The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-12-08
POPUL ATLNG.
FARMS SOUGHT
Farm Placement OF Fami-
lies In Industrial Centers
Is Goal Al Raleigh
The Times-Ncws Bureau
Sir Waiter Hotel

RALEIGH, Dec. S.-Plans for
taking families who have been on
relief in the industrial cities and
towns and placing them on farms
where they can at least become
partially seif-supporting are al
ready being worked out by the
state department of labor. accord
ing to Commissioner A. L. Fetch
CT. Homer II. E. Mask, formerly
of Guilford county and now su-
perviSor Of Farm Placement and
Farm Employment Of the U. S.
Department Of Labor, has been as
signed to the State Department Of
Labor and will work out the farm
placement program for North
Carolina, Commissioner Fletcher
said. Mr. Mask arrived here Mon
day and is now mapping out his
preliminary plans with the coop
GRAFTON with the agricultural eX-
! tension division at State College
| here.
! North Carolina has been select
ed by the U. S. Department of
Labor as the first state and for
the time being as the only state,
in which this new program will be
put into effect, Commissioner
Fletcher said. If the program
proves successful here it is plan
ned to extend it to other states.
This plan for the return of fami-
lies of farm origin from industrial
centers back to farms was devel-
oped largely by Commissioners
Fletcher and was thought so well
or by Department Of Labor Off
Gals in Washington that they de-
cided to experiment with it here
in North Carolina.
1t is a well known fact that du"-
J ing the days of prosperity prior
to 1929, thousands of families
moved from farms to the indus
trial centers to get jobs in the cot
i ton mills and factories. In those
days. when labor was in demand,
most of the members Of these
families were able to get jobs in
the mills and industrial plants.
Surveys have also shown, how
ever, that members of these farm
families did not develop into
skilled factory workers as rapidly
as those from families who had
been mill workers for a genera
ton or more. The result was that
when the slump in industry came
with the depression. the first to
lose their Jobs were those Of farm
origin and many Of these have
been employed and on federal re-
/ lief ever since. Many of these
families would be glad of an OPP
portunitv to get back on farm
again. But they have no way Of
making contacts, have no capital
and hence are utterly dependent.
1t is also true that there has been
/ virtually no demand for farm Ia
+ her of the tenant class, to which
most yof these families belonged.
''What we hope to do in this
farm placement program is not to
make tenant farmers out OF these
farm families. but to return them
TO the land where they can make
part or even all Of their living
; Commissioner Fletcher said. eve
are not going to ask farm owners
to take these families and use
them as tenants to raise cotton
and tobacco and money crops. We
are merely going to ask them to
| let these families use vacant ten
ant houses and enough land that
| is not being used for other pur-
poses, for them to raise a garden
and sufficient food for their own
needs. In this way, these families
/ will not be competing with the
farmers. but will have a chance
to be either partially or entirely
self-supporting. while as long as
! they remain in the Industrial cities
and towns they will have to be
supported from relief funds.
When they are returned to farms,
the relief administration will help
them get the necessary start ana
help support them until they can
make their first crops.
The first thing Supervisor Mask
will do will be to make survey
of the state, county by county, to
find the number of families or
farm origin which are willing to
90 back to farming. and then to
j find farmers in each county who
will permit the use of a vacant
tenant house and plot of ground
for one of these families, Com
missioner Fletcher said.
"There will not be anything
compulsory about the plan, and
only those families will be re-
turned to the land that actually |
want to 90 back Fletcher said. |
"But we know there are hundreds
of families that are not only WI
ling, but anxious to go back to |
farming, if they can only get the |
land to farm. We also are con-
fident that there are thousands Of |
farmers who will be glad to do
nate the use of vacant tenant
houses and a few acres Of land |
for the use of these families when
thew understood the plan"
Mr.. Mask tried out this plan
when he was connected with the |
relief administration in Guilford |
county and succeeded in placing |
! AZ families back on. the farm in |
that one county.