Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-03-05

VIZ ASHINGTON D. c., Feb. 2S.-A ''Woman's
wv. Land Army has recently been organized
,,,, IN New York state, with a view TO re
heVlnG the farm labor shortage anticipated this
season. The women of this army to be or
gained into gangs of about ten members EACH
which, under the direction of a supervising man
ager will so from farm to farm in the fruit-grow-
ing and truck-farming sections of the eastern
states and help the farmers harvest their crops
There is one condition attached to this feminine
aid however. The must be guaranteed
suitable living accommodations
This is the first movement to substitute wom-
for male Iaborers on the farms of this country
and has brought forth wide diversity of opinion
as to the merits of farm labor.
inevitably, there will be great scarcity Of
labor on the farms this year. No special exemp-
lions from the draft have been made in the case
of farmers, while the high wages prevailing in
industry are drawing more and more men away
from agriculture. STILL the popular tendency
to be to solve the problem in some other
way than by the substitution of women.
Professor w. j. Spillman, formerly farm man
agement expert of the department of agriculture,
now at Cornell university, is of the opinion that
female labor could be used the farms with
good results. This season l expect to see at
least $4,000 women taking the place of on
FARMS he predicted a shorr time ago. cit is
estimated that nearly 40 per cent of the young
men drafted will come from the farms Male
labor is already scarce. Women will be needed
to help harvest the crops"
On the other hand, other authorities are en-
phatic in their opposition to such a measure.
Miss Helen w. Atwater of the department of agri-
culture and a member of the woman's committee
of the council of national defense declares that
the substitution of women for men the farms
would not only be an unnecessary but tremend-
ously expensive answer to the labor scarcity
problem.
I'VE have not yet reached the point where
such is essential" she asserts "In
England, it is, though it costs much to
place woman in the agricultural field in Eng
land it does to send soldier to the 'front.'
In the first place, Miss Atwater says, women
not born farm laborers-they have to be
trained In England, for instance, they have to
ments and to do the special tedious work of the
dairies; all of which takes time. Six
months of training are not enough in some cases.
to convert woman urbanite into farmer.
In the second place, living conditions on
American farms are usually anything but COM
most farms when the hired hands arrive in the
busy farming season they compelled, in the
popular phrase of the street. Ito shift for them
selves" The farmers wife does not get out her
best silverware and china and linen sheets to well
come them She works from morning until night
preparing their food but that is about all she
can do. The laborers sleep in the barn, in the
hay-mow in hastily constructed beds of hay
and blankets.
Ask the average farmers wife to house a
gang Of ten women workers for week. and she
would most likely collapse the doorsill. 1.-THE
would be to build rent temporary accommo-
datons for the workers, and woman
would have to be taken along housekeeper, to
take care of the cooking laundry and other nee
essary factors of existence"
This is somewhat the plan that the
woman's land army of New York state has in
mind. They believe that training for
agriculture is a more useful occupation than
training them to shoot, and that when the time
comes-when the actual scarcity of labor is be-