Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-02-01
HORACE BoIES
OPPOSES BOYCOTT
FORMER GOVERNOR THINKS
FARMERS ARE ENTITLED TO
HIGH PRICES.

An interesting contribution to the
high price of living debate is made by
Hon. Horace Boies of Iowa, now out
in California. His letter follows:
The press dispatches say seventy
five thousand in Cleveland, Ohio,
million and half in Pittsburg and
western Pennsylvania have pledged
themselves to abstain from meat until
prices decline and then it is also said
| the movement is spreading westward
with headquarters already in Des
Moines and Omaha. Who are the
/ strikers?
In Pennsylvania delegate meeting
that inaugurated the strike there in
other places the same classes are be-
hind the movement.
| What have these people already ac-
complished? First an increase of their
wages Of nearly or quite 100 per cent,
for which everyone is glad. Second,
the reduction of their hours of labor
from ten to eight hours a day, for
which no one ought to be glad except
as the rule applies to extra hazardous
and unsanitary labor, because it is an
irrevocable truth that eight hours Of
labor day adopted as universal
rule by all who are compelled to labor
would depopulate the world with star
walton in less than a decade.
/ What is it these people now seek?
Having fixed the prices of their la
Dor and the hours they shall toll they
now ask to fix the prices of the food
they shall eat.
If successful what will be the re
suit? They talk about meat trust
Whether one exists or not is wholly
inLlaterial in this inquiry. There is
one class and one alone that will beal
every dollar of the depreciation in the
price of meat if this movement accom-
lplishes that result, and that class is
the farmers of the middle west, the
one great meat producing section Of
our common country.
The buyers of live stock, whether &
trust or individuals. will pay for the
same the exact price for which they
can sell the finished product and save
to themselves their desired profit; not
one dollar more.
And who are the men and womer
who must bear the depreciation in the
price of meat If it comes through this
effort? Are they eight-hour men OF
eight-hour women? Go into theil
houses and see. Will you find then
lolling around until eight in the
morning before they go to their worl
or dropping their tools at in the aft
ernoon to spend the remainder of the
day in the shade?
Not much. The man that raises cat
tic and hogs to sell, together with hi
wife and children of sufficient age tt
help, are up and go to work with the
sun in the morning, and quit theil
/ work after the sun goes down in the
evening His hours of labor and tina
of his family are from twelve tt
sixteen hours a day, instead of eight
and he will never be quiet and ALLOW
the eight-hour man to fix the price
of what he has to sell.
If union labor wants to start {
rumpus that would stamp it out o
existence 1t could not make better
beginning than an organized effor
to control the price of food product!
which the farmers of this nation pro
duce That would be "the straw tina
would break the camel's back"
If there is meat trust there ar,
other ways to reach it and union labol
: should find them.
Horace Boies.
Hemet, Cal, Jan. 26, 1910