New-York tribune., 1918-03-14
Conscript or Cooie
By q New England Farmer
TO the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: A recent statement of
United States EMPLOYMENT Ser

Sir: "A recent statement of the
United States Employment Service
that there is labor shortage is quite
misleading if it applies to agricultural
labor, and affords little comfort to the
farmer who in 1917 saw many of his crops
rot in the fields for want of help to culti-
vate or harvest them.
The difficulty of procuring farm labor is
as great in the country to-day as it at
any time last year.
Let me give my own small experience as
quite typical of that of many farmers and
would-be farmers in the East My Iarm-
land is in a fourishng old township in
Southwestern Vermont situated in fertile
valley of about ten thousand inhabitants,
with numerous thriving factories and fine
outlying farming country, which is farmed
b. industrious and intelligent farmers who
own their own farms of about two three
hundred acres each.
My modest farm consists of twenty acres
of arabic land and ten acres Of timber land.
Last spring, in response to the patriotic de-
mand for the raising of record potato crop,
| planted four of that essential at a
cost of about $3.50, which included seed at
So bushel team labor at double price
and fertilizer. lost the entire crop because
Il
wages, for one day.
Lost for Lack of Labor
also lost fifteen acres of hay because /
could not get it cut, and it remains on the
land waiting to be ploughed in next spring.
| have fifty moro cords of fallen timber
in my wood lot, fine, hard wood beech, oak
and maple, blown down year ago in great
storm. | tried for six weeks in the fall and
a,I, wi, hof ho
get choppers to cut it into cord wood at
81 & cord, the usual price for late year
chopping having been 81 a cord. l ad
vertiscd for choppers in the local paper
and resorted to every expedient to get them,
but to no avail. | obliged to close my
country house, which is equipped for burn
ing wood only, and hurry to coalless New
York. Strange to relate, in this mountainous
region where wood abounds there was no
trouble in getting coal, but wood was impos-
sble.
Within the last week l have had letter
from leading citizen of b, saying that
owing to the heatless Mondays many men
in the town would be out Of employment in
the mills on those days, and would like the
privilege of going to my woods, which arc
within a mile of the centre of the town on
the trolley line, and cutting and drawing
away what WOOD they needed. wrote back
that if they wanted work | would give
number of responsible men So a cord for
cutting the fallen trees into cord wood, and
for every ten cords they cut I would give
two cords to the gentleman who wrote me
to distribute to the poor Of the town. He
replied promptly that no one desired work
upon these terms. The idle men only want
ed the privilege of cutting my wood for
their use.
How Meet the Demand?
We have everything but the agricultural
labor with which to meet the demand. This
is question of first and paramount impor-
tance to the nation. Spring is coming and
the farmer must decide very soon what he
can plant and raise successfully, and that
is reduced to question of labor.
How, then, is the demand for farm labor
to be met?
The report of the Employment Service
Bureau suggests that it can be ACCOMPLISHED
by distribution of labor. No doubt that
would be beneficial. But the difficulty lies
deeper. The basic reason for a congestion
of labor in some parts of the country Cf
such be the fact as reported) and a scarcity
in others is that the laborers do not seek
employment on the farms The large wages
of the factories, their freedom from the
more rugged and healthy life of the farm
and the lure of tie town are responsible
for this inequality in the distribution of
labor seeking employment. But the farm
work must be done.
If we cannot induce our workingmen to
work upon the farms we must either con-
script an industrial agricultural army or
we must import foreign labor, as the French
are doing.
They have 100000 Cinnamon at work in
France; we could have a million here
asked a Vermont farmer last fall if he
would object to Chinese farmland, and
his reply was that he would not object to
a monkey if he kept sober and did his work.
and that from what he had read and heard
Cinnamon were very faithful and reliable
workmen, easily taught
Th re seems but one other alternative.
and that is the conscription of an agricult
ural army. Men who are able should either
farm or fight when necessity requires.
Lee the conscription law, then, be extended
SO as to include the drafting of idle men
into great industrial agricultural armv to
supply farm labor under government control
and at soldiers pay. J.N n
New York March a, 1918.
William R,ro~J ILL., W.