Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1901 — Current Topics [ARTICLE]

Current Topics

Problem of Labor on the Farm. Economists and students of industrial conditions who “view with alarm” the constant invention and multiplication of labor-saving machinery in this country will find food for thought in the present efforts that are being made to coax the idlers and hoboes from the cities to the western wheat fields. It is the same old Macedonian cry for help from the farmers of Kansas and Dakotas. The harvest is ripe and the reapers are few. Vast fields of golden grain are already overripened and the farmers are threatened with heavy, losses through inability to secure the necessary help to harvest the crop. Employment agencies and railroad companies are making the most tempting offers to the unemployed. In some instances wages as high as |3 per day and free transportation are offered. But the idlers prefer the overcrowded city with a meager and uncertain livelihood to good wage;: and plenty to eat on the harvest fields of the Dakotas.