Some photos Republicans want to forget were ever taken

[Omaha Steve]

To them, these are the good old days.

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/


Left - Furman Owens, 12 years old. Can't read. Doesn't know his A,B,C's. Said, "Yes I want to learn but can't when I work all the time." Been in the mills 4 years, 3 years in the Olympia Mill. Columbia, South Carolina.



Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up on to the spinning frame to mend broken threads and to put back the empty bobbins. Bibb Mill No. 1. Macon, Georgia.


View of the Ewen Breaker of the Pennsylvania Coal Co. The dust was so dense at times as to obscure the view. This dust penetrated the utmost recesses of the boys' lungs. A kind of slave-driver sometimes stands over the boys, prodding or kicking them into obedience. South Pittston, Pennsylvania


Manuel the young shrimp picker, age 5, and a mountain of child labor oyster shells behind him. He worked last year. Understands not a word of English. Biloxi, Mississippi.


At 5 p.m., boys going home from Monougal Glass Works. One boy remarked, "De place is lousey wid kids." Fairmont, West Virginia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_laws_in_the_United_States
The National Child Labor Committee, an organization dedicated to the abolition of all child labor, was formed in 1904. It managed to pass one law, which was struck down by the Supreme Court two years later for violating a child's right to contract his work. In 1924, Congress attempted to pass a constitutional amendment that would authorize a national child labor law. This measure was blocked, and the bill was eventually dropped. It took the Great Depression to end child labor nationwide; adults had become so desperate for jobs that they would work for the same wage as children. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which, among other things, placed limits on many forms of child labor.

[MadMaddie]

1. My mom and dad were picking cotton in the South as children

under the age of 10.

[stuntcat]

8. my mom too

My dad was lucky to have more 'childhood' time. But my mom and her sisters and brothers all farmed cotton and tobacco when they were real little kids.

[Dappleganger]

16. As was my mom...

the youngest of 12 on a sharecropper's farm. She got skin cancer from it too, as she began when she was 6 but rode to the fields with her parents when she was even smaller.

[Swagman]

55. same here..and mother at 85 was still saying thank God for unions !

[mitchum]

25. My dad was glad when he turned 12 because it meant he could work in the peach shed...

instead of picking cotton

[yella_dawg]

69. That's how my mom raised money for extracuricular events at school.

Now kids beg door to door. One instance where I can support child labor.

[blondeatlast]

71. Both equally vile, IMHO. nt

[yella_dawg]

74. Actually, hard work a few days a year is a good learning experience.

While some of Mom's classmates (and she) put in hard days pulling cotton 'til the crop was in because they grew up on a family farm, the school activities were an occasional event that seem considerably more wholesome than hours jacked into a video game. And a lot better than beggar's training.

[blondeatlast]

80. "...hard work a few days a year..." Unless something has changed recently, apples are still not

oranges.

what those pics depict was everyday life--not a few days a year.

[yella_dawg]

100. Reading comprehension

Try it some time. My post referenced, in detail, life on the farm sixty years ago, not the pictures above.

This place astonishes me sometimes.

[kenfrequed]

91. Uhm...

We aren't talking about idealized 'leave-it-to-beaver' newspaper routes here. The kind of child labor that was outlawed was abominable and chewed up and spat out kids.

[blondeatlast]

70. In the '70s, migrant and immigrant children that age wre picking grapes in Arizona in the summer.

We only think we've come a long way. :cry:

[Cleita]

94. My dad too.

He and his brother ran away from an abusive father when he was in the fifth grade and his brother in the fourth. They picked cotton across the South and whatever else work they could get. They landed in Arizona before it was a state when he was twelve and he started working in the copper mines there. He was able to support his brother so he could go back to school but my dad never did. He worked in the mines until WWI and then enlisted in the army to fight. He wasn't much taller than me, maybe five foot five. I wonder if the deprivation in his childhood didn't stunt his growth?

[nosmokes]

2. You got it Steve! great post.

The family that works together, prays together, stays together, dies w/o health insurance together.

