Solving the Critical Labor Shortage in North Carolina, 1943

From the June, 1943, issue of the Carolina Co-operator.

North Carolina farmers are aware of the great need for all-out production of food crops this year. Preliminary reports made by the state USDA War Board indicate that soybean acreage will be increased by 25 percent in North Carolina over last year, poultry by 65 percent, livestock 20 percent, dairying 10 percent, truck crop 10 percent, small grain 10 percent, tobacco 10 percent, peanuts 5 percent, while corn acreage will remain about the same and cotton acreage will be reduced 20 percent.

 Farmers and their entire families are spending long hours trying to meet the wartime demands for agricultural production. They have responded to the call of their government and are literally taking “a risk for America” by stepping up production in spite of the many handicaps and difficulties they face.

Farm Labor Reserves have been drawn on heavily by both the armed forces and defense industries. It was estimated that 10,000 workers left the farms of North Carolina each month during the past year, so that a critical labor situation exists in agriculture throughout the state. The Patterson community in Rowan County organized their farm families into work groups last fall, and all crops were harvested in this manner without loss. Since that time Governor Broughton has appointed a Farm Labor Commission to study the situation and to coordinate the efforts of all agencies seeking to relieve the problem.

Farmers in every neighborhood must work together and solve the problem locally as far as possible. Unless this step is taken, there will be no solution to the farm labor problem in North Carolina. The demands of the armed forces are such that additional trained labor is not available. Dr. I.O. Schaub, director of Extension in North Carolina, reports that 75 counties in the state will take care of their local situation without outside assistance. This will be done through work-sharing and machinery-sharing arrangements similar to the plan used by the Patterson community last year. For example: One farmer who owns the only combine in his neighborhood is short of labor. He has agreed to combine grain for neighbors, and they have agreed to help him in return. With jobs requiring additional labor, arrangements like this can be carried on in hundreds of communities throughout the state this year.

The Extension Service has just been given the responsibility for recruiting, training, and placing farm workers. Farm labor inventories are being made in every county and every effort is being made to locate additional labor to meet critical problems that arise during the year. The vocational agricultural teacher have gone to the city high schools and have secured more than 1,000 non-farm high school boys for work on farms this summer.

The Farm Security Administration is establishing migratory labor camps in the vegetable, strawberry, potato, bean, and peanut areas of the state.

The federal government is importing several thousand workers from Mexico and other places for work in critical harvesting sections of the nation.

The State Office of Civilian Defense reports that people in the towns and cities will volunteer to help save crops so that every possible step is being taken to assure farmers of an adequate labor supply. In addition to these steps, the Selective Service has amended its regulations and essential farm workers are not being called into military service.

The War Manpower Commission, through its job freezing order, will stop the pirating of farm workers into higher paying industrial and defense jobs. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration is presenting information to Selective Service for every farm worker between the ages of 18 and 45, which will enable proper classification of these men. Farmers are studying the tobacco marketing program, and it will be adjusted so that cotton, peanuts, and hay crops can be harvested, and small grains seeded this fall.

North Carolina farmers know that food is a vital weapon and they are going forward with their production plans confidently. They are sparing nothing in their determination to support the boys in the armed forces who are sacrificing all for the preservation of the American way of life. They are not loafing on the job, nor bickering over working conditions, nor waiting for the answer to all their problems. They are calling upon their fellow citizens throughout the state to join them in the production program on the home front and thus assure an early and complete victory for America and her allies.