Samuel van Houten

Dutch politician, born in Groningen, N Netherlands. He studied law at Groningen, joined the Municipal Council, and was an MP in 1869–94. From a Baptist family, he became progressively more anticlerical. He was on the left wing of the liberal party, opposed Thorbecke, and supported state help for the poor. In 1874 Van Houten's Children's Act (Kinderwet) banned child labour under the age of 12. He was minister of internal affairs from 1894–7 and his ‘qualified’ suffrage act in 1896 nearly doubled the number of voters and lasted until 1917. In 1904–7 he was a member of the Upper House. As he grew older he became more conservative, opposing universal suffrage, the welfare state, and equal funding for state and confessional schools.

Samuel van Houten (February 17, 1837 - 14 October 1930) was a Dutch liberal politician.

Van Houten was born in Groningen.

In 1869, van Houten was first elected to the Tweede Kamer for the electoral district Groningen, until he became a minister in 1894 in the cabinet of Joan Röell.

Van Houten introduced a law in 1874, Kinderwetje - van Houten (Children's Law), that forbade children younger than 12-year old to work as labourers in factories. Nonetheless, van Houten was a conservative and opposed further social laws and any egalitarianism by the state.

Van Houten was the founder of the short lived Liberal Party. Tak van Poortvliet

Dutch Minister of Internal Affairs 1894-1897

Succeeded by: H.