The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-05-16
HALF FARE r.
FARM LABORERS
Volunteer Farm Laborers to Be Grant
ed Greatly Reduced Transportation
Rates in Order That This Seasons
Crop May Be Secured.
FOOD SITUATION IS SERIOUS.

AMC 0CN0SC 40 0tAA W. oA8AAN8 OVSA
The Matter of the Fixing of the
Price Per Bushel of This Seasons
Wheat Crop.
Washington, d. C. May 15.-As a
means Of properly harvesting the
heaviest planting in our history, As
sistant Secretary Of Labor, Post, re-
quests Mr.. McAdoo to establish a half
fare rate on the railroads for farm
labor. The heavy competition Of the
factories in the demand for labor
makes it necessary that men who fol-
low the harvest shall find conditions
favorable. Mr.. Post thinks that the
work can be made attractive by lower
railroad fares.
The nature Of farm work demands q
flexible labor market and large army
Of short time men in different states
as the harvest natures. In ordinary
years there is q large body of casual
laborers who follow the harvest from
Texas to Canada, moving gradually
north with the ripening of the grain.
But because Of. the demand in the fac
tories for unskilled labor, the supply
of harvest hands promises to be
smaller than ever before with q larger
crop to handle.
Volunteer Help Required.
It will be necessary to have the
regular farm help this year supple
mented by volunteer workers who do
not ordinarily engage in harvest
work. For this reason it will be neces-
sary to provide extraordinary means
Of transportation. Mr.. Post estimates
that 100000 railroad trips will be
necessary for harvest workers.
Congressman Baer, in his bill to
appropriate money to loan the, farm
ers to buy seeds and farm machinery,
included provision for transporting
labor, but as that bill is still lying DOR
mant in q senate committee the chanc-
es for its passage seem SO uncertain
the Assistant Secretary Of labor is
trying to find ~otharslnsans Of solving
the most important problem Of get
ting the crops harvested without
waste.
The food problem is looming up
larger every day. It is predicted in
some quarters that America is facing
a food shortage next winter just as it
found itself with coal shortage
last winter. It is too early to make
accurate predictions as to the condi-
tion of the wheat crop. The weather
in the next few weeks will be large
determining factor, but it will be ne
cessary to exert every effort to har-
vest successfully all Of the wheat that
natures.
Food Situation Serious.
The food situation is beginning to
attract attention from statisticians
who do not refuse to look facts in the
face. One of them says in recent
article: 1--WE are not only headed to
q food scarcity-we are entering the
first stages of it now and shutting
our eyes to the facts will not fill a
single empty stomach"
Congressman Baer warned Con-
Rress that this approaching condition
but it was only by exerting every eff
fort that he was able to get COM
promise bill through the lower house.
The bill still languishes in the senate.
AS the sentiment develops the agi-
tation for price fixing on some articles
and not on all is becoming apparent.
More drastic measures are suggested
on all sides. Perhaps they are best
expressed in an article in recent is
sue Of the New Republic by Agnes
C. Laut in which she says, "The way
to cut the cost Of living in half to the
buyer and to double profits to the
farmer is to cut out the intermediary
private profiteering pirate, who takes
toll at both ends, expressing prices
to the farmer by juggled and manipu-
lated market lists, and by jacking up
prices to the buyer under cover OF IN
creased COSTS"
Wheat Price Fixing.
While the time has passed that the
fixing Of the price Of wheat can have
any serious effect on production, the
senate is still wrangling over the
question, refusing to accept the price
Of 1920 set by the president, but de-
manding price Of $3.50. Perhaps
the objection is best summed up by
Senator Jones Of Washington who
said:
ssThe farmers Of my state, while
they think that the action Of the gov
eminent in fixing prices SO far as
farm products are concerned is unfair
and unjust, feel more deeply this sit
uation; they see the government fix-
ing the prices of manufactured pro-
ducts and fixing them in such way as
to insure the manufacturers fair
profit; while they are not assured any
profit at al.
Senator Gore of Oklahoma, who y
1aaflinO tha Arhk for y. 80 wheat. 1aid