The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1914-07-25
THE HARVEST HANDS
ANOTHER LARGE DELEGATION
THIS MORNING - THE MEN
HAVE BEEN DECEIVED.

A bunch of over 200 harvest
hands arrived in Madison by the
south freight this morning. They
left the depot and came up town in
a body, buying lunches at the bak-
cries, meat markets and other places.
Returning to the depot, most of them
continued their journey north while
others waited for the 1920 freight
train west. The men were civil in
their manne and paid for their
lunches.
1t transpires that the men are be-
ing shipped into this state by employ
ment agencies in Kansas and else
| where. At Yankton recently two
men presented the following receipt
TO the secretary of the Commercial
club of that city:
Wichita, Kansas, July Is, 1914
| Commercial Club, Yankton, S. d.,
Dear Sir: The bearers, c. f. Ship
and T. A. Shipp, we are sending TO
you for harvest as per agreement
with - Yours truly, Western
Employment Agency, by c. A. Hoff-
man."
OF course the secretary of the
Commercial club knew nothing about
any such an arrangement and so in
formed the men. Not finding work
in the vicinity of Yankton the men
proceeded to Aberdeen and presented
the same receipt to the secretary of
the Commercial club of that city.
They told the story as to how they
landed in South Dakota expecting to
II rrl8 IN 4lA Ln rwnr4fw- "a 2 . H.
The men who are at home at Alex
andria, Ark, stated that they went
to the employment agency in Wichita
and sought a harvesting job. The
agency, they say, had large signs out
in front of its doors telling of the
harvesting. jobs in South Dakota,
with SO per day guaranteed to the
men. The two men claim that they
paid $13.35 each and received the
above souvenir for their money. They
went to Yankton to secure their
guaranteed" jobs and found that
there was no work to be had there.
The Yankton Commercial club had
had 10 communication with the
agency referred to and knew of no
harvesting jobs, nor did the club re-
quest the agency TO ship any men to
| Yankton.
1t is estimated that there are co.
900 transient men in the state look
ing for jobs in the harvest fields,
many thousands more than there is
work for. Many of the transients
are honest men, anxious to work and
have been deceived into coming here
by employment agencies and other
wise. Others of course are hoboes
who are following the crowd. So far
Madison has had no trouble with the
transients. Two deaths have occur
red here, n the result of an acct
dent at Sioux Falls where John Ly-
jehs was injured and coming on to
Madison, died here. The other was
Kansas City Red" fatally slugged
in the railroad yards presumably by
companions. Both these men were
buried at the expense of the county.
The o%versupply of working men in
the state is becoming a serious mat
ter and in addition to trouble of va
| rious nature which may develop be-
fore the men leave the state in the
fall, considerable expense is likely to
be imposed upon towns and counties.
The men are here and there is GER
tainly not work for more than a per-
centage of them. Many of them have
been deceived into coming to the
state. They are generally without
money and ii will devolve upon the
public to provide food for many of
them until they can get out of the
state.