only upon certification of need by the Secretary of Agriculture, orderly entrance of foreign workers at the farmers' own expense to prevent loss of much-needed food and fiber. Respectfully, WILLIAM H. TOLBERT, Chairman, National Farm Labor Conference. SUMMARY OF STATEMENT BY REV. THOMAS BI KEEHN The bill S. 1334 is deficient on the following points: (1) The Federal Extension Service is empowered to cooperate with the landgrant colleges and universities, and to spend considerable funds on recruiting and placing farm labor, yet authority is denied to impose minimum standards to be observed by the growers, the chief beneficiaries of the program. No enforcement of working conditions, contracts, wages and hours, or of minimum housing standards is permitted with the Federal funds made available under the bills. (2) The farm-labor recruitment program to a considerable extent is separated from public employment agencies, thus failing to achieve coordination between season farm labor and employent of local industrial labor and other elements in the community seeking part-time employment. (3) Wide powers are granted the Secretary of Agriculture to certify the need of importation of foreign agricultural workers. However justified this was during war emergencies, such importation should not be made a regular practice as it tends to depress wages and hinders organization and effective improvement of working conditions among American farm laborers. (4) Liquidation of labor camps solely in the interests of growers and growers organizations unduly discriminates against the workers themselves and against the States, counties and communities, and other groups which might wish to undertake the operation of such camps for social-welfare reasons. Actually, the continued, and-even extended, operation of Federally sponsored camps is desirable at the present time. These serve as demonstration projects and meet situations otherwise unprovided for. In no case should camps be disposed of without exactment of conditions imposing minimum standards of housing and facilities. The bills are deficient on this score. (5) No provision is made for health and medical care, especially for imported workers, except on the basis of a type of "voluntary" agreements which would undoubtedly occasion abuses. Such prepayment deductions from unorganized workers, without Government regulation and supervision, constitute what we consider an objectionable form of industrial paternalism. (6) Important suggestions of the Federal Interagency Committee on Migrant Labor, whose report was recently submitted, receive no consideration. We refer specifically to recommendations regarding child care, observance of education and school-attendance laws, and child labor. MIGRATORY FARM LABOR (Statement for the House Agricultural Committee, June 27, 1947) I am Rev. Thomas B. Keehn, legislative representative of the Council for Social Action of the Congregational-Christian Churches. The following statement is the official policy of the Council for Social Action of our church. Certain types of agriculture are so organized and operated in America today as to demand at peak seasons of planting, cultivation, and harvest large numbers of temporary agricultural workers. This condition has given rise to a force of approximately 1,000,000 migrant agricultural workers in our population. We believe that these workers and their families are entitled to enjoy an economic and social status equivalent to that of other manual workers. Because of their frequent movements from place to place, the irregularity of their employment, the interstate character of their movements, and the sorry record of their past and present conditions of work and living, we are convinced that certain Federal regulations are necessary to guarantee them equitable treatment. We welcome, therefore, these hearings which the House Committee on Agriculture is conducting on this subject. We regret, however, that a study of the proposed bill, H. R. 3367, convinces us that it fails to provide adequate guaranties and protections for migrant agricultural workers. Therefore, we are forced to oppose H. R. 3367 in its present form, and to urge that it be amended, or an alternative bill be substituted, to conform to the major recommendations of the Federal Interagency Committee on Migrant Labor published in March 1947 after extensive study of the migrant labor situation. Specifically, we support the recommendations of the Interagency Committee concerning regulations of child labor, establishment of minimum wage rates, continuance of federally sponsored labor camps, licensing and regulation of labor contractors, regulation of private transportation of migrant agricultural workers, extension of the benefits of workmen's compensation laws and the Social Security Act to cover migrant agricultural workers, and Federal grants-in-aid to the States to stimulate development of better housing, health, education, and welfare services for migrant agricultural workers. We further urge that the responsibility for recruitment and placement of migrant workers and the other services mentioned above be assigned to an appropriate administrative agency of the Federal Government, not to the Agricultural Extension Service and the land-grant colleges and universities which are primarily educational