Answer:
The Articles of Confederation, the United States' first constitution, was written during a time when the American people feared strong national governments. The new nation needed some kind of organization to hold states together to help them fend off future attacks and hopefully make a stronger economy, and the Articles of Confederation seemed like the best answer to build unity at the time.
The English government had been especially abusive to the Colonists, who were very reluctant to install a new government that could potentially function similar to the monarchy under King George. The loyalty of the people seemed to align more with the individual states than with the nation. After the American Revolution, states were still printing their own money, which was worthless in other states and further hindered cooperation. The 13 new states needed to find common ground and a way to cooperate.
During the American Revolution, many states wrote their own state constitutions. These constitutions consisted of political ideas that provided equality and freedom. States particularly relished the three branches of government and the idea of a republic, where citizens elect political officials. However, when the states came together to complete the first constitution, the nation was formed as a confederation, where states were sovereign, while trying to work together.
Answer:
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
Explanation:
The Supreme Court had been one of the major obstacles to wage-hour and child-labor laws. Among notable cases is the 1918 case of Hammer v. Dagenhart in which the Court by one vote held unconstitutional a Federal child-labor law. Similarly in Adkins v. Children's Hospital in 1923, the Court by a narrow margin voided the District of Columbia law that set minimum wages for women. During the 1930's, the Court's action on social legislation was even more devastating.3
New Deal promise. In 1933, under the "New Deal" program, Roosevelt's advisers developed a National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA).4 The act suspended antitrust laws so that industries could enforce fair-trade codes resulting in less competition and higher wages. On signing the bill, the President stated: "History will probably record the National Industrial Recovery Act as the most important and far-reaching legislation ever enacted by the American Congress." The law was popular, and one family in Darby, Penn., christened a newborn daughter Nira to honor it.
As an early step of the NRA, Roosevelt promulgated a President's Reemployment Agreement "to raise wages, create employment, and thus restore business." Employers signed more than 2.3 million agreements, covering 16.3 million employees. Signers agreed to a workweek between 35 and 40 hours and a minimum wage of $12 to $15 a week and undertook, with some exceptions, not to employ youths under 16 years of age. Employers who signed the agreement displayed a "badge of honor," a blue eagle over the motto "We do our part." Patriotic Americans were expected to buy only from "Blue Eagle" business concerns.
In the meantime, various industries developed more complete codes. The Cotton Textile Code was the first of these and one of the most important. It provided for a 40-hour workweek, set a minimum weekly wage of $13 in the North and $12 in the South, and abolished child labor. The President said this code made him "happier than any other one thing...since I have come to Washington, for the code abolished child labor in the textile industry." He added: "After years of fruitless effort and discussion, this ancient atrocity went out in a day."
-quotes straight from Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage by the U.S department of labor
