New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-25

Keep the same place ~ Uoh hh't =" ~ '' 81,
else you must run at least twieo as fast as that
IL New York serves as a text for the Aneri-
can state of mind, nearly all men and women
worth their salt are emulating Mr.. Britllngs
enthusiastic but blind efforts to render public
service. Yet to one such Mr.. Brtling at least
it seems as if we must all run much faster or
else we shall. like Alice and the Red Queen,
| never get ahead
| These remarks are prompted not merely by
the dscouragng reports of the daily press,
| but by a months rather intimate observation
of the efforts making in New York State to
get labor to the farm-efforts which it is
feared are not far from typical of what is
happening throughout the country from
Washington to the smallest village Of North
| Dakota.
| In New York there are about 215,00O pro-
ducing farms. The larger wages in muniton
factories and other industrial enterprises
have drawn the lahore from the farm. The
necessity of increased I'd production has
thus naturally evoked countless energies tow
ard meeting the farmers need for hands. 10
devise an emergency method OF accomplish
| ing such results requires no genius Tor or
ganization. Obviously, the immediate thing
to have done was to put the matter under
centralized governmental control, whether
state Federal; to ascertain and catalogue
farm labor supply and demand; to organize a
clearing bureau, thus creating point of con-
tact between the two; to put good man in
charge of such bureau-for the best wheels
do not revolve without driving power-to give
him enough money to establish branches and
conduct an efficient farm employment office.
These were the immediate things-they could
not perhaps have reached the greater eco
nomic problem Of increasing farm wages so
that farm labor would naturally flow back to
the soil, but they would, at least, have been
temporary measures for this seasons crop.
1t was great chance for governmental
agencies.
Confusion Worse COMPOUNDED
What has happened? State Patriotic
Farm Service Commission was created with
an appropriation Of half a million dollars.
| Then a State Council of Defence was created
with a veto power over the Farm Commits
sion's budget-a pretty prospect for bicker-
| ing. Meantime various agencies, TO enumer-
ate which would be to Guido Homer's cata-
| logue of ships, are at work. Mention may be
made of few: The Federal Departments Of
Labor and Agriculture, the State Industrial
Commission, the Municipal Department OF
Labor, the bureaus of farm labor Of the state
and city departments of education, the County
Farm agents, the Public Employment Bureau
OF the City of New York, the Mayors Food
Committee, committees of the Merchants AS
ISOLATION, the Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts.
the Young Mems Christian Associations, the
Children's Aid Society, colleges and schools,
etc, etc. All these are as busy as ants on a
hill. In the Borough of Manhattan alone
there are not less than six Independently con-
Quoted Offices where persons desiring to work
on farms may apply. That such conditions
are confusion worse COMPOUNDED, that they are
little less than chaos. is self-evident.
Out of this maze hope for order is emery
ing, but not through governmental leadership.
Last week the more important of these
agencies met and appointed committee on
coordination under the leadership of whose
tactful and skilled chairman, William Church
Osborn, we may hope for some real accom-
plishment if the service Of any private cti-