Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1923-10-26
Study of Conditions in Four Mary
land Counties Made for
Labor Department.
LONG HOURS FOR MkaY BOYS
Most OF the Children Suffer Loss Of
Schooling and xfie Housing vf
the Young Workers Gener-
ally Wretched.


by the United States Department Of
Labor through the children's bureau.
This report Is the second of series
on rural child labor studies being car.
ried on by the bureau under the direc-
tiOn Of Ellen Nathalie Matthews, d.
rector Of it's industrial division.
Four Maryland counties are in
cluded in the study-Anne Arundel
(near Baltimore), Wfcomico, Somerset,
and Worcester on the Eastern Shore.
Eight hundred and eight white and
negro children in Anne Arundel county
who had done farm work during the
year preceding the study and 838 chill
dren on the Eastern Shore were In
terviewed.
The chief findings of the report are:
Over 80 per cent of the children en-
rolled in th schools in the truck
farming areas of the Eastern Shore
had worked ON the truck farms within
the year preceding the inquiry. A
large proportion of these children In
Anne Arundel county work on the
farms. In the Eastern Shore localities
the workers are chiefly farmers chill
dren. In the Anne Arundel area there
are also large numbers of hired work
ers, some of them white children who
migrate from Baltimore for seasonal
farm work.
Most children under ten years Of
age work short day at simple kinds
Of work, and for only few days or
weeks during the year. Most white
girls do little more work than the
young children, but some of the older
negro girls and large proportion Of
white and negro boys twelve years of
age or over do great variety of work
and many work nine or ten hours a
day. A working day Of nine or more
hours on the last day worked was re-
ported by one-half the boys studied in
both regions.
The work Of these children included
not only picking berries and hOeing
vegetables, but also plowing, harrow
ing. machine cultivating and some
kinds Of machine transplanting. Such
work in conjunction with long hours
was reported by many of the boys
twelve years or over.
Loss Of schooling on account of
farm work was suffered by majority
of the children in both areas, accord
ing to reports made by their parents.
Nearly one-fifth Of the white children
had been absent for farm work six or
more school weeks during the pre-
ceding year.
Serious problems both in lack Of
schooling and in undesirable living
conditions were presented in the cases
of migratory child workers in Anne
Arundel county. The majority Of
these children lose from four to six
weeks at the end Of the school term
in order to go out to the truck farms.
Over two-thirds of those included In
the study were retarded in school,
about twice the average rate for city
children of their ages.
According to the report, "the hous-
ing provided for migratory truck-farm
workers in these localities is so un-
tio1dSIO1y IhdL IL dppCd1S " Sdll 1OI
some public supervision"
In describing these housing condi-
tions the report states:
Seasonal workers are housed by
the farm owners on their own land in
what are referred to locally as camps.
Most Of the camps contained
but one building, known as a 'shanty,'
which served as sleeping quarters for
the workers. In most camps
it was weatherbeaten or unpainted
and the windows usually lacked either
glass or shutters or both AS a rule
there was but one room on each floor,
with stairs on the outside leading to
the upper room. In some a partition
divided the lower floor, which was
about 25 by so feet, into two rooms.
On each side Of narrow aisle down
the center of the room the floor was
divided into sections or pens by
boards 10 or IL inches In height. Each
pen was about 6 feet long and from
to 6 feet wide and covered with
straw for a mattress. Each family
was allotted one of these pens, the
larger families sometimes securing
those 6 feet in width. Many of the
shanties containing two such rooms
used for sleeping purposes were often
occupied by from 80 to 80 persons Of
both sexes and all ages :" Little
attention was given to sanitation and
in number Of cases the danger of
pollution Of the water supply was
great.