A short history of the child labor movement in Alabama -

·  Child Labor Movement was an integral part of the nation-wide Progressive Movement (which sought to establish minimum standards of public health, social well-being, economic security and political worth). Southern “progressives” however, were more concerned about economic progression and catching up with the industrial North.

·  For working children there was a high rate of Tuberculosis, heart problems, anemia, curvature of the spine, permanent bone and muscle injury, mental and moral growth were stifled.

·  Child Labor would be unnecessary if fathers were paid a living wage

·  Agents of the mills would go out into the country where times were hard, looking for big families. They would hire the father, promise him a better life, and convince him that his children should work. It would keep them out of trouble. There was no mandatory education law in Alabama. They argued that putting the children to work would keep them out of mischief while their parents were at work. Often, after the children were hired, the father would be fired.

·  Alabama was the first state to enact Child Labor laws. In 1887 14 was the age limit for factory work. Children under 16 were required to work no more than 8 hour days. There was no provision for enforcement.

·  When Northern mill-owners began building more mills in Alabama, they fought for the law to be repealed. It was.

·  New laws were regularly brought up – all were defeated.

·  In the 1890’s the American Federation of Labor took up the cause after all attempts at legislation in Alabama had failed. At that time there were 45 cotton mills in Alabama. On average 30% of the workers were children. In some mills the percentage was much higher. Children worked the same hours as adults – 12 hour days, 6 days a week ,for 15 to 30 cents per day. A grown man made considerably more than that. This way they could hire 3 or 4 children at the same rate as one man. The work day began at 4:45 and didn’t end until dusk.

·  Girls employed as spinners walked up and down long aisles on machines all day brushing lint from the frames and watching bobbins for breaks in the thread. Girls were preferred for this job due to small nimble fingers. When a thread broke they had to tie it back together. Each spinner tended 6 or 8 sides. When the bobbins were filled doffers replaced them with empty spools. Often the doffers were boys and girls who were so small they had to climb onto the machinery or on boxes to reach the bobbins. One bad move and they would fall into the whirring machine and become badly injured. The noise was deafening. The mills were kept warm and humid to keep the fibers moist and cut down on breakage. The windows were kept shut. The lint and dust filled the workers’ lungs. The death rate to TB, chronic bronchitis and other respiratory disease was extremely high. A boy working in a cotton mill had a 50% chance of reaching the age of 20 as compared to boys who didn’t work. The mortality rate for girls was even higher. Of the mill children who did attend school, the average age to quit school was 12.

·  In 1901 an Episcopal minister from Montgomery named Edgar Gardner Murphy formed the Alabama Child Labor Committee (the first in the country). They sent out pamphlets and pictures of young worked in factories. Since the Massachusetts mill owners were the ones who had fought so hard to defeat the 1887 law, Murphy sent his pamphlets to the people of Massachusetts, hoping to create sympathy.

·  In 1903 a bill was passed in Alabama which set the age limit at 12 (with a 66 hour work week. 10 year olds could work if they could prove a hardship). There was no regulation for night work. Still no provision for inspections or enforcement. Murphy began the effort to end child labor across the country. He didn’t try for a federal law because people in the south still had a strong love of “state’s rights”, and every state had its own set of problems.