A CENTURY OF DENYING CHILD LABOR IN AMERICA By Jennifer Robin Terry A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Paula Fass, Chair Professor Mark Brilliant Professor David Henkin Professor Kim Voss Spring 2018 A CENTURY OF DENYING CHILD LABOR IN AMERICA Copyright © 2018 by Jennifer Robin Terry All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT A Century of Denying Child Labor in America By Jennifer Robin Terry Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Paula S. Fass, Chair This dissertation analyzes the influence of agrarian ideology on agricultural child labor policy in the United States over the course of the twentieth century. The project places agrarianism at the heart of the child labor question by arguing that agrarian sensibility uncompromisingly viewed children’s farm labor as a beneficial and healthful activity, and a natural and integral part of the rural family economy—even among children who did not live on family farms. Throughout the twentieth century, rural parents and agricultural interests invoked reason that was rooted in agrarianism to limit or thwart legislation that aimed at regulating agricultural child labor. As a result, children’s agricultural labor has never been regulated on a par with that of other sectors. This dissertation demonstrates the strength of agrarian reason and reveals the ramifications for working children by tracing the evolution of the agricultural exemption to the child labor provision of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. This project challenges conventional narratives that mark the New Deal as the end point for the history of child labor in America. It moves the discussion beyond the 1930s and pushes it outside the bounds of eastern industrial America. In doing so, it draws out the experiences of racially and ethnically diverse groups of children while shedding light on the power of cultural myths to influence public policy. In challenging conventional narratives, this project contributes significantly to our understanding of the history of American politics, labor, and childhood in the twentieth century. It is the first project to argue that child labor was a critical component in FDR’s 1937 battle with the Supreme Court; to analyze the nation’s increased dependence on child farm labor during World War II; and to highlight the ways that children were activists in the United Farm Worker labor movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Moreover, this project calls attention to the fact that the child labor problem is not yet solved. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates the ways that agrarian reason veiled exploitation, denied children legal protection, and perpetuated multi-generational cycles of poverty and structural inequality that were in contradistinction to the tenets of agrarianism. 1 In loving memory of my mother, Dianna Jean Moore 1952-2014 & my father-in-law John Stephenson Terry 1913-2011 i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation originated as an effort to reconcile the difference between an established historiography and my lived experience, which vividly exposed the standard narrative’s errors and omissions. Thus, the acknowledgements must begin with recognition of child farmworkers, particularly my childhood friends from Watsonville, California. Respecting their privacy, they shall go unnamed. And although at times they no doubt wished that the evidence of their travail had gone unnoticed, it was visible to me. They are the inspiration for this investigation. The University of California, Berkeley generously supported this project with funding, workspace, and other resources. For this, I would specifically like to acknowledge and thank the Department of History; the Bancroft Library for its Summer Study Award; Fred J. Martin and the Institute for Governmental Studies (IGS) for the Fred J. Martin American Political History Award; the Graduate Division for the summer funding and research assistance granted through the Student Mentoring and Research Teams (SMART) program, the Mentored Research Fellowship, and the Doctoral Completion Fellowship; and the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI) for generously providing on-campus office space. Financial support beyond my institution was also instrumental in the research stage. For this I am deeply grateful to the Doris G. Quinn Foundation for the Quinn Fellowship; the California State University Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program for funding; the Western Association of Women Historians for the Founder’s Dissertation Fellowship; the State Historical Society of Iowa for a travel grant; the University of Southern California for the Wallis Annenberg Research Grant; the University of California, Los Angeles for the James and Sylvia Thayer Research Fellowship; and the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University for the Sam Fishman Travel Award. I thank the staff at the many archives and libraries that provided materials for this project, and particularly the archivists and librarians whose knowledge, enthusiasm, and assistance has greatly enhanced my work: Alexander Library at Rutgers University (David Kuzma); American Friends Service Center Archives (Donald Davis); Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley; Doe Memorial Library at the University of California, Berkeley (Jennifer Dorner, Jesse Silva, and Rebecca Darby-Williams); Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan; California State Archives in Sacramento (Linda Johnson and Beth M.J. Behnam); Charles E. Young Research Library at the University of California, Los Angeles (Julie Graham and Annie A. Watanabe-Rocco); Doheny Memorial Library at the University of Southern California (Marje Schuetze-Coburn); Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota (Linnea Anderson); Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library (Kirsten Carter); Girl Scout National Historic Preservation Center in New York City (Yevgeniya Gribov); J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah; Kheel Center at Cornell University (Patrizia Sione); Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections at Montana State University (Kim Allen Scott); National Archives at San Francisco in San Bruno, California (William Greene); Oviatt Library at the California State University, Northridge (David Sigler); Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence, Rhode Island (Jennifer L. Galpern); San Joaquin Historical Society in Lodi, California (Leigh ii Acknowledgments Johnsen); Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University (Kathleen Schmeling, Deborah Rice, Kristen Chinery, Mary Wallace, and Erik Nordberg); and the WGBH Media Library & Archives (Peter Higgins). I have shared portions of this project with both the public and academic audiences whose comments helped me to identify the gaps and note the high points, and in some cases, led to new avenues of inquiry. For this, I express my appreciation especially to Anne Hyde, Barbara Lorenzkowski, Barbara Maloney, Carl Abbott, Catherine Jones, Cecilia Tsu, David Danbom, Jamila Moore-Pewu, Jennifer Thigpen, Joanne Littlefield, Katherine Jellison, Kathleen Feeley, Kriste Lindenmeyer, Laura Ping, Leslie Paris, Lori Flores, Megan Birk, Miranda Sachs, Miriam Forman-Brunell, Nora Salas, Noriko Aso, Rebecca Jo Plant, Susan Wladaver Morgan, Tim Gresham, Wayne Duerkes, and Wendy Rouse. For support of such scholarly endeavors, I thank the organizers of the California State Archives speaker series (Linda Johnson), the Bancroft Library speaker series (Kathryn Neal), and the World War II lecture series at the Stewart Library Special Collections at Weber State University (Sarah Singh, Melissa Francis, and Lorrie Rands), and conferences held by the Western Association of Women Historians, the Society for the History of Children and Youth, the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, and the Agricultural History Society. Special thanks to Jim Marten, Steve Berry, and Mick Gusinde-Duffy at the University of Georgia Press for organizing the Children, Youth, and War symposium, where I workshopped Chapter Three in conversation with stellar scholars: Ashley Henrickson, Catherine E. Rymph, Ginger S. Frost, Kaete M. O’Connell, Jennine Hurl-Eamon, Joel P. Rhodes, Susan Eckelmann Berghel, and Yael Warshel. Of course, scholarly discourse does not always happen in planned and organized spaces, but sometimes takes place by happenstance in informal gatherings, chance meetings, conference registration tables, and even on BART. For these impromptu conversations I am deeply grateful for amiable scholars who generously share their expertise and insight: Cynthia Scott, Eladio Bobadilla, Jennifer Helgren, Pamela Stewart, Kathryn Kish Sklar, and Todd Holmes. And finally, this dissertation is certainly better because of the close scrutiny of those in my writing group: Mark Brilliant, Maggie Elmore, Brendan Shanahan, Brandon Kirk Williams (who read and commented from afar), and Grace Goudiss. I owe a particular debt to Mark, Maggie, and Brendan who read and commented on every chapter. Thank you also to Natalie Mendoza who read earlier versions of some. I thank the department staff for their tireless work on behalf of the Berkeley history community. I particularly want to acknowledge Mabel Lee—a veritable fount of knowledge who touched the lives of graduate students for more