The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1919-09-19
FARMERS AT CONFERENCE.

will be inylted to send representatives
to the great labor and capital confer
ence to be held at Washington next
month by the President. This will be
the first time since the labor troubles
began In the country three years ago
with the demand for the Adamson law
that the farmers have been taken
into consideration in adjustments be.
tween capital and labor, although
they produce the raw materials upon
which both labor and cauital must
subsist.
! 1T is a. grave mistake to assume that
the farmers of America have no inter-
est In the issues between capital and
labor. On the contrary they have a
most vital interest They are liable
to be caught between the upper and
neither millstones in this controversy.
II the farmers lived as they did in
the earlier days of the republic and
we're independent Of manufactured ar
tieles, that is If every home was
small factory in itself, they might
look on the existing struggle with
some degree of equanimity. But now
the majority of successful farmers
are more or less specialists. That is
we have the general farmer who
grows grain and stock, the dairy farm
er who produces little but milk and
butter. the beef farmer, the hog grow
er, etc. These farmers must buy from
others everything that they use or
consume on the farm except the spec.
ial thing that they produce. 1t re
'quires ten times as much machiner
and other equipment to farm now that
II did few years ago. This machin'
cry Is all the product of capital and
labor. Many farmers have found that
it, 10 profitable to buy concentrates for
feeding. These are prepared in the
factories and arc the joint product
of labor and capital
In the early days the farmers shear.
ed, their sheep. carded the wool and
the housewives wove it into cloth and
made tho clothes for the family. This
is no longer done. The leather was
tanned from the hides produced on
the farm and shoes made at home.
Now shoes. arc purchased from the
great manufacturers
In those earlier days the farmer
had but little interest in Transports.
ton charges because he produced all
that he consumed at home. But tans-
portation is more vital to the farmer
than to any other of the nations popu-
lation. He is dependent upon it to
get his product to the market when
1t is ready for market. And it will
not wait a more convenient season.
lie must have cheap transportation
to obtain his supplies. During the
past two years the interest OF the
Farmers in the great present day prob
lem has been largely ignored. The
hours of labor have been shortened,
their pay increased and the employer
has made up the difference by in
lcreasing the prices charged for the
products of labor. Transportation
costs have been increased through
higher pay and shorter hours and the
railroads have partly met the deficit
by charging a fifty per cent advance
in all rates. This has caught the
farmer coming and going" He has
been able to pay the increased prices
for all that he buys and for transpor-
nation and for his labor by reason OF
the unprecedented world demand for
his products.
But that demand is tightening The
world has little credit and cannot
continue TO buy the farmers pro,
aluctsr Demand is slackening and
prices, under a tremendous pressure
from the federal government, are so
ing down, down. Now can the farm
icrs of this country continue to pro-
duce that which is SO vital for sus-
tanning life and health. the neccsst-
ties of life, if they must sell their
products at pre-waY prices while pay.
ing double for everything that is the
product of labor that they buy? Are
prices alone to be reduced on the pro-
ducts of the farm? Through great
subsidies to labor. shorter hours AMI
less work with more pay, are the
prices of transportation, OF the facto.
ry and the loom to be maintained at
the present level, while the farmer
must sell what he produces at the
pre-war prices? These are vital ques-
lions and explain why the farmers OF
the country have a most vital interest
in the coming conference upon which
President Wilson sets such great
store. Frankly The Herald does not
have much faith in any good results
to come from this conference. II may
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