FARM CADETS
We can afford only one fad in war time, and that fad is to
be farming. It will be useless for little William Corning Smith,
aged 12, of Kankakee, Illinois, to stick his little spade into
his back yard before his admiring parent. Individual, unorganized
work on land not properly prepared for agriculture may be worse
than useless; it may be wasteful. Random efforts not coördinated
in a general scheme for the utilization of school children in
large units will be foolish, misdirected effort. State, county,
and even national organization are required to make available this
latent power. Purely isolated effort will be fruitless, both as
aids to the nation and education for the child. Organized work
will bring the greater moral advantages of developing the power of
concentration along with the interest in national and community
service. It will evoke an esprit de corps which may be capitalized
for national use and shift the usual interest in gangs and
athletics, both normal and natural, to work which opens the way to
loyal industrial educational training.[8]
[8] Columbia University War Papers.
This was written by John Dewey early in the spring of 1917 in a message
addressed to the principals and teachers of America on how school
children may be so organized for farm service as to
Aid the nation;
Increase the food supply of the country in war time and during
a world-wide shortage of food;
Conscript the national enthusiasm for athletics to national
usefulness;
Assure a vigorous and healthy rising generation;
Reap the advantage of organized effort with its moral and
educational results;
Develop constructive patriotism.
As may be gathered, Dewey's idea was not only to organize the rural and
village children for farm work but also to send the city children into
the country in camps and tent colonies. He said further that the plan
was not a dream and that it could be done.
A friend in writing to me of his attempts in Massachusetts to make the
dream a reality said, "It is like nailing a jellyfish to a board."
Referring to the difficulty of obtaining competent boys, on the one
hand, and of convincing farmers of the value of city-boy labor, on the
other, he further stated that it was a difficult proposition to sell
something we did not have to somebody who did not want it.
Few, if any, of us knew very much of the experience, in this direction,
of England, France, and Germany. To be sure, we had heard that France
had attempted in a large way to use children at farm labor, but had
given it up and had replaced them with old men, women, and partially
crippled returned soldiers; and we knew that with the alarm of the
scarcity of labor and the diminishing number of the world's acres under
cultivation England and Germany had called upon women and boys below
military age to help meet the needs of the situation. But we in America
did not realize, to quote Dewey again, "that we could enlist the school
children in this work in such a manner that they could serve with
results as beneficial to themselves as to the nation."
Before considering in some detail the idea of using agricultural labor
of children in America (and it is a subject worthy of elaboration, for
even if the war closes to-morrow, we shall be short of farm labor for
many years--perhaps always), let us see what England and Germany have
done to utilize school children for farm work.
In England many of the boys of 14 to 16 in the public schools have
volunteered for vacation and holiday agricultural work in hoeing,
planting, and harvesting; some of this was gratuitous labor, these boys
coming from the prosperous classes and therefore being able to give
their services.
In July, 1916, the Education Board published a report showing the
number of children excused from attendance at school for the purpose
of agricultural employment in England and Wales on May 31, 1916. The
total number so excused was 15,753, of which number 546 were between
the ages of 11 and 12; 8018 between 12 and 13; 5521 between 13 and
14, and of the remaining 1668 cases the ages were between 12 and 14.
Figures quoted relate solely to agricultural employment and do not
show the full extent of withdrawals from school. They also relate to
withdrawals of children who are not qualified for total exemption under
the law. The report also states that "the board has no information as
to the number of children who have been excused from school attendance
for purposes of industrial employment or employment other than
agriculture."
Early in 1917 several of the county education committees formulated
plans for using the labor of children who were to be excused only
for holidays, special periods, and part times, the general sentiment
being, even in the emergency, that no more children must be permanently
excused for agricultural or industrial employment. These schemes are
worthy of attention as endeavors to retain children in school, at the
same time modifying the arrangement of the educational requirements to
allow them to perform farm and garden work.
The Education Committee for the Lindsay division of
Lincolnshire considered, at a meeting held on April 13, 1917, the
desirability of taking steps to secure that the school holidays
this year are fixed at such times as will enable the children to
be of most assistance to the farmers, and it was resolved that the
finance committee should be requested to consider the preparation
of a scheme enabling managers to amend the school time-tables in
such a way as will give the maximum of opportunity for the older
children to work on the land during the spring and summer.... They
further considered...that in view of the present emergency and
the need of additional labor, especially in agricultural work, the
board will give favorable considerations to proposals for extended
or additional holidays in rural areas under certain conditions.
