Life was good for the plutocrats at the turn of the last century, and the Republicans are working their butts off to bring back the good times. Missouri State Sen. Jane Cunningham is no slacker. Here’s her official summary for a bill she’s recently introduced in the Missouri State Senate to bring back our second most evil peculiar institution:
This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.
Why not go all the way and bring back slavery? I know these tea party people claim to revere the Constitution, but they don’t count the thirteenth amendment as any more valid than the 16th or 17th.
But even if the damn federal government won’t get off our backs and we can’t bring back slavery, we can at least get the sons and daughters of those that should be slaves out of our schools and off our streets. It reminds me of a heartwarming poem that I heard while touring Robert Todd Lincoln’s house in Manchester, Vermont, about the golf course within sight of the factories nearby:
“The golf-links lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And watch the men at play.”
Those were the days. We’re so close to bringing them back you can almost taste it.
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