The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-10-16

Harvester, General Motors. and the
rest
A faTorite stunt Of this magazine is
to send out salemen to ask the farm
era questioRs-and get their money.
The idea Of the questions is to make
the farmer feel important an
sWers VIII be the basis of a demand"
upon congress. There is az insidious
angle to this scheme too. The farm
er Is asked If he believes in eo-opera-
tive selling and when he says yes, he
gets one like this:
do you think that child labor
should be controlled by congressf"
Before the farmer gets a chance to
answer. the subscription agent pulls
this On him:
DO you want your children 30 sit
around till they're eighteen, never do
ing any chores? II they don't do any
work tn that age, will they ever do
any work? Do you want to give away
the right of controlling your own
sons? Do you want to be prohibited
from having your son turn the whet-
stone while you are sharpening a
blade?s
The farmer, who can barely keep
alive working fourteen hours a day
with his wife and children working
too, says no.
1t is easy to figure what this sort
Of survey can be used for by a paper
with its capitalist backing Farmers
signatures will turn out to be the
thousands Of good American citizens
opposed to child labor Hesitation
Thus the farmer Internationally plays
into the hands of the mill barons.
crushing out lives of the chiIdreurof
the mill towns.
This Is the last thing in the world
that the thinking farmer would want
TO do. And this sort Of thing does
not work nearly SO well today as Il
might have few years ago. Farm
ers are becoming conscious Of them
selves and their place in society and
their close relation with the cfty
worker. The lie about different in
terests" which was used by capitaL
ist politicians in fighting the old nom
partisan league and which Is used
every time the farmer and city work
er move toward closer union, has lost
its force.
The capitalist poison disguised as
help for the farmers" no longer goes
down. The secretary OF one farm club
advised its members:
There's too much reading of what's
the matter and what to do and what
not to do. Our farm papers are mis-
Leading US. They're telling us the
legislature and congress will solve
everything. It's Iie-it's their lie.
The Legislature and congress are not
going to do anything. All the farmers
must become class-conscious and until
they become so, they will get nothing"
The president Of another farm or
ganization contrasted agricultural
progress in Russia with the exploita-
ton Of the farmers by the capitalists
in this country, and wound up:
III radical and | admit it.
don't care if they run me out of town
with a horsewhip."
The day Of the Country Gentle
man. dope is passing. The farmer
does not care to be that kind of a
gentleman; he knows that he too is a
worker, a partner Of the factory work
er in the city-not an enemy of the
Factory worker as the capitalists tell
him.
He is turning away from the sub
sidized pages Of enemy farm papers,"
turning away from the comic 'relief''
ideas of Arthur Capper. the good
management and diversified farming"
formula; turning away from the lib
eralism" Of Frank Lowden, the same
sort Of knife-in-theba that almost
wrecked the English labor movement