Two schemes were presented, setting forth alternative methods
which managers might be authorized to adopt by which advantage
can be taken of the concessions of the board, as follows: (1) A
scheme to give a number up to eighty additional afternoons on
which the older children can be employed on the land, managers to
be informed that a school year of not less than 320 attendances
will be accepted as fulfilling the requirements of the board,
instead of a minimum of 400 as heretofore. On up to eighty days,
older children, above prescribed age, may be released at noon for
employment on the land, whilst the school will be open as usual for
the younger children, and their attendance recorded, though not
in the official register. (2) A scheme to allow up to eight weeks
extra during which the older children may be employed on the land,
managers to be informed of the number of attendances required as in
scheme one. Older children, above a prescribed age, who are to be
employed on the land, need not attend school for a period up to
eight weeks in addition to the ordinary holidays. The school will
be kept open as usual during such weeks for the younger children,
and those attending will have their attendance recorded, but not in
the official register. Under either scheme it will be necessary for
the managers to fix the period or periods for the year during which
the scheme would be in operation, and in some of the larger rural
schools it might be possible to release a teacher as well as the
older children.
At a meeting held on April 27 it was resolved to issue the
schemes to the managers, impressing upon them the fact that the one
object is to secure increased production of food.[9]
At Grimsby a committee was appointed to consider the employment of
children on gardens, allowing an acre plot to each school, and 25
children, under a teacher, to work in cultivating it. All these
children are required to attend school in the morning, and the consent
of their parents must be obtained by them before they are permitted to
begin afternoon work. Since, as in Lincolnshire, the aim of the work
is increased food production, the crops derived from the cultivation
of the land acquired by the town are to be divided among teachers and
scholars engaged in the work.
In Hull, also, the Educational Committee, besides encouraging work in
school gardens, has authorized the labor of schoolboys in cultivating
spare land in various places as a substitute for their usual manual
training in the school shops.
[9] London _Times_, Educational Supplement, May 17, 1917.
In Hertfordshire there are school gardens for the production of
potatoes, parsnips, beets, and onions, with school instruction in
gardening given the pupils. During the period for planting there
is a schedule of half-time attendance. In Bradford the successful
vegetable gardening is correlated with the school work in nature study,
composition, arithmetic, and drawing, and emphasis is placed on the
educational value of the productive work.
It is difficult for America to see the food crisis as do the nations
which are near the exhaustion point. While everyone must deplore the
wholesale excusing of children to work without supervision, we ought
to watch with interest all schemes which will increase production and
yet will keep younger children in school for full time and will permit
those older to work part time. This part-time work should be confined
to the years of 14 to 18, except possibly in the case of work in the
school garden, where younger children may labor for short periods.
The appeal of Neville Chamberlain, the Director-general of National
Service, in the spring of 1917, for volunteers from such boys as were
able to make the sacrifice, connects the need for agricultural labor
with the necessity for providing proper supervision of the boys. His
plan for utilizing the labor of English schoolboys has many features
similar to devices employed in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey.
It is well understood that an abundant supply of labor for
the land during the coming summer months is an urgent national
necessity. Many schemes have already been organized for the
employment of soldiers, women, and prisoners of war, but it
is desirable to form a reserve of labor so organized as to be
available at short notice. For this reserve I turn to the boys at
our public and other secondary schools. During the last two years
many of them have given valuable help in hoeing, harvesting, and
timber cutting, and at the present crisis I confidently hope that
all for whom it is possible will make their services available both
in summer holidays and, if necessary, during the coming term. I
have accepted the offer of the Cavendish Association to place at
my disposal their organization, which will act in conjunction with
a committee--representative of schools and masters--having its
headquarters at St. Ermin's, and working under the director of the
agricultural section of this department. Full particulars of the
arrangements and procedure will shortly be issued by the committee.
The main points are as follows:
(1) The age of the boys permitted to volunteer should not be
below 16 except in the cases where the school authorities consider
boys of 15 sufficiently strong to undertake the necessary work.
(2) The boys will be organized in squads of varying sizes, each in
charge of a master or other responsible person. (3) It is proposed
that during term time the period of continuous whole-time service
should not exceed two weeks. Every effort will be made to find work
for schoolboy volunteers in the neighborhood of the school, but if
the work lies at some distance from the school, railway fares will
be paid and careful provision will be made for board and lodging.
No boy will be expected to volunteer for service during term whose
school work is of immediate importance; for example, a boy who is
preparing for a scholarship examination. I recognize that this part
of the scheme may present some difficulties to all but the large
public schools, but I hope that some of the larger state-aided
secondary schools may be able to join in it. Before doing so,
however, they should communicate with the Board of Education.
(4) In the holidays they will work for not less than three or
four weeks, and it is hoped that, if necessary, they may have
leave of absence from school until the end of September. (5) The
whole working hours will be carefully proportioned to the average
strength of each squad, and the wages adjusted accordingly. If the
total sum earned does not meet the cost of living, the deficit will
under special conditions be made up.
I trust that when the call for boys' help comes, parents will
recognize its urgency and will not hesitate to allow their sons to
render this service for their country.
In Germany there has been a systematic contribution from schools to
agriculture since March, 1915. Authority was given to the respective
school officials to grant the necessary leave of absence to older
children for farm and garden cultivation. With the increasing need of
securing a sufficient supply of food for the nation, excuses of pupils
from school increased. An additional service of pupils was required
by an order issued on May 15, 1917, relative to combating fruit and
vegetable pests.
