The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1918-07-03
WITH THE EDITORS
WHAT KANSAS DID

Something like 100000 men-mayhe few
thousand more, maybe "a fewithousands less-ars
out in the Kansas wheat feldsepr will be before
June and July have passed, harvesting this years
war-winning crop. - *,<-,. -, +. y,
Where does this army Of harvest hands come
from? Well, where does Pershing's army Of
fighters come from from stores and banks and
farms and Offices and shops, from every trade,
every profession, every walk Of American life.
Just so in Kansas. The army Of haryesters comes
from the villages and towns and cities-men Of
every calling, men of every kind, who left their
town affairs for a few weeks and flocked to farms
for precisely the same reasons, thhb their rea,
tives and friends came to the col6rs77to play a
part in winning the war. il. .,...:. :,
Kansas is using as much outside farm labor
as could be secured, of course, but that supply is
sufficient to fill only small part of the need.
Kansas is doing what every other state has done
or must do-harvest its own crop with it's own
labor, for the most part. i,
Kansas towns have "shut up shop" so to
speak, during the heavy period of the harvest.
Men from towns and cities have left their comfy
jobs and professions and are putting in few
weeks of the toughest work ever tackled-doing
it for sheer patriotism, although of course, they
earn harvest-hand wages-doing it to save food
crop, the saving of which is as necessary as the
holding of a sector on the fighting line!e
It is an inspiring picture of patriotism First
the young manhood of free people freely march
ing away to fight for the worlds freedom; now the
home remaining manhood leaving desk and shop
and turning to the harvest fields in order that the
fighters, and the civilians sustaining the fighters,
may be fed and the fight continue to victorious
end. <* 2.:.- go o." =
1t really means that the allies have won an
other great battle-that is the true appraisal~of
the scene in Kansas, where men from every town
and city went into physical training classes for a
few weeks hardening, and then swept across the
grain fields, toiling determinedly- because of
compusion, not because of wage inducements, not
because of anything under the sun except that
they are Americans, and therefore are willing and
eager to work until they drop if that will help
crush the Hun. .-.>
~ The town women of Kansas volunteered for
the harvest army, and so did the boys. And
they are working-the women pealing potatoes
and washing dishes and cooking food for the har-
vesters; the boys fitting in at every sort of odd
JOU I'LL "CH CIcy dIc SuANCIellCiy SCIOIIS VI USE
ful-the men thus being free to devote their en-
tire energy to the actual harvest.
For months the United States department of
agriculture has advocated for every community
and county the policy which Kansas has given
statewide application. The people of Nebraska,
Minnesota, North and South Dakota plan similar
concert of action as the harvest swings north
ward. In every state and for every harvest, or
crop emergency, this is the safe and certain and
patriotic solution of the farm labor problem
the utilization of town volunteers to the extent
that farm labor needs may require. Harvey
Journal. tr'g7 r.,