Omaha daily bee., 1920-02-29
M0T0R|zE farm
AND REDUCE THE
COST OF LIVING
Machinery Must Replace the
Men Taken by Cities
Real Farmers Are
Scarce.

Scarce.
Any argument or agitation on the
subject OF power farming, unless
based upon fundamental principles,
is now idle talk. The United States
is primarily an agricultural country,
and unless this fact is recognized
in all lines Of activity the progress
OF the nation is thwarted Agricul-
ture 10 the mother of civilization,
and nowhere in the world is this
more true than in the United States.
Every nation which has lost sight of
this fact ultimately faced calamity.
In 1860 we had in the United
States 100000 people living in
cities and 26000,000 on farms. As
late as 1880 we still had 20 per cent
of our population on farms. Today,
with population of approximately
l06,000,000 people, we find only 80
per cent Of this population on farms,
20 per cent in cities.
l3,7oo,0O0 Real Farmers.
Of the rural population we find
from the last draft analysis Of the
government that only 100000 men
are actually tilling the soil.
A bulletin published by the United
States department of Agriculture in
1914. before the war broke out,
states that the importation of food
stuffs into the United States in point
of dollars and cents equaled the
amount Of expectations, and, in the
strictest sense of the word, we were
no longer an exporting nation.
That same year bulletin by the
Agricultural department showed we
had in the United States 1929, 900
less meat animals than we had in
1910. but the 1914 supply was worth
$685., $4,000 more than the 1910 sup
ply.
The old law of supply and demand
has ever been operative, but the bal
ace has swung from the credit to
the debit side to such an extreme
that it is affecting every line Of ac-
tivity in the country.
Machinery Must Replace Men.
Every thinking man will agree
that the most effective way to ad-
just the cost Of living in this coun-
try is to increase production with a |
reduced cost. Eight million people
have moved from American farms
to the city since 1900. Our popula-
tion has increased 81 per cent since
1899, but the increase in production |
Of food in that same period has been
less than 10 per cent.
No nation has ever been able to
enact legislation forcing people to
remain on farms. We are not able
to do It IN America. The only solu-
ton to the problem is more modern
methods and improved machinery.
In many communities in the |
United States farmers now are com.
pelled to pay harvest hands as much |
for a single days labor as the same
man could be hired for a full month
in 1880. Everything the farmer buys
Is Ncosting him more money. With |
such condition existing he cannot
be expected To- sell food to the con-
lsuming population at the price he
did under the old regime. If we are
unable to stem the tide of depleted
rural and increased city population
there is only one solution, and that
is modern machinery.
Farm Must Be Motorized.
The tractor or motor truck alone
cannot solve the problem. Complete
motorization Of farms, including sta
tionary gas engines, tractors and
motor trucks are our only salvation.
must be made to do the
work of human hands that are hard
to get and all too costly. The COM
pletc motorization of farms has been
proven economical in innumerable
instances in the central agricultural
section of the United States. This
argument is no longer based on the
ory, but upon facts.
It is a know fact that the average
farm horse consumes all that is
grown on the average FIVE acres Of
land each year. The man who has
100 acres Of land with eight horses
is sacrificing all that is grown on 40 |
acres of his farm in sustenance for
the horses, whether working or idle. 4
WIN IuC dVCIdkG AHlViS0H koiM |
horse standing idle 1872 days in the |
year, the inconsistency of continu-
ing him as one of the component
parts Of the operation Of the farm
must be evident.
Eight Horses to Farm.
With 6,700,000 farms in the United
States and an average of eight
horses on each farm, it is fair to as
sumo at least a sufficient number of
horses should be eliminated by the
of power machinery to
release at least l50,000,000 acres of
land for the production of food for
human beings instead of the horse.
Power machinery eats only when
il works, and then a commodity that
is pumped from beneath the surface
of the soil and cannot be used as
food. When machinery stands idle
the only expense is interest on the
"A Ca.~IA.