Speech 67
CHILD LABOR AND WOMAN LABOR

FROM THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AT THE OPENING OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE FIFTY NINTH CONGRESS, DECEMBER 5, 1905

I RENEW the recommendation made in my last annual Message for an investigation by the Department of Commerce and Labor of general labor conditions, especial attention to be paid to the conditions of child labor and child labor legislation in the several States.  Such an investigation should take into account the various problems with which the question of child labor is connected.  It is true that these problems can be actually met in most cases only by the States themselves, but it would be well for the Nation to endeavor to secure and publish comprehensive information as to the conditions of the labor of children in the different States, so as to spur up those that are behindhand, and to secure approximately uniform legislation of a high character among the several States.  In such a Republic as ours the one thing that we can not afford to neglect is the problem of turning out decent citizens.  The future of the Nation depends upon the citizenship of the generations to come; the children of today are those who tomorrow will shape the destiny of our land, and we can not afford to neglect them.  The Legislature of Colorado has recommended that the National Government provide some general measure for the protection from abuse of children and dumb animals throughout the United States.  I lay the matter before you for what I trust will be your favorable consideration.

The Department of Commerce and Labor should also make a thorough investigation of the conditions of women in industry.  Over five million American women are now engaged in gainful occupations; yet there is an almost complete dearth of data upon which to base any trustworty conclusions as regards a subject as important as it is vast and complicated.  There is need of full knowledge on which to base action looking toward State and municipal legislation for the protection of working women.  The introduction of women into industry is working change and disturbance in the domestic and social life of the Nation.  The decrease in marriage, and especially in the birth rate, has been coincident with it.  We must face accomplished facts, and the adjustment to factory conditions must be made; but surely it can be made with less friction and less harmful effects on family life than is now the case.  This whole matter in reality forms one of the greatest sociological phenomena of our time; it is a social question of the first importance, of far greater importance than any merely political or economic question can be; and to solve it we need ample data, gathered in a sane and scientific spirit in the course of an exhaustive investigation.