HARVEST LABOR PROBLEMS IN WHEAT BELT. 25 



the demand along their lines, although they are unable to tell exactly 

 how many men are needed and the extent to which the demand has 

 been filled at any given time or the agencies which are working to 

 satisfy the demand. 



Most of the men interviewed said that they had received the infor- 

 mation which prompted them to come to the harvest through conver- 

 sations with friends, acquaintances, or fellow workmen or through 

 the newspapers. Those who previously had been in the harvest 

 relied upon their own experience, supplemented by information which 

 they obtained from newspapers, and occasionally from local United 

 States employment offices. Those who had not been to the harvest 

 before depended chiefly upon what friends told them. Many of the 

 college students had written to United States employment offices in 

 the harvest area for detailed information. The migratory laborer 

 talks indefatigably, and the rapidity with which industrial informa- 

 tion spreads among this class by word of mouth is astonishing. Like 

 the greenhorn, the floating laborer depends largely upon hearsay for 

 guidance as he goes to the harvest, but he is able to test the value of 

 the statements of others by comparing them with his past experiences. 

 The more intelligent among them, moreover, seem to discount the 

 statements which other workmen make, and feel safe in drawing con- 

 clusions only after they have talked with many men. 



Harvest hands often complain that much of the information to 

 which they have access is not dependable. Newspapers frequently 

 are misinformed, and sometimes do not possess all the facts bearing 

 on the situation. It is particularly easy for papers distant from the 

 wheat belt to accept distorted statements of the harvest situation. 



A. L. Barkman. zone clearance officer of the United States Employ- 

 ment Service at Kansas City, in discussing this type of advertising 

 in his annual report, dated August 10, 1920, says : 



This year, unfortunately, a great many men were induced to enter the fields 

 two weeks too early by independent and wildcat advertising on the part of per- 

 sons who were more concerned in securing a surplus of labor than in an 

 equitable distribution and a square deal to the men. Independent advertising 

 is hard to control and men who are induced to go to the wheat fields by inspired 

 news stories, paid advertising, etc., unless such advertising bears the indorse- 

 ment of the Employment Service, always take a chance of being the victims 

 of selfish communities or individuals. 



J. H. Crawford, Federal State director of the employment offices 

 of Kansas, called attention to the same evil in his annual report for 

 1920: 



A number of erroneous articles were published in the daily papers and several 

 localities issued handbills several weeks in advance of the harvest, and this 

 brought men into the field too soon, some not being prepared financially to 

 maintain themselves away from home. * * * This advance publicity is a 

 matter, of course, we were unable to control, on account of it coming from so 



