Hammond Times, Volume 10, Number 56, Hammond, Lake County, 11 February 1922 — Page 6

PAGE SIX

TliK TIMES February 11, 3922

I miiaiw ,txmoim In Beet Suaar Fwl

.'.ivS'-," : , 'rv-jV fid ' tV,vV ?i1f "-vl x y - - m

.,, .,IE; (r-- . XS . BEET WORKING FA1HLH HIS HUMAN ASSETS 21 -'C'fS rSf? ? N'-S? cl ZSlZl ?,',cc,aHm -TME NUMBER OF CHILDREN HE MAS DETERMINES HOW N;

CHILD , FIGHT VEAPS- , 1 " T"i ,, w-.:r. v; -, 111 - " V -V .v

WORK DANGSTROUS M" . - I JV J I I EVEN TO AM ADULT i N"" x- 3 l-n T V, ' N

h.w5- Jstf..- . aM.'Ca'As!" ?5i,s." v ' - ..

IK THE COLORADO BEET FIELDS - THESE CHILDREN BEGIN THIS BACK-BREAKING l) "TOIL A ,5 YEARS OP AGf, WORDING EACH DAY DURING THE SEASON OPTEN FROM FIVE T IN THE MORNING TILL DAPUC

I i j i

By JOHN GARRETSEE DID you, comfortabie reader, ever si out intn a su-rir beet field a damp thill raqrning in sprii; at tlie first crack ot dawn, -t dnwn on your petted and pampered Knees nd Bpend the day there thinning out Infant beet plants up one seemingly endless ro-v and back the rext, and so on without cea.?!ns until evening pave dubious relief to chapped bands, bruised knees and "hing back? Did vnu kep this up iay after day for weeks? Then did you welcome a ehanpe, ren though a melancholy one, hen witn ths coming of the blistering dog days you were g'ren a tioa and sent forth to the CHd? Tea earlier, for the blessed d Vsht tarried longer with yon then?

MA NY BEET WORKERS

ARE NOMAD3

OfTEN DWFT1MG

from place in camp WAGON STHIS MAKES FOR- THE CHILDRCM IMPOSSIBLE

TEN YEAR. OLD MOLL IE HAS A VACATION fT?.OM

THE BEET Fl CLD WHILE SUE TENDS THE BABIESNINE PERSONS LIVE IN THIS ONE ROOM .SMACK ..

been put at It when you were eight or nine years oid or even younger?

lid you outline the font: re f Impossible and ridiculous, vou say?

eh!ng back and legs and blistered , ;iUculou., perhaps, but not at all talms and prostrating heat till with j impossible, for that Is what is aetuthe coming of the chill fall rains; happen.tig in the sugar beet tbey took your hoe avvay from you fields today. fid give you a heavy knife? Then j in short, the beet sugRr Industry, were you requested nay, urged i one of the biggest American enterto go again with the dawn and till prises today, is exploiting in the dark each day tear from the earth I hash- branch of Its business the the bets now grown huge, heavy j raising of sugar beets not merely tind tenacious and with sweeps of -the low grade foreign laborer, but the big knife cut off the top of j the children of that laborer, each? VTere you lucky enough to J Take, for Instance, Colorado, one avoid slashing your leg with the i of the sugar beet raising states that

Tjnwiekly weapon on the down stroke, an accident you may bae seen happen to your neighbor in the nest row? F.ut if you flnfl lhor of this aert rnthrr appalllr o yonr adult rnlnd either by experience or from decription ca yoa Imagine imv Steady weeks of Mich grueling toil

have, so fnr been investigated by the National CMM Labor Committee. There the Committee found f:-e thousand children between sii and fi'teen years regularly engaged In raising beets.' The Federal Children's Bureau has also been making an Intensive study of the Colorado situation. Of

rouii bay affected you If you had 1,077 children Inclnded in this study

seven-tenths were the children of contract laborers. The rest were children of the beet growers. Over one-fourth were under ten years of age, a small percentage under eight. Less than one-flfth were as much us fourteen years old. Considerably over a half ranged from nine to thirteen. From sixty-nine to eightyfive per cent, according to the process In which the child was engaged, worked nine hours or more a day. From one-seventh to one-third, again varying with the process, worked eleven hours a dar. The average working day fr all processes was usually between nine and ten hours.

