The Keating-Owen bill of 1916, was based on Senator Albert J. Beverage’s (picture-left) proposal from 1906. Which also used the government's ability to regulate interstate commerce; regulate child labor. U.S. legislation refused the transportation among states of products of: factories, shops or canneries that employed children under the age of 16 and those that worked them more than 8 hours or had them work at night. Congress had hoped the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act could achieve their objective to rid the industrial market of immoral child labor practices, which did not come to be.
TIme-line:
1904- The National Child Labor Committee is formed with the goal of abolishing all child labor.
1908- Case of Muller v. Oregon the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the right of states to limit the number of hours women could work in certain industries. Louis Brandeis argues the case on behalf of the National Consumers’ League. Sets a legal precedent whereby child labor laws could be instituted.
1912- The U.S. Children’s Bureau is founded with Julia Lathrop as its first head. The organization is poised to monitor the situation of children at home and at work.
1916- Congress passes the Keating-Owen Act, which bans the interstate sale of any article produced with child labor (factory, cannery, and mine) and regulates the number of hours a child could work. The Act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court two years later.