HARVEST LABOR PROBLEMS IN 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 emplo}^ment 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. 
