Figure 1.--Here we see a grop of working American boys in 1909. e asre not ure where they are worjing, but are probably bews boys. Images like tus shiwing the boys working rather than inschool had a pfrofound impact on Ametrican gthinkin. And we quickly see child labot lws. .

Only with the development of more easily used films and cameras beginning in 1900 do we begin to get substantial numbers of photographs of child workers. Here we see American images. The sudden appearance of large number of photographs does not mean that child labor prudently appeared in America. It means that photographic technology reached the point that photographs could very easily be taken anywhere -- facilitating the advent of photo journalism, And along with the Progressive Movement we see what was called muckraking journalism. The Muckrakers had difficulty obtaining documentation for many of the issues. Child labor was different. It was impossible to argue against the heart-wrenching images of the children, mostly boys, depicted in these images. America had lagged Europe in a action on several social issues. The photographic evidence was a major factor generating public support for legislation to protect these children. America still lagged in several areas such as old age insurance, but protecting children was no longer one of them. That said one area where America did not lag was ages. American workers received which is a major reason Europeans continued to pour unto America from Europe. This did not begin to decline until World War I (1914-18). While there were important changes in America, most of the world did not change. The only industrial country outside of Europe and North America was Japan. And there were no child labor laws in most of the rest of the world, including the large area of Asian and Africa that were European colonies. After World War II (1939-45), the decolonization process begins. A major impact was a huge expansion of public education. This had an impact on child labor. This was especially true of China. But in much of the rest of the world we continue to see high levels of child labor. This was largely the result of the economic failure of many of the new nations. The basic issue was the decision of most of the new leaders to adopt socialist economic policies. We now know that socialism does not work. That was not known at the time. Plus socialist policies offered far more opportunities for graft and corruption. What ever the reason, economic failure meant that ending child labor was virtually impossible. The economic success of the Asian Tigers and some other Asian countries had meant rising levels of child labor protection.

Created: 5:43 AM 10/14/2024
Last updated: 5:43 AM 10/14/2024