Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-10-02
North Dakota Farmers Will Sustain
Heavy Losses if More Help
is Not Secured,
There Are Not q Sufficient Numbe
of Men to be Obtained for
the Harvest.
Fully Three-Fourths of the Grain Still
in the Shock, Exposed to
Fire and Rain,
Harvest Help Wanted.

Minneapolis Tribune: Hundreds of
thousands of bushels Of wheat will be
compelled to stand in the stack all win
ter at a great loss to the farmer and to
the great detriment of the grain. The
fact is that the yield of grain for the Da-
kotas this season has been so prolific
that it is utterly impossible to thresh it,
even with the immense amount of
machinery with which the farmers have
been supplied.
There are two reasons for this. Oneis
that there are not a sufficient number of
men to be obtained for the harvest; the
other, the lack of sufficient machinery
and the poor facilities for getting the
machinery to the farmers. Farmers are
offering as high as $3.50 per day with
board for help with two months work in
prospect. But it seems impossible to get
the men to go there. In Chicago there
are thousands ofmen anxious and willing
to go to work for a short time with good
pay, but they cannot afford to pay their
fare to the Dakotas. The fare from
Chicago to Minneapolis is $11 and the
fare to the Dakotas is SIS more-the re-
duced harvest rates. This takes SIG.
The employment Office charges So for
their services and before the man gets
fairly started he has been put to an ex-
pense of about 500.
The portion of the country which is in
the most urgent need of men and machi-
merry is that section Of North Dakota
bounded by the Northern line, the Red
river, the Devils Lake region and the
main line of the Northern Pacific railroad.
Over 80 per cent. of the wheat in this
section is still in shock, the farmers not
being able to take the time to stackit and
not having the help to do it with. Large
numbers of the farmers have banded to-
gether for the purpose of helping each
other out and are threshing from the
shocks, but if a heavy rain should come
the damage would be beyond estimate.
The railroad employees are being hired
away by the farmers, embarrassing the
companies, as their tracks need constant
attention, especially in consequence of
the rapidly increasing business. Any
wages are offered to the men to work for
the farmers and help is hired with eager
ness. Circulars have been issued by the
various roads offering special induce
ments for the shipping of threshing ma
chinery.
The employment agencies have con-
siderable bother in getting railroad men
through to Montana. R. r. Koch, of the
firm of Clapp, Winston & Co., who have
employment agencies in five of the larger
western cities, has just returned from a
trip through the Dakotas. To reporter
for the Evening Tribune he said:
"The worst bother is on the branches
of the roads; around Fargo and Crooks
ton there are plenty of men, but away
from there it is impossible for them to
get men. L started from Minneapolis
with fifty men for railroad work in Mon
tana, but [ only got through with twenty
two of them. The farmers would board
the trains and hold out the most tempt
ing inducements to the men to 90 to
work, offering wages as high as 5 $50 per
day and board. My men began to de-
sert and I lost over half of them. We
cannot get enough men to supply the de-
mand. One reason for this is that it
costs them too much to come here from
other clties-Chicago, for instance. We
formerly had a 81 rate to Minneapolis
from Chicago, and we could get lots of
men; now they are compelled to pay $11
and they can't afford it.
ut would be money in the pockets of
the railroad owners if they would pass
these harvest hands up into Dakota.
When they got through they would have
money and would ride in the cars, pay
ing their fare. Now they are stealing
rides, and when they get used to this
mode of travel they'll continue it. Be-
sides, if the farmers don't get men there
will be a big loss of grain, and conse-
quently a loss of business for the roads.
If the farmers would pay the mems fares,
they would get more of them, but they
won't do that. One thing which has had
a very injurious effect on the sending of
men to the Dakotas is the fact that some
time ago there we're some articles pub
lished stating that the employment bu-
reaus were sending too many men to that
part of the country and that they could
not get work. This scared the men, but
there is no truth in it.
"There will be hundreds of thousands
of bushels of wheat which will not be
threshed this season and this will ruin
some of the farmers. I know of thresh.
ers who went to that country a short
time ago and in one day took orders for
more work than they will be able to do
during the fall. The wages paid run
from 1925 per day to. So. Board is given