LAD#29: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

In 1916, the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act was passed by congress as a way for the government to regulate child labor and interstate commerce. It banned the sale of any items produced in a facility that employed children. In the beginning, this law was deemed unconstitutional because it was thought to overstep the boundaries that the government had set regarding regulation of interstate commerce. The campaign for ratification of a Child Labor Law Amendment was momentarily stalled by those who opposed it, using the opoinions of states' rightists and the idea that this act was a communist-inspired plot. It was not until 1938 that the Anti-Child Labor movement was victorious with the Fair Labor Standards Act.