The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-10-17

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 acute all through the southwest But the conditions under which these imported Mexicans may bt employed are strictly prescribed by treaty.
 This treaty provides a farm liv- ing standard much higher than has heretofore been obtained by most ot the Okie and Mexican and liegrc farm laborerS throughout many low pay farm areas in the United States. To meet these conditions and give native-born American farm laborers the same advantages to be enjoyed by the Mexican migrants the same minimum wage scales and living standards established by i1- ternational treaty may have to be set up throughout the country.
 As a matter of fact, these in- creased wage and working condi- tion guarantees have already been applied through one area in the east.
 STARTED IN EAST
 During the last two weeks in September, while Congress was de- batting the inflationary farm labor costs hot and heavy, 1900 American farm laborers, mostly Negroes, were recruited in the rural areas of Vir- ginia, West Virginia and Kentucky and were transported at government expense to the critical farm areas of western New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to help harvest the fall crops. And all these 1900 colored farmhands were guaranteed the same wages and living conditions that were given to the Mexicans now at work in the California sugar beet fields.
 These conditions are, in brief, as follows:
 1. The U. s. Employment Serv- ice must certify that there are not sufficient farm laborers available in a given area to harvest war vital crops.
 2. The Farm Security Admin istration may then enter into con- tracts with the local farm opera tors to recruit the necessary farm 1dUOI HI OLA1C1 uACdos
 3. The migrant workers and their families are then moved at government expense to the critical farm areas, but the employers pay to FSA $5 for each worker en- ployed to help defray the costs of hiring and transportation. Enl- ployers must also furnish bond.
 4. Workers are guaranteed the prevailing wages of the area, or a minimum of 30 cents an hour, or the piecework equivalent of 30 cents an hour, whichever is high est.
 5. Workers are guaranteed a minimum of 75 per cent employ ment during the time of the con- tract. When not working-as in moving from one farm area to the other or while waiting for crops to mature or presumably in bad weather-the FSA will furnish subsistence and shelter.
 6. Adequate housing and sani- tary facilities are guaranteed by FSA.
 T. No deductions can be made from workers pay for commits sions or fees or fines. and the workers have the right to make purchases at stores of their own choosing, thus eliminating the com pany store" evil.
 8. At the conclusion Of employ ment, workers and their families are transported back to their orig inal homes, again at government expense.
 AN OKIE HEAVEN
 What all this amounts to is probably an old-time Okie's idea of heaven. The conditions are probably not high for many of the more prosperous farm areas, but with many of the poorer farm areas, such wages, working conditions and guarantees are unheard of.
 It can be argued that all these guarantees are necessary to pro- vide an adequate wartime farm labor supply to take off necessary war crops, so the costs will nave to be met. A further necessity may come from rubber and gas shortages. But if increased farm labor costs are to be passed on to consumers of farm products, the I inflationary tendencies of these government guarantees are obvious.
 The way in which these mini mum wages and working condi- tions came to be accepted makes an interesting background for this whole move. When the U. $. gov- ernment first approached the Mexican government on the ques- tion of importing Mexican labor' the Mexican government was ex- tremely coy, remembering the abuses which Mexican workers sustained in the last war. The Mexican government held out for the guarantees listed above, and in the end got them.
 But 1t is doubtful if, when these conditions were being agreed to in Mexico City, 1t was thought they might become the minimum farm labor standards for the entire United States.