The Washington times., 1923-08-09
MINE WAGE
WORRIES
6. D. I.
Leaders, However, Find Agri-
culture Is Recovering, Aided
by U. S. Funds and Nature.
By WILLIAM HARD.


thing is that the problem of the
farmer, which has seemed likely
TO wreck the Republican party,
may be on the wane, while the
problem of the wage-earner, which
has seemed to be fairly quiet, may
rise up las in the anthracite coal
district) to give President Coolidge
his chief anxiety.
Revival In Agriculture.
Wretched as the experiences a..
many farmers have been, the news
now reaching Washington from the
farming districts Gf taken as q
whole, is held to indicate most
substantial development toward re-
vived prosperity.
The distinguished economist, Da-
vid Friday, who by no means has
the reputation of being an agent OF
the interests" reports the two fol-
lowing conclusions:
The total value OF all Amer
lean farm crops this year will be
approximately so per cent above the
average Of the five years preceding
the war.
2-The cost Of living for the
farmer has gone up less than than
that percentage.
DIR. Friday even holds to the
view which several times has al
ready been mentioned in these col
umns from other equally authorita-
quite possible that in many agri-
cultural products we soon may see
boom prices, just as we recently
have seen them in sugar.
Aided By u. s. Funds.
Meanwhile many hundreds of
millions of dollars of Governmental
money, through the Federal farm
loan intermediate credit banks and
through the Federal War Finance
Corporation, are available to wheat
farmers for financing the orderly
marketing of a sufficient quantity
Of their crop to raise the price well
back above the present artificial
hysterical low level.
Inquiry by this writer shows that
the amount of Governmental money
thus available is admittedly several
times the amount needed for such
financing. The impeachment is the
inadequate development of co-opera-
tive marketing arrangements among
and by the wheat farmers them
selves.
Administration leaders are begin
ming a program Of education on that
point among farmers in the East, as
well as in the West. In New York
State, for instance, at an early date,
speech on agricultural co-Opera-
ton which would do credit in many
ways to Senator Brookhart will be
delivered to a large assemblage Of
farmers by Theodore Roosevelt, jr.,
with the blessing of Senator James
w. Wadsworth, jr.
The present tendency Of the Ad-
ministration is to believe with con-
fidence that present crop-financing
facilities plus an intensive advance
in cooperation will put the farmer
sufficiently back on his feet to pre-
vent him from topping over on the
Republican party and crushing It.
View Backed by Bureau.
This view is essentially backed by
the American Farm Bureau Fedora
tion-one Of the two chief general
warm organiZattons-and in a recent
statement its leaders assert that the
Department of Agriculture, by issu-
ing a certain official definition of
the word warehouse" has cleared
the way to a completely successful
storing and financing of wheat
through the Federal Intermediate
l.
Gates"
Thus, IN the opinion of rnany-l
though, Of course, by no means all
competent observers, the farmer
problem TO be faced by President
Coolidge may give them in fact
really very little to do except watch
and wait.
The wage-earner problem is rapid
~ assuming a different guise. It
mh0vS ffSoIf aSno1iolIxy in xo;ro.
on railroads.
The reports Of the United States
Coal Commission have aroused a
generally unnoticed but an extreme.
~ deep resentment in many power
full labor circles. This resentment
has been shared sympathetically by
powerful neutral bodies such as the
social action department of the Ma
tional Catholic Welfare Council.
Coal Commission Criticised.
It is alleged that the United
States Coal Commission is weak as
IHater in suggesting any way of
curbing the profiteering opportuni-
ties of coal-land owners, coal-mine
operators, and coal wholesalers and
retailers
1t is alleged that the Coal Com
mission gets firm and immediate
only with devices for curbing the
coal wage-earners.
This point of view was consider
ably set forth in a bulletin from the
National Catholic Welfare Council
and il has been expressed sponta-
neously and emphatically among the
miners in confirmation of their gen.
eral resolute distrust of all Govern
mental 'arbitrationaI bodies.
They think that they were badly
treated by the Governmental arbi-
irrational commission under Wood.
DDw Wilson. They alIege that the
public representative" on that COM