FORTUNATELY, the factory system has not been introduced to any great
extent into Porto Rico, nor in all probability will woman and child
labor in factory employment ever constitute a serious problem. The
census of 1910 gives only a total of 1912 woman wage earners in various
industries of the Island. This, of course, does not include the woman
who works throughout the rural districts, and whose condition
constitutes the problem which must be studied and remedied in the
Island.
The average unskilled laborer in the country districts of Porto Rico
does not earn a sufficient sum to enable him to maintain his family in
comfort. As a result, the wife, and frequently the children, must
contribute to the support of the family as much as they can. In some
parts of the Island, the tasks of the country women are largely limited
to their housework and the cultivation of whatever garden products they
may raise, because such crops as sugar cane do not call to any great
extent for the use of woman labor. In other sections of the Island,
however, particularly those parts where coffee growing is the chief
industry, the gathering and caring for the coffee crop is left, to a
great extent, to the women and children. This, of course, results in a
financial saving to the coffee grower, as the wages for woman and child
labor are much less than for the services of men. The unhealthful
results, however, more than offset the advantages gained by adding the
mother's wages to the family income.
The harmful results from woman labor may be classified as direct and
indirect. Under the directly harmful results are the weakened physical
condition of the mother, the increased susceptibility to diseases which
are especially common in the coffee districts, particularly anemia, and
such diseases as are the results of exposure. The larva of the hookworm
lives and finds a fertile field for action in the damp and shady regions
devoted to the production of coffee, and as the majority of the women
laborers are not accustomed to wear shoes, they easily permit contact
and contagion from this disease.
The strength of children and their ability to withstand disease depends
to a great extent upon whether or not they are physically strong at the
period of their birth and during the time they are under the direct care
of the mother. A mother whose system has been weakened by the
debilitating effects of anemia, cannot nourish her child and provide him
with the necessary amount of food, and as a result, the child is either
anemic, or a victim to malnutrition as a result of introducing solid
food into his system before the digestive organs are prepared to take
care of such food.
Among the indirectly harmful results of woman labor is the necessary
separation of the mothers from the children of the family. The mother on
going to work, either leaves her children in the care of a neighbor, or
leaves them at home where the older children take care of the younger.
This deprives the children of the mother's influence and allows them
liberty to associate with children who may be undesirable companions,
which would be avoided to a great extent if the mother were present to
take care of them. The Juvenile Court records in the United States show
that 85 per cent of the delinquent children brought before the court
have been led into bad habits through the failure of one or both of the
parents to take care of their supervision during play hours. Divorce in
the United States has been strongly attacked for the reason that it
deprives the child of one of his legal protectors. From the same point
of view, woman and child labor, which deprives the child of the care of
his mother, must inevitably produce bad results in the growing
generation.
The use of child labor in Porto Rico is not particularly preferred
except in coffee districts and in certain agricultural sections where
boys are used at certain times of the year to help drive the oxen, or to
help in planting the crop. As this is outdoor work it does not have the
devitalizing effect upon the child's body which factory work would have,
and as it does not require concentrated attention, it is relieved from
the monotony which would tend to lower the child's mental ability. The
evil results which must be guarded against are those arising from
overwork and from association with undesirable characters while the
child is not under the supervision of his parents. In addition to this,
the child who is engaged at work must lose the benefits which he should
be receiving from attendance at school. During the last year, the
Department of Education has attempted to solve this problem by changing
the vacation period, so that the long vacation of three months will fall
at the coffee-picking season in such sections of the Island as are
devoted to the production of this crop, and where previously there was a
great decrease in school attendance at the time when the harvesting of
the coffee was in progress. This, undoubtedly, will greatly help to do
away with the harmful results which formerly were the consequences of
irregular attendance or non-attendance at school on the part of a great
many of the children in the coffee-growing districts.
An increase in the number of rural schools so that all of the children
of the rural districts can be accommodated, is also necessary before
this problem is entirely solved. At the present time, a large number of
the children in the country cannot attend school, either because the
school in the neighborhood is overcrowded, or because the nearest school
is at too great a distance for them to attend with regularity. The
removal of these conditions unfortunately depends upon an added
appropriation for the maintenance of the Department of Education, and it
is doubtful whether the income of the Island will be sufficient to
supply the needed increase for years to come. With the gradual
improvement of roads, consolidated schools may help to solve the
problem, and a half-day enrollment for each group will tend to increase
the number of children that can be taken care of. Children who find that
they cannot obtain a place in the school will naturally be made use of
by their parents for wage-earning purposes whenever possible, but the
great majority of parents would not put their children at work if the
children were enrolled in school and if irregularity of attendance were
to lead to dismissal from the school.
Another thing that would help to relieve the situation, as far as woman
and child labor is concerned, would be the establishment of a minimum
wage for unskilled farm labor, such wage to be sufficient to enable the
laborer to maintain his family without the help of money earned by the
wife or children. The time of the wife could be occupied in poultry
raising and in caring for the family garden, which would also tend to
reduce the cost of living for the family and could easily be
established, if the landowner were to provide sufficient garden space
with each house in addition to the regular wages paid his laborers. Of
course, methods of gardening would have to be included in the rural
school programs, and the rural teacher should act as a supervisor of
these gardens and advisor to the people of the community in which he is
employed.
The important things to guard against in the life of the family, from
the standpoint of the welfare of both the family and the community, are
that the mother need not be obliged to dissipate the strength, through
outside labor, which she needs in the raising and caring for her
family. The lack of proper supervision of the children through the
absence of the mother from the home must also be guarded against. In
case it can be proved that a father is unable through his own efforts to
earn sufficient to maintain his family, a system of mothers' pensions
carried on by the government should be established in order that the
mother may be safeguarded from want in case of the death of her husband,
and that she may not be obliged to help him in the maintenance of the
family through the performance of such labor as would interfere with her
regular family obligations.