The Washington times., 1905-06-05
College Boys No Good
In Kansas Wheat Bel
One Who Has Had Experience Lays Bar
True inwardness of Fairy Tales From
SunfIower State

e,,,s;s O. e;xeFrtion, and were. stranded without
Lbfds Tar away from home They wers
regarded as tramps, and generally
| treated as such. That was one thing /
saw IN the papers which was verified
have, worked for a few days with
| some college men, with none on the
thre;sheTs. s;,i on which the old hands
| really depend for their profit in going
/ tn the wheat belt
Can't Stand Strain.
| The college and city men may have
the strength of the farmers at the ba~
| ginning of harvest, but their constituz
| tiCns are unused TO the constant eger-
| tion, the dust and the heat, and after
| the first few hours they can do only
fraction Of the work required OF .
regular farm hand.
They may be able TO lift any weight
the farmer can move in the morning,
but even if their muscles last, their
stornaehs VIII not stand the strain.
Every Kansas wheat raiser knows that
if he is compelled to hire a college or
city man. which he never does If he
can get even a poor farm hand, even
II the man has worked in a foundry or
at some other occupation where his
muscles have become thoroughly hard
ened. he Is lucky If he can get good
farm hands full share OF Work out Of
him half the time.
I do not remember a single case Of q
college or city man working with the
crowd in which I was. who did not IN
few days fall so far behind IN his work
as to become an object OF mingled pity
and contempt in the eyes OF his fellow
workmen and his employer. The best OF
farm hands have to exert themselves
| the greater part of the time. and when
a dude appears among them, drawing
full pay, part OF which they must
help him to earn, there is ample just
fcation for the fierce kicking which eE-
sues
I do not wish to disparage the physs
caa strength and endurance of the col
/ lege man. There is a world of difference
between the delicate training OF the
track athlete and the daily hour or SO
of fierce serimmage OF the gridiron and
the ten TO thirteen hours Of steady. re-
ient1ess plying of the pitchfork kept up
every dry day IN the summer, except
ing Sundays, of course. a few farmers
continue the harvest on Sundays, but
game farmland must endure during a
large part Of the day may be gained by
the college men by remembering the sen-
sations attendant on the finish OF
hotly contested quarter-mile dash or
the mile run.
Nor do l mean to say that all farm
hands can stand the work Of the wheat
fields. After the harvest is over the
average farmer wants week or two Of
rest, which means general farm work
with him, before he joins the threshing
crews. He does not care to pitch to the
threshers longer than three weeks at a
stretch on the average, and there are
many farmers and their sons right in
the wheat belt, good hands at every
thing else. who cannot stand the fast
pace and the choking clouds of dust Of
the machines for a day.
The Threshing Crews.
In the Middle West and the East
where harvesting and threshing crew.
are made up of men who are neighbors
and friends to each other. the weakIing
and the laggard are spared and a fast
pace is not forced on the men, either
out OF brotheriy love or for the sake OF
neighborhood peace. But in the wheat
belt a boss often finds himself with a
crew OF pitchers none Of whom he has
seen before or expects to see again. On
most of the crews with which I have
worked, one-haII OF the crew have been
entire strangers to the other half and
each other. Here 1t is largely every
man for himself and the boss works
the men for all they are worth Those
who fail TO keep the pace either from
fatigue or sickness, are dropped any,
where inSthe country that the machine
happens to be.
The thresher boss knows that even
if the harvest saw a scarcity Of hands
the number needed for harvesting Is so
far in excess of the number required for
tbreShing and other forms of work that
he can pick up as many hands as he
needs IN the nearest town. He pays
twice as much as is paid for general
farm work and knows that this and the
glory which comes to a hand who can
stay long with the machines Will bring
the men. During the scarcity of hands
while harvest is in progress the farm
ers may put up with the inexperienced
hand but the thresher boss never will.
His crew Would not permit II il he were
disposed to do so
One of our best all-aroupd athletes. a
football player and the captain of our
track team, was raised on a farm Last
spring, both Of us being in dire fnan-
ciaI straits, I proposed that We screw
fields. Get out" he retorted Il am
not going to kill myself for a little extra
wages" Yet this athlete had seen
harvesting and threshing only as con-
Quoted by considerate neighbors.
From my point of view there was one
great truth in the editorial beside the
statement that the experience OF the
wheat fields would broaden the students
faculties. Life among the grim toilers
OF the wheat belt would certainly fur
nish material for the literary man. For
have had long experience at handIina
the pitchfork. On one crew I worked
with men from six different States of
the Union, on another there We're an eZ-
cowboy an Indianapolis gambler, a vet
eran of San Juan Hill, an ex-convict,
has-been of the Denver prize ring. and
a former minister of the Gospel.
7. S WILLIAMS,
Gallaudet College.