CHILD LABOR FILES, 1914-1975

Summary: Documents generated by the Child Labor Committee of the Consumers League of New Jersey. Includes material sent to the League and kept for reference. Also contains correspondence of long serving chair, Mary L. Dyckman.

Document types include correspondence (letters received and copies of letters sent), publications, press releases, reports, minutes, notes, and newspaper clippings.

The series contains information about children in agriculture, industry, and street trades. Documents League involvement in the creation and implementation of child labor legislation such as the 1940 Child Labor Law, which was a major victory for the League. Also documents challenges to the 1940 law, such as attempts to exempt bowling alley pin boys and newsboys, and, in the late 1950s, opposition based on a belief that the restrictions added to juvenile delinquency. Though most of the material in the series is post-1939, there is also some documentation of the League's earlier efforts for stricter child labor standards such as the 1914 Child Labor Laws and 1933 legislation that restricted the use of child labor in dangerous occupations.

Of particular interest are several government publications from 1916 concerning child labor in the street and industrial trades. Also of interest is material concerning the recruitment of students during World War II for agricultural labor.