Mr. TABER. Over what period?

The CHAIRMAN. When did you first secure this money?

Secretary WICKARD. The first workers were transported in September.

The CHAIRMAN. These figures would cover September 1 to February 1.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

Status of allotment from Emergency fund for the President from beginning of program to Jan. 31, 1943

The CHAIRMAN. Tell us to what projects this $4,500,000 has been allocated.

Mr. MAYCOCK. It has all been for transportation.

The CHAIRMAN. How has the overhead been handled, Mr. Secretary? What about paying those in charge of the program? Where have the expenses been paid for that purpose?

Mr. SIEGEL. Out of the same fund.

The CHAIRMAN. Out of the $4,500,000? Mr. Maycock said it had all been allocated to transportation.

Secretary WICKARD. He did not mean just the purchase of railroad tickets. He means transportation activities including administrative and supervisory expenses.

Mr. MAYCOCK. I meant for all expenses incidental to the transportation project, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you break that down into personnel expense and disbursements for actual transportation. That is, give us the number on your staff, the number of personnel; the number transported; and what transportation projects you have put through.

What groups have been transported, from where, and to what point?

Mr. SIEGEL. The obligations by object of expenditure are as follows:

Total obligations to Jan. 31, 1943.

Number of personnel employed under "Emergency fund for the President"

$90, 355 84, 295

150

11, 050 1, 309 10, 200 232, 011 36, 029 1, 041, 821

1, 507, 220

291

The moves of agricultural workers which have been accomplished under this program up to February 18, 1943, are as follows:

The CHAIRMAN. Generally speaking, where have you taken these laborers from? The first group, I take for granted, were taken from Mexico. Where were they taken to?

Major WALKER. The first group was taken from Virginia to New York; the number was 123.

The CHAIRMAN. Tell us something about that project. One hundred and twenty-three persons were taken from what part of Virginia?

Major WALKER. They were taken from down in the vicinity of Danville, Va.

The CHAIRMAN. How were they recruited? Did you advertise for them, or take people who were on a waiting list; or how?

Major WALKER. They were recruited entirely through the Employment Service. At that time, and until this new directive to the secretary, the recruitment was all through the Employment Service. The CHAIRMAN. To what points were they delivered in New York? Major WALKER. I do not remember the county; it was in up-State New York.

The CHAIRMAN. What work did they do?

Major WALKER. They worked on tomatoes, beans, peaches, and apples.

Mr. TABER. Port Byron, Genoa, and Savannah were three of them. The CHAIRMAN. How long were they employed?

Major WALKER. I do not have that information with me.

The CHAIRMAN. Are they still there?

Major WALKER. No, sir; they have gone back.

The CHAIRMAN. What success did you have with that experiment? Major WALKER. Our information is that it went quite well. The large percentage of the growers and farmers were very well satisfied with them and have expressed a great desire that we conduct something of the same kind again this year. There were cases that were

not good.

The CHAIRMAN. They have put in an application for additional help?

Major WALKER. They have not actually put in applications, but they have indicated that they will do so.

The CHAIRMAN. What character of labor?

Major WALKER. This was nearly all that had had farm experience of some kind. In that first group some that were not so good came from cities. But the larger percentage of them had had farm experience and farm background of some kind.

The CHAIRMAN. How much did you pay them?

Major WALKER. Altogether?

The CHAIRMAN. No; per day, per man.

Major WALKER. I would have to get that information for you; I do not remember.

The CHAIRMAN. Our information is that quite a number of them were physically unfit and had to be hospitalized and that a material number of them were in the guardhouse the next Saturday night after they got there.

Have you any information on that?

Major WALKER. No; I have not. I never heard that, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. But you have not received formal application for their reemployment in the places where they formerly worked. Major WALKER. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What is your next project?

Major WALKER. The next is the Mexicans, probably the first 3,000, that were moved into California.

The CHAIRMAN. Were they all moved at once?

Major WALKER. It was a continuous movement.

The CHAIRMAN. Over what period were those 3,000 moved? Major WALKER. We can move at the present time, with the Mexican railways, 500 to 600 every 5 days, so it took practically a month, or a little better, to get those 3,000 in.

The CHAIRMAN. To what localities and what activities?

Major WALKER. They went into the sugar-beet industry. The first ones went to the vicinity of Stockton and Sacramento. Then there were others who went to other parts of the sugar-beet area in that general section of California.

The CHAIRMAN. What was the date of their arrival?

Major WALKER. I do not remember.

The CHAIRMAN. You may supply that information.

How long were they retained?

(The information may be found on p. 20.)

Major WALKER. Some of them are still there.

The CHAIRMAN. What percentage are still there?

Major WALKER. May I tell you exactly what happened with them?

into the number of people who stay on farms the year round and who are better-trained people. I am not talking about the number of people who are known as seasonal workers, but the year-round type of labor, which are included in these numbers. That is the alarming part of the situation.

