Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-08
FARM CHILDREN
ARE OvERWORKED,
SURVEY REPORTS
Enforcement of SchooI-At-
tendance Law Not Attempt
ed in Many Districts.
1,058,666 YOUNGSTERS
ABSENT FROM CLASSES
More Than Half of Boys and Girls
in Maryland Trucking Dis
tricts Miss Month.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

SuCn is the COnClu3AUU Ol tApel tS
| If the United States Children's Bureau
after a study conducted among APP
proXimately 1880 farm children IN IA
! States. the results of which have just
been announced. Among the children
| included in the study were many on the
truck farms of nearby Maryland.
The total number of child farm work
ers. the bureau reports, runs we'll over
| 500 900. While the physical and spirit
/ ual advantage of close communion with
| nature is not denied, the bureau workers
| found that in thousands of cases these
! we're offset by long hours of monotonous
| labor, strain on the growing bodies and
serious Interruptions of schooling.
In many a country district" says
| the report. enforcement Of the school
attendance law is never even attempted
/ Attendance officers are usually appoint
! ed by the local school districts and.
sympathizing with the farmers and I'M
willing to GiSoblige their neighbors,
many wink at disregard for the law:
| One pocketed the notices to be served
on parents until the harvest was over.
| Lucky to See School.
! "Manv country children are lucky II
! they are able to go to school at all
! The 1920 census tells us that l,0o6,666
country children from to IS years of
age. including children living in COM
munitieS with population up 10 2,50o,
we're not in school. These children
represented IL per cent Of the children
t of these ages in the communities. or re-
! lativelv more than twice as many as
! the number of city children OF the
same ages not in school.
I s9TTo vyY1 u-or[ iS lQrpelV tn hlamn Toy
! the country childs inequality of oppor-
! tunity, not only because it interfereS
with school attendance but because It Is
also the reason for the shorter school
. term in the rural districts. The aver
age rural school term in 1924 was nearly
seven weeks shorter than the average
city term.
! Children who must sacrifice GER
! tain amount of time to such emergencies
! as bad roads and bad weather, as coun-
! try children always do. run on very
narrow margin when the term IS only
! six or seven months and they stay out
| of school month to help on the farm
| The case of a 10-year-old white boy
| In one OF the surveys is illustrative OF
what may befall a worker on a home
farm. He had been absent from school
i rs DAYS. or so per cent of the term. In
the Fall he had stayed out to pick
! cotton. not finishing this work until
January. Then roads and weather were
! SO bad that his parents just kept him
| home In February he missed sever
days because the creek was up and ir
the Spring he was i'll. 1t was not sur
prising that he had not completed the
first grade.
Normal progress in school is de.
pendent on regular attendance, so that
| n nh ha 11y CT n fn,
farm work fall behind in their classes
! Besides, some farm working children
are too tired and liStless to do the re.
CURED work when they go back t
school,
Work Long Hours
More than tWo-thirds OF the farm
children in North Dakota, the survey
showed were absent from school because
of farm work. Thirty-five per cent Of
the boys missed at least month. Ii
the Colorado beet-groWing districts hal
the boys and one-third of the girl.
were absent, due to work, between three
and four school weeks. More than hal
the farm children in the Maryland
trucking districts were absent from
school little more than a month O
the 90 children in the Eastern Shore
district studied who had been absen
Tor farm work so or more days one wa:
an 11-year-old girl.
Children often work surprisingly Ions
hours IN the fields, the survey reveals
PROBABLY the worst conditions were
found in the Colorado beet fields, where
chlldren were reported screaming an(
crying because they are all tired out
SO tired they don't want TO eat and 81
right to bed. The children's hands ar,
often cracked with cold and their fin
gers sore and bleeding
-Four Russian children. for example
were found whS had worked among tn,
beets five weeks in the Summer ayerag
ing 14l2 hours a day. Together will
their mother they cared for 81 acres
while 10 acres is the average for man
l4-year-old girl was working IA hour
day. An 8-year-old Mexican CIR
worked 10 hours day for II weeks. o.
the grain farms of the Middle West boy
OF 6 and girls of 10 were reported driv
ing hay forks. picking and husking corr
and In some cases loading and unloadin!
wagons. In addition they herded cattle
mended fences and picked stones from
the f1elds. In some of these operation
the child was obliged to use both foo
and hand levers and manage four o
more horses. Some Of the work is de
cidedly dangerous
"Herding cattle" says the report, &c;
task often given to children under Il
years of age. means that the child i
alone on the prairies on foot or OF
horseback, for long hours in the hea
of the Summer with the possibility o
being thrown from horseback or at
lacked and trampled on by the cattle
Migratory Lot Hardest.
, The hardest lot is that of the migra
tory child farm labOrers who go from
the cities with their parents. following
the harvest from district to district Ii
, most cases they must work in the field
for 10 hours or more and are housed il
! unsanitary shacks. They lose mucl
! school time.
, Few data were obtained on the eff
fects of excessive farm work on tn
! bodies of the children. report O
? another survey is made, however. whicl
. shows that although farm work pro
. vides for an abundance of physical eX
ercise in the open air. farm boys am
2 girls do not develop symmetrically
2 Farm work seems to over-develop tn
+ major or fundamental muscles Will
r the finer, or accessory muscles, are neg
2 lected Young men reared on farm
tired more easily than young men rear
A ed in cities Farm boys in the Arm
camps were slower to respond to pla
t stimuli and reached the point of fatigu
). more quickly than city boys IN activi
S ties that required the use OF the Who'll
- body.
t Staying away from school to work o