Ch. 3
Pg. 5
Child Labor

he same leaders who fought so prodigiously for maternal and infant health programs and widows’ pensions were also prominent in the crusade against child labor. That problem proved to be more recalcitrant than either widow's pensions or health programs. Both industry and many poor families opposed laws that limited or prohibited young children from working. Industry for the obvious reason that child workers were cheap. Poor families often needed the paltry contributions of their working children just to survive.
The fight against child labor was initially led by indefatigable Florence Kelly and she enlisted settlement stalwarts from around the country. In 1906, they created the National Committee on Child Labor (NCLC) which sponsored investigations and lobbied for legislation protecting children. Finally, in 1916 Congress passed the Wicks Bill which prohibited many forms of child labor. This legislation was ruled unconstitutional 18 months later. Child labor was not eliminated until new legislation was passed as part of the NEW DEAL, during the depression.

A particularly poignant example of child labor was the case of the breaker boys. These young men spent their formative years breaking coal into small pieces. Mother Jones said the breaker boys were...
"like little men. They formed breaker boy unions, beat up breaker boy scabs and frequented breaker boy bars and houses of prostitution"
 

Peace and Social Justice

ettlement leaders became involved in many issues beyond child saving. Florence Kelly was a leader in both the suffrage and labor movements. Jane Addams' contributions were too numerous to list. They included advocacy of labor, civil rights, suffrage and peace. Her contributions in the peace movement were so significant that she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Settlement leaders also played an important part in combating racism. In 1908, after race riots in President Lincoln's hometown of Springfield Illinois, concerned citizens called a conference on race. Led by settlement workers William Walling and Mary Ovington this original group was soon joined by Henry Moskowitz, Florence Kelly and Lillian Wald. The conference was attended by a large number of people including Oswald Villard, grandson of abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, John Dewey, Ida Wells and Jane Addams. Plans were made at this conference for the creation of a permanent organization which then evolved into the National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP's first central committee included both William Walling and W.E.B. Du Bois.

The Klu Klux Klan, often responsible for lynchings, was frequently romanticized in the white press.