Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1871-04-07
Farm Wages.

This subject was considered by II.
/. Reade In the following paper: /
regard the question as one of great
Importance. Taking employer and
employe, with the families of each,
it directly concerns one>tenth to one.
sixth of the inhabitants of these
States, aud indirectly the whole. 1t
involves the collection aud disburse.
inent of between 500, 100000 and
500, 900, 600 within the next 10
months. 1t means loss to several
hundred thousand men If they pay
more than they can afford, and wrong
10 AS many more if they Jay less
bargaining is already begun in some
sections. Within 60 days it will end
everywhere. Let us consider it,
North of Mason and Dixon's line,
for the 10 years ending in 1856 $l2 or
$l3 q month and board for eight
months of the year, and So and board
for the other four, was not far from
the average wages received 10y the
best men. Prices of farm produce liz
New York, aud in most of the mark
cts cast OF the Alleghanies, during
these years. ranged about rs follows:
Beef, for the quarters, 80; pork, in
the hog, So; sheep, apiece, 50; calves,
live weight, 81; lambs, live weight,
SIS; butter, 22c.; cheese, l0c.; eggs,
pc; corn Sc; rye, $l.15; oats, 45c.;
beans, $3.50; potatoes, doe; hay, SIS;
and other thiLgs in about this pro-
portion, each product being more or
less affected as to its marketable val.
ne by the scarcity or abundance of
tho crop. From 1860 to 1865 wages
advanced from an average of Sl2 to
an average of (perhaps) $27 a month
fer the Summer, and twC-thirds that
sum for the Winter, while during
the same tame the products of the
farm rose in price nearly or quite 100
per cent. While wages we're $l2 a
month, the agricultural condition of
the country was one of steady, unin-
terrupted prosperity. Farmers made
good living, and laid by something
nearly each year out of the sure
though not large surplus. From
1868 to 1866 they made money much
easier and faster than when help was
but half what they were obliged to
pay, the principle underlying all
such business operations being that
the difference between the product
OF two unequal numbers increased
by the same ratio is much larger
than the difference between the
numbers themselves. Surprising
that it requires one days labor at 81
n day t. raise one bushel of onions
worth s., the profit would be 81; but
doubling the price of labor and the
price of onions, and the formula
would read: One days labor. So; one
bushel of onions, $4; profits on the
business. 81 instead of 81, as in the
fret instance, Since 1866 the price
3f farm produce has been gradually
receding, until in February, 1871,
the general average outside Of one or
two articles is not 10 per cent above
the prices of Is years ago.
Last year wages were not over So a
month less than in 1866, and hence
it has come to pass that the year just
closed, has been not one of disaster,
but one of little or no profit to the
farmer, from the fact that he paid 81
u day TO raise a bushel of onions and
they only brought him the 81 cost,
when put into the market. AS to
che year now opening, its promise Is
no better than the realization OF tie
one now past. The West is full of
grain, the East is disappointed in
the demand for its butter and cheese
After drouth following the general
If not inevitable law of compensa-
zion, the season Is usually good. -
Manufacturing, upon which in no
small sense our markets depend, is
far from being over profitable; in
fact the country, outside of its ex-
fravagance, is settling into the ola
way i'm which it moved and prosper
ed before the war. Taking all these
things into consideration, consider
that in the States where the usages
of labor are the same as they were in
1860, that from $40 to SIS month
and board is all that the farmer can
afford TO farm labOrers. Working
at this rate, they can do letter than
those who were content with ST. or
$l4 from 1850 to 1850. Ordinary
wearing apparel is but q little higher
now than then, and although al add
ditiOn of but $3.50 year to ones esN
tate may look small, it will help the
honest worker 10 be content when be
considers that this sum put annually
at interest at 7 per cent for ten years
would amount to 81 ,952.SS, with half
Of which he can begin life on fair
farm and in fair house, in any half
dozen of our frontier States. Justice
to the employer as well as the em~
ploye demands the decrease that we
have suggested, and only by submits
ting to the laws that govern all bust
ness--that capital must return n le-
climate income to the owner of cap
itaI, whether it be in banks, railroads
or lands-can the workingman put
away for the hour, and perhaps fore
see the demand for cheaper labor,
which will revolutionize our present
system by the Introduction of a race
who, coming to our shores with less
expensive habits, less extravagart
notions, eau afford to do our work for
fair price.--NetO York Tribune.