to increase the utilization of our domestic work force were presented at the annual Farm Placement meeting at Kansas City, February 8 to 10, 1954. Here, for the first time, a nationwide preseason meeting was set up to include Farm Placement representatives from the 48 States and all 11 regions. In the past there were three of these annual preseason farm planning meetings-one in each major agricultural pattern. The new single meeting plan has several advantages. One is the fact that our national program objectives are presented and considered by all States in a uniform manner at one time. Furthermore, it provides a minimum expenditure of time and travel on the part of the headquarters staff. It also permits States and regions to compare notes on program variations throughout the country.

Points for Emphasis

As a result of our meeting at Kansas City, and also those of the Labor Advisory and the Special Farm Labor Committees, it now appears that more important points for program emphasis in the coming season will include, first and foremost, full utilization of the domestic labor force including further extension and improvement of the program of scheduling and guiding of migrants into areas of labor demand so that they are more fully employed on both the moves North and West and later on their way home. Other points of emphasis include: (1) encouraging communities and employers to provide improved services for migrants by adapting activities which other areas have found to be effective, (2) seeking better transportation for workers to and from farms in order to increase the farm labor potential through day hauls, and by encouraging employers and crew leaders to provide better and safer transportation generally,. (3) working to develop better employer-worker relations in agriculture, and (4) extending youth live-in programs on farms.

The number of States placing city youth to live in farm homes for vacation jobs is on the upswing. Five State agencies reported such placements in 1951, 8 in 1952, and 15 in 1953. Quite often, for some of these young people this turns out to be a very important step. Many return to the farm a second or third summer and after graduation from high school, enroll in agricultural college looking to a future in farming.

The amount of local office travel performed for purposes of making employer visits to farmers is declining. But more offices are holding farm clinics or farm employment days. These "open-house" affairs, usually held early in the season provide an opportunity for the farmer and the worker to come to the local office and meet and talk with each other. this way, both employer and the year-round farm worker or ranch hand can make definite plans for the season ahead. A total of 81 local offices held these important special events in 1953 and from State reports and in the press we note additional offices announcing farm clinics.

In

Other continuing activities will be our Indian program and also cooperation with the 3,000 to 4,000 volunteer farm placement representatives who work in our program without compensation. Our information activities will again include Farm Labor Bulletins in some 30 to 40 States, the Farm Labor Recruitment Kit, farm labor exhibits, work guides, and many more.

We will also need a number of Mexican nationals for certain seasonal jobs. This demand for braceros depends principally on three factors: (1) acreage limitations, particularly cotton, (2) availability of domestic farmworkers, and (3) the extent to which illegal entrants are controlled. Our Mexican program is designed to provide American farmers with sufficient Mexican agricultural labor to avoid crop losses, while at the same time assuring that the importation of Mexican nationals will not adversely affect the job opportunities, wages and working conditions of the domestic labor force. It also appears likely that we will need several thousand Canadians for harvest workers as well as a number of British West Indians. In return some of our skilled tobacco curers will again go north from the eastern seaboard States to assist Canadian tobacco farmers.

Farm Production Destined to Grow

The American farmer has produced a series of record-breaking crops in response to war and postwar demands. Our best estimates are that agricultural production will continue to rise to accommodate the upward curves of population. The farmer is going to be a busy man during the next quarter of a century, and our job is to help him find good workers and to help workers find employment or reemployment in farm jobs for which they are suited. Recently we have seen an easing of labor supplies in urban centers. Some of those now seeking employment have valuable farm experience. However, our experience has shown that this easing of employment in the cities is unlikely to add substantially to the supply of labor available for farmers. Despite this, I am confident we will be able to fulfill the labor requirements of agriculture. We will continue to develop sound programs that will lead toward increased stability in the farm labor force.

Agricultural Titles Added to DOT

WT

ITн the publication of "Agricultural Occupations," an interim supplement, 275 new definitions, 83 new codes and 141 revisions have been added to the DICTIONARY OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES.

Unrevised agricultural job definitions in Volume I, as well as definitions for jobs in activities closely related to agriculture, have also been included in this release to make it a self-contained volume of agricultural jobs. Their inclusion increased the number of titles in this DOT release to 1,148, of which 680 are defined titles.

This publication now supersedes any previously issued Dictionary information on those jobs and titles covered in it.

Through Manager John R. Foley of our Phoenix local office, the Arizona SES proposed a Let's-Pickthe-Cotton Week as a solution. Such a week would be devoted to all-out publicity on harvesting the cotton crop the need for workers and the pride that residents should feel in this important crop. All of us in the Employment Service were enthusiastic. Our press, radio and television outlets in Arizona were most cooperative and we knew we could rely on them to give the week a big play. Through a carefully planned, intensive campaign of a week's duration, we felt it would be possible to stir the public's interest.

The Arizona Cotton Growers' Association and the Arizona Cotton Promotion Council both liked the idea and pledged their enthusiastic cooperation. They authorized the Employment Service to use their names to call together a number of interested parties in a pilot meeting to explore the resources for conducting the undertaking. The meeting was attended by representatives of: The Arizona Cotton Growers' Association, the Arizona Cotton Promotion Council, the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation, the Arizona

Farmer newspaper, the Arizona Cotton Planting Seed Distributors, the National Farm Labor Advisory Committee, the National Farm Subcommittee for Foreign Labor, and the State Farm Labor Advisory Committee. Included in the group were the manager of the Phoenix Farm Office and the director of the Arizona State Employment Service who was appointed chairman to outline the project and direct its organization. It was the consensus of the meeting that unless top administration aggressively supported the project its general acceptance by the public could hardly be achieved. Those meeting joined in writing a letter to Gov. J. Howard Pyle and asking if he would issue a proclamation to designate October 25 to 31, 1953, as Let's-Pick-the-Cotton Week. The Governor immediately responded that he would be glad to issue the proclamation. (See boxes previous page.)

