Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-08-16
LABOR AND FARMS
SOLVING PROBLEMS
BY RALPH BURTON
(Leesed Wire Service to The Journal.)
(CODyright. 1921


WASHINGTON, Aug. 13.-Work-
ingmen and farmers of the United
States, the two largest classes in
the population and the classes which
have perhaps been hit hardest by the
period of industrial depression, are
showing a rapidly growing tendency
toward independence in working out
solutions of their own problems.
There is no longer, in the more pro-
gressive sections of farmers and
union members, the waiting" atti-
tude. they are going ahead to make
matters better themselves.
Some interesting aspects of this
situation have just come to light so
far as labor is concerned. Unem-
ployment is the big problem con-
million men are out Of jobs, the la
Dor movement is weak; it must con-
stantly make concessions, because of
the great reservoir of the unemploy-
ed ready to fill any jobs that are
vacant. Probably unemployment is
more serious here than in almost any
country In Europe, though as yet the
problem has apparently given the
government no great concern. APP
proximately 20 per cent of the wage
earners of the country are out of
work.
They are, however, beginning to
find work for themselves. There has,
in the last few months, been a wide
spread movement for the construc-
ton of labor temples-buildings
which provide a headquarters for all
the varied activities of the labor
movement of a city and which tend
to solidify the wage-earners of To-
cality into cohesive body. AS an
example, the. case Of Jackson, Mich,
may be cited.
purchased for the erection of labor
temple, and the growth of the city
during the war, when building oper-
atoms were suspended everywhere,
made the lot much more valua BILE.
During the last few months, when
the building trades have been hard
hit, the union movement of the city
decided to build the temple in order
to give workers in those trades some
thing to do at a dull time. A sim
liar policy has been followed in a
number of other cities and labor tenn
pies are rapidly increasing in num-
Der.
In Boston, workers in the building
trades have formed a cooperative
building association, eliminating the
contractor and his profits. Recently,
too, there has been marked tend
out of work. Cigar makers have es-
tablished cooperative factories, and
the telegraphers contemplate a bank
as a means of added security for
their members and the organization |
Farmers are likewise coming to
depend on their own efforts, even in
the south. where economic forces |
have thus far operated perhaps as
crushingly as anywhere m the coun- |
try. Figures received by the de- |
partment of agriculture show an
absolutely unprecedented reduction |
in the acreage of cotton, tobacco and |
rice-2S per cent it is estimated |
rs a result of the low prices re-
ceived for those products last year.
But because southern farmers had /!
to pay high prices for everything
they bought, they have turned much |
of their cotton, rice and tobacco land
into other crops, and thereby free
themselves from economic depend |
ence on other sections Of the coun-
try.
Experts of the University of North |
Carolina who have just completed a |
survey of the rapidly increasing ten |
upon this plan of growing at home |
crops for home consumption as the |
surest means Of ending tenancy. The |
tobacco and cotton crops would then |
become surplus-and incidentally |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS which could be |
markets for cash. These experts |
forecast that within ten years the |
southern farmers, by following this |
practice, would make the section the |
richest one on earth and convert |
tenant farmers into proprfetorS.