agencies. Approved by the Council for Social Action, Congregational-Christian Churches, June 13, 1947. Hon. CLIFFORD HOPE, HOME MISSIONS COUNCIL OF NORTH AMERICA, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: I appreciate your letter suggesting that I might appear at the hearings in connection with House bill 3367 on June 17. Unfortunately, I have to be in Wisconsin on that day, so am unable to appear. However, I do want to express to you through this letter my deep concern for this bill. Having worked closely with this migrant situation for many years, it seems to me that this bill does nothing to conserve the progress that has been made, especially in recent years. If there were provision on the State level in the States where this problem is so acute there would be some hope of safeguarding the welfare of the migrants. However, in only four or five States are there State regulations that will help, and these States will have difficulty maintaining their standards if they have to compete with other States that allow the abuses that have been so prevalent in the migrant situation. I am compleely in sympathy with the enclosed statement by the Congregational-Christian group analyzing the bill and I hope that a more satisfactory bill will be passed. Very sincerely yours, EDITH E. LOWRY. JUNE 18, 1947. My name is Herbert Tiegs, from Nampa, Idaho. Idaho and Malheur County, of eastern Oregon. I represent the growers of I farm over 300 acres of land, mostly row crops. Our district has increased the production of row crops by several hundred percent during the last several years. Part of this increase is from new acreage coming under water and some from changing over from field crops. As in many other districts building in our area has not kept pace with the demand for seasonal farm workers even had they been available. Therefore, it seems imperative that the present camp facilities be retained by some process for farm labor housing. Our growers have been extremely well satisfied with the way the Extension Service has handled the farm labor program during and since the last war. Consequently, they unanimously request that the Extension Service administer the program in the future. We believe the provisions of this bill if carried out will greatly assist the growers in areas where labor is in short supply and also that the comparatively small cost will aid materially in reducing the unemployment problem of migratory farm workers. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will adjourn to meet at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. STATEMENT OF EDWARD J. OVERBY, ASSISTANT TO THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. OVERBY. Mr. Chairman? The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Overby. Mr. OVERBY. Do you wish to hear from the Department of Agriculture at all on this? The CHAIRMAN. We may want to hear from the Department at a later time, when we consider the details of the legislation. We would appreciate your being here at our call, and I thought it might be necessary, during the hearings, perhaps, to have your views regarding certain details which came up. It has not been necessary, but we want to keep in touch with you when the committee gives further consideration to the bill. We appreciate your being here. The committee will adjourn until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. (Thereupon, at 4:45 p. m., an adjournment was taken until 10 a. m., Saturday, June 21, 1947.) (The following was submitted for the record:) Hon. CLIFFORD R. HOPE, Chairman, Committee on Agriculture, FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY, House of Representatives, Washington 25, D. C. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: H. R. 3367 proposes to enable the Secretary of Agriculture, through the Federal Extension Service to cooperate with the land-grant colleges in carrying out a program with respect to the effective use of agricultural labor. Two aspects of this bill, in particular, are of concern to the Federal Security Agency. First, the bill contains a clause referring to health and medical services for agricultural workers and has implications concerning sanitation in farm-labor camps. The United States Public Health Service and the Children's Bureau are concerned with the features of H. R. 3367 which relate to the health of agricultural migrants and their children, and to the sanitation of their housing. Second, the bill contemplates that the farmplacement service shall not be returned to the USES and the State employment services. The Social Security Administration is concerned with the effective administration of the unemployment-compensation law, which is affected by this bill. The Federal Security Agency assists the States in their administration of programs of health, education, public welfare, and unemployment compensation, through grants-in-aid to the various States. Out of this experience in cooperating with States, certain facts have been learned which may be of significance in dealing with the problems raised by H. R. 3367. The health problem is a good example. Figures compiled by the transient care study of the Public Health Service, in 1940, show that approximately 75 percent of those agencies which give medical care to transients give such care only in selected