[jwirr]

3. Thank you for reminding us where we have been. Please everyone

get out there and vote in November.

[Spazito]

4. Very powerful set of photos along with a powerful message...

thanks for posting this, it is much appreciated.

Recommended.

[pnorman]

5. The below photgraph from that website, brought to mind this poem:

"The golf links lie so near the mill, that almost every day, The laboring children can look out, And watch the men at play"
Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn quotes (American Writer, 1876-1959)

[Divine Discontent]

89. wow... that photo and caption says it all - we CANNOT give in to these corporate assholes, and we

must keep speaking to people we come in contact with about how the corporate welfare and tax cuts for the rich destroy our way of living, and the workers deserve better - always.

[malaise]

6. Fabulou s post

Rec :yourock:

[RedCloud]

7. such is the Republican utopia.

[alfredo]

9. My mother worked at a cigarette factory when she was a kid.

They had to put her on a box so she could reach the machine.

She was orphaned, so relatives used her as another source of income. They pulled her out of school in the second grade and sent her to work. The child labor laws came to late to protect her from a childhood of involuntary servitude.

[midnight]

12. Such a horrible loss for children like your mother, and

around the world that have to endure such warped priorities.

[alfredo]

23. It really warped her. Ruined her feet too.

[myrna minx]

10. K&R n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

11. I thought it was going to be from the 2004 repuke convention..pics like these.

But yours are much more important and your point is essential.

[peace frog]

42. good ones

trying to post the Dim Son pics like the raised middle finger, china door incident, kissy-face with the sheik, etc. Not working, sorry.

[Wednesdays]

46. That, or the "Drill, Baby, Drill" rally (2008 Convention)

Check my sig.

[CLANG]

78. Unfortunately, I think republics may be proud of those pics

[provis99]

93. I thought it was going to be the Abu Ghraib torture photos.

Lindsay England is the face of the Republican party today.

[livingonearth]

13. Great post

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Me readying a bunch of material on this

but the history of child labor goes back well beyond either party. They go all the way to Mass Bay and selling of poor children into indentured labor.

[donheld]

15. If we're not extra careful those days will be back.

[another saigon]

17. I would be willing to bet

the vast majority of school age children in the US have NO IDEA of this horrible part of US history.

The Jungle should be mandatory reading.

[laylah]

18. My grandpa started the first

Teamsters union in Missouri in 1928. My dad was a very young lad, laid upon the roof of the barn, with his shotgun, watching for intruders that would disrupt this this process. It is sad we still have to protect children from the powers that be :mad:

A DU'er once dissed me for this info...I am PROUD for what my dad did. Have been a union supporter all of my life. I will NEVER apologize for that!

Jenn

[cpamomfromtexas]

51. Good for you!

I'm from a union family too. Will be striking by next year.

[nannah]

19. my grandmother was a sweat shop laborer as a child

she sewed. she was locked in a room with other children who were able to sew. she was wonderful to me. her life was very hard.

[w8liftinglady]

20. Steve -reminds me of these...a result of outsourcing

Child labor-
China



&sref=http%3A%2F%2Fmancelovici.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F07%2F

[LongTomH]

77. Thanks for posting these!

Advocates of shipping jobs overseas need to be reminded!

[lib2DaBone]

21. Had a conversation today with a Teabagger.. they HATE unions...

Simple things we take for granted.. 40 hour work week.. 5 day work week... all because labor fought and won against the Banksters.

The rich elite want to strip us bare.. they are coming for Social Security and medicare. Teabaggers also say they want to do away with the G.I. Bill.. no more college for returning Vets.

[Skittles]

33. those teabagging bastards are fucking STUPID

they truly have NO FUCKING CLUE

[NYC_SKP]

22. As indicated above, the 21st century equivalent of this is Outsourcing, the Global Economy.

With respect to environmental protection and child and general labor protections and benefits, the solution to sweeping reform in the US was to take it all overseas.

K and R.

:kick:

[dotymed]

53. With the help and approval of BOTH

political parties.
We have such a diverse nation and two viable political parties. Both corporate owned and controlled.

