Reform

Both the United States and Great Britain saw the need for new legislation. The new laws made made up what was known as the legislative reform. The new laws reformed some of the worst abuses of industrialization. In 1832, Parliament set up a committee to investigate child labor. They passed the Factory Act of 1833, making it illegal for children under the age of nine to be hired. In 1842, the Mines Act prevented women and children from working underground. In the U.S., a group of progressive reformers organized the National Child Labor Committee. As a result, the Supreme Court allowed individual states to legally limit the working hours of women and, later, of men. In my opinion, the legislative reform was inevitable. It was only a matter of time before someone realized that a child working a 14 hour workday was intolerable.