The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-05-24
BY LOUIS zooBocK

LedMS are commonly pefIOFmcu ny
children from the ages of 10 and up.
Boys as young as years of age and
girls as young as 10 are commonly
found driving stackers and hay forks,
narrowing and raking hay, etc"
OF S45 children included in one
study, 104 while engaged in farm
work had had an accident resulting
in some injury. Twelve of them had
broken their arms or legs, or had
broken bones in other parts of the
body; others had dislocations, sprains
or had been crushed or badly bruised;
or had bad cuts or decorations. Per-
manent injuries, such as loss of an
arm or leg, and even deaths, are a
common occurrence.
In the sugar beet fields of Colorado,
Michigan, Kansas, etc, tens of thou
sands of children between the ages
Of and 16 are being utilized in the
work of taking care Of the sugar
beets. Some work in gangs under
slave drivers, others merely as mem
bers Of the laboring family, which
often is migratory family following
the crops from locality to locality.
At least so per cent of the hired
workers on the beet fields are chill
dren who work IA hours a day under
a speeding system. The work is very
hard and exhaustive; the continued
stopping in kneeling and crouching
positions when thinning" and the
lifting and handling of heavy weights
in pulling and topping" affect the
posture and outline of the growing
child's body. Seventy per cent or
more of the children employed in the
sugar beet industry have postural de-
formities and malpositions apparently
due to strain. "A total of 676 cases
of winged scapulae were found among
the 1922 children, 661 of the entire
group having this defect; hence two
children in three were taxing the
muscles of an undeveloped shoulder
girdle in this period of growth"
Similar conditions exist in other
places. In Ohio, several departments
Of the state government have been
aroused over child labor conditions in
the onion fields, one official declaring
them to be Outrageous and unbeliev-
able" He estimated that more than
1000 children between the ages of
| 6 and 16 are working in the marshes
wedding and topping onions. A Cleve-
land newspaper man reported them as
working 10 hours day, crawling on
hands and knees thru mucky soil"
and that the children became COM
pietely exhausted by the work.
In the Imperial Valley of Califor-
MIA children as young as 8 years of
age pick cotton from sunrise to sun
set in the extreme shadeless heat of
the valley. The work is very hard
and taxes the strength of the unde-
veloped children. The cotton pick
ers usually have long, loose strap
of material at the opening of the bag
which is slipped over the chiId's head.
The child picks the cotton, puts it in
the bag, which he drags behind him.
One boy stated to an investigator: II
sometimes pick till l have over 100
pounds. / pick as long as I can pull
the bag. and until it gets so heavy
that l can't walk straight" Another
boy said: "Us kids most always drag
from 40 to so pounds of cotton before
we take it to be weighed Three of
us pick. / am IL years old and my
bag is IL feet long. can drag nearly
100 pounds
This in brief describes the condi-
ton of the rural child laborers They
are forced to perform the hardest
tasks on the farms; they are COM
PEELED to work long hours for the
poorest pay; they are virtually de-
MED an education, as they must work
in order to supplement the meager
earnings Of the parents; they are de-
prived Of proper amusements and so
cial and intellectual opportunities to a
J most undesirable degree; they are
forced to live in the cheapest and most
unsanitary quarters; they are badly
fed and undarnouriehed and 40 a ra-