The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-06-26
CURRENT COMMENT.
The Farm Labor Question.

4ne rafm LABOR question.
The department of commerce and
labor is showing commendable enter
prise IN extending its operation to n
new field Of usefulness. 1t virtually pro-
poses to become great national clear
ing house for settling the dobuIe prob
lem Of the farmers need Of help and
the laborer's need Of healthful and re-
munerative employment. The proposi-
ton il not a new one. For some years
Commissioner General OF immigration
Sargent has called attention in his re-
ports to the quite obvious fact that
one Of the great problems Of immigra-
tion was wider and more general dis
tribution Of the newcomers To our
shores. There has been no proper equat
ing Of demand and supply Each year
there has come from the wheat fields 81
the West, the fruit plantations Of the
Pacific coast and even from the hay
fields Of New England an almost spite-
GUS cry for help. Farming operations
have been cramped and crippled for
lack Of il; yet the country has been
full Of it, much Of which is congested
and wretched in the big cities.
The movement inaugairated BY Secre-
tary Straus. with the cooperation of
the postmaster general is the first
PRACTICAL sttsinpt that has been made
On national scale To cause these dual
needs to provide satisfaction for one
another. He is using the postal facili-
ties, which the postmaster general is
putting at his disposal, TO carry infor-
nation 10 every agricultural section
Of the country, advising farmers where
they can secure the labor that they
need, and showing congested conmuni.
teis where their opportunities lie. While
newcomers. especially from Southern
Europe, have shown a somewhat EN-
bsrrassing Discrimination TO individual
ize their services and spread themselves
out through the induetFies that most
need them. no small share of this lack
Of enterprise is doubtless due to
dense ignorance of the economic condi
tions that prevail. On this point there
will be more general enlightenment
through the channels that the secretary
proposes TO establish.
At this time Of year the objections to !
separation which are manifested BY
riany groups of immigrants can be in
some measure overcome. In the big
wheat fields they ono needed In gangs,
and later they can find employment IN
the cotton fields Of the South But the
initial value of the movement to most /
will be that it opens up new indus
trial outlook. The spreading out Of a '
great wave of foreign labor over the
farms of the country is, Of course,
hardly to be expected at the outset, but
beginning has been made in the right |
way, and even moderate success will |
Justify a continuance Of che experiment
in the years that are to follow. While
there will be partial recession from
any general distribution of farm labor
tbta may be effected by the proposed i
plan sure to result. A greater or less
percentage is certain to appreciate the /
benefits that viii flow from these en-
laTged opportunities, and The frcer and |
healthier conditions Of life that can be
enjoyed. There are many who, oxper
iencing this escape from the congestion
and unsanitary surroundings that have
been their portion, win oovercome their |
gregarions impulses sufficiently to hold |
on to benefits which they cannot help
but recognize The movement Is not
only economic and sociological, but
moral, as well. May success attend
it, Boston Transcript.