PLANS SET ON FARM LABOR F 



THE 1944 farm labor program in Illi- 

 nois is ready to move ahead at full 

 speed, according to H. P. Rusk, Direc- 

 tor of the Agricultural Extension Serv- 

 ice, University of Illinois. The Farm 

 Labor Supply Appropriation Act 1944, 

 passed Feb. 14, provides funds to con- 

 tinue the farm labor program started 

 April 29, 1943, by the passage of Pub- 

 lic Law 45. 



The new legislation provides that 

 funds shall be apportioned among the 

 several states on the basis of need to 

 be expended by the agricultural ex- 

 tension services of the land-grant col- 

 leges in such states. 



It is anticipated that ample funds 

 will be allotted to Illinois to carry on 

 a vigorous farm labor recruitment and 

 placement program in 1944, Director 

 Rusk said. 



The most serious farm labor problem 

 is the shortage of experienced year- 

 round farm hands. Latest reports from 

 farm advisers indicate unfilled orders 

 for 796 married men and 525 single 

 men with only 291 married men avail- 

 able and 78 single men available. 



A vigorous recruitment campaign 

 will be launched immediately in an at- 

 tempt to find men to fill these posi- 

 tions. All men with agricultural back- 

 ground and experience now in nones- 

 sential industries are urged by Director 

 Rusk to apply to farm advisers for 

 farm work. 



There will not be enough experi- 

 enced workers to fill all the year-round 

 jobs open this spring as thousands of 

 farm boys volunteered for induction 

 into the armed forces since the end of 

 the 1943 crop season. 



The following staff will be respon- 

 sible for the farm labor program at the 

 state level : P. E. Johnston, state super- 

 visor; W. D. Murphy, assistant state 

 supervisor; Mrs. Madge L. Little, as- 

 sistant state supervisor. Women's Land 

 Army; Frank Gingrich, assistant state 

 supervisor. Victory Farm Volunteers. 

 H. W. Gilbert will serve as district 

 supervisor in central Illinois, E. H. 

 Regnier in western Illinois, and T. L. 

 Davis in the southern part of the state. 



District meetings attended by farm advisers 

 and farm labor assistants were held throughout 

 Illinois during February to make plans for the 

 1944 farm labor program and agree on county 

 budgets to provide funds for the employment 

 of field and office personnel to carry on the 

 recruitment and placement of farm workers 

 under the supervision of the county farm 

 adviser. 



It is estimated that 102,000 farm jobs will 

 be filled in Illinois this year as compared with 

 76,147 jobs filled during the last eight months 

 of 194}. Since there are less men available 



this year than last year, it is expected that 

 over J0,000 of the farm jobs will have to be 

 filled by women and youth. 



All women who are placed on farm jobs 

 will be known as members of the Women's 

 Land Army. All boys and girls tinder 18 

 years of age who do farm work will be Vic- 

 tory Farm Volunteers. A majority of these 

 workers will come from our towns and cities. 



Plans are being developed to place more 

 than 1,000 town and city boys on farms by 

 arranging with farmers for weekend trials for 

 the boys during March and April. 



Such tryouts will give the farmers and the 

 boys a chance to get acquainted and find out 

 whether or not they can work together. A 

 new College of Agriculture publication, Gr- 

 cular 571, "Mr. Farmer, Can You Use This 

 Boy.'" explains this Victory Farm Volunteer 

 program and also gives some valuable hints 

 on how to use inexperienced labor for best 

 results. A total of 40,000 farm jobs will prob- 

 ably be done by boys and girls this year. 



Through the distribution of 200,000 copies 

 of a new pamphlet, "More Food With Less 

 Labor," farmers will be given help on where 

 to find workers and how to keep them. Em- 

 phasis is placed upon more efificient use of 

 labor available by training inexperienced 

 workers, by more neighborhood cooperation, 

 by the use of labor-saving devices, and by 

 job simplification. 



The purpose for which farm labor funds 

 may be expended includes, in part: (1) the 

 recruiting, placement, and training of work- 

 ers; (2) transportation and housing of work- 

 ers to meet emergencies; (3) operation of 

 labor supply centers; (4) employment of field 

 and office personnel; (5) supplying informa- 

 tion to Selective Service Boards regarding ag- 

 ricultural registrants. 



The act also provides that if the Adminis- 

 trator finds that there is inadequate farm labor 

 in any area, the Administrator and the agri- 

 cultural extension service of the land-grant 

 college in the respective states are authorized 

 to negotiate directly with the War Depart- 

 ment for the utilization of prisoners of war 

 and the emergency use of members of mili- 

 tary services for the production and harvest- 

 ing of agricultural commodities. 



The War Food Administration will ad- 

 minister the farm labor act at the national 

 level and will be responsible for the recruit- 

 ment of foreign workers and for the trans- 

 portation and housing of foreign and inter- 

 state workers. 



American Red Cross 



Drive Is Lannched 



Because of outstanding past perform- 

 ance, the American farmer and the rural 

 community are being counted on to 

 maintain their record in the 1944 Red 

 Cross War Fund drive which opened 

 March 1. 



Rural America, represented by 2902 

 Red Cross chapters communities of less 

 than 10,000 population, raised 128.5 per 

 cent of its 1943 War Fund quota. Red 

 Cross national headquarters revealed. Im- 

 pressive figures, just released, disclose 

 that rural sections also are giving much 

 of their time to Red Cross service. 



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Brig. Gen. Earl Maxwell 



Sparta Yoang Man is 



Made Brigadier General 



THERE are quite a few folks around 

 Sparta in Randolph county who can 

 now say they personally know a general. 

 He is Brigadier General Earl Maxwell 

 who grew up on a farm four miles south 

 of Sparta and graduated from high school 

 there in 1922. 



News that a home-town boy had just 

 been elevated to this high military rank 

 was told in a banner headline across the 

 front page of the Sparta News Plain- 

 dealer when the announcement came from 

 the War Department recently. 



General Maxwell has held the rank of 

 colonel since last fall. He is now chief 

 surgeon at headquarters for U. S. Army 

 forces in the South Pacific and senior 

 flight surgeon for the South Pacific area. 

 At last reports he was located in New 

 Caledonia. 



The new general is the son of R. J. 

 Maxwell, Randolph County Farm Bureau 

 member, who retired several years ago, 

 and a brother of J. Rupert Maxwell, 

 former truck service man for the Ran- 

 dolph Coimty Service Company. Rupert 

 has been a Farm Bureau member since 

 1926 and now farms 750 acres of land. 

 General Maxwell's wife, the former Miss 

 Margaret Hopkins, is living in Sparta 

 with her two children, Robert, 10, and 

 Ann, 8. 



When the war started. General Max- 

 well was a major in the medical corps at 

 Savannah, Ga. He was sent overseas 

 about 18 months ago and in March, 

 1942, was promoted to lieutenant cokinel. 

 Last fall he became a colonel. He re- 

 ceived his medical degree at Washington 

 University in St. Louis and shortly after- 

 ward he entered the Army as a first lieu- 

 tenant at Ft. Sam Houston, Tex. In the 



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L A. A. RECORD 



