104 AGRICULTURAL LABOR 



'hired man/ where there are several small children. This does not 

 seem to have occurred to either the farmers or their organizations." 



Number and Supply. In 1910 we had six million, four hundred 

 thousand farmers (including 2,350,000 tenants). These farmers 

 employed 3,000,000 transient laborers during the year. Adding 

 this number to the number of tenants and owners who move 

 every year, we have a total of 5,000,000 persons who are more or 

 less transient. Laborers who seek employment for the entire 

 season are generally sons of farmers. For the seasonal demand 

 of the harvest, however, the country must call on the city for 

 labor as it does for money to move the crops. But the shipment 

 of currency from the city bank to the country banks is now 

 reduced to a system simple and adequate. But the labor question 

 is still far from solution. Only a few of the more important 

 proposed or attempted solutions can be discussed here. 



Private Employment Agencies. These agencies operate in the 

 larger cities, and undertake to supply unskilled labor for any and all 

 kinds of jobs. To a small extent they furnish agricultural laborers. 

 The farmer applying here for help must take his chances a big 

 risk of getting what he wants or needs. Thus a Bohemian farmer, 

 living in a Bohemian colony in North Dakota, applied at a Chicago 

 agency for two " hands," stipulating that they must be Bohemians. 

 Two Austrians were sent. They were released after one week's 

 work. Often the men sent quit the job at once and seek for other 

 employment, or for transportation to new fields. Indeed, some of 

 them seem endowed with a tourist-instinct. 



The Unorganized Movement. The harvest season brings a 

 so-called "army" of laborers, each worker following his own lead. 

 This "mob," arriving thus in hit-or-miss fashion, may greatly 

 oversupply or undersupply the farmers' demands. When the 

 supply is large, farmers of course select the best and get them at a 

 "fair" wage. On the other hand if the supply is a little scarce, 

 and the crops are ripening fast, the laborers become very severe 

 and lofty in their demands. They congregate in the railroad village 

 and wait for the farmer-bidders to come in, with rigs to haul them 

 to the fields. They may even assume an arrogant tone, and ask 

 the farmer "to bring in his farm" and let them have a look at it 

 before accepting employment. During the pressure of the harvest 

 and threshing seasons, these casual laborers may sometimes 

 demand an increase from the ordinary two-dollar-a-day wage 

 (prevailing before the World War) to a wage of five or even ten 

 dollars a day. 



