Closing for Crops

Farmers said relief dependents were laughing at their job offers. Relief dependents said the farmers were offering starvation wages. The Bureau of Agricultural Economics said the average U. S. farm wage on July 1 was $1.41 per day.

South Dakota swept into action. Early last week it shut every one of its relief stations, cutting 19,000 heads of families off relief, ordered the stations to stay shut until farmers had all the harvest help they wanted. Illinois stopped work relief in rural areas. Nebraska prepared to suspend relief allotments to 26 counties, halve them in 15 others. Missouri halted work projects employing 50,000 persons. Michigan cut 46,000 names off its relief rolls. One by one Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi fell into line.

Explained Federal Relief Administrator Harry Hopkins:

"There has been a lot of loose talk about relief agencies closing down in reprisal against men on relief who refused to take jobs. That may make good front-page stuff, but there's no truth in it. . . . We closed the relief rolls in areas now harvesting because we felt that the situation there is approaching the normal. . . . We are emerging from the Depression. Agriculture is leading the way."

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