The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1911-11-09
Extracts from Booker

what saw Of the agricultural laborer
In Italy and Hungary. .s ..,. !
a. While the situation of the farm
hands in Hungary differs from that
OF the farm hands in Italy in many
ways, there are two important respects
IN which the situation Of each is the
same. First, a large part of the land
or both countries is held In large es-
- tates second, farm laborers, as
rule particularly in Hungary do not
i've, as Is the case in America, oIr. the
land. On the contrary, they dwell
apart In villages, so that they are
hardly any more attached to the soil
lhey cultivate than the factory hand
is attached to the factory in which
ne Is employed. In Hungary, for ex-
ample, 1t is the custom, for group
or laborers to enter into a contract
with the lana owner, during the sum-
mer to harvest his crop in the fall.
"A contractor, who either represents
or employs farm hand, will look
over the field and bargain with the
owner, to do the harvest work for q
certain per cent, Of the crop. At the
harvest time, the contractor arrives
with his laborers, just as he would
come with a gang of men to build a
mouse or dig a ditch. While the work
gong on, the laborerS, men and wo-
men together, practically camp in the
helds, sleeping sometimes in the open
helds, or in such scant shelter as
they are able to find.
it happened that was in Hungary
at the harvest time and, in the course
or my journey through the country.
nave several times seen these panes
or men and women going to their
work at daybreak. In this part OF the
country, the Gtrangest costumes arc
worn ny the peasant people, and the
women, especially, with their bright
kerchiefs over their heads, their short
skirts and high boots, when they were
e. not barefooted, were quite as pictur-
esque as anything 1 had read had led
me TO expect. The field hands 60 to
WORK at early dawn during the har-
vest season. They work sometimes
as much as 16 to IS hours a. day 7
have been told, and then throw them
selves down to rest for the night on
q truss OF straw or under a single
blanket. After the harvest is over
they return again TO their villages.
working in this way, in troops of
wandering laborers, there was no
room for any permanent relationships
between themselves and their employ
efs; such relationships, for example,
as exist in spite of the differences of
race and color, between every white
planter in the South and his NEGRO
tenants. con the other hand, the
la6orers, working and living to-
gether In the way l have. described.
come to have Il strong sense Of
their common interest, all the more.
perhaps, because they are looked
down upon by the rest of the popu-
!ation, and particularly by the small
land owners, with whom they had
been associated up to tie time OF
their emancipation in 1913.
About 1880, series of bad har-
vests, coming on the heels Of other
changes which, for number Of
years had made their lives harder
Eclped to increase the dis"Cntcnt. of
the agricultural laborc's Thus it
was that when, about this time, the
socialists turned their attention to the
agricultural population of Hur Larry,
they found the people prepared to
listen to their doctrines.
What made Socialism the moo non
ular among the lowest farming classes
was the fact that it not only promised
to teach the farm Iaborers how thew
might increase their wages, but de-
.clared that the state was going 10
take the land out or the hands of the
large land owners and divide il
among the people Who cultivated Re.
What made the situation the more
dlfflcult was the fact that, as soon as
'hey were thoroughly organized, the
agricultural laborers had the land
owners, during the harvest time at q
peculiar disadvantage because when
work in the fields stopped, the stand
ing grain ripened and spoiled and
the land owner was ruined.
- IN the emergency created by these
strikes, the government came to tho
rescue of the land owner by establish
ing recruiting stations for farm Ia
Dorers In different parts of country.
collecting laboers in those parts of
the country where labor was abundant.
they shipped them to other parts Of
inc country, where, because Of the
strikes, laborers were scarce and crops
were IN danger. The government
mad at one time reserve force NOT i
less than 10000 strike-breakers with
when 1T was at any moment able to |
come TO the rescue Of land owner
who was tbreatend.
Many cases the government under
TOOK to regulate wages between land
owners and their hands. In some
cases they even sent troops to compel