The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1915-02-05
PAYROLL OF CIVILIZATION
MET BY FARMER
A CALL UPON THE LAW MAKERS
TO PREVENT USELESS TAX
UPON AGRICULTURE.
BY Peter Radford
Lecturer National Farmers Union

Lecturer National Farmers Union |
The farmer is the paymaster OF
industry and as such he must meet
the nations payroll When industry
pays its bill it must make 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 1t
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 tree.
When farmer buys 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 1t and the dealer who
sold him the goods. He pays the
wages of labor and capital employed
in the transaction as well as pays
for 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
I that does not rest upon the back
of the farmer. He must pay the bills
all Of them.
The total value of the nations
$12,000,0 100000, and it is safe to esti-
mate 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 Farmers Payroll and How He
Meets 1t.
The annual payroll of agriculture
approximates $12,000,000,000 A por-
ton of the amount is shifted to for
eign countries in exports, but tho
total payroll of industries working for
the farmer divides substantially as
follows: Railroads, $1,252,000, 900;
manufacturers, $4,365,00O,O0O; mining,
$685., 100000; banks, 100000, 900;
mercantile $780, 900, and heavy
miscellaneous payroll constitutes the
remainder.
1t takes the corn crop, the most
: valuable in agriculture, which sold
last year for 1892, 100000. to pay Of
! the employees of the railroads; the
money derived from our annual sales
of livestock of approximately $4,000.
100000, the yearly cotton crop. valued
e at $920,000,000; the wheat crop
: which is worth $610,000,000. and the
4 oat crop, that is worth $440,000,000
are required to meet the annual pay
roll of the manufacturers. The
d money derived from the remaining
e staple crops is used in meeting the
q payroll of the bankers, merchants
etc. After these obligations are paid
the farmer has only few punches o
=" vegetables, some fruit and poultry
t which he can sell and call the pro
= ceeds his own.
o When the farmer pays off his hell
Il he has very little left and to NEE
these tremendous payrolls he ha
10 been forced to mortgage homes, worl
women in the field and increase thu
)e 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
re expenditures and to cut off all ur
o. necessary expenses. This course !
m absolutely necessary in order to avoi
!. a reduction in wages, and we wan
- If possible, to retain the present wag
III scale paid railroad and all other IL
OF dustrial employees.
is We will devote this article to
To discussion of unnecessary expense
and whether required by law or pc
- mitted by the arrangements of tn
"a, concerns, is wholly immaterial. W
want all waste labor and extravi
gance, of whatever character, cut GU
We will mention the full crew bill 6
as Illustrating the character of unnecei
ne sary expenses tc which we refer.
no Union Opposes "FuII Crew" Bill.
no The Texas Farmers Union regi
ng tered its opposition to this characte
fe of legislation at the last annual NEE
ing held in Fort Worth, Tex, Angus
(, 1914, by resolution, which we quot
as follows:
1.-THE matter of prime important
I'M to the farmers of this state is an ad
Il
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