The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-20
Free Employment Bureau Still
Mecca of Harvest Hands.
Fifteen Boys Arrive in Topeka
from New York.
HARVEST TINE PASSED
Reapers Are Idle and ThreSh.
ing Has Begun.
The Demand for Extra Help
Has Ceased.
HARVEST TIME PASSED

Fifteen boys reached Topeka from
New York city, penniless but In hopes
OF finding work in the harvest fields
Harvest is over The employment
agency has no calls for men Oh file and
IS unwilling to take the responsibility
for sending them to any one. Today is
the last day upon which harvest hand
rates will be allowed by the railroads
going out of Topeka and most OF thu
boys viii spend what little cash they
have left in getting out to where they
may possibly find work. Most OF them
will go as far as they can and will fol-
low the harvest into Dakota.
Manifestly the call made upon the east
for harvest hands was overdone. The
newspaper descriptions of the Kansas
harvest situation has created an i'm
preston OF endless work, abundant mon
ey and an easy time. Most of the boys
who have passed through Topeka from
the far eastern states and particularly
the crowd that arrived today are here
for the adventure. They have already
found it, But they cheerfully face =
prospect of little work or very hard
work and up to the present time are
showing all sorts of sand"
A Georgian boy, who says he has been
In New York two years but still has the
soft mellow accent of the Georgia
mountains, was busy gathering togeLn-
er out of his 10 comrades half dozen
who would make up the necessary party
to go out over the Rock Island into the
northwestern part of the state said this
morning:
I'VE have been unfortunate in getting
out here too late for the harvest season
and we appear to be up against a very
bad row of stumps. / bummed my way
out and consequently was longer in get
ting here than 1 would otherwise have
I srrCf for f,~fr, uFntr
way and threw w a job in New York
to do it, for which, at the present time.
/ reckon l was very foolish. But now
that I'm out here III stay with it awhile
and / guess the other boys will, too. We
want to get as far up in the northern
part of the state as we can and follow
the harvest up into Dakota"
Employment Agent T. 5. Williams
was considerably distressed by the I'M
looked for appearance of the new dele
cation from New York this morning. He
had no place to send them. They had
come in good faith suppOsing there
would be plenty of work and he felt the
responsibility for starting them after
some sort of work by which they could
make living. Several of the boys We're
college boys from one eastern colle1s or
another. Most of them were quite youth
ful In appearance and all of them were
soft" Mr. williams busted himself
with giving the boys all the information
at his disposal in regard to Kansas geo
graphy and railroads and left them to
choose their own courses. In discussing
the circumstances which placed the
New Workers in their predicament, Mr.
Williams said this morning:
The Kansas free employment bureau
has learned a lesson this year which
would better have been learned sooner.
The promiscuous call for harvest hands
in the eastern cities has worked a hard
ship upon many innocent parties and we
can not tell how manV more have vet
to suffer. These boys are almost out Of
money and there isn't any demand for
their services They are in a predica-
ment and, If they didn't have the finest
grit ! ever saw their trip would turn out
disastTously. 1 think they'll get along
all right but they won't get work in the
Kansas harvest field.
Il can not say how I think the call
for harvest hands in the east ought TO
be regulated in another year, but there
must be a change 1 do not know that
our department is directly to blame for
the situation. Unauthorized newspaper
stories about the need oe harvest hands
has had something to do with it. be-
lieve that in some respect the farmers
themselves are in the wrong. l do NOT
doubt that, in the hope of getting an
Over-supply of harvest hands in order
to cut down the wages they must pay.
many of the western Kansas farmers
have made exaggerated statements Of
which the employment department win
have to correct.
''Then there is another thing. These
Eastern men have no conception of the
kind Of work they are here to under
take They are not physically quail,
fed for the work. They can't stand ii
although they won't give up until they
have to.
college boys and clerks with soft