[mitchum]

24. I lived beside that Olympia Mill when I was in college

it looked downright Dickensian

[CoffeeCat]

26. Don't kid yourself...

...these laws would be rolled back, if they could do it.

My father (with whom I have no contact) is a conservative. He is against the Americans With Disabilities
Act, because it costs him money to change his businesses so people in wheelchairs can use the bathrooms.
In fact, in one of the businesses, he absolutely refused to make his bathrooms handicap accessible. He's
also against Affirmative Action. He did hire one African American teenage girl (he's never hired a male),
and he spent an afternoon telling me how she was lazy. He's such a bigot. Always cracking racist jokes.
I watched an African American man come into his business and try to make conversation with him. My
father was so uncomfortable he left. He's repeatedly complained about child-labor laws because he thinks
if he hires a 14-year old--that person should be able to work more hours.

People. I've lived with one of them. Most of them are so full of hate. I hear their conversations. I've
listened to their jokes. We know that they are against helping the poor and the disadvantaged. But,
most people never get to live with this nonsense day to day--and hear them making jokes about homeless
people and people who are starving. They love it.

My father knew I was against his right-wing nuttery---even when I was ten. When I was fourteen, and we
were at an engagement party, he said to me, "Don't you feel guilty eating those appetizers with all
of the hungry people in the world? Quick! I think I hear one of them scratching at the window! Why
don't you fix them a plate. Har har!"

He also used to ask me if I wanted to go for a ride in his sports car, so we could drive around
and, "see how the lower 99 percent lives."

It's so much uglier than most can imagine. Most of them feel this way. And their party's
crass, inhumane and revolting policies reflect exactly these disgusting beliefs and lack of values.

Make no mistake--when they say that they're against Affirmative Action, because they believe that people
are equal and that no one should be treated differently--they really mean that they don't want to hire
minorities.

I could go on and on. I could write a book about what I've seen and heard.

[BlueJazz]

30. I understand. My parents were fairly well-off but were also Democrats and kind people.

....But, They did take me out to a lot of parties when I was growing up and I remember being shocked at what a lot of rich people thought about the average person. I often mentioned it to my father and he would say something like..."I know what you mean.Son..I just have to work with these people but it doesn't mean I like them...They are NOT like our family"

I wish we could exchange stories sometime. :) :)

[MedicalAdmin]

64. This is just a thought but why don't the 2 of you compare notes and write and OP?

[CoffeeCat]

98. Wow, I am so happy for you...

...that you had a father who was so amazing.

He sounds like a terrific man. Not only did he not become like the others, he let you know that
your family was insulated from that poison. And he helped you to understand that there were
differences, and that there was a right and a wrong way to be.

Even teenagers have a hard time understanding these machinations, but your dad wanted you to
understand what was out there--but also feel safe knowing that your family would not be like that.

That's really cool.

I'm sure we could exchange stories.

I'm sure you have the same reaction as I do, to all of the "dog whistling" that goes on in the Republican
party. There's so much of it! For example, I know how much conservatives hate poor people. They
think they're lazy, stupid and that they deserve every bit of misery coming to them. They can't say
that in public, but the conservative positions that welfare needs to be slashed and welfare recipients
should be drug tested--directly speak to that hate. Those policies say, "Ahhh, yes, you understand
how we despise the poor, and want them to starve" to those conservatives. Their whole, "We want to
cut entitlements because we want to teach them to be more self reliant" is baloney. They all know it.

I've heard a lot of racist, homophobic, sexist, elitist, greedy comments and I've seen this lifestyle
played out. So many Republican policies feed right into this poison, and it is quite frightening if
you ask me.

Not sure if you see this the same way as I do, but it really bothers me to see politicians catering
to evil people.

[Skittles]

34. how did you turn out so wonderful, CoffeeCat???

yes INDEED

[CLANG]

79. She's in touch with the human spirit of love.

These teabaggers have their love so bound up by layers of hate that they seem like Manchurian candidates. Only some magical code word or signal could break them out of their trapped existence of hate as a comfort zone. They are pathetic, yet emotionally sick individuals. Why some people turn out that way and others don't, even with similar upbringings, is a perplexing question.

