The boy

9. The boy. This photo was taken of a young cotton mill worker in Burlington in 1909. The photographer, Lewis Wickes Hine, had this caption for the photo: "Joe Bodeon, a back-roper in the Chace Cotton Mill." (Click on photo for larger version.) Hine traveled around the country taking pictures of child laborers and his work helped persuade Congress to create laws to protect children. Hine said this about his work: “There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work.”