Looking forward to future scarcity, Germany, with the help of the
teaching staff and government leaflets, next enlisted school children
in the work of collecting field and forest edible products. Children
were engaged in the work of gleaning, and in the summer of 1915 the
gleanings amounted to approximately $50,000, the greater part of which
was turned over to the Red Cross as the children's contribution. In
the summer and autumn of 1915 the children aided, too, in gathering
fruits. During the following winter the schools gave instruction in the
substitution of fruit products for fat and proteid. These were pointed
lessons both in frugality and in public spirit.
Additional requirement of the children's services was made when the
continued scarcity of fats made it imperative to conserve acorns,
horse-chestnuts, and seeds containing oil, the gathering of which was
impossible without the aid of school children. An order of August
21, 1916, authorized the employment of children to take part in the
extraction from trees in the state forests of resin needed chiefly for
the paper industry; and in the same season children were called upon to
engage in the collection of kernels of cherries, plums, and apricots in
enormous quantities for oil extraction.
The school administrators and teachers of America knew little, if
anything, of the farm-placement ventures of European countries. But
they were told most emphatically in the spring of 1917 that the
military force was but one factor in national organization, and that
the ultimate decision as to victory might well be with the farmer.
So in American fashion we started at it; New Jersey with its "junior
industrial army," Massachusetts with its bronze-badged boy farmers, and
New York with its "farm cadets."
We all thought we were original, and perhaps we were; and yet it is
certainly not new for schoolboys to work outside the school session
when of proper age. Whether for the father or a neighborhood employer,
boys 14 and over have worked in stores and gardens, in summer hotels,
in offices, garages, and manufacturing plants. Nor is it unusual, for
that matter, to have the outside work coördinated with the school and
receiving due credit in the curriculum. The coöperative high-school
and vocational courses in many cities--Fitchburg, Beverly, Providence,
Hartford, Indianapolis, Chicago, and New York--are well known to those
who are familiar with the extension and coöperative efforts of our
vocational schools.
Furthermore we are familiar with the two types of camps: the
adult-labor and the recreation camp. The work camp is much the older,
dating back to the building of railroads and the opening of lumber
districts. In the past decade the recreation summer camps have become
a potent factor in secondary-school life, making a complement of the
school year's work by laying stress on the physical development of
outdoor woodland and country experiences. Some of these camps, while
primarily recreational, have had courses in manual training, college
preparation, arts and crafts, and languages, yet so clearly is their
play nature of chief importance that no one thinks of them as work
camps.
Now the farm-cadet movement involves the farm labor of the schoolboy,
who is sent out and credited for his work by his school and is added
to a camp life where in a squad of his fellow schoolboys he is looked
after by an appointed leader as if in a Y.M.C.A. camp. Thus we have,
out of familiar ingredients, a new compound, bringing into relation the
boy, the parent, the supervisor, the employer, and the school.
This agricultural movement in connection with the schools had its
inception at the Philadelphia meeting of the Eastern Arts and Manual
Training Teachers' Association early in 1917. At once three Eastern
states--Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York--began to formulate
plans for its operation.[10] For it was not to be the simple expedient
of excusing boys from school to work on farms, as has been the practice
in many localities, but a plan whereby the boy was to be retained in
the school system, substituting in his course during a portion of the
year agricultural work for the academic and vocational studies of the
regular curriculum.
In analyzing the problem it was found that there were three types of
boys to be considered: (1) the boy in a farming district, who could be
employed on the farm of his father or a neighbor; (2) the boy in a town
near an agricultural center, who could be employed within a radius of
a few miles of his home and school; (3) the boy from a city, who would
have to be sent to distant farms and whose welfare would not be in the
charge of his school principal and parents. The case of the first boy
is very simple; the second is also easy of solution; but if the third
boy is to be used, there will need to be a carefully worked-out plan
for his placement, record of work, accommodations, and general welfare.
It is for the third boy that the camp must be established, where he
will be looked after by a responsible person who will see that he has
the proper tent, board, work, and sanitary arrangements.
[10] California and Indiana developed plans about the same time. Before
the first of July, 1917, the movement became quite general in America.
The plans of the different states for utilizing boy power, while
aiming toward the one desirable end of increasing our food production,
have differed widely in detail, owing to the variation in the
compulsory-attendance laws, to the latitude exercised in some states in
excusing boys prematurely, and to the varying degrees of investigation
of placement, record of work, and supervision. All states agree in
giving the boy who is excused for farm work credit in his school work.
Canada, too, excuses boys over 14 for farm work, allowing them full
school credit for three months' labor. While it may be urged that it is
not pedagogically sound to give credit in one subject for the work in
another, a way out of the difficulty might be found in a rearrangement
of the school year and vacations in districts where there is a large
percentage of excused boys; or special classes could be devised for
these boys when they return to school. In the large high schools
shorter intensive courses could be included in the program so that
the boy who was preparing for college would not lose his work in such
subjects as English, history, and mathematics. In the case of language
and science there must be a loss which it is difficult to repair. If
the present conditions persist, administrative ingenuity can solve the
question of work and credits. It is not one of the serious aspects of
the problem, provided always that there is no release of children below
the compulsory-attendance age.
