In The Bitter Cry of the Children, published in 1906, author John Spargo wrote about his investigation of child labor in the fish canning industry in the Maine towns of Eastport and Lubec.

"In Maine the age limit for employment is twelve years. In 1900 there were 117 establishments engaged in the preservation and canning of fish. This industry is principally confined to the Atlantic coast towns - Lubec and Eastport, in Washington County, being the main centers. I cannot speak of this industry from personal investigation, but information received from competent and trustworthy sources gives me the impression that child slavery nowhere assumes a worse form than in the sardine canneries of Maine. Says one of my correspondents in a private letter: ‘In the rush season, fathers, mothers, older children, and babies work from early morn till night - from dawn till dark, in fact. You will scarcely believe me, perhaps, when I say 'and babies,' but it is literally true. I've seen them in the present season, no more than four or five years old, working hard and beaten when they lagged. As you may suppose, being out here, far away from the center of the state, we are not much troubled by factory inspection. I have read about the conditions in the Southern mills, but nothing I have read equals for sheer brutality what I see right here in Washington County.'"

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In the Twenty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State of Maine, published in 1907, Eva L. Shorey, a special agent for the agency, took strong exception to Spargo's comments. In part, she wrote:

"Mr. Spargo makes an affidavit as to statements in the book which came under his direct notice, which, of course, did not include this. It is unfortunate that his personal investigations did not extend to Maine, for we are very sure, if they had he never would have permitted such a statement to appear in his book. The labor law has been changed since this was written, the age limit now being fourteen years. It should be stated that there is an exception in regard to factories dealing in ‘perishable goods,' which permits children of any age to be employed, subject to the supervision of the factory inspector."

"There is, however, no comparison between the southern mills, or any mills, and the sardine factories. Most of the work in which the children are employed is done practically in the open air, and not in hot, stifling, noisy rooms; there are no regular hours, the work depending on the amount of fish received. In the ‘rush season,' there is an immense amount of work from the nature of the business, and the factory owners often have great difficulty in finding enough help. This does not last very long, the entire season being seven months and the busy time from the last of August to the middle of November."

"There is no ‘slave driving.' The young children come and go as they wish. It may not be very attractive or desirable work for one of tender years, but it is honest and healthy and does not continue day in and day out nor for any great length of time consecutively. The children appear to enjoy it and are very proud to tell how many boxes they have cut."

"After observing the work in the different factories, I questioned many people who had lived in Eastport all their lives as to their knowledge of the work of the children. I could not find a person who had ever seen or heard of any of the brutal conditions described. They were all quite aghast at the statement."

"It is true young girls and boys are employed to a certain extent, some in cutting the fish, an occasional one as a packer or helper, and boys work at the machines. Much of this is, however, not during school time. The factories are open about four months of the school year, the most work coming during the fall term. A person who has been connected with the Eastport schools gave as his judgment that the children out of school and in the factories were there from necessity and not from choice. One gentleman, who has made something of a study of this matter, said, in his estimation, 45 per cent of the children left school during or at the end of the grades and did not attend any institution of learning after becoming fifteen."

But later in the report, Shorey expresses her own serious reservations about the conditions.

"It is not the work or the earning of money which is to be deplored. It might be well if there were more of this, but the harm comes in doing it at the expense of the education so freely offered by the towns. It is a most unfortunate situation that these children are out of school so much of the time."

"One sad instance occurred in October, when a boy of nine years, working at a machine in one of the factories, caught his hand in such a way that it was necessary to amputate the first and second fingers of the right hand. Meeting the boy a few days later, as he was wandering about the factory, his arm in a sling, he told me his home was in a neighboring town, that he was one of a family of six and his people came to Eastport during the sardine season. He had been earning $1.50 a day, feeding cans into a machine. He looked away a minute, the cover slipped, he put out his hand to straighten the tin, and the machine caught his fingers. The foreman stopped the machine, else the whole hand would have been crushed. ‘Well, what now, my boy?' I said. ‘Mother says I'm to go to school and learn to do something else. Maybe I can keep a store when I get big enough,' - the ambition of many a youth. ‘I've just got to make the best of the pain, I suppose,' added the little philosopher, who must go out to fight the battle of life with a maimed right hand. Had Mr. Spargo's informant said, ‘Small boys should not work at machines, their little fingers are not sufficiently trained to keep away from the hungry cogs,' many would doubtless have agreed with that sentiment."

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In 1909, the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) published an account of the proceedings of their Fifth Annual Meeting. Included was Child Labor in the Textile Industries and Canneries of New England, a chapter by Everett W. Lord, New England Secretary for the NCLC. He wrote in part:

"The one industry in New England in which children are practically without legal protection is the canning industry in Maine. By an unfortunate exemption the law relating to child labor is made inapplicable to any manufacturing establishment the materials and products of which are perishable."

"Years ago I visited a canning factory in which there were packed three different products, French sardines, brook trout, and mackerel, all of them being known as herring before they were canned. The fish are gathered in seines and weirs, and are taken in motor boats to the nearest factories. As soon as a load of fish is received at the factory the herring are taken out, cut to the required size, and placed upon flakes for drying and cooking. The cutting and flaking is commonly done by women and children. The fish must be cut and cleaned as soon as they are delivered at the canneries. This may be in the early morning, or at any time during the day or evening, or even late at night. When a boat arrives, the cannery whistle blows for cutters, and whether they are at play in the streets or asleep in their beds matters not, the call must be obeyed, and the children go in troops to the shop. If work begins late in the day it may last until late at night, and in consequence it is not uncommon to see children of eight or ten years of age returning home from their work at midnight, perhaps to be called out again in the gray of the early dawn."

"None of the work is particularly exhausting, and the rooms are usually open to the air. At the same time, the operatives frequently work long hours, as it is customary to can all the fish which may be at hand before stopping. In the busy seasons the factories sometimes run fifteen or sixteen hours at a stretch, and women and children remain as long as the factory is open. The surroundings, especially in the cutting room, are likely to be disgustingly dirty, but they are perhaps not unhealthful. The chief menace to the health lies in the irregularity of work and corresponding irregularity of home life."

"It is impossible to say how many children are working in these canneries, but as a conservative estimate I should say that during the busy season not less than a thousand children under fourteen years of age are so employed. There are a good many children as young as eight or nine who work in the flaking rooms. These little ones do not always remain throughout the entire day, but as they are paid by the piece some of them stay until they have earned enough to satisfy them for the day, and then go to their homes. Others, either because of their own desire or because they may be required to remain, work as long as the fish last."

"In many of the sardine factories much machinery is used; the law does not require the safeguarding of this machinery as it does in other factories, and a child worker has to take upon himself ‘the risks of his employment.' If he is injured, the employer is not liable for damages. In one instance, recently reported, a girl, only nine years of age, lost her hand while playing about a drier. No damages could be recovered; the girl was supposed to know that the machine was dangerous, and had no business to be playing near it."

"Sardine canning is a seasonal industry, and this is urged by some as extenuation for the employment of children. They say the children are engaged only during vacation seasons, and so are not necessarily deprived of school facilities. The season, however, lasts from April 15 to December 15, leaving only four months of the year when the children are free from the call of the factory. As a matter of fact, I believe that this seasonal employment is one of the worst features of the business, involving as it does a long period of idleness, and setting before the children the example of their elders, who quite commonly rely upon their season's work for their entire support."