Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1919-08-15
WANTED: A NATIONAL POLICY
IN AGRICULTURE
Continued from page seven)

excess. Any good farm laborer can
do this work; how, therefore, shall
! the farmer compete at less than 80
cents an hour and with what argu-
ments shall he preserve the indie
pendence and initiative of his own
son over against a government job,
protected by the civil service, backed
by powerful union. and guarantee
! ing wit hno investment and no risk a
minimum wage far in excess of what
| the father has ever made upon the
! farm, with an eight-hour day and
time and half for overtime, spent
wholly under shelter and mostly in
an armchair?
The situation is illustrated by my
own experience within fortnight
wherein a farm laborer protested
against his wage of seventy-seven
dollars per monta upon the ground
that his son OF seventeen was MAX
ing one hundred and sixty-five dol
lars a month in the railroad yards
q mile away.
There are vast wheat growing
reg ons in this country underlain by
coal deposits. Here farming and
mining come together. Here the
farmers income from wheat growing
and the miners wage may be direct
y compared When this is done, it
will be found inst the farmer is un-
able with the most modern machin-
cry and methods to cultivate with
his own hands land enough to pro-
duce a labor income equal to that
of the soft coal miner, working and
living in the same ncighborhood,
trading at the same stores, attend
ing the same churches, and sending
his children to the same schools.
Here we have a class of artisans
largely of alien birth and not yet
citizens, but protected in their earn
ing capacity by a powerful organiza-
ton whose existence and demands
are now recognized as a part of our
national policy. No preparation is
required for their business, nothing
IS invested, no taxes paid, and no
risks are assumed except perhaps
a slightly, a very slightly increased
hazard to life offset to a consider
able degree by easier hours and
healthier conditions of work.
But the citizen farmer who lives
in the same community with the
miner, whose children grow up with
his own, and who is a manager in
small way, competing in the labor
market, must invest in land and
buildings, tools and live stock He
must pay taxes and insurance and re-
pairs and veterinary fees. He must
work often sixteen hours, seldom less
than ten, and he must be on duty
day and night, ready always to care
for his independent plant-all this,
and yet in order to receive a labor
income equal to that of the soft
coal miner, whether citizen or alien,
with no preparation, with nothing
invested but a pick and shovel, and
with no risks involved, the farmer
must not only work himself as no
professional laborer ever works, but
he must also work his children with
out pay.
The ultimate consequence of this
condition needs no exposition here,
and by as much as this country could
not permanently remain half free
ard half slave, no more can our
democracy endure without a national
policy and plan that will equalize to
some degree at least the income from
the land and investment in the most
perishable of all equipment on the
one hand, and the rewards of I'M
skilled labor upon the other.
But if the profits of farming are
Sc meager, how can we have so
many rich farmers here and there
as to make the term proverbial? The
situation to which this question re-
fers will bear analysis. There are
many rich farmers. as riches go
among common people, but it will
be found upon investigation that
they being to one of four classes,
mostly unique or temporary;
First.-EXceptional men on large
farms or else engaged in some branch
of specialized farming which by it's
nature is limited in it's application.
SecOnd.-Men who have inherited
the farm and to whom it therefore
represents capital investment that
cost them nothing
Third.-Men who have deliberate
L.