Summary of the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act
The Industrial Revolution was very beneficial to the United States but with the benefits came the downsides, a major one being child labor. The factory conditions were extremely poor and children were forced to work long hours doing things that were detrimental to their health and well-being. The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act was designed to help solve some of these issues. This act reformed the issues faces by child laborers. It restricted child labor by prohibiting the sale of goods made in factories by children under the age of 14, prohibiting the operation of mines with children under the age of 16, and prohibited children under 16 from working more than 8 hours a day. Although, congress passed the act and the president signed it into law, the supreme court later ruled it unconstitutional because it overstepped the government's power to restrict interstate commerce. Reforms and additional legislation continued to fight for child labor laws throughout the 1800s and early 1900s.
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