It's a hard knock life

15 year old sweeper, Berkshire Cotton Mills, Adams, MA, July, 1916

Speaking at the Harvard Kennedy Business School last week, Newt Gingrich, Republican presidential hopeful said, "First of all, in child [labor] laws, which are truly stupid...Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they’d have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising."

Madeline Causey, 10 years old, worker at Merrimack Mills, Huntsville, Alabama, November, 1913

In 1981, Seattle's Fifth Avenue Theatre re-opened to present live theatre shows. The opening show was a touring production of the big Broadway hit, "Annie" - which was based on the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie."  I was lucky enough, as a junior low-on-the-dispatch-list stagehand with Local #15, to make the show call as a deck electrician for the 10 week run.

Funny thing about a show about kids. Our cast included a dozen or so kids, playing impoverished orphans. But because they were represented by a labor union - Actors Equity Association - their working conditions were strictly protected. They could only work so many hours per week; so many consecutive hours, and the employer had to provide for their education.

On the other hand, the characters in the show were the perfect embodiment of Mr. Gingrich's idea - institutionalized kids forced to work for their own keep. These kids' labor cleaning and cooking offset their room and board. 


In the 19th century, it wasn't unusual to see kids working. On family farms, in agribusiness, in coal mines, and in factories, many of the workers were children. In Britain and in the United States, children sometimes worked twelve or more hours a day.  Children were paid a fraction of the wages adults would get, and because of their size, could be sent into confined spaces where they were often exposed to dangerous machinery.

Frank, aged 14, has been working alongside his father in a coal mine for three years. Spent one year in a hospital when his leg was crushed by a coal car. 1911.

 In 1900, according to the census, almost 1 in every 6 children aged five to 10 were listed as employed in "gainful occupations."


This so alarmed some activists that they formed the National Child Labor Committee in 1904, and hired sociologist Lewis W. Hines to document child labor with photographs. The collection can be viewed at the Library of Congress.

John Dempsey, 12 years old, Jackson Mill, Fiskeville, Rhode Island, April 1909

At one Maryland bean-packing factory, the caption states that there was "plenty of work for even the tiniest of hands."

 But in the era the show was set - the Depression of the 1930s - things were about to change for kids.

In 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Fair Labor Standards Act, which protected the rights of U.S. workers, and effectively prohibited child labor in the United States. This didn't happen simply because lawmakers felt sentimental about kids. It was also because the nation had weathered an economic crisis, and the law helped make sure jobs went to adult breadwinners at competitive wages.


The FLSA  - originally and as amended over the years - also mandated minimum wage for workers, overtime at time-and-a-half,equitable wages, and pay equity for men and women. This is the law workers organized and fought over.

Coal miners, Pennsylvania Coal Company, Dupont, PA, 1911

Now the current Republican presidential "front-runner" wants to overthrow it, and put children back to work.

IT'S A HARD-KNOCK LIFE
Music by Charles Strouse, Lyrics by Martin Charnin

It's the hard-knock life for us! It's the hard-knock life for us!
Steada treated,
We get tricked!
'Steada kisses,
We get kicked! 

Spinner girls, Lincolnton, N.C. 1908. Girl on the left is 10 years old, girl on the right is 12

It's the hard-knock life!  
Got no folks to speak of, so, It's the hard-knock row we hoe!
Cotton blankets,
'Steada of wool!

15 year old "carrying-in boy" at the Grafton, W. VA glassworks, October 1908

Empty Bellies
'Steada of full!
It's the hard-knock life!

Tipple boy, Turkey Knob Mine, Macdonald W. VA, August 1908

Don't if feel like the wind is always howl'n?
Don't it seem like there's never any light!
Once a day, don't you wanna throw the towel in?
It's easier than puttin' up a fight.

Young Mexican boy cutting spinach, La Pryor, Texas, March 1939

No one's there when your dreams at night get creepy!  
No one cares if you grow...of if you shrink!  
No one dries when your eyes get wet an' weepy!
From all the cryin' you would think this place's a sink! 
Ohhhh!!!!!!!  

Young girl spoolers, Lincoln Cotton Mills, Indiana, October 1908

Empty belly life! Rotten smelly life!  
Full of sorrow life! No tomorrow life!
Santa Claus we never see
Santa Claus, what's that? Who's he?
No one cares for you a smidge When you're in an orphanage!
It's the hard-knock life.

5 year old Francis Lance, newsboy, St. Louis, MO, 1910

In "Annie", the heroine is rescued by rich Daddy Warbucks, who adopts her and improves the lot of her and her fellow orphans. Also, in a fine example of how big money influences politicians, he intercedes with the President of the United States to promote legislation - the New Deal, in this case.

Angelo Ross, claims to be 13 years old, working at a Pittston, PA coal mine, 1911

 In the touring company of "Annie," even though children were working, their conditions were protected by laws and by their labor union. Heck, even the dog playing Sandy was protected by rules and regulations. The current crop of politicians running to be the Republican party's candidate for president advocate doing away with regulations that offer protections to workers, consumers, and the environment. Of these, Newt Gingrich has gone farther than most, advocating an end to child labor laws.

Photos from the Library of Congress, National Child Labor Committee Collection.  Just go to the link and browse the photos. Then think about Mr. Gingrich's proposal, and what it says about him.