My dear Miss Addams:
By this post I am returning to you the documents you so kindly let me have on the Child Labor question. They were of the utmost value to me in preparing the address which I delivered ↑last↓ Sunday, though I should have been much better off if I had had the good fortune to hear your lecture.
I fear that Mr. Lovejoy, Dr. Adler and the others are unduly optimistic in hoping for the ultimate acceptance of the Amendment in its present form. It seems to me that the wisest thing the friends of the cause could do would be to modify the Amendment so that it would authorize Congress to prohibit the labor of children under fourteen, and to limit and regulate the labor of young persons between fourteen and eighteen years of age. This would give the Federal legislature power to do all that is really necessary, even up to the point of virtually prohibiting labor under eighteen in exceptionally hazardous occupations, since in such cases they could “regulate” either by prohibiting night work, or by insisting in such occupations on a wage level that would make employment of young persons undesirable from the employer’s standpoint. The Amendment thus modified would not be open to the objection which has weighed so much in many minds against the present form, viz., that it gives Congress more power than the end in view requires, and power which could be used in interfering, nagging and tyrannical ways with the relations between fourteen and eighteen who, for good cause, find it necessary or desirable to earn their livelihood or contribute to that of their families in addition to pursuing their education. Father Ryan’s able pamphlet, which I greatly enjoyed, seemed to me the best argument I have read for the Amendment; but I did not think him quite convincing when he said that the Amendment in its present form is the only way to give Congress the necessary power. Even he has to fall back upon an appeal to us to trust Congress not to misuse the full power the Amendment gives it. This trust is precisely what the country does not now have, nor do I see that there is likely to be any great revival of confidence in Congress in the near future. That is why it seems to me better, if practicable, to modify the terms of the Amendment so that it would give Congress the power to do what we feel to be necessary, but no more.
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