Florence Kelly (Question 2)

Florence Kelly, a social worker and reformer, writes on her speech addressing the working conditions for underage children. She implies to the readers that children are working extensive hours to benefit only the consumers. Companies use child labor because children were cheaper and fit for the job. They are able to accomplish jobs efficiently. Repeating key concepts, introducing numerous examples of working conditions, and addressing state policies, Kelly establishes a persuasive argument that engages the audience to join her revolt against child labor.   
            Kelly begins her speech by introducing a brief background of the ages of the children working across America to appeal to logos. Children vary in age from “six and seven years,” working in cotton mills of Georgia. “Eight, nine and ten years” worked in coal – breakers of Pennsylvania. Children, “fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen,” works in other “enlightened” states. By including the stats of ages, Kelly tries to inform her audience how young the children are to work in harsh, filthy factories.  

 Throughout her speech, Kelly maintains a didactic tone by including the contributions of children for the consumers’ benefits. Kelly creates a possible scenario stating, “tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills.” Children would be working while majority will be resting comfortably. Kelly also includes laws in different states to inform the audience about the perspective of child labor. Alabama has a respectful approach for child labor. Its law states “child under sixteen years of age shall not work in a cotton mill at night longer than eight hours.” Kelly compares Alabama’s laws with other states. She emphasizes that “in Georgia there is no restriction whatever!”

In the body of her speech, Kelly uses parallel structure to begin each paragraph, emphasizing the analogous injustice of laws ‘in Georgia,” “in Alabama,” and “in Pennsylvania.” The unfairness is furthered by her dictions when she continuously praise United States as a “great industrial” country while condemning many state laws as a “great evil.” In addition, Kelly uses the oxymoron of “pitiful privilege” that children receive during their birthday. Kelly transitions from narration to firm assertion in order to demand change in working conditions and to prevent abusive usage of child labor.  Kelly affirms that both the audience and she agree together on the issue when she believes that “they do not wish this.”

Kelly uses narrative anecdote to appeal to pathos. She addresses to the audience about a little girl that had to work the whole day on her birthday. This is ironic because birthday is widely known to be a day of celebration with laughter and presents.   She then refers to the children in New Jersey, how “boys and girls, after their 14th birthday, enjoy the pitiful privilege of working all night long.” Kelly, in her anecdotes, utilizes concerned diction to portray her sympathy towards the children.

Florence Kelly efficiently utilizes all aspects of rhetoric devices to convey her proposal toward child labor. She leaves an impactful comment saying that people are powerless unless if they are “citizens who enjoys the rights of petition.”