WHERE CHILDREN ARE BOUGHT AND SOLD.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 24, Issue 18, 7 March 1913, Page 2

WHERE CHILDREN ARE BOUGHT AND SOLD.

CHILD SLAVES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. Perhaps pn« of the most pathetic sights in Europe is that to be seen every year at Fricdrichshafen, on the Lake of Constance, when the yearly market of Tyrolese children is held, and hundreds of peasant farmers come from Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria to bid for child labour for the season’s farm work. This year, at the recent market, 125 boys and twenty girls, between the ages of eleven and sixteen, were taken to Friedrichshafen on a special steamer, under the care of a Roman Catholic priest—for it is only fair to mention that the business of the child market, which is of great antiquity, is now arranged by a clerical society—and were mustered in the market-place like so many cattle.. The peasant farmers scrutinised the toys and girls, sometimes feelihg their biceps, and then made an offer to the priest.

Owing to the demand this year being much greater than the supply, says the ‘Standard,’ the prices ruled 1 high, £l2/10 being given for a sturdy lad of sixteen,, big enough to wield the hayfork or scythe effectaivcly, while £lO was given for one of the older girls, who looked as if she could do a long day’s weeding in the sun. On the other hand, £2/10 was considered enough for little, underfed mites of eleven who ought to have been at school. For the most part the children belong to Tyrolese woodsmen and the like, who are driven, by sheer destitution, to send their children to work for strangers, and who receive the money. At the end of October all the child slaves are sent home—all, that is, but some who succumb to overwork, ill-treatment, and homesickness. That all the children are not always well treated is proved by the fact that the priest this year brought a list of a dozen farmers who are to get no more children. It is satisfactory to see that there is some kind of control exercised.