Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1918-05-30

cent Of the population"
II the farmer can now produce Is
times what he could produce former
ly, why is he not 25 times better off?
Farmers Lose Control to Middlemen.
The answer is revealed when we
examine the above statistics and note
the changes that have taken place in
agriculture. Formerly 96.6 farmers
fed 100 families, or approximately
one family per farmer; now 33 farm.
ers in the United States feed 100
American families and a great many
families outside the United States.
He feeds these families hot his w
much better than he feeds his W
family.
Through the development of ma
chinery the farmer has been separat-
ed from those agencies and facilities
by which farm products are finished
for the market and marketed. Other
classes now owning and operating
these facilities have acquired the
power to take the bulk of the farm
er's product from him.
When 98.0 per cent Of the popula-
tfon was agricultural, the farm fam
lily produced mainly for It's W use
and consumption. The little market
ing outside each family group was
done on a basis Of exchange of pro-
ducts. The farm family was almost
a complete unit of industry, produc-
ing, preparing, preserving and con-
Stunning It's WI food supply and rails.
ing the raw materials and manufac-
turing in the main its own clothing,
furniture and tools. When machin-
cry was developed the OK team be-
came the railroad, the be-
came the railroad elevator, the mill
stones became the roller mill, the
churn the modern creamery, the pork
barrel the packing plant, the cellar
the cold storage warehouse, the sorg-
hum mill the sugar factory, the last
and awl the shoe factory, the preserv-
ing Of fruits the canning factory, the
loom and the spindle the textile in
dustry.
To Organize Is The Only Defense.
When the former household utili-
ties became separated industries and
moved away from the farm, the farm
er lost control of them. They be-
came the property of the rising cap
italist class and the new class of mid
dlemen. When the farmer lost con-
troll of them he lost the ultimate con-
troll of his products and became de-
pendent on the markets in practic-
ally all his buying and selling. He
came to specialize on single products
such as wheat. sugar beets or cattle
or cotton. Instead of producing for
use he produced for sale.
1t is significant that this increas.
ing dependence of the farmer prac-
tically offset all the gains he other.
wise would have realized from the
development Of farm machinery. In
other words. every increase in the
productivity of the farmer was alb
sorbed by these new owners of the
facilities for finishing and marketing
farm products.
The farmer is not receiving his just
reward for his valuable services to
the world because other classes of
people have secured control of the
finishing and marketing of farm pro-
ducts. The remedy is plain and sim
pie. The farmers must in some way
re-establish control over these things.
The farmer must either organize
N promote legislation favorable to
the public control Of the railroads,
hour mills, elevators, packing plants,
cold storage warehouses;, creameries,
canning factories, sugar factories and
all other facilities of a like nature,
or he must form co-operatives to con-
troll them. There is no other way.