In Massachusetts the work of mobilizing schoolboys for farm labor was
in charge of the state's Committee on Public Safety. Their principles
in acting were as follows:
Mobilize the schoolboys; keep those under 16 at home to work on
home, school, and community gardens; enlist the high-school boys
between 16 and 18, too young for military or naval service, but
old enough to render real service; move them where farm labor is
needed; make them understand that enlistment for farm service is in
all ways as patriotic as any other service for the nation's defense.
With the appointment of a subcommittee to formulate the detailed scheme
of placement and supervision, having Frank V. Thompson, Assistant
Superintendent of the Boston schools, as chairman, the plan for the
coöperation of schools with agriculture is, for boys 16 and over, as
follows:
1. (_a_) The farm-labor service is to be recognized by a bronze badge
containing the seal of the commonwealth and inscribed "The Nation's
Service" and "Food Production." (_b_) An honorable discharge, similar
to a discharge from the army, containing the signature of the governor,
will be issued to boys who successfully complete their service on
farms. (_c_) Tufts, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and Massachusetts Agricultural College have agreed to
give a trial term or year to such candidates as present an honorable
discharge, without further entrance requirements, provided their school
work was satisfactory up to the time of leaving and the principal so
recommends.
2. The existing school organization is used to conduct the enterprise.
For each 25 boys enlisted a supervisor is appointed, a male teacher of
strong ability in the local school,--in towns where there are several
supervisors, either the superintendent of schools or the principal
of the high school. A general head supervisor in charge of the state
work has an office in the Statehouse. Each local head supervisor and
each supervisor of 25 boys receives the same sum ($100), the money
being obtained from a local contingent fund, from an additional
appropriation, or by subscription.
3. The minimum wage of the boys is fixed thus: first week, no wages,
but allowance of $2 for expenses etc.; thereafter (_a_) boy living on
farm, not less than $4 a week and board, (_b_) boy living at home, not
less than $6 a week. Six days constitute a week.
4. The enlistment card and the issuance of honorable discharge are
controlled by the general head supervisor (Committee on Public Safety).
5. The enrollment for the period of May 1 to October 1 is made by the
boy, with the parents' consent and the school physician's endorsement.
When the boy is enlisted, a numbered badge is lent to him, for which he
signs a receipt; it is to be returned in case of unsatisfactory conduct
or service. He receives full credit for the year's school work.
6. Inspection of the physical and moral conditions of the place of
employment, the choosing of the boys from enrollment lists, and seeing
that both boys and farmers are satisfied, are part of the work of the
appointed supervisors.
7. Camps for the boys, when local conditions require, are established
under the direction of the medical expert for the State Board of Labor
and Industries. An expert on camps has supervision of the work of the
executive committee in standardizing and inspecting camps and obtaining
the equipment, layout, and food supplies.
With the coöperation of farm bureaus thousands of circulars and
labor-contract forms were sent to Massachusetts farmers. By June 16,
1917, there were camps established at 18 points, and arrangements
completed to employ 500 to 600 boys from these camps. In addition there
were at least 500 other boys released from school to work on home
farms, or living in farmers' homes.
An interesting feature of the Massachusetts scheme was the working
out of camp plans by the drafting students in the Newton Technical
High School, with detailed equipment of dining tent with wooden-horse
tables; sleeping tent with double-deck bunk; latrine; cook shack; etc.
In its system for handling the supply of boy labor, the state requires
the farmer to sign a definite application blank for the amount of
boy labor which he requires. It is understood that while the boys
are enlisted for the entire period up to October 1, the farmer may
take those boys for long or short periods of not less than a week
in duration, to begin or end at any time, as the farmer's necessity
requires. This application made by the farmer is also an agreement to
pay the wages stipulated by the Committee on Public Safety and also
to employ the boy on rainy as well as fair days, using his services
on rainy days under cover if possible. Further agreement is made, in
case the boy is unsatisfactory, to give him one week's notice or one
week's pay, providing him with a statement in writing of the reason
for his discharge. Whenever, in the opinion of the local supervisor,
the conditions of living or of labor are not satisfactory, the boy may
be withdrawn without prejudice to him. These arrangements insure that
there shall be a coöperative responsibility of farmer and state in
caring for the boy.
In establishing the camps in Massachusetts the money to start the work
was chiefly supplied by individuals. In the case of the New Bedford
contingent in Coonamesett camp, on an estate of 11,000 acres, the
boys were housed in militia tents, lent by the state,--two boys to
a tent. For their tent furnishings the boys supplied whatever they
needed. A mess house--a rough board building 75 feet long by 17 feet
wide, providing eating quarters for the boys and at one end a cook
room--was in part erected by the New Bedford Industrial School boys,
working under the direction of an experienced carpenter. The laying of
the 2500 feet of pipe to carry water to the camp was also the work of
the same school. The catering for the boys was under the direction of
an experienced woman and two Japanese cooks. In the morning the boys
started for the various farms, those at a distance being called for by
an auto truck. In this camp, for an eight-hour day and a six-day week
each boy received a maximum wage of $4 a week and board, the weekly
payment in charge of the supervisor. The camp was fortunate in having
as its directors the city superintendent of schools and a physical
instructor, the latter living in the camp.
