Last week the Friday Footnote focused on the use of Prisoners of War to alleviate the farm labor shortage in America during World War II. In researching that topic I kept stumbling across a group called the Victory Farm Volunteers (VFV). In my 60+ years as a high school and college agricultural student and in my tenure as a high school agriculture teacher and a college professor I had never heard of this group. Clearly, my education had a gap in it.
This Footnote will serve as an appetizer for a discussion of the Victory Farm Volunteer program in next week’s Footnote. Prior to the inception of the VFV program, there were various efforts in various states to use high school students to help alleviate the farm labor shortage during World War II. In this Footnote we will examine what a number of states did before the start of the Victory Farm Volunteers program.
Let’s Delay the Start of School or Dismiss School if Warranted
During the early days of World War II it became apparent that farmers needed additional help to harvest or plant crops. In numerous states, school officials made the decision to move the fall school starting date into October, especially in rural areas so students could help with the harvesting of crops. In some states the summer vacation was moved to another time instead of summer so students could help harvest vegetables.
In California state farm leaders and educators asked the Governor to delay the start of school in areas with acute labor shortages until mid-October for the 1942-43 school year (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Pomona (CA) Progress Bulletin, August 14, 1942.
The school superintendents in the Scottsbluff, Nebraska area met on April 13, 1942 to discuss the possibility of using high school students to help the farmers with their crops in the summer and fall. The group voted to support this idea. The following resolution was unanimously adopted (Star-Herald, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, April 15, 1942, p. 3):
Be it so resolved that this group go on record as favorable to giving their whole hearted support and cooperation toward the use of high school students to help with the farm labor shortage during the summer and fall.
That schools in the county be started August 24 and that schools either be dismissed or older boys and girls excused at a call from the war board for a work vacation of at least two week or more, if absolutely necessary, to care for the harvest of crops.
In Pennsylvania the Adams County education officials along with the farm labor steering committee agreed to close the high schools for as long as three weeks in the fall, if needed, to harvest the anticipated two million bushel apple crop. See Figure 2.
Figure 2. News Comet, East Berlin, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1942
A slightly different approach to address the farm labor shortage was used in Albert Lea, Minnesota in 1943. Thirty-one Albert Lea High School students gave up their week-long Easter vacation to get practical hands-on farm training under the guidance of local farmers. The agriculture teacher, C. E. Bublitz, and the county agent, Willie Lawson, worked together to place the boys with local farmers. All of the boys were enrolled in a farm-work class taught by Mr. Bublitz that met once a week. After the boys received a week of practical training during their Easter break, the farmers would then hire them to work on their farms during the summer.
When he picked up his student one farmer stated, “If a boy has two factors, we will get along fine, one willing to be shown and the other willing to work.”
It appears this plan was being implemented across Minnesota. The state Farm Manpower Advisory Committee was promoting this plan. The committee was quoted as saying “The committee has every confidence that the present enrollment program now being conducted in all schools will result in a very large pool of manpower being made available.
After the Easter break week on the farm, the students continued to be taught by Mr. Bublitz until school let out for the summer. Then the students worked on farms. A Minnesota Farm Youth worker’s certificate and a certificate of achievement signed by the governor was issued to all boys who completed the course.
Figure 3. The Albert Lea (MN) Tribune, April 19, 1943
Farmers in Lake County, Florida asked the school trustees and school officials to change the annual school vacation so that youth could help with the vegetable harvest. In 1943, 1944, and 1945 the “summer” school vacation was moved to March, April and May so students could help with the harvest (Rasmussen, 1951).
There was litigation in 1945 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida about changing the time of the “summer vacation.” The lawsuit was brought by the Clarence C. Walker Civic League of Fort Lauderdale against the Broward School Board. The school board had split the school year in half for negro schools by moving the “summer vacation” to December, January and February. The Miami Herald (March 11, 1945 , p. 8) reported:
Thomas [the League’s lawyer] said the league objected to the board’s action which made the negro school vacation fall during December, January and February when crops needed harvesting rather then in the normal summer months.
Ross [the school board representative] said the board was not influenced by farmers in need of labor, but rather by the fact that truancy increase in negro schools to alarming extents during the harvest season.
The judge ruled in favor of the school board because (Miami Herald, March 21, 1945, p, 1) “…the board had not denied the negro pupils equality of right, because they were given the same length of school term as the white students, nine months.”
In South Dakota high school boys (and girls) helped harvest sugar beets in the fall of 1942. However, school was not dismissed but the students had to make up the school work they missed. They also had to be over 16 and have their parents’ permission to do this. Sugar beet companies were providing transportation to and from work. See Figure 4.
Figure 4. Rapid City (SD) Journal. October 13, 1942
In New York state the legislature passed a law [Young-Milmoe bill], which remained in effect until 1945, permitting high school students aged 14 and over to be released from school for farm work for up to 30 days during the school year. Boys who were scheduled to graduate from school could be released early in the spring (Rasmussen, 1951).
As a result of the passage of the Young-Milmoe bill the Ithaca Board of Education voted to release pupils for the fall harvest in 1942. During the fall some 350-400 students were released from Ithaca High School for farm work. However, the agriculture teacher, John A. Mack, had to certify that the students were physically fit. Additionally, Mr. Mack visited the farms where the students were working to verify they were safe and they were being paid properly. See Figure 5.
Figure 5. The Ithaca Journal, October 27, 1942
Decisions to use high school students for farm labor and subsequent decisions to adjust the school year were being made in a hodgepodge fashion across the country. The decisions varied greatly from state to state. In one state the attorney general was consulted to make sure local school boards had the authority to make such decisions. It was obvious that a concerted national effort involving high school students as farm laborers was needed.
The Victory Farm Volunteers is Created
While the early or late school dismissals helped, especially in rural areas where students were experienced farmhands, a more organized approach to using school students in farming was needed, especially over the summer months. There was also a need to utilize boys and girls living in towns and cities. So the Victory Farm Volunteer (VFV) program was started in 1943.
The VFV students would work on farms for three months in the summer and for a fourth month in locations where the school starting date was pushed back in the fall. The official age for the VFV students was fourteen to eighteen years of age. However, according to Holt (2022) some states would allow students as young as nine to be in the Victory Farm Volunteers.
Figure 6. A poster promoting the Victory Farm Volunteer program.
To be continued…Join us next week as we continue to learn about the Victory Farm Volunteers
References
Holt, Marilyn (2022). On the Farm Front with the Victory Farm Volunteers. Agricultural History (2022) 96 (1-2): 164–186. https://doi-org.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/10.1215/00021482-9619828
Rasmussen, Wayne (1951). A History of the Emergency Farm Labor Supply Program, 1943-1947. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture.