848 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



"advice and co-operation" was changed and the operators have been 

 warned that, unless they improve conditions as requested at once, the 

 Commission will do all that is possible to prosecute them under the 

 existing laws. The Commission will endeavor to have such camps as 

 really constitute a menace to public health and safety condemned as 

 public nuisances by the health authorities. 



It is most important to note, however, that 72.3 per cent of the 

 camps reinspected have been brought to at least the minimum stand- 

 ard. Many have surpassed it, and 77.1 per cent have actually carried 

 out some of the suggested improvements. The camps which remained 

 in the same condition represent only 14 . i per cent of the total. Only 

 8 . 8 per cent have actually retrograded, and only 5 . 3 per cent of these 

 have slipped down to "bad." 



It is also interesting to note that the owners of the Durst ranch 

 at Wheatland co-operated with the Commission, and, under the super- 

 vision of the sanitary engineer, a model camp, complete in every par- 

 ticular, was constructed. In spite of the activities of agitators there 

 were no riots or demonstrations and there is no doubt that the model 

 camp was a factor in frustrating such attempts. 



272. INTEMPERANCE AS A LABOR PROBLEM 1 



The liquor question has been emphasized to the Commission in 

 all parts of the country as complicating the labor question. It seems 

 to be regarded as a burning country life problem. Intemperance is 

 largely the result of the barrenness of farm life, particularly of the 

 lot of the hired man. The commission has made no inquiry into 

 intemperance as such, but it is impressed, from the testimony that 

 has accumulated, that drunkenness is often a very serious menace to 

 country life, and that the saloon is an institution that must be ban- 

 ished from at least all country districts and rural towns if our agri- 

 cultural interests are to develop to the extent to which they are 

 capable. The evil is specially damning in the South, .because it 

 seriously complicates the race problem. Certain states have recently 

 adopted prohibitory regulations, but liquor is shipped into dry terri- 

 tory from adjoining regions, and the evil is thereby often increased. 

 There is most urgent need for a quickened public sentiment on this 

 whole question of intoxication in rural communities in order to relieve 

 country life of one of its most threatening handicaps. At the same 



Adapted from "The Report of the Country Life Commission," Senate 

 Document No. 705, 6oth Cong., 2d sess., p. 44- 



