The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1914-06-24

How They Are Received and How
They Are Put to Work.
"Menless jobs instead OF jobless men"
In the very immediate future through
out the United States are predicted by
Secretary of Labor Wilson.
Western farmers want harvest work
ers. In Kansas the wages range from
$3.50 to So a day for unskilled labor
and higher prices for engine drivers
and expert workers.
On the southern border OF the Kan.
sas wheat belt the army of harvesters
has begun its labors. While there has
gone out a demand for $1,000 men, to
great call and the most insistent Is
from Kansas, where 10000 harvesters
are needed. according to the report OF
the labor bureau. Allowing for dupli-
cations. this has been cut to $4,000,
with 6.300 extra teams and $500 cooks.
Just why there should be this need Is
not understood until one travels over
the wheat counties. The Kansas City
correspondent OF the New York Post
in an interesting article explains con-
ditions.
The average county In the wheat sec
ton has a small population. The farms
are large. the towns small. Take
Pawnee county, for instance, out in
southwest Kansas. 1t has a population
OF $500 or 1.T00 families. There are
275,000 acres Of wheat to cut and
thrash. If every available man In the
county could be put at the job the
work would not be done during the
short period during which wheat must
be handled. Once ripe, the heads shell
freely, and the grain must be garnered.
How Help 10 Obtained.
AS the present crop approached its
splendid promise, with what amounts
to two crops In one, the farmers began
to call for help. This has been devel-.
| oped into a system. With a state labor
bureau In correspondence with county
officers, city clerks. farmers and town
ship officers, the needs are ~tabulated.
Even the fraternal orders have taken
a hand. and have sent back to Indiana,
Ohio and other states TO ~fraternities
TO send men west. Hundreds OF college
boys have been enlisted and come to
the harvest fields for the experience
and to ear vacation money.
When a single county. as Is the case
| with several In southwest Kansas,
needs 3.00O to 1000 men Ii is policy for
| the railroads TO get the men there and
save the crop. Thousands of dollars
have been sent east TO pay the trans
p~ortation OF workers, the agents Of the
| western roads holding the funds con
tribnted By farmers and wiring orders
TO furnish tickets. To pay this army
means a large drain on the currency
supply Of the interior banks.
The 10000 men In Kansas will draw
over $100.00 0 a day for labor alone, to
say nothing OF the expense in feeding
them. Most Of this money will be TAX
en- out of the state. for except what is
spent In travelling the harvesters have
DO expense personally. Likewise 1t Is
all currency. for the farmer finds his
checks OF little value to strangers.
The class Of men westward bound
for the harvest includes workmen from
the lumber camps. factory men seeking
college boys and small farmers from
adjoining states.
Met by Waiting Employers.
Farmers In automobiles, wagons and
buggies wait for the men at the sta
lions, and cook shacks are ready In the
fields to serve meals.
The men are, for the most part. unfa.
millar with harvest work, but they are
given the routine hand labor, while ex-
perienced men handle the binders and
headers. In addition to the imported
labor. all available local help is busy,
and the towns are for the time desert.
ed Of ablebodied laborers.
The gathering of S,0O0,O 900 acres of
wheat In Kansas, for instance, is not
all done at one time. The work begins
on the southern border, and three or
-four weeks elapse before the army of
workers reaches the Nebraska line.
The wheat ripens slowly, the lower lat
itudes FIRST turning yellow. This meal
economy Of time and effort, for the
men who have FIRST begun will go with
the ripening of the wheat northward
until they reach the northern limit,
thus getting a month or more of steady
work. The popularity of this years
wheat Is that the straw is heavy, and
binders will be used more freely than
| I'm most wears.