OCR Text |
Show FARM BLOC TO AID SUGAR MEN (Seeking to Obtain Amend-j ! ment to Bill Increasing Duty to $2 WASHINGTON. April 1 To ob-j tain an amendment to the tariff bill . increasing tho duty on Cuban sugar from $1.60 to $2 per hundred pounds' I the farm bine In the senate, will align I Itself with those intending to join the : fight for adequate protection Announcement to this effect was brought f,ut by a circular sent t round! bj the Fair Tariff league. In which it advocates a reduction of the duty, below ?l 60. This alignment of the farm bloc will Increase interest in tb . contest r,rr ill,- Mm:ir tariff, but present pres-ent signs point to opposition to the $2 rate from some senators from the. .N'. England and other Atlantic coast states. TIt- .v., no has not sufficiently i developed yet t.. glve reliable lineup i of the senate .n the sugar tariff, but advocates of a $2 rate admit that hi hai an Mihill fight. MI EUCAN LABOR Seajfttor Gooding, head of the farm tariff bloc, said that tne yery argu- ii used n the Fair Tariff Iohku-fr Iohku-fr a lower dutj emphasize the nc-cessity nc-cessity foi a 12 duty, for if it be mi.' that the sugar beet growers of the wesl arc compelled to h li e large! foreign labor thai is the b -1 ri 1 so n in the world WllJ the duty should bo Increased so these beet farmers i m hue American labor. In the Circi distributed toda the Fair Tariff lea gue In part says. ' The American beet sugar Industry propered under ajrotectlve tariff of l! cent a pound on Cuban raw sugar. The. emergt irltf acl I ncrea sed I his 60 per cent. One dl the arguments ad-ranced ad-ranced for this tremendous increase was that the beet sugar industry need- ed ibis protection in order t& protect! the American farm laborer engaged in I raising sugar beets "Unfromtunately for this argument.! there is very little American farm! tabor in the n.-.-:. BUgar industry, a-the a-the records of the department of iabor and the department of agriculture show. I CAN'T ST.NT1) WORK ' Sugar beets are raised and har-rested har-rested almost entirely by the cheapcot obtainable grade ( foreign labor, con-tl con-tl LCted for by tho sugar manufacturers manufactur-ers and turned over t the beet growers. grow-ers. Field bosses in the beet sugar sections sec-tions have Indeed frequently told ln-vestigatora ln-vestigatora that American labor Is not. wanted because "a Yankee can't stand the hard work.' ' Not only la the larger part of the beet sugar labor this low priced for-! elgn labor v. hlch we are warned against, but oven a larger part are the children of these foreign families. Jn Colorado alone, one of the most' important beet sugar states, tho national na-tional child labor committee found 1 ' children between the ages of 6 and 15 years, practically all of alien parents, regularly engaged In tho cultivating cul-tivating of sugar beets. "From tho time the beets are In th Ground until they are delherod at the factory tho hardest kind of manual labor is required And much of this Is done bv small children. Theso child- M " o iiuurs on rnjr hands and knees weeding and thinning thin-ning the beets. COLORADO srrr vnoN "The federal children's bureau made an Intense study of the children child-ren of contra.; laborers Over one-fourth one-fourth of them were under ten years pi age a small percentage under 8 Less than one-fifth wero as much as 14 years of ngo. Considerable over a half ranged from 9 to 13. "A farmer contracts with the sugar company to furnish a certain number of acres on which beefs aro to be grown. The company agrees to furn! Ish the hand labor. Tho company then Contracts with a laborer, usually " Kusslan. Jap or Mexican, to do the work on a definite number ,,f w ? The number of acres a laborer contracts to care for la baed largely on the number of children he ha ' The labor employed in the rvdo-rado rvdo-rado beet fields Is practically all for- Rus.Ianb0Th!Ir,Cr nd KUMlan. rhe Mexicans and Japanese however, do not work their children as much oa do the Russians The ru, lan children often beg,,, work as ear IJ as 4 or C years of age "All of which pretty th'oroUChlt punctures anj pretense that a h Jb tariff ' on sugar will any way pr, ! tect American farm labor. " P |