HARVEST LABOR PROBLEMS m WHEAT BELT. 29 



Even if they live in the wheat belt men who travel through the 

 harvest area, an empire in itself, incur relatively heavy traveling 

 expenses. The high cost of travel discourages many of the best 

 class of harvest hands from coming to the harvest a second time, 

 while lack of money keeps many from going to points where they 

 are badly needed. Thousands ride the freights or the "blind bag- 

 gage" instead of paying their fares. It is a common practice of 

 railroad crews to collect a dollar a man for such a ride from one 

 division point to another. Men traveling in this way tend to drift 

 through the harvest field, guided by chances to ride free rather than 

 by known opportunities of employment. They waste their time and 

 decrease the control of the distribution agencies over the labor sup- 

 ply. Often the grain they might be harvesting shatters while they 

 are trying to " beat their way." 



The employment officials, the farmers' organizations, and the agri- 

 cultural officials are unanimous in the opinion that the harvest labor 

 situation would be improved by the inauguration of harvest labor 

 excursions to and from the harvest fields, which would bring the 

 labor when it was needed and deposit it where it was needed. Kansas 

 particularly has been trying to get special harvest rates for some 

 time. At a meeting on March 15, 1920, at Hutchinson, Kans., it 

 was decided to try for a 1-cent fare for harvest hands, but no agree- 

 ment was reached with the railroad companies for a reduced rate for 

 1920. The issue, however, can not be considered closed. The follow- 

 ing ruling from the secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commis- 

 sion shows the legality of such special rates : " It seems clear that 

 the carriers could not lawfully grant reduced fares to farm laborers 

 as such. The law, however, specifically allows carriers to establish 

 rates or fares, and it might be possible for the carriers to establish 

 special excursion fares that would be good to any who might desire 

 to avail themselves of the fares." 



In Canada the reduced-fare excursion has been found to be the 

 most effective means for controlling the supply and distribution of 

 labor in the harvest. The railroads run special harvest excursions 

 from eastern to western Canada when labor is needed and check the 

 flow of labor by taking off some or all of the excursions whenever 

 the employment service signifies that it has enough men. If the rail- 

 roads and the United States Employment Service were able to reach 

 a similar understanding reduced- fare excursions from Chicago, Min- 

 neapolis, St. Louis, Omaha, Denver, and other points could be run 

 at exactly the right time to move men to the harvest when they were 

 actually needed, and the destination of the excursions could be fixed 

 so as to provide an equitable distribution of the labor supply. At 

 the same time it would be possible to check an excessive inflow of 

 labor by stopping the excursions. 



