The war had brought about some dramatic labor shifts. Immediately a call went out for 25,000 student nurses in July of 1918, it was followed by a request for graduate nurses who were not already associated with the Red Cross. Also to this point, nurses who had male relatives in the army had been forbidden to go overseas, but due to the critical shortage, those restrictions were repealed. North Dakota was asked to furnish eighty nurses to be sent to the front. It was considered the patriotic duty of every qualified woman to respond at once.
In other areas, there was an over-supply of young women working in restaurants, cafeterias and doing office work. It was noted, however, that girls could make big money doing housework. Mrs. Minnie Bowe, in charge of the United States Employment Offices in Fargo, stated that wages for housework were running at $7.00 to $10.00 per week, plus room and board, but because most of those jobs were only available on the farms, few girls could be persuaded to apply. Girls applying for office work were advised to take the civil service exam to obtain government jobs.
With crops beginning to ripen, harvest hands were in short supply, but there was also a need for help in other areas across the country. The US Employment Service announced that each state was to recruit a quota of unskilled laborers to work in the war industries and the mines. North Dakota was called upon to furnish almost one thousand men for war related work over the next two months. This represented approximately 3% of the available manpower not in military service. These individuals could not be conscripted, but under the “Go to work or go to war” policy, many were convinced to join the workforce.
On the battlefields of France, specialized units of men were organized to strike quickly and efficiently. Known as Shock Troops, they were used effectively for short range missions. On this date in 1918, subscribers to the Fargo Forum were surprised by the use of Shock Troops in Cass County! It involved nine members of the Forum staff traveling to nearby farms after each daily publication was completed. At the Wilmay-Scott dairy farm two miles south of the city, they shocked thirty-five acres of barley. The following day they invaded the Smith farm two miles to the north and shocked one hundred and fourteen acres of wheat. In the days before combines, shocking was the act of standing sheaves of cut grain stalks on end to keep them dry before threshing. Due to the lack of available farm labor, the Forum staff vowed to continue this “shocking” behavior until the snow flew.
Dakota Datebook by Jim Davis
Sources:
The Fargo Form, August 2, 1918
Ibid; August 5, 1918
