Bicycle Messenger Boys and the Evolution of American Labor Laws Christopher A
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Illinois Wesleyan University From the SelectedWorks of Christopher A. Sweet 2018 Bicycle Messenger Boys and the Evolution of American Labor Laws Christopher A. Sweet, Illinois Wesleyan University This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC International License. Available at: https://works.bepress.com/christopher_sweet/39/ Cycle History 29 Proceedings of the 29th International Cycling History Conference London, England, 2018 recent books about modern bicycle mes- 22. sengers, but none of these include any substantial history of the trade. Likewise, Bicycle Messenger Boys and the the published histories of Western Union (which historically employed the most Evolution of American Labor Laws bicycle messengers) do not cover bicycle messengers in any detail. Chris Sweet, Bloomington, Illinois, USA An Overview of American Labor Law The impact of child bicycle messen- Well, there is a greater variety of work FLSA. Bicycle messenger boys played gers on American labor law can only be for messengers to do than any other job a more substantial role in the evolution established by first reviewing the major I know of. You get calls to buy hats for of these labor laws than has previous- historical milestones in the evolution men and women in the whorehouses, they ly been recognized. At the state level of these laws. This paper is concerned send you out with notes and telegrams, worker’s compensation laws were also with two separate, but related, areas of they get chop-suey, and regular meals, being established and refined during this the law: labor law and child labor law. cigarettes, drinks, clothing, groceries. I same thirty-five-year period. Child labor Examples of general labor law include once had a whore send me out for a box was rampant in the first decades of the workers compensation, regulating hours of matches, gave me a dollar, and told me twentieth century. The Census of 1900 worked, workplace safety and so forth. to keep the change. I have been sent out found that twenty-five percent of boys Child labor law is a subset of labor law for corsets, and once for a pair of shoes. ten to fifteen years old were contribut- and refers to any laws which regulate I have lots of calls for women's drawers, ing to their family’s income.2 The many the work of children. The deepest roots corset covers. I have gone for medicine child laborers who toiled long hours in of American labor law lie with the first and doctors, and got lots of cocaine for the fields and inside dangerous factories workers unions, beginning in 1794 with them when the sale was open. were largely hidden from the public eye. the formation of the Federal Society of – An 1910 interview with Bicycle messenger boys helped to sway Journeymen Cordwainers (shoemakers) a messenger boy1 public opinion, and eventually legisla- in Philadelphia. Eleven years after its tion, regarding child labor because of formation, this shoemaker’s union called rom 1900 until the Fair La- their visibility in society and the hazards for a major strike which eventually land- bor Standards Act (FLSA) of their labors. [Figure 1] ed its leaders in court. One of the earliest was passed in 1938, the rulings regarding labor law resulted from bicycle messenger business Review of the Literature The Commonwealth v. George Pullis, et was booming. In the days The role of bicycle messengers in al (1806). This case ruled that striking before any national child American history and culture has not was a federal crime. It took another thir- labor laws were implemented, poorly gone entirely unnoticed. Dr. Gregory ty-five years for another case, Common- paid child bicycle messengers delivered Downey from the University of Wis- wealth v. Hunt, to reverse the decision Fmillions of telegraph messages and tons consin-Madison has published several and grant unions the legal right to strike.3 of other goods each year. The work could articles on telegraph messenger boys that Unions continued to expand during be as exhilarating as it was dangerous. culminated in his 2002 book, Telegraph the 1800s as the industrial revolution While in downtown urban areas it was Messenger Boys: Labor, Technology, changed the nature of work in the United often faster to deliver on foot; it was and Geography, 1850-1950. Bicycle States from agrarian to industrial. the more distant trips that required the messengers are featured on the cover of Child labor wasn’t regulated by law additional speed of a bicycle. Bicycle Downey’s book, but his book is focused until 1842 when Massachusetts limit- messengers had to compete for space on on the wider world of telegraph messen- ed children to working ten hours per disorganized, rough streets with horse- ger