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COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY.
UNITED STATES SENATE

EIGHTY-SECOND CONGRESS

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A BILL RELATING TO THE STABILIZATION OF
DEFENSE FARM LABOR

S. 984

A BILL TO AMEND THE AGRICULTURAL ACT OF 1949

AND

S. 1106

A BILL TO FACILITATE THE OBTAINING OF AN
ADEQUATE SUPPLY OF WORKERS FOR THE PRO-
DUCTION AND HARVESTING OF AGRICULTURAL
COMMODITIES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

MARCH 13, 14, 15, AND 16, 1951

Printed for the use of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry

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Bond, Howard, representing the American Sugar Cane League, New
Orleans, La..

86

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III

Miscellaneous documents-

S. 949, Eighty-first Congress_

S. 984, Eighty-first Congress..
S. 1106, Eighty-first Congress-

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List of agricultural labor users represented at hearing before the
Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry...

93

Telegram from Brady T. Jones, Pictsweet Foods, Inc., Mount Vernon,
Wash., dated March 16, 1951, relative to S. 1106_
Letter from J. L. Nairn, McAllen, Tex., dated March 11, 1951, relative
to S. 984_.

Letter from Edward J. Overby, assistant to the Secretary, United
States Department of Agriculture, dated March 14, 1951, relative
to overnight rest camps for migrant agricultural workers and opera-
tion of the farm labor supply program during World War II____
Statement filed by John F. McGovern chairman, war manpower
committee, National Canners Association____

Telegram filed by Senator Karl E. Mundt from Kelley, Farquhar &
Co., Tacoma, Wash., dated March 15, 1951.

Telegram filed by Senator Karl E. Mundt from Elvin F. Kale, C. S.
Kale Canning Co., Bellingham, Wash., dated March 16, 1951-.-

Supplementary statement filed by James E. Curry, National Con-

gress of American Indians_

FARM LABOR PROGRAM

TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1951

UNITED STATES SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY,

Washington, D. C.

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:10 a. m., in room 324, Senate Office Building, Senator Allen J. Ellender (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Ellender, Hoey, Johnston, Holland, Anderson, Aiken, Young, Thye, Hickenlooper, and Mundt.

The CHAIRMAN. The meeting will be in order.

The purpose of this meeting is to hear testimony with respect to several bills on the subject of methods to supply agricultural workers. At this point in the record I should like to insert copies of S. 949, S. 984, and S. 1106, which was just introduced yesterday by Senator Magnuson.

(The bills referred to are as follows:)

18. 949, 82d Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL Relating to the stabilization of defense farm labor

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Defense Farm Labor Act of 1951".

SEC. 2. The Congress finds that (1) farm labor is a vital and inseparable part of the total defense manpower problem and must be considered in the same manner as industrial labor is considered to the end that production of adequate supplies of food and fiber for defense mobilization can be stabilized and made more efficient; (2) there are urgent seasonal demands in widely scattered parts of the country for defense farm workers; (3) in order to adequately fulfill these demands a coordinated program of recruitment, transportation, housing, and health service must be provided by the Federal Government; (4) in the absence of coordination, the supply of labor has sometimes fallen below local needs and at other times has so greatly exceeded local needs that farm workers have, in some sections of the country, become public charges on the States, while in other sections great financial losses were sustained by reason of labor shortages; (5) the flow of farm labor has been interstate in character, and relief problems of transient farm labor have caused inequitable burdens upon States, counties, and municipalities; and (6) provision of health services and medical care so that selective service as well as defense farm projects will not be confronted with physically deficient manpower as they were in World War II, the elimination of abuses in the employment of farm labor, and the establishment of protective standards are essential to insure the adequate flow of agricultural labor.

SEC. 3. (a) The Secretary of Labor is authorized and directed to take whatever steps may be necessary and proper to provide an adequate supply of farm labor in the continental United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, including, among other things, (1) the collection, compilation, and dissemination of information relevant to defense farm labor, labor-deficit areas, and housing and working conditions; (2) the recruiting, training, and placement of workers; (3) the transportation of, and the furnishing of housing, and health and medical care, and burial services to workers and their families; and (4) the construction, lease, repair, alteration, relocation, expansion, and operation of labor-supply centers, labor camps and homes, child-care centers, and other necessary facilities and services.

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