Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-07-19

Economists and students of indus
trial conditions who view with
alarm" the co n
slant invention
and multiplication
of labor-savlng machinery in this
country will find food for thought In
the present efforts that are being
made to coax the idlers and hoboes
from the cities to the western wheat
fields. 1t is the same old Macedonian
cry for help from the farmers of Kan
sas and the Dakotas, says the Chicago
Record-Herald The harvest is ripe
and the reapers are few. Vast folds
of golden grain are already over
ripened and the farmers are threat
ened with heavy losses through ina
Nlity to secure the necessary help TO
harvest the crop. Employment
agencies and railroad companies are
making the most tempting offers to
the unemployed. In some instances as
high as three dollars day and free
transportation are offered. But the
idlers prefer the overcrowded city
with a meager and uncertain liveh-
hood to good wages and plenty to eat
on the harvest fields of the Dakotas.
The various proposals to ship the ho-
boes by the car load to the wheat
fields of the west may sound reason
1 IL. ~ 81
but the man who is familiar with the
tastes and habits of the hobo knows
that he will not work after he has
| been shipped to the wheat fields. Out in
Iowa farmers in desperation held up
q train recently to capture some Ia
borers. It was not difficult job to
capture them, but to compel them to
toll in the harvest field they found was
1 a different matter. Very few men are
needed on the farm to-day compared
to what were needed 20 or rs years
ago. The self-binding reaper now
does the work of six to ten men in each
field. But men are still needed to
shock and load the wheat and haul II
to the barns or stacks. II men persist
in their unwillingness to work on the
farm and the scarcity of farm labor
becomes more pronounced each year
It is plain that mechanical genius vii
be called upon to make the farmer
: still more independent of human help
He must have machinery that will mo-
only harvest the crops but will gathel
them, store them and thresh then
: without the aid of human hands. Ma
: chimes of this kind are already In ps
S on the thousand-acre farms of thu
e great west. It may be that the naces
q sity for farming almost entirely b!
VI machinery will bring about an era q
great combina tions among farmers b!
= which all may have the use of the mos
: Inexpensive labor-saving devices.
The post Office department is hayin.
trouble over little post office in Bal
tholomew county, Ind, which was es
tablished some years ago under tn
name OF Springer. A month later
was changed to cushman, and tire
$ months afterward back to Springer
!. In 1893 it was called Grammer, but il
\ 1897 the old name of Springer wa
+ given it. IT next appeared as Gram
n mer. but Springer followed, A pest
master was appointed who refused I
: qualify us postmaster of Springer, bu
: insisted on being postmaster of Gran
II mer. The department chose his sus
o cessor, Miss Mollie Bergman, an
? changed the name back to Springer
t Miss Rergfmaan, hes followed the tactic
o of her predecessor and insists 2
y qualifying as the postmaster Of Graz
e mer or not at all. The difficulty ma
be solved by closing the Office entirel..
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