and emergency cases despite the higher incidence of disabling illness in transient families. Residence requirements of one sort or another are effective bars to migrants seeking medical attention for themselves and their children. The interstate nature of the seasonal movement of agricultural workers characterizes the migrant-labor problem, and at the same time renders difficult, under present circumstances, the application of the customary grant-in-aid procedures for dealing with the problem. State settlement and residence laws, which bar nonresidents from eligibility for the essential services are now a hindrance to the effective application of even existing Federal-State programs to the problems of migrant laborers. Until some way is found to meet this issue, therefore, it is essential that the Federal and State Governments have a continuing responsibility for protecting the welfare of the thousands of migrant agricultural workers who move within the State and who move across State lines. The very nature of the group, with its low economic level and limited opportunities, emphasizes the need for action in protecting the interests of the migrant, and in supporting and encouraging State governments to do likewise. In March 1947, after months of study, the Federal Interagency Cominittee on Migrant Labor issued a report entitled, "Migrant Labor-A Human Problem." This Committee was called together by Maj. Gen. G. B. Erskine, Retraining and Reemployment Administrator, and consisted of representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Labor, Federal Security Agency, Interstate Commerce Commission, National Housing Agency, and the Railroad Retirement Board. H. R. 3367 does not reflect the recommendations of this Committee. 1. Health problems The Federal Government through the farm labor supply program of the Department of Agriculture during the war period and since has successfully protected the health and welfare of foreign agricultural workers brought to. this country in accordance with the terms of international agreements for such migration. The Federal Government still owns 175 agricultural workers' camps or supply centers which were used in this program. These camps represent an opportunity for the Federal Government to cooperate with the State governments in providing an orderly migration of agricultural workers, safe and sanitary housing, and essential health and medical services for the United States citizens and their families who follow the crops. In this connection the Public Health Service has detailed commissioned officer personnel-physicians, dentists, nurses, sanitary engineers-to both the national and field offices of the Labor Branch. This program has successfully demonstrated that orderly migration of agricultural workers, sanitary housing and camp facilities, and essential health and medical-care services can be established for migratory workers in rural areas. The recommendations of the Federal Interagency Committee on Migrant Labor called for the strengthening and extending of this Federal medical-care program, as well as the placing of direct responsibility for public-health and sanitation safeguards in farm-labor camps on the appropriate State agencies. The report recommends "that such State and Federal legislation be enacted and such administrative action taken as is necessary to give the same protection to migrant workers as is available to other workers; to improve the employment status of agricultural workers; and to establish minimum standards below which employment conditions, transportation, welfare, and educational practices shall not be allowed to fall.” The effect of H. R. 3367 would be completely to eliminate the existing healthservices program, to forbid the enforcement of minimum health and sanitation standards, and to make mandatory the eventual sale of existing farm-labor camps only to private interests. In place of the established program of health and medical-care services, the bill provides (sec. 2 (d)) that the administering State agency, public or private, cooperate with farmers and migratory workers in making "arrangements for health, medical, and burial services to such agricultural workers and their families through prepayment plans or other voluntary arrangements where it is determined that such services are not otherwise available or adequate and, in cases of emergency, furnishing by loan or otherwise such services to such agricultural workers and their families." The bill makes the labor-supply centers, labor homes, labor camps, and their facilities and equipment available to State agencies (including a State-designated private agency) for operation "until liquidated" and permits their sale "only to farmers and associations of farmers in the community for the purpose of housing agricultural workers" (sec. 7 (c)). It is the opinion of the Federal Security Agency that the bill as written is unrealistic in view of the facts concerning rural-health services and the special health problems of farm migrants. In the first place, voluntary prepayment medical care plans of any kind are currently available to less than 5 percent of the rural population. Those that do exist offer only partial medical services, and, for the most part, are too expensive for the vast majority of migrant families. Studies concerning