Morris tribune., 1919-12-19

more wages and less and less work.
More money and less hours or they
strike. Now I want to tell you that
every strike reacts on the farmer and
affects production. Let the men in
the steel mills strike and it comes
back on the farmer in higher prices
for the implements and tools that he
must use to produce food. Let the
railroad men strike and it means
higher freight rates must be paid.
But the farmer has gone on work
ing just the same. Nobody ever talks
of reducing his number of hours. No
one ever thinks that the farmer ought
to have more wages. The cost OF
living goes up; and all over the
country the howl from the city peo-
pie is that the farmers are getting
rich at the expense of the towns.
They cry that the cost of meat and
wheat must come down. They do not
know that the farmer has to pay the
high prices for food and clothing, for
tools and building material, prices by
the high wages paid to the city peo-
pie.
But I want to tell you that a new
day is here. With the farmers Or
gained they do not intend to work
long, hard hours while the city work
er labors eight hours day and lives
in comfort
FARMERS STRIKE? WHY NOT?
do I mean that the farmers will
ever strike? Why not? Certainly
they will strike-in their own way
if it is necessary. Heretofore labor
has used the strike to get more wages
and less work, and the farmer, as
likely as not, footed the bill. But
now with the farmers organized they
can produce crops or raise livestock
or not do it, just as they wish. They
have known long since that increased
production does not mean more pro-
fits-that by growing less and Great
ing scarcity they can get more pro-
fits for whole lot less work.
STRIKES have been looked on as
legitimate for the city laborers, but
when the farmers have talked of or
ganizing, of controlling their own
business, they have been branded as
prof1teers. When they combined to
get a just profit for milk they were
denounced as trusts, thieves and
baby murderers. But this is going
to change.
Just glimpse into the future of
agriculture as it affects both the
farmer and the city man. For years
there has been a continual drift Of
population from country to city. Less
than one-third of our people live in
the country. Iowa is short $4,000
farmers right now. AS long as the
city man works for more wages and
decreased hours this will continue.
Heretofore the cities have been
living on cheap food mined out of the
soil-cheap because of the richness
of the virgin prairie and of the ad-
vance in labor saving made by mach
inery. But the soil is being impov-
erished in many places. No new
machinery has come in ten years.
The future of farm products will de-
pend on an increase in farm labor.
If this is not found there will be a
decrease in the food supply.
"This means that farm conditions
must be changed. There must be
fewer hours of work and better hOus-
ing conditions so that the boys and
girls will not be attracted to the
city. You cannot expect to keep
them down on the farm with a
twelve to sixteen hour day when the
city man works only eight. Less
hours will mean more men; cost Of
production will increase because of
the added labor. Cheap food has
gone, never to return.
ITO get down to brass tacks, it all
means that if the city man wants to
decrease the cost of living, the way
for him to do it is to wordsworth
longer hours and take less pay. His
whole idea heretofore has been wages
more, hours of work less. That
means less efficient work. The less
number of hours a man works, the
less efficient he becomes"