The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1908-03-19
FARM AND
SOCIALISM

l .
ton to answer so long as the question
/! how to keep the boys on the farm"
remains unanswered. The ordinary
farmers boy has hopes beyond the
boundaries of the farm home Of his
childhood. Whatever may be said to
him about the joys OF country life.
He sees the farmers around him
worn and bent with toll. he sees his
mother old before her time and he
can see no future for himself and the
woman who is to be his wife, but to
repeat the toilsome task of those who
gave him his existence. Socialism
alone can solve the problem of the
farmers boy, it alone can provide for
him the manly life of labor and leisure
for which he longs the farmers dau-
ghter depends on socialism as her only
sure way of entry into the gladder
land larger social life which lies be-
!yond the farm house. If she escapes
from the farm now it is to become
servant in the Office shop or kitchen
of some stranger and so it's exchange
her Independent isolation on the farm
for association in the midst Of hui
initiating dependence the value of the
average product of all the workers
in manufacturing, mining and trans
portation greatly exceeds that of the
workers on the land formerly all these
things were done by the farmers
themselves in the old rude way Of do
ing them, but capitalism has separat-
ed them from the farm vastly fncreas-
ed their productivity and excluded the
farmer from the benefits Of the i'm
! provements. Socialism would again
make the farmer a sharer in these
and in the whole industrial life of the
world. There will be no occasion for
attacking the small farmer on the
Inauguration Of Socialism. The col
lective industry could not afford to
touch such properties until the great
tom land should first be used and long
before such enterprises could be COM
pleted. The small farmer could not
be kept at his isolated and unprofit.
able task SO great would be the re-
ward awaiting him in the collective in
dustry but should the small farmer
|still gives the best returns there is
no reason why the farmers work of
the world may not still be done on
small farms only the fear of fore
closure or eviction or the dependence
Of the farm tenant and the farm hand
\ will be forever over as well as the
power Of the railways, the factories
and the storehouses to cause the
farmers product and rob him Of the
value of the services he has rendered.
Forty per cent Of the voting popula.
ton is on the farm, ninety per cent
Of these farmers as the smallest
possible estimate have nothing to lose
but their isolation and their poverty
by the coming of socialism and they
too, as we'll as the wage slave Of the
manufacturing towns have world to
gain. The farmers had a more in
fluential part in making the institn-
lions Of this country than any other
class of workers. They nave been
and are the most Independent in poll
tical action and they are by force OF
habit and by the experience of all
those now living in the western and
central western states, accustomed to
adventure and are determined not to
be directly or indirectly the slaves of
capitalism in any form. But the
farmers can never rule this country
again, except in alliance with the work
ing men Of the factories, mines, store.
houses and transportation lines. The
working men of the towns, in party
by themselves, will not be able to out
vote the country districts for many
years, but the workers of the towns
and Of the country are alike, ready
they unite to secure socialism, social
ism will come on that same hour. The
American farmers have at least come
under the control of capitalism. I'm
der capitalism the farmer must work
for bare existence the same as other
workers. His ownership Of portion
Of the means OF production in the
shape Of land and implements does
not deliver him from exploitation,
because he depends as fully on the !
means Of production in manufaotul
and on the means Of distribution uBY
do the wage workers and neither in
the means Of manufacture nor In the
ownership. Public ownership Of a
part Of the means of manufacture
and distribution will not deliver him
from exploitation so long as any
share Of the means Of production in
manufacture or the means OF distri-
button on which he must depend are
partial public ownership will only
shift the place where he IL robbed,
not stop the robbery. No real relief
can be secured BY the farmer BY any
reform In the medium Of exchange