The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-01-16
This Will Be Main Scientific
Investigation of the Year
BY the U. S. Department of
Agriculture.
TOUCHES VITAL SPOT
OF AMERICAN NATION
Will Develop Power of Govern
ment to Deal With a Partly
Political, Partly Economic
Question.
(By Jonathan Winfjeld.l

entific Investigation of 1910 to be
conducted by the Department of Agri-
culture, will be into the problem of the
recent increased cost of living.
The inquiry touches vital spot in
the present social fabric of the Unit
ed States. 1t will reveal the power
OF the government machinery to deal
with subject, which is partly poit-
zeal and partly economic: one which
is pressing upon the people more and
more. Compared to it, other matters
of legislation are insignificant, so far
as popular interest is concerned Out
of complicated and fathomless laby-
rinth of facts and figures. the depart
ment of agriculture will be called upon
to reach some conclusions so simple
and direct that he who runs may read.
Secretary Wilson has for some years
and he intends to concentrate his last
months in official harness to the So
luton of the problem
Contract Labor Law.
II believe that the contract labor
law should be amended so that farm
ers may send to European countries
for men to till the SOIL he said.
''such legislation would be good
thing for the nation as a whole. If
it were tried, however, the farmer
would at once meet the strong oppo-
sition from labor organizations, which
hold tenaciously to the contract labor
laws. If these organizations knew
what was good for them, however,
believe they would be more than glad
to agree to farm labor being hired
abroad. Foodstuffs would be cheap
err, because of the increased produc-
ton that would result, and none of
the labor organizations would be in
jured in the least.
THE farmer certainly is not getting
the exorbitant profit out of the beef
he raises. The department of agri-
culture has agents in every state, ev-
cry country, and in almost every COM
munity in the country. They haye
been given orders to report exhaust
lively on the cost of production and
the returns of sales of milk. wheat,
rye. beans, peas, and in fact. all farm
products. AS fast as we secure these
figures we shall compare them with
the prices of the same products
brought in the cities and towns where
they are consumed. We will give the
facts and figures to the public.
Public Expects Truth.
II believe the public expects this
| department to make the truth known,
and we intend to bring it all out, ire
spective of whom it hurts or whom it
benefits. am convinced that the
public is compelled to pay a great
deal more than it should for nearly
everything it consumes. and believe
the figures will bear me out in this
regard.
"If immigrants only knew where
their best interests lay, they would
turn to the farm instead of the facto-
ry, the shop. and the mine. The
farmers life is not, by any means, as
dreary as it is supposed to be by those
who know nothing of it. The aver
age farm laborers is today we'll paid.
Nearly all the really hard work is done
by machinery. So far as his social
status is concerned. he is far better
off than his brother who works in
the factory or the mine. He has NO
temptation or opportunity to spend
the money he makes, and it is only a
matter of a few years before the in
dustrious sober-minded farm hand
may become farm owner himself.
I'VE are attempting to educate the
farmer in a scientific way today. We
are teaching him intensive farming
When the times comes in the future
when every farmer will obtain the
biggest crops possible out of the soil
at his command, a great step will be
made, and the cost of life's necessit
les will be kept within bounds. but
unless the men handling the food that
the people eat are content with de
cent profits, am afraid that the cost
of living will never be what it should
and what the consumer has a right to
demand.
Is Another Factor.
A surplus in the number of distri
butors and purveyors of food is anoth
er factor in the situation We have t.
contend with. There is no doubt We
have far too many retailers. The more
purveyors the higher the prices viii
Oc, because Hi Ucd1cIS lOuS dGO Jul
trying to get business by cutting pri
ces. An enormously expensive retail
system has been developed. Services
that customers desire for their accom-
, mediation are costly to them. The.
want special delivery of goods per
haps by special trip, and this requires
at least one horse, man and wagon
They want the market man also t
send a man to their dwellings to TAX
orders.
II Secretary Wilson has the courag
!! to say that he believes it would b
. better we're the number of producer
Increased. and the number of distrit
, uters correspondence decreased.
Figures showing a steady but CON
lparatively small increase in the cos
LOT living have been published By tn