ers and employers is on an individual basis. All migrant labor contacts are by correspondence up until May. From then on, local office representatives may contact crew leaders in person if the need is urgent.

We make the housing schedule with employer permission. It is intended for the sole use of the Farm Placement Interviewer during the last part of May or first days of June, when workers arrive in the area. On this schedule, the crew leaders are tentatively assigned to housing according to the wishes of the grower, the size of the crew, and the distance from housing to place of work. These housing arrangements tend to eliminate conditions reported by many migrants and expressed by a traveler along the Atlantic Seaboard when he said, “You have to wait until they stick their heads out of the window before you can tell whether the building is inhabited by man or mule."

Crews, referred to as "last minute" crews, are not previously placed and probably encouraged but little in regard to work in North Carolina. When we are sure that one or more of these crews will be needed, a letter is sent giving employment commitment on behalf of employer and requesting reply by wire.

Last minute contacts with migrants before they leave home for the trip to North Carolina are usually made during May. They follow one or both of the following patterns:

A. By letter or telephone, we contact the proper officials in the supply area and furnish them with the names and addresses of the crew leaders we want to reach. We include information as to the size of each crew, dates needed, expected duration of work, and other details. We ask permission for our representatives to visit pertinent designated local offices in the supply area for the purpose of interviewing these crew leaders personally, and in the presence of those locally responsible for Farm Placement. These representatives furnish information on the weather and crop conditions, availability of housing, dates of need and other pertinent information including the name and address of the employer. The crew leaders are instructed to seek out the placement man for further instructions immediately upon their arrival at the work area.

B. We get in touch with crew leaders by letter, giving names and addresses of specific growers for whom the crews are working (when known), and the name of the placement man. We stress that a crew leader, immediately upon arrival in the work area, should go to a placement man who will direct him to housing and give him information on how to reach place of employment on a particular farm.

The crews arrive in North Carolina between May 20 and June 10, depending upon the season. As the groups arrive they are assigned housing, interviewed to secure definite information as to the number of workers, number of trucks, growers with whom they will work, and their next employment areas and employers. This information is sent on to the next area of employment, if requested, so that future employers

April 1948

may be notified of the current whereabouts of the workers and the approximate dates on which they will be ready to report to the next job.

Some crew leaders enter North Carolina and have no work agreements beyond this State. This information can be passed on to other areas where workers may be needed at some future date. We feel a responsibility to help the workers to get other jobs.

"Free Wheeler" Crews

We think of the "Free Wheeler" crews as those groups which leave the area of supply without definite aim but interested in employment whenever and wherever available. These groups have had no contact with an employer or with any Government agency and move upon their own initiative. Since we often get some excellent crews from these groups, we do not like to close the door to these workers by making commitments for 100 percent of our needs, but neither do we like to leave the door so wide open as to upset our whole plan of operation. Control of the situation lies mostly with the degree of cooperation obtained from our growers. "Free Wheeler" crews can largely be the making of, or the undoing of, a successful season's operation.

Originating in various States of the Union, migratory crews swarm like locusts into our white potato areas. Orderliness in their arrival depends upon whether or not we have kept the crew leaders informed about our crop conditions, available housing, weather conditions, and the like. We never make any promises to these crews in regard to assistance in gaining employment beyond the boundaries of our State. However, because of diligent surveillance, less than 1 percent of these crews leave our State before knowing when and where they will find their next employment. Perhaps the recognition of this fact among migratory workers enables us to obtain the crews wanted and in the number needed, and is one of the greatest factors in getting the crop harvested in North Carolina. We have observed that migratory crews do not care for steady day-by-day, week-by-week employment, but because we have a regular scheduled job awaiting each crew (in this or some other State) we are able fully to utilize these workers.

Approximately 80 percent of the workers who stop in North Carolina for employment travel into other States to the north seeking employment; approximately 15 percent of these workers remain in North Carolina until frost and approximately 5 percent return to States south of us after completing the white potato harvest between June 25 and July 15. The total number of workers stopping in North Carolina for employment ranges from 6,000 to 9,000, depending upon acreages and weather conditions.

Departure of the itinerant workers from North Carolina is orderly. There is never any mass movement. Rather, the groups depart on schedule and without inconvenience to the Farm Placement Inter(Continued on p. 18)

17

Supply His Wants-He'll Fill Your Need

HE

migrant

usually burdened with fears and uncertainties arising from new and unfamiliar surroundings. His education and experience are apt to be limited. He has need of guidance.

Food and shelter are the migrant's primary interests. They must therefore become a primary interest of the employer who expects maximum, consistent production from these workers. The fewer the outside problems distracting the migrant's thoughts, the better will be his work, and the longer he is likely to remain with it.

