Were “Protestant work ethic” arguments used against child labor laws?

[darklordoftech]

Did opponents of child labor laws argue that such laws would make kids spoiled, unprepared for their adult jobs, etc.?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

That's not what the "Protestant work ethic" is. The phenomenon described by Weber has to do with the moral justification of the market economy, whereas concern that the "youth of today" will be unprepared to enter the workforce is a much more recent development and a reaction to (rather than driver of) modern industrial capitalism. In fact, the group to which the term was originally applied —hardline Calvinists and their descendants in New England —were some of the strongest advocates for child labor laws, in the view that a child's calling was to receive an education (essential to the cultivation of moral and civic virtue) and not to become a mindless cog in the industrial machine.