Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Industrial Revolution Through Today's Eyes


The era known as the Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century in which fundamental changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economic policies and the social structure in England. The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in human history, almost every aspect of daily life was eventually had an impact in some other way. Most recognizable is that the average income and population began to manifest in unseen substantial growth. 




The introduction of steam power fueled only by coal, wider utilization of water wheels and powered machinery. The progression of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century made it possible for the manufacture of more production machines for assemble in other industries. The effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world, a process that continues as industrialization. The influence of this change on society was immense. 


Working Conditions

For the first generation of workers from the 1790s to the 1840s their working conditions were very tough, and sometimes saddening. Most grunts worked 10 to 14 hours a day, six days a week, with no paid vacation or holidays. Each industry had safety hazards to the process of purifying iron, for example, demanded that workers exert oneself amongst temperatures as high as 130 degrees in the coolest part of the ironworks. Under such dangerous conditions, accidents on the job occurred frequently. A report commissioned by the British House of Commons in 1832 observed that "there are factories, no means few in number, nor confined to the smaller mills, in which serious accidents are continually occurring, and in which, in spite of the fact that, dangerous parts of the machinery are allowed to remain "unfenced". The report contributed the information that workers were often "abandoned from the moment that an accident occurs; their wages are stopped, no medical attendance is provided, and whatever the extent of the injury, no compensation is afforded". As the Sadler report shows, injured workers would usually lose their jobs and also receive no financial compensation for their injury to pay for much needed health care. Many of the unemployed or underemployed were skilled workers, such as hand weavers, whose talents and experience became futile because they couldn't take part with the efficiency of the new textile machines. In 1832, one observer saw how the skilled hand weavers had lost their way and were reduced to starvation. “It is truly lamentable to behold so many thousands of men who formerly earned 20 to 30 shillings per week, now compelled to live on 5, 4, or even less”. In 1799 and 1800, the British Parliament passed the Combination Acts, which made it illegal for workers to unionize, or combine, as a group to ask for better working conditions.

Since the Industrial Revolution began around 1750, human activities have been the direct cause of climate change by adding CO2 and many other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. These greenhouse gas discharge have increased the greenhouse effect and caused Earth’s temperature to rise. The pro-dominate human activity affecting the amount and rate of climate change are the greenhouse gas release from the burning of fossil fuels.


                                                                            The Greenhouse Effect










Child Labor Today




Child Labor


Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. Around the world and in the U. S., growing gaps between rich and poor in recent decades have forced millions of young children out of school and into work. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently work under conditions that are considered illegitimate, hazardous, or extremely abusive. Underage children work at all sorts of jobs around the world, usually because they and their families are extremely poor. Large numbers of children work in commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining, and domestic service. Some children work in illegal activities like the drug trade and prostitution or other traumatic activities such as serving as soldiers.
Forms of child labor, including indentured servitude and child slavery, have existed throughout American history. As industrialization moved workers from farms and home workshops into urban areas and factory work, children were often preferred, because factory owners viewed them as more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to strike. Growing opposition to child labor in the North caused many factories to move to the South. By 1900, states varied considerably in whether they had child labor standards and in their content and degree of enforcement. By then, American children worked in large numbers in mines, glass factories, textiles, agriculture, canneries, home industries, and as newsboys, messengers, bootblacks, and peddlers. 



Characteristics of Child Labor

  • Violates a nation’s minimum age laws
  • Threatens children’s physical, mental, or emotional well-being
  • Involves unacceptable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, forced labor, or illegal activities
  • Prevents children from going to school
  • The use of children to undermine labor standards

Child Labor Reform and the U.S. Labor Movement


  • 1832 New England unions condemn child labor
The New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics and Other Workingmen resolve that “Children should not be allowed to labor in the factories from morning till night, without any time for healthy recreation and mental culture,” for it “endangers their . . . well-being and health”.


  • 1836 Early trade unions propose state minimum age laws
Union members at the National Trades’ Union Convention make the first formal, public proposal recommending that states establish minimum ages for factory work.


  • 1836 First state child labor law

Massachusetts requires children under 15 working in factories to attend school at least 3 months/year.




  • 1842 States begin limiting children’s work days
Massachusetts limits children’s work days to 10 hours; other states soon pass similar laws—but most of these laws are not consistently enforced.
  • 1876 Labor movement urges minimum age law
Working Men’s Party proposes banning the employment of children under the age of 14.
  • 1881 Newly formed AFL supports state minimum age laws
The first national convention of the American Federation of Labor passes a resolution calling on states to ban children under 14 from all gainful employment.
  • 1883 New York unions win state reform
Led by Samuel Gompers, the New York labor movement successfully sponsors legislation prohibiting cigar making in tenements, where thousands of young children work in the trade.
  • 1892 Democrats adopt union recommendations
Democratic Party adopts platform plank based on union recommendations to ban factory employment for children under 15.


  • 1904 National Child Labor Committee forms

Aggressive national campaign for federal child labor law reform begins.



  • 1916 New federal law sanctions state violators
First federal child labor law prohibits movement of goods across state lines if the minimum age laws are violated (law in effect only until 1918, when it’s declared unconstitutional, then reviewed, passed, and declared unconstitutional again).

  • 1924 First attempt to gain federal regulation fails
Congress passes a constitutional amendment giving the federal government authority to regulate child labor, but too few states approve and it never takes effect.

  • 1936 Federal purchasing law passes
Walsh-Healey Act states U.S. government won't purchase goods made by underage children.

  • 1937 Second attempt to gain federal regulation fails
Second attempt to approve constitutional amendment by giving federal government authority to regulate child labor falls just short of getting necessary votes.

  • 1937 New federal law sanctions growers
Sugar Act makes sugar beet growers not allowed to from benefit payments if they violate state minimum age and hours of work standards.

  • 1938 Federal regulation of child labor achieved in Fair Labor Standards Act
For the first time, minimum ages of employment and hours of work for children are regulated by federal law.

Child Labor in the world today

  • Asia and the Pacific in fact still has the largest numbers (almost 78 million) but Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest occurrence of child labor (59 million) that's over 21%.
  • There are 13 million of children in child labor in Latin America and the Caribbean and in the Middle East and North Africa there are 9.2 million that's about 8.4%.

  • Child labor in India makes up 3.6% of the country’s total work force.
  • In Bangladesh the number is 30.1%.
  • China child labor is at 11.6%.
  • Pakistan it is 17.7%.
  • Kenya it is 41.3%.










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