The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-10-21

and organizations. James Wilson did
as much for the farmer.
The bureau of labor must reach
efficiency by carrying labor bulletins"
to the great army of workers the
same as farmers bulletins" were car
ried to the tillers of the soil. The de-
partment of agriculture gave it's advice
freely in respect to the many features
surrounding farm life, embracing
every topic from the planting of seed
to the financial arrangements with the
bankers; so must the department of
labor make strikes unnecessary-so
must it raise the wage Garner from his
lowly position in the same measure
that the farmer became oar most re-
spected citizen instead Of a mere
~"mossback."
Today the American farmer has abb
sOlute knowledge of market conditions,
and he knows what the crops will yield
before the reaper goes through his
grain. The wage Garner must be pro-
tected in the same way and when the
government accomplishes the task
that it has undertaken there should no
longer be any question about the
standard of pay in any community, or
in any industry, because labor ought
to be as easily measured as the prices
Of wheat, or the price per inch or line
of advertising in any periodical. The
government must know and make pub
lie information as to where there is a
market for labor, and what that mar
ket will return to the man who has
his labor for sale. The secretary of
labor in his report of 1914 relates an
interesting experiment in this direc-
ton with reference to harvester help
during the summer Early in the year
1915 important steps were taken to
provide for a temporary national EN-.
ployment system. The time existed
within the memory Of most adults
when the farmer had to plan and
scheme to provide for carrying on a
small business in marketing the pro-
duce of the field. But all that is
changed, and the reason is found al
most entirely in the friendly offices of
the government In his behalf. So with
increased advantages for the laboring
man the time must come when there
will be no such thing as protracted
periods of unemployment, and when
there will be no strikes or lockouts.
In a country like ours there is work
for every man to do, and it Is a part
of the waste of Jul system that one
can go into the factory sections of a
large city and find thousands of peo-
pie willing and eager to work, but
with nothing to do. In time our new
department Of government should find
methods to relieve the wage earners
OF the country. One does not need to
blow soap bubbles or to create an
Utopian sphere to forsee that this
may be attained.
optimism and gradual application of
the powers Of the government In con-
trolling the affairs of the laboring
classes in much the same way as has
beer done for the farmers, will solve
most of the problems of labor. 1t
can and will be done. while private
ownership of industries continues
for private ownership is natural, the
same as 1t is natural and reasonable
to expect the government to do it's
duty by the great wage-earning
classes.
Lest anyone might suppose that
farm life has reached perfection, It
might be well at this juncturea to state
that In the opinion Of the writer that
such IL not the case-far from IT. But
there is no single phase Of industrial
progress that has advanced 80 rapidly
a. farm life. Yet farm houses do not
compare In comfort and conveniences
with the h~abitations In the cities. The
department Of agriculture says regard
Ing this condition, Although It Is
oftener harder to get help in the coun-
try thsn n town. and outside aids to
housekeeping, such ~ laundriss, arc
seldom accessible, there are generally
HovA~ - A. @x.-.-s. -ss@s s.r Ae..a