Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 11, Number 2, DeMotte, Jasper County, 28 November 1940 — Washington Digest Rearmament Program to I Cause Farm Labor Shortage Problem [ARTICLE]

Wa shington Digest Rearmament Program to I Cause Farm Labor Shortage Problem

Lack of Migratory Workers Is Noted in Some States; Professor Denounces ‘Disdain’ for Politicians as Real Threat to Democracy.

By BAUKHAGE

(Released by Western Newspaper Union. 1 • WASHINGTON.—The battered old Ford with a tent tied on top and children protruding from every crevice didn’t pull up at a lot of farm gates this fall. When the Okies and their ilk failed to call, rural America, didn’t feel socially slighted but it meant a labor problem had come up for a lot of farmers. Who kept the Okies from keeping their date in the harvest field? Why Herr Hitler, of course. Here in Washington we don’t know just how many families making up the 3,000,000 migrants who are needed by agriculture to help out at harvest time didn’t show up this year but we do know a number were deflected into work in connection with the defense program. Reports reaching the Federal Security administration indicate that in more than one section of the country farm labor has been at a premium. Real shortage of labor hasn't turned up in industry— at least as far as unskilled workers go, but there is a shortage in the skills that is bound to affect the surplus farm population in the long run. I was in New England recently and although up there, the skilled workers are now being absorbed by the war industries faster than they can be trained, the New Englanders still want more industries. In the middle eastern states no farm labor shortage is noted as yet, although the cities are calling for the skills; Wisconsin has notled a lack of migrants, and in the southeast the big job of building ilrrny camps has taken a lot of skilled construction workers from other sections and also called a lot of unskilled labor away from the cotton and tobacco fields. j Migrant Workers More ‘Choosy’ . From Wyoming to New Mexico the farmers and ranchers have found the migrants a let more choosy. When they don’t get the money and the housing conditions they want they move on. The'migrant worker in the United States is what might be called a necessary evil, at least in one sense. He’s necessary all right, for harvests couldn’t be (brought in and large-scale roadbiiiilding simply couldn’t be attempted if it weren’t for him. And he’s evil, too, when it comes to size hiffl and his relatives up as members of the American family—he’s a pretty bedraggled feather in the eagle’s cap. The rattle-trap car, the packingbox and tin-can shanty-town, the ditch camp and all that goes with the migrant laborer is a sad commentary on ’democracy. Strawberry shortcake, peaches and cream, the lettuce and tomato salad that is as much a part of the city meal as the knife and fork are taken for granted as necessary luxuries but if the rest of us didn’t eat them, half a million families wouldn’t eat at all. That's the estimate of the Farm Security administration. Their statisticians say 50Q.000 families, averaging three to a family mean at least a million and a half people, pick up their beds and trek from crop to crop, carrying a choice assortment of disease and discomfort with them—and leaving a little behind each time they move. * Here is the . record shown in a study of migratory made by the Works Progress administration for two years: “Two and a half jobs a year; each job lasting eight weeks; median net earnings SIOO in 1933, and sl2'4 in 1934." Other studies show median annual gross earnings for 1936 and 1937 ranging from $154 to ss74—that only accounts for the ones who got jobs, the rest of course earn little more than nothing. And somebody has to pay the bill. Children Suffer Most From Plight Since the children in these nomad units naturally suffer the most, each succeeding generation is a little worse than the preceding one. The children, as one observer expresses it, are “a lost tribe.” They grow up without a stable home, without school or play and without health protection. The result of the last condition is 74 per cent more disabling diseases among migrants

than among settled families. Naturally, since these nomads belong to no community, no community can give them the help that the needy ordinarily get. In some localities, of course, private funds have created facilities which improve living conditions. It’s a measure of self-preservation as well as charity and the Farm Security administration has been trying for several years to carry on similar work. By July of last year government facilities had been provided for 13,000 families which brought their temporary living conditions up to normal standards of health and decency. It is planned to carry on these projects to provide for about 4,000 more families each year. But it is still a tough problem, for the worker himself, the farmer who needs his services, and the nation which has to endure him. Now industry st|eps into the picture and offers more work for migrant hands to do—which isn't so handy for the farmer

Politicians Frequently Regarded ‘Disdainfully’ If the people and the politicians can get together (vith any kind of a disinterested motlive it means that democracy is just so much better off. The great difficulty in the path,. T. V. Smith, as former congressman-at-large from Illiinois, says, is the fact that “democracy is government by politicians for citizens who too often regard them' with disdain." T. V. Smith had an interesting adventure in politics. He was a professor at the University of Chicago who had served successfully in his state legislature and might have had a more prominent career in congress if more of his colleagues had known him better. He was well liked and appreciated by a few, but simply not known to the many. As some of his admirers said, Mr. Smith was not enough of a politician himself to stay in politics. But he w'as enough of one to have learned about this “disdain” he mentions. He. calls it a dangerous disease. » ' “Politicians," h| believes, “are the secular priests of our common faith in one another. Either they attend to our joint business or that joint business gets neglected. If it gets neglected, then democracy fails from inefficiency.” Mr. Smith has written a little 100page book called “The Legislative Way of Life," the fruit of his long Studies of government enriched by personal experiences in Springfield and Washington. It is particularly timely because although written by 1 a Democrat its purpose is much the same as the one suggested by Mr. Willkie’s “loyal opposition,” in that it attempts to bring the people a closer understanding of the “legislative way," our way of running a government. The author says he wants "to leave I a heavy deposit of fear of any competing way of life" and also “to leave a deposit of joy from and faith in the legislative enterprise.” “Unless public matters are adjusted legislatively,” he says, “private freedom disappears." Understanding of lour methods is the answer, he believes. His book will help that and it will entertain and amuse as well as instruct. An active, disinterested, sincere opposition will, if it is to succeed, do that, too. At least it will instruct, it will provide a better understanding on the part of the people of the problems their representatives in the government must solve. • « ♦ The one question which I think is most often asked me is this: What are the chances of a rebellion of the German people against the Nazi regime? , This is my answer. We must remember the Nazis have perfected the most efficient counter-revolutionary machine in history. Regardless of how the people may feel, they virtually helpless. But there is a report being read by officials in Washington which contains these observations: There are two conditions, under which revolt might take place in Germany: First, a series of defeats of the German armies. Second, a winter as bad as last year. Revolt in Germany would be followed, if not preceded, by revolt in the occupied.countries. Conditions in Italy are very bad. Few people in the country would today recognize Reserve Lieutenant Lewis Gorin Jr. as the young man who in 1936 got so much publicity for starting a satire on the ex-sol-diers. He formed, in Princeton university, an organization called the "Veterans of Future Wars,” which drew up a satirical Remand for a SI,OOO bonus in advance for service in the "next war.” Thousands of college men joined the movement as a protest against bonuses and war in general. Today Gorin says "The draft is a good thing.”