Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-10-15
The CHILD WORKERS

While we are getting somewhat
excited over the proposition to forbid
q woman to work more than 4S hours
per week in Maine. right down in
civilized Maryland, under the noses
of the greatest organizations assum-
ing to promote the uplift of human
ity. the Chidrens Bureau of the
L. $. Department of Labor finds:
over go per cent of the children
enrolled In the schools in the truck
farming areas of the Eastern Shore
had worked on the truck farms
within the year preceding the in
quirs'. \ large proportion of these
children in Anne Arundel county
work on the farms. In the Eastern
Shore localities the workers are
chiefly farmers children. In the
Anne Arundel area there are also
large numbers of hired workers.
some of them white children who
migrate from Baltimore for seasonal
farm work.
Most children under 10 years Of
SSt "Oih d SllOi l Va Minus
of work. and for only a 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 d large proportion of
white and negro boys IL years of
age or over do a great variety of
work ana many work or 10 hours
a Gay. \ working day of 8 or more
reported by one half the boys studied
II both regions.
"Thc work of these children in
cluGed not only picking berries and
hooing vegetables but also blowing,
narrowing, machine cultivating and
some kinds of machine transplant
ing. Such work in conjunction with
long hours was reported by many Of
the boys - years or over.
II oss of schooling on account OF
farm work Was suffered by major
ity of the children in both areas ac-
cording 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 preceding school 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 major
lty of these children lose from 4 to
6 weeks at the end of the school
term in order to so 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
In describing these housing condi-
tons of the migratory truck farm
workers, the report states:
Seasonal workers are housed by
the farm owners on their own land
in what are referred to locally as
camps Nest 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
implanted 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 partition divided the lower
floor, which was about Is by 80 feet,
into two rooms. On each side of q
narrow aisle down the center Of the
room the floor was divided into sec
tons or pens by boards 10 or IL
inches in height. Each pen was
about s feet long and from to s
feet wide and covered with straw
for a mattress. Each family was
allotted one of these pens, the larger
families sometimes securing those s
feet in width. Many of the
shanties containing two such rooms
used for sleeping purposes were often
occupied by from so to SO persons of
both sexes and all ages. . :" The
report shows that little attention was
given to sanitation and in a number
of cases the danger of pollution Of
the water supply was great.