National Consumers League, 1899
In 1899 a group of women associated with the Hull House social settlement and led by Hull House member Florence Kelley, established the advocacy group, the National Consumers League (NCL). The main objective of the organization was to achieve a minimum wage and a limitation on the working hours of women and children. Its constitution stipulated that it was "concerned that goods be produced and distributed at reasonable prices and in adequate quantity, but under fair, safe, and healthy working conditions that foster quality products for consumers and a decent standard of living for workers."
Florence Kelley, the NCL's first leader, traveled the country lecturing on working conditions in the United States. Kelley also initiated the NCL White Label, which employers whose labor practices met with the NCL's approval for fairness and safety were granted the right to display. The NCL would urge consumers to boycott goods that failed to earn the right to use the label. An early League motto was, "To live means to buy, to buy means to have power, to have power means to have duties." In the early 1900s, the League began practicing its motto at the forefront of the fight for a minimum wage to help workers obtain a decent standard of living. NCL's work culminated in the Fair Labor Standards Act, which created a national minimum wage in 1938.
The National Consumers League continues to work today to protect and promote the economic and social interests of America's consumers, using education, research, science, investigation, publications, and the public and private sector to accomplish that mission.
OCP Resources
Effective child-labor laws. New York City: National Child Labor Committee, [1907?].
National Child Labor Committee (U.S.). Meeting (3rd : 1906 : Cincinnati, Ohio). Reports from state and local child labor committees and consumers' leagues: made to the National Committee at the third Annual Convention, held in Cincinnati, December 13-15, 1906. New York City: National Child Labor Committee, [1907?].
United States. Supreme Court. Women in industry: decision of the United States Supreme Court in Curt Muller vs. State of Oregon: upholding the constitutionality of the Oregon ten hour law for women and brief for the State of Oregon / by Louis D. Brandeis; assisted by Josephine Goldmark. New York: [1908].
Child labor legislation: schedules of existing statutes and standard child labor law embodying the best provisions of the most effective measures now in force: handbook, 1908. Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1908.
Eschenbrenner, Josephine J. Handbook of child labor legislation of the National Consumers' League. Supplement: issued October 1909. New York: National Child Labor Committee, 1909.
National Consumers' League. The Consumer's control of production: the work of the National Consumers' League. Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1909.
Kelley, Florence. Minimum wage boards. New York: National Consumers' League, [1911].
Goldmark, Josephine Clara. Handbook of laws regulating women's hours of labor: and a standard law embodying the best provisions of the most effective statutes now in force. New York: National Consumers' League, [1912].
Oregon. The Case for the shorter work day: Supreme Court of the United States, October term, 1915, Franklin O. Bunting, plaintiff in error, vs. the state of Oregon, defendant in error: brief for the defendant in error / Felix Frankfurter; assisted by Josephine Goldmark. New York: reprinted by the National Consumers' League, 1916. 2v.
The Eight hours day for wage earning women: United States Supreme Court upholds the Californai law: list of eight hour laws. New York: National Consumers' League, 1916.
Oregon. Industrial Welfare Commission. Oregon minimum wage cases: Supreme Court of the United States, October term, 1916, nos. 25 and 26 : Frank C. Stettler, plaintiff in error, vs. Edwin V. O'Hara, et al., constituting the Industrial Welfare Commission, Elmira Simpson, plaintiff in error, vs. Edwin O'Hara et al., constituting the Industrial Welfare Commission : brief for defendants in error upon re-argument. New York: Reprinted by National Consumer's League, [1916?].
Atherton, Sarah H. Survey of wage-earning girls below sixteen years of age in Wilkes-Barre, Pennslvania, 1915. New York: National Consumers' League, [1915].
A living wage for working women of the post-war world: one essential factor in reconstruction: minimum wages laws in every state. New York: National Consumers' League, [1919].
Minimum wage commissions: current facts, January 1920. Compiled by Mary W. Dewson. New York: National Consumers' League, 1920.
The Eight hours day and rest at night by statute. New York: National Consumers' League, 1920.
De Lima, Agnes. Night-working mothers in textile mills: Passaic, New Jersey. New York: National Consumers' League, 1920.
Minimum wage commissions, current facts. January 1921. New York: National Consumers' League, [1921]
Minimum wage laws are good business: extracts from letters by employers operating under a legal minimum wage. New York: National Consumers' League, 1921.
Equal opportunity for women wage earners: facts vs. fiction. New York: National Consumers' League, 1921.
Earnings of women in factories and a legal living wage. New York: National Consumers' League, 1921.
Twenty questions about the federal amendment proposed by the National Woman's Party. New York: National Consumers' League, 1922.
Standard minimum (living) wage bill. New York City: National Consumers' League, [1922].
Frankfurter, Felix, Mary Dewson, and John Commons. State minimum wage laws in practice. [New York?: National Consumers' League, 1924].
Mason, Lucy Randolph. Standards for workers in southern industry. New York: National Consumers' League, 1931.
Web Resources