The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-07-08
BY ALFRED KNuTsoN.

| WdS ldIl uluS llhSi Iu6u! VIC uOAuOt
think very many farmers in this coun-
try today would be content with using
the kind of farming methods that pre-
vailed at the time of the American
revolution. When scythes were used
to cut grass and grain. when seeding
was done by the old broadcasting
method, in the days when the fail
was popular, when there were no gas
engines, gang plows, tractors, drills,
discs, milking machines, milk separa-
tors, threshing machines and automo-
biles
No, we do not wish ourselves back
to the times when hand. tools were
used In the production of crops. We
would feel quite uncomfortable if we
should have to make that kind of a
change now AS farmers we appre-
ciate the technical achievements that
have taken place in agriculture during
| the last fifteen decades, and, the ex-
pansion of the farming area which has
accompanied these during that same
period.
Vast Changes.
The farmers of 1776 scattered along
the Atlantic seaboard in the thirteen
original states whose population did
not very much exceed the number of
! people found in the city of Chicago to-
| day, were striving to make their liv-
ing by cultivating small fields situated
in narrow valleys and along steep hill
sides-ields which we who today live
on the vast western plains would
scarcely call good garden patches. In
1925 over 100000 people are gain
fully employed in raising crops with
modern farm machinery on a field
area of over 450,000,000 acres, feeding
115,000,000 people and producing not
little for export besides. Whereas
the crop values in 1875 were reckoned
in thousands we in 1926 are figuring
these values in billions. Truly won
derful change!
In 1776 primitive methods were
used in bringing the farm products
to market There were no means of
distribution at hand as we have them
today. The one-horse wagon had to
serve the purpose as well as it could,
even tho it was slow and inconvenient.
Such facilities for handling the crop
as grain elevators, flour mills, ware
houses, railroads, trucks, ETC., were
unknown to the farmer of those days,
He was surely up against it as far as
| facilities for moving his crop were
concerned. But he got along. He
| lived. Today we>are wondering how
in the world he did it, If the farmer
of 1916 could now see how well the
farmer of 1925 is equipped with facili-
ties for the production and distribu-
ton of his crops he would undoubtedly
turn over in his grave with envy.
And all the other modern conve-
/ niences besides!
Farmer Ehslaved Today.
| But there is another side to this
story which our farmer of 1876 does
not know anything about. Side by
side with the technical development in
the production and distribution of
farm products there has grown up a
set of parasites who are robbing the
farmers of much of what they produce
and no matter how efficient the sys-
| tenn of production and distribution be-
comes the system of robbery increases
ever more and more in intensity so
that the farmer of 1926 finds himself
worse off instead of better because of
these modern improvements. This
system of capitalist exploitation is
much worse today than it was in 1875.
1t has grown apace with the develop
ment of capitalist production, and
there will be no end to this until the
system of exploitation itself is aban-
doned
1t is true our farmer Of 1875 did
not have any modern farm machinery
and no modern system of distribution
at his disposal; he produced less and
no doubt lived a simpler life-in ac.
cordance with the conditions then pre-,
vailing-but he did not experience the
bitter fight against high taxes and in,
terest, the fight against farm fore.
closures and bankruptcies, the fight
against the grain gamblers, to the 'ex.
tent that the farmer of 1926 does un.
der the prevailing capitalist system.
1