New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-09-22
THE LOT OF THE FARMER
Here in the East He Is Anything but
Plutocrat.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir. 7 am filed with indignation and
moved TO protest against your recent ar
ticle I'm The Tribune entitled The Pli-
tocratic Farmer" l cannot understand
how The Tribune. which has always
been my ideal for fairness, could print
ANYTHING 80 untruthfuL You certainly
have q most incorrect idea OF the av-
erage farmer.
There may be farmers on our western
prairies, or on the rich bottom lands
along rivers, or those who live near cit
ies. who can take their products direct
10 the consumer, who are what you de-
scribe as "plutocrats.
But take our average farmer right here
in Northern New Jersey, and your de-
scription goes wide Of the mark.
We sell our milk during the summer
for less than three cents quart. and we
have sold il as low as one and one-hdlt
cents a quart, while 1t has been proved
by the Milk Commission that II cannot
be produced for less than four and one
half cents a quart
suppose you ask how. then. do We
do IL? We do 1t by forcing our wives
and little children to work early and late
Oftentimes the farmers wife works six
teen hours a day.
We are selling our apples at from 81
to 81 30 a barrel. the wives and children
helping at the picking. l suppose your
city editor never climbed an apple tree.
with a bag suspended from his shoulders,
reaching and straining for the apples
till the heavy bag nearly broke his tired
shoulders
II the farmers are the plutocrats you
describe, why DO our enterprsng young
men leave the farm and go to the city?
I'm sure the positions they find there
are not exactly what "plutocrat' would
naturally desire.
Is IL any wonder that any sef-respect-
Ing young man hestates to ask the girl
he loves to share the hardships of our
average farmer?
Is II any wonder that our farms are
passing into the hands of foreigners.
whose wives-bareheaded and barefooted
work in the fields with their husbands?
You say the farmers own the automo-
biles-not many about here. And where
they do 1t is because they are cheaper
than horses. Where he can raise the
money he buys an auto. for quick trans
portation, using old and WORKOUT horses
for ploughing and farm work.
You say the farmers own the bank
stock OF the country. IL so. they are the
ones whose overworked wives take sum
mer boarders. or they get their money
from other sources than the farm.
Your charge that the farmer Is the max
err of the food trust Is too absurd to lie
considered. What time has the poor.
Woodworking farmer 10 form food trusts?
What does he know about trusts, anyway?
He is too busy ploughng, sowing, reap
ing, hoeing. milking and doing the thou
sand and-one things that come into his
daily life to think about food trusts.
You propose a Congressional invesu-
CATION" BY all means, have one, and
let your fiippant city editor be one of
the investigators. He might learn some-
thing about plutocratic farmers. We have
had one Farmers Commission. He had
better read up on the results OF that in
vestigation.
consider this deserted farm business
and the deep-seated discomfort among our
farmers one Of the contributing causes
land perhaps the principal one) of the
high cost of living. Would IL not be well
TO turn our attention to the difficulties
which face the farmer and the reason
why our best young men leave the farm
before we name them ''plutocrats"?
ONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT FARMING.
Blairstown, N. j., Sept. II. 1913.