GOP State Sen. Wants Return to Era of 'the Condition of England Question'

GOP State Sen. Wants Return to Era of 'the Condition of England Question' --By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org 17 Feb 2011

We read: GOP State Sen. Proposes Elimination of Child Labor Laws 15 Feb 2011 Missouri State Sen. Jane Cunningham says her quest to change Missouri's child labor laws is driven by her belief that the current restrictions are "implying that government can make a better decision than a parent." But Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, takes exception to critics who contend that her proposed changes, contained in SB 222, would put children younger than 16 in danger. The critics point to the bill's official summary 'This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age 14. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child aged 14 or 15 obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under 16 will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ...'

Michael Rectenwald wrote:

In the first three decades of the nineteenth century, Great Britain experienced the vicissitudes of the first industrial revolution and the birth pangs of industrial capitalism. In the aftermath of the French wars, it became increasingly clear that the great social, economic and political problems had to be addressed... By 1839, the cultural conservative critic Thomas Carlyle coined "the Condition of England Question" to describe the situation of the plebeian classes. --From 'Darwin’s Ancestors: The Evolution of Evolution,' by Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.

Professor David Cody in his essay 'Child Labor,' described the conditions in Victorian England:

Many children worked 16 hour days under atrocious conditions, as their elders did. Ineffective parliamentary acts to regulate the work of workhouse children in factories and cotton mills to 12 hours per day had been passed as early as 1802 and 1819. After radical agitation, notably in 1831, when "Short Time Committees" organized largely by Evangelicals began to demand a ten hour day, a royal commission established by the Whig government recommended in 1833 that children aged 11-18 be permitted to work a maximum of twelve hours per day; children 9-11 were allowed to work 8 hour days; and children under 9 were no longer permitted to work at all (children as young as 3 had been put to work previously). This act applied only to the textile industry, where children were put to work at the age of 5, and not to a host of other industries and occupations. Iron and coal mines (where children, again, both boys and girls, began work at age 5, and generally died before they were 25), gas works, shipyards, construction, match factories, nail factories, and the business of chimney sweeping, for example... where the exploitation of child labor was more extensive, was to be enforced in all of England by a total of four inspectors. After further radical agitation, another act in 1847 limited both adults and children to ten hours of work daily.

In fact, Missouri Republican State Senator Jane Cunningham's Bill invokes potentially worse labor conditions for children than those experienced in Victorian England. In 1833, the government actually limited the age eligibility in which children could toil, and imposed limits on their working hours.

In 1847, after further 'radical agitation,' (sorely needed in the US, circa 2011), an act ' limited both adults and children to ten hours of work daily.'