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Show TELLS OF PEOif II SEET FIELDS -) WASHINGTON.D co C Depicting conditions In tho sugar beet fields of Colorado approaching peonage, Jamed Bodkin, of Meade, Colo , told the so-called so-called "sugar trust" investigating committee of tho house today that city dorelocts, recruited from tho slums, were kept In n state of bondago practically. His statement caused a mild sensation. Mr. Bodkin described a system of contract labor in tho Colorado fields and detailed tho hardships ho chargod wore Inflicted on working people recruited re-cruited by tho Great Western Sugar company He aald that a man, his wlfo nnd several children, ranging from S years upward, would put in from 10 "to 1G hours a day at "back breaking work" which an American "would scorn to do." Mr Bodkin expressed his contempt ' for the "city chaps" who wero sent by the sugar company to oversee Its operations Ho also criticised the newspapers in this section of tho country Tho committae took groat Interest Inter-est In his description of the "slum labor." Democrats. led by Representative Represen-tative Raker of California, sought to show by tho witness that the tariff levied In tho name of American labor la-bor did not reach down to tho Russians Rus-sians and Hindoos who worked In the Colorado beet fields. The Republican Republic-an representatives, Fordnoy, Hinds and Malby, emphasized tho point that Americans would not doscond to the labor. ' ' "How much doos a woman earn In tho field?" askcid Mr. Hinds "I don't know' answered the w!t-neBB. w!t-neBB. "She Is va hotter worker than the man ho's generally tho boss the woman and the children do the world" "If the, tariff Is of any benefit, the sugar company gets It," declared Mr Bodkin, who had assorted provlouslv his belief that the farmer did not receive re-ceive a fair price for his beet sugar Beforo W P. Wlllett, the Now York sugar expert, loft the witness stand, ho described tho sugar trade of Denmark. Den-mark. He rocommonded the adoption of the Danish system of Internal taxation taxa-tion nnd encouragomont of the best sugar industry by tho United States Ho said if this wore done, sugar would be 1 9 cents per pound cheaper In the United States although the Internal In-ternal revenue rato of taxation would be forty-nlno cents per hundredweight This tax would yield $05,000,000 of revenue to the government, which now raises $55,000,000 on tho Import tax on sugar. He said ho had not considered the cost of labor and the method of living in Denmark as compared com-pared with that In the United States. oo |