Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1916-04-28
Personal Prattle e esss :. eau s.'..
John j. cAr1ey

are not expected to do any of the field
work. But the real working of the
system is declared, both by teachers
in the Denver public schools and by
others who have investigated the mat
ter, to be that the children of years
are sent into the field. Those from
to 10 are said to be employed con-
stantly during the wedding, thinning
and topping seasons.
"An Investigator states that he had
found the practice has been for work
to commence in the fields as early
as o'clock in the morning, when the
first sign of day begins to peep i'm
from the east.
Seventeen Hours of Labor.
cat o'clock the workers have
breakfast, sometimes going to the
Russian house for it and sometimes
it being served in the fields, so that
the labor does not cease. Again at
noon the workers are fed in the same
way, being allowed half hour for
that purpose. They take their supper
at about o'clock and return to their
labors, staying out in the fields until
s o'clock at night, or even later.
"The average hours of work for
children in the fields is declared to be
about II hours during the busiest sea-
son.
Zone abuse of the system that in
vestigators say they have discovered
results in charge of peonage. This
is that If the family desiring to take
contract for the handling of the
beets upon a farm is not as large as
required under the rules, the head of
the house hires children from other
families.
Sometimes the farmer does the
managing himself, hiring men, women
and children to do the actual labor"
1.-THE work of thinning and wedding
! is done on the knees, usually in sofl
that was irrigated the day before or
maybe only a few hours before, and
is wet and cold.
! Denver teachers who have had
charge of children used in the fields
during the summer state that the work
keeps the youths out of school during
two months of the year set apart for
their education. The teachers also say
that children come in from the fields
so worn out as to be unable to do sat-
isfactOry studying for several weeks.
The effect is that they practically lose
about four months of the school year,
and are kept in grades twice as long
as those who are able to attend regu-
larly."
If the benefits accruing from a high
tariff could be passed on to labor
there might be something in the as
sumption of Mr.. Bourne. But they
are not, nor ever have been. If the
increased cost to consumers could be
legislated into the pay envelope little
objection to the system would be heard,
albeit such a change would quickly
take the tariff out of politics.
Although the price of sugar has dou-
bled in the past year, no advance has
been made to beet growers, who are
forced to seek child labor in order
to make ends meet. This fact is dem
onstrated by letter dated March "a,
1916, from Albert Dakin, the attorney
Of the Colorado Beet Growers Asso.-
citation, in which he says: There has,
been no advance made to the beeE
growers Of Colorado , by the Great
Western Sugar Co. in it's 1916 con-
tract. The new contract is the same
in price paid for beets as that OF
1915.
The sugar industry, like any other
industry, buys its materials and labor
as cheaply as possible and sells its
products for all it can get, high
duty, low duty or no duty at all, and
former United States Senator Bourne
is as we'll aware of that fact as any
man living.