The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1920-10-26
FARMERS MUST HAVE
FAIR TREATMENT
PORTLAND NEWSPAPER GIVES
SOME GOOD, PLAIN ADVICE
TO AMERICAN PEOPLE.
portland Oregonian)

While prices of farm products fall
rapidly, those of manufactured goods
and minerals fall gradually If the
people are to be well supplied with
the first necessaries of life at reason
able cost, the fall of farmers prices
should be in generally the same ratio
as that of manufacturers prices. The
farmer cannot be expected to continue
producing the same quantity of
wheat, corn, cotton and other staples
to be sold at reduced prices, if he
must continue to pay a higher proper
tionate price for what he consumes.
At this time he is deciding what
crops he shall grow for next years
harvest. Unless a true relation is
preserved between the price of staple
commodities that he consumes, he will
turn to the more costly but less neces-
sary products of the soil or to lux
urieS.
1t follows that those people who
prevent the decline in prices of manu-
factures from keeping pace with that
of farm products are unconsciously
conspiring to bring about scarcity of
food and higher prices for its next
season. Either that or they will seri-
ously affect our foreign trade. I'm |
ports are fast increasing and they
will surely continue to increase. No |
long time may elapse before the con-
ditions of 1914 will be revived and !
heavy exports of gold may prove that /
the actual balance, including invisible |
items, will be against the United I
States.
A fair days wage for a fair days I
work to the farmer as we'll as to the |
workman is necessary to
the welfare Of the latter as well as
that of the nation in general That
wage is represented by a price for
wheat, for example, which will supply
the wants of the farmers family,
leave surplus for recreation and to
lay by for a rainy day or old age, and
working capital for the next yea. IF
he does not get such wage, he will
strike by refusing to grow the things
which do not pay. He is in better
position for a long strike than men
in any other occupation. The Russian
peasants have proved that, for they
have been on strike for three years,
Russia's miserable plight The work
men of the cities ceased to produce
;he things the peasants wanted to
3uy, so the peasants produce no more
han they need for themselves The
,armer still eats, but the workman
almost starves.
This brings home to us the truth
which we are too apt to forget that, !
when a farmer sells bushel of /
wheat, he actually exchanges it for
is equivalent in shoes, clothes, i'm
ported food and other things. If he
S not given that equivalent, he may s
grow only enough wheat for his own 1
amily, do less work and take life
,asy. He can make shift with his
Id shoes and clothing for while, {
,ut with the shoemaker and garment
worker yesterdays food is gone for
,ver and they have less money to t
,uy today's food, for they are idle l
,art of the time through loss of the {
armer's trade. In order to get food, I
hey must give more shoes and I
lothes for the bushel, for the farm G
II can stay on strike for high wages q
onger than they can. /
The cry may be raised that this
means reduction of wages for work
RS in shoe and garment factories.
f by wages is meant the sum paid {
Der day, it means nothing of the
lind 1t means that they must pro-
luce IuelT SOouS d. less COSI, WHICH
n turn means that they must do {
more work in the same time By so
loing they will reduce both the labor {
,ost and the overhead cost. Then
hey can give more of their goods for
/ bushel of wheat, and the farmer
will call off the strike There is I
endency in this direction in the cloth
ng trade. During the last few years
# kite-flying in both prices and
wages, garment workers forced |
hange from piece-work to time-work {
It greatly advanced wages and
output fell off They rail
d at high prices, though they helped !
% cause the rise. They were not
pecially to blame, for everybody did