Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-29
MAKE PLANS
FOR SOLUTION OF
FARM PROBLEM
Work of Organization to Sc
cure Help Is Under Way
in Many States

Washington, d. c., June &-Under
the government plan for the organ
ization of farm labor. the details of
which were announced by the Unit
ed States Department of Agriculture
wide cooperation in the solution Of
the farm help problem. The work
Of organization already has been
started in about forty States, and
it is expected that eventually every
community in the United States will
be reached. IT is believed that the
resultant utilization OF emergency
labor will begin to have an ap-
preciable effect on the farm labor
situation before the season has far
advanced. Meanwhile, the immedi-
ate and acute problem of supplying
labor for the harvests, now begin
ming in the Southwest, is being han
died, so far as the United States
governments services are concerned,
through the existing employment
service of the United States Depart
ment of Labor, which will continue
to handle such problems of mass
mobilization under the new plan as
1t has in the past.
Federal Cooperation
The plan Is based on close CO.
operation on the part of the United
States Department of Agriculture
and the United States Department
of Labor with State committees on
national defense charged with labor
matters, with the State agricultural
colleges, with the county agents and
with county and local or township
labor committees or representatives
to be established in every locality.
The Department of Agriculture will
represent the federal authorities III
determining farm labor needs md
in assisting in organizing all avail
able farm labor in the rural dis
tricts. The United States Depart
ment of Labor will devote it's atten-
ton to organized labork in urban
communities and industrial regions,
and will cooperate with the farm
labor forces where necessary by OBJ
tanning extra labor from the popu-
lous centers.
The plan provides for strictly To-
cal handling of all labor problems
that can be adjusted locally. The
fundamental unit of the organiza-
ton is the Community man" who,
with the assistance of such commit
tees as he may appoint, canvasses
his own neighborhood, finds out what
farmers need help, and what men
are available for supplying the To-
cal need, and effects such adjust
ments as can be made locally. If,
after all local adjustments have
been made. there remains either
deficit or a surplus of labor. he re-
ports to the county man." whose
business it is to effect adjustments
between the several communities in
his county. The county man, in turn,
reports any deficit or surplus to the
State man." who canvasses the sit
uation for the State as a whole and
reports to the Department of Agri-
culture, which, in close cooperation
with the Department of Labor, is
charged with the distribution of
mobile labor for the country as a
whole.
Thus each unit in the system acts
as clearing house for it's own ter
ritory, reporting to the units higher
up only when 1t needs help or has
help to offer. The plan provides that
supplemental reports snail be sub
mitted by each community man
whenever changes in the local labor
situation make desirable further ad-
justments that cannot be met with
the material at hand, or when
surplus of labor develops which he
can not use.
A great many retired farmers,
of whom there are 100000 in the
country, may be available for emer-
gency service under this plan of farm
labor mobilization. The plans con-
template also the drawing of emer-
gency labor from the cities under
the immediate direction of the De-
partment of Labor. the effective
utilization of college students and
school boys, and. If necessary, the
assignment of volunteer women and
girls to rural tasks connected par
ticularly with feeding and caring
for harvest hands or other extra
labor, or with farm canning or dry
ing of surplus perishable products.
In other words, the plan contein-
plates supplying assistance not mere
ly for field operations, but to farm
women during their season of heavi-
est domestic duties.