The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1922-04-08
CHILD AND alien
LABOR IN BEETS
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 H. E. MILES,

Inc American farmer ana the
American worker are always the chief
objects of solicitude. put forward by
the high tariff politicians. when an up
ward revision of the tariff is in order.
That has always been true and is o.
true In Congress in connection with eff
forts to enact the high rates In the
Fordney so-called Permanent Tariff
Bill.
The farmer as well as the worker.
however. has come to realize that any
benefit he may derive from an eXorhi-
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 a good example of how this
works out with reference to the farm
er. The American beet sugar.lndustry
prospered under a protective tariff of
one cent a 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 fer 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
lions have indeed frequently told in
v%estigators 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 a larger part are the
children of these foreign families.
In Colorado alone, one of the most
important beet sugar states, the Ma
tional 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 requireds And much of this is
done by small children. These children
spend long, hard hours on their hands
and knees wedding and thinning the
beets. Then when the beets are full
grown they spend more long, hard
hours lifting the heavy roots to their
knees and with a wide sweep of a dan
gerously sharp knife cut off the tops.
The Federal Children's Bureau made
an intensive study of the Colorado Sit
uation. OF LOTT included In this study
seven-tenths were the children of con-
tract laborers. Over o%ne-fourth Of
them were under ten years old. a small
percentage under eight. Less than
one-fifth were as much as fourteen
years old. Considerably over a half
ranged from nine to thirteen. From
60 to So per cent, according to the
process In which the child was engag-
ed. worked nine hours or more a day.
From one-seventh to one-third, again
varying with the process, worked
eleven hours or more a day. The
average working day for all processes
was usually between nine and ten
hours.
Evil Effect on Children
Postural deformities and malposi-
| lions were found in 20 per cent of the
children examined by the Bureaus
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 hold generally throughout the
beet raising sections. A farmer who
owns or leases land contracts with the
sugar company to furnish a certain
HuiilDcT VI utIeS VII WHICH DtclS are 10
be grown. The company agrees to fur
nish the hand labor. The company
then contracts with a laborer, usually
a Russian, Jap or Mexican, to do the
work on n definite number of acres.
The number of acres Il laborer con-
tracts to care for is based largely on
he number cf children he has.
The labor employed in the Colorado
beet fields is practically all foreign la
Dor, Mexican, Japa"ese and Russian.
The Mexicans and Japanese, however,
do not work their children as much as
do the Russians. The 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 ~nationalities
of the workers are more diversified,
and there are fewer Russians and Mex
leans and no japanese. They are
made up largely of Hungarians, Slavs
from the small provinces, Polish and
| Germans. In Michigan, as In lora-
do, the beet people are exploiting the
foreign laborer and his children.
All of which pretty thoroughly pune
lures any pretense that a high tariff
on sugar will in any way protect Amer.
lean farm labor.