92 COMMISSION ON COUNTRY LIFE 



immigrants share with the native-born citizen 

 this laudable ambition. Therefore there is a 

 constant decrease of efficient farm labor by 

 these upward movements. 



At the same time, there is a receding column 

 of farm owners who, through bad management, 

 have become farm tenants, and who from farm 

 tenants may become farm laborers. While the 

 percentage of this class is small, there are never- 

 theless some who fail to make good, and, if they 

 are tenants, farm for a living rather than as a 

 business, and, if laborers, become watchers of 

 the sun rather than efficient workers. 



(a) STATEMENT OF THE GENERAL FARM LABOR 

 PROBLEM. 



The farm labor problem, however, is compli- 

 cated byseveral special conditions, such as the fact 

 that the need for labor is not continuous, the 

 lack of conveniences of living for the laborer, 

 long hours, the want of companionship, and in 

 some places the apparently low wages. Because 

 of these conditions, the necessary drift of work- 

 men is from the open country to the town. On 

 the part of the employer, the problem is com- 



