Her enlightening finds gave many people the view they needed to see that many things needed to be changed. They realized that if any one person could bring about the changes that were needed it would be the same person who realized the need in the first place: Florence Kelley. The reason she would be so perfect for the job would be, of course, that she had looked into the brutalness of working conditions, hours, and pay for some time.
Florence Monthrop Kelley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 12, 1859. As a child, she had the opportunity to go to school and was surrounded by influential figures such as Susan B. Anthony, a friend of her father’s and Sarah Pugh, her great aunt. These opportunities, unique for the time period, helped her exell later in life. Perhaps it was these opportunities that helped guide her through graduating from Cornell University, teaching night classes for working women in Philadelphia, and finally attending the University of Zurich in Europe. Through this time, she learned more about law, politics, economics, European socialism, and the history of many other nationalities. Her knowledge on all of these topics perhaps led her in the direction of her career later in life.
After her marriage in 1884 to Lazare Wischnewski, a Russian medical student, they moved back to the United States in 1886 with their son, Nicholas. They settled in New York City. There, Kelley became an active member of the Socialist Labor Party which she and her husband would be later expelled from due to contryversity between them and the Party’s leadership. In 1887, Kelley published the translation of The Conditions of the Working Class in England in 1844, in New York.
This translation was a result of her time spent in Europe under the influence of European socialism. The same year, she wrote The Need for Theoretical Preparation for Philanthropic Work, which refers to Marxian socialism. Additionally, prestaging the rest of her life’s work, she published a pamphlet, Our Toiling Children, on her campaign for the abolition of child labor. Sadly, her family was not doing as well as her career. In 1891, Florence Kelley and her husband separated and got a divorce. This separation left Kelley with now three children to look after, one was very young, one was a baby, and the third was practically a newborn.
Suddenly a single mom, Kelley moved her and her three children to the Hull House in Chicago, where she would later contribute to The Hull House Maps and Papers in 1895. There, she associated herself with Jane Addams and Julia Lathrop and started her work for their program. During her time as a special agent for the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics, Kelley inspected many sweatshops in the clothing industry. Her outstanding work led her to later becoming Illinois’ chief factory inspector under Governor John Peter Altgeld. In her role as chief factory inspector, Kelley was able to accomplish many needed things.
The annual budget of 12,000 dollars that she was given and her 1,500 dollar salary as chief inspector was plenty to accomplish the establishment of a free children’s medical examination center. Though a new governor was elected, and Kelley was let go from chief factory inspector, and The Hull House Maps and Papers was not reprinded after it’s first edition, Kelley never gave up. She became general secretary of the National Consumers League, a position she would hold for the rest of her life. As she traveled extensively around the United States, Kelley promoted the use of the Consumers League label as she continued to speak out against child labor.
Over her life, Florence Kelley accomplish numerous things that positively affected many people. These affected people were not just white Americans or even African Americans, they were people from all around the world. People who were here for different reasons, maybe a fresh start, a place to work, live, or to get away from war or fighting. However all of these people have one thing in common: they were, in one way or another, affected by Florence Kelley and her actions. They might never have met her, or maybe they had, but that did not matter because Florence Kelley lead with well being and a helping, compassionate hand alway stretched out for anyone to take.
