Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1919-01-03
Now half an hour of time at an advance

Now half an hour of time at an advance
of forty cents an hour means twenty cents
bushel increase in the cost of corn. or
two dollars and sixty cents hundred live
weight on hogs-an increase of approx
mately seventeen per cent. But when
overtime is counted, and the increased
cost of the horse labor due to higher cost
for feed is added, the city man. employer
and employee alike, will get off well il he
is not called upon to pay an advance of
more than twenty per cent in the cost of
his meats in order to let the farmer be as
liberal as other employers. Is he prepared
to do it and at the same time sing the
praises of the farmer for his generosity
The three foodstuffs chosen for illustra-
tion-milk, wheat and meat-are in gen.
eral the cheapest, because they require
less labor than any other standard form
of human food. Potatoes might seem to
be an exception, and so they are on the
spot where they are grown, but so heavy
are they and so perishable that by the
time they reach the city consumer they
are one of the most expensive forms from
which the city laborer can secure his nour-
ishment
Fruit is now out Of sight at five and ten
cents apiece for apples and ten cents for an
orange. and it will be found upon careful
investigation that prices are high in al
most exact proportion to the labor required
in producing and transporting the commo-
dity. When we say transporting we have
to include the labor involved in the mining
Of coal as well as that consumed in the
operation of the railroad
Less than twenty years ago milk retailed
at four cents quart. and dairymen them
selves not only assumed but argued that
the city consumer would never 60 beyond
that price but never is long time, and
almost anywhere the buyer now pays nearly
three times four cents quart. and in some
places the old price is quadrupled and
more. In the old days milk was the cheapest
food, not only because the COW is the most
economical producer of animal food but
also because the labor involved was poorly
paid. Now it begins to look as If the in
creased wage scale which is coming rapidly
along may offset IL not entirely overcome
the inherent economy of the COW as pro-
ducer of human food.
FARMERS Now Work For MONEY.
Even before the war. dozen oranges
sold for more than bushel of wheat had
ever brought in the wheat belt except I'M
der unusual and temporary conditions.
However. it must be remembered that the
American farmer has been feeding the
world with fifty and sixty cent wheat ever
since he began the Herculean task of de-
velopine this continent as the Greatest
food-producing area in the world.
We have entered upon an era which
many men frankly speak of as the work
ing mans world. At any event the pro-
fessional wage Garner is clearly in the
saddle and In position to enforce almost
any demand he may make.
The methods Of increasing the compen-
sation of labor have worked well hereto
fore, partly because they were predicated
upon basis of cheap food. All the wage
gain. therefore. was clear gain. But when
the methods and the results extend them
selves to the farm and the business Of food
production. the circle will be complete and
the laborer will feel for the first time in
his life the return result of his increased
and increasing demands upon society.
In the old days the farmer was working
for home. and his crops were surplus pro-
ducts over and above what were needed
for family use. They we're cheap, partly be-
cause they represented a surplus and partly
because nearly everybody lived upon the
land
We have now reached the time when
few farmers are attempting to earn farm
by the labor of their own hands, because
it is becoming increasingly difficult. They
must. therefore, work for money because
they cannot directly work for homes. We
have also reached the time when the mass
Of people are no longer food producers, and
both these facts will operate inevitably to
increase the cost Of food
If to these facts we add an increased
wage which is comparable TO that exacted
by unionized industry, then there is no
alternative to greatly increased family
expenditure for food or else a substantial
reduction in the amount and quality which
may be procured even by an increased
wage. All these considerations we may
as well anticipate without the risk and in
convenience Of going blindly against the
inevitable and waking up too late in mat
tiers that may have been foreseen by the
harmless expedient Of lest suppoSin."