The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-07-05

ness OF the hands from acid in the
heads of the shrimps. Severe colds,
injuries from falls, infections from
cuts from the oyster shells, bruises
and poisons in picking shrimps-are
very common among the child and
women workers.
The earnings of the children are
very small, the medium wage ranging
between 81 and IS a week for children
of IA years of age and over; younger
children earn between so cents and
81 week; among the part time work
ers, the median earnings fall between
81 and So; while the medi earnings
of the occasional workers are less
than 81 per week.
A great number of the workers in
canneries are imported from the north.
They are forced to live in quarters
provided by the cannery, which are
often shamefully overcrowded. Fifty
'eople, including men, women and chill
ldren, may be housed in an old barn; or
shacks may be erected of the poorest
construction, allowing but one small
room for whole family of adults and
children. Often several hundred
people live together in the utmost
squalor, lacking all the decencies Of
life.
The illiteracy among the children
over 10 years old is six times as great
as for the children of about the same
ages in the United States as a whole.
Many children of school age have
never been to any school. This is
especially true among the families
brought from the north. In the spring,
they return to the Middle Atlantic
States and work till fall, perhaps in
the corn and tomato fruit canneries.
where conditions are likely to be
much the same as in the oyster can
neries on the gulf. Wet, uncomfort-
able work, long hours, lack of sleep,
exposure to inclement weather, INSULT
cient food, crowded camps to live in.
and no one to take care whether the
children are sent to school-since they
are not legal residents" in any
district
Child Labor in Coal Mines
The demand for child labor in mines
is greater than is generally supposed.
The census Of 1920 shows nearly 5000
children between 10 and 16 years
working in mines. This figure, of
course, is far too small. Everywhere
in the coal mines, boys of 10 years old
and over AFRO nroforrn;re d,,k;o- hit
properly b n & to groups. In
Pennsylvania, the 14-year-age mini
mum OF the state law is being violated.
Hundreds of boys are employed in
mining before they reach that age.
Many Of the boys work underground,
sometimes obliged to wade in mud or
water, sometimes enveloped in suffo-
eating gas and smoke. They usually
begin as trappers. which means that
they sit and stand beside door which
leads from one mine chamber to an
other, and open the door for the cleo
trio coal to pass. Sometimes they
work in total darkness. Others turn
the ventillating fans in the dangerous
sections where the last remaining coal
is being cut away, and where the roof
sometimes falls in.
The Children's Bureau studied con-
ditions in an anthracite coal mining
region with a population of about
$4,000. Most Of the boys working in
the district were in the breakers, re-
ceiving very low wages. And, as one
OF the workers stated, You begin at
the breaker and end at the breaker,
broken yourself" 1.-THE men and the
boys" says the report, worked in the
constant roar which the coal makes
as it rushes down the chute. is broken
in the crushing machines, or sorted in
the shakers. Black coal dust is every
where, covering the windows and fill
ing the air and lungs of the workers.
The slate is sharp, so that the slate
pickers often cut or bruise their
L.