Meanwhile an organizational conference brought together additional sponsors and participants. Besides the groups at an earlier meeting, this conference was attended by representatives of such statewide organizations as: The Arizona Cotton Ginners Associ

ation, Arizona Motor Transport Association, Arizona Agricultural Chemicals Association, Southern Pacific Railroad, Arizona Bankers Association, Arizona Implement Dealers Association, Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad, Association of General Contractors of America, Arizona Public Service, and the chamber of commerce. Exemplifying the magnitude of the cotton crop in Arizona (exceeding 1 million bales), these participating organizations are all directly or indirectly concerned with the production of cotton and in sympathy with the dual purpose of the Weekmaximum use of domestic labor and promotion of the cotton industry in Arizona.

The Cotton Growers' Association moved ahead by authorizing the printing of 2,000 posters to be distributed by the local ES offices. The posters appeared throughout the State in prominent business houses, filling stations, roadside cafes, banking institutions, and gathering places of farmers and workers of all types. The Cotton Promotion Council sent a letter to all chambers of commerce in the State asking them to assist in the promotion of the Week. The Cotton Growers' Association, Cotton Promotion Council, and the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce each assigned public relations men to work with ES Farm Manager Foley.

Press releases were sent to all local ES offices, together with newspaper mats of several photos: a picture of the Governor issuing the proclamation; the 1949 National Maid of Cotton presenting the Governor with a Pima cotton shirt; and a group of members of the Cotton Promotion Council.

Twenty-eight radio stations broadcast spot announcements about the Week, and a lead-off program went out over the statewide network featuring comment by a vice president of the Valley National Bank and the director of the Arizona State Employment. Service Television Stations plugged the Week on their newscasts.

The 1949 National Maid of Cotton aided in a special broadcast in Maricopa County. Members of the Phoenix Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff's office helped in publicizing the program and providing farm labor information among the county's winter inmigrants. During the winter months, Maricopa County enjoys mild weather and this attracts a large number of people. Not being acquainted with the metropolitan or rual areas, they seek advice from law enforcement officers as to the best way to go about getting employment.

Newspapers ran a continuous series of articles throughout the week emphasizing the importance of the cotton crop to Arizona's economy and urging workers to contact their nearest local employment office and assist in harvesting the cotton crop.

To further emphasize the project, a bale of cotton was placed in the lobby of the Phoenix branch of the Valley National Bank, the largest banking institution in the Rocky Mountain States. Photos were taken of the president of the bank and the Arizona ES director standing alongside the bale of cotton.

Recruiting appeals reached out to all groups, including youth, housewives, retired persons, off-duty military personnel and other off-duty workers.

A Record 80,000 Bales

With such wholehearted cooperation the project couldn't fail. Six hundred column inches about cotton production and its importance to Arizona had their effect, as did trade-paper support of the activity. What do the statistics show? More than 80,000 bales were picked during the Week in contrast to a high of 70,070 in any previous week. During the last week of October 1952, bales picked totaled 65,299. As for the second of our dual goals, there was a drop in foreign workers used. In October 1952, there were 17,255 Mexican nationals in Arizona but during Let's-Pick-the-Cotton Week they had dropped to 11,943 with approximately the same acreage to be harvested.

While the drop of over 5,000 foreign laborers compared to last year was not due entirely to the Week, emphasis on maximum use of domestic labor and the timely harvesting of Arizona's large cotton crop contributed substantially to this decline.

As was anticipated, the effect of the Week carried over when in the ensuing 2 weeks there were record pickings of 85,810 bales and 86,346 bales and the final harvesting of the crop was advanced several weeks.

Although the ES was struggling with an increased workload and a reduced budget, plus extra work in connection with the Mexican national program, the effort and overtime expended has proved worth while in many ways: It is bringing more dollars for the Arizona economy and more work for more people; and it has brought farm labor into a more favorable light. The cotton industry believes the project might well be an annual event.

OVER-65 MANPOWER PEOPLE over 65 years of age do not represent an enormous reservoir of unutilized manpower, E. T. Grether, Director of the Institute of Industrial Relations of the University of California at Berkeley, stated before the Gerontological Society in San Francisco. Reporting on some of the data compiled during a long-range research program being conducted by the Institute, Mr. Grether pointed out that their national sample for April 1952 indicated that approximately 20 percent of the persons 65 and over had never worked (or were females without work experience since age 50), 42 percent were not well enough to work, 4 percent were able to work but not interested, 6 percent were able to work and willing to take occasional employment, and about 28 percent were in the labor force. The sample results suggest, Mr. Grether continued, that the majority of the aged cannot be expected to be regular members of the Nation's work force. The existing participation in the labor force of one-fourth of the persons 65 and over may represent the optimum, but a final conclusion will have to await the completion of the research now being conducted. from "Council News," October 1953.