The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1915-01-21
PAYROLL Of
CIVILIZATION MET
BY FARMER
WANTS NO "DEADHEADS" ON
LIST OF employees.
A CALL UPON THE LAW MAKERS
TO PREVENT USELESS TAX
UPON AGRICULTURE.
BY Peter Radford

BY Peter Radford
Lecturer National Farmers Union
The farmer is the paymaster Of
industry and as such he must meet
the nations payroll. When industry
pays it's bill it must make a sight
draft upon agriculture for the amount,
which the farmer is compelled to
honor without protest This check
drawn upon agriculture may travel to
and fro over the highways of COM
merce; may build cities; girdle the
globe with bands of steel; may search
hidden treasures in the earth or
traverse the skies, but in the end it
will rest upon the soil. No dollar
will remain suspended in midair; it is
as certain to seek the earths surface
as an apple that falls from a tree.
When farmer buys a plow he pays
the man who mined the metal the
woodman who felled the tree, the
manufacturer who assembled the raw
material and shaped it into an ar
ticle Of usefulness, the railroad that
transported it and the dealer who
sold him the goods. He pays the
Hd6SS VI 1dOOi dUu capital cUplO gu
IN the transaction as we'll as pays
tor the tools, machinery, buildings.
| etc. used in the construction of the
| commodity and the same applies to
| all articles Of use and diet of him
| self and those engaged in the sub
| sidiary lines Of industry.
| There is no payroll In civilization
! that does not rest upon the back
| Of the farmer. He must pay the bills
| I'LL Of them.
The total value Of the nations
| s12, GOO, 100000, and it is safe to esti-
mate that 95 cents on every dollar
F.! goes to meeting the expenses of SUP
| sidiary Industries The farmer does
| not work more than thirty minutes
! per day for himself; the remaining
| thirteen hours Of the days toll sc
devotes to meeting the payroll Of the
| hired hands of agriculture, such as
the manufacturer, railroad, CONNER
| cial and other servants.
The Farmers Payroll and How He
| Meets 1t.
| The annual payroll of agriculture
approximates s12,000,000,000. A por-
| ton of the amount is shifted to for
| eign countries in exports, but the
total payroll of industries working for
| the farmer divides substantially as
| follows: Railroads, $1,252, 100000;
manufacturers, s4,365, 100000; mining,
| $685., 100000; banks, 100000 900;
!
miscellaneous payroll constitutes the
| remainder.
1t takes the corn crop, the most
valuable in agriculture, which sold
last year for 1882, 100000, to pay off
the employees of the railroads; the
money derived from our annua4 sales
Of livestock of approximately $2,000,-
100000, the yearly cotton crop, valued
at $920,0O0,000; the wheat crop,
which is worth $61o,000.000, and the
oat crop, that is worth $440,0O0,0OO,
roll of the manufacturers. The
money derived from the remaining
staple crops is used in meeting the
payroll of the bankers, merchants,
etc. After these obligations are paid,
the farmer has only few punches of
vegetables, some fruit and poultry
which he can sell and call the pro-
ceeds his own.
When the farmer pays off his help
he has very little left and to meet
these tremendous payrolls he has
been forced to mortgage homes, work
women in the field and increase the
hours of his labor. We are, there
fore, compelled to call upon all in
dustries dependent upon the farmers
for subsistence to retrench in their
expenditures and to cut off all un.
necessary expenses. This course is
,, absolutely necessary in order to avoid
: a reduction in wages, and we want
if possible, to retain the present wage
scale paid railroad and all other in
,, dustrial employees.
! We will devote this article to a
discussion of unnecessary expenses
and whether required by law or per
! mitted by the managements Of the
. concerns, is wholly immaterial. We
want all waste labor and extrava
, ! gance, OF whatever character. cut out
!, We will mention the full crew bill a:
. Illustrating lGS CHEEttClcI VI uuAOIOS
: sary expenses to which we refer
Union Opposes "Full Crew" Bill.
The Texas Farmers Union regis
tered it's opposition to this characte
of legislation at the last annual meet
ing held in Fort Worth, Tex, Angus
4, 1914, by resolution, which we quote
as follows:
THE matter Of prime importanc
to the farmers of this state is an ade
] quate and efficient marketing system
< and we recognize that such system
is impossible without adequate raj
road facilities. embracing the creates