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Show 1 Weber county's hopes for obtaining a full harvest of its largely Increased acreage of essential food crops, planted plant-ed in loyal response to tho request of tho United States food administration, havo been materially lowered by the order for tho reclassification of its selective se-lective draft registrants, according to officers of the county farm bureau. "Wo havo felt," said one of these officials, who has been closely following follow-ing tho operation of the draft law, as well as the enlistment of young fanners, fann-ers, In regard to its general effects on food production in the county, "that tho Weber county local draft board has performed lis duty in full accord with the letter and spirit of tho selective selec-tive draft law, particularly with regard to Its original classification of the registered reg-istered men. This opinion has been proved substantially correct by our acquaintance ac-quaintance with the young men who have been lately called before the (draft board and who aro now being considered for re-classification. ' Selective Service. J "To U3. tho order of Capt. F. V. Fitz-Gerald, Fitz-Gerald, that the roll of class 1 registrants regis-trants must be brought up to 28.7 per. cent of the total number of men registered regis-tered In each district, seems at var- liance with the regulations of the selective se-lective service law, if we understand the law aright. These regulations call for tho classification of tho men between be-tween tho nges of 21 and 31 years, Inclusive, In-clusive, in accordance with their condition con-dition in life with regard to dependants depend-ants or position of executive responsibility responsi-bility in Industrial or agricultural ac-tivieles, ac-tivieles, and without regard to percentages. percent-ages. It also seems inconsistent to demand de-mand or expect that the same percentage percent-age of men should be placed In class 1 in the country districts as in tho cities, as the most casual observer of rural and urban life is aire of the fact that there are comparatively many more men with dependent families, within tho age limits specified by tho selective selec-tive service law, in tho country districts dis-tricts than in tho cities. This Is also equally true in regard to executive responsibility, re-sponsibility, particularly in regard to agricultural districts where small farms and intensive cultivation is the rule, such as is the case in Weber county. County Man Power. "We have In Weber county, approximately approxi-mately 1G00 farms, ranging in area from 15 to 300 acres, the approximate total acreage in food and forago crops being 50.000 acres. In this connection', I might also state, forago crops and pasturage are equally important with food crops, as the successful growing of the latter, in this section of the country, is dependent upon the livestock live-stock industry', which, incidentally, requires re-quires much attention from our 1600 farmers and their families. The population popu-lation of the county is now estimated at 10,000 persons. A majority of these aro monors, being too young to as-1 as-1 sumo even tho smaller responsibilities I of Irrigated and small stock farming or to perform other than tho lightest of I farm work, if the parents have their I physical well-being at heart. There t aro approximately -1000 children of school ago in tho county between 6 and IS years old, and, at this ration, noarly 2000 six years old or younger. With the number of men and women above 18 years of age about evenly divided, di-vided, we have, or did have before tho opening of the war, about 2000 men capable of running a farm or supervising supervis-ing the labor of hired help, exclusive of a hundred or moro of our pioneer farmers who arc now entirely out of active life and dependent upon the labor of others for their maintenance. "In a majority of cases, the retired pioneers still own their farms, but depend de-pend upon ono or more of their sons within the draft ago to operate them. When this condition and tho fact that of the 2000 men of responsibility, there are 1C00 heads of families in the county, coun-ty, is taken into consideration it can be seen that tho number left to assist in the management of the larger farms is not overly large. In a number of cases, tho land holdings of tho farmers farm-ers include two or more farms that do not adjoin each other and, therefore, there-fore, require entirely separate management. man-agement. Then, too, the cases of widows wid-ows who own farms and depend upon their sons to manage them should be taken into consideration. "Of tho approximate -100 single men above the age of 18 years remaining, 280 were within the draft ago when the first registration was made and 75 became of age within tho past year and have just been registered. Ono hundred and forty -five of the 280 have been inducted into the service. In addition ad-dition to these, more than this number num-ber have volunteered, some nf the county towns now having nearly 5 per cent of thoir population in military service. If this ration was applied to every community in the country, we would now have an army of 5,000,000 men, so It can be readily seen that Weber county "has responded as loyally loyal-ly with men as with increased e:ort to produce food. Practically all of the scant few remaining of the -100 are managers or necessary assistant-managers of farms or partly owned by themselves, their aged fathers or widowed wid-owed mothers. Responsibility of Weber Farmers. Upon the managerial ability of these men, with the 1600 heads of families and a few hired men of similar capacity capa-city depends the support of the entire population of the county, the supplying of the population of Ogden with tho greater part of its raw foodstuffs, both essential and semi-essential meats, cereals, dairy products, vegetables and fruits, the supplying of the canning crops for 14 canning factories, practically practi-cally all of tho raw produco for an "Everfresh" food factory, sugar beets for one sugar factory and the contributing contrib-uting of a considerable portion of the livestock that keeps in operation the largest packing plant in the west and butter fat for several large creameries. All of this Is in addition to vast amounts of produce' annually shipped to other markets. "This year, more than ever before, these men have realized their responsibility re-sponsibility and tho need for increasing increas-ing the production of food on the farms under their management, owing to the war, as have all loyal farmers throughout the country. They responded respond-ed in a most loyal and substantial manner this spring by planting practically practi-cally double the acreage of canning crops of any previous year, practically a normal acreage of sugar boots when a rotation to somo other crop would have been better for their land largely Increased