The daily worker., 1930-09-27
BY n. RAYMOND.
Prisoner No. 52349.
Imprisoned Member Of the Unemployed
DeleaatIon.l

Definitely linked with the industrial crisis,
which has thrown 100000 out of work to
starve is the agrarian crisis, which has ruined
hundreds of thousands of poor farmers.
All over America poor farmers are either re-
duced to the most destitute circumstances or
are driven from their farms into the ranks of
the unemployed industrial workers through
failure to market their products at a price
that will cover, rent, taxes and living neces-
stiles.
The number of farms in Iowa alone has de-
creased 10000 since the census ten years ago.
IN the South, where the effects OF the indus
trial and agrarian crisis have been felt heav-
lest, there has been for some time general
exodus of ruined farmers to the new indus
trial centers, where only a small section Of
the working population can find work under
the most miserable conditions, for wages Of
the lowest existing level.
Hoover Admitted" Farmers Plight.
i Hoover's Committee of Recent Economic
Changes reported after making a study of a
cross-section of poor tenant farmers, that the
average yearly net cash income Of tenant
farmers in the United States is 1904. This re-
port, however, was made before the crisis
reached a low level. And then, too, Mr..
Hoover saw to it that the figures were juggled
to favor the bosses for whom he is the chief
lackey
The present average cash yearly income of
poor tenant farmers in the United States is
now much lower than $2o4.
Is How Many Farmers Have Tractors7
u The cause of this situation is to be found
In the capitalist system of production and dis
tribution. The new means of farm produc-
tion-machinery, tractors, etc.-are now en-
tirely in the hands of the rich capitalist farm
ers. Only one-ffth of the farmers in America
the rich capitalist farm tractors.
The introduction of this machinery has in
creased the productivity of the agricultural
workers working on the capitalist farms and
reduced the cost of production for rich farm
ers The price of farm produce has there
fore dropped and tremendous overproduction
of farm commodities has clogged the market.
The American carry-over of wheat has piled
up to a record height of 265,Ooo,OoO bushels.
Few farmers can produce wheat and other
farm products to sell at the present prices
and escape ruin Only the rich capitalist
farmers who own the machinery and exploit
the agricultural workers at miserably low
wages, reap the profits of agriculture
Forced To Sell Below Cost.
Four-tifths of the farmers-the poor farm
ers who work with their own hands and own
little or no machinery-are forced to sell their
products below the cost OF production. Four
fifths of the farmers in the United States,
therefore, face ruin, misery and starvation.
In the Soviet Union, however, where the
workers and farmers rule, we have quite
different picture. There the tractor is within
the means of the great bulk of peasants (poor
farmers) combined in collective farms, and
only the Kulaks Exploiting farmers) cannot
afford it. The peasant in the Soviet Union Is
being rapidly raised to the new and dignified
position of collective and cooperative agri-
cultural worker.