The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-06-25
MACHINERY IS.
NEEDED FOR
RAISING
Sufficient Foodstuf Cannot
Be Raised to Supply
Demand Without.
LABOR BECOMING
MORE SCARCE
Stated That There Should
Be No Curtailment in
Manufacturing.
~ AssoC1ATED PREss.

BY ASSOCIATED EfLESS.
Chicago, June 24.-Government &C
ton ensuring Americas farmers am
pie supplies of farm implements and
competent farm labor is vitality nee
essary to this country's future par
ticipation in the war, declare the
manufacturers of American farming
tools and machinery. This action
must be immediate and radical, they
| say, or else in 1918 the United States
will fail to produce the surplus of
foodstuffs absolutely required to feed
the civil population of our allies and
to keep their and our armies in fight
/ ing trim.
This declaration is made in a pub
| lie statement by a large implement
! and vehicle company, whose men,
! bers manufacture most of the farm
| ing implements used in and exported
from the United States. 1t is the
associations answer to an anxious
inquiry about reports of a pros
! pective implement shortage adj
! dressed to it on behalf of the coun-
try's farming interests. by ex-Gov-
ernor w. D. Hoard, of Wisconsin,
! one of the leaders of American agri-
culture. The statement, which is
signed by Charles S. Birmingham,
chairman of the associations execu-
tive committee. says;
"The truth is that unless PrortPU
action is taken by the government,
our country is headed straight toward
the self-same mistakes that have re-
suited in compelling our allies to
come to US to save them from IA
mine Unless we protect the produc-
ton of labor-saving farm machinery
and the supply of skilled farm labor
we, too, must soon face a shrlnkage
of food supplies. Anybody can real
ize how calamitous that would be, in
the military as well as the economic
sense.
"The trouble with the food produc-
ton of Europe is far from the battle
, zones, in fields that idle for lack of
= men and machinery to cultivate them.
The same trouble is cue to overtake
, us soon. Without such action as IS
here suggested and urged, the farm
I ers of the United States will not
= have enough machines or men in 1915
| to meet the demands upon them.
eve are now confronted by short
- ages of rqw material and factory
n labor that will begin to be manifest
f in shortages of certain lines of farm
machinery this fall and will result
70 in serious shortages in manv vita
] lines next yccr. Stocks on hand II
t important kinds of tools and ma
: chimes are smaller than for a Ions
while, because of earlier scarcity o
T factory labor and a rapidly tighten
l. ing secretly of nearly all raw ma
i terials. Present and prospective con
l. ditions as to both elements make /
= certain that the shortage of our out
ID put will soon be serious.
Farmers have deferred during tn
e last three years the replacing OF oil
is and badly worn tools and uIachlneS
IS Now, confronted by the practical Ger
r. taintv that the war is to contlnu
lie indefinitely, with attendant assuranc
C. of a heavy demand and high price
IS for all their products, and by an II
IN evitable shortage of farm labor, the
cannot put off longer requirements
G. worn out machines and the addition
he to equipment necessary to lncreaS
or acreage and production. -,
a at is also essential to meeting II
n demand of the farmers for lmpl
in ments that there shall be preteren'
he in transportation for raw materla
to the factories anu INL AAll'N'iA'
n goods from the factories to the farm
St For the last ten years farm lab
its has been more and more difficult
DIS secure Now, with nobody can S;
how many OF our young men aoo
bv to be withdrawn from production +
.es military service, and with an enc
nd nous increase in the demand +
IN labor in munitions factories, there
nix bound to be such a shortage OF far
I'd labor as this country has new
ny known. In Kansas alone a vast nul
Der of vertile acres on which I
of wheat crop failed will lie idle Il
me summer, chiefly for lack of labor
cts partly through lack of machines
to replant to corn.
m 1--WE regard it as vital to keep
ces the farms the men now there W
ed; know the business, especially the m
ar trained in the use of labor-savi
ion machinery. 1t would be wasteful a
ma foolish to let them go and afterwG
Md try to replace them with unskil
.Or> men.
rice eve seek no advantage for our
~ (r-A-..-,..I %, Dara EourN