The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1915-06-25
QUESTION LODI
LABOR CONDITIONS

employed on Ohio farms may be
brought under the protection of state
labor laws as the result of an investi-
cation made by Mrs. Rosa M. Uniack,
cleveland state workshop inspector.
Mrs. Uniack's report of conditions
lshe found at one Of the biggest truck
gardening, farms in the state, Is miles
from here, was turned over to Atty.
Gen. Turner yesterday by the state
industrial commission.
The truck farm covers 1900 acres
in the mucklands at Lodi.
These are the conditions Mrs. Uni
Jack reported she found in days in
| spection.
Ninety girls and boys, from six to
eighteen, are working nine and one
half hours day, for daily wages
ranging from 40 cents to $1.15.
Nearly all the children are employ
ed to creep about the damp auckland
on hands and knees wedding out gar
den truck.
Small boys and girls, dressed in
rompers, work side by side all day
from Z a. m. to 6 p. M, with an hour
for lunch and 15-minute rest in both
morning and afternoon.
Thirty girls and women operate the
hand cultivators. No girl or woman
receives more than 81 day. Twelve
of the 30 are from fifteen to eighteen.
The majority of the children are
from ten to fourteen. They work in
groups of from Is to 20 under an over
seer.
Thomas P. Kearns, chief deputy in
spectoF Of workshops was in Cleveland
Thursday and conferred with Mrs. Uni
ack ON details of her report. Her in
vestigation was ordered by the indus
trial commission.
Tho commission has asked Atty.
Gen. Turner to rule on whether en-
ploymept of children and women in
agricultural occupations can be
brought under the labor laws.
The commission believes the laws
sufficiently bro d to cover farm labor.
If>Turner rul N they are not, the com
mission lpla Ito seek Mslslation tc
tsosden snrovi
Thomas II Duff member Of the
state coRanission, said at Columbus
Thursday investigations similar to
that made byMrs. Uniack may be cay
Iried on all over the state farm lands.
Mrs. Uniack, in Cleveland Thursday,
told of her trip to the big truck farm
at Lodi.
"The sight of those little children,
their hands and faces black with the
muck soil, creeping about on all fours
in the hot sun, is one I shall never
forget she said.
| II have never seen children who
looked SO tired"
"1Are you tired?' l asked many Of
the children. All answered eyes"
State laws provide no boy under six
teen or gifl under eighteen, shall be
employed more than 48 hours week
Girls and women over eighteen cannot
be employed for more than 81 hours
a week.
According ITO Mrs. Uniack's report
all children And women on the trucl
farm work 5Sb hours a week.
"The YOUNGEST child I found at worl
was a tiny CHAP Of six, who crep
about with the others, on hands ant
knees" SAID Mrs. Uniack.
when / tollN the managers Of tn
farm that / wopld make a report t
the state commission that women an,
children we're working long hour
there, they laughed and said:
"'You don't expelct people on farr
to work only eight hours, do you?
Mrs. Uniack related.
.- p . . u R
According to ner report, Mrs. I'M
ack found at work ONE child six year
old; 2'of eight years Of nine; i
item; z, eleven; II, tyEelve; 20, thil
teen; II, fourteen; s, fixteen.