The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-25
THE rENDERFoor HAND.

of prices and great public approval.
THE TENDERFOoT HAND.
In addition to harvest of wheat sur
passing all records, Kansas seems to
have been harvesting during the past
fortnight a crop Of New York tender
feet of equally unparalleled proper
lions. Kansas, as usual. is receiving
the blame for the results produced by
the imaginary tales concocted in the
home offices of New York yellow jour-
nails.
The truth of the harvest hand situa-
ton in Kansas will probably never pen.
citrate the portals of certain newspaper
offices of Greater New York. But a
brief resume of the situation for home
consumption may not be out of place
A wheat harvest like the one Kansas
has just passed through is like a
circus. 1t moves from place to place.
If you miss it in one locality. it is gone
for good until the next year. Unless
you hurry, you will find that it has
finished its itinerary and left the state.
This year, the wheat harvest, bigger
and better than ever" played it's first
date in Kansas about July 1. 1t moved
rapidly northward across the state. BY
the tenth of the month it's tour of Kan
sas was almost finished. BY the TWEEN
tieth it was gone.
Prior to and during those fifteen days
Kansas was pleading for men to help
in the harvest. There was work at
good wages for 5000 laborers from out
side the state. During that time the
railroads hauled men from the eastern
border of Kansas to any point within
the wheat belt for the very low rate OF
a cent mile. Governor Bailey on June
27 endeavored to secure a similar rate
from Chicago and st. Louis, but failed
Wages in the wheat belt were high.
Competent men could get from $3.50 to
| SO a day. with board.
Just about the time the harvest end
| ed, and the railroads withdrew then
commenced to boom the wheat harvest.
The Sunday papers for July 10 con-
tanned exaggerated and grossly in
accurate reports of the need for men
in the wheat fields. They especially
urged college boys, and the so-called
football giants" of Yale Harvard and
Princeton to come to Kansas and de-
velop their muscles. One would have
thought that a Kansas wheat field was
veritable gymnasium, with shower
baths and a training table for the ex-
press benefit of soft-handed students or
the great universities. And all this in
spite of the fact that on July IL T. B.
Gerow, state agent of the Kansas freS
employment bureau. telegraphed the
employment agent of the city of New
York to this effect: Send no more
men. The harvest is nearly over"
In response to the frantic and sadly
belated efforts of the eastern papers.
or some of them, the college boys, New
York clerks, walters from metropolitan
restaurants, and others who had money
to buy a ticket from New York, COM
menced to come to Kansas in special
cars. They arrived too late. The circus
had played and passed by. The har~
vest was gone, or nearly so.
When they arrived at Topeka they
were plainly told they had come too
late, but as they did not wish to go
back without making an effort to work
in the fields. they were assigned to the
few localities which were still demand
ing more hands.
The few days which were left of the
harvest was enough for most of the
inexperienced youth. They wilted un.
der the hot sun and hard work With
blistered hands, bruised feet and sun
blame Kansas. They are telegraphing
home for money to buy return tickets
to New York.
The advance guard of this eastern
emigration is now at st. Louis, home
ward bound. The st. Louis papers con-
tain big feature stories, with interviews
telling of the distress of the New York
ers- An Englishman named Fred Nut
tai, who admits that he is a wood
worker by profession, and never did
any farm work, is displayed for several
columns of hysterical sympathy. There
is one paragraph in one of these Nut
tai stories which gives the true gist
of the situation. 1t says:
"Nuttall's hands are sore from the
work he did in the field. His feet are
also sore from walking. He says none
of the crowd made good farm hands.
They met 16-year-old girls who could
do twice the amount of work The cli-
mate was very hard on them, he says.
and they were not there long enough to
become acclimated. He will leave st.
Louis for the east tonight The other
members are also making their way
eastward across the country"
New York made just two mistakes in
its great expedition for the relief of
Kansas wheat farmers. In the first
place. it did not start the movement I'M
til there was no further need of it. Sec
ondly, it sent a class of men who were