Arizona republican., 1913-01-12
CANNING CAMP
 IN L|MEL|GHT
Miss O'Reilly and Frank c. Praete Give House Rules Committee Testimony on Squalid and Unsanitary Conditions
ASSOCIATED PRESS D1sPArcHJ

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11.-A pitt able picture of men, women, and children of and years. working under filthy conditions and living in the squalid canning camps Of the New York Fruit and Vegetable Can ring company, was presented to the house rules committee today by May Boyle O'Rielly, the social worker, and Frank c. Praete, investigators of the New York labor department
 They supported a resolution intro duced by Representative Allen of Ohio for the investigating of the con ditions of the canning industry throughout the country. Flank Cor Tell. secretary of the National Can rers' association. declared that his organization, representing from 70 to . per cent of the canning output of the country, invited the fullest in vestigation of the conditions of the industry. and would assist congress in its inquiry. The committee took Miss O'Reilly and Praete, from their personal investigations of the can ming camps of New York, gave the committee descriptions of the hOr- rible working conditions, filthy hOus ing conditions and lack of sanitary equipment Miss O'Reilly spent a month n a camp as woman la borer She shook with emotion as ! she described to the committee the | plight of little children sent into the camps to earn a few pennies a day. l There were children in the camps | four and five years old" she said,' and 1 other children ten and eleven years old 1 There was no record of the child labor ! and the employers maintain that the children go to the factories with their l parents. I know camp where three 1 children working together earned fifty l cents a day. Working in stripping 1 shed under New York laws is not con- 1 sidered factory. Women in this camp are paid one cent a pound for stripping peas Strong vigorousi women car 1 strip about 50 or 50 pounds a day A 1 woman was paid one dollar a day husk- | ing corn, but the work was very heavy
 know of two little Italian girls who are steady orkers. They are sisters | five and six years old
 | At one cannery I visited five Italian boys from 15 to r years old, worked 1 115 hours in one week. They ended 1 the week by working from o'clock or | Saturday morning untid 2 o'clock or | Sunday morning and never leaving thF factory. One of the boys, Tommy Soc l coro. refused to go back to the factory | on Monday morning.
 When his mother called hNn ht waved her away, saying I'm going tt cut it out It ain't no use, because
 ain't no good
 Did you say he worked 115 hours in week?" demanded one Of the com
 mittee.
 Why yes" returned Miss O'Reilly
 q know women who worked 120 hour
 a week and girls of Is and IS wh'
 worked 20 hours a day"
 Praete presented a report of his in
 vestigation of nearly fifty canninj
 camps in New York state, includlnj
 those Gt Webster, Lyons, Clyde, Mari
 on. Rome and other towns, throughout
 the fruit and truck garden sections The description of the housing an , factory conditions, the filthy shack . where the workers lived and the con
 ditions of water and sanitation move Representative Denver of Ohio to ask 3 Did you see these things yourself? ?
 All the statements made here ar r the result of my own investigation,
 returned Praete.
 9 "I could not find the words to de scribe the conditions truly. Some plac f es Were so filthy no pig would hay
 beer at home there"