Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-03-23
almost entirely by machinery.

Manufacturers devised Wonderful
machines with almost human intelli-
/ gence and marvellous speed to assist
! them. A hundred years ago. they har-
messed steam power as well as water
/ power to drive these machines, thus
/ multiplying 10 to 20 fold the produce
| tive capacity of each individual.
And the result has been that the
/, farmer has been at disadvantage.
| His production in proportion to the
amount Of work expended has been
small compared with that of the city
manufacturer or workman. 1t has been
limited by the physical efforts of slow
moving, costly maintained horses.
The life of plowman and the joys
Of his existence may be poetic-to a
poet long way off. But there is
nothing more tiresome-more deaden-
| ing to the mind and ambition-than to
tramp mile after mile and hour after
hour in furrow following a slow NOV
ing team of horses with only an occa-
sional whack in the ribs from the plow
handles to vary the monotony.
This Is not theory with me, for II
was born and raised on farm and
have followed the plow many a weary
mile. / have been both a farmer and
a manufacturer So l know what an
advantage power and machinery has
given to the latter.
Can you imagine anything more
wasteful or inefficient than for an in
telligent man to be compelled to spend
days and days following a slow NOV
ing team without chance in the world
of using his brains or his initiative
to speed up that work beyond the
leisurely rate at which the horses
choose to navigate?
And then at the end of the day what
has he to show for his IL to IA hours
of labor? An acre or two of ground
plowed up.
Imagine a modern manufacturing
concern producing under such condi-
lions.
And the result has been that each |
individual farm worker has been able |
to produce so little that he has had to
work long hours, even to get his $40 |
to $50 month and board.
Is it any wonder that farmers and |
farm workers have left the farms
where they could get neither the things |
they want nor the time to enjoy them
and have gone to the city, where by
the aid of power and machines they
have been able to produce more and
thus to get more of the things they
want and more leisure to enjoy life? |
Then again the farmer has been I'M
der disadvantage in this. He has
been compelled to produce the things
which he sells in the cities by these
inefficient methods.
On the other hand, he has been
compelled to buy the things he wants |
from the cities-clothes, household |
furnishings and utilities, farm machin-
cry, etc, from manufacturers who pro-
duce efficiently with the aid of power
and machines.
Naturally he has got the worst of
the exchange.
But the tractor will change all this. |
In the tractor the farmer now has a |
machine in which is harnessed one of
the most adaptable, efficient, economi- |
cal sources of power in the world
the internal combustion engine.
The tractor will multiply the produc-
tive capacity of each individual farm
1t will put the farmer on a par with
the city manufacturer. 1t will put his
produce producing factory-for that is
what farm is-onto an efficient pro-
duction basis.
1t will enable each worker to earn
so much more that he can be paid
more and still leave a greater profit
for the man who hires him. 1t will
enable the farmer to work fewer hours
in the day, giving him more time to
enjoy life.
The tractor will help solve the food
problem and this is one of the most
serious problems which confronts the
world today.
The food production in this country
has not been limited by acreage but
by man power. Blu multiplying the
producing power of each farm worker
the tractor will multiply the food pro-
duction in corresponding degree.
And the millions of acres now re-
quircd TO produce food for the animals