8 



usually done during summer and fall, when the factories are 

 well ventilated and the health of the employees good. How- 

 ever, the labor laws in some States have corrected any abuses 

 that may have existed by establishing the number of hours 

 per week a minor may work in such factories. 



Question. That is exactly the point; it seemed to me a 

 few years ago that things were not brought up-to-date as they 

 should be, because for every child that is not given an op- 

 portunity it means so many more for our hospitals and every- 

 thing that goes with it. All these men and women interested 

 in this question, if they would all band together on that thing, 

 they could get laws throughout the United States by which 

 more than eight hours could not be demanded of any child 

 for the sake of any father or mother. 



Mr. Hall. In this matter as in that of any other reform, we 

 are liable to go too far when attempting legislative reform. 

 In determining the number of hours a minor should be al- 

 lowed to work it is necessary to know the nature of the work 

 and conditions under which it is to be done. By many it is 

 believed that healthy children from fourteen to fifteen years of 

 age who will not attend school may be much better employed 

 for a reasonable number of hours per da\^ at light work in a 

 well-ordered and ventilated factory than to spend their time 

 walking the streets or in an ill-ventilated moving-picture 

 theatre. We do not employ children in our factory or upon our 

 farms. 



Mr. Donald JVIcRae of State Farm. I should like to ask 

 the speaker if he knows the process that potatoes go 

 through in making potato flour? Whether the potatoes are 

 just evaporated and ground, or whether they are cooked first 

 and then evaporated and ground? 



Mr. Hall. I am unable to answer your question. The De- 

 partment of Agriculture at Washington is at present interested 

 in this work, and is now prepared to send out samples of this 

 material. They have not as yet published any details con- 

 cerning the most approved methods of the process. We know 

 that this work has been carried on in Germany for some time, 

 and that its future depends upon the price at which potatoes 

 may be bought, as well as upon the price of cereals from which 

 flour is usuallv made. 



