ABSTRACT
The report produced by the bureau was presented to the legislature, which then appointed a special committee to investigate the matter further. On investigation, the special committee would recommend to the legislature provisions for significant factory legislation. Before its passage, Addams (1910) educated groups and mobilized people to ensure its passage. She recalled that “it was necessary to appeal to all elements of the community, and a little group of us addressed the open meetings of trades-union and of benefit societies, church organizations, and social clubs literally every evening for three months” (p. 135). Residents of Hull House were mobilized, and she worked in coalition with the Trades and Labor Assembly as well as the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. She attempted to make clear to her allies and constituents the exact purpose of the law as well as the benefit to themselves and their children. The biggest opposition to this came from the large glass manufacturing companies who depended on child labor for their production. Eventually the bill passed, and it became the first factory law in Illinois; it would regulate sanitary conditions and fix 14 years as the minimum age for factory laborers.
