Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-11-17
OTHERS VIEWS.
Observation-Disclosures
FARMERS OR LABORERS

union laborer have come TO blame
each other for many things.
The farmer who may work rs hours
day dislikes the 5 hour work day
for the union laborer. The laborers
think that the farmer is to blame for
the high prices for what the worker
has to buy for food and clothing while
the farmer believes the high wages
paid labor makes the great cost of
farm machinery and tools.
Quoting from the Country printer:
Perhaps the most potent argument
used to create hostility between the
workshop and the farm is that high
wages in the workshop mean higher
priced machinery Tor the farmer and
that higher prices Tor crop products
mean higher priced food for the wage
Garner"
Many thousands of persons have be
ieved that story. Fewer now be-
lieye it. 1t was too patent last winter
that five million unemployed wage
earners could buy nothing. The con-
Stunning power OF five million workers
and their market was to that extent
ruined.
On the other hand farmers who
are robbed create the poorest kind o.
a market for the products of the city.
Which farmers are buying good wag-
ons, good automobiles, good clothing,
good lumber, good farm machinery !
The answer Is obviously that the
farmers who have had good crops and
who have paid fair price are the
ones who have money to spend in the
market.
The farmers and the wage earners
are doing each other mutual harm
when they get at each others threats.
1t would be incorrect to say that their
interests are mutual but they are par
allel. They harmonic. They offer
opportunity for cooperation and they
make it imperative that there be un-
derstanding.
The Spectator steps in between;
but he creates nothing. Frequently
the middleman steps in between; but
many middlemen serve no useful pur-
pose; are merely robbers and should
be put out of business.
When farm and factory are operat-
ed primarily for service there will be
under our gaze the worlds mightiest,
happiest, best educated, best housed
and best fed nation in the world.
What We have at present is produc-
ton primarily for profit. Few real
ize the extent of profit-the enor-
nous amount of effort that is expend-
ed on farm and in work shop for the
primary purpose of making profit, and
for the secondary purpose of making
a useable commodity.
1t may be interesting to know some
thing about profit in basic industries
from which products go to farm and
city alike. Experts in the United
States Treasury Department have
made table covering forty-two such
industries and in this table we find
the profits made in 1914, in 1916 and
in addition the profits which the
Treaury Classics as war profits"
Look then upon this exhibit:
American Beat Sugar Co. 1914
$452,047;! 1916, $2,445,lS9; war prof
its, $1,993,l15.
Armour d Co., 1914-$7, 500 ,90S;
1916, $20,i00,000; war profits, $12,-
590,002.
Central Leather CO., 1914-$4,S76,-
924; 1916, $l5,4S9,210; war profits,
$10,6l2,277.
L. L. Dupont de Nemours Pdr CO.,
1914-$4,S31, 1893; 1916, $S2,107, 693;
war profits, $77,275, 300.
United States Steel Corporation,
1914-$23, 496,76S; 1916, $271, 531 ,730;
war profits, SPAS, 034 ,962.
Where has the farmer used $500 in
farm investment and made great
profit or where has the laborer made
fortune from his pay envelope.
But think what $500 has done for
holders of corporate stock. The man
who took $500 worth of stock in the
Bell Telephone Company when it be-
gan could now sell that investment for
Sl,005,00 or the $500 with Henry
! Ford when he started to manufacture
cars would now have an investment
worth $1,250,000; $500 in Chevrolet
Motor Co. returned in years, $140,.
000
We don't say that these men should
be blamed for making money but il
seems that the money is made and
! stored away by some who are not
! farmers and laborers.
These two men are the dominent
producers and they should more thor.
oughly understand each other.-Tus.
cola Journal
! F.g7o-wkgfgvtmcl- m--fi4.2S- vol
/ Editors Note:-lt is not hard t
place the blame for the misunder.
standing on the part of the farmer