Shelter, to the migrant, means all that the word "shelter" should imply-a tight house, electric lights, screens, basic furniture, stove, and sanitary toilet facilities. Migrants tend to keep their temporary homes in much the same condition as they find them. Farm employers who offer good clean housing will generally find it will stay that way.

With regard to food, there are two methods of feeding migrant workers. Small groups, isolated in farm housing, must of necessity, feed themselves. However, experience has shown that a balanced diet, furnished in meals supplied by the employer, tends to make workers more efficient. Workers are not at their best on a diet of soda pop and pie.

When good housing and food are furnished, the workers are not unwilling to assume a reasonable charge for them. Employers will find that workers place a value on perquisites only when they pay something for them.

The transportation of migrants was relatively simple during the war when gasoline was restricted and workers were carried in large groups by common carrier. But now that most migrants move in trucks and cars, the problem of supplying transportation is more complex. Crew leaders or family heads sometimes need money to buy gasoline and food on the trip to the job. Agricultural employers may find it expedient to advance expenses directly to the head of the working group.

However, when a common carrier is used, nonredeemable tickets may be purchased for the workers, or preferably, a group ticket that precludes misuse. Thus, only workers traveling to the area of employment may obtain value from the ticket and they should be met at the point of debarkation to insure that they reach their valid objective.

Like food and lodging, transportation may be charged back to the worker in amounts small enough to permit him to receive an adequate weekly pay. No deduction, for any reason, should go so high that

the worker feels he is not gaining something from his employment. During periods when the worker cannot earn wages, through no fault of his own, food and housing should be on a free basis.

Wages can be so set that workers who stay on the job until the harvest is complete receive the incentive of something extra. This will insure that fields are cleaned although piece-work earnings drop at the end of the crop season.

The need for medical attention for migrants is obvious. Agricultural employers should work closely and cooperatively with State Health Departments in the prevention of sickness and disease. Ailing workers cannot be expected to harvest crops.

In communities where migrants concentrate there should be an awareness of their need for wholesome recreation during evenings and other nonwork || periods. Left to seek their own recreation in unfamiliar surroundings, they may inadvertently drift into difficulties.

Moreover, recreation centers should not be secluded or in districts known as "problem areas." Experience has shown that music and dancing are two of the best methods of entertainment. Again, theatre owners may be approached to give consideration to the seating of migrants or perhaps to put on special shows for them if necessary. The workers will appreciate and will be willing to pay for these special attentions. It is also well to remember that a majority of migrants are religious and will be happeir if facilities for worship are available. In the long run agricultural employers and communities will find that it will prove sound to spend money on organized recreation.

If employers will realize that, within the limits of the migrants' experience, they want the same things that other human beings want, and if they will try to meet these desires in some reasonable degree, there won't be any serious migrant problem.

(Continued from page 17)

viewer, grower, or worker. Some workers return to their homes after completing contracts in North Carolina. Many remain in the State to harvest other food crops (many times lasting until frost). Our records further reveal that approximately 4,000 native workers join the migrant movement between April 1 and August 20, which means that the flow of migrant workers through North Carolina is supplemented and many more workers disappear across our northern State boundary than appear from our southern

border.

Special Tools to Meet the Challenge.

HA

ABITS of thought are as difficult to change as habits of action. For several years, Ohio State Employment Service personnel have lived and worked in terms of staffing the wheels of industry. With the exception of the successful recruitment for food processing, local offices in many industrial cities have given little thought to agriculture and its influence on the national economy. This is understandable in a State that ranks third in industrial pay rolls and fifth in value of industrial products. But, few realize that Ohio also ranks fifth in value of agricultural products.

Distrust of an industrial-minded Employment Service was voiced by farm group leaders in a meeting on November 21, 1947, when W. F. Lunsford, Director, and other key personnel of the OSES met with representatives of agricultural labor groups, food processors, sugar refineries, the smaller farmers, and agricultural service associations. But out of this meeting came the assurance that the Ohio State Employment Service wanted to be agricultural-placement minded as well as industrial-placement minded. A tentative plan of operations for what is now the Farm Placement and Related Industries Department of the Ohio State Employment Service was also developed at this meeting.

Heading this department in Ohio is a Farm Placement Supervisor. The Supervisor, who has two field. assistants, works directly under Mr. Lunsford and will act as secretary to the newly-formed Ohio FarmLabor Advisory Committee. Representatives on the Council include individuals from the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Ohio Canners Association, Agricultural Extension Service, Ohio Hybrid Seed Corn Producers Association, Ohio Sugar Beet Growers Association, Ohio Vegetable and Potato Growers Association, Ohio Horticultural Society, Ohio Grange, the Ohio Dairymen's Association and various State governmental agencies whose operations are affected by the farm labor problem. This Committee has been organized to discuss labor supply problems and to provide information and advice pertinent to the administration of the farm labor program.

