The children's crusade: The effect of culture and ideology on the movement to ratify the Federal Child Labor Amendment, 1924–1937

This dissertation focuses on the movement for ratification of the 1924 Federal Child Labor Amendment. The examination of the movement for passage of the Amendment, and its eventual defeat, explored the mechanism through which cultural and ideology have influenced the process of. By situating the examination of the cultural and ideological issues that surrounded the Amendment ratification debate at the movement process level and within the broader social structural and movement structure contexts, this analysis explores the role of culture and ideology in a historically specific way. New York—the case selected for this analysis—was the focal point for child labor reform efforts in the United States. New York was home of the nation's foremost state level child labor reform advocacy organization—the New York Child Labor Committee—and the National Child Labor Committee. New York led the nation in both population and industry. Advocates of the child labor amendment identified New York as crucial for ultimate success (Felt 1965, p.177). New York was also targeted by the opponents of the Amendment—such as the National Association of Manufacturers. To a significant degree the movement for ratification of the Child Labor Amendment involved a struggle to define important areas of American culture—childhood, the family, social welfare, and the State. The debate of these issues occurred in conjunction with fundamental structural changes for American society—industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. The ideas that surrounded the Child Labor Amendment—when employed in conjunction with other structural and movement level variables—provided an important piece in the process of understanding this social movement outcome. In the final analysis, anti-amendment forces were able to construct a coalition that through its message and numbers was able to influence the legislature of New York State. Ideologies of the child, family, and state helped hold this coalition together. These ideologies also allowed legislators to act—they legitimated their actions against the Amendment.