[CoffeeCat]

96. I would describe...

my "father" as totally lacking in love. Basically he was a psychopath. Totally
incapable of feeling normal human emotion. The consequences of that are a complete
lack of empathy for others. They can't feel anything inside, so they lack the ability
to understand that others have feelings.

I agree, it is perplexing why some people turn out dead inside and others survive.

I've asked my therapist the same question repeatedly. His theory is that it is
"resilience." I knew my family was batshit crazy when I was nine. I knew something
was terribly wrong and I fought against them and challenged their every move.

As you can imagine, I wasn't exactly the favorite child. ;)

I do agree that being in touch with your humanity and recognizing love and humanity
in others--may be a survival key. It is interesting. Many who grow up unloved or
abused become serial killers or abusers. I don't know why exactly I did not become
like them, but I know that I am grateful that I did not.

[CoffeeCat]

95. Awww, Skittles...

Thank you for that nice comment.

I struggle sometimes, because they scapegoatted me as a child and made fun of
me for not being like them. It was a torture chamber.

I am free now, but it is always good to hear nice words like that.

Thank you. :)

[Wednesdays]

48. That post really needs to be its own OP.

Really.

[lumberjack_jeff]

63. Yes. They think differently.

They are not like us and don't deserve our empathy. That's not hyperbole. Empathy is a virtue until we extend it to assholes like you've described, because it becomes enabling.

[Steely_Dan]

27. Note That Most Of...

...the locations are from the South.

-P

[Hekate]

41. Everywhere that there were mills there were little children in them. The North especially--

In the South children worked the fields with their parents.

Big cities and small -- little fingers were at work from dawn to dusk. Some children slept beneath their machines. Many were rickety. Tuberculosis was common enough.

Hekate

[slackmaster]

28. I almost couldn't make it to work last friday. Streets were clogged with child labor law opponents.

:crazy:

[Wednesdays]

49. And your point is...labor law opponents don't exist?

That's quite the stretch of logic.

[slackmaster]

67. The OP failed to cite anyone who specifically opposes present-day child labor laws

I'm mocking the hyperbole with my own hyperbole.

It's a literary device.

[nosmokes]

92. In the agricultural sector abuses to child labor(and all labor) is widespread.

But by all fucking means do go ahead and make snarky comments and dis unions and the progress organized labor has made and that you and yours enjoy.

[Shallah Kali]

29. I have shut my little sister in from life and light

http://www.bartleby.com/104/125.html

Margaret Widdemer.

125. Factories

I HAVE shut my little sister in from life and light
(For a rose, for a ribbon, for a wreath across my hair),
I have made her restless feet still until the night,
Locked from sweets of summer and from wild spring air;
I who ranged the meadowlands, free from sun to sun, 5
Free to sing and pull the buds and watch the far wings fly,
I have bound my sister till her playing time was done—
Oh, my little sister, was it I? Was it I?

[nolabear]

86. That is just amazing. Off to look it up. Thanks.

[GreenTea]

31. Tell me the republicans & their corporations wouldn't love to have all workers as slaves!

The republicans certainly are doing their very best, they love high unemployment so many people fighting for so few jobs will accept a lot less in pay & benefits...the republicans caused this economic collapse for this reason and to gut & destroy all social programs.

(And wars for corporate profits were a BIG part of it - the soldiers certainly didn't get rich with the trillions of dollars spent on the wars & the Pentagon, but weapons makers and over 200 corporations are still making billions on these wars and the republicans want Iran next - the republicans want more wars for profit and want those huge Iranian oil fields as well).

While workers are working harder than ever for less pay - The corporations are enjoying record profits and bonuses!!

