Child Labor Laws
Florence Kelley, who is a social reformer, read a speech that addresses “child labor laws and [improving] conditions for working women.” This was specifically made so that these problems would be solved in the near future with a grand audience, which was located in a “convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905”, as its’ witness.
Indubitably, she starts off with using techniques that attract people of high morality. Using age and how some states have worse laws than the latter. According to the speech, she states that there are children working under the age of 16, which is the designated (general) year of age to currently be able to work in the United States. In some states,
…show more content…
Yes, she discussed the topics in which she thought needed alterations but did not necessarily specify. This does not really help the government officials or other beings in “higher places” to make much of a difference. There should have been set laws she wanted that could have made headlines or better yet, caused petitions and quick laws to emerge. Because she only generally addressed the topic, a general answer would suffice. That answer being, yes it is a problem but how do you expect us to fix this? The economy was in shambles, overproduction was apparent, and the only other people in the family not working were sadly the children. They were targeted, but not for exact reason that is depicted to emotionally amplify this speech. Children were targeted only because the parents needed a source of income other than their own to survive.
All in all, without individual women like Florence Kelley, much of the problems regarding emotional and ethical appeal would just be set aside. Men have a high set podium in family life and politics, even with laws disregarding their authority and aiding the both genders in becoming equal, patriarchy is inevitable. In the end, child labor laws were enacted along with women’s suffrage. Those individuals made their mark in society and caused a “butterfly effect” that can never be
This collects extra support for her main cause, child labor laws. Children are meant to run, play, and be free, not work excessive hours in a heinous factory. By using logos, pathos, and a shift in topic, Florence Kelley effectively erects her argument to vote for, and create, child labor laws
The children may work enough to provide for their families, however they have minimal time to be a child. This proves that the government, in personified form, is a giver of the law, who creates laws that can be interpreted as a success at the expense of the children who live this reality. As a result, the government signed a law that “required women and [children] to stop work at six,” which was a significantly improved version of the inhumane work schedules (lines 41-42). The same government that placed sensible limits on the egregious system which oppressed children, made a mistake. The government “took a long backward step” when it repealed the law that brought relief to oppressed children (line 40).
July 22nd, 1905 Florence Kelly delivered a speech about the unfairness of child labor at a National American Women Suffrage Association conference. Throughout this speech Kelly uses rhetorical strategies such as repetition, sarcasm, and an appeal to the audiences emotions to express the issue of child labor in America. Kelley uses repetition in this piece to emphasize the importance of her argument about child labor. In paragraph two, talking about the rapid increase in the amount of fourteen to twenty year old women who are working, she says, “ Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase.”
Before the days of labor laws and unions, there was a time in which laws were not able to keep up with a rapidly changing industrial economy. As machinery and technology advanced, so did the possible amount of revenue being generated. Unfortunately, this machinery made it so unexperienced workers, such as children and teenagers, could work hours on end creating products. With little legislation in place, these vulnerable workers were exploited in factories and mills. Many individuals, such as Florence Kelley, called for change by creating speeches that would be presented in large conventions and rallies.
Florence Kelley was a social worker who fought for child labor laws and she successfully improved conditions for working women. She delivered a speech for the National American Woman Suffrage Association and she used different strategies to convey and persuade the Association that child labor should end. Throughout her speech, she mainly focuses on a little girl’s experience with child labor. Not only does that connect her purpose more with her audience because they are focused mainly on WOMEN suffrage, but even if that group of people wasn’t her audience they would still connect with the little girl because of her innocence and purity.
Finding the fact that children from the age of “twelve to twenty years” are subject to labor heartbreaking. Florence Kelley’s speech, given at the National American Woman Suffrage Association, uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to turn the hearts of the audience against child labor, along with strengthening the argument for women’s suffrage. She does this to ultimately to argue that when women can vote, they will put a stop to child labor. While other rhetorical strategies, such as logos and ethos, serve mainly to impress the audience’s reason.