In New York the placing of boys on farms has been the joint work of the
Food Supply Commission, the State Education Department, and the State
Military Training Commission. While younger boys have been released
for agricultural work by other agencies, the state placement by the
commission is concerned only with the boys of military training age--16
to 19. One of the first actions of the latter commission was to divide
the state into 6 military-training zones: New York City (including
Manhattan, Bronx, and Richmond); Long Island, including Brooklyn;
Hudson Valley, with center at Albany; East Central, at Syracuse; West
Central, at Rochester; and Western, at Buffalo. Next, a description
was obtained of the character of the work in each zone. For example,
the Hudson Valley Zone as far as Albany requires labor in harvesting
small fruits and general farm work, while the West Central Zone work
is that of muck farming, large-fruit farming, and general farming.
Each zone center has its individual office through which placements are
made. Meetings were held the latter part of April by zone supervisors
and farm-bureau managers, and attended by farmers' and fruit growers'
associations who stated what they needed and what they would contribute
in wages and housing for boy workers.
The inducements for enlisting offered by the state to boys released
from school work were the chevron given by the Military Training
Commission, to be awarded after thirty days' satisfactory work; the
military-training-equivalent value of the service; and the promise of
proper pay and care by the employer. As to credits, so important in
the New York system, farm cadets were permitted to take the Regents'
examinations though the course lacked a few weeks of completion,
the time requirement being waived in their case. Any pupil in the
schools of the state who enlisted for military service (this applied
to the colleges) or who rendered satisfactory agricultural service
was credited with the work of the term without examination, on the
certificate of the school that his work up to the time of enlistment
was satisfactory.
New York is an agricultural state, with a great variety of kinds of
farming and many districts remote from centers of the supply of labor.
The agricultural census, to which reference was made in Chapter II,
supplied data for determining the districts where and when labor was
most needed and where schoolboys could be most useful. For example,
in Orleans County, in the Western Zone, the demand varied from 163
laborers needed early in May to 1521 needed in October, an indication
that there was really more reason for excusing boys in October than in
May for work in peach- and apple-harvesting districts.[11] Conspicuous
among the types of New York farms where labor was sought were the great
fruit farms, such as the Sodus Fruit Farm, with a house on the shore
of Lake Ontario able to accommodate 100 boys, where it was planned
to harvest the entire peach and apple crop with schoolboy labor; the
vast tracts owned by the canning companies, with thousands of acres
of tomatoes, beans, and corn under cultivation; and the farms such
as those in the South Lima district, where there was muck farming
and where the work included the cultivating, sorting, and packing of
onions, lettuce, celery, and spinach. Calls were sometimes made upon
the state for as many as 1500 boys to assist in harvesting. It was
therefore necessary for the state to work on a large and definitely
planned scale.
[11] The following statistics for Orleans County show how agricultural
help is needed, as indicated by the census taken by school children:
May 10-20 163 Aug. 21-31 573 May 21-31 165 Sept. 1-10 1157 June 1-10
227 Sept. 11-20 1308 June 11-20 257 Sept. 21-30 1317 June 21-30 271
Oct. 1-10 1521 July 1-10 518 Oct. 11-20 1500 July 11-20 526 Oct. 21-30
1435 July 21-31 523 Nov. 1-10 38 Aug. 1-10 486 Nov. 11-20 13 Aug. 11-20
554 Nov. 20-30 1
Naturally the first boys to be placed were those residing in or
near farming districts. When, however, the supply of these boys was
exhausted, the call came, even from remote districts, for city boys.
In these cases the problem of transportation becomes serious, as well
as the housing and care of the boy in the new environment, where
association with other help is apt to be harmful.
The following description of a New York State camp is offered not
only because it has proved to be highly successful but also because
it affords an excellent illustration of the "farm-working, or
labor-distributing, camp," which is defined in the chapter following.
It was called The Erasmus Hall High School (New York City) Potato
Growers' Association, and was organized by F. A. Rexford, a teacher who
is much interested in agriculture and in boys.
[Illustration: Working and living in the berry fields. One of
twenty-five camps in the Highlands of New York State.]
[Illustration: Agriculture on a Western basis brings lessons in
organization, coöperation, and economy to Eastern boys. City boys
working on a large farm near Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.]
[Illustration: Employing able-bodied boys of city high schools for
farm production may become permanent. It may lead to the development
of country annexes to our city schools. Camp near Phoenixville,
Pennsylvania.]
The object of the association, which was formed in the school, was
originally fourfold: (1) to teach the farmer that the alert city boy
can and will perform agricultural tasks; (2) to increase the food
supply; (3) to relieve the help situation by organizing a group of boys
to work by the hour or day, and to recruit boys to work by the month
for individual farmers under supervision; (4) to fit boys for military
service if needed.
