The Press., 1915-01-27
PAYROLL OF CIVILIZATION MET
 BY FARMER.
WANTS NO "DEADHEADS" ON
 LIST OF EMPL0YES.
A CALL UPON THE LAW MAKERS TO PREVENT USELESS TAX
 UPON AeRIcuLTuRE.
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 paws it's Dill 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; 1t is as certain to seek the earth's surface as an apple that falls from tree
 When a farmer buys a blow he pays the man who mined the metal. the woodman who felled the tree, the manufacturer 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 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 suo- sidiary lines of industry.
 There is no payroll In civilization that does not rest upon the back
 v n all of them
 The total value of the nations annual agricultural products is around s12, ,00O, ,000, ,000. and 1t is safe to estl- mate that 95 cents on every dollar goes to meeting the expenses of suD- 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, commer- cial and other servants.
 The Farmers Payroll and How He Meets 1t.
 The annual payroll of agriculture approximates $12,000,0o0 900. A DOT ton of the amount is shifted to for. eign countries in exports. but the total payroll of industries working fol the farmer divides substantially as follows: Railroads, $1,252.000,000; manufacturers, $4,365, ,000. .000; mining s655, ,OOO, 900; banks, $200,000,00 mercantile $3, ,50O, ,0O0, 900, and heavy miscellaneous payroll constitutes the remainder.
 It takes the corn crop. the most valuable in agriculture, which sold last year for $1,692, 100000, to pay of the employees of the railroads; the money derived from our annual sales of livestock of approximately $2,000, 900, ,000, the yearly cotton crop, valued at s920,000,000; the wheat crop which is worth $610,0O0.000. and the oat crop, that is worth $440,OO0,OOO are required to meet the annual pay 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 oi vegetables, some fruit and poultry which he can sell and call the pro ceeds his own.
 When the farmer pays of his hell he has very little left and to meet these tremendous payrolls he hal been forced to mortgage homes, worl 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 farmer for subsistence to retrench in thei expenditures and to cut of all un necessary expenses This course i absolutely necessary in order to avoi' a reduction in wages, and we want if possible, to retain the present wag scale paid railroad and all other fr dustrial employees.
 We will devote this article to
 discussion eff unnecessary expense
 and whether required by law or pei
 mitted by the homogeneous of tn
 concerns, is wholly immaterial. w
 want all waste labor and extravt
 gance, of whatever character. cut ou
 We will mention the full crew bill