[ClayZ]

32. Our friend Dave Christy wrote this play,

and another friend Therese Diekhans is the actress who peformed the One Woman Show. We were finally able to see it last night in our home town. If you get a chance IT IS VERY POWERFUL!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHgKiQ6RznE

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/09/05/mother-jones-takes-to-the-stage/

[indy legend]

35. Ah, those were the days. This is the republican wet dream." I want my country back!!" (sarcasm)

[defendandprotect]

36. Elites won't be happy until 2 year olds and 92 year olds are working for them -- !!

[Loudmxr]

37. My question has been:

How far back to an low tax high tariff agrarian economy with bad roads do you want to go?

These pictures depict an America far too modern for their tastes.

[Swamp Rat]

38. k&r

[sce56]

39. Ten years from now they will have gutted all the labor protections and the same old shit will return

I know that is the Herr Beck's err the master plan

[Hekate]

40. Kick, with my thanks. Mills and mines. Some took up their cameras, some their pens...

I think the photos had the most powerful impact of all on the public conscience. Still, it took until 1938 and the Great Depression to outlaw child labor.

Hekate

[athenasatanjesus]

43. I wonder how many on the right would claim FDR had nothing to do with stopping this.

Maybe the free market ended child labor somehow while liberals were the ones using child labor to enact a big government islamo fascist nazi communist state.

[TheUnspeakable]

44. k&r thanks for this

[Solly Mack]

45. K&R

[PatrynXX]

47. Then there were places that had no school buses.

When mom was young she had to walk to school 2 miles away. Once when it was rather cold, she got frost bite on her toes. I assume the Republicans would want to do away with public busing.

[mikekohr]

50. My Grandpa wa 10 1/2 when he started working 12 hour shifts in Ladd, Illinois Whitebreast Coal Mine

In his first year on the job he remembered getting off work on November 7th, 1909, and seeing a huge pall of smoke three miles to the north coming from the burning Cherry Mine. 246 miners died there.

Later in his career as a miner he reported for work at the #3 coal mine on the Illinois River bottoms near today's ghost town of Marquette, IL, one morning when flood waters were threatening to overtop the dike that protected the mine shaft. His crew refused to enter the cage. The mine boss came out and told the gathered miners that any man that did not complete his shift would be fired and "blacklisted,' and never be allowed to work another mine in northern Illinois again. Grandpa told me coal mining was all he knew and he had a wife and 2 girls to support. He and the other miners descended into the mine.

He told me it was the longest day of his life.

mike kohr
Bureau County Democrats
http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com

[AnArmyVeteran]

52. RWs see it as the 'American Dream', while we see it as a part of our national nightmare.

How any republican/conservative could vote for the republican party defies all logic, reasoning or sanity.

[dotymed]

57. I was talking to my Mother

last night.
We were discussing the republican party and how hypocritical (based on a total lack of values) their people are.
Like Cheney's lesbian daughter, working for the degradation of gay and lesbian people.
What does it take to be that way? Self hate?
The majority of people know the difference between right and wrong, but so many are willing to deny their true beliefs and participate in mob mentality.
the majority of these people claim religion.
They wear WWJD trinkets and steam ahead.
Greed, of course, in a capitalist society, will trump all.
Once again, America is in a Depression called "The Great Recession." Does that marketing spin make it palatable?
I grew up proud of America, of course we are indoctrinated from birth. The same way that North Koreans are.
How can the handful of politicians that are truly Progressive (forward thinking) and who explain the inequalities and how to fix them, be not viable on a national level?
If FDR's platform, during his first campaign, outlined his (eventual) accomplishments, he would not have stood a chance of being "elected."
A combination of Socialism and capitalism has seemingly been the best (modern) form of governance, for people and (long-term) businesses.
Yet here, in "the land of the free", indentured servitude and corporatism prevails. It grows stronger each year.
We (America) are now a police state, ruled by (maybe) 5% of the population whose wealth is obscene (truly, like the kings and Pharaohs of old).
In reality, how can this be? Even taking into account the propaganda, misdirection, nationalism..etc.. we can only conclude that we are not a Democracy when a small percentage continually represses and dictates to the masses.How long can people pretend to be blind?
They know their progeny will suffer the same fate unless they (we) stop it.............

