The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1913-09-19

ally move from the less profitable to
the more profitable employments,
when free to do so. The farmer
should be the most literally paid of
all of our workers because his work is
the most laborious and the most i'm
portant, but, as matter of fact, the
farmer is the most poorly paid MEM
Der of the community, contrary, as
this is, to the general belief. The
steady flow of the population from
the country to the city is the most
convincing proof If the relative UNI
profitableness Of farming. In 1870
nearly one-haf of our total popula-.
GLIDING fishing and mining. In 1890
only 1906 per cent. or two-fifths were
so engaged, while in 1900 only little
over one-third of our people were en-
gagged in this fundamentally import
ant work. We have been an agricul-
al country for so long, mot because a
large number of people here were en-
gagged in farming, but because our
lands were so rich that comparatively
few workers could raise large crops.
In 1900 35.7 per cent. were engaged
in agriculture here, while in Hungary
SO per cent, in Russia 58 per cent, in
Austria 58 per cent, were so engaged.
Even in Germany, which is not an
agricultural but manufacturing
country, 81 per cent. of the people are
engaged in agriculture as against our
35.7 per cent.
Moreover, since 1900, the condition
has been growing worse, for, our last
census shows, that while our general
town and city population increased
.34.8 per cent. our country population
increased only 11.2 per cent.
In New York State the last census
showed an increase in the general
population of 25.4 per cent. while it's
country population increased only .O6
per cent, or, in other words, there
were nearly two million more people
in New York State in 1910 than there
were in 1900, but only a little over
eleven thousand of this two million
went to the farms. Thus, in one state
alone, of this country, there were
added nearly two million more, con-
sumers of food, with practically no
more producers.
Fallacy of Large Figures.
We heard much, last year, about
our wonderful crops, and they were
wonderful, since they had gross
value of something like nine billions
of dollars, but it would be a great
mistake to state, as many writers did,
that this sum had been added, as new
wealth, to the country's resources.
Only the value Of this crop, over and
above its cost, is new wealth and only
a portion of this goes to the farmer
himself.
1t is probable that not over twenty
per cent. of the nine billions of dol
lars, representing the value of the
crop, was profit and if this sum were
divided among the men who labored
to produce that crop it would give
each one wage, for the years work,
of something over three hundred dol
lars, not, think you will agree with
me, fabulous sum. Some of you
may say that there was more than 20
per cent. profit on the crop, so let us
look at it in another way.
In 1909 the gross value of the crops
was only 1868 for each farm, out of
which sum, had to be paid wages, in
terest, taxes, fertilizer bills and de-
probation on machinery, fences,
buildings and land This figure 1868,
was used by one financial writer to
prove that the farmers made an ex-
cessive profit in that year, while, as a.
matter of fact, such gross income
is entirely inadequate to give the far
mer fair wage after his expenses
are paid. That year, study, made
by the United States Department. of
Agriculture embracing four town
ships in New Hampshire, 266 farms
being studied, showed that the aver
age farmer in the region surveyed
received 1897 for the years work or
at the rate of SLOT a day for 313
days." A study made, at about the
same time, by the Cornell College of
Agriculture, o., 615 farms operated by
owners and 154 farms operated by
tenants, in the state of New York,
brought to light the fact that the
average wage for q hired man was
$500 to $3.50 with house rent, wood,
milk and garden One-third of the
owners of the farms received less
than this sum, paid to the hired man;
one-third of the owners made the
same as the hired man and only one
third received more than this. The
report says: "The year when these
figures were taken were periods of
good prices and good crops. There is
no question but that the farmers in
the past received less than their share
of the prosperity of the country,
fact that found its emphatic express
ion in the great movement from the
country to the city"
The inadequacy of the remuneration
of the farmer for his labor, as shown
by the above figures, is emphasized
if we compare the earnings, as shown
above, with those made in other en-
Payments. In 1912, for example, the
average wage paid by the Steel Trust
was 1857 or about equal to the 1868,
the gross earnings of the farms, of
which latter sum, the farmer receives
but fraction. The average wage
paid to all factory hands in New York
State in 1909, including men, women,
and children, was $64S as compared
with the $500 made by the two-thirds