Who Really Cares About Kids Anyway?

• Robert Owens: seems to like kids



Get it? Cuz they're kids...

• A factory owner
• Set HIGHER safety standards for kids in his factories by restricting their hours and age of work
• They should be at least 12 years old
• Promoted education
• Remember he pushed FACTORY REFORM

BUT this raises a number of questions:

• 1)  Why did factory owners like Owens put restrictions on hiring kids 
• Did they really care about children?
• Yes: Owen noticed young kids working for him were physically deformed and mentally slow
• Thanks to Parliament, there was more information being spread about the horrors of working conditions for kids in factories, mills, and mines.



See? Not very productive

• No:  kids are small and weak, meaning that they are not as productive

which raises another Question:

• 2) If kids don’t work as well, why were they in factory to begin with?
• Early factory workers were used to putting-out system in which they worked as a family unit
• When people started working in factories, they brought the family unit with them:
• Factory owners paid families as a unit and allowed it because it was incentive to get old cottage industry workers to transition to machinery



Need to keep the family together

Remember that Parliament was starting to push reforms and spreading the scandals concerning child labor?

• 3) If government is about protecting people, why did they pass the Combination Acts?
• Combination Acts prohibited the formation of labor unions
• So... What's wrong with unions?
• The government did not want to compete for power with the unions
• Government was made up of a tiny oligarchy and monarch who were all used to being in control
• They thought unions would go too far with reforms (beyond basic safety)



The government trying to get rid of unions

• 4) When does the government get involved and start caring about the workers?
• Right now, only a small, educated, wealthy, aristocratic class can vote and they do not care so much about the workers
• Government gets more involved in civil rights when more people can vote
• Chartist movement wants universal male suffrage
• cities get better representation and reforms start happening



What the Chartists believed