The Colorado statesman., 1911-12-09
SLAVERY EXISTS
IN COLORADO
JAMES BoDKlN OF MEADE TELLS
COMMITTEE OF CONDITIONS
IN BEET FIELDS.
HARDsHIpS ARE Barred
SAYS DERELicTs FROM CITY
SLUMS ARE PRACTICALLY
KEPT IN BONDAGE.

Western Newspaper Union News Service.
Washington.-Dep conditions
in the sugar beet fields of Colorado ap-
preaching peonage, James Bodkin of
Meade, Colo, told the so-called sugar
trust" investigating committee of the
House that city derelicts recruited
from the slums, were kept practically
in a state of bondage.
Mr.. Bodkin described system of
contract labor in the Colorado fields
and detailed the hardships, he
charged, were inflicted on working
people recruited by the Great Western
Sugar Company. He said that man,
his wife and several children, ranging
from eight years upwards, would put
in from ten to sixteen hours a day at
.'back-breaking work." which an Amer
lean would scorn to do.
The committee took great interest
in his description of the 'slum labor"
Representative Raken of California,
sought to show by the witness that the
tariff levied in the name of Amer
lean labor did not reach down to the
Russians and H1ndus who worked in
the Colorado beet fields.
"How much can a woman earn in
the field?" asked Mr.. Kinds.
Il don't know" answered the wit
ness. "She is better worker than
the man-he's generally the boss
the women and the children do the
work"
Mr.. Bodkin expressed as the belief
of the committee of farmers, of which
he is a member, that the sugar COM
pany was not paying fair price fol
beets. He said his crop paid him about
s5.75 a ton. The profit on an acre
was small. He had asked the sugar
company for a dollar more on the ton.
and was refused.
"If the tariff is of any benefit, the
sugar company gets it," said the VII
ness.
Before w. P. Willett, New York
sugar expert, left the witness stand
he described the sugar trade OF Den
mark. He recommended the adoption
of the Danish system of internal tax
alton and encouragement of the beet
sugar industry by the United States
1--WE don't hire the labor; the sugar
growers do that. We buy their pro
duct and manufacture it; we have
nothing to do with employing labor
ers to work in the sugar beet fields,
said Walter A. Dixon of the Grea'
Western Sugar Company.
"Of course, the growers make con
tracts with their employees, but lndi'
vidual contracts, and if the laborer Is
married and has any children old
enough to work, they go into the
fields with him. The laborers are OF
all classes, chiefly Hungarians.
81 don't know how long or how
hard the growers work the men, be-
cause It's none of our business. They
raise the beets and we buy them. The
laborers seem satisfied and l have
never seen any visible condition of
peonage."
Morton David, humane officer of the
State Bureau of Child and Animal
Protection, says that he made an in
vestigation of the labor conditions in
the beet fields around Greeley, La
Sale and Windsor a week ago, and
found nothing to complain of.
''The children of the Russian and
German families are well cared for,
have good food, go to school, and
heard no complaints he said. In
fact, I found the children that work
in the beet fields happy and
healthy lot of children, much better
off than many children in the cities"