Ten boys from the school left New York on May 5, each armed with the
money necessary to pay such expenses as carfare, food, laundry, rent
of an acre of land, seed potatoes, phosphate, team hire, and spraying
materials. They went to Mr. Rexford's farm, located up-state. The _New
York Tribune_ contributed some money, and one of the teachers in the
school advanced $60 for the boys to grow potatoes for him. Some frail
boys, whose parents wanted them to go for their health, were refused.
At first the farmers were skeptical. The boys, however, went to work on
the land which they had rented from Rexford. In a week they began to
attract attention and farmers began to hire them. Rexford knew some of
these farmers by reputation. He believed that men who cannot keep their
own boys at home cannot succeed with boys from the city. He was in the
habit of having a straight talk with the employing farmers, telling
them that the boys must be treated squarely.
A large milk-distributing corporation offered to take every one of his
boys, but he argued that it could afford to hire men and did not need
boys, as did the farmers who could not obtain other help. It is evident
that large farmers have capital and backing, while it is the individual
farmer struggling with hard conditions who must have help.
Most of the boys who are with farmers by the month come back to the
main camp every Sunday morning for physical examination, general
assembly, and to go to church. This coming back to the camp keeps
before them the idea of a camp for farm cadets. They return to their
work Sunday night. For those boys who go out by the week the teacher
makes an arrangement whereby the farmer brings them back to the camp on
Saturday night and comes for them the following night.
The people in the community in which the camp is located have
established a nonsectarian church in an old cheese factory which has
been purchased for $200. Occasionally a minister from a near-by town
comes and speaks.
The camp has a professional cook, who was obtained from a college
fraternity, and the boys pay pro rata. The first expense was about
$2.50 a week for each boy, but prosperity has provided means for the
boys to spend more.
All vegetables which the boys raised and which they did not use on
the table were canned by the cook and Mrs. Rexford, and they will be
used in the early part of next year, before the fresh vegetables are
available.
Local store men have coöperated in giving the lowest prices, feeling
that otherwise the trade of the camp would go to the city, and
therefore choosing the opportunity of large business with aggregate
large receipts on small profit.
Breakfast consists of fruit, cereal or eggs, and milk, cocoa, or
postum, and sometimes corn bread or griddle cakes. The boys carry a
cold lunch with them, consisting of a pail of cold cocoa; four good
thick sandwiches of peanut butter, meat, or jam; a piece of frosted
cake; and a banana. Sometimes they take a pot of jam, which is disposed
of by the group. For dinner they have a roast or steak; potatoes and
other ordinary vegetables (beans, peas, lettuce, carrots); shortcake or
pie or pudding; cocoa, postum, or milk.
The boys take care of their own beds, wash the dishes, and keep the
place clean.
They have a study hour every evening from eight until nine, and the
same is true of the boys placed out with farmers. One boy, going
to Princeton in the fall, kept up his studies and took the Regents'
examinations at the country school, passing them with as good a mark as
he would have obtained at his home school.
After drill on Sunday morning the boys at camp have a baseball game.
They have had entertainments for the benefit of the Red Cross. In the
group at camp are the gold-medal orator of the school, two excellent
pianists, four mandolin players, and a whistler. All the boys are good
singers.
Rexford's application blank asked for the weight, age, previous
experience in farming, church preference, and habits as to smoking.
The teacher had the coöperation of the farm bureau. The farmers wrote
to the bureau for help; Mr. Rexford and the farm-bureau manager went
to each farmer, looked over the situation, and if everything was
satisfactory, furnished the workers. Mr. Rexford will not leave boys
on any farm without proper supervision. He visits the boys once every
week, neither the farmer nor the boy knowing when he is coming.
At first no wage scale was set, the arrangement being that the farmer
should pay what the boy was worth. If he was worth nothing, then it
was all right, and the boy ought to be the first one to know it.
However, most of the boys started at 20 cents an hour; soon this was
raised to 25 cents, and now the pay is 30 cents.
Most of the farmers in the vicinity had never done any spraying. They
now apply to Mr. Rexford when they want such work done and he sends out
two boys and horses and his own spraying outfit. The work is done at a
cost to the farmer of about 70 cents per acre for spraying potatoes,
in addition to the material; that is, 25 cents per acre for each boy's
work and 20 cents expense on the spraying outfit, for nozzles etc.
There was no illness among the boys during the summer, not even colds.
Sometimes the boys got wet through, but came home, took a dip in a hole
in the creek, and followed it by a good rub.
Meanwhile quite a number of New York City men teachers under the
leadership of two camp supervisors, H. W. Millspaugh and H. J.
McCreary, and acting under the authority of the Board of Education,
started out "to sell something they did not have to somebody who did
not want it." But these men had the courage of their convictions and
the results of their work (over twenty camps in two counties) give
ample evidence of the success of their venture.
