Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1919-07-24
FARMERS PAID HIGH
TO HARVEST CROPS
Il is a long way from Petrograd

1t is long way from Petrograd
to the Kansas wheat fields and a
longer way from Maria Botchka-
reva's Battalion of Death" to the
battalions of women who have been
making it possible for the nation to
have bread. This is not a story OF
pretty ''farmerettes" in fetching
unionalls, shedding sweetness on the
prairie air and charming the harvest
ers with the latest ukulele tinkles
from the shade of the old apple tree
They look well in the Sunday pa
pers; they add piquancy to summer
reading and doubtless increase the
business of photographers. But the
average wheat raiser would not know
farmerett if he met one in his mo.
tor car. What he thinks of is get
ting the acres of 50 wheat in the
shock and stack.
These are the most strenuous
days the wheat raiser ever saw. Be
ginning down on the edge of Texas
in late June, reaching up into cen
trail Kansas in early July and keep
ing On until the Dakotas have har-
vested their crop of spring wheat in
late summer, the workers are sweat
ing under the sun while the farmer
is driving back and forth to town try
ing to secure enough helpers to care
for the grain.
While the l. w. w. cut little fig
ure in the western fields this year
compared with previous seasons, the
men were we'll used to combinations
for higher wages. The first announce
ment was that they would be paid
fifty cents an hour, making Sc to 81
a day, for the harvests went on IL
hours every day. But this is what
happened
A Kansas farmer came to town in
his motor car and drove up to the
city park where a dozen men were
sitting in the shade. 'Got jobs for
six men," he announced. What
yer payin'?" Fifty cents an hour. >
Nothing doing--give us sixty and
we'll CO.
At nrst the farmer rebelled; then
as the ripe grain stood they capitu-
lated and paid sixty. The price
went to seventy and later TO seventy
five and eighty-but that was the
limit and the producers declared
they would let the crop rot before
they would pay it. Here is how one
farmer figured out his harvest ex-
peUS6 bWlut WIZ ech
men at SIS day for ten days, $500;
board and other expenses, $Z0O,
making $S75 for 200 acres of wheat.
The threshing will cost twelve cents
a bushel, and board of men, with
probably six men hired at SIS a day.
So that he will eXpend close to
$500 for his harvest.
In the face of these figures there
~,ox Ar nau fnr haIn from tho wnm-
en- folks. One farmer in his effort
to get help sent his wife to the near
est employment station to hire them.
She rounded up twenty men, put
them on a train and stayed with
them until they reached the station,
There she herded them in motor cars
and delivered them at the farm.
The most striking exhibition OF
women actually working at harvest
as a serious Job was out in the Rus
sian settlements of western Kansas,
Wheat fields stretch there for miles
and counties less than 10000 popu-
lation, counting men, women and
children, have 100000 to 100000
acres of wheat. 1t all ripened at
once and the call for help went out
to eastern cities. The railroads
would send men If the fare was guar
anteed hut the farmers could not
trust the men to come to them and
would not send the money. SO II
was necessary to take what could be
secured and the home folks did the
rest. Stores in the towns have been
closed three days a week while bus
inessmen worked in the harvest, the
women of the town have driven cars
carrying out workers to save time for
the farmers. The Russian women
have been in the fields from daylight
to dark, working alongside their hu :
bands and brothers and saving the
precious grain. They are a sturdy
lot and used to farm work, doing
more in day than most of the i'm
ported helpers could in two. In
their dark dresses, with shawls
around their heads they seem to
have dropped out Of suburb OF
Petrograd, so foreign are they But
for them there would have been lit
tie chance of securing all the marvel
GUS crop that was produced on the
prairies in that section this year. 1t
is little wonder the Russians are
getting rich-they are among the
most thrifty people of the middle
west-men and women alike are
farmers.
ray nADU