Farm labor information stations have been opened at strategic points along main highways to' gage the flow of migrants and to supply them with current information on the harvest and labor situation in order to equalize the distribution, prevent loss of employment should too many workers arrive in a given area, and reduce loss of crop should too few workers appear. This information is also relayed to areas of employment in order that employers may be able to anticipate numbers and probable time of arrival. 10. Employing communities do not always recognize the contribution migrant workers make to the agricultural economy of an area. Labor shortages are sometimes due to workers avoiding such localities. That situation was found to exist in parts of Texas, and what the Texas Extension Service did about it has attracted national attention. In 51 communities of the State reception centers for migrants have been built, financed almost wholly with funds raised within the community. The migrants now know they are welcome in such communities, for has not the community provided special facilities where they may do laundry, bathe, camp overnight, and obtain dependable information on work opportunities in that and nearby areas? 11. Within the past few days the newspapers have told of the 1,400,000,000bushel wheat crop in prospect. That is a lot of grain to harvest and yet we expect no difficulty because there is an organized extension program involving all wheat counties from Texas to North Dakota and Montana. There are today 3,000 outof-county combines at work in Texas, 1,000 from within the State, 2,000 from without the State, including 300 admitted from Canada. As the Texas harvest is completed many of those combines and crews will move northward with the ripening grain. There is a daily exchange of information between States. Counties keep the State office informed of labor and combine supply and needs. A harvest guide covering in detail the entire Grain Belt has been prepared for county offices and combine operators. Additional information is supplied as needed by the several States. Newspapers and radio stations keep combine crews and farmers constantly advised of the progress of the harvest. The Great Bend office in Kansas, opened on June 2, is one of the key offices in the wheat harvest program because of the one-fourth billion bushels of wheat to be harvested in that State. May I quote from a recent report of the State extension representative in charge of the Great Bend office? "All agents will start telegraphing reports to the Great Bend office several days prior to the opening of harvest, as has been done in the past. Through this service we give combine operators and harvest workers an over-all picture of the job to be done in Kansas. Guide them to jobs to be done and to the information centers in every custom combine county in the State where you give them current information on work situations and weather conditions from day to day. "Indications are that 2,400 to 3,000 combines will be needed and many thousands of workers. Probably no trucks will be needed. Most of these combines will move into Kansas from Texas and Oklahoma with crews and trucks already provided. "Plans have already been set up for harvest information to be given over 13 broadcasting stations and through the Associated Press. This information was successfully handled last year through extension publicity and will be taken care of again this year in the same way." 1946 wheat program in Kansas involved placement of 5,236 combines, 3,256 trucks, and 15,832 workers. The all-time record wheat crop of 1946 was harvested without difficulty and we are confident that the 250,000,000 additional bushels can be harvested in 1947 without a serious hitch anywhere along the line. 12. Experience of the war years have proven exclusively that city youth, properly selected, placed, and supervised, can make a worthwhile contribution in helping to meet the summer work needs of farmers in certain areas. Leading educational authorities are saying that such work experience on a farm has great educative values for youth. This byproduct, so to speak, of the victory farm volunteers program is distinctly worthy of further development, possibly as an adjunct to the 4-H Club program for rural boys and girls. The foregoing are typical examples of some of the functions and activities in the farm labor field being performed by the Extension Service under the current program which should become a part of a continuing farm labor program. When Public Law 40, extending the authority for the conduct of the current farm-labor program during the remainder of the calendar year, was being considered by this committee, there was discussion as to the possibility of claimants for unemployment compensation being used more extensively for farm work. Since then we have obtained reports from each of the 48 State extension services relative to the cooperative arrangement entered into between the Employment Service and the Extension Service right after VJ-day in 1945. A summary of these reports will be filed with the clerk of the committee and additional copies provided if desired. The experience since the autumn of 1945 in working with State employment services in trying to place unemployment compensation claimants has clearly proven that this cannot be relied upon as an important source of farm labor. For the most part, the claimants are unfitted for farm work, are unwilling to do farm work, are located at a distance from agricultural areas, or are available only when agriculture is in slack season. The following statement from Illinois is typical: "During the months of June and July 1946 when seasonal workers were so badly needed for pea harvest and the small grain and hay harvest, more than 1,000 referrals were received but less than 100 were willing to accept farm jobs. During a 14-month period, of 1,736 referrals from Employment Service to Extension Service 322 were placed on farm jobs. No agency can get claimants to accept farm work under present regulations." No segment of our population is more insistent than farmers that able-bodied men perform useful work in agriculture rather than be paid unemployment compensation. County farm labor assistants and farmer committeemen are angry people when a flash harvest is on, labor supply short, and idle workers are drawing unemployment compensation in nearby towns and villages. However, it is not a question of agency administration but of the legal right of workers under existing law. May I summarize briefly as follows: A definite program directed at the more efficient utilization of labor in agriculture is clearly indicated. Such a program should be broadly conceived covering the problems of the growers on the one hand, the needs of workers on the other hand, and both in the interests of the public. It should be a program in which private initiative and organization are used to the maximum and governmental assistance kept at a minimum. The program should involve a healthy coordination of the functions of education and service, including the assembly of information needed for efficient operation and the organization needed for effective administration. S. 1334 modified as requested by the Secretary of Agriculture would establish such a program. The CHAIRMAN. Your statement has been very helpful, Mr. Wilson. Senator PEPPER. I do want to suggest to you that you are going to have considerable difficulty finding a voluntary health plan at the present time that will permit anything like general health coverage to these people at a rate they can afford to pay. I wish you would consider what is the best you can work out. Mr. WILSON. Those things are difficult. A few of the States have moved up very definitely in that direction, and I think other States will follow the lead, but there will be some gaps, of course. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Wilson. The committee will adjourn until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. (Thereupon, at 12:20 p. m., an adjournment was taken until Wednesday, June 18, 1947.) PERMANENT FARM LABOR PROGRAM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1947 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10:00 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, in room 324, Senate Office Building, Senator Arthur Capper (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Capper (chairman), Aiken, Kem, Thye, and Stewart. Present also: Representative Jack Z. Anderson. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. We are resuming hearings on Senate bill 1334 which is a bill to enable the Secretary of Agriculture, through the Federal Extension Service, to cooperate with the land-grant colleges and the universities in carrying out a program for the collection and dissemination of information with respect to the supply of, the need for, and the effective use of agricultural workers. Mr. Maurice B. Gardner? STATEMENT OF MAURICE B. GARDNER, ON BEHALF OF SHADE TOBACCO GROWERS AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION, INC., HARTFORD, CONN. Mr. GARDNER. Mr. Chairman, I have a statement here which I would like to read and have made a part of the record. The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed. Where are you from? Mr. GARDNER. Connecticut. The CHAIRMAN. You represent the Shade Tobacco Growers Association? Mr. GARDNER. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. We will be glad to hear from you. Mr. GARDNER. I am Maurice B. Gardner, representing the national farm labor conference. I am employed by the Shade Tobacco Growers Agricultural Association, Inc., which operates farms in Connecticut and Massachusetts. It is true that our chief crop is shade-grown tobacco but many other crops are grown on our farms. Our peak labor need is well over 20,000 workers and it is necessary to obtain about 6,000 of these workers from out of the State. We expect to pay our own way in acquiring this labor. All we are asking is for the necessary clearance of interstate workers, which can only be accomplished through the provisions of this bill. Prior to the time the Department of Agriculture assumed the responsibility of farm labor in 1943 little attention had been given 51 |