A similar council is to be organized in those counties which are prominent farm crop areas. It will be known as the Local Farm Advisory Committee.

A full-time Farm Placement Representative will be assigned to local Employment Service offices in areas where agricultural and related seasonal activities are sufficiently extensive to demand year-round services.

ment, devoting as much time as needed to provide adequate service.

The location of various related crops and industries make it possible for the Farm Placement Supervisor and his field assistants to directly service central and southern Ohio areas.

On December 10, 1947, in speaking to the Ohio Canners Association, Director Lunsford quoted facts and figures to emphasize the gigantic task facing the Employment Service: He said, "With $1 billion invested in land and buildings and over $160 million in equipment, agriculture is big business in Ohio." That sounded the keynote for introducing the program: "Agriculture is big business in Ohio." In mid-December 1947, in three separate meetings, held in strategically-located Columbus, Findlay, and Akron, the 92 local office managers of the Ohio State Employment Service were briefed on the Farm Placement Program.

Comparisons were made to show facts about Ohio and the rest of the Nation agriculturally. Many were amazed to learn that Ohio ranked first in greenhouse products; second in the production of honey and eggs; fourth in dairy products; fifth in wheat, corn, and hogs; and seventh in potatoes.

Colored charts emphasized the economic importance of the program. The theme was always one of service to agriculture. "A profitable agriculture is a key to sustained national prosperity. A bankrupt agriculture can wreck the national economy.' It is our job to staff the food-growing projects and food-processing plants and related industries in Ohio. It is big business. It is our business.

The best guarantees against unrest, rebellion, dissatisfaction and ill health are food, shelter and clothing. The raw materials for these must be grown, processed, distributed. The challenge was given to the local office managers and they accepted it.

There was no evasion of facts. Four basic obstacles had to be overcome if we were to meet the labor demands of farm growers and farm-products processors in our midst.

The first problem facing us was the movement of farm workers to industrial centers. Coupled with this was the need to realize that industrial workers are not farm workers. Surplus industrial labor, if any, is not available for farming and allied pursuits. The industrial worker does not want to work on the farm and, in most cases, he is not qualified to do so. This means that there must be alertness on the part of interviewers to recognize workers having qualifications suitable or adaptable to farm work. This is to be emphasized in the Farm Placement training program.

The second problem grows out of the fact that Ohio is faced with the loss of foreign workers, offshore recruits and Mexican Nationals upon whom it has in the past depended. Such a gap must be supplied with substitutes from other sources-local, interstate and intrastate.

The third problem, that may or may not be typical of Ohio, is the trend of farmers and their available family labor to grow the small grain rather than to contract their fields for production of food-processing crops. This loss of the family unit as a source of labor supply, plus the necessity for food processors to rent fields and supply labor to grow their crops, further increases the labor needs, especially in northwestern Ohio.

A fourth problem that may induce many employers who use out-of-State farm labor to use the Employment Service is the cost of licenses required by many of the States for bringing farm labor out of surplussupply States to labor-demand States.

Special tools have been developed to aid Ohio local offices in organizing their Farm Placement programs and through adequate operations meet the challenge. These special aids are being presented to all Farm Placement Representatives in a series of six training meetings which started February 17 in Athens and will continue for 4 days of each successive week in Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, Youngstown, and Akron.

Get a Good Local Picture

Labor requirements need to be determined. Local Representatives should first survey their communities. and know the local picture. To aid in preparing this information, each of our local offices was provided with summary sheets of significant census data based on the 1945 U. S. Census of Agriculture and a suggested list of key people in the local office area. Assembled in a Data Book this data focussed attention on the needed facts.

Part A of the Data Book lists down the left side of the page significant census data covering such factors as approximate land area, automobiles on the farm, crops specified, dwellings, farm labor and hired workers, farm operators, farm population, farm areas, farm types, fruits, fruit trees, stock, and vegetables. In a column directly to the right of these items were listed the figures for Ohio as a State. In a second column, headed "Local Office Area," the Farm Representative enters the figures for his own community. Following this is a column for individual comments.

Part B of the Data Book lists all the known agricultural and related organizations in the State under five headings: Governmental and quasi governmental organizations, including Federal, State, county, township and educational; farmers associa tions; processors and growers associations; labor organizations; and newspapers. Spaces are provided for the Farm Representative to enter the local key person or person's name, title, address and telephone number for ready reference. Thus, in one reference book, the local office has compiled a complete picture of facts and persons concerned with agricultural problems in the area they serve.

