LAD #29: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act passed in 1916 prohibited factories, companies, as well as stores that employed children under 14 from selling their products. Along with this, people were not allowed to buy products from businesses with children under 14 working.  Furthermore, this act regulated the hours that 16-year-olds could work.  The goal of all this was to completely put an end to child labor.  This act came about after the 1900 census showed that close to 2 million children were working in terrible conditions as child laborers. This statistic finally opened up peoples eyes enough to call for changes to occur.  The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act was ruled unconstitutional however in 1918 in the Hammer vs. Dagenhart case, but another act getting rid of child labor was passed once again in the same year.