Norwich bulletin., 1920-04-02

The other day read. in the Let ters from the People column Of a prominent western newspaper q com r1unicat.on casting another. ray of light on another phase. This cores pondent wrote:
 'The farmer who is bewailing the scarcity of help may as well under stand that the day of the road tramp is over. He can no longer pick up a wayfarer in the highway, put him to work at small wages, half starve him, lodge him in an attic and make him feel that he is his benefactor and then in the late fall when the hardest work is finished, turn the man adrift again.
 farm is to use him as a human being and be hospitable to him. Give him decent working conditions. Don't be- grudge him an hour or two's rest when it rains or an occasional Satur- day afternoon in town when nothing particularly is urging.
 "BuiId a tenant house handy, with a small barn, buggy shed, chicken house and a pig pen and then you won't need, to cry about help. There ] is plenty of help, MT. Farmer, if you know how to get it and hold it. Quit your drooling and spruce up. You're out of step"
 l quote at some length so you can i get a good grip on this mans idea that labor is plentiful if only farm CTS were not such brutal and niggard- | ly slave drivers as to scare it away from the farms.
 | These two illustrations. I think, give a pretty fair idea of the way in which people who are ignorant of real farm conditions regard the situation. And there are a great many of them too, too many. Just one such in the whole country would be misfor tune. Instead of one there are mil lions and their position is worse than unfortunate, it is ominous.
 We, each one of us for himself know the facts about labor on our own farms and in our own neighbor- hoods.
 1 The director of the farm bureau ir one of the most productive agricultu- ral counties of the east the other da1 issued formal warning to the towns
 people of his district that they were facing a big increase of prices foI farm products, if something wasn't
 done speedily to provide adequate la.
 bor on the farms. Jobs paying more
 money have lured big percentage o [ farm help to the cities where they
 
 three times as much as they can carr
 on farms at present prices of farm
 products. The real effect of the short.
 age of labor will be seen next fal
 when the prices of produce go high.
 er.'
 New York state maintains a stat,
 employment bureau. devised especial ly to meet and supply demands for la.
 bor, particularly farm labor. It re ports that Farmers are sending 1T
 urgent calls for workers, offerinl wages far above those of a year ago
 but there has been little or TO re.
 sponse."
 The field agent for that same grea
 state of the Washington departmen of agriculture reports, after gatheriny information from all parts, that tn present prospect is for a reduction o
 third of a million acres in thu
 states area of crops-about as mucl as the acreage of crops in two ave
 rage counties.
 "'The reason for this condition o affairs he says, "is that manufactur
 CTS are able to pay higher wages ant offer much shorter hours than farm
 CTS can afford. Reports from al
 parts of the state show that experi enced farm laborers are everywher demanding wages THAT ARG GREATER THAN THE NET EARN INGS OF THE AVERAGE FARMER so that only unusually skillful farm CTS who have large and productiv
 farms can. find any profit from hirini help for more than brief period dur ing harvest. As a result of this sit
 uation the great majority of farmer will grow only what they and thei