The Connecticut labor news., 1922-01-20
Horrible Conditions Re- ported About State by Survey M a d e b y Writer of Article in Good HOusekeeping.'

That parents have drugged their children to keep them from suffering the bangs of hunger is testified to by Miss Elizabeth 0. Tooms, a social worker, in an article written for the January issue of Good Housekeeping.
 In Stratford, Conn, where dozen school children fell asleep over their books in the schoolrooOm, an lnvestl- gation developed that in practically every class the same thing had hap pened, and further inquiry proved that many of the foreign-born par ents due to unemployment, were ad- ministering drugs to children that the bangs of hunger might be less acute. top of their desks opened Stratford's eyes," Miss Tooms continues. Prom the mayor down the town was or ganized, first, to feed and Clothe the children and their parents; next, to provide work, any sort of work, for the fathers The mayor started re- pair work on the roads and town buildings, using funds, he acknowl edged,morc or less illegally, but Stratford made no objection, for the townspeople realized that their un funate neighbors had to be fed and housed, law or no law
 Ha1f-Fed Children Everywhere.
 "The experiences of Stratford are being repeated today i'll varying forms throughout this broad land of ours The United States, the richest coun- try and the greatest workshop in the world, has between three and five mil lion idle brcadwinncrs, more men than were in the army we trained in IoI7-I8 10 help win the war.
 "In every industrial community in this country there arc half-fed, half clothed children, whose parents do not know where to turn for succor. Such families are not on the lists ot organized charities, for they are members of the self-respecting work ing class, which holds it's indepen- dence dear Fathers and mothers, willing to work their fingers to the bone to provide a decent meal, a de cent home for their children, are now faced with one alternative 10 starva- tion-begging-and to beg they are ashamed. The one thing they will beg is a job
 And society really is to blame for much of +b;c upa,0D1ovD,cnt that ic devastating the homes oi America, that sends children to the streets and the schools hungry and cold or forces the into take jobs, which, strangely enough, they are given even when work is refused the father. The rec ords of the chidren's bureau at Washington how that far more than the normal number of children are dropping out of school this winter and taking jobs to help feed their smaller brothers and sisters
 How can these children secure work when their fathers can not?
 Employers Prefer Child Labor.
 "The answer is that many employ CTS prefer Cnlld laDOr 10 man laDOT, and, too, there are jobs that can be offered children which no man would think of offering to another man Many times, too, these children work to supplement the meager earnings oi the father, forced to do odd jobs for what he can get The father may be a skilled laborer, but with plants and mills shut down all over the country with building stopped and no public work being carried on, where is he tC find a job that will pay him living wages? And remember, there are more than 5000, 900 like him in oul