The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1913-01-27

| tons in a state; but her moving tale
of the miseries of the people of the
canneries SO wrought upon the feelings
of the committee members that it
| would not be strange if the committee
and congress should decide to have
something to say in the future about
the humanitarian conditions under
which food products are produced.
When the wealthy Miss O'ReiIly left
the comforts of her Boston surround
| ings to investigate the canneries of
| New York state, she did up her hair in
a tight knot. do ned cheap calico
dress and went among the canneries
people seeking work. When she got
the jobs she was known to her fellow
| workers simply as Mamie Riley. And
because the poor women and children
could go to her for advice, they learned
to love her and to confide in her. That
is why her investigation was so eff
fective.
But when Mary Boyle OReiIly re-
moved her rich furs and sat down in
mahogany chair to face the commit
tee, she dropped her identity and be-
came Mamie Riley again as she read
letter after letter painfully scrawled
il: pencil on cheap, rule paper. but each
carrying its tale of wretchedness and
misery. The cannery people had since
learned who their strange fellow
worker was, but each letter was adj
| dressed simply to Dear Mamie"
These letters told many things which
made the comfortable gentlemen of the
committee uneasy. One letter from
Canastoga, n. Y, told of fifty families
| trying to cook meals on three stoves
for the entire community.
mo wonder that indigestion is
chronic among these people-that when
they are desperately tired after the
hard days when the pack is heavy
they seek comfort in strong drink"
said Mamie Riley. "They do not know
what home life is
There was another letter from Clyde,
n. Y, which told of a barn which a
canning company had made over into
the home for twenty families. These
twenty had but single stove on which
to cook.
Near Rome, N. Y, Miss O'Reilly
fl und three hundred cannery workers
living in a long shed.
81 asked one little child what the
she was, testified Miss O'Reilly.
home.'"
When Miss O'ReiIIy finished her
story the committee was not so sure
that it had no legal right to interfere
in a state matter. Representative AL
len, of Cincinnati, who fathered the
resolution asking for a federal inves-
tigation, was on hand to plead that the
cannery products are sold all over the
United States and that therefore the
federal government has the right to
ascertain the conditions at the can
neries. For q precedent he cited to the
committee the case of the federal in
spection of the packing houses in Chi
cago.
The result is that the question is
now being fought out fiercely in the
committee. The canning interests have
sent lawyers to tell the committee that
inspection Of factories is not in the
pl ovince of the federal government
All because Mamie Riley worked six
weeks in the canneries and kept her
eyes open the while.
Though Miss O'Reilly shines in the
luster which attaches to the name of
Ter father, John Boyle O'Reilly, she is
earning fame in her own right through
her investigations of social conditions
in New England. She is one Of the
commissioners of the children's bureau
of Boston, and has been the Massa-
chusetts commissioner of labor. Her
investigation of the notorious baby
farms Of New Hampshire first brought
her work to the public's attention.