158 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



CHILDREN OR COTTON 1 



LEWIS H. H1NE 



No wonder a school superintendent told me : "Cotton is a curse 

 to the Texas children." I was then just beginning a detailed 

 investigation of conditions on Texas farms. For two months I 

 went from farm to farm through forty counties from the "Pan- 

 handle" to the Gulf, where I saw Mellie and Millie and Edith 

 and Ruby and other tiny bits of humanity picking cotton in 

 every field. 



We have long assailed (and justly) the cotton industry as the 

 Herod of the mills. The sunshine in the cotton fields has blinded 

 our eyes to the fact that the cotton picker suffers quite as much 

 as the mill-hand from monotony, overwork and the hopelessness 

 of his life. It is high time for us to face the truth and add to our 

 indictment of King Cotton, a new charge the Herod of the 

 fields. 



Why ? What is it that is actually happening to these children ? 

 Come out with me at "sun-up" and see them trooping into the 

 fields with their parents and neighbors. At first the morning 

 will be fresh, and nature full of beauty. You will see kiddies 

 four or five years old picking as though it were a game of imita- 

 tion and considering it great fun, and you will think (perhaps) 

 that it is a wholesome task, a manifestation of a kind Providence. 

 But watch them picking through all the length of a hot summer 

 day, and the mere sight of their monotonous repetition of a simple 

 task will tire you out long before they stop. Their working day 

 follows the sun and not until sundown do they leave the fields for 

 the night. Then turn to the "older" children of six or seven, 

 who are considered steady workers, and responsible for a share 

 of the output, and you will realize that for them even in the 

 beauty of the early morning the fun has quite lost its savor. 



Here and there a strong voice is raised in protest. Such a 

 one was Clarence Ousley, who addressed the Southern Commer- 

 cial Congress. He said : 



' ' We all are exercised about the hours of labor, the wages and 

 the living conditions, of the women and children who work in the 



i Adapted from the Survey, Vol. 31, pp. 589-592. 1913-14. 



