SOME ECONOMIC INTERESTS 157 



them as the other children and hence the beet-workers were 

 found to be very much retarded. 



STRAWBERRY PICKERS OF MARYLAND * 



HARRY H. BREMER 



TWENTY-EIGHT farms were visited in a brief investigation last 

 spring. On none of these was provision for family privacy made. 

 In one or two cases only one family was found occupying a 

 single house but this was not from any desire of the farmer to 

 meet the lowest possible standard of decency, but simply be- 

 cause only about half of the usual number of pickers had been 

 taken out, owing to the poor crops. On one farm the farmer 

 pointed with pride to his pickers' shanty and claimed it was the 

 best on all the farms. He boasted that in its construction he had 

 paid especial care to ventilation and the general well-being of 

 the pickers. What I saw was a two story building I would 

 have taken for a barn, with four windows and two doors on the 

 first floor, and two windows and one door on the second. The 

 building contained but a single large room on each floor, and 

 showed absolutely no provision for comfort or privacy. In this 

 he housed his pickers, men, women, and children, without regard 

 to age, sex, or relationship. And as a sort of explanation of 

 such meager provision, he went on to expatiate on the low 

 standard of morals and the promiscuous living he thought 

 characterized the lives of the people when in the city, "In the 

 city," said he, "they live like cattle. Go into any house in 

 Bond Street and you will find them crowded in worse than 

 they are here." The other farmers, I found, held the same 

 mistaken idea. This is a base libel on these people. Preceding 

 the investigation of the farms nearly four hundred families were 

 visited in their homes. In not one instance was more than one 

 family living together and most families had three or four rooms. 

 For the most part these homes were clean and showed care. 



i Adapted from Child Labor Bulletin, No. 4. P. 71. National Child 

 Labor Committee, New York. 



