A Kansas Memory Podcast

Child Labor: "...it is better for children to learn to work when they are little."

The documents used in the Child Labor podcast are available on

• Emma Grimm to Governor Arthur Capper
  Emma Grimm of Sabetha, Nemaha County, wrote this letter to Governor Arthur Capper regarding the child labor law that prohibits the employment of children under the age of 14 in any mercantile establishment. Her son Theodore had recently been let go from his job as a grocery delivery boy, which apparently upset him greatly.
• P.J. McBride to Emma Grimm
  In this letter P. J. McBride, the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, responds to Grimm's letter to Governor Arthur Capper, dated November 27, 1917. McBride informed her that, because the legislature passed this law, the Governor could not make any exceptions. McBride also emphasized that "play and recreation" were an important element in children's development and that after schoolwork and household chores had been completed, children should have unstructured time to play.
• Ralph Tennal to Governor Arthur Capper
  Ralph Tennal, editor of the Sabetha Herald, wrote this letter to the governor in an attempt to convince Capper that child labor laws did more trouble than good. Tennal believes that these laws prevented children from being industrious and led to crime, because "everybody knows what Satan does to idle hands."
• Roy Hennigh to Governor Arthur Capper
  Roy Hennigh, owner of a grocery store in Sabetha, Nemaha County, wrote this letter to the governor concerning a recent visit to his store by a female deputy factory inspector. According to Hennigh, this inspector informed him that his two teenage daughters could not work in his store on the weekends according to the child labor laws. Hennigh argues that he does not officially employ his children, or any other children, because "they help me just as anybody's children should."