A Labor Day Tale: The Sneaky Lewis Hine and His Camera

I am really tired of seeing so many big children, 10 years old, playing in the street.

An unnamed woman, circa 1907.



She wasn't the only one. The Washington Post ran an online article today which cited labor statistics around the beginning of the 20th century. They showed during those years at least 18% of the nation's children aged 10-15 years old were working full time.

They weren't just flipping burgers, handing out fries, or selling lemonade either. Many worked in factories, mines, and on farms doing everything from maintaining and running textile machines, to digging out coal, and picking cotton. The hours were brutally long and in a lot of instances the jobs were extremely dangerous.

The Post noted that back in the good old days it wasn't just corporate and farm interests who thought child labor was a great idea. The general opinion was kids would learn the valuable lesson of hard work. At the same time businesses would increase their productivity and profitability because--you know--unfettered from any sort of moral, or legal restraint they could force a 10 year old to work as long they wanted, while paying him, or her less than an adult. All the while knowing the little brats wouldn't dare squawk.

Unfortunately for the capitalist hot shots of the day and more than a few moms and dads who had come to covet Jr's income, along came a group of liberal do-gooders. They had formed what was called the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) then quickly enlisted a sneaky sort named Lewis Hine.

Hine had been kind of lucky. His father was able to provide for his family until he died when his son was 18. That meant young Lewis entered the work force at a relatively late age. His first job was in a Wisconsin furniture factory. He toiled 13 hours a day, six days a week. According to the Post he quit the factory to take a job as a bank janitor which afforded him the opportunity to attend school part time. It was a benefit denied most younger child laborers. They were working up to 16 hours a day, also six days a week. Back then overtime pay wasn't even a fantasy and the eight hour day was reserved for members of a few unions who had forced it on their corporate overlords through strikes, many of them violent.  

After becoming a teacher, Hine learned photography and hooked up with the NCLC. They sent him on scads of covert missions which, over the years, he carried out with spectacular, if grim, success.

Lewis Hine would put on a three piece suit, then tell factory managers, mine, and farm owners he was a bible salesman. He would ask for permission to enter their work places so he could preach The Word of the Lord to their child laborers. Many of the dopes bought his story. Once inside he began taking photographs of the kids and the conditions they were working in.

While snapping the photos he would ask their names and how old they were. If they didn't know their age he'd measure them against the buttons on his vest in order to make an estimate. Those photographs, literally thousands of them, illustrated the appalling and dangerous conditions children were forced to endure as their faces, drained of all youth and hope stared straight into his lens. When Hine's work began to be published it was the first time huge numbers of Americans saw the cruel reality of child labor.

The haunting images are credited with helping end the wide spread practice of using children to perform inherently dangerous and brutal jobs in the  United States.

Of course, it didn't happen right away. Hine shot much of his photography from 1904 through the 1930's. It wasn't until 1938 that congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act which prohibited most of the barbarity. It was the same act which, after decades of protests, finally established the eight hour day and overtime wages as national standards.

Lewis Hine died in 1940. The NCLC, which was a private endeavor, closed down in 2017. It had existed on donations and now days since most child labor is confined to places we don't care about, the money dried up. Besides those Asian kids make great caps with team logos on them--not to mention some really flashy sports sneakers.

Happy Labor Day, America. Just don't ever forget where we, as a nation, once were and where many on this blue ball are still at.



9-3-18