Cotton Harvest

The article in The Times (Oct. 9), “Soviet Cotton Harvest: Job for Children,” illustrates their shameful practice of removing Soviet children from school to hand-harvest cotton.

This article brought back vivid memories of my childhood years in Texas during the 1950s. It was common practice for the local school authorities to close black schools from late August to late October to allow black children to help in the cotton harvest. In the Soviet case there was a makeup period; in our case there was no makeup for time lost from school. In retrospect, I wonder did the Soviet press, or for that matter, The Times bother to show a similar interest?

LEON DABBS

Upland