The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-07-28
%HARVESTERS.
Collegians to Spend Vacations
on Kansas Wheat Farms.
LARGEsrNUMBER rloMPR1NoEToN

LARGEsTNUMBER FEOMPR1NOETON
Men From Cornell, Harvard and
Other Seats of Learning to Earn
$3.50 Per Day by the Sweat Of
Their Br0ws-Thousnnds of Hands
Needed to Gather the Crop.
Tuxedos, dancing pumps and dress
shirts laid aside for coarse suits of
store clothes. oyeralls, rough dark
blouses or jumpers and wide trimmed
straw hats. forty students Of Prince
ton. Harvard and Cornell recently
shipped" from New York for the
southwestern wheat belt, says the New
York Times. There, with the motley
gangs Of laborers. they will work in
the fields from sunup till dark, gar
nering the bumper crop. Then at
night they will turn in at the roughly
~improvised camps in the farmyards or
sleep out in the open. This for their
health and $3.50 a day and board,
which they have been guaranteed.
The students who will turn farm
hands during their vacations. accord
ing to Superintendent Bealin of the
state free employment bureau, with
whom they were booked" are a husky
looking lot of fellows, nearly all of
them Of the football ~type'-large,
rawboned. brad shouldered. Some Of
them have never done any hard wo:k
but they have physiques, Mr.. Beaiii
says, that ought to stand almost any
amount of strain. and seem to have
not only determination to work hard.
but ~unconcealed enthusiasm owe TIE
prospect of three months in the llhi.-
vest field.
Since the appeal for men I'm to Mr..
Bealin from the Kansas farmers,
through the state labor bureau a. To-
peka, he has received hundreds OF let
tiers from men, young and cd. asking
what work was offered, how long it
would last, what wages would be paid
and what railroad fare could be SCI
cured. With the first days batch came
several letters written on excellent lin
en- stationery that bore the monographs
and names Of really ''swell' seaside
hotels.
The writer's said they were college
students who wanted to work during
vacation and modestly said that they
were a~blebodied, possessed of some
strength and were willing to work
hard. Superintendent Bealin's answers
that the farmers in Kansas would pay
$3.50 day and board, that the season
would continue for 100 days from July
1 and that transportation could be had
for $26.65. round trip, brought a mum
Der of responses. Several young men
who were living neal New York went
personally to the free employment bu-
reau office in that city and waited their
turn in the long line of poor men and
women who were seeking a place to
earn a living.
Princeton has sent the largest gang
Of "hands." Twenty-Five students from
the New Jersey college have signed.
They have by common consent placed
themselves under the leadership of W..
]. Simpson and G. r. Prentiss of the
class of '0G. Smaller gangs are made
up of Cornell and Harvard students,
while there have been three or foar
from La Sale Institute of Technology
Of Troy, n. Y. Among recent additions
to the list We're three medical students
who live in Brooklyn.
Last year." said one'of the students,
a stocky, sunburned young man who
wore a light suit. low shoes. heliotrope
socks and a panama hat with a colored
ho,,l S&I u7ol1in1 " " nv n1tirA va .l.
ton. / had a lot of sport in the same
old way: but it certainly did get tire
some. | want diversion. l have never
Travelled much in the west, and I'd like
to learn about the country and the peo-
pie. A hundred. days of hard work
wouldn't hurt any a would it,"
The students are. not the only per-
sons going from New York to help har-
vest the Kansas crop of wheat. A large
number Of men of all sorts and condi-
lions. from the unemployed mechanic
to the Bowery loafer, apply at the en-
ployment bureaus Office for informa-
ton as to what the job is. The super
intendent is circumspect in choosing
the men to send west. The man who
does not strike Mr.. Bealin as a sober.
we'll intentioned man gets turned
down. Most of the applicants. how
ever. Mr.. Bealin says, are fine appear
ing workingmen. above the average.
Many of them cannot go because.
they say. they have not the money to
pay the fare. They had expected that
transportation would be furnished free
of charge. Such a practice. Mr.. Bealin
says. would be dangerous, as many men
would get tickets to Topeka and then
leave the train this side of there, and
the farmer would not be benefited by
hte OUTLAW Othor Stil1 losS corunu1O1lS