The moral responsibility to offer generous aid in case of industrial accidents has always been met in a manner much more complete than that required by the state compensation law. In addition to this requirement, the legal waiting period is bridged with half-time compensation and this rate is continued as supplemental to the legal compensation during disability. Medical, hospital, and surgical costs are ordinarily cared for in full, even though the legal limit be exceeded. No employee suffers loss of income because of jury or national-guard duty. Those who have earned the consideration of members of the permanent force not subject to dismissal because of the seasonal character of the work are generally paid on a monthly basis. All such employees are granted two, three, or four weeks' vacation with full pay once each year. In addition to this there are special vacation allowances for three factory crews each year for distinguished performance, and at all factories a liberal allowance of national, state, or local holidays.

There are generally two conventions held each year in the way of training, to which a large number are invited, which probably hold as great value in the association and amusement features as in the way of specific training. Local gatherings of social and educational value are always fostered and financed. Many employees are becoming stockholders in the company through a convenient payment plan.

Life insurance in the amount of a year's salary or wage, but not exceeding $3,000, is provided all employees with a service record of six months or more. Provision for retirement of superannuated workers has not yet been reduced to a formula, but such of these people as we have are being provided for each in an individual way, and I do not believe that any worthy employee who has spent years in the service of the company fears that he will be left destitute after it has become necessary to retire from active swork. Probably the time will come when such things will be done under rules, and I believe that the change will bring a little less of mutual appreciation between company and workers of the efforts that are made in each other's behalf.

If a working organization is contented, their contentment should find expression not only in the absence of strikes but in the performance of duty in a way that brings gratification and surprise to their superiors. In this industry of ours there developed years ago, and without direction or guidance, a keen spirit of competition between the various factories, each endeavoring to excel in speed and operation, which is the short road to the avoidance of loss. Right down to the present time new ideas of the possibilities of our equipment must be formed annually as a result of each year's records surpassing the previous and, indeed, even surpassing any reasonable expectation. Such accomplishments are not made by a disaffected organization. We believe that a considerate treatment, free from paternalism, a generous attitude toward affording opportunity for friendly association, the beneficence of a rather rapid growth, and the competitive spirit induced by the operation of quite similar units in adjacent com

munities have all contributed to an esprit de corps that is little short of phenomenal. Within recent years we have sought to direct better this natural group desire for excellence, and have given balance to the various functions of economy in operation with a system of debits and credits which, summed up, constitute a comparative rating between factories, the highest numerical rating constituting the most economical operation. The plan is very much involved and because of its intricacy fear was felt for its success, but each factory group organized meetings to study and master it and the performance each year since its inception has been most gratifying. To the factory with the highest numerical rating each year, a significant flag is awarded, and to the three factories heading the list additional vacation allowances are made to all employees. The whole scheme of operation of every plant is organized with reference to the winning of the flag, and so, necessarily, in the manner of greatest economy.

The factory labor problem, then, seems to be only in its seasonal character, and since but one crop can be grown each year, operation will probably never become continuous. Storage methods may be improved, that longer operating seasons may be used by fewer plants. Meanwhile the process will continue to become more nearly automatic, and the problem thereby be met by the reduction in numbers of seasonal workers.

MIGRATORY WORKERS IN AGRICULTURE

Louise F. Shields, Portland, Oregon

Following the crops or shifting from one industrial job to another in the United States are two million to three million migratory workers.1

One who works for a few weeks, or at the most a few months, on one job, and who travels over a wide area is defined as a migratory worker. A casual worker is one who works for a few hours or a few days at each job, and usually within the limits of one community.2

Both migratory and casual workers are to be clearly distinguished from the tramp, who works only enough to keep from starving, and the bum, who wanders about asking for charity. The term "hobo" is applied to both migratory and casual workers, but not to tramps or bums.

Estimates from several employment experts place the proportion of married men among the harvesters at 25 per cent, with the families left behind by the wheat harvesters, but taken along by the workers in fruit, hops, vegetables, cotton, and nuts. Among the timber camp and lumber mill workers, 90 per cent are said to be single men or deserters.

Public Employment Offices (studies by Shelby M. Harrison, Bradley Buell, Mary La Dame, Leslie E. Woodcock, and Frederick A. King). New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1924, p. 549. a Ibid., p. 348.

In the days of "the covered wagon" our pioneer ancestors helped each other with the succession of diversified crops. The present tendency to plant large acreages with crops specially adapted to certain soils and climates, and all maturing at the same season, necessitates more harvesters than the community affords.

The transient workers have become an economic necessity. Their connection with jobs must receive intelligent and effective handling for the saving of perishable crops and the assuring of jobs continuous enough to attract industrious men. They deserve respect and gratitude, instead of suspicion and scant courtesy, from the communities they enter.

The employment service of the United States Department of Labor uses an adequate method of mobilizing seasonal workers for the wheat harvest through its Farm Labor Bureau, with headquarters in Kansas City. It keeps in touch with all parts of the wheat-growing sections, from Texas to the Canadian line, for information about the number of workers needed. It recruits men of occupations ranging from the college professor and student down to the ditch digger, through publicity in more than 1,200 newspapers, more than 30,000 posters, and 25 bulletins a season mailed to inquirers resulting from the general an

nouncements.

The placement is done largely by county agents, farmer organizations, and by chambers of commerce. Last year it handled nearly a half-million seasonal laborers with an expenditure of less than $45,000; supplied in 1924 more than 100,000 wheat harvesters, more than 200,000 cotton pickers, and the remaining number for corn husking in Iowa and other Mississippi Valley states; for the larger potato districts, such as the Red River Valley of South Dakota, many apple pickers and a few berry pickers, practically all in central western states. The beet sugar corporations have approached this bureau for a supply of labor, but owing to limited funds and organization the request has not yet been met except in a small way.1

A serious need has arisen for a service in the harvests of fruit, beets, and other far-western crops similar to that of the Farm Labor Division in the wheat, cotton, and certain central western minor products.