[AnArmyVeteran]

62. Very good points Dotymed! It all seems so futile since our leaders are not 'leading' FOR us.

I read another post yesterday about how we are experiencing the French Revolution in reverse. Millions of people (conservatives & tea baggers) are marching in the streets chanting they want more to go to the top 2%. How can we the people ever overcome the tyrannical corporate control over our country if so many people have been deluded into fighting against their best interests, as republicans constantly do?

I find it hard to understand how right wingers listen to the likes of Beck, Hannity and Limblah and believe their every word, without ever fact checking anything they say. Right wingers wrap themselves in the flag, their religions, their guns and their fake patriotism and believe they are the only true Americans. What would it take to penetrate the huge wall they have erected around themselves which prevents all facts and truth from entering their brains?

You're right about FDR. He would have had a hard time winning his first election based on the programs he eventually was able to get passed. President Obama needs to have an 'FDR moment' and pass a jobs bill that would surpass even FDR's ambitious programs. Our infrastructure is crumbling beneath our feet and the gas explosion story which leveled a neighborhood is just another example of 50 year old pipelines failing. There have been at least three pipeline explosions in Texas in the past year but by chance they were not running under neighborhoods. If President Obama was able to get a jobs bill passed to rebuild our country's infrastructure it would lead to lower unemployment, more taxes going to governments and a huge boost to businesses, because people would again have money to buy things. It seems like a no-brainer, but why in the hell hasn't President Obama got such a program started yet? If Obama had 1/100th the talents of LBJ he could have gotten even some of his strongest opponents in the senate to go along with his jobs program.

I remember the indoctrination in school about the US being the only country in the world that was self-sufficient, but since those grade school days we have gone from a country which was able to manufacture everything we needed to one dependent upon other countries using slaves to produce products. The indoctrination was mostly right back then because the US was capable of doing so much more within its borders than now. If we had another world war like WWII we wouldn't have the manufacturing capability to even make the weapons needed to fight. During WWII we were the leaders in the world in manufacturing and of steel production. Now we are far behind other countries, and the time this will come back to haunt our country is upon us.

We need strong and consistent progressive leadership, not the stick-your-head-in-the-sand conservative beliefs. It's sad, but our biggest enemy isn't from any force outside our borders, but within, in the form of the right wing which mindlessly supports corporate domination over our government, our officeholders and the American people.

[dotymed]

65. Yes, alot of the indoctrination of the time was correct.

Of course, we had THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE in place, in media, that required "truthiness." My father was an Army Vet also. He was a "Nixon-Republican", he was assigned to fly Nixon's entourage around for awhile after he returned from Viet-Nam. As he grew older and retired, he had the time to return to school.
He received his Masters in History and along the journey, he became a Progressive.
I don't understand how any thinking person can be anything less.

Of course we could not defend ourselves with our current (non)manufacturing. We currently spend the most (by far) of any nation, to the MIC. Yet, hardly any of that money benefits "mainstreet."
I cannot understand either, how there are so many brainwashed masses that work against their own interests. I don't think any of the other nations can believe it either. It is incomprehensible.
As for gun-toting "patriots" allowing and even encouraging a siege mentality, police state...how?
I recently moved from Indiana. In Indianapolis, the fires and (usually small) explosions form crumbling gas lines were a typical occurrence.

I was at a local festival on Saturday night (in Tn.), they had a booth selling skype style cell phones where you could see as well as speak to people on. Many people were fascinated with this "new" technology. Hell, China, Japan..etc..have had these for years. Their Broadband infrastructure is extensive.
Yet, we, "the #1 nation on earth"..lol..see this as novel. What the hell do people expect when the wealth distribution in America is at completely "Banana-Republic" levels.
30 years ago, Americans would have revolted against almost everything that this generation goes along with. I am truly amazed.
Kafka, Orwell, O'Neil..etc,,wrote the "game plan" it seems, rather than sounding the alarm, as they intended.

[AnArmyVeteran]

99. It's like inmates wanting their guards to have the power to abuse them even more.

WTF!!!

[Cherchez la Femme]

54. But would they truly want to forget?

After all, child-labor gives the sweet, sweet benefit (to the company, corporations only, of course) of getting to pay out extremely low wages.

