Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-04
INDUSTRIAL INQUIRY
Mr.. Power Gives Some Facts About
Farmers.
GREAT IMPROVEMENT IN CONDITION
More Now Own Their Farms in
the West.
ELEM ENTS OF SUCCESS

Mr.. LIE Grand Powers. commissioner of
labor of Minnesota for eight years. and
now one of the five chief statisticians of
the United States census in charge of agri-
culture, was today before the industrial
commission
Mr. Powers reviewed the statistical his
tory of this country to show the standing
of the farmer today compared with fifty
years ago, with the conclusion that there
are today more farmers owning their homes
than there were formerly. Today even in
the semi-ard regions of the west there is
greater percentage of people who try to
make homes and succeed in owning them
than there were in central New York at the
beginning of the present century. The
chances in the west today for paying off
Indebtedness on the farm, he said. is ten
times better than it was in central New
York forty years ago. One of the prime
reasons for this change was the influence
of machinery. The farm machinery was
the invention of countless number of
farmers, and in any community the ad-
vanced use of machinery went hand In
hand with educated working class on
the farms. If the negro labor in the south
he said. was intelligent as the farm
workers in the north they would be work
ing with improved machinery adapted to
their peculiar needs.
what Brings Success.
The agricultural colleges had been too
frequently conducted in a way to educate
the boys attending them away from the
farm In Minnesota these colleges
being run in a way to. instil love of farm
life In the boy, and the result had been that
they were going back on the farm. They
were being so educated that wherever they
go they become imbued with a spirit of
progress. was not true that any fool
could make a success on the farm. Success
there was the result Of intelligence, fore
sight, energy and thrift. and those We're the
elements that brought success in any walk
of life.
Tendency to own Farms.
The tendency toward holding land in large
tracts and putting them in the hands of
tenants had come to end in 1916, when
that system was broken up in New York.
There is today tendency to tenancy be-
cause the original settlers are becoming old
men and are renting their farms to younger
men, who have TO start life by renting, but
who are working toward farm ownership.
The figures of the last census showed that
a very large percentage of young men begin
farm labOrerS and renters, but of those
over forty-fve years of age nine-tenthS own
their own farms. OF LEGO married men
farms in this country two-thrds own their
farms.
The proportion of farm mortgages fore
closed in the east, he said, is three times
great as in the west. The farms Of the
east had suffered from the competition of
the west
. Prices of Agricultural Products.
Mr. Powers testified at length regarding
forces that fix the prices on agricultural
products in this country. He said that
while the farmers products are not pro-
tected by tariff, yet the farmer. by the
protection or manufactured products, has
better market for his goods. He did not
think EXPORT bounty agricultural
products of this country would benefit the
farmer While the prices of farm products
in this country are fixed by the markets Of
the world, yet the production in this coun-
try is the real influence for fixing these
prices. He did not believe the bounty paid
by Germany TO the farmers for the raising
of beet sugar had done much to develop
that industry had the scientific study
that had been carried on in Germany and
fostered by the German government. The
states in this country that had done the
most for the establishment OF experimental
agricultural stations run on practical lines
had done the most for its farmers.
Mr.. Powers said the eastern states have
to learn that their greatest agricultural ad-
Vancement will come when they study what
be raised in their borders profitably
They are spending great deal of money
for agricultural advancement, but they are
not proceeding in the right lines In GER
tain lines they cannot compete with the
west, where they have natural advantages
for certain products.
Trust MnGnntes 10 Testify.
The commission has arranged to have H.
o. Havemeyer and John Arbuckle of the
sugar trust give testimony on the 18th and
18th instants. respectively.
The commission reconvened at pm. and
Mr.. Power discussed the questions relating
to the price Of wheat in this country at
some length. There is in the northwest
enough land to furnish all the present de-
mands for wheat. The agricultural re-
sources of this country are very imperfect
ly developed. Only an irrigation system
could develop the agricultural productive
ness of the country much in the next
twenty-five years it had been developed
in the last quarter of century. Mr.. Power
was continuing his testimony when The
Stars report was closed.
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