LAD #29: The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

 

 Lewis Hine's photography exposed the horrors of child labor.

This act was passed in the interest of combating child labor, specifically by regulating interstate commerce. It banned the sale of products from factories, shops, or canneries that employed children under 14, mines that employed children under 16, or any facilities that made children under 16 work at night or more than 8 hours during the day. The law passed and remained in effect until it was ruled unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart in 1918 on account of the government overstepping its power to regulate local trade. The Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938 to a similar effect, and the Supreme Court reversed their decision concerning Hammer v. Dagenhart in 1941.