of the oleomargarine tax, in which case the Federal Government would pace itself in the position of tolerating child labor on condition that the profits of it went into the Federal Treasury, or b) Heavy enough to tax child labor out of existence, as in the case of the white phosphorous tax. In this case the tax becomes a subterfuge rather than a direct method. The purpose is not to license but to destroy. This we submit introduces a wholly new method of handling labor problems and would provide a precedent which might seriously affect all existing labor legislation. The Government could destroy any kind of industrial activity of which it did not approve by imposing a prohibitive tax. This plan is so far-reaching in its possibilities of controlling industries within the several states that we should hesitate to invoke it until all other resources have been exhausted.

3. By the power to regulate the mails. The Government might forbid the use of the mails to advertise goods made by child labor in the same way that fraudulent or immoral matter is forbidden; or it might forbid the transportation of goods by parcel post. This method would in our judgement, be equally indirect and would involve equally difficult questions. Furthermore even if valid it would touch only a part of the problem as it would have no application to freight or express business or to local advertising.

In advocating this legislation we are not unmindful of the criticisms that may be brought against any attempt to deal with this subject on an national scale and specifically against the bill we here advocate. . .