French Broad hustler and Western Carolina Democrat. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1915-1916, 1916-05-18
no FARMERS WORK HARDER AND
>GET LESS THAN CITY DWELLERs9
City Work is Hard, Hours Are Long.
and the Rewards Are Often Poor;
Farmers Get Out of Their Work
What They Put Into 1t.

what Iney Put Into lts
reader asks: why is it that the
farmer who produces the necessities
lef life tolls the hardest, gets small
money compensation and limited ed
ucat1on, while his city kinsman VINO
sells the frivilous things with which
the people could do without) grows
rich and has advantages denied the
trEral dWel1er -
Many would be inclined to question
the accuracy CT these statements, but
there is no denying that the average
man who stays on the farm and also
the one who leaves it, at least at the
time he leaves it, think that they are
true
It is probably true. that the farmer
tolls the hardest" physically, but it is
doubtful if he works longer hours or il
his labor is any harder than that of
to IA hours day in a store or an Office
where he keeps clean or is able to
wear good clothes S thought to have
the easier job; but is his job really
easier as judged by its effects on his
health or its influence on the length of
his days on earth? Candidly, we think
the city man tolls as hard as the man
in the country
That the farmer gets less money
for his labor, that he gets or handles
less money, is unQuestiOnably true, If
we compare him with the doctor the
T1awyer, the merchant or the skilled
workman in the trades; but does he
put as much into his work? Does he
put as much education and capital into
his business, and if not is he entitled
to as much in return?
The average farmer does not put
much training and knowIedgc I'D ..,a
work as does the doctor or lawyer, nor
as much capital as the merchant or
manufacturer
/ The vast majority of farmers. proba-
bly, over 80 per cent OF them, receive
no education except in the rural
schools; and receive no education re-
lating to their own business or life
work. The lawyers and the doctors,
on tie other hand, receive a high
school education, many of them col
lege education, and then course of
from three to five years of professions
al edueation or training
I submit that if these be the facts,
and they are, then the doctors. law
yers, and others who put more into
their work are entitled to receive more
for it. / also believe that when those
who till the soil put as much agricul-
tlral trainingfand knowledge into their
work as the doctors and the lawyers
put medical and legal knowledge into
theirs the compensations as whole
will be as great.
The average doctor and lawyer bare
ly make living and frequently very
poor one. The money rewards Of the
farmer may be smaller, but they are
more certain and there are other COM
Iensations The smaller investments
and the lesser risks in farming are en-
titled to and receive smaller rewards
when successful, as the losses are
smaller in failures.
Our correspondent fsays the farmer
receives a limited education. AS
general rule this is true, but this is
not entirely due to lack ~of1opportuni-
ty. A man will not attempt to 3prac-
tice medicine without medical college
but the average farmer
thinks an agricultural college educa-
tion unnecessary, and many Of them
think it a waste of time. if not
actually a disadvantage. How many
boys who expect to farm think it nee
essary to go to college or in any other
way learn the facts and principles un-
der1ying agricultural operations How
many parents think it as necessary
that the son who is to farm should re-
ceive as good an agricultural educa-
ton as the one who is to be doctor
should receive a medical educatior2
The chief difference in the education
received is due to the different views
its necessity or advantages.
Any farm bov in this country can get
an education if he really wants it. and
he can get an agricultural education
easier and at less cost than he can
medical. engineering or other profes-
sional education
; The difference between a cow that
produces $50 pounds of butter in
year and one that produces 500 pounds
is $50 pounds of dairy knowledge. The
one is an lIn educated COW, and the other
an educated The difference between
30 bushels of corn OF 180 pounds of
lint cotton per acre and 40 buehelsp OF
corn or $50 pounds Sof line cotton per
acres is 100 per cent of agricultural
and three to five years time.
The one is an ignorant acre or an acre
cultivated in ignorance, while the other
Is an educated acre or one yielding the
profits Of agricultural knowledge.
This is a world of wonderfully we'll
compensations. No one sec
ton or business has all the advantages
nor any other all the Disadvantages.
IL conditions were as our corresp0n-
dent states there would no farmers.
We get out of any business and out Of
life about what we give to it, and II the
Liller of the soil gets less for his labor
it is pretty certain that there are other
compensations or he puts less into it,
Farmer.
San Antonio Tex. May 14.-Genera1
Funston has ordered an Investigation