The Huttig news., 1915-01-30
PAYROLL IF CIVILIZATION MET
 BY FARMER
WANTS NO "DEADHEADS"
 ON LIST OF EMPLOYES.
A Call Upon the Law Makers to Prevent Useless Tax on
 Agriculture.
By Peter Radford Lecturer National Farmers Union.


 tion that does not rest upon the back of the farmer. He must pay the bills-all of them.
 When a 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 article of use fitness, the railroad that trans ported 1t and the dealer who sold him the goods. He pays the wages of labor and capital em- Ployed in the transaction as well as pays for the tools, machinery buildings, etc, used in the con- struction of the commodity and the same applies to all articles of use and diet of himself and those engaged in the subsidiary lines of industry.
 The total value of the nation s annual agricultural products Is around $l2,O00, 100000, and it is safe to estimate that o5 cents on every dollar goes to meet the expenses of subsidiary 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 $ the manufacturer, railroad, commercial and other servants. The Farmers Payroll and How
 He Meets It.
 The annual payroll of agri- culture approximates Sl2,OO, ,OOO,- o00. A portion of the amount is shifted to foreign countries in ex- ports, but the total payroll of in- dustries working for the farmer divides substantially as follows: Railroads, S1,252,O ,O0o.o 900; manu- lecturers, S4,365 ,OO0, 900; mining, So55 900 900; banks, S2OO, 600 900 mercantile, s 500 900, 900, and heavy miscellaneous payroll con- stitutes the remainder.
 It takes the corn crop, the most valuable in agriculture, which sold last year for $l ,6o2,- GOO, 1000, to pay off the employees of the railroads; the money de- rived from our annual sales oi livestock of approximately s. OOOOO,OO0, the yearly cotton crop, valued at So2o, ,0OO, 900; the wheat crop, which is worth Sol0,- 100000, and the oat crop, that is worth $440,O0o,0Oo, are re- quired to meet the annual pay roll of the manufacturers. The money derived from the remain ing staple crops is used in meet ing the payroll of the bankers, merchants, etc. After these ob- ligations are paid, the farmer has only a few punches of vegetables, some fruit and poi.try which he can sell and call the proceeds his own.
 When the farmer pays of his help he has very little left and to meet these treme.. .dous pay rous he has been forced to mort gage homes, work wone en in the field aud increase the Hours of his labor.
 We will devote this article to a discussion of unnecessary ex- penses and whether required b, law or permitted by the man agements of the concerns, is wholly immaterial. We want all waste labor and extravaganza, of whatever character. cut out. We will mention the full crew bill as illustrating the charactes of unnec- essary expenses to which we refer. Union Opposes Full Crew" Bill.
 The Texas Farmers Union registered its opposition to this character of legislation at the last annual meeting held in Fort Worth, Texas. August 4, 1914, by resolution, as follows:
 "The matter of prime impor- tance to the farmers of this state is an adequate and efficient mar keting system; and we recognize that such a system is impossible without adequate railroad racili- ties. embracing the greatest amount of service at the least possible cost. We further recog. nize that the farmers and pro- ducers in the end pay approxi- mately o5 per cent of the expense of operating the railroads, and il is, therefore, to the interest ol the producers that the expenses of the common carriers be as small as is possible, consisten, with good service and safety