Convicts to Harvest Corn In Heavily Jobless Area: Emergency Predicted
The State Board of Welfare and Institutions has authorized the use of convicts to help harvest corn this fall in Bland, Giles and Pulaski countiesÛÓ even though all three counties are classed as Û¢'areas of substantial unemployment."</br></br>Under the convict plan, farmers would pay for harvesting help in cornÛÓ30 per cent of the crop. Thcremaining 70! per cent and the fodder would! be kept by the farmer.</br></br>Although authorized by the Board yesterday, use of the convicts ÛÓ who would come from the Bland Correctoinal Farm ÛÓ must be approved by Gov. J. Lindsay Almond.</br></br>The State Board's action. Chairman James D. Pattten Jr., of Richmond, said today, was taken without the knowledge of the unemployment problem.</br></br>Mnj. W. Frank Smyth JrÛ_ director of the corrections for the Department of Welfare and Institutions, said the work, which in years past also has been performed by convicts, would involve from 50 to 75 laborers.