"In June of 1924, researchers with the National Child Labor Committee spread out across Mesa, Montrose and Delta counties, talking to families whose children — some as young as six years old — worked as farm laborers."
~ BOB SILBERNAGEL
"Child labor and migrant living conditions were a major concern 100 years ago"
"'It is outdoor work in pure air, in contrast to the indoor work of child labor in the sweat shops of the cities,' the paper said. 'The children are working for or with their parents in contrast to working under strange bosses in factories.'
Even so, the 1924 report from Mesa, Montrose and Delta counties found that 'The children who worked in beets had a lower median age than that found in any other crop,' just over 12 years old. Roughly a quarter of the children working in beet fields were from six to nine years old.
Additionally, the report said, 'The work day was longer in beets than any other crops, the average for all children being 10 hours per day.'
Furthermore, a larger percentage of contract migrant workers — mostly people who had come directly from Mexico or were descendants of Mexican immigrants, but also German-Russians — worked in sugar beets than any other crop.
In contrast, more than 80 percent of child workers in fruit orchards of the time were children of orchard owners or those who rented orchards. Only 2.2 percent were contract or migrant workers. The work day for children in fruit production was measurably shorter as well, averaging 8.6 hours a day. And there were no children working in fruit under nine years of age."
~ BOB SILBERNAGEL
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