The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1899-02-25

WITH Hall.
The women ON the farm, or the
mother rather, 70, the girls are long
since. gone, no moe makes butter, no
more spins and Heaves. no longer
braids hats. maj es sausage, dips
candles or makes soap.
All is changed. The life and busile.
the happy laughter of merry people
the dozen men and boys in having
and harvesting are all gone. The
farm with its buildings going to de-
cay is as silent as !. church yard. No.
body is left but the father. the hired
man and the Youngest boy, who is
impatiently waiting to get to the city.
The father ought to De a happy
man. He rides wnen he plants. he
rides when he cItivates, he rides
when he harvests. Machinery has
taken work from his hands. but it has
failed to give him prosperity. It has
driven his children away from him, it
has broken up the country school, it
has desolated the eghborhood.
The farmer may sigh for the good
old days when he built his home, when
he planned the improvements, when
his children were growing up with
prospect of settling about him. but
those times will never come back I'M
der present conditions.
What is the trouble? Machinery.
for the past fifty years. has been driv-
ing the mechanics from the shops OF
the entire world. Unable to find EN-
ployment elsewher, these workmen
have gone upon land in such numbers
as to depress prices of all farm pro-
duets to point that there is 10
profit
There could be but one remedy for
this. AS machinery comes into the
factory the hours should be shorten
ed to allow the workmen to remain
with the machine. That would give
the workmen the benefit of the ma
chine. But instead of shortening the
hours manufacturers have uniformly
put in the machine for their own
benefit and discharged the workman
who has been compelled to resort to
the land as Il means 'of obtaining a
living.
In times of financial panic also,
when factories shut down generally,
the idle workmen have taken to the
farm and thus such 4 vast product OF
cotton and corn and potatoes have
been raised as to glut the market and
leave the farmer no money after pay
ing for his seed and his help.
! \ person would suppose from read
ing the glowing reports of Dunn and
, Bradstreet that ,ne farmers OF the
country would he rolling in wealth,
but the facts are that the farmers
have had so much competition to con-
tend with, the crop has been SO enor-
nous and freights SO big as to leave
him nothing but debt after he closes
the seasons work.
For proof of this ride out through
the country districts. Ask the farm
er as to the prospects and watch for
Il new home. a new fence, or newly
planted orchard. Do you see any!
Not one. Tn ride of 100 miles you
viii see nothing of the kind.
The facts are that the farms are
generally mortgaged. The farmer
cannot clear off the mortgage. 1t is
sold under foreclosure and passes in
| to the possession of the money loaner.
The money lender is thus Accumulate
ing thousands of acres-often times
three. five or ten thousand acres to-
gether in the immediate vicinity.
| These great farms are put i'll charge
of superintendent who have capacity
for driving workmen early and late,
in the season for planting and harvest
ing The luborers themselves are the
iue men picked up at cheap price,
they are fed cheaply on a wholesale
plan, they are turned adrift rs soon
as the harvest is over, and the conse-
quence is that the capitalist with
great facilities for raising and har-
vesting grain thus, with rebates on
shipments. with passes over the roads
because Of doing Il large business,
with every opportunity at command
can raise grain at a cost several cents
il bushel less than his neighbor can on
the small farm.
The result is that the large farmer
is as certain to crush ont the small
farmer as that the large factory will
destroy the little shop or the depart
ment store unnihlate the small mer-
chant.
What is to be the outcome of all
| this: The individual farmers Of to-
day will all become tenants of the
large capitalist who owns many thou
sands of acres.
What next? \ desperate effort will
be made very soon in all the legisla-
lures to give the voting power only to
those men having a certain amount of
property. That may not win. If it
does not then the voting population
will demand the single tax. That is.
that all tax be placed on land. That
will 50 increase the tax Of the large
land holder that he cannot pay it. In
that event it will revert to the govern
mrnt. The government will cut the
land up into small holdings and let it
to the individual farmer in such4quan-
1i1v and under such conditio ions as will
enable him to make profit. or will
conduct farming comparatively on !,
large scale.
As the country blacksmith is no
longer found at the crosS-road, as the
| .h,.u,,E.r has t1iS1nDcarp1 nc the