Making Human Junk

” A picture is worth a thousand words” and in the case of the National Child Labor Committee of 1904 this not only was true but it absolutely depended on it. The early 1900s didn’t exhibit the colorful moving pictures that are accessible today and although silent films were growing in popularity not everybody could afford to enjoy them. Days filled with long grueling work awaited European immigrants coming to America and sacrifice was an everyday occurrence for most. In many households it wasn’t uncommon to find every member of the family working to contribute to the household income. One thing that struck a sympathetic cord among many Progressives was child labor. Child labor was especially sought after by industrial owners because they were cheap and efficient labor. Very young children were expected to do jobs that adults were expected to do. The National Child Labor Committee was formed in 1904 to ultimate get the U.S. government to prohibit child labor across the nation. In order to gain supporters they held public speeches and printed publications. Photographs enabled them to to gain supporters as well and with the help of Lewis W. Hine, American photographer, they gained widespread recognition.

The “Making Human Junk” ad tells of a process that starts off with healthy, clean and eager young kids who go into factories to start earning very small wages just to come out unhealthy, overworked, and uneducated, essentially they have turned into useless “Junk”. With the help of Hine’s photographs this ad is able to express more than just a speech or an expose’ could’ve ever expressed. The rhetorical question displayed on the bottom of this ad helps stir a deeper question of society’s values. As I look at this ad, the photos and the words, I ask myself what would’ve become of our present if our past hadn’t been questioned? What if our youth then were never saved from the industrial “” and never received adequate education? These pictures and more were able to help illustrate a story that would never have been embraced the same way through the other media outlets of that time. By proclaiming that humans are being made into junk is an unsatisfactory statement on its own but have the visual support to verify the statement makes the whole idea unbearable. With these pictures little needs to be said; just that one question, “Shall Industry Be Allowed To Put This Cost On Society?” This specific design maps out the process of “making human junk” in a clear and very real way. I chose this ad because the design was alluring and it wasn’t trying to hide anything.

Source: History 2210 Lecture, “Twentieth Century America: A Social and Political History”