Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1908-06-09
AMONG THE FARMERS.
" SPEED THE PLow."

Correspondence on practical agricultural topics
Is solicited. Address all communications in
tended for this department to HENRY d..
HAMMOND, Agricultural Editor Oxford Dem
ocrat, Paris. Me.
More about the Blacksmiths' Asso-
citation.
AgricultUrdl Editor Democrat
An "amusing communication" 1t is
amusing TO some people TO know that
they have the other fellow in hole and
think that they have the power TO keep
him there. Is that why, Friend Record,
you find my paper so very amusing?
Yeu say that you have rarely heard
any one complain that the prices for
horse shoeing are too high, but you
know that the majority of men do their
kicking out in the street and not in the
town meeting.
After criticising me for saying that
they (the blacksmiths) banded them
selves together to get higher wages and
begging leave to differ, Friend Record
goes on TO admit the fact, and says it
was done to obtain better and uniform
prices for certain kinds of work. But
why the need of banding together to
establish uniform prices? Farmers un-
derstand and know the common price of
farm labor without any such organiza-
ton like the Oxford Blacksmiths' Asso-
citation, and so did our friends the black
smiths before this organization was
formed. The trouble is they did not
want any independent blacksmith like
the one l mentioned in my first paper to
cut prices and get the custom.
| wish Friend Record would tell us in
addition TO what he says about higher
prices for shoes, what per cent OF profit
they make on them and their stock OF
iron and steel, as we think il would be
interesting reading, also how much a
good blacksmith makes of daily average
wages. He says shoes cost from one
half to three cents per pound more than
they used to cost, and labor from two to
five dollars per week more. This do
not dispute but take bis word for it.
Farm labor has also advanced in the
past ten years from maximum price OF
$50 per month to maximum price OF
$50 per month, and apart from his farm
produce the farmer has to pay the in
crease of price on clothing, hardware,
footwear, grain, flour, ETC., which the
blacksmith pays.
Now if Friend Record was perfectly
candid be would not have given us
eighty cents bushel for potatoes and
thirty-six cents per pound for butter, as
he knows perfectly well that those are
extreme prices for those commodities;
forty to fifty cents per bushel for pota-
toes and twenty to twenty-five cents per
pound for butter being nearer the prices
which generally prevail. 1t has general
ly been hard to get more than thirty-fve
or forty cents for potatoes in the fall,
and frequently no more than that can De
obtained in the spring. Last fall l
bought potatoes for seed for fifty cents
bushel, although it was understood that
there was short crop.
Friend Record mentions that once in
six weeks he visits one hundred black
smith shops, and that he knows OF only
one apprentice learning the trade, and
that in consequence the prices for smith
work will probably advance more in the
next few years than in the past. That,
gentlemen, is what We fear and expect,
and is one of the reasons why | wish
YOU TO look at this matter from the
farmers standpoint. The Grange was
formed to benefit the farmer and his
family perhaps at first pecuniarily, but
in that way | am inclined TO think 1t has
been a failure. As Friend Record does
not say in what manner the Grange bene-
fits the farmer | need not criticlse that,
but it has benefited its members by
making them better men and women,
with better culture, broader minds,
greater and more abiding faith in God
and humanity, more tolerant and less
bigoted, greater regard for other
peoples rights, a genuine belief in the
common brotherhood of man, and
deeper sense of the obligation TO live and
let live. And in the last and other ways
| think that it is vastly superior to the
Oxford Blacksmiths' Association as |
understand its aims, but if am wrong L
wish to be set right, as do not wish to
do any man or class of men an injustice.
You wonder why more blacksmiths do
not own their homes, if they earn such
wages as | claim, and also do not pay
cash for their stock, thereby getting
discount. Now, honestly, Brother
Record, did you never hear that old saw,
Easy come, easy GO? of course you
have and can apply it to this condition II
true. IL seems TO me that II BLACK
smiths chose to be fairly economical
they could lay by money under the old
prices, and some of them undoubtedly
have done so and not worked any harder
than other manual labOrers.
1t seems to me, Brother Record, that
YOUR epistle proves my accusation to be
the truth, and one does not have to read
between the lines TO come to that con-
clusion either. Does it not strike you
that way? You admit that you are band
cd together To increase prices, you say
that in the future you may Increase
prices still more; but the worm may
turn. In certain parts of the state we
hear of neighborhoods putting in
stock of tools and doing their own smith
work, also individual farmers who have
bought kit and are doing their own
work, and so perhaps it would be wise
to consider awhile before putting on the
screws still harder, for the farmers like
the worm may turn and you De the
losers thereby.
Yes, dear Brother Record, / am ig-
norant, perhaps lamentably so, but II
can have the pleasure of reading more OF
your very interesting letters which tell
so little and conceal 80 much of the
blacksmiths' business, L may improve
aud grow in grace and knowledge, and If
you tell what profit you make on shoes
and the rest of blacksmith's stock in
trade, shall at least know so much to
offset in part my stupendous ignorance;
and if to that you add the average of a
blacksmith's daily income or days pay,
will be duly grateful and will thank you
personally when we meet. Fraternally,
Z. L. FIELD.