Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1922-09-08
f AND BUSINESS

what does The man with the hoe think these days.,
says Rcasrd Sp.Iaue In Public Ledger. He must be
doing some hard thinking for, in various Of the country,
ne IS facing disaster. He feeds the word. HIS task IS
the greatest Of all Jae human family. No other JOB S
to 1t. H. turning the earth with a hand plow
over the area Of one township the farmer trayerses a
a.staag. greater tnau from mere to the moon tie r.s-s
"lta the suu-sometmes before The sun-ani is in yae
fields hours before many ely jewellers are out Of their
oeds. He Iabors until noon and then, after his meal goes
back and labors until an hour before sunset.
The farmers WORK is never done; yet as Secretary oI
Agriculture Wallace says, ne never strikes. What Il ne
did? People would starve, industry would die.
The last three years have been very trying ones for the
farmer. This year there was promise OF some profit, but
now by reason of the coal strike and the railroad strike,
his crops are not being moved and some are iottlng. EYeH
f the strikes end soon his losses viii be great.
Last yaur, from various pants Oh the cJuh.Ty came nt"s
nat farmers were burning corn because coal cost more
man they could get Tor corn. ms year II Will De Tie
same. omy to greater degree, for DiIuhihous coal Is LIN
ly to go TO extravaganza heights, ana even tnen be nard 10
get. And yet the farmer reads OF strikes setting fire to
coal piles, settingflre also to thirty cars OF coal on a rail-
road, the cause in the latter instance being that the coal
was mined by men who didn't belong to a union and was
being hauled on a railroad some employees Oh which were
on strike.
What does the farmer think of the Herrin tragedy, Of
men slaughtered for the crime of working without a union
card? What does he think of the seniority question, Of
the rights of men who quit work to deny the right OF
others to work, who visit hardship on the helpless public
and who look with cOmplacency, # not approval, on the
dynamltlng Of railroad properly, the Wrecklng OF trains
and the abandonment OF he.pleSs travelerSb men women
and babes, in the desert with the mercury registering 122
degrees IN the shade?
What does he think of "jurisdictional rights" of bne
craft stopping ali wolk on d job II members OF another
craft do not contite their operations to their own res
trIcted fled? What would the farmer think if he mad
to nave one set Of workers to pillow, one to seed his wheat,
one to cultivate, another to reap, still another to threSn
MS wheat and the man who ploWed was not permitted to
SOW or cultivate or reap or do anything else!
10 what neSntS would food prices soar if such practices
obtained on the farm!
And where would the farm go if a union were able 10
dictate as to the number OF apprentices permitted to each
and every line Of the farming Ddustry,?
what does the man with the noe ulAk of the Govern
ment apparently poWerlesS in the face of coal and rail
road strike; OF captains Of industry unable to WIN the
ildeIlty OF the armies OF men under them; of workers IN
the DltumInOus coal mines VINO permit union officials to
take fees and dues from their pay envelopes before any
money can be paid to the workers, and of mine owners who
act as collectors for the unions?
The farmers, seeing his crops rot, may think it a crime
but he is helpless. He will know bitterness because OF
this gross injustice Of which he sees himself the victim, but
he is only one of the victims. He has no recourse.
The farmer never strikes. And he never will. All honor
to him! But if he did, grass would grow in city streets
bats would roost in smOkestacks Of great industrial work!
and unl0nlSt and non unl0nlst, employer and employed
would forget all about the questions over which they now
engage IN bitter struggle; everything would be subord
nate to food and fiber-the things you eat ard the thing:
you wear, all of which come from the farm.