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Business and Industry -- Occupations/Professions -- Grocers (Remove)
Thematic Time Period -- Age of Reform, 1880 - 1917 (Remove)
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Title | Creator | Date Made Visible | None

Roy Hennigh to Arthur Capper

Hennigh, Roy

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.? He believes it is ?very poor judgement to enact a law which forbids parents to use the help of their own children.? He also takes issue with the fact that a female inspector evaluated his business. P. J. McBride, Commissioner of Labor and Industry, replied to this letter on December 12, 1917.

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P. J. McBride to Roy Hennigh

Kansas. Governor (1915-1919: Capper)

This letter was written in response to Roy Hennigh?s earlier letter (dated November 21) to Gov. Arthur Capper, which had been referred to P. J. McBride, the Commissioner of Labor and Industry. In it, McBride responds to Hennigh?s complaint that a welfare inspector prevented Hennigh from employing his two daughters in his grocery store. McBride referred him to the child labor law that ?prohibited the employment of any child under 14 years of age in mercantile establishments.? No one could make any exception to this law because, according to McBride, some of the worst cases of abuse had occurred at the hands of parents. This law did not affect children?s work within the home, but it did mandate that children under 14 could not be assigned regular duties for a specific period of time in a place of business. McBride emphasized that ?it is not the purpose of this department to split hairs,? but that his inspectors were bound to ensure that the law was applied fairly and equally to all.

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