CHILDREN ARE FARM PROBLEM, PROBERS HEAR
Children Are Farm Problem, Probers Hear Surplus Populat ion Is Causing Lowered Standards, Viow WASHINGTON, D. C—Tile most serious problem of overproduction on American farms concerns not little...
...For one thing, it was pointed out, the farm communities In which land is poorest generally have the most children...
...He put the total at 32,500,000, which is 2,000,000 more than shown in the 1930 census...
...By that time there wouldn't be enough children to fill them, because the succeeding generations would have been educated up to informing themselves about opportunities existing in the rest of the country, and they would have learned enough to take advantage of those opportunities...
...Lorlmer cited these facts: "Georgia is a larger state than Iowa, but it has less farm land...
...Lorimer and other experts the committee heard much testimony to the effect that the poorest rural areas tended to get worse as time went on...
...Lorlmer Testifies On the basis of the present Increase In farm population, at least 2,000,000 excess children will grow to working age In the next 10 years, testified Frank Lorlmer, professor of population studies at American university...
...It works out that there are three times as many acres of usable land per farm person in Iowa as there are in Georgia, and the average value of farm land per farm person is ten times as great...
...Get Hands Dirty, Advice to Youth ROCHESTER, N. Y.—A college education Is all right, but unless young men are willing to get their "hands dirty working," they won't, get far up the ladder of success...
...As it Is now, they do not know that they might better themselves elsewhere...
...We are faced," said Mr...
...But Georgia has a larger farm population than Iowa...
...Declaring that the school had not been "formed or conducted In good faith," the court said its prime purpose was "to get enrollment fees from the students...
...Lorlmer said that his figures indicated the nation would "pile up a reservoir of 2,000,000 potential migrants within the next decade...
...There, Mr...
...Correspondence Hack el Stopped SYRACUSE, N. Y. A blow to correspondence schools which, profiling from the grave unemployment situation, Jure students with false promises of jobs upon completion of courses, was dealt in a decision by Federal Judge Frederick H. Bryant...
...It would have to be done with the knowledge that in 50 years the schools wouldn't be needed...
...This means an Impossibly heavy burden in providing education...
...At the other end of the scale, the one-sixth of the counties having the highest plane of living show a 17 per cent replacement deficit...
...As evidence of the unequal distribution of farm population in relation to the productivity of land, Mr...
...The other half must choose between primitive subsistence in farming or turning to the open road in search of opportunities which do not exist...
...Mr...
...The committee, which Is seeking Information as a basis for legislation to deal with the migratory farm labor problem, heard this testimony from population experts...
...Lorlmer said, the rate of replacement shows a deficit of 13 per cent...
...Mr...
...That was the voice of experience speaking to youth last week at the University of Rochester's "clinic" pn "New Frontiers in American Life...
...Children Are Farm Problem, Probers Hear Surplus Populat ion Is Causing Lowered Standards, Viow WASHINGTON, D. C—Tile most serious problem of overproduction on American farms concerns not little pigs, which in an emergency can be slaughtered, nor corn, which can be stored against some future crop failure, but children who can be neither plowed under nor warehoused, the La Folleltc Civil Liberties committee of the senate was told last week...
...If we really want to get people out of such depressed areas as the Appalachian region," he said, "the way to do it is for the government to establish the best possible schools there...
...For falsely promising Jobs by mall, Bryant imposed a $2,500 fine on (he "Traffic Inspectors Training Corp.," a correspondent school, and from eight-months to two-years jail sentences on four of its officers: Charles Van Buren, Frank J. Kavannugh, James H. Tarr and llarlnn O. Potter...
...From Mr...
...Half of these 400.000 youths would suffice to replace those farm workers who die or pass the age of 65 each year...
...The population story in urban communities is just the reverse...
...Lorlmer, "with an immediate problem In the coming of age of nearly 400,000 farm youths each year, at a time when there are already more people In agriculture than can be supported at a decent level of living without perpetual subsidy, In a nation which has not yet achieved the means of employing its natural wealth and human resources effectively In servicing the needs of its people...
...The problem is further complicated by the fact that the greatest population increases are taking place in those rural communities In which the standard of living and the standard of opportunity are lowest...
...In response to a question by Henry H. Fowler, counsel to the committee, Mr...
...Carl C. Taylor, head of the Division of Farm Population and Rural Welfare of the Department of Agriculture, said there was one way to break that vicious circle...
...Two-thirds of Iowa is in cultivation, only one half of Georgia...
...Education Inadequate Therefore education is not adequate and the children fail to equip themselves with the training which would make it possible for them to get out of marginal farming into a line In which they could achieve a decent standard of living...
...Conrad Taeuber, economist of the Department of Agriculture, told the committee that there doubtless are more persons living on farms today than ever before in the nation's history...
...One-sixth of the counties having the lowest plane of living have 77 per cent more children than are needed to replace their population," he said...
...Unless opportunities for urban employment increase very greatly the population on farms will continue to increase," he said, "for migration from farms to cities since 1929 has generally been less than the excess of births over deaths...
...Taylor argued that the states which are now receiving migrants should show some concern about educational facilities in the southern and southwestern states, from which most of the migrants come...
...Lorlmer explained that to maintain a stationary population on the farms it would be necessary for there to be constantly on the farms 443 children under five years for every 1,000 women between the ages of 20 and 44» The last census showed, among the rural white population, 752 such children per 1,000 women, an excess of 62 per cent...
Vol. 10 • May 1940 • No. 21
