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farm labor was reversed. Labor was frozen on farms. Farm 

 labor was deferred, and Selective Service encouraged ex- 

 perienced farm workers who had gone into industry to return 

 to the farms. The national farm labor policy includes the 

 importation of Jamaican, Bermudan, and Mexican labor and 

 the raising of a huge land army. The present farm labor 

 policy, if carried out, should provide the farmers with an 

 adequate supply of labor. 



By the fall of 1943 some city-minded folks thought there 

 was an abundant supply of farm labor and they were mut- 

 tering that there were hundreds of thousands of young men 

 hiding in haylofts. 



Deferment Solves Labor Problem 



The farm labor problem is not a new one. In the eyes of 

 the farmer, there has always been a farm labor problem. The 

 unique feature of the present situation is that for the first 

 time in twenty-five years the farmer finds the rest of the 

 country agreeing with him. Alarm concerning the food sup- 

 ply has made many converts. Farmers always have enough 

 work to keep another man busy. They usually consider them- 

 selves short of help, and usually think that hired labor costs 

 too much. At the end of the season, the farmer brags about 

 the work he accomplished with so little additional help. Nor- 

 mally, however, most of the farmers have all the help they 

 can profitably afford to hire. This year was an exception. Be- 

 cause of the adverse weather of 1943, aging farmers with a 

 scarcity of labor were called on to plant the oats, corn, and 

 other crops and harvest the hay crop all at one time. Never 

 before have they worked so hard or so long, or been so dis- 

 couraged. 



Most of the farm labor problem eventually finds its solu- 

 tion across the country in terms of harder work "from kin-see 

 to kaint-see" and not across glass-covered desks. Farmers 



