Interview with Jeffrey Newman, current president of the National Child Labor Committee

Interview by Delphine Zheng and Anna Cheng

Time of Interview: January 17, 2014 5:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Delphine: There were many leaders that contributed to the effectiveness of the committee like Owen Lovejoy and Alexander McKelway. What were their specific achievements and what areas of the U.S. did they target?

 

Newman: Well, all of the leaders of the NCLC like Owen Lovejoy...and any of them focused nationally. They didn’t target any particular area if by that you mean geographically. If by that you mean the kind of work that was being done by children, the kind of exploitation, they targeted the garment industry-- particularly they targeted it because it was New York based and a large part of it. They targeted the mines and factories in the south, and in the midwest they targeted, to some degree, the glass blowing industry and similar kinds of cotton mills throughout much of the country. If that’s what you mean by focus, Owen Lovejoy’s focus was very much on that kind of thing, but not on any one geographical area. It was wherever it came up, wherever the committees around the country say, “we need to give this priority.”

 

Anna: We also read that Owen Lovejoy targeted the northern states and Alexander McKelway was in charge of the southern states.

 

Newman: Well that may be. That’s news to me. I’ve been the president here for 40 years and I don’t know much about the specifics about what happened in the ‘20s and ‘30s in respect to the division of labor for the leadership there. You might be right and I can’t say much.

 

Delphine: So the committee swayed public opinion through Lewis Hine and his photographs.What tactics did they use to promote the reformation of child labor? I know that they offered a lot of opinions and quotations in newspapers.

 

Newman: They submitted a lot of journals to newspapers, but they also did a lot of exhibitions across the country, like Lewis Hine photographs were part of those exhibitions. But after Lewis Hine left the NCLC, they still did exhibitions because regular television virtually didn’t exist for the first 25 years of the NCLC. Certainly television didn’t and radio was in its infancy, so the real focus had to be on print and being in person; that was another reason for the committees being in various places, so that they could hold town hall meetings, they could focus on issues people cared about in those communities and one of those strongest issues was education. You couldn’t have children going to school if they were working 12 - 16 hours a day. So many, many people, especially women, were being concerned about giving children education. And they couldn’t be given education if they were involved in child labor, working in the mine, working in the factories, working late at night, working selling newspapers in the streets. Compulsory education didn’t mean anything until child labor laws combined with that.

 

Anna:   So they would use their reports in their exhibitions?

 

Newman:   Yes.

 

Delphine:   What was their relationship with the government? We read online that the government chartered NCLC. As in, they authorized them to do these investigations?

 

Newman: Congress incorporated the NCLC in 1907. It was somewhat unusual; there were only a handful of nonprofit organizations that were chartered by an active Congress. NCLC was one of those and as I said, that was very unusual and it didn’t usually happen. But all that really meant was that Congress had been convinced by a number of people through hard work and through some of publicity and public information, that this was a worthy organization, the cause was worthy and that the government should, not sponsor, but sponsor its creation. And that’s what the charter essentially is. Didn’t give them millions of dollars or any money for that matter. Only in a handful of cases in the 110 year history of the NCLC had they had government money. So just being charted by an active government is very important for us to say, but didn’t get any money in itself. It gave us an imprimatur, it gave us respectability, but it didn’t give us money.

 

Anna:  Yeah, a lot of the senators tried to pass some of the bills for the NCLC.   

Delphine: I think you already touched upon this, but how did they utilize state committees to promote child labor reform? You said that they focused on local issues through their local committees but when they finally all came together for annual meetings, how did they focus on the issues on a national level, since there was only a certain period when national laws started getting popular.

 

Newman: Well those were the meetings where they focused on local laws, trying to get, simply, what they could in any given area. and trying to get groups behind them. One of the important groups that were strong sponsors of the NCLC and its committees were unions, because during the ‘teens, 20’s, and 30’s , the union movement was very strong. And the union movement saw child labor as a threat to unions because children could be hired for much less money and could be exploited while adults could not get those jobs. So unions had always been an ally (at least in this country) of child labor reform and fighting labor. And NCLC had as its leaders very prominent people in the union. And Lovejoy had came from the union and had always been part of it.

 

Anna: It’s a lot of people coming together.

 

Delphine: President Roosevelt was trying to build the New Deal era by passing the Fair Labor Standards Act. I had read that the NCLC played a part in drafting some parts of it.

 

Newman: Whenever legislation is drafted-- and it still holds true today-- they always sit in rooms in Congress and draw up legislation. the final legislation that is created is done what’s called a “mark up”. It is often led up to by people who are colleagues and are supportive of in any given field. It was certainly true then, it was quite as undercover as it is today. It was a major part of it. And the Roosevelt Administration was extremely helpful it, but the person who played a major role was Frances Perkins. And the Labor Department after whom the building is named, was a strong--even before she got the job as labor secretary under Roosevelt-- advocate for child labor laws, compulsory education laws. She was always considered, and still is if you read the literature of heroes in the child labor movement. They would include Lewis Hine and Frances Perkins, those two would pop right up.

 

Delphine: What are the main issues you are focusing on today?

 

Newman: We focus on a lot of issues in the U.S. today. When we were chartered by Congress, we focused on domestic issues, not international issues. Occasionally, we get asked by other countries to help them understand what happened here…

 

Delphine: Like an investigation?

 

Newman: Well we never done investigations internally but we have helped some countries design laws that would emulate some of our better child labor laws. So the reality is that today, we work on child labor issues that arrive and are important today. For example: child labor in agriculture still is a big problem-- doesn’t get talked about a lot, but still is-- child labor in sweatshops in cities like New York, Houston, Seattle, San Diego. Stuff like that still exists. It doesn’t exist like it was 20 years ago, but it’s still an important issue. But the other area that we’ve involved in as the National Child Labor Committee is ironically the other end of the spectrum, so that we promote and work with communities, improve and expand training opportunities for teenagers, particularly inter cities teenagers.

 

Anna: KAPOW!

 

Newman: Right, which focuses on elementary kids about the world at work, not so that they will go to work but so they can understand as they grow older what the world at work is like and how they can fit in. We have helped to improve and design summer youth employment programs in New York and elsewhere nationally. We work with small business groups to try and improve hiring and maintenance of youth workers so that they are employing them properly and not violating the law, number one, also give them a good experience and give them good employment. So we work in that area and also our Lewis Hine Award which we award to unheralded people who work with children all over the country.

 

Anna: That’s amazing. I also read that Owen Lovejoy wrote something about focusing children in vocational studies and training them how to work. It’s great to see you reflecting that today.

 

Newman: It’s very important and its been a major issue of ours for more than 50 years. 

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