Imagine the surprise of the fruit growers of the counties named when
they received the following circular letter:
It is proposed to bring a large number of boys from the high
schools of New York City to pick fruit in the fruit belt of Orange
and Ulster counties. In carrying out this plan it will be necessary
to have the full coöperation of fruit growers, school authorities,
parents, health authorities, and others. The part of the fruit
grower will be roughly as follows:
He will provide housing facilities, stove, fuel, refrigeration,
either by ice box, cellar, or spring, convenient water supply,
toilet facilities satisfactory to the board of health, straw for
mattresses, cooking utensils, working conditions that will enable
the average boy to earn a respectable wage, and a sympathetic
attitude toward the comfort and health of the boys.
Each boy will provide his carfare to and from the fruit
section, provide his own knife, fork, cup, plate, spoon, wash
basin, tick for mattress, pillow, blankets, etc., and pay for his
food and cooking. Boys will mess in groups of 12 to 25 or even
more. Each group will have a capable boy cook and in camps of
over 20, two boys. The first boy will receive $4 a week besides
his meals, the second boy $2.50 a week and may earn some more by
picking fruit. A teacher supervisor will supervise one large or
two or three small camps and advise as to preparation of food, buy
supplies, and act as camp director.
Regarding cooking outfit to be supplied by the fruit grower,
it may be said that all except stove and ice box can be purchased
new for about $10. It is desirable that these be ordered by the
camp director, who will judge the size and kind and take advantage
of wholesale rates. An oil stove and oven is recommended unless
a suitable stove is on hand. Inexperienced boy cooks cannot be
expected to satisfy a score or more of hungry boys with equipment
discarded by the skilled housewife.
It is further understood that these boys will not work on
Sunday nor will they be located on farms where farm help is not
treated with consideration.
An illustration of a "concentration and training camp" is that
established by the state of Maine. This state, in coöperation with
the state Young Men's Christian Association, developed a state camp
for the purpose of enlisting and training boys and young men to
supply the extra demand for farm labor made necessary through the
increased-acreage propaganda. The boys were organized under the title
of "The Junior Volunteers of Maine." They were virtually farm soldiers
of the state, and were sworn to obey all rules of the camp before and
after leaving it for the farms on which they were placed.
The boys are sent out in squads to work in different sections of the
state, as opportunity may offer, under the direction of competent adult
leaders. These leaders have full charge of the boys until they return
to the mobilization camp.
When a boy comes to the camp he is examined for his moral and physical
qualifications, and then is assigned to a company and to a tent. The
adjutant general provides necessary tents, uniforms, and camp utensils.
The boy is instructed with others in the squad how to pitch a tent and
pack camp utensils, and he is also given lessons in sanitation and
the elements of military drill. He has a lecture every day given by
a professor of the state agricultural college. He also works on the
Y.M.C.A. farm, which is being used for this purpose, and is taught the
use of machinery, and how to manage and care for horses, sharpen tools,
and milk cows.
It is not claimed that a week of this sort of training makes the boy
a finished farmer, but it does go a long way in that preliminary
education so essential to farm-mindedness. By the time the boy gets to
the farmer he is in excellent shape to understand the orders of his
employer. In the words of the director of the camp, "He is ready to
begin actual service as a trained novice."
Before the boy is admitted to the camp a searching examination is made
into his character and antecedents, and some responsible person must
answer certain confidential questions relative to the boy's physical,
mental, and social habits.
After the boy is admitted to the camp he takes an oath in which he
states that he will serve as a junior volunteer for farm service in
Maine until the last day of October, unless sooner released by the
governor of the state of Maine.
A charge is made on the farmer of $1 a day for each of the six working
days, and it is expected that if the boys show themselves worthy of
more, the farmer will recognize this and make a satisfactory adjustment
with the leader. In addition to the minimum charge of $1 a day the
farmer is required to furnish board. As a rule, however, the boys sleep
in near-by tents with their leaders. The farmer is not required to pay
transportation or other charges.
The farmer's agreement is with the state and not with the boy, as the
scheme works on the basis that the young men have been engaged by the
state for farm service and as employees of the state receive their pay
through the regular state channels.
On the first of July more than 450 boys had been trained and sent out
to various points in the state.
The following letter from the director-general of the camp gives in a
word his experience with these boys:
We feel that this movement can be justified from any one of
a half-dozen standpoints. We are taking city boys and in a few
weeks giving them a few carefully selected fundamental principles
relating to practical farm activities, which has enabled them to
go out to the farms under our leaders and give satisfaction. We
have not had a single complete failure yet. Only 3 boys out of 600
employed for the season have been changed because they could not
fill the requirements. The way these city boys have taken hold
of farm work has been wonderfully gratifying. In connection with
this training, we are conducting our camp along lines similar to
camps of National Guardsmen. The whole organization is nearly
identical with the regular army camps. While the training is not so
extensive, the boys are given the fundamentals in correct form. The
spirit and general training at the camp will be of great value if
any of these boys are ever called into the service.