Yay!

:puke:

[florida08]

56. thanks for posting

People think this is over but if you read about what Foxconn has done it's not. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire was another corporate slave condition in 1911. The republicans would absolutely love to destroy all unions and the democratic party. They're for the 'right to work' for $5/hr. Please everyone vote this November. It's not about Obama..it's about us. I would like to see the blue dogs out but at least lets keep the slave proponents at bay.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-02/foxconn-workers-in-china-say-meaningless-life-sparks-suicides.html

[smoogatz]

58. The bad news is that child labor is still very much with us.

It's just not for white people anymore.

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2000/06/19/abusive-child-labor-found-us-agriculture

[DBoon]

59. When Glenn Beck attacks the Progressive Movement

this is exactly what he wants to bring back

[Scurrilous]

60. K & R

:thumbsup:

[ensho]

61. hugs for giving us this thread

america did love its kids enough back then to make their lives better

they beat the barons down that time

[Island Blue]

66. My grandparents used to work at the Olympia Mill.

They were older than the kid in the photo (but probably not much older). They did have a full 12 year education though.

[Sparkly]

68. Farming and cottage industries vs. Industrialization

To be clear... some of this reflects a transition from farming to industrialization.

Many of our relatives, not all that many generations back, didn't see school as a necessity because their families were in rural farming communities, whether here or in other countries. That's not necessarily "good" or "bad;" it was a very different way of life.

It also didn't mean they were necessarily better off -- there was still, of course, rich and poor.

Once industrialization separated where people worked from where they lived, things changed in a big way. Many of these pictures reflect that change. The opportunities for exploitation of labor for profits, and for income disparity, grew; meanwhile, the need for education in order to have opportunity also grew.

So, I don't think every example of every child working in a farm is necessarily "good" or "bad." Each story is larger and more complicated than that. It is possible that families on farms or with cottage industries would look at photos of how we raise our children today and recoil in horror, as well! It could be said that our culture sees them as potential cogs in a big economic wheel, and school them accordingly. It could also be said that we prolong childhood well beyond what's natural (hence adolescent rebellion).

Anyway, just a different perspective. (Do I really need to say that putting children into dangerous, exploitative work environments is bad? Well just for anybody who wants to pretend I'm saying something different, there you go!)

[Art_from_Ark]

76. My great-grandfather viewed kids as "free help"

He had 9 kids and worked them on his farm until they turned 18 or graduated from high school. He got about 40 years worth of "free labor" that way.
He did a particularly mean thing to my grandfather-- When my grandfather was about to start his senior year in high school (around 1912), his father yanked him out of school so that he could work that year full-time on the farm. When my grandfather finally did graduate the next year, he left as soon as he could and never went back. Interesting that none of his 5 sisters had any kids, and they all lived to be 70 or older, sometimes much older.

[Better Believe It]

72. Thanks for the post. K & R

[blondeatlast]

73. Big k/r. Never again, bt

[bertman]

75. Excellent post. Those pictures tell the tale. Rec. nt

[robertpaulsen]

81. Recommended. Because those in power who forget the past condemn ALL of us to repeat it. n/t

[BEZERKO]

82. Even better are pictures from just a few years ago

of New Orleans and the aftermath of Katrina.

[liberal N proud]

83. Some would like to return to those days

[Dona Ferentez]

87. Yep.

That was a golden age for savage Capitalism.

[TBF]

84. K&R nt

[Hubert Flottz]

85. Poor people's kids are still just things to be used to death to the

GOP bosses. Notice how the youngsters were sent into Iraq because Bush and the neocons thought it was a good idea.

[Supersedeas]

88. Laissez-faire RW economics is alive and well--they just take their capital overseas

[lonestarnot]

And they should be taxed to hell and back for doing so.

[lonestarnot]

97. And they should be taxed to hell and back for doing so.

[pnorman]

90. "How The Other Half Lives", by Jacob Riis

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS CHIEFLY FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR

http://www.tenant.net/Community/riis/title.html