In paragraph 5, Kelley states the child labor laws of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina and the environment the laws put in place for young children (23-28). Out of those states, Alabama was one of the better states due to having a law for the number of hours a child can work at night, whereas Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina don’t have any laws. Kelley uses the lack of child labor laws to back up her argument that laws need to be reformed. Since the convention of National Woman Suffrage Association was held in the north (Philadelphia), the people present are most likely unaware of what’s happening in the South and how the child labor is there. However, using other states in the U.S. as examples helps inform her supporters because they are being made aware of child labor and its laws across the country.
Child Labor Analysis Child Labor was one of Florence Kelley’s main topics at a speech she gave in Philadelphia during a convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Kelley talks about all the horrors children were going through and the injustices they were suffering. She talks of the conditions children working in, the hours they were going in, and all in all, how wrong child labor was. Her purpose for this was to gain support of people to petition for the end of child labor. Kelley’s appeals to Ethos, Pathos and Logos through the use of great rhetoric is what allows her to achieve her purpose.
Many parents needed their wages to make ends meet. In Document C from The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets by Jane Adams 1909, Jane states how children enter factory life when the law allows them to, and children end up not having childhoods. She writes that people are so caught up with the marvelous achievements of their industry and end up forgetting the children who have to work to help out as well. In Document G, a court case Hammer v. Dagenhart 1918, the father of two sons one under fourteen years old and another one between fourteen and sixteen explains his concern about the exploitation of his children in a cotton mill. He says its concerning that children are allowed to work more than eight hours a day and six days a week.
In the mid 1800s industry was advancing and children of all ages were working in dangerous factories. People attempted to strike against these rules, while some decided not to. In the book ¨Lyddie¨ by Katherine Paterson, the main character Lyddie has a job in a factory with very poor conditions and long hours. Since this was only the 1800s, child labor laws were not yet established and Lyddie was recently introduced to her idea of rebelling against the rules for more rights.
On July 22nd, 1905, Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women, delivered a speech on child labor before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia. The purpose of her speech was to convince her audience that the only way to stop child labor was by allowing women the right to vote. Florence Kelley uses certain rhetorical strategies, such as pathos, diction, and an extensive use of figurative language, to appeal to her audience and accomplish her goal. Kelley’s speech is composed of a substantial amount of emotional appeals to aid her in connecting with her intended audience. In paragraph four she says, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.”
In nearly all historical societies, sexism was prevalent. Power struggles between genders mostly ended in men being the dominant force in society, leaving women on a lower rung of the social ladder. However, this does not always mean that women have a harder existence in society. Scott Russell Sanders faces a moral dilemma in “The Men We Carry in Our Minds.” In the beginning, Sanders feels that women have a harder time in society today than men do.
Kelley then brings the opinion of the mothers and teachers into her argument. She uses the quote “Would the New Jersey Legislature have passed that shameful repeal bill enabling girls of fourteen years to work all night, if the mothers in New Jersey were enfranchised?” (lines 59-62). Using the word shameful does not give good connotation to Kelley’s point and gives it a negative tone. She claims that New Jersey was “enabling girls” to work all night; this means that New Jersey is giving fourteen year old girls the authority to do something, while if their mothers were enfranchised or given the right to vote, they may not be in this position.
Florence Kelley was a famous Progressive-Era social reformer known for her protective legislation on working women and children. From a young age, she committed herself to social reform like at Hull House in Chicago and also as the first general secretary of the National Consumers League. She later helped start National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) who policy was “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.” The famous case of Muller V. Oregon showed Florence’s conquest to establish labor laws against working long hours and bad working conditions. This case paved a way into new ideas and eventually created the labor unions we have today Florence’s father, Congressman William Kelley, was a social activist who fought for the poor.
Regarding politics, the Industrial Revolution greatly impacted the world by establishing child labor laws and supporting imperialism. At the start of the Industrial Revolution, children as young as six years old were working in factories. Conditions were exceedingly harsh; they worked very long hours around extremely dangerous machinery at a premature age (Doc 4b, Byerly). Do to the lack of child labor laws, children were put at high risks of growth defects and their fingers being dismembered by machines. Because of these conditions, the first child labor law was enacted in 1819.