These work books are now being prepared in all offices of the Employment Service in Ohio. In addi

tion, each office has secured from county officials a large-scale map of the area that office serves. Many of these show actual farm areas and names of owners, including roads, township lines, and public buildings. The Farm Representative can thus start to think in terms of his local needs.

To get this information in usable form and to provide a planned tickler file for future visits to farm employers, each local office has been provided with a supply of new forms identified as "ES-550, Farm Employer Contact Record." Modeled to extent after the regular "550" card, it was designed primarily for the Farm Placement Program.

some

On the face of the card are spaces to enter such information as employer's name, address, R. F. D., township, exchange telephone number, industrial code, whom to see there, and how to reach the location. Below this is a series of blocks across the card for information on products grown, acres under cultivation, harvest dates and number of employees, present and needed.

The lower half of the card is devoted to contact schedule and comments. Following a box in which to enter the month is a series of diagonally bisected squares. In the upper left corner of the block, the Farm Placement Representative enters in red the date on which he plans to visit that farm employer. The other half of the block is reserved to enter the date actual contact was made. Space for comments is self-explanatory. The cards may then be arranged in a tickler file by calendar dates thus providing a planned schedule.

The back of the ES-550, Farm Employer Contact Record card has space for special information furnished by the employer in regard to such things as housing, meals, transportation, special skills needed. and other variable factors that lend themselves to specialized placement.

The rear lower portion of the card is lined for recording referral and order activity to be used as a control factor and supervisory tool by the Farm Representative. Space is provided to enter date of order, occupational code, openings, referrals, hires, cancellations, and date closed. Only when an order is closed out will the information be recorded in this space. It is not in any sense a reporting tool, it spells out service given or not given.

To obtain orders is but half the picture. The selection of qualified farm workers, through accurate classification and recording of significant work experience, to say nothing of recruiting, carries considerable responsibility. To assist local offices in the recording of pertinent information, an ES-511 Farm Supplement Sheet has been prepared. This form 3%" x 7" is pasted to the ES-511 on one edge within the folded card. Here is provided space to list types of farms and years worked on each; farm equipment applicant can operate and repair; questions on handling trucks and semitrailers, tractors, and horses; type of milking experience and listing of livestock and farm equipment owned. The form also asks for

experience in such specialized farm needs as tending sheep in lambing time; tending brood sows at farrowing time; treating simple ailments of livestock and poultry; scientific feeding of livestock and poultry; fruit tree spraying and pruning. It also records information on size of applicant's family and willingness to live on the farm.

In addition, interviewing aids and order-taking guides on the more common farm jobs have been prepared to enable local office personnel to ask, obtain, and record intelligent answers on classification and selection factors so necessary to provide adequate registration cards and complete orders.

These tools and training in their use, plus training in planning a program, demonstrations of employer contacts and evaluation of self-registered farm applicants, plus compelling motivation, should enable Ohio to meet the challenge of farm labor needs for 1948.

During May, June, and July, Ohio will need 5,550 workers to handle asparagus, hybrid corn, muck crops, sugar beets, strawberries and cherries. Approximately 200 local workers can be provided. Some 500 migrant workers can be depended upon. This leaves a net labor deficit for these months of 4,850 workers.

By August, September, and October, the labor need will have grown to 10,550 to harvest tomatoes, muck crops, sugar beets, apples, peaches, pears, pickles, and field corn. Three hundred local workers will be available. The migrant labor usually found in Ohio at this time is estimated to be about 1,000 individuals. Thus, the net labor deficit of May, June, and July will have grown to 9,250 by the middle of the fall months.

The above labor-demand estimates were presented to our Area Conference on the Preseasonal Farm Placement Program held at Indianapolis, January 28-30. Ohio representatives recalled that some 4,500 workers had been recruited every year from Texas. This was confirmed by the representative from Texas, who assured us that there was every reason to believe a like number could be obtained in 1948—the LatinAmerican likes to work in Ohio and will probably return. Texas cannot, however, supply the additional labor needed during August. Ohio has never recruited for that need there.

Much of the early fall labor need may be met by using some of the 8,000 excess labor available in Michigan at the close of the cherry harvest. Normal migration to Ohio from Michigan could partially solve the problem. Positive recruitment in Arkansas should provide from 600 to 800 workers; from Kentucky 300 to 500 workers. This, plus normal migration from other States of experienced tomato pickers, should relieve the emergency. In addition, the large sugar-beet companies may employ Mexican Nationals to supplement stoop-labor needs if they cannot be supplied by domestic labor.

(Continued on page 31)