Samuel van Houten

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

Van Houten was born in Groningen. He studied law at the University of Groningen, obtaining a degree in 1859. He then worked as a lawyer.

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. It was the first social law of the Netherlands. Nonetheless, van Houten was a conservative and opposed further social laws and any egalitarianism by the state. On individual issues, he was progressive though, writing about feminism, prostitution and birth control. He was president of a Neo-Malthusian society in 1888.

Van Houten was the founder of the short lived Liberal Party.

Political offices
Preceded by J. P. R. Tak van Poortvliet	Dutch Minister of Internal Affairs 1894-1897	Succeeded by H. G. Borgesius