The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-06-15
PEOPLES News Service)

problem in big, permanent way,
or will he attempt to patch up
Americas machinery of production
in the hope of just pulling
through ?"
Ioover's job is to see that the
world is fed. On paper, it may be
limited to supervising distribution
and consumption. But it will work
back to production, for if Hoover
doesn't have enough to distribute
and sees something wrong with the
producing machinery his duty will
be to say so and to do something
about it.
What will Hoover find when the
supply runs short and he starts to
learn the reason?
He will find that nearly half of
the farm land in the United States
was uncultivated when the last CEN
sus was taken in 1910. (And land
lying fallow is included under the
head of improved farm land in the
census figures)
He will find that 226,512,S43 acres,
or nearly half of the farm land in
the United States, is in the hands
of tenants, always inefficient and
improvident farmers, and that ten
antry is increasing.
He will find that the value of
farm land in the United States in
creased 80 per cent from 1900 to
1916, according to the Department
of Agriculture's officials figures, and
that from 1912 to 1916 alone the
increase was 25.7 per cent.
He will find that farm lands can
not pay a decent interest on the
purchase price, because that price
is speculative, and based on the priv
ledge of holding it for the still
higher prices that are sure to come
A would-be farmer with enough cap
ital to buy farm can make more
money by buying government bonds
at 31a per cent and living in idleness.
He will find that because of the
high speculative price of farm lands,
no one buys farm lands these days
except the wealthy Spectator. When
a farmer grows old and moves to
town, he rents his farm to a tenant.
If his boy had grown to manhood in
the meantime, he went to the city
to work, because land is so high
that he could not have bought a
farm of his own, with what he could
save himself and what his father
could spare for him. So every time
real, old-fashioned, farm-owning
farmer drops out these days, his
place is taken by a tenant or his
farm lies idle, waiting for the in
creasing pressure of the peoples
needs to force up the selling price.
But getting back to Mr.. Hoover.
He will find, if the career of a
farmer is hopeless for the average
farmers boy, it is hopeless indeed
for the "hired man" He will find
that agricultural laborers are for
the most part migratory and home
less men, working for small wages
and belonging to the dregs of the
"labor market" This is so because
wages are small, work temporary,
the life migratory, and land owner
ship with independence not to be
hoped for.
Then, perhaps, Mr.. Hoover will
grasp the fact that patriotism alone
will not get and keep men on the
farms. He will see what is wrong
with American agriculture and food
production.
All this is not to minimize the
evils besides high land values and
land speculation that hinder the
farmer. But after the distributing
and marketing machinery has been
made all that it should be and the
farmer is getting his full share, Mr..
Hoover will still find between him
and full food production the condi-
tons here set down.
But why wait for Mr.. Hoover to
find this out? The evils of land
speculation and the blight it has
thrown on agriculture are known
and recognized and proclaimed today
by such men as Commissioner Her
bert Quick of the Federal Farm
Loan Board, Assistant Secretary
Vrooman Of the Department of Agri-
culture, Secretary Lane of the De-
partment of the Interior, and host
of others.
Why do not these men urge and
insist upon the levying of tax on
land values? The country needs
huge revenues. 1t needs the releas-
;,o Of +bo ,o+,1raI racOl1rcpS held