The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-15
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. G.
ENTER THE LAND ARMY NOW.

| ENTER THE LAND ARMY NOW.
New York, April 10.-The American
Land service is again recruiting for
farm hands to help harvest this year s
crops turnout the large agricultural
areas of the eastern coast. 1t has
opened q headquarters for summer en-
| listment on the second floor of the
Lexington theater here, where the
process of filling out applications for
farm service is pleasantly accompanied
by lifting tunes that float up from
the rehearsals of a musical comedy
on the stage below.
The housing of a farming enterprise
in such a theatrical atmosphere may
seem a bit odd, but it is very wise. 1t
stimulates recruiting, for almost any
body will pledge his services to the
crop cause in order to enter theater
where a rehearsal is going on. Then,
| too, the room in which the American
Land service has its recruiting desk,
is very large, with a pianola and a
| slippery floor which it intends to util-
ize later on for a series of barn
dances and other picturesque rural
festivals as advertising features for its
work
1t is willing to go to the most
elaborate lengths, it says, to mobilize
a farm army of young men and wom-
en- who will don oTerSlls and help to
prevent the crop catastrophe which
! occurred last year. Then, thousands
of bushels of everything were wasted
because the farmers could not pro-
cure enough labor to ship their prod
ucts. This year the same thing will
undoubtedly occur again, unless the
/ necessary labor is provided.
| All consumers will be glad to hear
that the prospects for it's provision ap-
pear extremely bright at present. In
the three weeks that the recruiting
| headquarters has been open, thou
sands of city residents have responded
eagerly to the call of the farm. Many
of these are seasonal workers who are
anxious to employ their idle time to
| advantage this summer, but stenog-
| raphers. clerks, students. teachers and
other ''shut-in" workers are also in
cluded in the list of applicants. Trust
the New Yorker to know good thing
when he sees it, and the, opportunity
the land service is offering is good
thing 1t means healthy, outdoor
vacation with pay, which will be a
splendid conditioning process for the
forthcoming indoor work of fall and
| winter.
1t is curious that the majority of the
applicants are citybred workers
whose acquaintance with farm life
has been acquired almost entirely thru
the windows of a railroad train. There
have been few applicants from girls
and boys who have come from farms
altho there are a large number OF
them III new L DIX. "A great DldHy SA-
service men have seized this chance te
get back-to an outdoor life, which
they declare they have missed amaz-
ingly since they left the army.
During the first week that the land
service was open for enlistment, an ex-
service man, a young lieutenant who
had been decorated for bravery
abroad, came into the office and ap-
piled for a job. He had a young wife
and baby to suppoSt, he said, but. after
the army, the indoor office life was
killing him. The lfeutenant's wife is
an English girl. who helped to start
the Yoman's land army on its way ir
En- gland. so naturally the land service
was interested in seeing this early
pioneer and her husband well taker
care of. 1t hunted thru its files, and
finally it found just the right thing
for them. 1t was a country estate out
on Long Island, where the lieutenant
acts as a supervisor for the owner
with a house and garden for the use
of his family, and $40 month in
wages clear.
The Land service is now attempting
to find similar place for a printer
and his wife and their eight-year-ol ole
little boy, who is an invalid. Theil
physician has assured them that there
is little hope of the boys recovery
while they remain in the city, so the
, printer is willing to throw up his 1of
and become a farm hand for the
benefit of his child.
Health rather than riches, in fact
} seems to be the chief lure of the Land
service. Every applicant who come:
in announces that it is the outdoor
life he is after, and that it is worth
: lot of money to him to be able to ge
out of the city during the hot, humid
summer. Nevertheless, money doe
enter into the transaction. Jus
! 1nr iS efi IN fla
, the farmers. The Land service is go
ing to try to make them pay thirty OF
thirty-five cents an hour, but it sus
poets that the farmers will agree e
} pay only twenty-five, which was thu
price paid last year. This is for gen
get three cents for every quart of Der
= ries they pick, and 1t is estimated tina
! a fairly rapid picker can earn at thi
: rate on an average of three dollars {
day.
In the case of the girls. who will
} live at the camps established by thu
, Land service, a boarding rate of a
least six dollars a week will be de
Quoted from their wages The service
has great ambitions for these camps
: this year. Last year. they were com
, Portable enough, except that in man.
, cases the supervisors were said to b
inefficient and unwisely chosen. Ant
= a great deal depends upon the super
visor, for she is in complete charge o
the girls and she can make their worl
a Joy or a burden to them. In add
l ton to specially trained and qualified
= women for supervisors this summer
= the service expects to introduce a 10
of expert equipment. There will b
shower baths for the girls, and al
electric laundry and an electric dish
r Washing machine. Otherwise, the sim
plicity of the rural life will be undis
turbed. Any girl who sleeps outdoor
must bring her own mosquito netting
and all must bring their own beddinl
, and blankets.