Another important possibility, and from my experience with
city boys, a probability, is that some of these boys will become
sufficiently interested in agriculture to choose it as a vocation,
while others will choose it later in life as an avocation, because
of this experience.
Another mobilization camp of the "labor-distribution" type, with some
training features, was that of the Long Island Food Reserve Battalion.
This organization was initiated by the Nassau County Y.M.C.A. and
supported financially and morally by the Long Island Railroad, the
state agricultural school at Farmingdale, and by local residents. A
detailed description is unnecessary. There were 6 camps under this
organization scattered over the island, in each camp 48 boys under a
supervisor, a military instructor, and squad leaders (1 squad leader to
approximately every 7 boys). The last camp was developed at the state
school of agriculture with a group of 96 boys working in two shifts,
one beginning at 6 A.M. and stopping at 12 noon; the other beginning
at 12 noon and stopping at 6 P.M. A regular course of agricultural
instruction was carried on at all the camps. Lectures have been given
in entomology, farm chemistry, and marketing. During the first month
of the first camp it was difficult to place the boys. The idea was not
well received by the farmers, who claimed that the presence of boys
would "demoralize" their regular help, and that the boys would not
recognize the different vegetables and would hoe out corn as quickly as
they would pigweed. (One boy in a New York State camp did carefully hoe
out and pull up every corn plant for a half-day, leaving weeds.)
During the height of the season these same farmers were driving to
the camps and offering from $2 to $2.50 a day for the same boys that
they had laughed at hiring for $1.25 a day at the beginning of the
installation of the camps.
The "flying-squadron" idea is unique. An auto truck, with a trailer for
tentage and supplies, is always ready to respond with its load of boys
to an emergency call to save some particular crop. The group composing
this squadron is made up of "hand-picked" boys who are qualifying for
squad-leader positions.
An example of a camp which was conducted in such a manner that the boys
lost the minimum of school work is that of the Bushwick (Brooklyn, New
York), High School "Camp Squire" near Hicksville, Long Island. The
organization of this camp is interesting, not so much because it was
established with the purpose of making it self-supporting, but rather
because it provided definite opportunities for continuing with school
studies. The initial amount of about $175 was subscribed by teachers,
and the tent and mess house, intended formerly for harvesters, was
lent by the farmer on whose grounds the camp was placed. The leader
of this camp, a teacher in the same school from which the boys were
recruited, planned, after the schools opened in September, a day of
work and study, coaching the boys in their school subjects, so that
with at least three hours of study per day the boys were enabled to
keep up with their classes while at work harvesting until the middle
of October. In this, as in other successful camps, the boys formed
a unit organization before going to camp, and had the advantage of
a sympathetic instructor of academic and agricultural experience to
enforce voluntary school discipline. The boys were paid 20 to 25
cents an hour, working for neighboring farmers from 7 A.M. to 3 P.M.
The rest of the day was divided into silent study, consultation, and
recreation hours. It is expected that this camp, which will doubtless
be permanent, will become self-supporting in its second or third year
and the initial outlay will be returned.
The farm-camp idea is here to stay. Of that we are sure. The purely
recreational camp is a thing of the past. The days of the purely work
camp of ten to twelve hours a day ought to be over. Work, play, and
study in the future will be brought together in the summer time as
effectively as during the so-called "regular" season. Next year, and in
the years after, we shall organize this work around some educational
ideal and not merely around a necessity for food-production. The two
are by no means incompatible.
This year we have learned "how not to do it," as one camp leader put
it. In some instances the boys went home with less money than they
had at the start. In brief they paid the farmer for the privilege of
picking berries. Particularly in berry picking there was much piece
work, and such may carry with it nearly all the evils that it does
in the factory. Mr. Keller, a thoughtful leader of a New York camp,
says in this connection: "Judging the fair wage from the earnings of
the expert is manifestly unfair. It means that the average boy must be
speeded up beyond his point of endurance, or that he must receive less
than a living wage. The possibilities of speeding up are limited, and
so the alternative is longer hours."
Furthermore it is necessary for the government, state or national,
to take a hand in the distribution and the sale of farm products. It
made me sick at heart, on a trip of inspection to 25 camps, to see
hundreds of boys at work picking berries under the hot sun in a service
supposedly patriotic, and then to see the same berries, which had been
sold by the growers at a price not much above that of other years,
resold to the consumer at double the price of other years,--and always
with the remark: "You know labor is scarce this year, and the farmers
cannot get help." The result of it all has been that the consumer, for
whom the work was done, has been disregarded.
From the point of view of social reconstruction, education, food
production, and conservation only the surface has been scratched. The
state must take the initiative, assuring the consumer a moderate price
for the product, and the farmer, the dealer, and the boy a fair return
for their service.
The boy is not merely a labor unit in the conservation of food. He is
the essential feature of an educational program. The experience of
the past summer proves that with centralization, organization, and an
educational vision as fundamental sub-divisions of a far-sighted state
policy the placing of boy labor on farms could become a valuable and
permanent by-product of the war.