II. In carrying out responsibilities in connection with the mobilization of farm labor, the Department of Agriculture will recruit, place, and transfer workers alreday engaged in agriculture, and youth, women and other workers not already engaged in agriculture, in order that agricultural production schedules may be met. III. The Department of Agriculture in its recruitment, placement, transfer, and utilization of workers will cooperate closely with the United States Employment Service, in order that the total labor requirements for agricultural and other production will be served as efficiently as possible from a common labor pool. In those instances where the number of workers in agriculture and in rural communities is inadequate to meet the labor requirements for agricultural production, the Department of Agriculture may place orders for additional workers with the United States Employment Service. In those instances where the facilities of the United States Employment Service are used for the recruitment of agricultural workers, appropriate certifications as to the labor supply and demand will be made by the Department of Agriculture. The importation of foreign workers for use in agriculture will be initiated only with the approval, and in accord with the policies, of the Chairman of the War Manpower Commission and only after all local resources are exhausted.

IV. The Secretary of Agriculture shall make such reports concerning agricultural labor requirements, the supply of workers available for agricultural work, and the Department's recruitment, placement, transfer, and utilization operations under this directive, as the Chairman of the War Manpower Commission may from time to time require, for an appraisal of the agricultural labor mobilization program and for the purpose of coordinating this program with other parts of the manpower mobilization program.

V. As used in this directive, the term "agricultural" means those farm activities or services carried on by, or performed for, farm owners or tenants on farms in connection with the cultivation of the soil, the harvesting of crops, or the raising, feeding, or management of livestock, bees, and poultry, and shall not include any packing, canning, processing, transportation, or marketing of articles produced on farms unless performed or carried on as an incident to ordinary farming operations as distinguished from manufacturing or commercial operations.

JANUARY 23, 1943.

PAUL V. MCNUTT, Chairman.

Secretary WICKARD. This simply gives to the Department of Agriculture the entire responsibility for supplying the labor for farms. We are to work, however, with the Employment Services in certain fields; with the Office of Education in training; and any other agency that may be useful in getting and training the number of people needed on the farms. But as I said a while ago, it gives us the direct responsibility for this type of work, as I explained in my opening statement.

SOURCES FOR RECRUITMENT OF FARM LABOR
(See p. 40)

The CHAIRMAN. Where do you expect to get this labor?
Secretary WICKARD. Every place we can possibly get it.

The CHAIRMAN. What specific reservoir of labor do you have in mind from which this labor can be drawn?

Secretary WICKARD. As I said a while ago, the largest numbers will be recruited from towns and villages and cities of this country. We have always had about 31⁄2 million more people working on farms in September and October than we have had in January. Those are the seasonal type of workers who do not work on farms the year round, but upon whom we have to rely to get out crops harvested.

The CHAIRMAN, Why do you think they are still available, when all other manpower sources in the country are being rapidly dried up? Secretary WICKARD. It is a great question, Mr. Chairman, as to whether these people are still available, because, as you well know, not only have we taken large numbers since last fall, when we had about 12,000,000 on the farms, but we are still going to continue to

take them during the remainder of this winter and spring; and whether we will find those same workers who have helped us in the past, of course, is a matter of conjecture. I am afraid we will not find the same workers. We are going to have to get new people to help in all industries, including agriculture.

The CHAIRMAN. How many do you expect to get?

Secretary WICKARD. For the seasonal type of work, I should say we ought to have at lest 31⁄2 million, and I prefer to put our estimates higher, because of two things. First, our agricultural production goals for next year are again higher than they were last year, and very probably the output per worker will not be as high as it was last year because some of the men, some of the more competent men, have gone into other work or into the Army.

IMPORTATION OF MEXICAN WORKERS

The CHAIRMAN. Of these three and a half million, how many will be foreign and how many will be domestic?

Secretary WICKARD. We hope we can get about 50,000 from Mexico. Ambassador Messersmith thought we could go that high if we are able to arrange for transportation and other problems. We have to recruit them, examine them, and transport them.

