Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1918 — Shortage of Harvest Labor. [ARTICLE]

Shortage of Harvest Labor.

Of all th<» agricultural labor problems confronting the farmers of the country at this time, probably the most serious is that of getting enough help to harvest the wheat crop. In normal times there was a shifting population of from 30,000 to 50,000 men who followed the harvest season from the South to the North of the wheat belt. Floating labor is no longer available to any such great extent, and the matter Of harvest labor, always a problem, Is now a more serious one. Mr. E. E. Frlzell, the department of agriculture’s farm help specialist for Kansas, recently wrote: “After full and complete investigation, I am free to say ♦hat the farmers of Kansas will not be able to save the wheat crop unless they can get help from some of the surrounding states.” What is true of Kansas is probably true of most of the other wheat states. The department of agriculture and the department of labor, with fairly adequate funds available, are using their best efforts to solve the problem, which they undoubtedly will do. But the city people of the states Involved, by proper organisation and co-operation, can help a great deal. If they care at all for more wheat bread and less war bread

during the next 12 months, they will help a great deal. If their patriotism is at all manifest, not to say militant, they will help a great deal. For the nation to mature a wheat crop and then fail to harvest it would be exactly as 'bad policy as for the government to mobilize and train an army and then poison it