WARNING TO HARVEST HANDS.
State Employment Agent Says
"Avoid Advertised Localities."
"We are directing about 150 applicants where to go to get the harvest every day," said K. F. Schweiser, superintendent of the state free employment bureau, yesterday. "Since we can not transport the men out ourselves our usefulness is limited to some extent this year. We cannot tell how many are actually going to the fields. Up to date we have directed 1,017 men. We expect to handle 2,000 men between the 20th and the 25th of June. I have received more than 150 letters from groups of men in the East, particularly college students, asking about the harvest, and I directed them all to come to Kansas City about June 20.
"Right here I would like to say a word of warning against a certain class of private employment agencies. A man who runs a Union avenue agency came into my office yesterday and asked me to tell him where to send men to reach the harvest. He explained that he could make a very neat sum in fees by retailing the information to the workingmen who frequented the district where his office is located. In other words he was going to make the workingmen pay for information we dispense for nothing.
"I would like also to warn men intending to go to the fields from communities which advertise. Last year the mayor of one Kansas town came here, and by advertising induced many to go to his part of the country. He sent many more than were needed and the farmers were then able to squeeze down wages very low. If you want to go to the fields come to the state employment bureau and I will direct you to the best place, for I have the latest and best information, and it's free."
