I least of the farmers special problems is that he is generally under the necessity of providing housing for his employees. This housing is an extra item of labor cost. and where the housing is adequate. safe. and sanitary. the cost can become heavy indeed. This is especially true respecting migrant housing. because migratory workers are needed in large numbers. for short periods. and the housing provided for them is likely to stand vacant for large portions of the year. Current developments in mechanization further increase the. burden of providing good housing. for in numerous crops and areas the need for the migrants labor may be eliminated entirely within a few years. Because the farmer carries this special burden. Mr. President. I believe it is appropriate to make some special assistance available to him. Despite the fact that many farm employers have performed exemplarily in providing good housing for their workers. there is still a great deal of housing for migrants that can fairly be described as deplorably wretched and totally inadequate for human habitation. Furthermore. the fact that the migratory worker may. at some future time. because obsolete is no reason to countenance the housing conditions he is sometimes faced with now. The need for better farmworker housing was stressednot for the first timeat a hearing just a week ago before the Housing Subcommittee of the Committee on Banking and Currency. In testimony for the Department of Labor. Under Secretary John F. Henning gave a vivid description of the living conditions of many migrant farmworkers in this country. The following is an excerpt from Secretary Hennings testimony: A field report by the State Services Division of the Bureau of Labor Standards on the living conditions of approximately 235 migrants in two camps in a Midwestern State is shocking. The first camp visited consisted of a group of six city buses and a trailer located in the middle of a field in the hot sun with no shade. According to the report. no water of any kind was available in the camp itself.
Keywords matched
migrants migrant