Evening star., 1926-08-22
FARM EXODUS is URGED
BY AGRICULTURE EXPERT
Individual Grower Must Give Way to
Corporation System, Benjami
Marsh Says.

| NdSleIul unit OF DfOuuctlOn. IdTIHlIiS
has been clinging desperately to small
units of production, many operators.
waste in production and the poorest
kind Of efficiency in competition with
large scale production Of business. 1t
was an unfair struggle between un-
orga niZed pygmies and a few power
| ful organized giants of production for
the greatest share of the national divi
dend. In 1923 manufacturing estab
lishments to the number of 196,630
| turned out products whose value was
SEQ. .555 900. 900. In the same year
$3.50 900 farms turned out farm prod
ucts worth only S22 500 900 600. What
does this mean? 1t means that the
average manufacturing establishment
is 100 times as productive in value as
the average farm establishment Lit
! tie business can't compete with big
business. The average farm estab-
lishment turned out products worth
approximately $3,543.
Profits Relatively Small.
"The average manufacturing estab
| lishment, however, turned out products
worth 1907 $50, approximately. Let's
| look at it from the angle of profits
! Between 1920-25 the farmer has
earned only three-tenths of / per
cent on his net capital investment.
In the best banner years the farmer
| has had he has seldom gone over a 6
| per cent profit. Yet right now most
! of our industries are paying dividends
| of from 10 per cent to 20 per cent
| A good many Of our railroads are
earning 10 per cent dividends and the
other day l read where the B. & o.
Railway paid II per cert dividends.
! While the American Telephone and
!
/ Union at the rate of IA per cent.
| Now manufacturing or railroading are
! no more important than farming.
| They have no more commercial value.
| There is Il reason why farming is so
underpaid. 1t is because little-scale
business cannot compete with big
| scale business. 1t cannot be as pro-
! ductiVe and turn out products at the
| same low cost that a big plant can
What is your remedy, Mr.. Marsh?
! What would you do if you were
| dictator tomorrow?
Il would take thousands Of farmers
| off the farms. That is the first step.
| 1t does not worry me when l read
about farmers coming off the farm.
| The trouble is that they do not come
| off fast enough for their own good
| We have literally got to get two or
/ three million farmers off our farms.
| They are the cause of the overproduc-
| ton. Then we have got to cultivate
much reduced farm acreage. The
| acreage must be. however. cultivated
as scientifically as possible.
! Must Use Factory Methods.
THAT means as the next step that
the farm must be turned over to the
| factory. We must apply factory
| methods of production to farming.
| We must have farm corporations.
| The risk Of individual farming can
| never be stabilized until the risk is
divided and minimized under cor
porate form of production The say
ing. once a farmer always a farmer,
must not be allowed to continue. We
must make farming such a business
that a farmer can get out if he wants
to. That is why big business gets
plenty of capital. An investor can
sell his stock in a business corpora
ton. He can get out when he wants
to. Farming needs capital for up-to-
date machinery, money to apply the
best known methods of crop cultiva-
ton. Farmers will become stock
holders. They will elect a board Of
directors, which in turn will choose a
manager. This manager will be up
to the minute on agricultural prog
ress. He will know what machinery
can he most effectively used Henry
Ford says that work on the farm
could be reduced to 25 days if up-to-
date machinery were employed. What
will happen will be that farming will
become scientific. That is just what
business is today. Business employs
experts by the thousands, takes ad-
vantage of the most improved tech
nique of production as soon as 1t is
invented, keeps abreast of the times
from day to day. Its efficiency is ac.
c0rdingly kept in a constant state OF
repair. Today the narrOw-minded
farmer is adverse to change. SO
were the old-fashioned small-scale
proprietorS in business. When we
began to get corporations the man
aCement became impersonal, scien-
tific and highly intelligent. When
YOU set up mana cement you can Gull
talent. When the small-scale farmer
insists upon operating his small
acreage 10 to ! he does it with no
notion of improved means and he
has no way Of finding out Manage
ment comes to your employment al
ready trained. That is the secret OF
the success Of business.
Old Ideas Must Fall
"Small-scale farming must he sup
nlanted by corporation farming. Pro-
prietOrS with antediluvian ideas ABOUT
farming must give way to a manage
ment trained in the latest metnous
The old-fashioned doctor has yielded
TO the modern surgeon with great
profit to civilization. The old-fash-
ioned farmer must go the ROAD OF eN-
termination just as went the oioldSn-
ioned shop proprietor ana the oio-
fashioned doctor. The last step in the
remedy for agriculture is to keep out
oil enumeration in the period of rid
ding our farms of too many farmers.
rThoSa who come off the farm must
have some place to go. They shouid
have first claims on jobs IN industry.
They must be got off the farm by edu-
cation.
"Remember. I do not hold the farm
or responsible for his plight or his
economic backwardness. He is the
victim of a conspiracy. He was gwen
some knockout drops of indiVlduallsm
imhued with the idea that only by
flooding the market with 1000 ana
keeping his independence by owning
a few small acres would he be pros
nero,ls and a pride to the Nation. He
was >killfullv doped with an out-of-
date economic philosophy, kept in
state of unpreparedness while busi-
ness organized thoroughly for dev-
astatinc profit war with the farming
industry and the farmer as the goat.
"The question is how long Will he
continue to he the goat. How soon
will he adopt modern methods OF DO
ing business - corporate. scientific
management? How long is he going
TO be lulled into adversely by being
stuffed with praise and pride over MS
suicidal individualism?
tCopyrght. 1920