The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-07-03
NEBRASKA WANTS HELP
Harvest Hands Are Needed Says Mr.
Despair.

Nebraska has raised a, cry for help
in its wheat harvest, and Kansas is
coming to the rescue.
Don c. Despair is the pathetic name
OF the Nebraska free employment
agent who writes to State Agent T. B.
GeroW for help. He sends a list of
Nebraska towns which are in need of
harvest hands. and from the way the
list is made up it is evident that Me-
OraSka IS copying Mr.. Gerow'S way of
getting harvest hands. The list shows
the counties where hands are wanted,
the number of hands wanted in the
county, the date of the harvest, and
the names of the towns in each county
to which men should go. The total
number of men wanted, according to
the list, is 1870. Kansas needed 49,
O00 men for its harvest, and got them,
and what Mr.. Despair wants is to have
the Kansas agency ship some of the
men on to Nebraska when they are
done in this state
In compliance with Mr.. Despair's
request, said State Agent Gerow to-
counties to which we have sent men,
advising them to notify the harvest
hands to move on to Nebraska. The
Nebraska farmers offer about the
from $3.50 to $500 per day for men,
depending on their experience and
ability. The average is $225"
According to the Nebraska list, the
wheat harvest has already commenced
in most of the Nebraska counties Gage
county, which sends in it's petition for
80 men, commenced the harvest on June
u, If the figures given in the report are
correct. This is probably an estimate
made some weeks ago, and the chances
are that the harvest is just beginning
in the southern counties of the state.
Some of the counties state that their
harvest will not begin until the 9Th or
8th Of July. Among these are Antelope,
Boone, Buffalo, Cunning, Colfax, Nance,
Phelps. Platte. Polk, Stanton, Valley
and Webster.
Hitchcock county wants more men
than any other. The estimate for that
county is 300.
These figures show to some extent the
magnitude of the harvest in Nebraska
as compared with Kansas. There were
several counties in Kansas that sent in
requests for almost as many men as are
asked for in the whole state of Nebras-
ka. Apparently they got all the men
they asked for, as they reported later
that their needs were supplied.
Mr.. Gerow says that the work of his
department has been more effective and
satisfactory this year than ever before
eve have been able,' he says, ''by
out where the men are needed and to
send the men where they would do
the most good. There is still need
for men in the northern counties of
the Sldt0, out the nlHsl are coming
there from the southern Kansas fields.
I believe that we are sending better
men this year than ever before, and
that the work is being handled in a
more expeditions manner. These re-
ports to the effect that the harvest
hands sent out are bad citizens, and
that some of them stay in the COM
munity where they land for the pur-
pose of committing crimes, are all rot.
/ believe that the men we have sent
out are good, reliable persons, and
that if they would stay in the state it
would be a good thing for the state.
I know many instances where this has
proven to be the case. If there have
been a bad class of men get into some
communities because of the demand
for harvest hands, it is not our fault.
Such men may have been sent cut by
private employment agencies. Many
men are thus sent, and many go out of
their own accord. z We won't send men
unless they are, to the best of our
knowledge, respectable and 1aw-abid-
ing"
The list of Nebraska counties which
want harvest hands and the number
wanted in each county is as follows:
Adams 80, Antelope rs, Boone $50,
Buffalo so, Butler rs, Clay 125, Colfax
80, Cunning 20, Custer 40, Dawson 100,
Dodge 80, Franklin IS, Frontier so, Fur
mas lis, Gage 80, Gosper 25, Hall 80,
Hamilton go Harlan so, Hayes 100,
Hitchcock 300, Jefferson 100, Kearney 80,
Phelps 100, Platte 125, Polk Is, Red Will
low 225, Saline so, Seward so, Stanton 80,
Thayer $50, Valley so, Webster 65, York