The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-06-13
FARM HELP
LEAVING
FAST.
Problem to Find Workers, He
says-Adyocates Lifting
Alien Bars.
By WILLIAM X. HUTCHINSON,

By WILLIAM X. HUTCHINSON,
International News Service.
America is facing agricultural
suicide as . result Of the loss of
man-power on her farms, Senator
T. ii. CarawaH (Dem.) of Arkan-
sas declared today in urging Gov
ornamental action to remedy the
situation.
Food Shortage Fear. :.
Unless the emigration from farms
h stopped, Caraway warned, the
nation will face stunning food
shortages" within five years. He
asserted he would sponsor remedial
legislation in the next Congress.
Fully 100000 persons will
leave the farms this summer to
ind new places in the cities" said
Caraway. More than 1900, Zoo
enigrated from the farms last year
Every one who has gone from farm
to city il q magnet drawing hun
dreds Of others. Unless this emf
grafton is halted, there win be
stunning food shortages within tive
years and our farms will be idle"
CaraWay proposed two legislative
remedies for the situation:
/. Admit sufficient en1igrants to
settle and operate all farms; or,
3. Provide q living wage for farm
workers by insuring them an ade-
Quate compensation for their prod
ucts.
THE farmers problem has be-
come national problem, affecting
the people living in cities even
more than those remaining on the
FARMS" Caraway continued. FOOD
IL comparatively cheap now, but
once production is seriously re-
duced on our farms, food prices
alone, he will solve his own problem
but at q frightful cost to the pub
lic.
VIII Drain Farms.
''Thls wave Of. emigration will
drain the farms until agricultural
products become 90 scarce, the sell
ing price will guarantee wage for
farmers equal to that of workers in
the city. Then the movement back
70 the farms will start, but when
that time comes, there will be a
serious food shortage and many
people will be unable to buy food
I believe food prices will rise four
or five times their present values
unless some remedy is worked out
now"
The emigration, Caraway said,
was started by farm youths who
envied the ''$8 to SIP a day jobs
Their sisters followed them, too,
and will continue to take the road
leading to the CITY," he added. "The
girls hate the monotony of farm
life and desire the brightly colored
life of the cities. They also have
won a new independence and long
to be self-supporting wage-earners."
Caraway declared the agricultural
man-shortage would dawn sudden
~ on the nation only by the arrival
Of sensational increases in the cost
Of food"
cit will have the same effect As
o frightful catastrophe" he warned.
"And that will be its nature for
those unable to pay high prices for
food. IL the same rate of farm
emigration, OF the last two years,
is continued for five more years,
half Of all the farm land in the ma
ton will be idle and food produc-
ton cut in half. Unless the emigra-
ton is stopped, America will be
committing agricultural suicide"
Caraway also declared the South
was confronted with a serious
shortage of man-power due to
Negro emigration to the North.
"In the last eighteen months.
$500, 900 Negroes have left south
ern farms to find homes in the
North-drawn by higher wages"
Caraway said. This movement
will result in the disintegration Of
great estates in the South, the i'm
portation of new labor-possibly
Mexican-and the settling of South
ern farms by white tenants. An
other problem faces the North, how.
ever, in caring for the great in
crease in Negro population"