Influence Reform Movements had on New York

Political cartoon depicting a child being attacked by a spider labeled "Child Labor"

With a new understanding of child labor due to the coverage of strikes in the papers, “[b]y the early 1900s many Americans were calling child labor ‘child slavery’ and were demanding an end to it. They argued that long hours of work deprived children of the opportunity of an education to prepare themselves for a better future.”¹² In 1902 the New York Child Labor Committee was formed, with a goal to completely abolish child labor.¹³ As one of the first states to form a committee pertaining specifically to child labor, “[t]he National Child Labor Committee was working to improve national standards but New York could not afford to wait for other states to catch up.”¹⁴

¹²National Archives, “Teaching with Documents: Photographs of Lewis Hine: Documentation of Child Labor,” National Archives, 2017.

¹³Felt, Jeremy P. Hostages of Fortune ; Child Labor Reform in New York State. Syracuse University Press, 1965: 45.

¹⁴Ibid., 77.