Child Labor in America
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Introduction: In The Trouble Days Of the Late 1800's and Early 1900's America's population was burgeoning. Immigration was a record numbers and labor was largely based in cities where there were factories. This rising population was creating a surplus of cheap, unskilled labor. So to meet with the laws of 'supply and Demand' the price of labor dropped. Why pay a worker two dollars a day, when an immigrant laborer will work for one? Quite simply, you don't. As factory owners learned cost efficiency hinged on immigrants willingness to work for the least possible money. This rise in the amount of laborers did not coincide with a drop in the cost of living, so these households still needed a two dollar a day income to function. The solution to this riddle was horrifying, send your children to work as well. It was this necessity that brought about the earliest child labor, and it was a recurrence that cause it to reappear. The Following is what resulted. |