per cent were from one to seven years below the normal grade for their age. The transient contract child laborers leave school in March, April or May and It Is often December or January before they are back In school 8galn, If at alL The more general studies of the National Child Labor Committee In Colorado and Michigan Indicate that these conditions hold generally throughout the, beet-raising sections and that little is being done to better those conditions. A farmer who owns or leases land contracts with the sugar company to furnish

The physical effects of this labor i a certain number of acres on which

were postural deformities and malpositions in seventy per cent of the cases examined by the Bureau's physicians. Another serious effect Is the Interference with education. Of 930 children from nine to sixteen years of age for whom school records were ebtalned over forty

beets are to be grown. The company agrees to supply the hand labor. The company then contracts with a laborer to Co the work on a definite number of acres. The number of acres a laborer contracts to care for Is based on the number of children he haa In otfcer words, he

is simply contracting tie labor of his children. The labor employed In the beet fields in Colorado la practically all foreign Mexican, Japanese and Russian. The Mexicans and Japanese, however, do Dot work their children as much as do the Russians. The Russian children often begin work es early as four or five jears of age. By the time they are ten or twelve tbey are considered toughened veterans and able to stand any amount of hard labor. It Is do uncommon thing for parents to race with their children to see how much work they can get out of them. The people with whom the Investigator talked said there were few cases where the work of the children was really necessary to support the family. These Russians are rapidly buying farms and automobiles on the proceeds of their children's labor. The Russian re

gards each child as an asset, and when he becomes the father of another boy be considers himself five thousand dollars better off. Their women are valued for the number of children they can bear. Almost never do children of these people have to support a widowed mother. The more children ah has the quicker he Is married again. If a young fellow Is lucky enough to marry a widow with children he la Just that much ahead. The State Superintendent of Schools of Colorado considers the beet worker one of the most serious problems, but says she has no power to handle the situation. The Denver school authorities come in direct contact with these workers. The Mexicans who work the beets bring their families back to Denver for the winter. They congregate in what used to be the old red light district. The housing conditions are miserable. Tbey get back

from the beet fields la December, rp to this time their families hT not been in school. When thes children are forced Into school tn midwinter and placed In classes with the other children they retard the progress of all the others. Tney are taken out of school araln 'a April and go back to the beets, thus getting oaly fonr and a half ta five months of schooling a year. In Michigan, another beet, stat which has been stndled by the National Child Labor Committee, conditions are very similar, excepting that the nationalities of the workers are more diversified and there are fewer Russians and Mexican a and no Japanese. They are mad up largely of Hungarians, Slavs from the small prorlnces, Poles and Germans. In Michigan, as ia Colorado, the beet people ara exploiting the foreign laborer and h! children. Field bosses say that American labor was not wanted because "a Tar.kee can't stand tfca bard work." Living conditions fer these laborers in the Michigan beet eonntry are abominable. Tbe farmer supplies the quarters for the hedp, and Lis motto Is, "Anything Is good enough for the Hunkte." An li wood-shed, an abandoned barn, a cleaned-out chicken house, anything that gives partial shelter, will de and does. One-room ahantles for families of from tlx to nine people are common. Often they have only one window. Not Infrequently there Is no window. They have absolutely no sanitary facilities, and the filth of these shacks is Inconceivable. Tet each year tees a mlgratloa

