The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1913-01-16
CANNING CAMPS
SCENE Of HORROR
Social Worker Describes Pitiful
Plight Of Children En-
ployed There

Washington, Jan. IA pitifui
picture of men and women and chill
dren Of s and years old working
under filthy conditions and living in
squalid canning camps Of the New
York Fruit & Vegetable Canning
company was presented to the House
rules committee today by Mary Boyle
O'Reilly. a social worker, and Frank
G. Praete, an investigator for the
New York labor department They
supported a resolution introduced by
Representative Allen Of Ohio for an
investigation of conditions in the can
ming industry throughout the country
Frank Gorrell, secretary Of the Ma
tional Gamers association, declared
that his organization, representing
from 70 to rs per cent Of the can
ming output of the country, invited
the fullest investigation Of conditions
in the industry and would lend every
assistance possible to Congress for
making the inquiry thorough. The
committee took the resolution under
advisement.
Miss O'Reilly and Mr.. Praete from
personal investigation of the canning
industry in New York gave the COM
mittee detailed descriptions Of horri-
BILE working conditions, filthy housing
and lack of sanitary equipment. Miss
O'Reilly spent a month in the camps
as a woman laborer. She shook with
emotion as she described to the COM
mittee the plight of little children
sent into the camps to earn a few
pennies day.
No Record Of Child Labor
There are children in the camps 4
and 8 years old, she said and there
are children of 10 and IL. There is
no record of child labor and the EN-
ployers maintain that the children
60 to the factories with their parents
know Of camp where three chill.
dren working together earned 90
cents a day among them. Working
in the stripping shed under the New
York law Is not considered factory
labor. Women in the camp are paid
cent pound for stripping peas. A
strong, vigorous woman can strip
about fifty to sixty pounds day.
A woman is paid 81 a day for husk'
ing corn, but the work is very heavy
know of two little Italian girls who
are steady workers. They are sisters
and years old.
I'm one cannery | visited were five
Italian boys from Is TO II years cd
who worked 115 hours in one week
They ended the week by working
from o'clock Saturday morning un
til 2 o'clock Sunday morning, never
leaving the factory. One of the boys
Tommy Soccero, refused to go bac.
to the factory Monday morning.
When his mother called him he
waved her away, saying, I'm going
to cut it out. There amt no use
because there amt no God"
Work Twenty Hours a Day
Did you say he worked 115 hours
week." demanded one of the com
mittee.
why yes" returned Miss O'Reilly
Il know of women who have worked
100 hours a week and girls of II
and 10 who worked twenty hours q
day"
Praete presented the report of his
investigation of nearly fifty canning
camps in New York state, including
camps at Webster, Lyons, Clyde, Ma
rion, Rome and other towns through
out the fruit and truck garden sec
tons Of the state. His description
of housing and factory conditions Of
filthy shacks where the workers liv
ed and OF conditions of water and
sanitation, moved Representative
Denver OF Ohio to ask:
did you see the things Yourself?
"All of the statements here are
the result of my own investigation,
returned Mr. Praete. 81 could no
md words to describe the conditions
truly, some of the places are so I'll
thy that no pig would have been a
hon,o there"