The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-07-11
CAPITAL AND
LABOR UNITE
ON The FARM
For First Time in History of Am
erican Agriculture Wage
Agreement Is Sought
TOWNLEY AND HAGAN
v0UCH FOR CONTRACT
Declare Agreement League Has
Sought to Make With Union ,
y Is Safe and Sane

the first time in the history Of Amer
lea an organization Of farmers repre-
senting the employing class is asked
here today to ratify an agreement
| with a labor organization represent
ing the farm labor of America. The
proposed contract is one which com
mittee selected by President A. C
Townley of the Nonpartisan league
has tentatively entered into with a
committee representing the Agricul
tural Workers union.
The effect of the agreement, John
n. Hagan, commissioner of agriculture
and labor for North Dakota, and who
headed the Nonpartisan league com
mittee, will be to assure the North
Dakota farmer an abundant supply of
skilled labor, when and where 1t is
needed; to eliminate the congregation
Of unemployed, which the commission
er holds has been responsible for
North Dakota's I. w. w. troubles in
the past, and to prevent any dispute
between the farmer and the hands
upon whom he is to rely for the har-
vesting of North Dakota's much need
ed bumper crops. h. II ~. n.
r. 3 II The independent Farmer.
i Ratification" meetings of league
members, called by President Town
ley, similar to that in progress here
today, will be held in Fargo, Valley
City and Bismarck. The leagues
farmer membership is reported as be-
tween 100000 and 10000. There are
$4,000 farmers in suNorth'c Dakota
Whether those notqih the league will
be bound by the agreement, if ratified
by the league, is not yet clear;
"1f the agreement is not acceptable
to the farmer, "said Commissioner Ha-
gan today, "the department of agricul-
tuGe and labor will seek to continue
to supply the farmers labor needs as
it has done in the past. We have
worked for weeks on this agreement.
If it is approved, I believe it will 60
a long way toward ending harvest
troubles in North Dakota. I am con-
fident the union will live up to its
contract. kx,
Reduced transportation.
"This is the only means l know of
by which we can obtain reduced trans
portation for farm hands; it is the
ore means have yet discovered, of
making certain of skilled hands; it is
the ,One measure which will give Jus
control of the harvest hand from the
time he enters the state until he
leaves it. 1t will mean absolute GER
tainty of employment for the farm Ia
'borer when he arrives at the end of
his journey, something he cannot be
sure of now. 1t is the frequency with
which farm hands are brought into
this state in large numbers, attracted
through unreliable reports of high
wages and great need in some certain
section, or sent in by irresponsible
labor agencies that has caused our
in the past. Men dead
broke, without transportation, and
with no money to pay for meal,
turned loose in strange country, may
be excused for feeling that |
the country which has called them
owes them something"
- What the Union Is.
The Agricultural Workers union
has its headquarters at Kansas City.
with President A. c..
rownley in negotiating the recent
at Kansas City was Arthur
4eSeuer, former socialist mayor OF
Minot, and an attorney who has often
appeared for the I. W. W. The pro-
;eedings of the meeting were reported
n full by the Industrial Worker, the
,fficial organ of the l. w. w. These
acts have led some farmers to regard
he Agricultural Workers union as
heir old enemy, the I. W. w. in dis
,uise. The union, however, is vouched
or by President Townley and Com
missioner Hagan.