of families from the industrial centers to the beet fields. Families are thus Imported from cities as far away as Buffalo, New York City, Philadelphia. Erie, Akron, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, Toledo and San Antonio, Tex. In 1919 the beet laborer in Michigan got $24 an acre for beets planted In rows 18 to 22 inches apart and $22 an acre for beets planted In rows 28 Inches apart. In Michigan, as In Colorado, It la found almost Impossible to enforca the compulsory education laws among the migrant beet workers. Of the families Investigated by tha Committee's agents about fifteen per cent of the children of school age had never attended school at all. Of those who had attended, most were far behind their normal grades or had dropped out of school long ago without graduating. It Is not enough to arouse In tha breasts of the general public pity for these unfortunate children. These conditions will nerer b righted to any considerable extent until an appeal 'Is successfully made to an enlightened self-interest., until the American roter in mass Is made to realize that tbe beet sugar Industry Is doing considerably more than its proportion--ate bit to thrust upon the country a new crop of misfit citizens physically malformed, nervously abnormal, mentally dwar"d and unfit to

play their part In ruling the future

destinies of a democratic country.

$70

for your Money Invested in our First Mortgage

eal Estate

W HOTELS AT

FIGHT BILL

I NT) I A N A TO LJ a , Tnd., Fab. 11. Concress is being delug-ed with resolutions a.tid telegrams from prohibition sources a,ni from the botc-Js and retail merchants of this city to kill the Hickey bill creating another federal court district. It Is declared the hotels of Indima.polis ar enlisting- tho aid ot dry associatious of the stiue la the righ! on tbo new court.

Gold Bonds

ONE WHO RUNS MAY READ ANTIPROHI MORAL Leaving' th province of Indiana ami entering the territory of Ijttni'ts. whether by motor or a-board tha Twentieth Century Limited from New "York, .he traveler thei days may read a la.rpo sign on the Wilis of an old brewery. It .says- La effect that the government would have sufficient i ioney to pay the soldiers' bonus If be-er and liht wines wero. permitted lo he made and sold under federal t;v:.

Covering on Hammond Real Estate

Ask for Imformation

mond I rust an

V1 11

IN THE HAMMOND BUILDING

Bank

K W. GPAXTON, President

F. R. MOTT, Vice President

a-Ttrifris afifl f VmM HJTi"i f - - --- J

FRANK HAMMOND, Sec.-Treas. II. J. GESCHEIDLER, A sst. Sec.-Treas.

Freight Train Wrecked VALPARAISO, Tnd., Feb. 11. A i'nst freight ua'.n on the New York Central railroad was wrecked yesterday at Porter, ten miles north of here. The wreru occurred at the. place where two passenger trains wero in collision Ffibrtinry 2S, 1SC1, with x loss of thirty-seven lives. One freig-ht err rolled into a ditch .- nil five piled on the traohs. causing a dlay in Irani: of five hours. No tun; was injured. A broken brakebcatn was the cau.-rc.

-1

DYER

A

LIVE!

LERTI

A CTIVEl

i

ANNOUNCEMENT.

To Iie Citinoiiw of St. John Tovrnlll1 hereby announce to you that I will bo. a candidate for the nomination at the coitiitiB primaries for the offi e of TOWNSHIP T'tL'STlO.'u. Your support be highly appreciated. 2-8- LOUIS 51. ll.VllTMAN. "Win. X. Gettlcr made a business trip to Crown Point Friday afternoon. Number of our young- folks attended the. minstrel show given by tiio 1C .,( at Hammond Friday evening.

Is Your AUTO INSURANCE Cancelled February 12th? If So, See Us American Auto Underwriters Agency 565 HOHMAN STREET Phone Hammond 609

:'AT YOUR SERVICE". is more than a praise with us It means ALERT ACTION plus a VERY.SINCERE WISH to meet your requirements fully and satisfactorily. Come In and See Us! Capital - - - $250,000.00 Surplus - - - $125,000.00 Deposits - - $3,500,000.00

THE

a

rirst IMationa

HAMMOND, INDIANA "OLDEST and STRONGEST Bank in the Calumet District"

Members Federal Reserve Bank

Bank

A. M. TURNER President W. C. BELMAN, Vice President

W. H. RIPPE, Cashier

ULT GETTER ES': WANT ADS. 1

EVERYDAY

S "TIM