The patriot. (Glenmora, La.) 1918-1955, 1922-03-10
Child And Alien
LABOR IN BE:E:TS
American Farm Worker Not Pro-
tected by Sugar Tariff.
LOW WAGES ARE BEING PAID
yankees Not Wanted" Say Field
Managers in Colorado and
Michigan.
BY n. e. MILES,
Chairman OF the Fair Tariff Lei

the high tariff politicians, when an up
ward revision of the tariff is in order.
That has always been true and is now
true in Congress in connection with eff
forts to enact the high rates in the
IFOrdney sO-called Permanent Tariff
Bill
The farmer as we'll as the worker,
however, has come to realize that any
benefit he may derive from an ceiorbi-
tant tariff, levied In the name of pro-
lection on an article which he pro-
| duces, is more than offset by the
tribute which he must pay on arti-
cles which he consumes but does not
raise
Sugar is good example of how this
works out with reference to the farm
er. The American beet sugar industry
prOspered under protective tariff Of
one cent pound on Cuban raw sugar.
The Emergency Tariff Act increased
| this 60 per cent. One of the arguments
advanced for this tremendous increase
was that the beet sugar industry need
! ed this protection in order to protect
| the American farm labOrer engaged in
raising sugar beets.
| Unfortunately for this argument
there is very little American farm labor
in the beet sugar industry as the rec
OrdS of the Department of Labor and
| the Department of Agriculture show.
| Sugar beets are raised and harvested
! almost entirely by the cheapest grade
obtainable Of foreign labor, contracted
for by the sugar manufacturers and
turned over to the beet growers
Field bosses in the beet. sugar sec
tons have indeed frequently told in
vestigators that American labor is not
wanted because "a Yankee can't stand
the hard work"
Child Labor in Majority
Not only is the larger part Of the
beet sugar labor this low priced for
eign labor which we are warned
against but even larger part are the
children Of these foreign families.
In Colorado alone, one of the most
important beet sugar states, the Ma
tipnal Child Labor Committee found
5000 children between the ages of six
and fifteen years, practically all of
alien parents, regularly engaged in the
cultivation of sugar beets.
From the time the beets are in the
ground until they are delivered at the
factory the hardest kind of manual Ia
Dor, is required. And much of this is
done by small children. These children
spend long, hard hours on their hands
and. knees wedding and thinning the i
heets. Then when the beets are full
grown they spend more long, hard
hours lifting the heavy roots to their
knees and with wide sweep Of Il dan
gerously sharp knife cut off the tops.
The Federal Chiliren's Bureau made
an intensive study Of the Colorado sit
uation. OF 1877 included in this study
seYen-tenths were the children of con-
tract laborers. Over one-fourth Of
them were under ten years old, small !
percentage under eight Less than |
cne-fifth were as much as fourteen
years Old Considerably over a half !
ranged from nine to thirteen. From |
50 to So per cent, according to the |
process in which the child was engag-
ed, worked nine hours or more q day. |
L rein OIlt-StN0Illil ~ bIIC-IliIId. GlSttIlt
varying with the process, worked !
eleven hours or more n day. The |
average working day fer all processes |
was. usually between nine and ten |
hours.
Evil Effect on Children
PosturaI deformities and malposi
lions were found in 20 per cent of the
1, hn T(IJpAa11fc
physicians. Another serious effect is
the Interference with their educa-
ton. Among $50 children from /
nine to sixteen years Of age for whom !
school records were obtained over 40 /
per cent were from one to seven years !
below the normal grade for their age.
The general study Of the National
Child Labor Committee in Colorado ;
and Michigan indicates that these con- /
ditions held generally throughout the |
beet raising sections. A fIrmer who .
owns or leases land contracts with the /
sugar company to furnish n certain /
number Of acres on which beets are to I
be grown. The company agrees to fur |
nish the hand labor. The company I
LHeH COulIuCbS Will d lhbOLCi, oSOIi3y
Russian, Jap or Mexican, to do the
work on definite number Of acres.
The number of acres a laborer con-
tracts to care for IS based largely on
the number of children he has
The labor employed in the Colorado
beet fields is practically all foreign Ia
Dor, Mexican, Japanese and Russian.
The Mexicans and Japanese, however,
do not work their children as much as
do the Russians r"he Russian chill
dren often begin work as early as four
or five years of age.
In Michigan conditions are very sim
liar, excepting that the hationalities
of the workers are more diversified,
and there are fewer Russians and Mex
leans and no Japanese. They are
made up largely Of Hungarians. Slars
from the small provinces, Polish and
Germans. In Michigan, as III Cclora-
do the beet people are exploiting the
foreign laborer and his children.
All of which pretty thoroughly pune
lures any pretense that high tariff
on sugar will in any way protect Amer