The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-12-18
The Slavery Of the Shrimp piekers.

Children of more tender age are en-
ployed in the shrimp and oyster can
neries than in any of the cotton mills
Of the South, some of them being only
four or five years old The method of
handling the oysters consists in piling
them into small cars and running them
into big "steamehests," out of which
they come with their shells open, so
that, when spread on long tables, it
is an easy matter to take out the
meats" This is the task allotted to
the children, who, under the stern eve
OF Shocking boss" cut the meats out
of the, shells and transfer them to tin
buckets, ready for canning.
This is an immense industry in the
Gulf states. At Pass Christian Miss. J
dren are employed to shuck oysters in
the canneries. Nearly all of them are
Of foreign parentage, and largely they
are Poles. They are often housed nm
der the most squalid and insanitary con-
ditions, and ii is beyond question that
many of them die from the hardships
they are obliged to endure.
Most of these children come from
Maryland and Delaware. They are EN-
ployed during the summer and early
fall in the vegetable and fruit can
neries of those states, and are shipped
to the South in focks to shuek oysters
and pick shrimps through the winter and
spring. When autumn arrives, agents
for the shrimp and oyster packers visit
Baltimore and other large towns in that
part of the country, and pick up as
many poor immigrants as they need. es-
pecially among the Poles-the Italians
having become wary through experience.
Such families, usually provided with
plenty of children, are persuaded to 60
by the promise of free transportation
and of the payment of their return pas.
sage-the latter expectation being nearly
always unfulflled. Very ignorant and
commonly unacquainted with any lam
guage except their own, they are help
less to protect themselves, and once
herded on board steamers, they have no
chance to escape.
Filled with the hope of going to a
warm latitude where, they are told,
they can pick oranges off the trees
they are carried to Biloxi, Appalachicola,
Pass Christian, and other places where
the shrimp and oyster canneries are To-
Gated. While at work, they commonly
live under such conditions of squalor as
would not be tolerated in the most
poverty stricken quarter of any north
ern city. The pay is small, and for the
children often not more than ten cents
a day; but good deal of northern cap
sfo1 ,e AL 49, ~
canneries, and the big dividends they
yield are largely derived from the la
Dor of mere infants. DR.. A. J. Nickel
way, secretary of the national child
labor committee (which has its head
quarters in New York;, says; "0ur chief
adversary in the fight for a better child
labor law in Florida has been the own
er of an oyster cannery at Appalacheola.
/ visited his factory and saw acres of
oyster shells fifteen feet deep great
proportion Of which had been shucked
by little children.
Lewis W. Hine, special agent of
the committee, writes:
From statements made by them
selves, | have record of thirteen children
in the Gulf coast canneries
from three to five years of age, twenty
five from six to eight years of age,
and fifteen from nine to eleven years of
age. The mother Of three yearold Alma
told me proudly, Yes, I'm learnin' her
the trade, The little ones sisters,
Grace and Maud, three and five years
old. helped, but Alma was the fastest.
From "Shrimps and Babies January
Technical World Magazine.