The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-02-06
PAGE THREE

OF the men who work at trades. He
learns of their short hours of labor
and their demands for still shorter
hours. With these things he contrasts
his own hours Of twelve to sixteen a
day and the fact that he is apparently
getting no more out of it than he did
number Of years ago. He was sat
isfied then, but he is not now, because
he believes the people who live off him,
as he has been taught to view the sit
uation, are getting the good things of
life and he Is not. It is human nature
to rebel when the mind gets such
view of conditions. If others can draw
big pay for six or eight hours work,
and put in the rest of the day presum-
ably having good time, he feels that
he is entitled to the same benefits. At
any rate, it is but human for him to
)say, "Why should labor from sun to
sun to provide food and clothing for
people who work such short hours and
get such large wages that everything
buy costs me so much | cannot make
my farm pay?" That is almost the
exact language of some of the letters
received by the Department of Agri-
culture, The writers said they had de-
cided to cultivate only so much of their
land as they could easily work in rea-
sonable working hours and would sup
ply living for themselves. While we
have said this is human nature, a very
natural psychology, it's false economy
is easily seen. If farmer produces
only what he needs to eat he has no
surplus with which to purchase the
other things, including the very lux
uries he complains others have, and
certainly his lowering of the quantity
of foodstuffs and raw materials pro-
duced will not bring down the price of
anything he is compelled to buy.
Smashing things never yet proved the
way out of difficulty.
Two prime reasons are given by the
farmers for the small profit of agri-
culture. One is that they do not get
their fair share of the price paid by
the consumer. Farm products in
crease from 100 to 400 per cent above
what is paid the producer before the
consumer gets them. This is not fair
to either the producer or the consum-
err. What is needed is simplifica-
ton of our complex system of dis
tribution by which much of the cost
of handling and the profits taken by
successive handlers is eliminated. This
problem interests the consumer as
much as the producer, yet we see the
consumer paying practically no atten-
ton to it at all and inclined to look
upon the farmer as unreasonable
when he at least voices his protest
against it and threatens to go on a
strike. The problem calls for a solu-
ton. Of late various labor unions and
railroad brotherhoods have been Civ
ing it some attention, and we have
been told of several movements to
bring those organizations and produc-
ers closer together. In some way
there must be pruning down of the
cost of handling between producer and
consumer if the cost of living is to be
lowered without still further taking
the profit out of agriculture or mater
tally lowering the general scale CT
wages. This applies not only to food
products, but to all the necessaries Of
life.
The other prime complaint is that
farm labor has disappeared and that
farms must be worked by their own
ers. 1t is alleged that the high wages
and the facilities for enjoyment Of
| fered in the cities have lured the
farmers son and his hired man away
from the farm, and labor enough to
work the old acreage does not exist,
Undoubtedly this is largely true. The
falling off of immigration during the
past five years has reduced our con-
slant influx of labor from abroad and
made larger demand on our native
| supply. Naturally, much of this has
come from the farm. Our constantly
expanding transportation systems,
steam and electric, interstate, interur-
ban and municipal, are constantly re-
cruitlng their operatives from the ru-
raj districts, creating a steady flow
| from farm to city, until the problem
of farm labor has become acute in a
sense never before existing. Part of
the remedy for this is more machinery
and power farming and smaller farms,
| those of a size within the handling of
the owner himself But if the large
farms are thus to be cut up, where
are the purchasers and workers of
the new ones thus created to come
| from? Where is the capital to buy
them? The farm boys and laborers
who have gone to the cities have not
the capital, even if they could be in
duced to return to agriculture for a
| living.
There are so many phases of this
problem that no offhand solution is
possible. Yet it must be solved. 1t
is one of the great questions of the
hour in this country. With our rapid
ly growing industrial system chang
ing the general nature Of the country
from a producer of raw materials to
producer of manufactures, we are
| facing the problem of feeding our-