Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1919-12-19
THE FARMERS EIGHT-HOUR
DAY

Following is a summary of very
able article by j. Clyde Marquis in
The Country Gentleman:
Capital and labor are annoyed.
An innocent bystander has inter-
fered in what they have regarded
as their private quarrel He has
stopped to the ringside and informed
the gladiators that he and sundTv
other millions of Americans are tired
of paying good money to support an
apparently endless struggle.
Will his words be needed? Lis
ten: He is the largest employer OF
labor in the United States. He rep
resents the largest investment in In
dustry in the United States. He has
the key to the food storehouse from
which capital, labor and the inno-
cent bystander must eat He is the
American farmer.
And he is being made to pay for
this succession of strikes. Last sum-
mer farmer went to a great farm
implement factory to get parts of his
binder repaired. Not a wheel was
turning; men on strike. Harvest
time was at hand; without the need
ed repairs and spare parts for which
/ farmers everywhere were calling,
crops might go to waste, farmers
might go broke-but what cared
/ labor?
! A Middle Western breeder, with a
/ bunch of steers in prime condition
! for market, phoned the railway
agent for car Sorry! Strike en-
barge" The owner had to pour
feed into his cattle until the strike
was settled They finally reached
the yards with an avalanche of other
cattle held back for the same reason.
Down went the market!
] AS for capital, it is often hard to
distinguish between that gentleman
and the profiteer Why can't a farm
err get enough for calfskin to buy
his boys pair of good school shoes?
Why must he pay $50 for a suit of
clothes, the wool in which yielded
the grower round $3.50?
The farmers representatives were
not welcomed by capital and labor
at the lamented Industrial Confer
ence; they were looked upon as out
siders. But they most emphatically
were there; and before the Confer
ence came to it's untimely end they
put the American farmer on record
in regard to some vital issues.
Organized labor proposed the
eight-hour day as the standard in all
industries. If this is done it means
eventually an eight-hour day on the
farm, for how otherwise can the
farm compete for labor?
II am for an eight-hour day" said
j \. Tittemore a farmers leader in
the Washington conference. Let it
come; but let the public remember
that it is going to cost more if We
produce food on that basis" In his
neighborhood in Wisconsin an aver
age farm family of five has three
children and they all work About
A hours a week of their unpaid
labor goes into the production OF
food
Many farmers have been sympa
thetic with labor, but some farm
leaders suspect that priyilege-seek
ers in the labor controversy think
the farmer may be safely disregard
ed that he will accept shorter hours
and whatever is offered for produce
Right now the question of collect
i've bargaining is at issue in congress
Farmers ask the right Of collective
bargaining as regards the cooper
alive sale OF their products. The
matter came 10 a head over the cues
ton of the price Of milk. In various
cities milk producers have been pu
in the felon class for demanding {
profit on their milk. while milk driv
: ers have struck with the passive con
, sent o. public and press. This hal
: aroused great resentment.
1t is not the thought of the farm