The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1921-03-23

/ 1llnaDle paper Tor some remarks III De-
ilaIl oi the farm IaDOrer, anent the
SPECIAL meeang OF the Latah county
,arIu bureau, called by its new preSI-
i ue4., n. Williamson, recently Tor the
purpose OF arriving a. a UNIFORM scaie
OF wages Ior Idrm labor.
rarm wages III the past have always
| been subjected TO ana regulated by the
law OF supply and demand, scales fixed
/ ny farm bureau, protective leagues,
eLc., 10 the contrary notwithstanding,
ala VIII De governed III The future
nanny by Lnls law. Wage scales
nave been fixed In tnls manner before,
Tut little hee0 has been gwen them
Wnen Lney cOn1lCled with the above
mentioned governing law; Tor IN
stance, ii a farmer goes to town for a
man and finds several who are very
anxious TO go out with him, he will not
pay as mucn as ii he were very anxious
himself Tor man, and mad difficulty
in getting any to go with him on ac
count of a difference in wages asked
ana offered, especially, If he is going
to get home late TOR chores and supper
| III farm hands are plentiful, The farm
ers are as scarce as they are indie
pendent, and wages are down, but il
! farm hands are scarce, they are as in
! dependent as the farmers would like to
| be, and wages are up. Furthermore, IN
| the harvest rush a farmer can not
afford 70 let little difference in wages
stand in the way of caring for his
crop, which is probably partly down,
| if he has left his team standing tied
to fence while he has hurried num-
Der Of miles to town for men, and with
rain threatening. In such a case, a
wage scale would amount to naught.
In hiring a man a farmer might men
| ton the wage scale unless he thinks
, he might get him for less, in which
case, he will not.
Mr.. Williamson says, lower wages
will be paid for boys and for lighter
work" Take it from me: man, woman
or child will be paid the lowest wage
that will secure them in almost every
instance regardless of their worth TO
the farmer. He also states that a man
will be paid on the basis of his ability
to handle an eight-horse team. Such
a statement sounds very logical, but
is nothing but rancid buck" The
method used by the great majority of
farmers is to get as good a man as he
can, as cheap as he can, work him as
hard as he can, as early and as late
as he can, and dock him as much as he
can, and if he is a willing worker, the
farmer will tell his neighbors that he
is fool to work'--and he is. If rain
prevents work in the forenoon the
hired man is rushed to his afternoon
work a. 1880 or II or 1890 o'clock |
A willing hand is like a willing horse: |
he is put to work at the most difficult |
tasks, and kept there the longest The
wage scale calls for ten hours work
in the field which means that man
can very nicely put in u hours a day:
in fact, can hardly do it in less In
other words, if man puts in days
work for the farmer, he has for his
own leisure one-half hour at noon and
all the time from z o'clock in the even
ing until . O'Clock in the morning, and
is mighty lucky if the farmer doesn't
get a goodly share of that, and often.
Mr. Williamson seems to think that
farm wages should fiuctuate with the
price OF potatoes. One would deduce
from that should the farmer have
potato-crop failure, he would be iusti-
fed in repudiating the farm hands
wages. hardly think Mr. Williamson
would call special meeting of the
farm bureau for the purpose of raising
The wages of farm help should the
price OF potatoes advance, or for any
)ther reason. When wages were low. !
arm hands did not hold mass meetings
% try to have their wages increased. j
1ut now. Mr.. Williamson says. con
litions have changed" Potatoes are
lot worth as much as they used to be
The farmers raised a large wheat
IRON last =
'2.25 and $3.50 per bushel but wanted
more, and held, but are selling now
They had a great deal of sympathy
rom the farm hand, but where is the
arm hand going to get sympathy now
hat the price Of potatoes is down; !
urely not from Mr.. Williamson nor
he farm bureau
Perhaps Mr.. Williamson did not think
f doing the farm hand an Injustice I
erhans he did not realize that he was
aking advantage of him by pitting
is organization against the unor-
sed farm hand; PERHAPS he did not
onsider the fact that the farm hands
'ould eventually ask, why were the :
irm bureaus formed? To extermin-
tie SQUIRRELS or farm hands?" He I
lrely did not expect a protest, and
2 surely did not realize that he was
anting the seeds of strife and antag-
lism between the farmers and their
clip.
Farmers and their help have al
avs gotten along very we'll, but if
e farmers are going to organize in
der to trample the under-dog. lis
ne he farm hands were organizing
CIDER to hoIG their own In some
there are farm hand
lions, and it is not beyond the
elm of possibility to organize one |
re. If Mr.. Williamson persists in
ading his aggressive band in the /
amer star'-d 6 VIII tend tc make
c farm hand sbolshevik" or union
:. and neither fa1 mer nor farm hem, |
We any desire for either evc1tually Il
hv not "let well enough Alone" and
t organize against the farm handII
Il agitate and antagonize the re-
Tors between the farmer and his
lp? AS stated before, the law of
pply and demand will adjust this
tfor. ypru ,,iop1v II, 70 fI1t,1,o