Norwich bulletin., 1920-02-13
THE FARMER AT THE END OF HIS TETflER.

|
 (Written Specially for The Bulletin.)
 A neighbor who has better means
 than T for learning the sentiment of 1 tells me that the Encouragement and | disgust over labor conditions, which 1 have been growing worse for several
 years, has now reached almost the | breaking point.
 | In 1917 and 1918 farmers here
 abouts, in common with those of
 practically all other parts of the
 country, worked like galley slaves to ] bring about bumper production
 They did this in answer to appeals
 and exhortations and promises un-. numbered from the government at I Washington. They did it less in the 1 hope of profit than for the sake of patriotism They drew heavily on their farm reserves and still more.
 heavily on their own strength They took gait which nobody could l except under the stimulus of a | pressing emergency. As a result, in those two years they turned over great output
 Last year-1S19-the war being vie tor1ously over and the patriotic duty of sel1n-immolation removed, they sought to take up their normal and OOAOA = I4AS- W al 6olIl V cry Sp6SQ1lJ they found it could not be done. For their normal work they re- quired certain amount of help in the form of hired labor. And any la i Dor was, for most of them, as com pletely out of reach as the moon. It | wasn't to be had for any wages which any possible triumph of farm produc- 1 tion could pay. So we doddering old l chaps had to untangle the kinks in our aching old backs, spit on our 1 gnarled old hands ,straighten up our ] stiff old legs and do the best we could with the old team. Sometimes i we had to beg the help of the old 1 lady to lead the horse or pull the 1 weeds, or drive the cows.
 l It was mighty hard sledding. all l round, when done without the spur
 of urgent necessity. Nor was it emi :. nently successful.
 | The production of all sorts of 1 farm crops in my neighborhood was 1 less in 1919 that for many previous
 years. According to my informant | who has talked with scores of far
 mers, big and little, in a dozen town ships. it is going to be still smaller
 in 1920. For the reason that a great
 many farmers have got to the end of l their+ tether. They lack, themselves l lIS puyS4CdI strength and stamina to keep on indefinitely doing two or 1 three mems work, and they cannot hire help at any wages within their possible incomes.
 1 My informant quoted one farmer as saying, in effect, that he had over s9,OO0 invested in land, stocks, tools, etc: that he worked last year from thirteen to fifteen hours a day, six days in the week, and at least six hours every Sunday; and that, nev- 1 ertheless, he wasn't able to earn as much from his farm as the average l city shop worker gets for eight hours | work five days a week, four hours work Saturday. no work Sunday and i no capital invested.
 | l am told of another, with a farm of l,500' acres, who has been trying i to produce milk for the city supply. i Last year he was able to harvest and
 save less than a quarter of the hay
 which was growing on the farm be- cause he couldn't get hands to attend to 1t. The rest went to waste. He
 has been compelled to sell off three quarters of his cows from lack of forage, and will now have to sell. the rest or buy hay, proceeding which. at present prices received for milk. is simply equivalent to throwing good ! money after bad.
 Here is the answer one of these i farmers sent to the post office de-
 partment's questionnaire as to what l was the trouble with farning:- The time is very near when we farmers will have to curtaiI produc- tiof and raise only what we need far
 our own use and let the other feI lows look out for themselves. Labor
 unions are more to blame for the nigh prices than any one else. People
 are trying to get pay for what. they don't earn.'' In confirmation of this, I read that
 the carpenters and plumbers in a nelghboring city are going to demand
 $1 an hour. next spring. There doesn't seem to be any reason Thr 1 they shouldn't. Or why the black smiths and the coal-heavers and the | window washers and the F1od-car- rlers and the ditch diggers shouldn't
 demand"' the same. / Or why. if they shall get it, they may not next l year demand" s6 an hour, or ten cents minute, or any other figure in i the arithmetic. No farmer can com
 pete for their labor on any such ba-
 SIS, unless they, on their part, are ! Wiling to pay him at least siO a bushel for potatoes, $50 a barrel for the wheat in their flour, 50 cents A quart for milk, $2.50 a dozen for eggs and so on in like proportion Even such prices as these are not eompar- able in gouging greatness to some of the wage demands formulated by
 some unions.
 But, in justice to the unions. we
 must not forget or overlook the fact Shat the prime mover and active
 forcer of high prices was the United States government.
 When some unforgiving ninny in high place at Washington started the
 cost plus" scheme during the war. ne started trouble which few living
 men will ever see the end of. What is the "cost plus" scheme? you ask.
 Why, it was the system pted by
 the government during the war in the
 case of many of the largest industries
 by which the government took their product at actual cost of manufac-
 ture, plus an agreed on profit, us- ually of about ten per cent. Looks innocent enough, some one
 will say. Ye-es, perhaps it does
 to blind man. But take note how
 it works in practice:-
 The profit accruing being a per-
 centage on the cost of manufacture. it follows that the greater the cost of
 manufacture the larger the profit. If. for illustration, the necessary cost of building ship under shrewd and
 economical management was $I,0OO,
 eco then the profit. at ten per cent.
 would be $100, 900. But if, by buying
 recklessly, by managing improvident-