Child Labor
- Submitted by: goodperson
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- Category: History: American
- Date Submitted: 10/26/2011 11:48 AM
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Child Labor
A famous photographer of child laborers-Lewis W. Hine, once said: "There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work."
As power-driven machines replace hand labor for the making of most manufactured items, the factories begin to spring up everywhere. The owners of these factories find a new source of labor to run their machines — children. But child labor is nothing but slavery. Because most children are considered unskilled workers, they are paid less than adults performing the same job. Long hours of work in the factories, sometimes 18 hours a day, deprive children of the opportunity of an education to prepare themselves for a better future. These children laborers have no time to play or go to school, and little time to rest. Instead, they are condemned to a future of illiteracy, poverty, and continuing misery. As children work in the harsh conditions of industrial factory settings, they begin to develop serious health problems. Many child laborers are underweight. Some suffer from stunted growth and curvature of the spine. They develop diseases related to their work environment, such as tuberculosis and bronchitis. They face high accident rates due to physical and mental fatigue caused by hard work and long hours at the factory.
More people need to see and experience for themselves the abuses and injustice of child labor, so that they would be compelled to establish laws to end this unjust cruelty.
A famous photographer of child laborers-Lewis W. Hine, once said: "There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work."
As power-driven machines replace hand labor for the making of most manufactured items, the factories begin to spring up everywhere. The owners of these factories find a new source of labor to run their machines — children. But child labor is nothing but slavery. Because most children are considered unskilled workers, they are paid less than adults performing the same job. Long hours of work in the factories, sometimes 18 hours a day, deprive children of the opportunity of an education to prepare themselves for a better future. These children laborers have no time to play or go to school, and little time to rest. Instead, they are condemned to a future of illiteracy, poverty, and continuing misery. As children work in the harsh conditions of industrial factory settings, they begin to develop serious health problems. Many child laborers are underweight. Some suffer from stunted growth and curvature of the spine. They develop diseases related to their work environment, such as tuberculosis and bronchitis. They face high accident rates due to physical and mental fatigue caused by hard work and long hours at the factory.
More people need to see and experience for themselves the abuses and injustice of child labor, so that they would be compelled to establish laws to end this unjust cruelty.