时差N小时:儿童劳动法 Child Labor Laws

Child Labor Laws-Today on CongressionalMoment：Over a hundred years ago the IndustrialRevolution quickened the pace of manufacturing, andbusinessmen sought cheaper labor. Millions ofchildren worked at dangerous jobs, and the nationaldebate over Child Labor laws began. Listen to thesejournal entries from the early 1900s...

今日国会时刻——儿童劳动法：一百多年前，随着工业革命到来，制造业的发展步伐加快，商人们要寻求更加廉价的劳动力。数百万的儿童干着危险的工作，关于童工劳动法的争论也愈演愈烈。下面来听听来自20世纪早期的日记条目。

Character Voice 1：On cold, rainy mornings, well before dawn, I have been awakened by theclatter of boots as the half-awake, joyless children hurried not to school, but to the greatfactory. They are thin and sickly looking...

日记1：在寒冷，下着雨的早晨，黎明前夕，我被一阵哗啦的靴子声吵醒，原来是睡眼朦胧，郁郁寡欢的孩童，他们急促地跑向大工厂，而不是学校。他们身型瘦弱，面容憔悴...

Character Voice 2：I worked in a factory where they made oil cans, and I saw children 8 and 10years old work like slaves on big machines...most every day it happened that a finger or handwas cut off, but that didn't matter, they were sent home, and others would take their places.

日记2：我在一家生产油壶的工厂上班，我看见八九岁的孩子们在巨大的机器前像奴隶一样干活...几乎每天都有童工的手指、手被机器碾断，但这种情况并没有引起重视，他们被遣送回家，其他的孩子会填补他的位子。

ANNCR: The injustices of child labor prompted people to organize, in an effort to getCongressional regulation. While many states took it upon themselves to regulate child labor,many did not.

童工受到的不公正待遇促使人们去成立组织，致力于赢取国会的改革方案。许多州主动承担起规范儿童劳动市场的责任，然而其他州却没有。

As national discontent continued to grow, a key challenge for Congress was protectingchildren in every state without interfering with state's rights.

随着国内不满情绪日益高涨，国会面临着重大挑战——在不损害各州利益的同时保护童工的合法权益。

Eventually, after years of debate, the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938, and upheldby the Supreme Court in 1941. It provided basic protections, not only to children, but to allworkers in the U.S.

最终，经过几年的争论，《公平劳动标准法案》于1938年出台，并于1941年获得最高法院支持。这条法案不仅是在保护儿童的基本权益，也是在保护所有的美国公民。