The Johnson City comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1916-1917, 1917-07-12

Government action ensuring the
farmers of America ample supplies of
I farm implements and competent farm
! labor is virtually necessary to this
country's future participation in the
war, declRe the manufacturers of
farming tools and machinery in the
/ United States. This action must be i'm
mediate and radical, they say or in
1918 the United States will fail to pro-
duce foodStuffs necessary to feed the
civil population Of our allies and to
keep the allied armies i'm fighting trim.
This declaration is made in public
statement by the National Implement
and Vehicle Association, whose mem
bers manufacture most of the farming
implements used in and exported from
the United States. 1t is the AsSOcia-
tons answer to an anxious inquiry
about reports Of a prospective imple-
ment shortage addressed to it in behalf
of the cOuntry's farming interests by
Ex-Governor w. d. Hoard of WisCOn-
sin, one of the leaders of American ag-
riculture and publisher of Hoard's
Dairyman. The statement, which is
signed by Charles S. Birmingham,
Chairman of the Associations Execu-
tive Committee, says
Unless prompt action is taken by
the Government, our country will make
the same mistakes that have result
ed in compelling our allies to ap-
peal to us to save them from famine.
Unless we protect the production Of
labOr-saving farm machinery and the
supply of skilled farm labor we, too,
must soon face shrinkuge of food
supplies.
Without such action as is here sug-
gested and urged the farmers of
the United States will not have enough
machines or men in 1913 to meet the
demands upon them.
I'VE are now confronted by shortages
of raw material and factory labor that
will begin to be manifest in shortages
of certain lines of farm machinery this
fall and will result In SUriuuS shortages
in many vital lines next year. Stocks
on hand in important kinds of tools
and machines are smaller than in nor
nal years, because of earlier scarcity
of factory labor and a rapidly tighten
ing scarcity of all raw materials.
Farmers have deferred during the
last three years the replacing of old
and badly worn tools and machines.
Now, confronted by the practical GER
tainty that the war is to continue in
definitely, with attendant assurance Of
d heavy demand and high prices for all
their products, and by an inevitable
shortage of farm labor, they cannot put
off longer requirements of worn out
machines and the additions to equip
ment necessary to increase acreage
and production.
1T Is also essential in meeting the
demand of the farmers for implements
that there shall be preference in trans
pOrtatiOn for raw materials to the fac
tories and for finished goods from the
factories to the farms.
For the last ten years farm labor
has been more and more difficult to
secure, and now with an enormous iu-
crease in the demand for labor in mu-
nitiOns factories and the withdrawal
of many young men from productive
occupations, there IS bound to be a
shortage of farm labor such as this
country has never known. In Kansas
alone Il vast number of fertile acres on
which the wheat crop failed will lie
idle this summer chiefly for lack of
labor and partly through lack of ma
chimes to replant to corn.
1--WE regard it as vital to keep on the
farms the men now there who know
the business, especially the men
trained in the use of labor saving ma
chinery. 1t would be wasteful and
foolish to let them go and aftcrward
try to replace them with unsAlled men.
1--WE seek no advantage for our in
dustry over any other, but we realize
and we want the public to realize that
without this product and without suf-
sicient labor the farmers of the United
States cannot increase or even main
tain their production of foodstuffs next
year. To avert the calamity that such
a condition will surely produce, our in
dustry and the farming industry which
1t chiefly supports must be put upon
the same preferred basis as the making
of war munitions, even If other less
vital Industries suffer thereby for ma
terials and men.
"These are the measures that we de-
clare to be vital to the feeding of this
nation and its allies next year:
81. That the manufacture of farm
materials be given equal preference
with the manufacture of war NUM-
lions as regards supplies of necessary
raw materials.
"2. That service to the country in
farm machinery factories be consid-
cred Of equal Importance with service
In muntion making plants, Govern
ment or private.
"3. That labor on the farms be con-
sidered as OF equal Importance with
the production of war munitions.
~. That the raw materials for farm
ing machinery and the finished goods
be given equal preference by the trans
portation agencies of the country with
munitions of war.
"These measures must be taken I'M
mediately to be effective, because the
use and demand for farming machinery
are seasonal. We must have right now
materials and the men to make the
farm machinery that the farmer at
home and abroad must use this FAN
and next Spring. Delay in action VIII
be as disastrous as failure to act at