The Elbert County tribune., 1918-05-03
Permanent FARM
LABOR PROBLEM
Question Which Should Be Given
Serious Consideration by
Farmer.
ONE SOLUTION IS OFFERED
Good Homes, Fair Wages and Some
Privileges VIII Attract Desirable
Men Who Understand Farm
Work.

prepared by the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture.)
MISUNDERSTANDING supply of perman-
ent farm labor-note the word perman-
ent-will not be assured in many sec
tons Of the country, and on some
farms. at least, In every section of the
country, unless more attractive living
conditions are offered the families of
hired hands on farms.
War conditions cause farm labor
problem that can be solved only by
emergency methods. Throughout the
| nation communities will solve their
war problems of farm labor shortage
by utilizing us temporary farm help
town volunteers and high school boys
by civerting to agricultural activity
man power that would not and could
not be so used except In n renl emer-
gency. But the town men of farm ex-
perience who go to the fields this spring
and summer and fall viii be actuated
solely by patriotism rather than the
financial return Of the undertaking.
They are going back to town as soon
ms their war work on farms is finished.
And, while their services are vastly
valuable from war standpoint, they
are not helping at all to solve the prob
lem of permanent farm help. But the
man who expects to work on a farm
steadily. year In and year out. is pro-
| foundly interested In the question Of
housing. living conditions and net re-
Enumeration for farm work as compared
with town work.
| Provide Good Homes.
| The attitude of thousands of married
men who are skilled farm workers,
who have left the country to find town
employment. but who will return to
farm work permanently provided farm
living conditions are comparable in or
binary comforts to those in town. is
expressed in this letter recently pub
lished In Texas paper:
Il am sending in my view of the
farm labor problem. I have been try
ing to get job on the farm the last
month; still trying to do so. cnn find
plenty Of Jobs for single man e.
but the farmers 80 far as have found
have no tenpnt houses. or II they have
one 1t would not make a good stable.
Most of the farmers that / have found
will not permit farm hand to raise a
garden or chickens or hogs or own a
COW or horse, and the prevalent pay
Is insufficient to support family I'M
der such conditions. believe II the
farmers would build comfortable
houses and either pay better wages or
give more privileges, 1t would be the
city man calling for help instead Of the
farmers"
There are many evidences of an in
creasing desire on the part of men with
| families, now living In towns and cit
les but with experience as skilled farm
workers. to go back to the country.
They left the farm because they be-
lieved they could make more money, get
more satisfaction out of life, give more
pleasures and opportunities to their
families in town. Many have been dis
appointed. They are willing to return
to the farm at a smaller cash wage
than they receive in town, II they have
a fairly good house and are allowed to
have garden and raise a few pigs
and perhaps have the use of a COW.
Labor Problem Remains.
What about iti You are farmer
and you are looking for permanent
farm help; not only emergency help
to produce and harvest war crops. but
a man or men to live on your farm and
work the year round. Are your tenant
houses the kind of places a man would
like for his family to call homer Are
| they the kind you would like to live
int
"Oh" you say, 1.-THE other man Is
looking for Job and am not. own
the farm; he wants to work on the
farm. Do you expect the hired hand
to have as good house as the ownerf
If he doesn't like this house he can
leave It'll"
| Well, the trouble Is that Is just what
he will do-and you will continue to
have farm labor problem on your
hands. OF course no one expects the
hired hand to have as good a house as
the farmer: But he does want a COM
Portable place for his family to live in,
and failure to find that on the farms is
one of the reasons for the steadily de-
crensing supply Of permanent farm
help In recent years.
1t may not please the farmer to face
| the fact; nevertheless the truth is that
the skilled farm hand Is In position
to be quite as independent about the
proposition as the farmer himself.
When the farmer says flake this house
or leave It," the really first-class man
knows he can get good Job else
where-and he leavesi
80 1t may be profitable for some
farmers-not all. of course-to think
that over, bearing In mind that let
ter of the Texas man to the effect that