Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-10-13

of S100,000,00O, the farmers of the
United States would have lost more
than this in thirty days had there
not been a q man in the White House
big enough to protect the interests of
the whole pople.
Five cents bushel on wheat is easy
picking for the pit gamblers when
they can play the market at their own
sweet will. 1t would have meant fifty
million dollars lost to the farmers on
the billion bushel crop. The gamblers
may get it anyhow, but they will not
lind it so easy since the Federal De-
partment of Agriculture has estab-
lished an honest system of grading
under law passed by the present
Congress.
James X. Armsby, one of the
largest shippers of fruit in California
and Republican, recently made the
! statement that if the threatened rail
road strike had taken place it would
have bankrupted many of the fruit
growers of the state. He said it
would have caused loss of not less
than $20,000.000 to the fruit industry
of California alone. This amount is
probably much too low
The peach crop now going to
market, with value of about
SOB, 100000, would have been practi-
call total loss had the President
no induced Congress to act.
The $200,000,0O0 apple crop would
have been shrunken b. inability to
get to storage and disorganization of
the market to the tune of at
least S100,000,000.
The potato crop, of value of about
S220,000, 900, would have involved IA
further loss of at least $4,000, 900.
The cabbage farmer of Northern
Ohio, the grower of tomatoes for the
eannery and the celery grower of
Michigan and Florida would havh
kept mournful company.
Melons from Colorado, California,
Arizona and Delaware, grapes from
he vinc-clad hills of Western New
York and the sunny slopes of Yakima
and Kenatchee. prunes; pickles, poul-
try, butter and eggs would have gone
down in the common cataclysm.
Only One Phase of 1t.
Some of this stuff might have been
fed to the hogs, to be sure, although
hog does not fatten on fruit and
vegetable diet; but when hogs and
cattle are ready for the market they
must go. The farmer cannot feed be-
yond the finishing point without in
creasing daily loss. What would
strike have meant to the live stock
market of the farmer? And what
would it have meant to the consumer,
with the cold storage facilities in con-
troll of the packers combine?
The direct and immediate loss which
the farmer would have sustained in
case of strike is but one phase of
the danger which threatened his in
terests. The depressing influence
upon market prices resulting from the
inability of consumers to buy be-
cause of lack of employment would
have been felt in every single item of
this years farm products Take this
single instance: This telegram sent
to President Wilson on Sept. by
Henry Ford, the worlds greatest
automobile manufacturer:
The President: The moment it
is positively known that strike
will become effective on the rail-
roads the Ford Motor Company
will of absolute necessity shut
down its factory and all of it's
assembly plants throughout the
country, and every man of its
more than $4,000 workers will
have to go off the pay roll.
Our business is so organized
that the supplies and products
must be kept moving constantly
We cannot move day without
railroad service. We are making
2,200 cars every day. The mate
rials must be moved in and cars
out. I sincerely hope something
can be done to avert the strike.
Your efforts are appreciated and
should be commended by every
citizen in the country.
HENRY FORD
This telegram is typical of what
would have happened to practically
every American industry had strike
ensued. Millions of contented and
well employed laborers would have
faced enforced idleness; poverty and
destitution would have come to mil
lions of workingmen's homes. The
workingmen's power to buy food
products depends upon his daily wage.
Stop his wage and his consuming
power is limited to the barest neces-
sites of life.
Greatest of All Panics.
A nationwide railway strike would
have paralyZed every American in
dustry and precipitated panic such
as has never been witnessed in the
history of this country. The farmer
provides the necessities of life for
Americas millions and multiplied
millions overseas. A strike would
have disorganized the farmers mar
ket, destroyed and wasted the prod
uct of his toll, and would have
brought him face to face with an
economic condition from which he
could not have recovered for years.
Let the farmer get the record
straight. He faced this crisis which
threatened him with incalculable
financial loss. There was no law in
force to compel arbitration between
contending forces who refused to
yield to voluntary arbitration. The
President and Congress performed
their inevitable duty for the protec-
ton of the public For this act
President Wilson is denounced by
those who offer no suggestive remedy
to meet such situation had they
been in power.
On the whole, has not the farmer