The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-12
Pitiful Pictures

Washington. January ia pitiful PIE
ture of men. women and children of 3 and
years old working under filthy conditions
and living in sdualid canning camps Oh
the New York Fruit and Vegetable cont
pany was presented to the House rules
committee today by Mary Boyle Q Reilly
social worker, and Frank c. Praete, an
Investigator for the New York labor de-
partment They supported resolution
introduced by Representative Allen OF
Chic for an investigation of conditions IN
the canning industry throughout the coun-
try Frank Gorell, secretary OF the Ma
tional Gamers association. declared that
his organization, representing from 20 TO
rs per cent of the canning output OF the
country. invited the fullest fnvestigation
of conditions in the industry and would
lend every assistance possible TO Com
gress for making the inquiry thorough.
The committee took the resolution under
advisement.
Miss oReily and Mr.. Praete, from
notes made during personal investiga-
tion of the canning camps in New YORK
gave the committee detailed descrip-
tlons of horrible working conditions,
filthy housing conditions and lack OF
sanitary equipment Miss OReilly spent
a month in the camp as woman Ia
borer She shook with emotion as she
declared to the committee the plight
of little children sent into the camps
to earn few pennies day.
Child Slaves
"'rhere are children in the camps
and years old" she said and there
are children OF 10 and II. There is
no record of child labor and the en-
ployers maintain that the children go
10 the factories with their parents.
know of camp where three children
working together earned 90 cents day
among them.
..Wor<ing in the stripping shed un-
der the New York law Is not consid-
cred factory labor Women in the
camp are paid / cent pound for strip
ming peas A strong. vigorous woman
can strip about 80 or so pounds day
A woman is paid 81 day for husking
corn. but the work Is very heavy.
know OF two little Italian girls VINO
are steady workers. Ihey are SISTERS,
and 6 years old
an one cannery I visited five Italian
bows from Is to u years old who
worked lis hours in one week They
ended the week by working from Z
o'clock Saturday morning until o'clock
sunday morning. never leaving the fac
tory one OF the boys, Tommy Soc
coro refused to go back to the fac-
tory Monday morning.
when his mother called him he
waved her away, saying, I'm going TO
cut II out. There ain't no use because
there aint no God.
"pid you say he worked 11o hours
, week ?, demanded one of the com
mittce.
Work 20 Hours a Day
"Why. yes" returned Miss o'Reilly.
~ know of women who have worked
40 hours a week and girls of 16 and
1S who worked 80 hours day"
Mr. Praete presented the report of his
Investigation OF nearly so 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 gee
lions of the state. Ills description OF
housing and factory conditions, of
filthy shacks. where the workers lived
and of conditions of water and sani-
tation, moved Representative Denver
of Ohio to ask
"Did you see these things yourseif?'
IAN of the statements made here are
the result of my own investigation"
returned Mr.. Praete. II could not find
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