Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1915-02-26
PAYROLL Of
CIVILIZATION MET
BY FARMER
WANTS NO .DEADHEADS" ON
LIST OF employees.
A CALL uPoNsTHE LAW MAKERS
TO PREVENT USELESS TAX
UPON AGRICULTURE.
BY Peter Radford
Lecturer National Farmers' UNI

re oddIVF0
Lecturer National Farmers Union
The farmer ID the paymaster Of
industry and as such he must meet
the nations payroll. When industry
pays its 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 earth's surface
as an apple that falls from a tree.
When a farmer buys a pillow he pays
the man who mined the metal, the
woodman who felled the tree. the
manufactures who assembled the raw
material and shaped 1t into an ar
ticle Of usefulness, the railroad that
transported it and the dealer who
sold him the goods. He pays the
wages of labor and capital employed
In the transaction as we'll as pays
for the tools. machinery, buildings,
ETC., used In the construction of tho
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
-all Of them.
The total value of the nations
annual agricultural products is around
$12, 000, 000, 900, and it is safe to esti.
mats that 95 cents on every dollar
goes to meeting the expenses of sub.
sidiary industries. The farmer does
not work more than thirty minutes
per day for himself; the remaining
thirteen hours of the days toll he
devotes to meeting the payroll Of the
hired hands of agriculture, such as
the manufacturer, railroad, CONNER
cial and other servants.
The Farmer's Payroll and How He
Meets II.
The annual payroll of agriculture
approximates $4,000, 000, 200. 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, 000, 900;
manufacturers. $4,S65,0 0o. 900; mining,
$685., 900. 900; banks, 100000, 600;
mercantile $500, O00. 900, and a heavy
miscellaneous payroll constitutes the
remainder.
1t takes the corn crop, the most
valuable in agriculture, which sold
last year for 1892, 900. 900, to pay of
the employees of the railroads; the
money derived from our sales
Of livestock Of approximately $4,000.
100000, the yearly cotton crop. valued
at 1920, 600 1000; the wheat crop
which is worth $610,000,00 and the
Dat crop, that Is worth S440.000,000
are required to meet the annual pay
roll of the manufacturers. The
money derived from the remaining
staple crops Is used in meeting thu
payroll Of the bankers. merchants
etc. After these obligations are paid
the farmer has only a few lunches o
vegetables, some fruit and poultr,
which he can sell and call the pro
ceeds his own.
When the farmer pays of his he'll
he has very little left and to NEE
these tremendous payrolls he ha
been forced to mortgage homes, worl
women in the field and increase tn
hours of his labor. We are. there
fore, compelled to call upon all In
dustries dependent upon the farmer
for subsistence to retrench In thei
expenditures and to cut of all III
necessary expenses This course !
absolutely necessary in order to avoi
q reduction in wages, and we wan
II possible, to retain the present wag
scale paid railroad and all other il
dustrial employees.
We will devote this article to
discussion Of unnecessary expense
and whether required by law or pc
mitted by the managements Of th
concerns, II wholly immateria1. W
want all waste labor and extrayi
gance. Of whatever character. cut gu
We viii mention tho full crew bin {
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