Child labor was indeed a horrible thing, but there were those who tried to justify it as right. Some thought it was not at all a problem and were very much fine with it. Those people only knew one side of the story, their side. What they did not know was all the cruelties and horrors of child labor. Or sometimes they just cared about their own benefit how much money they could make and how little they could pay the workers. Take David Dale who was a factory owner. He employed hundreds of pauper children to work in his cotton mill spinning cotton. Young children would work many hours a day doing the dangerous task of spinning while breathing in the cotton and having to stand constantly with out rest and getting paid low wages. Obviously this is not benefit for them in any way but only for the factory owner. By the 1790s more than 2,000 people with some 500 children lived in the area around his factory for work. But Dale supported the labor of the children and their families because it was a benefit to him. He got his cotton spun without having to pay his workers almost anything. Everyone was not in favor of child labor. There were those who were a voice for the factory workers and fought to end the long hours and harsh treatment of the workers and children in the factories. Lord Ashley was one of these people. Lord Ashley was the leader of the factory reform helping to change the way owners treated and paid their workers. He also put forth a bill the would limit the children’s working hours to a maximum of ten hours a day. Sadly this bill was defeated 238 votes to 93. Although they did not pass Ashley’s bill it did open them to the idea that children in factories did need protecting and passed an act that protected children’s rights. Lord Ashley was a very influential person in opposing child labor. As for the workers they
