Cabot Mill Spinning Room, Brunswick, Maine, 1900-1905. Maine State Museum. Gift of Vivian Wing, 86.95.1.
Cabot Mill Spinning Room, Brunswick, Maine, 1900-1905. Maine State Museum. Gift of Vivian Wing, 86.95.1.
National awareness concerning the plight of working children grew as major magazines published 69 child labor articles between 1902 and 1906, - a dramatic increase over the four that had appeared in the previous five years. Specific concerns about the lack of children’s education fueled calls to curtail child labor. Reformers argued that the future of American democracy rested on having educated citizens. Industrialists, parents, and sometimes children, who did not want to go to school, resisted changes in child labor laws. In 1904 the Maine State Federation of Labor joined with middle-class organizations, such as the Consumer League of Maine to address the “evil” of child labor.