The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-06-13
IA ON ONE FREIGHT
Unemployed Miners Migrate
to Wheat Fields.
JOPLIN MINES CLOSE DOWN
Wichita Filling Up With Har-
veSterS From All Points.

The town of Wichita at present is filled
with harvest hands bound for the west
The recent advertisement in all the pa
pers over the country that southern and
western Kansas would have the largest
wheat yield for eight or ten years brought
the unemployed from all over the coun-
try, and there Is expected to be trouble
in obtaining sufficient help to reap and
put away the crop.
One freight which arrived over the
Frisco last night brought a gang Of ia,
who will scatter over the western and
southern counties. Most Of them viii go
On TO Pratt county, where the farmers
have been advertising extensively for
hands, while some of them viii remain
in Sedgwick county. There are hardly
any of the crowd hoboes, most Of them
having been thrown out Of employment
by the closing of four big mines in and
around the Joplin district. AS soon as
the mines discontinued operations the
unemployed organized a movement to
seek work in the wheat fields, and they
Immediately set out for western Kansas.
Most Of them were attired in overalls
and jumpers. ready to begin reaping the
golden grain. They were a jovial set of
people, all in good spirits over the pros
poets of finding immediate work. They
are not entirely without means. and most
Of them bought a square meal as soon as
they struck town.
The workmen seem to have come to
Wichita as a place for making their
headquarters and learning where the most
money would be paid. Each incoming
train brought a large party, and during
the past two days it is estimated that at
least 800 harvest hands have passed
through the city. Yesterdays Santa Fe
and Frisco trains brought in about fifty
and the Missouri Pacific train that went
west last night contained a party Of 100
bound for the wheat fields around Mount
Hope
The cheap rates offered by the railroads
has been the means of securing wcIk-
men in advance and no trouble wiz be
feared in not getting sufficient employees.
Yesterday a party of young farm hands
and the city unemployed arrived in the
city from Bourbon county to find work
in the harvest fields. and reports all along
the road are that more are following.
The overland party comprised twenty
five and there were several teams. They
only stopped in Wichita a few hours and
went on to Kingman and Pratt counties,
where they hope to go to work imrne Ii
'ately Harvest has already commenced
I'm some of the counties and in a week 5
time the reaping of soft wheat will be
on in earnest. The eastern hands who
come out expect to receive all the way
from 81 to 81 per day for their labor.
Those who were accompanied by teams
are assured of at least 50 per day in any
of the fields.
The employment bureau which was es-
tablished in Kansas City by the Kansas
state labor commissioner is doing a fine
thing both for the farmers and the I'M
employed, as most of Tle eXcursiOnists
come from those Headquarters.
The town also contains an immense
number of tramps who say they are on
their way west to work in the harvest
hells. The police have come in contact
with a number Of them but they are not
vagged on this pretense. The police Of
fcers, however, claim that they can tell
the worthy from the unworthy. Those
OF the tramps who are headed for the
east don't want work while the tramp
who goes west really wants to get to the
wheat fields Being out of funds they are
compelled to beat their way on the freight
trains