Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-07-18


FARMER.
I. The first argument for the unit
ing of the working classes of America,
agricultural with the Industrial, for
Socialism Is this, viz: nothing but
Socialism can save those classes
from tho exploitation, oppression and
tyranny Of modern capitalism. 1t is
quite generally conceded that the
wage earning classes would be bene-
fited by Socialism, at any rate that
matter is not the particular point at
issue in this discussion. What we
are to show here is that not only the
wage earners but the agricultural
laborer, the farmers would be benefited
also by Socialism. And in order to
make this clear we must first see that
in modern capitalism the farmer and
the wage Garner have q common foe
and suffer q common wrong. The
method of the oppression may be
different but the results are essen
TALLY the same. The capitalist class
by owning the railroads, the te!e-
graphs, telephones, mines, factories, ,oil
fields etc., are able exploit the wage
earning classes, because, having
possession of all the means of en-
ployment they can dictate wages.
But by exactly the same means they
are also able to exploit the farming
classes. For by their ownership of
the railroads, for example, they not
only keep down the wages of the men
who operate them but they charge
exorbitant rates in everything the
farmer has to sell and again in every
thing he has to buy. Not infrequently
the railroad gets as much for trans.
porting farm product as the farmer
gets for raising it. Then again the
monopolies of farmer machinery
enables the capitalist class to get
another slice of the products of the
farmers toll. With every year this
machinery grows more complex,
and more costly. This machinery is
bought on credit; excessive ''repair
bills" exorbitant rates of interest
must be paid and by the time . ma
chine is paid for it is worn out. Then
comes the steel trust to sell barbed
wire, the meat trust to buy cattle at
low rates and sell back meat at high
rates; then the oil trust, the elevator
trust, the sugar trust, and all the
rest, until finally after all their toll
the farmers find that at the end OF
every year they have left just about
what the wage laborer has left, VIZ, a
bs!e subsistence, and in many cases
not even that. And furthermore in
order to buy machinery and land.
sometimes to get even the necessities
of life, the capitalistic system COM
pels the farmer to borrow money.
To do this he must mortgage his farm
and pay interest. In this way the
capitalist class takes another slice
from the products Of the farmers toll.
Sometimes the farmer Is spoken of
as the most Independent clsss In
America and regarded as quite above
the wage earning class. But while
thre are many farmers here and there
Who are we'll Of, retired farmers, and
occasionally the big l. corporation
farmers, still the extent and intensity
Of the e1ploitatton of the farmer class
il generally not appreciated. OF the
4 ZOO, 600 families In America Who 1--we
On farms less than one third own the
farms free from incumbr ances, which
means that the capitalist class by the
ownership snd manipulation OF land
grants, BY exorbitant prices on all
m.chinery and excessive transpor-
tstion snd storsge charges, BY high
n,rrices On the necessities Of life and,
n regions where the land must Be
irrieatsd, by excessive water charges
6oree ths farnsr class into prscticsl