their adreago of other food crops and took measures, according to a survey completed several sev-eral months ago, to Increase their production pro-duction of pork 95 per cent and that of poultry 105 per cent. Harvest Prospects. "If these plans could be brought to full fruition, which Is dopendent upon the question of sufficiency of skilled farm labor, from tho 9750 acres of sugar beet planted would be harvested approximately 150,000 tons of beets or 1S.7G0 tons of sugar; from the 4200 acres of tomatoes, 42,000 tons or 1,-050,000 1,-050,000 cases; from the 1600 acres of peas, 2500 tons or 300.000 cases; from tho acreage of other canning crops, fruits, beans, etc, 100,000 cases. This, in addition to the vast tonnago of wheat and other grains, potatoes and forage crops; an estimated 15,000 hogs and 150,000 chickens that will be raised. rais-ed. Skilled Labor Needed. "The work of planting was done and that of growing and harvesting must be done by skilled or supervised help this Is the big reason why, wo believe, tho question of taking any more of our men from the farms of Weber county should be most carefully weighed. These farms aro all under irrigation, ! which requires years of experience and that practically on the same farm to operate successfully. This type of work can rarely be trusted to .hired help, as one mistake might ruin an entire crop. It Is also generally conceded that the unskilled laborer cannot be trained to j do efficient work on farms as In other occupations, neither is he willing to , assume tho positions of responsibility that require long hours and close ap- plication to the work of irrigating. "Help recruited from the cities is not, as a rule, physically fit for rigorous rig-orous farm work and, therefore, not dependable. For this reason, owing to many of our country boys having gone into the army and navy, there has been a larger number of women and young children working on tho farms of Weber county this summer! than ever before. These workers havo gone into the fields, adding this labor to household duties and the care of poultry and gardens, rather than have the head of the family trust the growing grow-ing of tho crops that will help win tho war to laborers totally unused to farm life. "The operation of the selective service ser-vice law thus far, if we are correctly informed, has worked to the advantage of the cities and against that of tho country districts particularly where' recruiting stations aro located in the cities in that the cities havo been given credit for the voluntary enlistment enlist-ment of country boys and men from different localities. This has served to reduce the drain on their local registrants. reg-istrants. Governor Informed "Following tho announcement that on May 25th all of the men in Weber county then remaining in class 1 wero to be sent to Camp Lewis, a committee commit-tee from the county Farm Bureau took up the matter of a postponement of their call and that of all other county registrants into military service, until after the 1918 crops were harvested, with Governor Simon Bamberger. This action was taken with but one thought in view, that of the best interests of the allied cause as virutally all of the men were efficient food producers. At tho conference with the governor, the committee submitted a comprehensive statement of conditions in the county and tho suggestion that the cities which had been favored with credit for the enlistment of non-residents ba asked to make up the county quotas of men until after tho fall harvest time. This statement was supported by letters let-ters of similar effect from the Utah Canncrs' Association and the Amalgamated Amalga-mated Sugar Company. "Governor Bamberger and Captain Fitz Gerald according to the report returned by the committee, admitted the justice of its argument and of its suggestion concerning the cities furnishing fur-nishing tho men for the army this summer. Captain Fitz Gerald stated, however, that he was powerless to act in the matter because of the question of apportioning the draft quotas was In the hands of the Provost Marshal General at Washington, D. C. Fitz Gerald Replies Acting on this word, the farm bureau bur-eau committee submitted tho matter by letter direct to the Provost Marshal General and the communication was returned with the instruction that it should have been sent to the Adjutant Adju-tant General of tho state "for reference refer-ence to the Provost Marshal General. This instruction was next carried out, tho matter at the same timo being submitted to the Weber county Council Coun-cil of Defense, and a reply came on June 16 from CapL Fitz Gerald, private pri-vate secretary to Governor Bamberger and director of tho operation of the selective service law in Utah, to whom our letter had been submitted by Adjutant Ad-jutant General Lund. "The reply of Captain Fitz Gerald contained the information that future quotas were to be based on the number num-ber of men remaining In class 1, which looked very' encouraging to us as there wero no more men in class 1 to take. Then came tho statement that unless the reclassification put some more men In class 1, it was probable Weber county would not be called upon for any more men for some time to come. The following day, June 17, the order was sent to tho local lo-cal draft boards to bring their class 1 roll up to 28.7 percent of tho total of men registered. "This put the matter in practically the same position as it was when we took It up with Governor Bamberger, except that -15 men nave been taken from the county since that time, for we knew that to bring the county list up to 28.7 percent would mean taking nearly as many men from the deferred classes as have already been inducted into service. This would Include married mar-ried men in class 4 and others given deferred classification by the district boards on claims of managerial re sponsiblllty. "It appears to the farm bureau that the continuation of theso men in tho positions on which their original deferred de-ferred classifications were based Is far 'more Important now than earlier in the year, especially when there are many more in the city who could bo taken for military service with much less prospective loss to the government. Yet, we are not asking any special favors and our country boys arc ready and willing to enter the army whenever when-ever they aro called. We believe, however, how-ever, that they could best serve the cause during the next few months by remaining on the farms and for this reason alone wo hope and expect that the authorities in charge of the reclassification re-classification will most carefully con- , 1? sider the circumstances under whlch each registrant who has or may ap-f pear before them is now working.!: With but very few exceptions, thesel men are running from 440 to 150 acrelj farms and they should be kept onl t them, at least until the 191S crops arel harvested. ' J |