boys rather than the special problems day- hardly a humanitarian effort. Other drawn wagons, automobiles, carriages, of bicycle messengers. Ross D. Petty, on states followed suit, but the laws still and streetcars. It could be dangerous the other hand, was very much focused allowed for long hours of work, dan- work. Injuries from crashes were com- on bicycle messengers when he presented gerous conditions, and had rampant en- mon, but a number of bicycle messen- on "The Bicycle as a Communications forcement problems. For the rest of the gers during this time were also killed Medium" at the 16th (2005) Internation- nineteenth century, child labor was only while delivering packages and messages. al Cycling History Conference. Petty’s regulated by selected states who enacted Sometimes it wasn’t the messenger who work focuses primarily on comparing their own laws. President Benjamin Har- got killed, it was the pedestrian that he messengers from the US Postal service rison was a champion of legislation that ran into. and Western Union. Downey only briefly would offer some protections to railroad This era of the child bicycle messen- touches on the impacts of messengers on workers. In an 1889 speech to congress ger coincided with the formative period labor laws, while Petty does not discuss it he declared, “It is a reproach to our for American labor law and although at all. This paper also focuses on all types civilization that any class of American there were some spotty state regula- of bicycle messenger boys- not just those workmen, should in the pursuit of a nec- tions, child labor laws did not exist at employed by Western Union or the U.S. essary and useful vocation, be subjected a national level until the passing of the postal service. There are a number of to a peril of life and limb as great as that - 122 - 22. Chris Sweet: Bicycle Messenger Boys and the Evolution of American Labor Laws of a soldier in time of war.” 4 Similar to only a scant three years before the use of incredibly limited due to the cost of the today, Congress moved slowly on major velocipedes was suggested for message machines and condition of most roads at legislation, so it wasn’t until 1906 that delivery services. In 1869, the Journal the time. This all changed with the com- the Federal Employers Liability Act of the Telegraph, recommended veloc- ing of the safety bicycle. (FELA) became law. The FELA enabled ipedes for deliver boys: “It has all the The Starley Rover safety bicycle injured railroad workers to sue their elements of excitement which would was invented in 1885. Soon the basic employers for damages. This act differed suit and captivate a spirited boy-a boy safety bicycle design with a double-di- from workers compensation laws, which of pluck and metal… He would glory amond frame and small wheels of equal were governed by the states, in that it in showing to admiring crowds how he size made its way to the United States. did not automatically award compensa- Throughout the ensuing bicycle boom tion unless negligence could be proven. of the 1890s, production soared, and Even so, it was a major step forward prices fell drastically making it far more in labor law. As of 1912, twenty-two economical to use bicycles for all sorts of states still permitted children under the delivery services. By 1894, the Ameri- age of fourteen to work in factories and can District Telegraph (ADT) company thirty states allowed boys under sixteen was using safety bicycles for message to work in mines, and thirty-one states delivery. In 1896, the trade periodical, still authorized children under sixteen Telegraph Age, ran a picture from an to work more than eight hours a day.5 Omaha, Nebraska telegraph company Clearly, federal legislation was needed that included a picture of fifteen bicy- to deal with this problem. Congress cle messenger boys. This same article managed to pass the Keating-Owen Act claimed the same company started using in 1916 which (among other things) bicycles for delivery in 1893. An even regulated the number of hours chil- earlier claimed date of 1892 was made by dren could work. Unfortunately, it was a Western Union manager from Syracuse, found unconstitutional by the Supreme NY in 1897.9 The actual first individual Court in 1918. In 1924, Congress tried or company to use safety bicycles for a different strategy by passing a consti- message delivery more than likely went tutional amendment barring child labor, unnoticed and undocumented. but not enough states signed on to ratify Even during these early days of child the bill. In a major step forward the 1936 bicycle messengers, social reformers Walsh-Healey Act set safety standards, began to take note of the various hazards minimum wage, and child labor regula- of the job. Jacob Riis was one of the first tion on all federal contracts.