Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1909-06-14
THOUSANDS WORK
HOURS EACH DAY
Oyster. Cigar and Cotton Indus
tries Make Slaves of Chill
dren and Results in
Increase OF
Crime.

Buffalo, n y, June l4.-Chlldr'n'
laWbreakers families and neishbor-
Foods, immigrants and state super
scheduled for todays session Of the
national conference of CHARITIES and
corrections. FRANK e. Wade. "A mem
Deg of the state probation commit
tee of Buffalo, was the first speaker.
\. j. McKClWay Of Atlanta, Ga.
secretary of the National Child La
Dor committee. for the southern
states, attacked the institution of
child labor in the south. He contra
dicted the claim OF southern manu-
facturers that conditions there have
oeen exaggerated. that the numbers
of toiling child.en are rapidly de-
creasing and the evil itself disappear
ing. by showing many stereopticon
views of actual conditions in three of
the larger industries.
Mr.. McKelway said in part THE
American intelligence appreciates the
evils of the system, in facial deSen-
eracy, perpetuated poverty, growth
Of illiteracy, the disintegration of the
family, the increase Of crime, the
lowering of the wage scale and the
swelling army of the unemployed.
The oyster packing industry in the
south is extensive along the gulf
coast. The wages today are below the
standard of American living, and the
workers are mainly Bohemians
brought from Baltimore. During TIE
summer season they are employed in
the fruit and vegetable canning in
dustry of Maryland, whose child la
Dor law has Il special exemption for
the canning industry. The commu-
mites where they are employed testi-
fy to the pitiful plight in which the
workers often find themselves. Their
children are numerous, and from s
years old ana upwards are employed
in shucking the oysters piled upon
tram cars, after having been run
through a steam heated chamber.
OuI OF one force of $50 hands at
work. / counted thirty-five children
not over ten years old. apparently.
From the peculiar conditions Of their
employment they have absolutely no
chance for an education.
The cigar industry in Tampa, KY
West, and to lesser degree in Rich
mond Petersburg and Danvilla
Virginia, employs a large number Of
NHllul tAs III 1 ldilpd dlOIt, the mum
Der of children under fourteen in
creased in two years from a few
score to over a thousand. Fortunately
only spanish and Cuban children
were employed, but now great
number Of the native white people Of
Florida have moved to Tampa that
their children may learn this trade.
The inevitable effect will oc the low
ering of the wage scale in what is
row IA high waged industry.
The students of the child labor
problem know that the cotton mill
has always been cursed with child la
Dor and its natural accompaniment of
long hours and low wages. On ac-
count of nOn-enfOrcement Of laws,
themselves defective. southern cot
ton mills are conspicuous for the em-
ployment of children. Hundreds Of
them have been photographed at
work, within the last year, and they
are but typical of tens of thousands
OF them working from ten to twelve
hours a day, or night The evil is too
great To be concealed, and the cu
dren too numerous to be hidden.
There is no possible excuse for such
wholesale abuse of childhood