HUMAN TIDE POURING WEST.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15319, 15 September 1920, Page 6

HUMAN TIDE POURING WEST.

WINNIPEG, August 16.-The. great tide of humanity that flows annually at - this season from the East and Soutli is - pouring over the praries of Western i Canada. • r The first wave— 27oo harvest hands from' i Ontario and Quebec— struck Winnipeg t. on Tuesday and was followed closely by) • succeeding waves. Within ten days ! , 30,000 will have been assembled here, | I and before two weeks have passed every I , one of them will have . reached his or J . her> final destination, a grain field m i Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta. 3 One feature >hat- distinguishes the flood - of harvesters this season over those of ■j previous years is the fact that there' are i more women going to farms now than ' , ever before. ■ lu- the first trainloads were i 250 to 300 women to about 3000 men. > Many of them came to tako jobs as , cooks, but a great majority are enlisting . for manual labor, alongside the men m ' tbe fields. Most of them are foreignr born, accustomed to heavy work m their - native countries, but there is a considerable sprinkling of Canadian-born, Amerit can, English and Scotch girls, intent on i getting experience as well as on reaping i the reward of high wages. > . From 16s' to £1 4s aday, with meals' i and lodging, is of ered by farmers, the I • amount of the wage depending upon the i experience and capability of the help. | >. Women who have had at least two years' ' experience m harvesting get from 16s to i £1 ; those who take jobs as cooks get- • about the same. "Green" girls command 1 a wage of from 8s 6d to 12s 6cl a day, > to help either m the fields or m the ' kitchen." ' Although 41,000 extra helpers will be required to , harvest this 'season's crops; 30,000 from the East and the United ; States and 11,000 who are being obtained m cities and towns of the West. The number includes hundreds of college students and older high school beys, attracted by the high wages and the op- . portunity of obtaining a "vacation" ' and : at the same, time earning spending money for the, next school term. ' In recruiting this army of workers and ; i distributing them where they are needed, 1 ..' jthe two. transcontinental railways 'coI operate with each other and with tho ! • Dominion Government's employment j bureau service. , The transportation and i placing of 41,000 men and women, most.j of them for distances of over 1500 miles, 1 and all within a period of two weeks is j a task that taxes the resources of the _ railroads. Only by the most careful ad- 1 vance preparation, m the arranging of g schedules, ticketing the harvesters, know- 1 ing exactly how many are required* and 1 where they are wanted, do they prevent j congestion at the various distributing"! centres. a | Practically all the -30,000 from' the cast j aud south come to Winnipeg. So perfect is the system .of. 'distribution, that, less ; than 1000 of that number have ; spent a I night m this city. Tlie special trains conVeying them run on schedules which bring them into the city before the departing times of most of the trains bound , for points m Manitoba and^ tho western province^. Tlie harvesters are unloaded 1 from the specials, assigned to their jobs, 1 given tickets to their destinations and, V m many cases, are on their way again 9 within an hour or.twq. , ;n Tlie few who have 'to remain over night 9 to connect with early morning trains, w are accommodated m temporary shelters I erected especially for them. Throughout H their journey they are fed regularly three §j times * a day ; if any are taken 6ick H medical attention is provided, and m H general all their requirements are met. ■ Experience- of former years teaches that 8 many hundreds of thousands that come 1 froni the East ahd South do not return P when* the harvest is over, hut remain on | the western farms or drift into the towns and * cities. Thousands of prosperous ■ farmers, merchants and men m all lines of trade and professions now come west ■, on "harvesters' specials" and remain to • grow up with the country. I fl