the income and earnings of farm laborers have repeatedly indicated that these families are so poverty stricken as to be almost continually in the indigent class. They are financially incapable of utilizing private medical facilities whether on a group prepayment basis or through individual payment for services. Finally, the transient status of farm-laber families makes it impossible for them to maintain membership and receive benefits in local prepayment plans. The effect of this bill in this regard would be a dangerous disregard of the public-health aspects of protecting the health of migrant families moving from one community to another. Known residence requirements and settlement legalities make it frequently impossible for migrant families to qualify for even such public services as local residents receive. It is unfortunately true, therefore, that health and medical services are generally not available or adequate for migratory workers in rural areas. In Studies by the Public Health Service and others have revealed the tremendous burden of disease and disability carried by migrants who follow the crops. great measure the cause of this heavy toll of ill health is to be found in the poverty of these families, in their difficult working conditions, and in the insanitary rural slums where most migrants must make their homes. H. R. 3367 would not only liquidate public responsibility for the existing farm-labor camps, but it would expressly enjoin the administering agency from imposing any standards of housing or working conditions. Finally, it should be realized that "services * * in cases of emergency" Services provided on an do not constitute a health program for any group. emergency basis only cannot promote good sanitation, prevent epidemic disease, nor maintain adequate levels of health and thus insure maximum employability. The act as proposed provides no safeguards against child labor nor for the provision of school opportunities any day-care facilities for the thousands of children in families involved in this migration that is almost continuous for some families. The Federal Interagency Committee on Migrant Labor recommends not only State child-labor and school-attendance laws assuring to these children the protection and opportunity given other children but also Federal grants-in-aid proportional to need to States "for the improvement of health, education, welfare, and related services" so administered "as to stimulate the development of better housing and living conditions, nutrition, child-care, education, and welfare services for migrants." The present farm-labor-supply program has demonstrated the progress that can be made through providing adequate health services and medical care for farm migrants. The needs of these people remain as urgent as those which impelled the institution of the original program in 1938 by the Farm Security Administration. H. R. 3367 terminates all active participation on the part of the Federal Government in such protection of the health of the transient workers in their interstate migrations. It establishes, in its place, provisions for voluntary plans and local services which are simply not available to farm migrants. The Federal Security Agency, therefore, is opposed to the passage of H. R. 3367 in its present form. It endorses the recommendations of General Erskine's Federal Interagency Committee on Migrant Labor which recommended: "Stimulating public interest and the cooperation of the appropriate public-health agencies in continuing and strengthening any existing programs of health services, including medical care, for migrant workers now eligible for or benefited by such services and extending these services to migrant workers not now eligible for or receiving them." This recommendation calls for the strengthening of all health services to farm workers by public agencies at the Federal, State, and local levels. 2. State unemployment compensation agencies Section 6 of this bill contemplates that the farm-placement service not be returned to the USES and the State employment services. Section 1 provides that the agreements to carry out this act shall be entered into with the land-grant colleges and universities, but that if the colleges do not enter into an agreement, and the State legislature does not create or designate another State agency, the agreement may be made with a private agency. Section 2 lists six purposes to be effectuated by the agency with which the agreement is made. The third purpose is to facilitate the orderly intrastate and interstate movement of agriculural workers and by cooperating with farmers and associations of farmers in the recruitment and placement of agricultural workers. As a temporary wartime emergency measure, farm placement was taken from the USES and made a responsibility of the Extension Service. This bill would permit responsibility for firm placements to be given to a private employment agency. Notwithstanding the fact that section 2 (e) of the bill requires cooperation with the State employment service in keeping records and information needed to administer the unemployment-compensation law, the continued separation of farm placement will greatly hamper the State unemployment compensation agen⚫cies. Under the existing arrangements, it has been found impossible for the |