INDUCEMENTS TO GET FARM WORKERS

The CHAIRMAN. In your opening statement, Mr. Secretary, you said you expected to appeal to these people and I do not remember your exact words, but to the effect that out of their patriotic desire to serve the country, you expected to get them to volunteer for farm work.

As a matter of fact, you know we must recognize that there is no appeal to this class of labor which would mean anything unless buttressed by two prerequisites; first, ample pecuniary inducement. Your wages must be sufficient to attract them. And secondly, they must be willing to go on the farm and do farm labor under average farm conditions.

Now, as to the first requirement: What do you propose to offer them in the way of wages in order to take them out of the city, where they prefer to stay, and have been staying? How much will it be necessary to offer in order to bring them to the farm?

Mr. WICKARD. There are two types. I want to make that clear so that we do not get confused between the two types. As I said a while ago, we are going to appeal to a lot of people who ordinarily would not work on farms, who are not going to work on farms for just the financial return, but who will do it maybe a week or two weeks or three weeks; sometimes by closing down the schools or the business houses. That is the way California was able to harvest the greatest crops that they ever had, last year, despite the fact that we moved out the Japs and they had to depend upon business houses closing down and schools closing down, and we are going to have to do a lot more of that this year. If you do not appeal to people, or cannot appeal to people, Mr. Chairman, on the question of wages that you are going to offer them, you must appeal to them on saving the crop. That is one type.

The CHAIRMAN. That class of people would necessarily be local people.

Secretary WICKARD. Yes; that is one type. As I said, those were the people we would appeal to; we would appeal to their patriotism more than we would appeal to them on the basis of the amount of money that they would receive.

The second class the one which I think you were referring to— presents this problem: What are we going to pay those people who are looking for work, such as Mexicans or people who live in Tennessee, for instance, and whom we are now transporting to Florida? We say that we will give them a minimum of $3 a day or the going wage in that community, whichever is higher. We are making that promise before we transport them.

The CHAIRMAN. Nothing is said about the maximum?

Secretary WICKARD. No.

The CHAIRMAN. And no assurance is given the employer as to range of wages?

Secretary WICKARD. NO.

AVERAGE COST OF TRANSPORTATION PER WORKER

The CHAIRMAN. What will be the average cost of transportation per worker?

Secretary WICKARD. What is our estimated cost for seasonal workers-Mexicans as well as domestics?

Major WALKER. It will average approximately $50.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that for a round trip or merely to the place of employment?

Major WALKER. That is the round trip.

MINIMUM HOUSING REQUIREMENTS FOR WORKERS

The CHAIRMAN. These people have to be housed and fed. What about their subsistence and housing of these people?

Secretary WICKARD. We ask the local authorities to provide the best housing obtainable for them.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you any minimum requirements as to housing?

Secretary WICKARD. None, except that they get protection from the standpoint of health and sanitation. Sanitation, of course, must be provided.

The CHAIRMAN. Something was said when importations of labor was under discussion, about minimum housing requirements.

Secretary WICKARD. Would you want Major Walker to state exactly what the housing requirements are?

The CHAIRMAN. Please put them in the record at this point. Major WALKER. Housing requirements are as follows: (1) That shelters are weather-proof, (2) that pure water is available for drinking purposes, (3) that proper provisions are made for disposal of waste material, (4) that sanitary privies are available, (5) that water is available for laundry and bathing, (6) that shelters are not over-crowded (generally not to exceed four persons per shelter).

IMPORTATION OF MEXICAN WORKERS

The CHAIRMAN. What success have you had with the importation of Mexican labor?

Secretary WICKARD. It has worked out very well. I went to Mexico City and negotiated for the transportation of Mexican labor last June and July. When I arrived there, I found that there was much opposition because of previous experience the Mexican Government had had with a large number of Mexicans who were left stranded in this country. They were brought up here for sugar-beet harvest for a few weeks, and then could not get back. They said they had to spend a lot of money to get them back, especially during the depression.

They also said that they were promised one kind of wage or another, and when they got up here they were left to the mercy of the employer. They did not have any housing. They were left on ditch banks and in other places.

