APUSH

Prompt: Should the industrialists of the 19th Century be considered “captains of industry” or “robber barons”?

Document

Source:
Newsies: A group of Newsies selling on the Capitol Steps. Tony, age 9, Dan, 9, Joseph 10, and John, age 11. Washington D.C

Hine, Lewis W. Newsies: A Group of Newsies Selling on the Capitol Steps. Washington D.C , 1912.

Content Analysis: What does it say? Extended Analysis (Identify/Describe) Extended Analysis (Explain significance)

This is a photograph done by Lewis
W. Hine, and is apart of his collection
that portrays laissez-faire child labor
during the Gilded Age. This
photograph portrays five boys
standing side by side together with
newspaper in hand, standing in front
of the Capitol Building in Washington
D. C. This photograph was taken in
1912, and is an addition apart of his
Newsies collection. This photograph
is taken in black and white, and it can
be assumed that Lewis W. Hine is
1) Historical Context/Situation
During the Gilded Age, child labor was
common in Industrial factories and
large corporations. Factories often
hired women and children because
they had cheaper pay, and most
worked long hours due to Laissez-faire
economic systems. This allowed
economic affairs to be free of
government interference, and thus,
Child Labor was fairly normal during
the second Industrial Revolution.
Laissez-faire and the fact that
As seen in the photograph, children were
hired to do different unskilled jobs such as
cleaning factory machinery, answering
telegraphs (such as Rockefeller’s own start
in the capitalist business), and as seen in
the photograph, being paper boys (or
called Newsies). This photograph shows
little boys unsmiling (even though having
serious expressions in photographs were
common during the time period) it is
somewhat ominous to see children who
are culturally different than the children
today. These children have serious, adult-
arguing that Industrialists are not
truly “Captains of Industry”, but
carries the point of view that they are
“robber barons.” This can be inferred
due to the strategic placement of the
capitol building behind the main
subject, the expressions of the
children, and the caption itself.
governments often took the side of
owners, often lead to child
endangerment and neglectance of
safety for the most vulnerable of
workers.
2) Intended Audience
There are several people in mind for
the audience: Hine uses the capitol
building in the background to reach the
attention of capitalists and government
officials are the two biggest audiences
he is trying to reach towards. He makes
the capitol building VERY obvious in the
photograph, as he is trying to translate
to the Industrialists that their workers
and their morality are being ignored.
The most sensitive members of the
population, and children as young as
being 8 years old must work in
dangerous circumstances working for
the “robber barons” who ignore them
in pursuit of their own wealth.
3) Purpose
The purpose of this series of
photographs made by Hines are all
supposed to reflect upon imagery of
the children who work during the
Gilded Age. He often photographed
children doing many different types of
skills in different circumstances, such as
a little girl gazing out the window
during a short timed break, or young
boys cleaning machinery, or this very
photograph of young paper boys
handing out newspapers in front of the
like expressions on their faces, with
uncharacteristic solemness not commonly
seen in photographs of children today.
Culturally during the time period, the
Laissez faire system had no room for
“growing up” at a reasonable pace, but
made children grow up quickly, as seen in
the photo. And the capitol building in the
background serves the purpose of
reminding the audience that the
government often ignored child laborers,
in pursuit of following what makes the
most money. The building being full of
people who are unable to see the cultural
and social issues during the time period, in
order to gain economic revenue.
Hine uses this photograph as a statement
to Industrialists and government officials
who use Laissez-faire to ignore human
decency for the pursuit of money. These
young boys, who are between the ages 0f
9-11 years old, work for little money, yet
sacrifice their education and their
childhoods to work for “robber barons”
who ignore their efforts. Hines lets his
audience know by showing the capitol
building, that these young boys should be
granted with better opportunities in the
land that should allow “life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness” for its citizens, and
that these children are apart of the
growing workforce, and should therefore
not be ignored by the government any
longer.
What Hines is trying to translate to his
audience, is the purpose of publicizing the
morally wrong child labor that occurs in
society during the time. Hines does this by
strategically placing these newspaper boys
in front of the Capitol building as a sign to
capitalists and industrialists that these
children should not be completing this
style of work at such a young age, missing
opportunities of education, and being
beaten for disobeying in the “land of the
free”. Hines is arguing that these boys
should be granted the same freedoms as
Capitol building. These photographs everyone else, and this immoral child
reflect the time period in striking labor should be brought to the attention
realism, and the captions provided of the government to prevent ill-
often include the child stating the treatment.
reasons why the work, where they
work, and the year taken. All of these
photographs may have children
photographed doing different kinds of
jobs in all kinds of places, such as in
Alabama, North Carolina, or New York,
but they all show how widespread
these child workers were during the
Industrial period, and show how
extensive this movement was,
especially in the East and the South.

4) Point of View From the photograph, these children are

Hines demonstrates the Point of View
that the Industrialists are not really
“Captains of Industry” at all, but carries
the point of view that these capitalists
are unjustified in their treatment of
using young children as labor assets.
Hines even carries the point of view
that this should be brought to the
attention of government officials to
solve these social and cultural issues by
protecting these children from harmful
treatment, and to get out of Laissez-
faire; that what happens in a business
should be regulated by the
government.
strategically placed in front of the capitol
building to make the point to the audience
that child labor should be brought to the
attention of the government. That these
so-called “Captains of Industry” are not
creating a safe environment for young
children working in dangerous conditions,
and culturally, they are growing up their
children too quickly.