Michigan's $14 million sugar-beet crop had
to be weeded by June 20 or the seedlings would choke; 6,000
Mexican-Americans from Texas were not enough to work the 140,000 acres.
Last week, as the result of a bargain between Michigan farmers and the
Puerto Rican government, help came out of the clouds. Nine times daily,
four-engine transports picked up full loads of workers in Puerto Rico
, ten hours later deposited them in the Saginaw
Valley to work in the fields at $7 to $8 a day. The crop was saved by
the largest non-military airlift in history.
