New Britain herald., 1915-03-30
AUSTRIAN CHILDREN
 WORKING IN FIELDS Ntxt to War Country Dtvoting Greatest Energies to Agriculture.

Correspondence of the Associated Press)
 Venice, March 3O.-Next to war, Austro- Hungary is devoting her great est energies to agriculture. eff we can only obtain sufficient labor,'' says the government, the next harvest is se- cUred.' Consequently everything possible is now being cone to pro- vide for the spring work on the land. Tens of thousands of boys and girls have been released from attendance at school; married women and girls are being pressed into service, and adult male workers areas eagerly sought after as are recruits for the armies in the field.
 By a special decree the Austrian ministry of eudcation has directed that in the country districts all chill dren in the three higher grades, that is of twelve, thirteen and fourteen years of age, are to be excused from school, in order that they may work in the fields or at home. The school authorities are instructed to organize this child labor in a systematic man. ner, so that the best results may be obatined by employing them in dis tricts where help is most needed. They will be formed into groups in sort of military manner, the elder boys acting as under-offiecrs. It is thought that this will encourage the children in working, besides inspiring them with patriotic sentiments
 Country Children Useful.
 Practically all country children have
 been brought up to work on the land,
 and there are endless ways in which they can be useful. from picking cat
 erpillars off the fruit trees to guiding
 a plough and a yoke of oxen. Farmers
 declare that the modern plough is so
 lightly built that a sturdy boy of
 twelve years can quite-easily work it.
 Then as to the girls the little ones can
 look after the babies at home while
 the bigger ones cook, and iron, and
 carry meals to the workers in the field.
 So many peasants have been called
 to the army that there is very little adult male labor left in the rural dis tricts. And few men who are there show no great inclination to go to work, and so far have steadily re- fused to enter into the usual contracts for harvest work hoping by waiting to get considerably higher wages. The lana owners are 1ur1OuS ana threaten that the government will compel them to work when the time comes. And as a matter of fact the state has already empowered local uu- thorities to force able-bodied men of all classes to work in the fields in case of necessity for wages at the cur rent rate in the district.
 Urges Use of Machinery. In addition to securing all the labor 1 possible, the government is doing it's | best to encourage the use of machin- | cry on the farms. The Ministry of 1 Agriculture has already agreed to l subsidize seed-sowing machines with grant of twenty dollars each, and will | do the same with harvesting machines when the crops are ready.
 l The field work of last fall is said | to have been very satisfac ctorily per l formed, and now it is hoped that by all these expedients the problem of 1 the spring work will also be solved, so that in the end the next harvest l will not fall far below the average Doubled in Price.
 1 From the official reports of the /; Vienna markets, it appears that many