Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1922-02-16
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 n. e. MILES,
Chairman Of the Fair Tariff League

The American farmer and the
objects Of sollcitude, put forward By
tho high tariff politicians, when an up
ward revision Of the tariff Il in order.
That has always been true and Il DOW
true IN Congress In connection with ef-
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 exorbi-
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-
Giles 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 industry
prospered under q 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 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 VI Agriculture show.
Sugar beets are raised and harvested
almost entirely by the cheapest grade
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
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 q 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
1900 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 la
boz Is required And much Of this Is
daos BY small children. These children
spend long, hard hours on their hands
aDd knees wedding and thinning the
beeea Then when the beets are fun
gown they spend more long, hard
hours lifting the heavy roots TO their
knees and with wide sweep of a dam
gesously sharp knife cut off the tops.
The Federal Children's Bureau made
an intensive study Of the Colorado Sit
uatiOo OF LOTT included In this study
sGren-tenths were the children of con-
tract laborers Over one-fourth Of
hem were under ten years old, O small
pe9eentaee under eight Less than
ooe-hfth were as much as fourteen
years old Considerably over q half
ranged from nine to thirteen. From
% to IS per cent according to the
process In which the child was engag-
ed, worked nine hours or more q day.
From one-eeventh to one-third, again
vAs7ing with the process, worked
els~en hours or moro Q day. The
sssraee working day for al processes
90 usoaily between nina and ten
b1nA
Rvn Eject On childrsn
Pustural deformities and malposi-
cous were found In 70 per cent Of the
S0drsn examined by the Bureaus
pAysbennA Another serious effect u
u lDssrfesence with their educa-
Cen Among $50 children from
ufps 10 sixteen years Of age for whom
sfbed records we're obtained over 10
~ sp1f TgIe from one b seven years
blsk The normal grnfe for their age.
fhe general study Of Che National
CHb Labor Committee In Colorado
md Michigan Indicates that these con-
hli0ns bold generally throughout the
hAed saisfng sections. A farmer who
UWns or lenses land eontraets with the
snszr company to furnish o certain
humber OF acres on which beets are 10
BE- grown The company agrees to fur
plsh Tire hand labor. The company
then contracts with nbores, usually
Q Russian, Jap or Mexican, to do the
kusk ON O definite number az acres. ..
Via number OF acres q lhborer CON-
t3nets % care for is based largely on
Che number Of children he has ...
The labor employed In the Colorado
baet fields Is practically all foreign Ia
boz, Mexican, japanese and Russian.
f-ha Mexioans and japanese, however,
DO not work their children as much as
do the Russians The Russian chill
dren often begin work as early us 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
teams and no Japanese They are
made up largely Of HungarIans. Slavs