So we had to give them some assurances not only as to the transportation to this country, but return to Mexico. We had to tell them what the minimum wages would be and how long they would be employed during the time they were here.

I told them we would do the best we could so far as housing was concerned. One other thing that was agreed to was a small reserve to be set aside to give to these people out of their wages when they returned to Mexico so that they would not immediately become charges on the Mexican Government.

What we have done is to try to get, so far as practicable, and possible, agricultural people, farm people.

The CHAIRMAN. Before you leave that, what guaranty are you able to give the Mexican Government that these agreements will be carried out?

Secretary WICKARD. Before we bring them over, we enter into an agreement with the Mexican Government through the Farm Security Administration, that these guaranties will be met.

The CHAIRMAN. How adaptable is that class of labor to livestock farming and to year-round employment, say in Corn Belt agriculture? Secretary WICKARD. I do not think it would be so adaptable to Corn-Belt conditions, but in the Southwest we have used them almost continuously since they have been here on sugar beets, and vegetable and fruit farming. We have not used them in livestock, so far as I know, although there is some talk of trying to train them for sheep herders. Perhaps it would require some training. We have lost a great many sheep herders and it has cut down the number of people on the ranches, and is a very serious condition.

The CHAIRMAN. That would be year-round farming?

Secretary WICKARD. Yes; but I do not think we put any into the Corn Belt, except some to work in the sugar-beet fields.

The CHAIRMAN. The 50,000 you propose to bring from Mexico, even if you reach that number, would be a drop in the bucket so far as your requirements are concerned which you say aggregate three and a half million workers. Where do you propose to get the rest of them and where do you plan to get the labor that will take care of the situation in the Corn Belt, for example, or in the dairy industry in the Northern States?

PERCENTAGES OF FARM LABOR GOING INTO INDUSTRY AND ARMED

FORCES

Secretary WICKARD. That is one of the difficult problems, getting people to work on the dairy farms.

Mr. TABER. What you need to do is what I suggested off the record before. You must stop taking farm help for these Government construction projects. They have taken men from the farm territory in central New York in number four times over the draft, and I think you will find that they have taken three times as many all over the country.

Secretary WICKARD. Our figures show that 40 percent of the men who have left the farms have gone into the Army and 60 percent into industry.

. Mr. TOWNSEND. That is the year-around.

Secretary WICKARD. Yes.

Mr. TABER. You have got to stop the Army and the Navy from taking those men on those projects, if you want to get relief.

Secretary WICKARD. I should like to make this remark. You asked what can be done. The men who leave the farms to work in industry are subject to reclassification now into I-A, if they do not get permission from ther local draft boards. That step has been taken.

Mr. TABER. That helps but it does not affect those below and above certain ages.

Secretary WICKARD. No; but I do not know how we are going to avoid that as long as there is a great disparity, such as there is, between farm wages and wages in these industries. I do not know how are we going to remove that temptation, except that there are a lot of people who would rather work on farms than in cities.

FUNDS EXPENDED AND OBLIGATED TO DATE FOR FARM MANPOWER

The CHAIRMAN. What has been done on this program up to this time? What steps have already been taken?

Secretary WICKARD. We already are using the President's emergency fund and have been using it for the past several months. The CHAIRMAN. In what amounts?

Secretary WICKARD. $4,500,000 has been allocated to us but it has not all been obligated.

The CHAIRMAN. How much has been obligated up to February 1? Mr. MAYCOCK. Up to February 1 the obligations were $1,507,220. The CHAIRMAN. Will you give us a break-down of that, tell us how much has been actually spent. What commitments have been made

in addition to that?

Mr. MAYCOCK. In excess of that?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Secretary WICKARD. The total is approximately $3,500,000, including the $1,507,220 already referred to. In other words, obligations and commitments total approximately $3,500,000.

The CHAIRMAN. Give us the allocations covering expenditures and commitments aggregating $4,500,000. You might make a tabulation containing three columns; the amount allocated; the amount actually spent; and the amount that has been abligated.