OCR Text |
Show CANNING GAMPS . SCENEOFHORROR H Social Worker Describes Pitiful BAY Plight of Children Em m ployed There H Washington, Jan. 14. A pitiful F picture of men and women and chll- Hk dren of 6 and 6 years old working B under filthy conditions and living In HmB squalid canning camps of the New B York Fruit & Vegetablo Canning HHH company was presented to the House HHH rules committee today by Mary Doyle B O'Reilly, a social worker, and Frank H O. Praete, an Investigator for the HB New York labor department. They B supported a resolution introduced by B Representative Allen of Ohio for an Hi investigation of conditions In the can- H nlng Industry throughout the country HHV Frank Qorrell, secretary of the Na- M tlonal Canncrs' association, declared H tnat nlB organization, representing from 70 to 75 per cent of the can- nlng output of the country, Invited B the fullest Investigation of conditions BAV In the Industry and would lend every HHg assistance possible to Congress for making tho Inquiry thorough. The Hi committee took the resolution under HHg advisement. BB1 Miss O'Reilly and Mr. Praete from HHl personal investigation uf the canning industry In New York gave tho com mlttee dctullcd descriptions of horrl- H ble, working conditions, filthy bousing and lack of sanitary equipment. Miss HHj O'Reilly spent a month In the camps HJ as a woman laborer. She shook with emotion as sho described to the com- H mlttee tho plight of little children sent into the camps to earn a fc'w HH pennies a day. BH No Record of Child Labor Hfl There are children in the camps 4 H and 5 years old, she said " and there IB are children of 10 and 11. There is B no record of child labor and the cm- HH ployers maintain that the children B go to the factories with their parents BH I know of a camp where three chll- B dren working together earned 50 cents n day among them. Working in the stripping shed under the New j York law is not considered factory J labor. Women in the camp aro paid HJ 1 cent a pound for stripping pens. A B strong, vigorous woman can strip V about fifty to sixty pounds a day. mh A woman Is paid $1 a day for husk- 'Wnr ing corn, but the work Is very heavy Dg I know of two little Italian girls who fl aro Bteady workers. They aro siKtois HJ G and C years old. J "In one cannery I visited were five HJ Italian boys from lii to 17 years o'd HJ who worked 11R hours in one week. Hj They" ended tho week by working H from 7 o'clock Saturday morning un- H til 2 o'clock Sunday morning, never H leaving tho factory. One of the boys HJ Tommy Soccero, refused to go bai H to the factory Monday mornlug. H "When his mother called him ho H waved her away, saying, "I'm going H to cut it out. There ain't no use HJ because- thcro ain't no God." H Work Twenty Hours a Day H "Did you Bay ho worked 115 hours HJ " a week?" demanded ono of tho com- HJ mlttee. HJ "Why yes," returned Miss O'Reilly HJ "I know of women who have worked HJ 120 hours a week and girls of 1G H and 18 who worked twenty hours a B day." H Praete presented tho report of his H Investigation of nearly fifty canning I camps In Now York state, Including camps nt WoliBter, Lyons, Clydo, Ma- rlon, Rome and other towns through I out the fruit mid truck garden sec-I sec-I tlons of tho Btate. His description I of housing a'nd factory conditions of filthy Bhacks where tho workers lived liv-ed and of conditions of water nnd sanitation, moved Representative Denver of Ohio to ask: "Did you sco the things yourself?" "All of tho statements horo are tho result of my own Investigation," roturned Mr Praeto. "I could not find words to describe the conditions truly, somo of the places aro so filthy fil-thy that no pig would have been nt rionio thcie," |