Milford chronicle., 1921-01-21

scandal-mOnger.
FARMERS AND AGRICULTUR1STS
of the United States have been forced
to give thought to the encroachment
of organized labor upon their rights
and interests, thru obstruction to
traffic and their effort to build up a
monopoly of business control thru the
wage scale, which they have been at
tempting to enforce by strikes in all
parts of this and other countries. The
National Grange and other associa-
tions of farmers, have passed reso-
lutions and discussed the situation as
it affects them at various times in the
past year. With the coming season
there will have to be a large reduc-
tion in the schedule of farm labor, if
the farmers are to produce crops
from which to feed the people of the
large cities, at the prices now pre-
vaiIing for grain and other products
of the farm.
The statement has been made so
often that organized workers have an
inherent right to strike, that the pub
lie generally has accepted the state
ment as being true and, as result,
strikes have, in times past, received
to some extent the support Of public
opinion. Recent events, however, in
dicate that the country is giving this
question serious consideration, and,
as a result, there is a growing de-
mand that some other method be en-
ployed to bring about the settlement
of controversies between employer
and empIoye. This demand is more
pronounced on the part of the far
mers than of many other classes, for
the reason that they are affected more
directly than most other classes. The
farmers develop section of coun-
try adapted to the production of per-
ishable products. They spend vast
sums of money in building houses
and barns, digging drainage or irri-
cation bitches, and in bringing the
land to a high state of productivity.
Such land could not have been de-
veloped if the transportation facili-
ties had not been such as to insure
that the farmers could get their pro-
ducts to market with the least possi-
BILE delay and before they become un-
fit for consumption.
On the other hand, no great city
could be built up if it were not for
the fact that those who live in them
may depend, first, on the farmers of
the country to produce an ample sup
ply of food and, second, on the rail-
roads to deliver farm products to city
consumers with regularity and as
needed.
It naturally follows that those who
believe that labor has an inherent
right to organize a strike believe that
such organizations have a right to
starve the people of the cities to death
on the one hand, and to destroy the
property of the farmers on the other
No such right has ever existed and
no such right exists now. It is econ
omically unsound. What would be the
verdict of the people if the farmers
should suddenly. decide to strike and
refuse to supply the needs of those
who are not in a position to produce
food and clothing for themselves?
They would be condemned from one
end of the country to the other. If
the farmers have no such moral or
legal right, then why should it be
conceded by anyone that those who
handle the farmers products have a
right to block transportation and thus
jeopardize the food and clothing sup I
ply of the Nation? If the farmers
have no such rights, those who han
die his products have no such rights.
The farmers must look to Congress
to solve this great question in the
light of fairness for all and not for the
benefit of the few, at the expense and
perhaps misery and suffering for all.
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DEMOCRATIC EDITORS,
ATVENTTONl