The CHAIRMAN. There you are striking at the crux of the situation; you are putting your finger right on the point, Mr. Secretary. The remedy for this is not to take key men from the farms, in the draft. No man who is essential to farm labor should be taken off the farm. He is more valuable behind the plow than behind the machine gun, when other men can handle the machine gun, who cannot handle the plow. I believe you will agree it takes considerable training to qualify a man for labor on the farm, Mr. Secretary?

Secretary WICKARD. Of course, it depends on the type of farm labor, but for the year-round management of farms, it takes a lifetime of experience, and then you never learn everything, as I have found out.

The CHAIRMAN. And the man who enjoys farming and wants to stay there, and is accustomed to rural life, is the man to keep on the farm?

Secretary WICKARD. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, we cannot take a man off the farm who has been trained all of his life to farm work, whose interest is there, and whose future is there, and put him in the Army; and then put in his place a ribbon salesman, or a soda clerk, and expect the same amount of production.

Secretary WICKARD. Especially on livestock farms, places like that, where you have to have long experience and training.

METHODS FOR KEEPING EXPERIENCED FARM LABOR ON THE FARMS

The CHAIRMAN. What has been done to keep the men on the farm who ought to be kept there?

. Secretary WICKARD. The first specific action was taken by the War Manpower Commission after I requested that specific action be taken to defer the essential farm workers on livestock, dairy, and poultry farms. I believe that action was taken in September or October of last year. A few months later Senator Tydings offered his amendment, which was adopted, under which we worked out a plan for classifying essential farm workers into separate classes. The single farm workers now are put into 2-C. The men with dependents are put into 3-C. The greatest advantage of that, outside of actually deferring those men, giving them a preferential treatment which no other industry has, is to change, as I understand it, the quota for an agricultural county, which ordinarily is built upon the number of men in class 1-A.

ACTION OF DRAFT BOARDS AFFECTING FARM LABOR

The CHAIRMAN. Notwithstanding the action which you have taken to keep labor on the farm, to exempt farm laborers from the draft, in certain classes of essential farming, our reports from the field are that local draft boards are paying no attention to those directives; that they continue to take essential men from farms producing livestock, poultry, and dairy products vitally needed in the war program.

Within the last week they have taken out of my own county men whose absence from the farm means a reduced production of vital food products this crop year. While you have given them every opportunity to exempt needed farm labor, they are not exemptir g it.

Secretary WICKARD. I believe under the law these local boards are autonomous, are they not? Did not Congress provide that in the law?

The CHAIRMAN. That is true, and we are faced with a critical situation in which they are still taking them from the farms.

Secretary WICKARD. That is too bad, and I regret very much to hear it. I do not know what all the instructions have been, but those that we have seen are very specific on how they should leave these people on the farm.

Here is what we are up against. Some of these draft boards say that they have to choose between taking a man with dependents, or a single man working on a farm. It puts them in a pretty uncomfortable position.

Mr. TABER. Some of those local draft boards have been construing these instructions rather liberally, as far as farmers are concerned, and some of them have been construing them the other way. That is 'correct, is it not?

Secretary WICKARD. That is correct.

Mr. TABER. I get that in my own district. Some of them do very well and some of them do not. Your trouble is with your local boards. Whether the appeal boards are any better, I do not know. I have not found that they were, as yet.

The CHAIRMAN. They should give them less latitude.
Mr. TABER. Yes.

WAR MANPOWER COMMISSION'S DIRECTIVE CONCERNING FARM LABOR

The CHAIRMAN. Will you put into the record at this point, Mr. Secretary, the directive authorizing you to take over this work and in that connection distinguish between your jurisdiction and the jurisdiction of Mr. McNutt's organization?

Secretary WICKARD. That directive I have from Mr. McNutt's organization. I have the text of it right here. Do you want me to read it?

The CHAIRMAN. We will insert it verbatim in the record at this point, and you may give us orally the gist of it.

WAR MANPOWER COMMISSION

(Directive XVII)

FARM LABOR MOBILIZATION RESPONSIBILITIES IN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

By virtue of the authority vested in me by Executive Orders Nos. 9139 and 9279, and having found, after consultation with the members of the War Manpower Commisison, that the measures hereinafter set forth will promote a more effective mobilization and utilization of the farm labor resources in the prosecution of the war through a more complete use of the facilities and personnel of the Department of Agriculture, it is hereby directed:

I. The Secretary of Agriculture, through such persons and employees (including uncompensated personnel) of the Department of Agriculture as he may designate and subject to policies and standards prescribed by the Chairman of the War Manpower Commission, and to the continuous review and appraisal of the War Manpower Commission, shall have full operating responsibility for the recruitment, placement, transfer, and utilization of agricultural workers, to the end that the labor requirements of agricultural production may be met.