LAD #29: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

Although big business helped the nation prosper in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century it also came with a host of problems. The conditions in the factories were dangerous and the workers were put through long hours of grueling work only to receive little pay. Children also faced hazardous conditions. Maybe even more so than the adults. The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act tried to reform the hardships that were faced by the child laborers. It also indirectly restricted child labor in order to open up more jobs for men. The Act prohibited the sale of goods made in factories by kids under the age of 14 and also prohibited the operation of mines by kids under the age of 16 years. Lastly, it prevented children under the age of 16 to work more than eight hours a day.