New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-01-12

CHE POSED AS A WORKER
n;seased Children Labor in
squalor and Mothers Leave
sivk Infants for Pittance,
Legislators Told.
fF'rom T'he Tribune Buroau.1

washington. Jan. 11.-Describing con-
..,ors in certain New York cannerieS as
,'..rible" Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly testi-
-, before the Rules Committee of the
.,o,se to-day i'm support of the Allen reso-
,,,on demanding a Congress investigs-
49,, Of canncries engaged in interstate
o,merce. Saving that she had posed as
u-orksr for a month in vegetable can
&c NJ New York State, Miss O'Reilly
Ia vivid story of the alleged squalor
der which the employees labored.
nesepite Miss O'Reilly's charges, 1t is
,,,,Iikelv that the Rules Committee will
dor favorable report on the Allen reso-
,rton Members of the committee take
,bs nosition that the House already has
nrder way as many Investigations as it
IN handle. Although the end of the ses-
son is less than sixty days away only
,ro appropriation bills have been passed
nd half a dozen Investigations must be
completed.
Miss O'Reilly testified that in a can
merry al Fairport she found forty children
~ tender age at work. OF these, she said,
more than a score suffered from viru-
lent skin disease. The camp where the
workers lived was in a swamp, with no
,royisions for bathing or drinking. In
Marion, n. Y, plant Miss O'Reilly said
that she found six women with bandaged
and diseased hands at work. In all, Miss
oRejlly visited fourteen filthy canneries.
Children Of Five at Work.
Miss O'Reiliy shook with emotion as
she painted a pitiful picture of men and
women. and children OF five and six years
old, working in squalid camps OF the
New York Fruit and Vegetable Canning
Company. She said:
know OF a camp where three children
working together earned 90 cents day
among them. Working in the stripping
shed under the New York law is not con-
sidered factory labor Women IN tne
camp are paid one cent pound FOR strip
ping peas. a strong, vigorous woman can
strip about fifty or sixty pounds a day.
A woman is paid 81 a day for husklns
corn but the work is very heavy.
In one cannery five Italian boys, from
fifteen TO seventeen years old, worked no
by working from o'clock Saturday morn
ing until O'Clock Sunday morning, never
leavn gthe factory. one, tommy 500
coro. refused TO 90 back TO the factory
Monday morning. When his mother calleu
rim H. waved her away, SAYING:
I'm going 70 cut II out. mere ain ho
rse because there amt no Goa. .oo
I know of women who have worked l1v
hours q week. and girls OF sixteen anu
eighteen who worked twenty hours Gay
representative Covington. who repre-
seats the Eastern Shore of Maryland,
which cans more tomatoes than any other
section Of the country, interposed that
Miss O'Reilly's statements might put
dynamite under reputable industries"
The state OF New York. he added, packed
less than one-twelfth of the product OF
tbs country. while Maryland packed 90
per cent
Mr. Covington declared that the can
ne,v question must be handled by the
gatos. Members of the committee indi-
Gated they agreed that such matters could
not be- regulated by the federal govern
ment
Frank c. Praete. special investigator OF
the New York Department of Labor, tes-
tilted that he had visited twoscore can
neries I'm the state. including those AT
Webster. Lyons, Clyde. Marion and Rome
and in many of them found conditions
such as Miss O'Reilly described.
In one place Mr. Praete said he found
two infants lying in shack alone, both
apparently i'll. The mother was at work
In the cannery, and when found she said:
I'VE cannot have time 70 take care OF
the children and the houses. We must
work TO make money.
Il cannot find words TO describe the
conditions truly" said Mr.. Praete. some
Of the places are SO filthy that no pig
would have been at home there"