St. Paul daily globe., 1892-01-01
The Red River Valley Is At
tracting Worldwide At
tention.
whitney, Of the Great North
ern, Gives an Interesting
Talk
ION the Agricultural Outlook
in this Great
State.
A Great Influx of People Ex-
pected During the - ,es
Year.

General Passenger Agent f. 1. Whit
ney. of the Great Northern, seems to
have but one purpose in life and it is to
build UP and develop the great North
west. How many hours a day he works
no one knows, but it is far more than
the labor unions demand for the day
laborer. He keeps in touch with the
farmers of the Northwest as no other
man does or can. He knows the size of
the crops in the Red River valley and
the number of men needed to take care
of it, the number of industries for which
there is demand and field. and he
tries to bring those out Of employment
or location to the people who demand
their services. Just now he is anxious
that more of the army of the unem-
ployed in the East shall go to the aid Of
the farmers of the Northwest. In speak
ing of this yesterday he said:
Inevery neighborhood all over the country
there are young men, hale. hearty and dex
tr0us, who are able to work and yet are out
of employment. AS they express 1t. they can
find nothing to do" These are young men
IN the humber walks of life, farmers boys
most of them who have not been trained in
the skilled employmentS. SO that there is
nothing for them in the factories and shops
of the cities. They know all about farm
H., w,
for team and drive it afield with the best of
them. But there is nothing about their
homes for them; every neighbor is supplied.
A days work is a piece of luck; weeks
stroke Of rare fortune.
The condition of the unemployed in the
cities Is often patheticaily commented
upon. but the plight of the honest willing
lads in the country is seldom thought Of:
Yet there is region in this country where
hundreds of these men have been. are nOw..
and for many months to come will be, in de-
mand-are greatly needed. in fact. The
great Red river valley of Minnesota and
North Dakota wants and must have hun.
dreds of farm hands. 1t is a country of
grain fields. the thriftiest and best in the
world, perhaps. Last season thousands OF
bushels of grain were lost in this district be-
cause OF the lack of help TO harvest and
garner it. AS It'll expressed in Scripture,
the harvest was plenty, but the laborers few.
A. large majority of the farmers Of the valley
are young men. just starting in life, and they
haveno bows of their own big enough to
drive team or work at q thresher. And in
country where thirty to forty bushels of No.
hard wheat per acre Is common yield. and
where the average farmer has 100 acres to
harvest there is a lot Of work to do. Here
then is demand, widespread and impera-
tive. Elsewhere is the supply. Why don't
/ they come together? In the last harvest help
was SO scarce that as high as $3.50 day and
? board was paid for hands: work was often pro-
traetea till far in the night-over-time being
men TO save the big crops. Even now the
. threshers are at work amid the snow eapped
shocks of the valley. A great deal of wheat
and oats is in the stack, to be .threshed
in the spring. There is a splendid chance
for the unemployed farmers boys of the
older states i'll the Red River country. They
can secure not only permanent employment
at work they are accustomed to and like, but
there is a bright chance to become farm own
erss themselves. Many, very many, of the
. farmers in the valley came to the country as
: farm hands only a few years ago. and now
own gooa farms and are fairly
Started in Life.
Any one can get the names and addresses
OF scores of such men. Often and often
there have been instances where young men
I have bought land on credit and paid for it
out of the proceeds of one crop. Where an
acre of good land can be bought for from $40
to Sl5 and made 10 produce S25 worth Of
wheat in single season., it don't take long
to get hold of a farm. There is plenty of
land and work for thousands in the valley.
What the people living there have most to
offer just now is work good, honest, healthy
work-not too hard, either. They are writ
ing and advertising everywhere for hands.
Preparations are making for putting in
bigger acreage next year than ever.
and an army of plowboys and field
hands can find occupation. Papers and
journals, especially of the agricultural kind,
can do no better service for two very deserv-
ing classes. farmers ard farm hands, than to
advertise these facts.
Young men. if you want work, go where it
IS 10 be had-tO the big grain fields of the
Northwest. 1t is not so very cold; no more
people freeze there than in Kentucky. and it
is as fair land as any on earth, and has the
health1eSt climate in the world. Satisfy your
self that there is no sell or humbug in the
matter. You can easily do that; but don't
let the chauce slip. There is a better oppor-
tunity for you. better because it is more GER
tain, in the Red River valley than there
ever was in California even in 1870 when
everybody had the gold fever"