Research


Scope and Content Note

This series contains the correspondence of the Farm Manpower Service detailing how it coordinated and provided information to individuals and organizations concerned with the farm labor shortage. It includes suggestions, inquiries about the placement of both children and adults in food harvesting and processing jobs, appeals for additional labor on farms, questions concerning assistance in buying farms, and inquiries about the details of Selective Service classifications and releases from service in order to work in food production. Many of these letters were written in response to an address on farm labor given by Governor Dewey on February 25, 1943.

Also included is correspondence between the Farm Manpower Service and other agencies which details its efforts to alleviate the farm labor shortage. Among the topics discussed in this series are: price ceilings for produce; the possibility of recruiting laborers from non-traditional sources, such as state mental health facilities, to work in food production; and the difficulties in obtaining and repairing farm equipment.