The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-28
THE KANSAS WHEAT HARVEST.
 FRS.

One feature of the labor question ir harvest time for which he has not pre-. pared was met by an eastern capitalist who came to this state to have the wheat cut on his big farm. He believed it would be fine to superintend the cut ting himself. and donned western clothes--or garments which he believed to be western--and went out with the men. When Saturday night came he was ready to pay off and had his check book written up. To each of the men as he came up was handed blue slip of paper calling for SIP, the wages for the six days.
 One of the men, who had come from manufacturing town in Indiana, look ed it quizzically. and then asked, Where do we cash,in?"
 At the bank. said the manager
 But who'll identify us at the banlz?"
 The owner of the farm saw the point and took up the checks. He went to town and drew currency with which he paid off the men, z..zs. s..s...s.
 It is this condition that makes the banks of the wheat belt gather cur rency for harvest time. It is needed to pay the hundreds of men who come west to work in the fields and must have the actual cash for their work. It is estimated that this state alone has had 25,000 men from the east work ing in its harvest. The meats S50,00O Ia day, for few get less than $2. The averagesis at least that. The harvest lasts two to three weeks. From $600.O0O to s1,0oo,00O is paid out to help from the east for work in the fields, not to men tion the home helpers, who are less irl- sistent on receiving currency, but are nevertheless recipients of large amount.
 Not all of it is taken east, how ever. The laborers find that the clothes in which they travelled are quickly worn out in field work and they spend freely at the local stores buying others. Then at the country postoffices on Sat urday nights long lines of laborers gather and buy money orders to send home part of their earnings. Proba- bly, one-third of all the money earned by the laborers from out of the state is thus sent east; another third remains in the localities where they labor, and the remainder is taken with them, most of 1t to be spent before they get back to ther old homes. as
 It is a curious fact that while all the wheat field laborers appear to be of the commonest kind of toilers there are among them many who are we'll able to remain in town, but come west for their health or for love of adventure. In one of the western Kansas wheat fields was white-faced man whose slender hands seemed i'll fitted for the task of handling a fork. He worked hard and day by day grew stronger until at the end of two weeks he was able to hold his own with the remainder of the toil- CTS. Then he went to the farmer and asked for his pay He had been very quiet throughout the harvest, and earn ed the sobriquet of Dummy" from the men who rather resented his unwilling ness to confide in them. '.-.
 You, are doing all right, better stay said the farmer. .n1':,s%' >s*' Y
 "No have finished" and he took his money. Ea ..r.s 2 ...-s
 He went to the hotel in the little town where large trunk was awaiting him. He shaved, changed clothes to a fashionable summer suit with Panama hat, took the Pullman on the west | tlptt J,at trht I Springs, and spent the next two weeks at the Antlers. He was a Chicago phy- sician who had given himself har- vest field prescription for run dowr nerves and rebellious stomach and il cured him. .# 5S,t
 This sort of a case ; is exceptional however. Most. of the workers are what they seem, and even the college graduate is quite scarce.-Abilene Cor. | GA1s