Whereas the wheat is harvested by men alone, who are easily mobilized, the work in fruit and vegetables is done largely by families who wander about with little help in locating jobs. Thousands of families have formed the habit of moving from California's winter harvests of citrous fruits, nuts, and cotton, up through the spring work in asparagus, tomatoes, and other vegetables to the summer and fall fruit harvests of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. The Rocky Mountain states have a situation only a little less acute.

Many of these wandering families are American-born citizens who came West without sufficient capital to establish homes, and who see no opportunity for a livelihood except in following the crops. Their children's work in certain I Letter from Mr. George E. Tucker, director, Farm Labor Division.

harvests adds to the pay check, although their names are not entered on the pay-roll. These families lose their voting registration and evade paying taxes. They deprive their children of education, religious privileges, and training for citizenship, and their lack of responsibility to any community often furnishes a menace to health and morals. It is easy for the discouraged families of migratory workers to slip over into the class of auto tramps who work only enough to keep from starving. Some even degenerate into wandering beggars.

On the subject of homeseekers without funds, Mr. Edward D. Foster, of the Colorado Board of Immigration, says, "We have consistently discouraged the immigration of those with insufficient means, and have referred to opportunities for those having experience in agriculture and from $1,500 to $2,000 in ready capital. We have frequently advertised: 'We are not an employment agency, and are not in a position to provide employment to newcomers.'"

Mr. W. G. Ide, manager of the Land Settlement Department of the Portland, Oregon, Chamber of Commerce, writes, "The function of this department is to build up the citizenship of Oregon, particularly the farmer citizenship, and we are fully aware of our responsibility and know that a new settler cannot come here and be a real asset to the state without sufficient finances to establish himself."

But in spite of the fine effort of such bodies as the two just quoted, there are many people leaving their homes in the East and Central West without writing for information as to investment or employment. These might be saved the expense of gas or other transportation and the hardships of unemployment in a new locality for themselves and their families, if only there were a nation-wide system of distributing information about jobs or the lack of them in the various sections, plus a small field staff to relate the migratory workers needed in each locality to the resident employment agencies.

The proportion of applicants for positions in western states who have no local residence appears through the 1924 report of the Denver Young Women's Christian Association employment department, cooperating with the United States Employment Service. Out of the 2,728 applicants, only 953 were from Colorado. The remainder came from all the other states except Nevada. Fiftyfive registered from foreign countries, with Canada and England leading.

The California department of education estimates that 20,000 children are following the crops in that state, with their migratory parents, having no opportunity for education except in the short-term schools provided adjoining the seasonal work centers. The usual estimate of one child to five adults in such harvests would indicate at least 100,000 adults shifting from one agricultural job to another, in addition to the large number of local residents employed.

Not one of the western states has been able to arrive at an estimate of the numbers of transient workers needed for its jobs, because of the lack of machinery for obtaining such facts. State officials deplore their lack of information on this subject.

Martin J. Flysik, of the Washington Department of Labor and Industries, writes, "There is no statutory provision requiring the state to furnish seasonal industries with labor or keep any reliable data on migratory workers. Therefore we are unable to state just how much our harvests depend upon the 'auto tramp' labor. Personally, I agree that a governmental dispensing agency should be established in all states if considerable seasonal work is performed. I find this is a problem in Washington in the fruit picking and also in the harvesting of (wheat) crops."

R. E. Spangler, of the Idaho department of agriculture, writes, "No plan is in force to bring jobs and workers together during the peak of agricultural labor demand. In the southwestern part of the state a great many transient workers come every year to pick fruit. Many of these come in cars and camp out."

Frank Clark, labor commissioner for Wyoming, sees the evil of unregulated drifting, and writes, "From an industrial standpoint we have ten men for every job, and more are coming in. Our experience with the 'auto bums' is that they will not work. They apply for work, but scarcely ever report. They invariably tell what wonderful oil or gas men they are but they always keep away from the towns that offer that class of employment. The whole tribe of them is a nuisance and should be wiped out-the way, I am not prepared to say."

Ex-Governor William E. Sweet, of Colorado, expresses his conviction that the beet labor situation should receive assistance from the United States Employment Service, and states his regret that the present contract-labor system which brings in a sufficient number of workers for the beets should not also provide for removing them to other jobs at the close of the harvest. It leaves them in the state to become dependent on public and private charity. One of the large sugar companies is trying to care for this situation by colonizing its workers and offering generous inducements for them to spend the slack season in improving their homes. But this is only touching the fringe of the need as yet.

In my own state, Oregon, the department of labor estimates the resident workers to be sufficient to harvest the crops of its present acreage, and issues bulletins, through the summer and fall harvests, showing the supply and demand for workers in all parts of the state. It is inducing large organizations of growers to place their orders for the approximate number of workers needed with reliable employment agencies, long enough in advance of harvest to permit connections with families who have homes in Oregon or nearby states. These workers, who have a sense of responsibility to some community, provide better care for their children than do the "floaters," and offer fewer problems in health, morals, education, poor relief, petty thieving, and other delinquency.

Some of our Oregon growers are watching such demonstrations as that of the Hood River apple section before giving up their old idea that a large amount of surplus labor floating through is necessary to the determination of a reasonable wage scale.

The number of workers is no more important than the quality of service