Making a Contribution

Members of Minnesota's Greatest Generation generally share a strong work ethic. Many boys held jobs working as farm help, newsboys, pinsetters in bowling alleys, and messengers, while their sisters helped out in more domestic capacities at home or as hired help.

Some children, like Michael T. Sanchelli, were self-employed, searching junkyards for castoffs that could be sold. While many children who sought employment during the Great Depression, like Robert D. Hill, did so to make a much-needed financial contribution to their families, others, like William M. Cummings, worked to earn spending money. Rural children, like Mary Joy Dean, helped out on the farm, working without pay.

These young workers benefited from the efforts of the National Child Labor Committee, whose work in the 1910s and 1920s resulted in protective child labor laws. These laws mandated age limits, types of jobs appropriate to children of different ages, and the number of hours per week a child could be expected to work. Children under 16 years of age were allowed to work only during the daytime, with a maximum of an 8-hour workday and a 48-hour workweek.

By 1930, 7.8% of Minnesota's children aged 10 to 17 years were "gainfully employed," with 11.3% of all boys and 4.2% of all girls in that age group employed. The vast majority of boys and girls worked as farm laborers, many as unpaid help on family farms. Urban boys commonly held jobs as factory operatives or newsboys, or were apprenticed to learn a trade. Girls typically worked in factories or as domestic servants in private homes.

Laws also mandated that all children ages 7 to 16 (except for those that had completed the 8th grade) must attend school during the entire session, which averaged 180.6 days according to the 1920 census, ranking Minnesota 10th in the nation for length of term. Rural students could get exemptions for helping their parents on the farm from April 1st to November 1st.

Citations:

• Photo: Newsboys, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1923.
• Photo: Western Union boy on a bicycle, 1925.
• Sanchelli, Michael T., Reminiscences, 1991-1993. MHS Manuscripts Collection.
• Hill, Robert Darwin, Reminiscences and Genealogical Charts, 1974-1997. MHS Manuscripts Collection.
• Cummings, William M., Diaries and Related Papers, 1924-1995. MHS Manuscripts Collection.
• Breton, Mary Joy Dean, Living Off the Land. Minnesota Historical Society: Share Your Story, 2006.
• Document: Analysis of State Child Labor Laws - Minnesota.
• Analysis of State Child Labor Laws. New York City: National Child Labor Committee, 1928.
• Fifteenth Census of the U.S. - 1930 - Population, Vol. IV. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931-1933.
• Document: Child occupation statistics for Minnesota, 1930.
• Photo: Fanning and threshing wild rice, 1920.
• Document: Child Labor and Education in Minnesota, 1928.
• Photo: Children in a classroom in Jackson School, Minneapolis, 1925.
• Fourteenth Census of the United States taken in the year 1920, Vol. 3, Population. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1922.